Catalyst One Day: Chicago

A week from today, Craig will be joining Andy Stanley in Chicago for a Catalyst One Day conference at Willow Creek Community Church. This is an ideal opportunity to have a focused day of leadership learning with your team, as well as interact with some of the great church leaders already planning on attending. It’s happening on Thursday, March 25 and there’s still time to register online.

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India: Technology in a Thatch Hut

During our recent travels, we spent some time in India learning more about the cultural landscape and the great work some ministries are doing there. While we were visiting different areas, I took this picture. Located in a poor village, this thatch hut has no running water or sewer, yet it does have satellite TV.

The government has created some initiatives that help make televisions more widely available, but the contrast is still surprising. It makes me wonder how having access to information might change poverty over the course of generations.

It also got me thinking…someone living in these conditions could be exposed to the Gospel while watching their satellite television. From a thatch hut in India, the poorest of the poor could hear a message of hope from somewhere across the globe.

If that’s possible, then what could that mean for the future possibility of using technology to share Christ with the world? This experience only increases my resolve to use these tools to reach the world, whether it’s satellite TV in a thatch hut in India or a mobile phone in the middle of Africa.

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A Quick Look at The Christian Atheist

It’s been exciting to see promotion for Craig’s new book hitting national stores lately. The Christian Atheist is set to release in just one week, so I thought I’d share a glimpse of what you can expect.

In my opinion, this is Craig’s best book yet. The Christian Atheist will be available on March 23, but you can pre-order your copy through any of these booksellers:

Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Christianbook.com, and Mardel.

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Tracking the Intangible

I’ve been traveling for a few weeks and made my last stop this weekend in Austin, Texas for the South by Southwest Interactive technology conference. Terry Storch and I were speaking on Technology for Results, Not Profits, and the people attending the session were from very diverse backgrounds. Most were from non-profits, but only a few were from churches.  We talked about sustainability for non-profits (keeping the boat floating) as well as the importance of measuring results.

In a for profit company…the one main measurable is obviously profit. In a church context, there are several common tangibles that are measured (attendance, giving, baptisms, members). We track this kind of information at LifeChurch.tv, and created ChurchMetrics to make it simpler.

But beyond these metrics, there are other indicators that can help us gauge whether we’re on the right track (community or spiritual growth, for example). What are some of the intangibles that your church is trying to measure and how?

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Joel A’Bell - 3

Hillsong Church is gifted at developing leaders and taking risks on the next generation.

After seeing how Hillsong raises leaders, I told our staff, “We’re not going to recruit volunteers but release leaders.” Joel A’Bell answers my questions about building leaders.

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Joel A-Bell - 2

“Heart for the House” is a phrase that is common at Hillsong. It speaks of the loyalty, honor and single-mindedness that is felt for the local church. In this segment, I asked Joel to explain how they develop a “heart for the house.”

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Joel A’Bell from Hillsong - 1

We were blessed to have Joel A’Bell, Lead Pastor under Hillsong Church’s Senior Pastors Brian and Bobbie Houston, with us last week all the way from Australia.

In this session, we discussed some new things that God is doing at Hillsong and talked about developing a strong culture of worship.

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100 Network Churches and Growing

Recently, we celebrated a significant milestone as we welcomed the 100th church into our Network partnerships!

We’re thrilled to partner with churches around the globe as we work together to spread the love of Jesus. If you want to learn more about how these partnerships work, check out Network.LifeChurch.tv.

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