Friday Flicks: “Safety Last!”

“Friday Flicks” is an experimental feature I’m adding to my blog on …Fridays.

I’ll add info on upcoming movies and other entertainment media from time to time, but the main focus will be recommending a video to watch over the weekend. Generally, I’ll be pointing you to classic flicks and “change of pace” kind of movies rather than just the latest “new releases.”

The format for this feature may change a bit over the next few weeks, but let’s go ahead and get started and we’ll work it out and have fun with it as we go…

This Friday’s Flick: “Safety Last!”

You’ve probably never seen this, but you really should see this. Harold Lloyd’s “Safety Last!” is a silent film from 1923 that works on so many levels even today. In fact, there were scenes in this movie that had my kids saying things like, “Whoa! No Way!” and literally laughing out loud along the way.

Harold Lloyd himself was an amazing individual. He was known for his “can do” spirit, and literally did not let anything stop him from achieving his goals. Before this movie was filmed, he was in a freak accident involving what he thought was a prop bomb during a publicity shoot. It turned out to be a real bomb (like in the cartoons -bowling ball with a fuse) and it blew off the thumb and forefinger of his right hand! Lloyd made “Safety Last!” (ironically) with a prosthetic hand that fit over his real hand.

I think one of the reasons I like Harold Lloyd is because he reminds me of church planters. He was up to the challenge and didn’t let obstacles get in his way!

“Safety Last” is a great example of how to tell a story visually, which is probably why audiences in this highly visual century still enjoy it so much today. And as a communicator, it’s a great reminder to me of how important and powerful visuals can be.

Watch this movie with the lights down, a big bowl of popcorn, and marveling at the fact that this was light years before CGI. They did a few camera angle tricks, but he really is that high in the air.

Find it at Netflix on disc one of the “Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection.“

I think it’s an all time classic. If you watch it based on my “Friday Flicks” recommendation, by the way, I would love to hear about it! (Even if you didn’t like it.)

Leave a comment below….

Friday Audio Update: 5/16/2008

One of two new features on my blog. It’s under 3 minutes long.

Click to listen: Friday Audio Update for May 16, 2008

I really don’t look as weird as this image makes me look. I actually look much weirder.

The Flow and Trail of Blessing

Brandon Thomas calls it “Going With The Flow: Blessing as you’ve been blessed.” It’s more than “paying it forward,” it’s understanding that one of the reasons that God blesses us is so that we may be a blessing to others. ( Brandon did a great series of messages about it in greater detail by the way, and you can download them all for free here.)

And now Compass Church is receiving a blessing that is being given to us that is going to allow us to ramp up our ability to minister to children in a major way. I’m not sure what details I can share about it publicly, but it’s a very cool development.

We have certainly seen Keystone Church display that flow of blessing to us in many ways over the past year. But this time, they were the 2nd stop in the flow and we are actually the 4th. And hopefully we’ll be able pass that blessing along to someone else.

It’s cool to follow the trail of blessing: This church blessed this church who blessed this guy’s church who is now blessing our church.

We have a long way to go, but it’s exciting to see momentum beginning for Compass before we’ve even had our first event or meeting! I don’t know what God has in store for us in the days ahead, but I’m looking forward to being a flow of blessing through my life and our church to other churches, our community, and a lost and hurting world.

So how is God blessing you? How can you flow that blessing to someone else? How long will your trail of blessing be?

Shock and Awe Follow Up Audio

I may start doing this more often with certain types of posts. Here’s an “audio follow up” to my last blog post that I recorded on my phone in the car this morning while on the way home from dropping off kids at school.

I used CellTell and Backpack to make it happen.

Click to listen: Shock and Awe Follow Up Audio

Shock and Awe Church Planting

There are probably hundreds of different ways to plant a church, and about 99% of them are right.

If you’re planting a church, even if it is right next door to where I’m planting a church, I’m for you. It often takes a variety of churches to reach a variety of people. It also takes a variety of methods, and this post is not about knocking any church who is doing their best to reach out to their communities with the love of Christ. It just helps me clarify a little about what we are doing.

We’re planting Compass Church the way we are not because it is the only way or even the “right” way. It’s because it is the way we sense God leading us to do it based on our previous experience. I believe that God is using that experience in Church planting to teach me in particular to avoid certain pitfalls in which I personally am prone to fall.

One of those is putting all of my church planting/launching eggs into one “Shock & Awe” basket.

By a “Shock & Awe” launch, I mean big media, 45,000 direct mail pieces, advertising everywhere, balloons and bounce houses with free gifts for everyone who shows up and lollipops for the kids. Big splash. Big Noise. A loud “Y’all Come.”

But please don’t misunderstand - I think all of that is great - if you have enough people to back it up to start with. Or if you just go for it and tons of people just show up. Who knows? Maybe it’s just the leap of faith that brings in a great harvest of people. But if it isn’t, you had better have a back up plan.

What happens when you go for “Shock & Awe,” but the crowds don’t show up? Well, that’s when you become the one who is “shocked and awed.” It’s happened to me before, and it’s a pretty sickening feeling, let me tell you. It would not have been so stunning, however, if we had had a large enough group of people to absorb some of that impact.

