RPCC Blog
River Park went down to Georgia
Friday was our first official meeting since James and I returned from an internship at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia. To celebrate we had a Southern potluck—does that make us Baptist? Maybe . . . Southern Baptist?Our featured food was Marcona Almonds—guaranteed to keep your spleen lean. They are from the South of Spain . . . which is a sort of South.
If you didn’t make it, you missed some great food and lots of sweet tea. You also missed an update on what is happening at RPCC.
Some things we talked about:
The mission of River Park Community Church is to lead people in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ by creating irresistible environments that encourage intimacy with God, community with insiders and influence with outsiders.
In a past blog I talked about 5 catalysts of faith—five things that God uses to grow us spiritually. They are practical teaching, providential relationships, private disciplines, pivotal circumstances and personal ministry. We believe that the best thing a church can do is create environments where those five catalysts can be best leveraged. One of those environments is community groups. A community group is a small group of people--8-12 people committed to meeting together on a regular basis for fellowship and Bible study. It is where I believe that all five catalyst converge. It is where people do life on life.
Important Dates: Our goal is to launch two irresistible environments in the fall: Kidstuf on September 14th and our Worship Experience on October 5th. We will be alternating Kidstuf and the worship experience until January 4th.
Our next launch meeting is Sunday August 3rd at 6:30pm at the DeLillo’s.
Four Things: I often get asked about membership at RPCC. Membership is participation. Specifically, to be a part of RPCC we want people to be involved in four things. (One day we will have some great branding for this, cute logos and maybe a jingle—but right now it will be known as four things.) We want every person at RPCC to be involved in community groups and investing in outsiders and inviting them to our environments. We want people to be percentage givers and involved in personal ministry at RPCC. Those are the four things.
Hope to see you on Sunday August 3rd at 6:30pm. We are currently attending the 9am worship service at Camarillo Community Church.
48 Hours
48 hours at home, then a plane back to Atlanta for “nRich.” I am looking forward to talking with some of the other Strategic Partners of North Point. For those of you just now jumping in, our core team (James, Julie, Cheryl, John and I) are going to a two day conference for Strategic Partners hosted by the Campus Expansion Team at North Point Community Church.We are looking forward to sharing all that we have learned last month at the internship and what we are going to learn this week at nRich. The last 7 weeks may have felt like a long pause—but it has been an incubation time for our core team.
A tidbit of what we have been learning:
We have said that the purpose of River Park Community Church is to lead people in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. When we say “growing relationship” we are talking about spiritual growth. Spiritual growth is not a class or a checklist. It is not even primarily a set of doctrines, beliefs or practices, though many may have grown spiritually by utilizing those tools. We believe that spiritual growth is about three relationships: a relationship with God, a relationship with other believers and a relationship with people outside the church. We have defined spiritual growth as growing in greater intimacy with God, community with people inside the church and influence with people outside the church.
The Five Faith Catalysts
We believe there are five primary catalysts God uses to grow our faith. We refer to them as, you guessed it, the five faith catalysts. These five things are not listed anywhere in the Bible. We came up with the list by observing how God works in the lives of believers and even unbelievers. We are not arguing that these are the only five leverage points God uses. But we are saying that every time we hear someone recount his or her faith journey, at least one of these five dynamics is a part of the story. They are:
Practical teaching
Providential relationships
Private disciplines
Pivotal circumstances
Personal ministry
Practical teaching reveals where we are and where we need to go. Providential relationships allow us to hear from God through others. Private disciplines tune our hearts to God’s heart. Pivotal circumstances force us to look at God. Personal ministry enables us to experience God’s power. Each of these, in its own unique way, builds our faith in God. And at some point in your spiritual journey, each of these catalysts will intersect with your experiences.
I believe that these five faith catalyst point to why we believe River Park Community Church should do two things well: Sunday Worship Experiences and Community Groups.
