All-Access 2010, final day

I’m home. Finally.

As good as it feels to be back home, ready for my own bed, I’ve gotta say that this was one of the best conferences I have EVER attended.  Today’s sessions were particularly honest and real, without any of the posturing that sometimes happens when preachers (people?) get together.

Chris Hodges was as transparent and vulnerable as I’ve ever heard anyone.

Stovall Weems passionately made me think about “Kingdom Sweat”.  (I think I’ll use his stuff)

Greg Surratt taught us how to “Grow Through Conflict” – which is probably helpful to members as well as pastors.

Craig Groeschel talked about “A Leader’s Constant Companion: Pain”, and actually encouraged me to let God increase my threshold of pain.

As you can probably tell from the titles, it wasn’t a ‘feel-good’ conference about church growth.  It was about real church growth – the kind I want at CLC.

Greg Surratt has the quote of the day: “It’s ok to get on the pity-potty as long as you don’t sit there long enough to get ring-around-the-heinie!”

With that, I bid you adieu – I’m going to sleep in my own bed.

All-Access 2010, second day

Let’s put it this way: the incredible line-up of speakers at All-Access 2010 did not disappoint!

As a pastor, every so often, it’s important for me to get preached-to myself, and I am enjoying every minute of this opportunity:

Rick Bezet made me laugh.  Priscilla Shirer grabbed my heart and squeezed.  Robert Morris taught on money as well as I’ve ever heard it taught.  Miles McPherson helped me laugh some more.  And tonight, Dino Rizzo made me want to always stay small, no matter how big CLC ever gets!

Dino’s quote of the day: “There really are no big churches.  There’s just a BIG God, using small churches to do big things!”

Tomorrow is another full day before Ed and I hop on two more flights back to Chicago, but right now, my bed is calling me.  Coming home changed!

All-Access 2010, first night

It was a loooooooong day (left my house about 6:15am, just got into our hotel room about 11pm), but at least the air travel was uncomplicated and we were able to get to the church just in time for the opening of the conference.

John Maxwell was as good as I’ve ever heard him – sharing his secrets of ‘connecting’ with people as a communicator – WOW!

And Pastor Brian Houston charged us all to “spice up” our prayer life, and “spice up” the prayer of our church!

Hillsong United was, well, Hillsong United.  What can I say?

And as only God could arrange, out of thousands of people in the new Healing Place Arena, I sat just a few feet from a great friend from Covenant Church in Dallas, so Ed and I had some good fellowship (and good food) following service.

I’m ready for some shut-eye – early sessions tomorrow.  Later-

Setback or Set-up?

I think it was John Maxwell that I first heard say, “your attitude determines your altitude”, and I believe it.

That’s one of the reasons why our latest disappointment at CLC didn’t last long.  As you probably know, we’ve been planning to launch a new campus in the western suburbs since last year, with an original target date of January 2010.  Then we pushed it to February, as we couldn’t find a suitable location to launch.  Finally last month we found a sports center that seemed doable, so we set the new launch date for Easter weekend.

However, we were recently contacted by the village office where that sports center is located, informing us that even though we were only be renting, we would still have to receive permission from the village to open a church in their community, and that our facility would have to meet all their requirements for churches.  The next day our Campus Pastor met with those officials and learned that the sports center would not qualify, and our launch would have to be postponed again.

Before you sigh or get too frustrated, let me tell you what a ‘God-thing’ this was: we had already been working on the marketing tools for the new launch, and 90,000 post cards were scheduled to be printed that day.  (And all of them would have had the wrong address, meaning we would have wasted thousands of dollars, with no alternative but to reprint them later!)

Instead, the village recommended to us a local high school, whose facility will not only meet their requirements, but will enable us to reach more than twice as many people as the sports center!  In fact, the additional four months or so before launch (we’re now targeting a ‘back-to-school’ date in August) will enable us to grow the launch team so that even more CLCers will be able to serve the hundreds of new people we anticipate at those opening services.  So instead of a setback, we see this as the hand of God at work, as a set-up for even greater success in the western suburbs!  Truly He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or even think!