That’s why our strategy this time around involves gathering groups of people long before that first “launch” service. That way, when we do eventually do a little “Shock & Awe” to get the word out, we already have momentum whether anyone else shows up at that service or not.

Now, like I said, if the big splash works for you, I could not be more excited for you. In fact, there is another church planter in another town who started about the same time we started our first church plant. He sent out a ton of mailers and had over 300 people show up at their launch.

I think that’s awesome. But I also think that I thought it would happen just as automatically for us. And then when it didn’t, I realized how stinkin’ that thinkin’ really was.

Knowing what I know about myself and the Alliance area, I believe it would just be too risky for us to do only that - and I’m a pretty big risk taker.

Here’s one example of many from my first time around. Think of it as a cautionary tale:

For over a week our church was everywhere. It was almost impossible not to notice us. We placed signs all over the area that simply asked the question, “What’s the Point?” A few days later, we hit the area with a 37,000 piece mailer that answered the question and invited people to our new series that kicked off that weekend.

That week we also had an article about us appear in the newspaper, as well as a quarter page ad that we had purchased ourselves. On Saturday, the day before our series began, we served in a very visible way at a big festival in town, giving away tickets to rides and manning a booth about our church. We literally had some kind of interaction with thousands of people in one way or another over the course of that week.

On Sunday morning there was shock. There was awe. And it was all on the faces of our team when we realized that the response from all of our “big splash” efforts was zero. Not one person showed up at our church as a result of our “shockeriffic” campaign. In fact, we didn’t have any visitors at all on that day. Our series was called, “What’s the Point?” and that was probably the question my team was asking themselves for the rest of the day.

Now of course, it might have been the wrong strategy, implemented in the wrong way - but that’s my point. “Shock & Awe” for us this time around is a part of our strategy, but it is definitely not our whole strategy.

For that, you’ll have to wait for a future post…

“All Things New” Video Intro

Here’s a video intro I created recently for The Crossing @ Birchwood.

It’s for a short sermon series is called, “All Things New,” which includes 3 messages: “New Gifts,” “New Life” and “New Work.” The video has a “home movie” look to it and I think it captures a hopeful sense of joy, spring and newness.

The “All Things New” image/design is by Jennifer Nottingham and the music is “Waiting For The Summer” by Delirious.

Oh, and the ducks also make an appearance!

Happy Monday!

Link for email/feed readers: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7091748770081239049&hl=en

Church Planting for the Second Time

I don’t do blog posts that link to other blog posts as much anymore, but today I am. I was going to do a post similar to this, but Ben Arment (former church planter and founder of The Whiteboard Sessions) did such a good job with it, I don’t really need to now.

But I will point you to it:

When A Church Planter Takes The Field For A Second Time

He described “where I am” right now better than I could describe it myself…

How To Surpass a $100,000 Annual Church Budget

Here’s what it takes to surpass a $100,000 a year church budget:

It takes 34 families or individuals who have a “take home pay” of $30,000 and give 10% based on that.

That’s $62.50 a week, or $250 a month.

34 (families or individuals) x $250 (monthly) x 12 (months) = $102,000.

Not 100 families or individuals, but 34.

Not giving 10% gross, but giving 10% net.

…Over $100,000.

Imagine what would happen if it was 100 families or individuals? 200?

Trust me, it’s about more than math. Numbers represent people and generous giving always reveals heart change.

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” - Jesus

Why is this always so hard for us?  One penny for every ten.

We could start a lot of new churches and fund a lot of great ministries by just applying this simple, Biblical principle.

No need to be all legalistic about it - I’m just sayin’.

Ok, Now Let’s Get Started!

I want to quickly say, “Thank You!” to Keystone Church in Keller for believing in us, the vision we have for reaching people who are far from God, and in the fact that God can bring great victory out of the ashes of defeat.

(Uh, that last part would be about me. )

Keystone has provided a financial gift that kicks up the dust and allows us to get started, and their support means the world to us!

The story of Compass Church coming alive again after what has surely looked like certain death is truly an example of God’s grace, purpose and mission in this world. And I believe now more than ever that God wants to do some amazing things in the lives of people living in the Alliance, Texas area. It’s really hard to express how extremely excited I am about what is ahead!

I really believe that God is in this, so I’m not going to be shy about asking you to pray about being a part of it. In fact, if you sense God leading you to support us financially or in some other way, we would love to hear from you. Please drop me a line at Johnny[@]compasswired.com (No brackets around the @ symbol) to let me know about it.

You can also send gifts by mail or by using your online checking account’s “bill pay” feature by directing them to:

Compass Church
P.O. Box 365
Roanoke, Texas 76262

And speaking of giving and churches, tomorrow I will describe how a church can surpass a $100,000 annual budget. That’s actually a pretty small church budget, by the way, but regardless, the answer may surprise you.

It’s a “10 Commandments” Truck!

That’s what I thought when I drove up on this from a distance…

Oh, you know you would have, too…