Two things happen in our Sunday Worship Experiences: practical teaching and personal ministry. This is where you hear practical teaching on a weekly basis and it is where you can use your gifts and talents in ministry.
Three things happen in Community Groups: providential relationships, private disciplines and pivotal circumstances. Here is how it works. Community Groups are simply the environment where people can build close personal relationships. It is where people do life together. The relationships that are built in community group become providential relationships when we experience pivotal circumstances in our lives. During family tragedy, marital tension, the throws of parenting or a layoff our community groups are there. It is where we say that care, accountability and belonging happen best.
Private disciplines are private, but they often require the accountability of others around us to become habits. Community groups provide the close personal relationships with people who can hold us accountable to develop spiritual disciplines. It is also these same close personal relationships that help us apply the practical teaching we hear in the Sunday Morning Worship Experience.
It is really only the person who is doing life with you, that knows the circumstances of your life best, that can layer God’s truth into your life in a relevant and often life transforming way. I suppose that we can wait and hope that the winds of chance will place that one person in our life at the right time to speak the right words to us when we are experiencing one of those tough unexpected seasons of life, or we can be intentional and connect in a Community Group on a regular basis.
We believe that community groups are one of the most powerful ways we can leverage the five faith catalysts that God uses to change our lives. They are the five most common things God uses to help us continue in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. That is why we have made community groups the destination at River Park Community Church. We see everything we do as a step toward that destination. If a program is not a step toward that destination, than we don’t do it. period.
The 30-Day No Freak-Out Challenge
While Damon and James -- with families in tow -- were winding their way back west, I've been out here in northern California filling in for a pastor friend of mine while he took his family on a much-needed vacation. It's been a wonderful time for me to be alone with God, think about the future, plan some writing projects and just take a break from all the things that will begin filling my schedule again when I get home Tuesday night.I've done a three-part series up here called "Contents Under Pressure". It was really just some stuff I needed to get up and talk about. It worked out that other folks needed to hear me talk about it! It's been therapeutic for me and, I think, helpful for them.
I wrapped up yesterday's message with what I've called "The 30-Day No Freak-Out Challenge" -- not the most poetic title I've ever come up with, but it seemed to resonate with lots of folks. In fact, I'd like to extent this little challenge to all of you at River Park Community Church as well. Here's the deal:
Jesus, when he lived here on earth, was often very busy. He had a lot to do, and he had arguably the most important job ever. And, when he thought about what he would have to face in the crucifixion, he actually said, "That distresses me" (see Luke 12:49-50).
But -- this is where Jesus is unlike many of us -- he never allowed his stress to hinder his relationships or become an excuse for irresponsible behavior.
How was he able to do this?
We see a pattern emerge in Jesus' life -- a rhythm of work and rest, community and solitude, service and prayer. In fact, earlier in the same book, Luke tells us what I think may be Jesus' secret: "He often withdrew to lonely places to pray."
Can you guess what the key word is in that sentence? I think it is the word "often".
He didn't wait until he was about to explode to get away. He didn't wait for a lull in the action. He didn't wait "until things settle down" to withdraw. He did it early (according to Mark 1:35), and he did it often.
So, here's the challenge: What if everyone who is a part of the RPCC launch & support teams made this a habit for the next 30 days? What might happen in our relationships? What might happen in our homes and in our workplaces?
Here's what I suspect might happen: Things will continue to go wrong at times. We'll continue to have many of the same struggles as everyone else. Financially. Vocationally. Relationally. But -- here will be the biggest change -- we won't be freaked out by things. In fact, we'll experience an inexplicable sense of peace in spite of our circumstances. That is, after all, what we're promised (see Philippians 4:6-7).
And that might be just the kind of thing some of your unchurched friends and neighbors are looking for: a church full of people who experience hard times just like everyone else but refuse to freak out.
So, how about it? Are you up for the challenge? Carve out a block of time each day to spend alone with your heavenly Father and see if the promise is true.