While we’re talking about recent developments, let me also inform you that Pastor Kim, who came to CLC over two years ago to begin a Korean outreach in the south suburbs, has recently been chosen to pastor an existing Korean church in San Francisco.  While we hate to see them go, the fact is that they had struggled to establish a work here to no avail in the past two years, and now they will have a congregation to serve and an opportunity to reach more in the Bay area.  He leaves today and the family will join him at the end of this month, so we’re pray God’s best on them as they begin a new chapter together.

Any setbacks in your life that might just be God’s ‘set-up’ for greater things?

It’s OFFICIAL!

Just got word via email from Pastor Eric Stone that our 4th campus now has a location to launch!  Our grand opening at the Downer’s Grove campus will be EASTER Sunday, April 4 at 10:30am at the Elite Sports Complex at 6360 South Belmont Road in Downers Grove, IL!

This whole process of finding the ‘right spot’ took a lot longer than any of us ever dreamed, but we’re confident this is the place – with lots of great classrooms for children’s ministry and a gym that will serve as our auditorium, we should be able to grow to more than 500 in attendance before we’d need to add an additional service or relocate.

The countdown begins NOW – so start telling your friends in the western suburbs about “a new church coming to town!”

AND let’s begin praying for the post cards and television spots that will begin soon, that many receptive hearts will receive the news and join us on Easter Sunday!

Opportunities to be seized NOW!

Someone has said that “opportunity only knocks once”.  I don’t know about that, but I’ve heard my pastor say that “the opportunity of a lifetime must be seized in the lifetime of the opportunity”, and I’ve got 3 different opportunities that must be seized now, lest we miss them completely:

1.  This Sunday at CLC-TP is the conclusion of our “3-D Christmas” series, and besides the special effects video & great music, I believe the message is going to be the BEST of the series, full of practical tips as to how you can have peace on earth this Christmas, and all-year long.  This Sunday is tailor-made for bringing guests – I truly believe it can be life-changing for your friends & family!

Obviously, that ONLY happens if you take time NOW to invite someone to be your guest.  Would you do that today?  Pick up the phone, send an email, or have that conversation – it really could change eternity for someone you love!

2.  This Sunday is also our “CHRISTMAS OFFERING” Sunday at each CLC campus, and I’m just so excited to see how we’re going to be able to make an investment to change lives here in Chicagoland (by launching our 4th campus in January), in Israel (by helping needy Messianic believers there thru the ministry of Tikkun International, in Peru (where we will provide more clean water wells so little children don’t go blind from drinking the parasites in their water), and locally (feeding the hungry & helping needy people through our food pantries and local agencies we partner with to meet needs).

Just imagine: together we will touch more people and do more to meet practical needs as Jesus taught us in just ONE DAY than we ever have before!  That’s why Chris & I plan to give our largest gift this Christmas thru CLC – and the joy of doing this will be greater than any sweater we give anyone else!  Can I ask you again to prayerfully consider what you can do this Christmas, and join us in giving this Sunday?

3.  Finally, as you know we plan to launch our 4th campus in the Lisle-Downers Grove-Woodridge area on January 31 – but we’ve still been unable to locate a building to lease.  In fact, just today the high school that I personally felt was going to be the perfect spot refused our request, & it’s crunch time now!

Would you join me in praying for God to open the right door for us speedily?  After all, CLC is HIS Church, and folks in the west suburbs deserve a chance to receive through a multi-cultural, Spirit-filled, healing-Presence church as much as anyone else!  Prayer can open a door – but we need you to pray now.

Thanks for the help – I’ll give you the good reports later.

CAPRO USA & a busy campus

Right after our Men’s Fraternity session this morning (not too late for you to join us – we’re just now getting to the good stuff – every Saturday 7:30-9:00 a.m.), I’ll be playing host to the CAPRO USA annual board meeting.

