Quite possibly the best show on television right now.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
my pastor could beat up your pastor....
This article appeared in our local newspaper today about Dave Ferguson, lead pastor of CCC. It's awesome to work with someone so gifted and yet so humble about himself.
5 Questions: Dave Ferguson
February 26, 2007
Dave Ferguson has a green thumb when it comes to growing congregations.
He is lead pastor and co-founder of Community Christian Church, a nondenominational faith community which has grown to eight sites: Romeoville, Chicago, Shorewood, Plainfield, Montgomery, Yorkville and two in Naperville. In addition, the church has launched 10 other churches in cities across the country including Boston, Denver and Knoxville.
Ferguson, 44, was born in Missouri and raised in Chicago's south suburbs. He is the oldest of three children of the Rev. Earl Ferguson, pastor of a church in Chicago, and his wife, Pat.
A 1981 graduate of Crete-Monee High School, Ferguson entertained the idea of being an attorney but decided instead that he could make a bigger difference in people's lives through the church. He graduated from Lincoln Christian College with a degree in the Bible and teaching and from Wheaton College with a master's degree in education.
He came to Naperville in 1988 with a dream of starting his own church. With the help of his wife, Sue, brother, Jon, and a few friends from college, he began to lay the groundwork by going door to door to some 5,000 homes over a four-month period to find out what people were looking for in a church. That input has figured into the church's services, music, ministries and even its name.
Ferguson held the first service in 1989 in the cafeteria at Naperville Central High School. Some 465 people showed up, many of whom had not been to church for some time. Three years later the congregation moved to Naperville North High School, currently one of the church's two Naperville locations. The other is affectionately known as the "Yellow Box" which was built six years ago at the corner of Ogden Avenue and Rickert Road.
Today, about 5,000 people attend Sunday services at Community Christian Church, which has been named the 13th-most influential church in America by "The Church Report" and the seventh-most innovative church in the country by Outreach Magazine. One of those innovations is the subject of a new book written by Ferguson along with his brother, Jon, who is executive director of the church's New Thing Network, and Eric Bramlett, church creative arts director. "The Big Idea," published by Zondervan earlier this month, shows church leaders the benefits of focusing their congregations on one major theme every week rather than bombard them all at one time with several concepts.
Ferguson's other interests include sports, basketball, running, coaching his children's athletic teams and reading. He and his wife have three children, Amy, Josh and Caleb.
1. What made you choose Naperville to begin your church?
Naperville was a very fast-growing community and the demographics told us there were a lot of people moving here and they'll be looking for a church. It made sense in a couple of different ways. ... Part of our early vision was we knew this was a place of both affluence and influence and if we could get these people really excited about the things that Jesus talks about, about the way God really dreamed the world could be, if we could get those people excited about it, really the sky's the limit.
2. How does God make his presence known to you?
I think God speaks to people in different ways. ... For me there's a couple of ways, but one way in particular is I try to start my day with journaling. I read the Bible and I journal and when I journal one of the things I always do is I pick out a piece of scripture and I'll write it out. ... I always draw a line and after I draw the line I sit there and wait to see if God brings anything to mind. So I have a fundamental assumption that yes, God wants to communicate. And as things come to mind I jot those down. Now I don't assume that everything that comes into my mind comes from him, because lots of things pop in my head. But sometimes you kind of say 'you know what? I wouldn't have thought of that.' That feels like that was maybe from God.
3. What do you want people to take away from reading your book?
I hope they would take away that the instruction that God gives us and Jesus gives us in his word is really meant not to just be known in our head, but lived out in our life.
4. How would you describe yourself?
I don't feel real comfortable with the term pastor because I think the assumption people have when you think of pastor you think of somebody who basically shows up once a week and delivers a homily to a bunch of people. If I could make my own title I think it would be spiritual entrepreneur. That's what I'd like to be. I think my job is to help create communities of people who help people find their way back to God.
5. Who was the biggest influence in your life?
I think my parents have been very influential. My dad is somebody who really likes people. ... He's the real deal. My mom, she's a very emotionally healthy person and consequently, I think I received the benefits of that. I'm not sure I ever really felt insecure. I remember going to college for the very first time and having this twinge of self doubt and it was a foreign thing for me. I realize most people, because of the situation in which they grew up, it's a very familiar feeling. I was well into adulthood and there was a voice inside of me saying 'you can do that.' I really think that was her.
5 Questions: Dave Ferguson
February 26, 2007
Dave Ferguson has a green thumb when it comes to growing congregations.
He is lead pastor and co-founder of Community Christian Church, a nondenominational faith community which has grown to eight sites: Romeoville, Chicago, Shorewood, Plainfield, Montgomery, Yorkville and two in Naperville. In addition, the church has launched 10 other churches in cities across the country including Boston, Denver and Knoxville.