Week 2 Complete
This week Damon, John and myself (James) spent 6 intense days learning the simple strategy of North Point (www.northpoint.org).Their strategy is exactly the same as RPCCs strategy; "Leading people in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ by creating irresistible environments that encourage intimacy with God, community with insiders and influence with outsiders."
A snapshot of our last week:
Sunday: Met the N.P. (North Point) staffer guiding us through this internship and also met the Lead Pastor of another new partner church from Jacksonville, Fl. We all met at the crack of dawn and drove two hours to visit Rock Point Church in Chatanooga, TN. This is one of 13 N.P. strategic partner churches. We helped them set up and generally hung out to observe and learn from them. Our job at these partner churches is also to critically evaluate them with our 'fresh eyes' and give feedback to their staff. We spent lunch debriefing and learning from their Lead Pastor. Very cool portable church!
Monday: Drilled down on Small Groups, lunch with a key N.P. staffer, then more Small Groups.
Tuesday: Wrapped up Small Groups and jumped into "Starting Point". Lunch with the N.P. staffer who heads up Starting Point. Wrapped up Starting Point in the afternoon and met the owner of the company we'll be outsourcing our accounting to. This company understands the unique needs of churches. I'm personally excited about this company as it will allow our accounting and administrative practices to be top notch and will free us up to focus more on our mission.
Wednesday: Studied "Foyer to Kitchen" strategy. Lunch with a Lead Pastor from a Strategic Partner Church. Spent the rest of the afternoon at Brownsbridge Community Church.
Thursday: Listened to the message "Everybody" and discussed. Lunch with Andy Stanley's administrative assistant. We gave her a gift from us to give to Andy as a "Welcome to California" gift. The gift? A pair of flip flops. Spent the afternoon in two different meetings. One with a staffer in the Strategic Partner department and the other with the CFO of N.P.
Friday: Began overview or "7 Practices" and had a great time of reflection and prayer.
Saturday: Our 2nd day off in two weeks! Yaay!!! John flew to Northern California for a week-long speaking engagement. He's had this camp and the following three Sundays of preaching in a church just north of San Francisco booked since last year. He plans to fly back and join us for four days next week. (Pray that their house will sell soon!) The Laings and the Delillos spent the morning at the Georgia Aquarium, the largest aquarium in the world. It was fun and very crowded!!! We got up close and personal with some whale sharks. I took my family to lunch at the largest drive-in fast food joint called The Varsity. The food tasted good but my gut is still churning 5 hours later. :) (I prefer The Habit!) That probably has to do with the fact that we ate breakfast at another classic southern 'greasy spoon' called The Waffle House. The Delillos spent the afternoon at Stone Mountain. This amusement park and laser light show will entertain them for the evening.
Wow, full week! Two great resources we are studying and encourage you to check out: "Creating Community" and "7 Practices".
Tomorrow starts another six-day week with a 2.5 hour drive to another partner church in Auburn, Alabama. We look forward to getting back on the ground with our team in Oxnard around the second week of July. We appreciate your prayers!
North Point Internship
James, John and I have spent the first four days together as strategic partners of North Point Community Church. . . . And we still haven’t been taught the secret handshake! However, John is going to try to distract the secretary so James and I can sneak into Andy’s office and take pictures of ourselves in his chair.The campus expansion team has put together an intense internship schedule based upon the cumulative experience of their 14 other strategic partner churches. We will be visiting a different strategic partner each Sunday. This Sunday we will be visiting Cumberland Church in Chattanooga, TN. We will be learning the portable church set-up and tear down drill in four different strategic partners over five weeks. Afterwards we will meet with their lead team and debrief our experience.
Monday thru Friday are spent discussing various aspects of North Point philosophy and meeting with Campus Expansion team members. Over the next three weeks we will hit small group strategy, Sunday programming, finances & budgeting, big picture strategy and family ministry. If you are interested in pacing with some of the resources we are reading check out the books “7 Practices of Effective Ministry” and “Creating Community”. We are reading them this week and will discussing them next week.