For those who don’t know, CAPRO is an indigenous missions agency based in Nigeria that we’ve worked with in Senegal for the past 9-10 years.  I am very impressed with the caliber of their African missionaries I’ve met, and we’ve enjoyed hearing from Amos Aderonmu, their current International Director, as well as his predecessor, Pade Tokun, and, of course, our dear friend Charles Bavelloni, who now serves with CAPRO in France, in the CLC pulpit.

I’ve been a member of their USA board for the past year and participated in several teleconferences, but this will be my first opportunity to meet the other members in person, so I’m looking forward to strategizing with them for the Kingdom.

I’m pleased to announce that CLC is not only hosting this board meeting, but that we’ve agreed to house the USA offices for CAPRO.  What a privilege for us toward fulfilling our vision of “Loving God, Serving People, Reaching Nations”! (We’re also ‘serving people’ by hosting the northern Illinois Cleansing Streams retreat at CLC last night & today – so things are especially busy this weekend at the Tinley Park campus)

If you’re interested in more about CAPRO, here’s a great article about their work.

And if you’re interested in living & laughing & loving, don’t miss “What Men Wish Women Knew” tomorrow - what a fun weekend it’s gonna be!

Our multi-site strategy

I was asked about our multiple campuses and their history on Sunday, so let me explain.  More & more churches are going multi-site these days, and the ‘experts’ say that trend will only continue in the future.  It only makes sense, because we can reach more people for less money, by leveraging the resources we already have (especially our people & experience resources!)

In our case, it was a combination of factors that led us to become “one church in multiple locations”:

• we were basically maxxed-out in Tinley Park and knew that reaching more people would require an expensive relocation – more land, more square footage, and, in our case, more debt!
• from the beginning of the ministry in 1990, we’ve always wanted to help plant churches in other areas of Chicagoland, knowing that no one local church could ever impact an area this large!
• God had blessed us with capable people who needed new & greater challenges in ministry (I’m still amazed at the gifts & talents & experience of folks He keeps bringing here!)
• (most importantly?) – the Holy Spirit kept nudging us at different times & in different ways about expanding our influence-

So, in late 2006 we asked for about 100 people from Tinley Park to sign-on as part of the launch team for a new campus in Shorewood (about 30m from our Tinley campus). Pastors Dan & Pat Johnson, who had served as our Youth Pastors for 8 years, led the charge and, after a direct-mail campaign in January of 2007, we opened with over 300 people in attendance!  That campus has seen a lot of the original launch team move on to other places, but is now a church family of more than 300 people, many of whom had never attended CLC-TP!

Then in August of 2007 we assumed responsibility of the former Christian Tabernacle in South Bend, IN (at the request of their pastor & our friend, John Nordstrom, Sr., as well as the congregation of about 100 people). After several months of preparation, including a complete makeover of the facilities and a direct-mail & TV blitz, we saw 300 people on opening day in March, 2008!  After a few hiccups along the way, Pastors Doug & Shanna Neal have brought stability & renewed vision to that campus, and had 170 folks in attendance this past Sunday, with the vast majority not having a background with either Christian Tabernacle or CLC!

Now we’re preparing for campus #4, as Pastors Eric & Kristen Stone and the 50-or-so-members of Chicagoland Church have asked to come under our umbrella to become CLC-Lisle.  Already about 25 of our TP folks have accepted the challenge to be a part of the launch team there, so we’re still looking for another 25 CLCers who will step up and experience the joy of seeing this new congregation get off the ground with a targeted launch date of February, 2010.

I have every expectation that this newest campus will also see 200 or more new folks on opening day, many of whom will not only be introduced to CLC, but more importantly, have their lives changed by meeting the Lord Jesus Christ, just as we’ve seen in Shorewood and South Bend. That’s why we do multi-site. It’s not about us; it’s about other people coming to experience Jesus, because we gave them an opportunity in their neighborhood.

I also believe that the prophetic words we’ve received from Bishop Garlington, Mark Chironna, and others will be fulfilled in their season and that we’ll expand from four campuses to five, six, seven, eight….well, you get the picture.  (If you’re really counting, we already have one in Davao City, Philippines for a total of four currently & Lisle will make five).

