We Are Not Alone, Part 1
Mark Batterson
Mark serves as lead pastor of National Community Church (NCC) in Washington DC, which meets in movie theaters throughout the district. NCC targets emerging generations; 73 percent of those who attend are single “twenty-somethings” who live or work on Capitol Hill. Mark enjoys life in DC with his wife and three children. Starting with a core group of 19, NCC has morphed into one church with five services in three locations. The chuch also owns and operates Ebenezer’s, the largest coffeehouse on Capitol Hill. Mark is also an entrepreneur and a daily blogger. He’s also the author of In the Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day (Multnomah, October 2006). Want it early? You can pre-order at Amazon.
National Community Church website.
Mark’s blog.
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This was the second chance that I had to hear Mark Batterson speak in the last two weeks, and again, he hit it out of the park. Mark shared the story of how National Community Church started and what they are doing to impact DC – and the world – through their use of technology and innovation.
The cure for failure is small doses of failure. Failure opens us up to consider new things. Sometimes we can have a sense of destiny and still have a sense of density.
Mark shared about how NCC started in movie theaters and compared multi-site churches to the Tabernacle. While the Temple remained stationary, the tabernacle moved… and with it, so did the “production team and set-up team.” It was a nomadic church culture, and it’s really taking church to where people are at. Jesus modeled this when He ministered, He went to natural gathering places.
There are ways of doing church that have never been thought of yet.
Jesus said to go to the highways and byways and to compel people to come in – He didn’t say how. We need to use every possible medium that is available to communicate the truth of the Gospel.
How we came to Christ influences how we do ministry. Mark got saved after watching the movie The Hiding Place. Much like how stained glass in older churches were used to communicate the message of the Gospel, our modern day screens provide a way to communicate the Truth.
We are wired to process… we process print an average of 100 bits per second, and process images 100 billion bits per second. We need to find creative ways to communicate the message visually.
John Wesley broke the mold when he started circuit riding and field preaching. That was revolutionary for his time. It’s estimated that in this lifetime he traveled over 250,000 miles on horseback. It’s amazing how today we can travel over 250,000 miles and reach tens of thousands of people through the click of a mouse.
Our generation has the unprecedented opportunity to fulfill the Great Commission – taking the message of the Gospel to the world!
Mark shared five things as we endeavor to innovate:
1 – Enjoy the journey.
We can create internal expectations of where we want to be in life and in ministry, and sometimes those expectations can let us down. You can either live in the future our enjoy the journey.
2 – Be Yourself.
Life is too short not to become who you are. Be yourself. Be who you are. Don’t be a ‘pastor,’ don’t hide behind your title, just be yourself. There is a difference.
3 – Stop criticizing.
”Criticize by creating.” – Michelangelo
We need to be known for what we are for, not what we are against. The Apostle Paul didn’t boycott, he engaged people in their territory and he spoke their language.
4 – Offend Pharisees.
Don’t worry about offending the Pharisees, but do not offend the Holy Spirit. Don’t live out of the fear of people.
5 – Make mistakes.
Mistakes are what you look back at and laugh at…
Sometimes we think what we regret most are our actions, but the truth is, when all is said and done, the thing we will regret most is our inactions. What we didn’t do.
Everything we do is an experiment – and when you are experimenting, you will make mistakes.
Too many of us are concerned with sins of commission and not as concerned as we should be about sins of omission.