Day 1: We heard the stories of the first 14 strategic partners. Here are some facts: the oldest strategic partner is 4 years old, (Wiregrass Church.) Nearly half of the strategic partner churches launched in 2007. We are one of two launching in 2008. We are the furthest West--the next furthest is Colorado Springs, CO.
Day 2: We had our first River Park Community Church staff meeting at North Point Ministries. They have set up an office for our use. I’ll have to take some pictures—it is quite a step up compared to my garage. Tuesday afternoon we watched a leader training DVD that sparked a 90 minute discussion--we are pretty confident we determined how to bring peace to the Middle East. Or at least, a few more things about small groups.
Days 3 & 4 were spent with Sanford Levings, the financial think tank on the Campus Expansion Team. Sandford represents 20+ years of experience as a CPA, venture capitalist and entrepreneur. Did I mention he has an MBA from Duke University, and knows the financial picture of a strategic partner? He will be walking the financial journey of River Park Community Church with us. What we have been learning is invaluable.
Today we will be debriefing what we have learned this week. We will be brainstorming ways to keep friends of River Park Community Church and launch team members abreast of the financial resources needed to impact our community in powerful ways.
We covet your prayers for how God will be guiding us in the coming weeks. I hope that you are each able to connect with each other this month. Our prayers are with you and your families
Atlanta Road Trip Days 6, 7, 8, 9
Day 6: Butterfly Palace & Dixie Stampede
Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede: the south meets “Medieval Times.” The North and the South tied: I wonder if it always works out that way. Our family had a blast. There was some great horsemanship—our kid’s favorites were the stunt riders. It is amazing what you can do on a moving horse. They had several different horses: a Belgian as big as a house. They had one Friesian—1 of 500 in the US. I didn’t know they were so rare. Imagine a black Clydesdale a little larger than the average horse. A Friesian has a long full black mane and hair on it’s hooves. They are allowed a small white diamond on the forehead—however all black is preferred. This one was all black and in excellent shape—like all of the horses at the Dixie Stampede. You can see a picture in the photo gallery. See if you can guess which is the Belgian.
Day 7: Hanging out with the fam.
James and Shanna joined us today, having spent the a few days in Madill, OK. We spent a leisurely, 93 degree day at the Branson Landing and a 90 minute paddleboat cruise on the Tanycomo (formerly White River.) It is amazing how you can get so little accomplished when it is hot as blazes. The day flies by and you wonder what you did only to realize that you did very little. Anyway, the Landing is Branson’s attempt attract a younger demographic. The city has realized that its clientele is dying off. The Landing is an outdoor mall/boardwalk on the Tanycomo. It has both National Brand stores and local shops, high priced condos that look down upon the open air mall and more expensive condos that look down on the lake. There is a Bass Pro Shop with a fresh water aquarium. The Landing boasts a choreographed fountain designed by the same person who designed the fountain at the Bellagio, Las Vegas. (8.5 million worth of fountain.) It is pretty spectacular. The Lake would be a great skiing lake if it weren’t for the near frigid temperatures.
Day 8: Silver Dollar City
A few degrees cooler, long walks pushing children in strollers up and down hills . . . lots of sweat and “fire in the hole.” That water blast at the end of “Fire in the Hole” was more than welcome at 3pm in the afternoon. Anybody know what a “baldnobber” is? This was our third time at Silver Dollar City. The boys’ favorite place is still the air launcher’s and foam balls. This is a three story barn with air launchers on the second and third floors. Most of the balls end up on the ground floor, where contraptions operated entirely by children move the balls to the upper floors, all the while they are being pelted by the launchers from above. Somehow the system doesn’t break down all day. The contraptions are fun enough to keep the launchers fully loaded and who doesn’t like shooting foam balls?