Ferguson, 44, was born in Missouri and raised in Chicago's south suburbs. He is the oldest of three children of the Rev. Earl Ferguson, pastor of a church in Chicago, and his wife, Pat.
A 1981 graduate of Crete-Monee High School, Ferguson entertained the idea of being an attorney but decided instead that he could make a bigger difference in people's lives through the church. He graduated from Lincoln Christian College with a degree in the Bible and teaching and from Wheaton College with a master's degree in education.
He came to Naperville in 1988 with a dream of starting his own church. With the help of his wife, Sue, brother, Jon, and a few friends from college, he began to lay the groundwork by going door to door to some 5,000 homes over a four-month period to find out what people were looking for in a church. That input has figured into the church's services, music, ministries and even its name.
Ferguson held the first service in 1989 in the cafeteria at Naperville Central High School. Some 465 people showed up, many of whom had not been to church for some time. Three years later the congregation moved to Naperville North High School, currently one of the church's two Naperville locations. The other is affectionately known as the "Yellow Box" which was built six years ago at the corner of Ogden Avenue and Rickert Road.
Today, about 5,000 people attend Sunday services at Community Christian Church, which has been named the 13th-most influential church in America by "The Church Report" and the seventh-most innovative church in the country by Outreach Magazine. One of those innovations is the subject of a new book written by Ferguson along with his brother, Jon, who is executive director of the church's New Thing Network, and Eric Bramlett, church creative arts director. "The Big Idea," published by Zondervan earlier this month, shows church leaders the benefits of focusing their congregations on one major theme every week rather than bombard them all at one time with several concepts.
Ferguson's other interests include sports, basketball, running, coaching his children's athletic teams and reading. He and his wife have three children, Amy, Josh and Caleb.
1. What made you choose Naperville to begin your church?
Naperville was a very fast-growing community and the demographics told us there were a lot of people moving here and they'll be looking for a church. It made sense in a couple of different ways. ... Part of our early vision was we knew this was a place of both affluence and influence and if we could get these people really excited about the things that Jesus talks about, about the way God really dreamed the world could be, if we could get those people excited about it, really the sky's the limit.
2. How does God make his presence known to you?
I think God speaks to people in different ways. ... For me there's a couple of ways, but one way in particular is I try to start my day with journaling. I read the Bible and I journal and when I journal one of the things I always do is I pick out a piece of scripture and I'll write it out. ... I always draw a line and after I draw the line I sit there and wait to see if God brings anything to mind. So I have a fundamental assumption that yes, God wants to communicate. And as things come to mind I jot those down. Now I don't assume that everything that comes into my mind comes from him, because lots of things pop in my head. But sometimes you kind of say 'you know what? I wouldn't have thought of that.' That feels like that was maybe from God.
3. What do you want people to take away from reading your book?
I hope they would take away that the instruction that God gives us and Jesus gives us in his word is really meant not to just be known in our head, but lived out in our life.
4. How would you describe yourself?
I don't feel real comfortable with the term pastor because I think the assumption people have when you think of pastor you think of somebody who basically shows up once a week and delivers a homily to a bunch of people. If I could make my own title I think it would be spiritual entrepreneur. That's what I'd like to be. I think my job is to help create communities of people who help people find their way back to God.
5. Who was the biggest influence in your life?
I think my parents have been very influential. My dad is somebody who really likes people. ... He's the real deal. My mom, she's a very emotionally healthy person and consequently, I think I received the benefits of that. I'm not sure I ever really felt insecure. I remember going to college for the very first time and having this twinge of self doubt and it was a foreign thing for me. I realize most people, because of the situation in which they grew up, it's a very familiar feeling. I was well into adulthood and there was a voice inside of me saying 'you can do that.' I really think that was her.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Blast
I love student ministry. Honestly. Even when it's hard and you can't make students understand what you want them to understand, I still love it.
This past weekend we had our high school retreat. Props to the StuCo staff--this was an amazing event. The set was incredible, the sessions were incredible, speakers, arts, everything. And my small group was awesome. But I'll get there.
I've been leading a small group of high schoolers for the last 2 years. (I started out at CCC with junior high....not for me. God bless junior high small group leaders.) When they came in last year, my girls were freshmen, and we were really all feeling each other out, trying to decide if we were going to get along, if we were going to be friends, if we were going to trust each other. Apparently they decided yes to all of the above, because we are still a small group now that they're sophomores and I love seeing how close they have become. Here are a bunch of girls that didn't know each other a year and a half ago, and now they share their darkest stuff and constantly support each other. It's amazing to me.
It's also amazing to me that I have gotten to baptize 2 of them.
