Christian Atheist Launches Today!

Today’s the big day—the official release of Craig’s new book, The Christian Atheist! We’re beginning our celebration right here on Swerve with the giveaway we posted about yesterday. We’ll be announcing the winners today at 3:00 CDT, so be sure to check back this afternoon.

This evening, we’ll be continuing the celebration at a book launch party at Mardel in Edmond (33rd & Boulevard). Craig will be there at 6:00pm to sign books and share his vision behind The Christian Atheist. We’d love to see you there if you’re in the area!

We’re so excited to see what God does in people’s lives as they read this book. If you would like to purchase a copy, you can order through any of these booksellers:

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

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The Small Things: The Wake-up Knock

After teaching at Celebration Church, Pastor Stovall Weems arranged for us to stay at the Hammock Beach Resort. This resort excels at customer service. Beside the normal things that I always appreciate (like calling us by name, opening doors, friendly service, etc.), they did one small thing that meant a lot to me.

On the day we were checking out, we had to depart early from the room to catch a flight. We asked for an early wake-up call. Like usual, I woke up before the phone call. Amy took the phone off the hook to keep it from waking our kids earlier than necessary.

Within five minutes of the time the phone would have rung, someone knocked on our door. It was one of the employees making sure we were awake, since the phone was off the hook. Wow! That’s good service.

I love it when people don’t just do their job but go beyond the call of duty.

How have you seen this lived out in the church?

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Book Giveaway: The Christian Atheist

I’m very excited about tomorrow’s release of Craig’s new book, The Christian Atheist, so we’re having a little launch party on Swerve. We’ll be giving away 10 copies here and 10 copies on Facebook!

The Christian Atheist looks at the paradox of believing in God, but living as if He doesn’t exist. It’s a great challenge for all of us to push past surface level Christianity and truly seek to live the way Jesus lived. You can read more about it at http://christianatheist.com

Here’s how you can win a copy (you only need to do one of these to enter, but you can do all of them to increase your odds :) :

1. Comment below and let us know what you’d like to learn about Christian Atheism.
2. Tweet or retweet with this link: http://bit.ly/bgmsOa
3. Post on your blog and include this link: http://bit.ly/bgmsOa
4. Comment on The Christian Atheist giveaway post on the LifeChurch.tv Facebook page

We’ll be choosing the Swerve winners tomorrow at 3:00 CDT, and 2 winners per day on Facebook through March 27—stay tuned!

If you would like to purchase a copy of The Christian Atheist,  you can pre-order your copy through any of these booksellers:

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

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The Small Things: The Seating

Recently, I spoke at the Southeastern Leadership Forum (which was an amazing event) and at Celebration Church in Jacksonville Florida. Since it was Spring Break, I brought my family along. Traveling with eight is simultaneously fun and challenging. While flying home, I reflected on four small things different people did that made a big impact on me.

Chick-fil-A

Our family stopped for a short lunch at Chick-fil-A in Daytona Beach, Florida. An employee named Sally greeted us at the fast food restaurant; and, noticing our large family, came out from behind the counter to gather tables and seat us together.

That simple gesture doesn’t sound like much, but it immediately caught my attention. I’ve noticed that it is not uncommon to receive exceptional service at Chick Fil-As.

After she delivered our meal to our table, we struck up a conversation with Sally. This exceptional employee had been with Chick-fil-A for over 20 years. When I asked her why she would stay in the same job for so long, she said she enjoyed serving people like our family.

I noticed that the franchise owner was actually in the restaurant having a meeting with three others. (I recognized him from his picture at the front counter that actually had his cell phone listed.) I approached him to brag on Sally, and he said he hears that all the time.

One of the people he was talking to was a sweet lady from Chick-fil-A Corporate that recognized me from a leadership conference. Before long, we exchanged information, and I left with coupons for free food on my next visit to Chick-fil-A.

While I enjoyed the food at Chick-fil-A, I enjoyed seeing a great leadership culture that extended all the way to the people taking your orders even more.

What do you think the church could learn from these types of encounters?

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India: Global Partnerships

While we were in India, we had the privilege of visiting some groups and organizations we’ve partnered with. We got to spend time with Jack Magruder from Granger Community Church, and their partner in India, Life Mission International. With the help of the One Prayer initiative, hundreds of churches have been planted there and tens of thousands of evangelistic contacts have been made.

It was a great reminder of the importance of churches and ministries working together to accomplish more than we could on our own. If we were truly united, I believe the Great Commission could be fulfilled within our lifetime. The Church has the resources and the connectivity to make that happen if we were all pulling together.

This is why we’re excited about the 3rd year of One Prayer coming up in June. If your church hasn’t signed up, we’d love to have you on board! You can learn more and register at http://oneprayer.com.

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India: Urban Youth

While many of us are accustomed to hearing about extreme poverty in India, there’s a growing demographic that you might not be as familiar with: the middle class urban youth. This is a group that’s globally connected. They’re not only being influenced by input from around the world, they are influencing and adding to that input as well.

These are the people it’s possible to reach right now using media and technology. In the past, you might have heard me say, “There are more people alive today than at any other point in human history, and they are more connected now than at any time in the past.” India is at the very center of that…both from a population standpoint, and in terms of being globally connected.

We have an incredible opportunity in front of us to reach this population, but we’ll need to move beyond conventional methods. That’s one of the reasons we’re so excited about India being the country with the largest attendance at Church Online. With just a few clicks, these globally connected youth can experience a message of hope and salvation from across the world.

Several churches have adopted experiences at Church Online as an online mission project. We’re in the process of adding more experiences, so if you’re interested in learning more about this opportunity check out this post from Church Online.

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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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