Day 9: Nashville, TN
Just arrived in Smyrna, TN at 6:30pm after an 11 hour drive (lots of stops) . . . sitting in the Hampton Inn foyer, watching Fuse TV while my children run around like crazies at the indoor pool. We crossed over four state lines today: Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee. Tomorrow we will be at end of the Atlanta Road Trip, but the beginning of a one-month internship.
Here is a first: I will have the opportunity to discuss how to “do” church with a group of people that agree on first principles. I can’t tell you how important this is. Think about the sort of clarity a group could have it agreed on one thing: nothing is sacred but the mission of Christ to build a bridge to God. That means ministry everything we do in church is in service of the mission of the church. So often we get this turned around—we begin to reach people in order to disciple them, rather than disciple people in order reach others. When we get this turned around, church becomes more about what we do for those already in, rather than what we do to reach those on the outside. It is hard to make any decisions about how to “do” church until this first principle is clarified. I have seen churches bog down on crucial decisions because there was confusion over the priority of mission and ministry.
Day 4 & 5: Branson, MO
The land where every show has a billboard including the churches and the local pet motel: the most famous billboard of all being Yakov!—the only one not happy to see the end of the cold war. However, I’m sure there are enough people who visit Branson that still remember what a red is.
Today, we went to the Hamner Barber Variety Show. I realized that it must be difficult to compete in Branson. A show doesn’t survive off of the Branson locals; there are not enough to go around. A show has a short window of opportunity to attract the vacationer who is here for a few days. The most common mode of attraction is the brochure and the billboard. No one does a billboard as well as Yakov. While others have pictures of themselves that look like they were taken for a spot on TBN, Yakov has a billboard with feet sticking out of it and a board with babushka’d Yakov with a lit stick dynamite in his mouth. They are unexpected and they stand out from the rest. So much is the same in Branson, the unexpected could go a long ways. The principles of "Made to Stick" come to mind.
This morning we visited Woodland Hills Church. It is a portable church that meets at Celebration City, a Christian amusement park. Madeline L’Engle once said that to call a particular work of art Christian is presumptious; all we can know is whether a work of art effects us personally and causes us to move closer to Christ. I presume that is true of amusement parks. In any case there is something at Celebration City that is moving people closer to Christ, Woodland Hills Church.
Yesterday we went to Noah the Musical at the Sight and Sound Theatre. Our whole family went for $20. People were giving away tickets at the door. The 50 million dollar theatre and wrap-around set was overwhelming. It is one the first times that I have seen a production where the set upstaged the actors. They used both animatronic and live animals. The trained goats were hysterical. I want to know how you get two live geese to stand in the same spot for 20 minutes. They did a great job making the parallel between Noah and Christ, despite the disco Jesuss at the end. Who can complain; after all we are in Branson, where theaters double as churches on Sunday morning.
Tomorrow we are off to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede.
Madill, Ok
5-31-08 - Madill, Ok
He was born September 1915.
She was born August 2004.
His name is “Papa” (Shanna’s [my wife] paternal grandfather)
Her name is Carissa (My daughter) ***Check out the photo of them in the photo section.
He remembers guarding German P.O.W.s in the 1940s.
She remembers “Chick-a-wa-wa!” from the recent “Alvin & the Chipmunks” movie.
2004 – 1915 = 89
Born in the same country yet different worlds.
It’s not often that you get a chance to bring together bloodlines 89 years apart. It gets me thinking… In the last 3.5 years my daughter has literally filled my heart to bursting. I’m honored to be her daddy, to play with her, to discipline her, to teach her, to pray with her, to laugh with her, to be called her ‘daddy’, etc… she has filled my life with indescribable joy and new purpose.