Last year, post-Blast, Megan decided to be baptized in service, and asked Nick and I to baptize her. It was the first time I'd done it, and it was incredible. Sunday night Erin asked if I would baptize her at Blast, and it was also incredible. It was so awesome to see both of them not be able to stop smiling, and it was amazing to hear them talk about what they felt during the experience.
There is something so powerful and emotional about students giving themselves over to God.
The only time I actually got emotional this past weekend was during the first session. After the message we were singing together, and during Here is Our King, I looked around to see 200-some students getting it. They were totally engaged, celebrating God, singing their hearts out, raising their hands, and joyfully praising God. And it made me tear up a little. Actually, more than a little. But I love that song--"here is our King, here is our Love, here is our God who's come to bring us back to Him..." How much more accurate can you get? And how awesome is it to hear students declaring that in song?
I am so glad that God brings us back to Him. No matter how often we slip away. No matter how many times we trip and fall.
And I'm so glad that I have my high school girls to remind me of that. Redemption is an incredible thing. Something that we take too lightly. But it can change our souls.
This past weekend we had our high school retreat. Props to the StuCo staff--this was an amazing event. The set was incredible, the sessions were incredible, speakers, arts, everything. And my small group was awesome. But I'll get there.
I've been leading a small group of high schoolers for the last 2 years. (I started out at CCC with junior high....not for me. God bless junior high small group leaders.) When they came in last year, my girls were freshmen, and we were really all feeling each other out, trying to decide if we were going to get along, if we were going to be friends, if we were going to trust each other. Apparently they decided yes to all of the above, because we are still a small group now that they're sophomores and I love seeing how close they have become. Here are a bunch of girls that didn't know each other a year and a half ago, and now they share their darkest stuff and constantly support each other. It's amazing to me.
It's also amazing to me that I have gotten to baptize 2 of them.
Last year, post-Blast, Megan decided to be baptized in service, and asked Nick and I to baptize her. It was the first time I'd done it, and it was incredible. Sunday night Erin asked if I would baptize her at Blast, and it was also incredible. It was so awesome to see both of them not be able to stop smiling, and it was amazing to hear them talk about what they felt during the experience.
There is something so powerful and emotional about students giving themselves over to God.
The only time I actually got emotional this past weekend was during the first session. After the message we were singing together, and during Here is Our King, I looked around to see 200-some students getting it. They were totally engaged, celebrating God, singing their hearts out, raising their hands, and joyfully praising God. And it made me tear up a little. Actually, more than a little. But I love that song--"here is our King, here is our Love, here is our God who's come to bring us back to Him..." How much more accurate can you get? And how awesome is it to hear students declaring that in song?
I am so glad that God brings us back to Him. No matter how often we slip away. No matter how many times we trip and fall.
And I'm so glad that I have my high school girls to remind me of that. Redemption is an incredible thing. Something that we take too lightly. But it can change our souls.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
thoughts on winter
Remember winters when you were a kid? They were the best ever! We lived in Michigan for most of my childhood, first in Mt. Pleasant (which is further north) and then in Grand Rapids. But my grandma lived in Canada, so we would go to visit her almost every other weekend when the driving conditions were tolerable, so I remember countless hours spent outside in the snow. My dad would come out and help us dig tunnels in these 5-foot snowbanks piled up in front of my grandma's house, and Becky and I would be out in the snow for hours on end...I remember coming inside and not being able to feel my toes, my fingertips, my nose, my ears--no matter how much clothing I would wear. One time I licked a metal shovel...and that didn't go over so well. I didn't actually get stuck, but I remember pulling the shovel away really fast and seeing a layer of skin left on the metal. I don't think I told my parents about that. And one time we went sledding and my mom nearly broke her tailbone by going off a ramp that some kids had built at the park down the street. I don't think Becky and I fully understood how painful that probably was for her....now that I'm getting older, it's finally starting to make sense. And even when I was in high school, my friends and I would go sledding at Pasfield Park or Centennial Park (which is not a natural hill--it's just a big pile of dirt that was turned into a hill). And it was fun.
I don't really enjoy winter any more. And I think it's because I drive so much. If snow would not affect roads or make my windshield impossible to see through, I wouldn't mind it so much. But when I have to dig my car out, I am not a happy camper. And it's cold for so long....I am ready for spring. Maybe even summer.
But if you ask me to go sledding, I might say yes. As long as it's not terribly cold. Or windy. Or snowing. And I don't have to drive very far. Maybe you could come pick me up. Because it really is fun.
I don't really enjoy winter any more. And I think it's because I drive so much. If snow would not affect roads or make my windshield impossible to see through, I wouldn't mind it so much. But when I have to dig my car out, I am not a happy camper. And it's cold for so long....I am ready for spring. Maybe even summer.