Here’s the $64,000 question: where do YOU fit in this strategy? Are you called to remain in TP, or is the Holy Spirit nudging you to be a part of this new launch in Lisle?

If you think maybe He is, click here.

If you have questions or comments about our multi-site strategy, I’d love to hear from you below-

4th campus launch

Well, it’s official….we kicked-off the initial recruitment for the launch team last Sunday, and soon we’ll be able to say, “CLC-Lisle”!

For those of you who haven’t been following this rapid development, here’s the 411:

• Pastors Eric & Kristen Stone have been digging it out in the Lisle area for about 6 years, starting a church from scratch that now numbers about 50 people in their charismatic service at Chicagoland Church.
• In addition to that service at 10:30 every Sunday morning, Eric also serves as the pastor of a United Church of Christ congregation in Lisle (too long of a story to tell here, but it resulted from his heart for the community!).
• In addition to that, they have a small congregation in downtown Chicago that worships on Sunday afternoon’s at 3pm.
• In addition to that, they operate a soup kitchen at another location downtown, serving the poor with food & clothing ala Matthew 25
• In addition to that, they operate one of the “top 10 thrift shops in DuPage County” (according to the Chicago Tribune), which has become a huge ‘side door’ for people to be introduced to their congregation.

Now get this: Eric & Kristen & their congregation have sensed God’s leading in dissolving their corporation and rolling all of that into Christian Life Center!

Now do you see why I’m EXCITED?

We will now have the opportunity to reach people with the ONLY Spirit-filled, multi-cultural church in the Lisle/Woodridge area, PLUS another legitimate outreach to our CITY in downtown Chicago, plus enjoy a couple of creative outreaches that could become a model for future campus expansion in Chicagoland!  And it already comes with an experienced, hard-working, excellent-communicator-pastor in Eric & Kristen – PLUS a team of people who are anxious to roll up their sleeves & serve!

All we need now are some folks with CLC DNA who can come alongside the nucleus in Lisle, some pioneers who want to get in on the ground floor of this exciting new venture.

My hat’s already off to a few families who responded on Sunday, but I’m looking for some more heroes who would be willing to leave the comfort of the ‘mother ship’ in Tinley Park, in order to be a part of God’s dream for reaching another part of our metro area.  We need workers in virtually every area of ministry, from the children to the choir, and everything in between.

Are YOU one of them?

If you sense the Spirit speaking, please contact Eric or Kristen or me to begin the conversation.  I can’t wait to see what’s next!

Ask the Pastor

Oops – a new first this week: not a single question for me to answer in this forum.  Maybe next week.

Meanwhile, this IS the deadline for any question that you’d like to submit to General Georges Sada who will be our guest at all 5 services this weekend at all our campuses.  If there’s something you’d like to know about what’s really happening in Iraq, ask it here.

Finally, I thought I should explain one of the reasons we’re in a position to enjoy Gen. Sada’s visit.  (We sometimes fail to talk about what CLC is doing with your money in missions.)  Here’s the brief version:

Because we believe that God will bless a church that tithes outside it’s walls, just like HE blesses an individual who tithes to his church, for many years now we have given 10% of all our tithes & offerings at CLC to missions – in addition to any designated missions gifts.  In other words, when you tithe ten dollars to us at CLC, we give one dollar directly to one of our missions partners around the world.

One of the largest beneficiaries of that policy for the past several years is the ministry of Terry Law at World Compassion.  Specifically, CLC sends monthly support for church-planting in IRAQ!  In fact, this past Spring I participated in a pastor’s conference in Istanbul, Turkey where I had the opportunity to meet and fellowship with the pastor and a leader from one of those congregations we helped plant among the Kurds of northern Iraq – a church that has grown tremendously in a few short years, reaching Muslims with the Gospel!  So when you give to CLC, you have a part in reaching Iraq with the good news of Jesus!

And this weekend, you’ll get to hear good reports of what your giving is doing there.  I can’t wait!

P.S. Anything you want to Ask the Pastor?

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