Papa was 3.5 years old in 1918. My guess is that he brought that kind of joy (if he didn’t he should have!) to his parents. Yet his parents are gone, those feelings are gone and eventually my daughter may barely recall sitting on his lap way back in 2008. Mortality and time can get you depressed… but right now it drives me to the immortal and timeless. To the one who’s common grace was at the birth of Papa in 1915 and at the birth of Carissa in 2004. To the only one who remembers every detail about you and me and passionately loves all of us… forever.
Ps 100:5 For the LORD is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations.
Shanna and I and the kids are having a great weekend with Shanna’s family in southern Oklahoma and Dallas. Tomorrow we meet up with the DeLillo’s again in Branson, MO. We’re going to drive through the small town of Bentonville, Ak which is the birthplace of a company everyone loves or hates… Wal-mart. Apparently there is a museum in the first Wal-mart store and some kind of shrine to Sam Walton… I’ll take some pics and fill in the details in a blog coming your way soon.
We appreciate your prayers as we have 1,000 miles to go. James
Atlanta Road Trip Days 2 & 3
Day 2: We just entered the world of gps. The checking-things-off-the-list part of me is thrilled by the instant feedback. Did you know that if you drive faster, the estimated time of arrival decreases? I know . . . it’s profound. But the goal for Day 2 and Day 3 was to see how much we could knock off the ETA. By the end of Day 2 the DeLillo/Laing caravan had traveled 1028 miles over two days.
Day 3: “He who will remain anonymous” had a spiritual experience at the largest cross in the western hemisphere with a local highway patrol. Let’s just say that it set our ETA back about 20 minutes. (Which made up for the 20 minutes I had already knocked off Day 3’s ETA). I walked away with a written warning—Tammy would be proud. My kids were silent for at least the next ten minutes of the drive. Tucker thought I was going to go to jail. Day 3 ended with the DeLillo family in God’s Country or at least the land of mullets and the Dixie Stampede—Branson, MO the family reunion capitol of the world. The Laing’s landed in Madill, OK.
As I write I am looking at Lake Tanycomo (name for Tany County Missouri (MO)) from the great room of Gary Smalley’s Ranch House—now the Branson Sunset Inn—a full service bed and breakfast, owned and operated by my parents, John and Adena DeLillo. The Branson Sunset Inn will be our base station for the next few days as we go to few shows and avoid the ticks and chiggers.
See the pictures!
Andy Who?
“Andy who?” Four years ago that was the question most asked when I would refer to North Point Community Church. In terms of buzz, not much has changed on the “left” coast in the last four years. I still have to tell church people that Andy is Charles Stanley’s son and that he didn’t inherit First Baptist Church of Atlanta. However, four years later, North Point Community Church has nearly 30,000 in attendance at three campuses in the greater Atlanta area. They have helped plant 14 other churches, 15 including us, in the last four years. An impressive profile for a church that isn’t even in its teens.
But why? We know of megachurches all over the US. Many of them began in the 70’s and 80’s and took nearly 20+ years to reach mega. How did North Point do it in 10 years? Most of the books would point us to leadership. And that would be true. At the helm of North Point is a world class leader and communicator. But . . . what mega church doesn’t have an excellent communicator/leader? I don’t think we could point to a single megachurch that has a merely average communicator. In addition to a world class leader and communicator, North Point has a simple, reproducible strategy—and that is certainly no small testimony of the caliber of leadership Andy has brought to NP.
Thom Rainier in Simple Church (2006) demonstrated that there is an undeniable principle at work: simple churches are vibrant, healthy, growing churches. In summary, simple churches clarify a simple strategy; they align everything they do around a 3 to 4 step process designed to move people through discipleship. To steal a phrase from Tom Collins they do this with an almost fanatic rigor or discipline—Rainier would call it “focus.”
North Point has done this and they currently represent a growing minority of churches that get it. This is one of the many reasons the lead team of River Park Community Church is excited to be joining NP as a strategic partner. We look forward to learning from people further down the road. We hope with the help of North Point to be able move further faster. We know that the 96% of people in our community that think church isn’t for them need this kind of church.