But if you ask me to go sledding, I might say yes. As long as it's not terribly cold. Or windy. Or snowing. And I don't have to drive very far. Maybe you could come pick me up. Because it really is fun.
Monday, February 12, 2007
over the weekend...
We had a birthday party for Shelley on Friday night. She is 26...and loving that she is 26!
Bill gave Shelley the greatest birthday gift anyone could ask for...
...a framed picture of the Yellow Box.
So then it turned out that she had trick candles on her cake...that was exciting.
So we played some games and hung out....and John Gutierrez won BOTH rounds of Left, Right, Center, which means he took all our money TWICE. It was very upsetting.
So anyway, Saturday night we got to celebrate Shelley's birthday AGAIN.... by going to the United Center to see...
We were all a little skeptical at first, especially Shelley....
But it turned out to be pretty fun.
And by the end of the night, Shelley was a little more excited.
Oh, and this is what Breanne and I did during the SuperBowl....
Clearly the game was riveting.
And you know it's been winter for too long when you go outside and it's 30 degrees and you say to yourself...hey, it's not that cold today.
Bill gave Shelley the greatest birthday gift anyone could ask for...
...a framed picture of the Yellow Box.
So then it turned out that she had trick candles on her cake...that was exciting.
So we played some games and hung out....and John Gutierrez won BOTH rounds of Left, Right, Center, which means he took all our money TWICE. It was very upsetting.
So anyway, Saturday night we got to celebrate Shelley's birthday AGAIN.... by going to the United Center to see...
We were all a little skeptical at first, especially Shelley....
But it turned out to be pretty fun.
And by the end of the night, Shelley was a little more excited.
Oh, and this is what Breanne and I did during the SuperBowl....
Clearly the game was riveting.
And you know it's been winter for too long when you go outside and it's 30 degrees and you say to yourself...hey, it's not that cold today.
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
oh happy endings....
So over the weekend I went to see the cinematic feature Children of Men. Very interesting film. I felt very much like I was watching a holocaust movie...it was extremely intense. But here's the thing. (Oh no, I sound like Shelley...) I could have been ok with the movie...except for the ending. I am still so upset about the way this movie ended, which I am not going to say here, just in case anyone wants to see it and hasn't. Because multiple people told me how good the movie was, I was really excited about seeing it. And the last 30 seconds destroyed my movie-watching experience.
Which got me thinking....why is it that when a movie doesn't end the way we think it should, we get upset? We think that particular film is terrible, or we walk away saying, I would have liked it if it ended differently. Lucas's number one example of this is The Breakup. He claims to have re-written the ending so that he can watch it again. Children of Men is another great example....I walked away feeling so unresolved that I was upset for the next 2 days.
So why do I get so upset when a movie doesn't have a classic "happy ending"? After all, it's just a movie, right? Right. But I have invested myself in this movie and its characters, and I need to know that everything is going to be all right in the end. Because life doesn't always have happy endings. So I need to see it played out on the screen. Call it optimistic, idealistic, unrealistic, any other sort of "ic" that you can think of, but that's how I look at movies. (Books are a different story. [ha ha, I'm so punny.] Books can have "unhappy endings", and I can be perfectly OK with it.) And no, I don't think life is like the movies. But sometimes you just want to see things work out. There is enough heartbreak in everyday life to last a million years....let me step outside of that when I go to the theater.
So clearly I am not over Children of Men. I saw it Friday night and it is still upsetting me.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
fame....and scaffolding
We are changing all the lamps in our stage lighting this morning. By we, I actually don't mean me. The lighting guys are here to change the stage lighting. But they are up on a 3-level scaffolding...and a ladder. It makes me a little nervous. They tell me that you get used to the swaying of the scaffold, but I don't believe it. Now they're wheeling the scaffolding with a guy on top of it. Yikes. I usually don't mind heights, but it makes me nervous.
The Big Idea was released today, written by Dave & Jon Ferguson and Eric Bramlett. Rave reviews are pouring in. Ok, I actually wouldn't know if they were, but we did get an article in the local paper. Check it out here: www.dailyherald.com
Not that I'm bragging or anything...but we're pretty much famous. And by we (again), I actually can't include myself.
If you are a church staff member, you should check it out. Lots of good stuff. And, my boss's picture is in the book. He would be happy to autograph his page for you.
The Big Idea was released today, written by Dave & Jon Ferguson and Eric Bramlett. Rave reviews are pouring in. Ok, I actually wouldn't know if they were, but we did get an article in the local paper. Check it out here: www.dailyherald.com
Not that I'm bragging or anything...but we're pretty much famous. And by we (again), I actually can't include myself.
If you are a church staff member, you should check it out. Lots of good stuff. And, my boss's picture is in the book. He would be happy to autograph his page for you.
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