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Pick Up A Crave Kit This Weekend

On September 15-16 we begin our Soul Cravings series.  It will be a great opportunity to invite a friend, neighbor, co-worker, or family member to a celebration service at CCC.  The next two weekends Crave Kits will be available for you to purchase (3 for $5) to give to the people you would like to invite.  The kit includes a delicious chocolate chip cookie, a dvd with real-life stories of people who have experienced life-change at CCC, and an invitation card with directions and service times for a campus near you.  For more information on this series, click here, and don't forget to buy your Crave Kits!

New Look Viscosity - Thanks Nick

Thanks to the artistic talent of CCC’s very own Nick Plasman, my Viscosity Blog has a new look.  I didn’t know he was working on it unitl I received this note in my “Inbox.”  What a cool surprise!

Jon:

I know you’re on vacation, but I was hoping to help you out while you are “out.”  I worked on a new header for your blog.  It will need me to change the color profile of your blog.  So would you like me to add it and change the color profile?  Or do you want to do it yourself?

Nick

Thanks a lot Nick!

Church-Planters Track at Catalyst

I can't imagine a higher octane conference than the Catalyst Conference coming up on October 3-5, 2007 in Atlanta.  Over 10,000 emerging leaders will converge for what may be the leadership experience of the year.  They have some of the best communicators on the planet this year, including Andy Stanley, Erwin McManus, Rick Warren, Craig Groeschel, Patrick Lencioni, and Tim Sanders among others.  Also, this year is a Church-Planters' Lab Track including innovative leaders such as Ed Stetzer, Darrin Patrick, as well as CCC and NewThing's very own Dave Ferguson.  For more information, check out www.catalystconference.com.

The Heart of a Child

Lisa and I asked Graham and Chloe to draw a picture of their hearts so we could use them as visuals for the talk we gave yesterday at Kids' City University.  How's this for an inside look at the heart of a child?

Graham's heart is the top one.  He's 10 years old. Good to see that the Cubs are close to Jesus.  I'm sure we'll need everything we can get to stay in 1st place.  Chloe's is below.  She is 8 years old, and she used her artistic talents to draw some pictures of things that are close to her heart.

 

Kids' City University

Today was Kids City University at the Yellow Box.  KCU is CCC's annual half-day training for all Kids' City leaders and apprentice leaders. 

The day began with Tammy Melchien - CCC's Kids' City Champion giving a talk on Investigating the  Heart of a Leader."  It was a great sort of fireside chat where Tammy shared from her own journey in developing intimacy with God and how it can be a struggle for anyone in the midst of our busy lives and drive for success.  She emphasized that the only way to pursue this daily is to have regular times alone with God. One of the coolest things she did was ask each Kids' City Director to provide a copy of a page from their own personal journals.  It was a great way for people to get an idea of what journaling can look like from a number of different perspectives.

The day wrapped up with Lisa and I giving a talk on "Investigating the Heart of a Child."  I think this was the first time Lisa and I had given a talk like this together.  It was a lot of fun. She is so competent in this area.  It's great to be on stage next to someone so knowledgeable and great-looking.  She really did great!  Oh, I failed to mention the "dance number" that the Kids' City Directors performed right before Lisa and I gave our talk.  I guess it's an annual thing.  I can't wait for next year.  You'll have to ask one of them about it. 

Congratulations to Tammy and her team for all their hard work and creativity:  Scott Knollenberg, Mary Partee, Jen Ripsch, Cathy Cuney, Shannon Gutierrez, Tony Escobar, Rachel Carroll. You all continue to amaze me with your relentless pursuit of helping families find their way back to God. 

Welcome to Community! All 500 of You!

Maybe you read Dave Ferguson's blog or Kirsten Strand's Community 4:12 blog about the terrific opportunity we had to host over 500 teachers from the East Aurora District 131 at the Yellow Box for their day-before-school-starts training on Tuesday.  It was ton of fun to have them in our building and realize how our partnership with them continues to grow.  A few of us from staff had the chance to welcome them on stage.  We were each asked to focus our comments in a particular direction.  My task was to take 2-3 minutes to tell them about CCC and invite them to check out our weekend celebration services.  While I have had the chance to do this same thing with lots of people one-on-one, I don't recall ever doing this for 500 people at once.  I ended up telling them a little bit about us, and then inviting them to our "Soul Cravings" series.  We had our small invite cards placed on each chair as they came in for that last session.  I think it went o.k., but I'd love to know, if you had 2-3 minutes to tell a group of 500 people a little bit about CCC or your church what would you say?

Imagine No SportsCenter

Imagine a life without ESPN SportsCenter . . . that has been me up until today.  Yes, I have been a cable hold-out.  Not sure why except I think there are a ton of things to do with my time that are way more productive than watching t.v.  But I finally caved in to the gentle and not-so-subtle urgings of my sports-crazed son.  At least that's my excuse.  Now he and I can watch every remaining game of what may be a very memorable Cubs season . . . and maybe post-season. 

New Blog for Planters' Wives

I just got a note from Todd Wilson at Church Planting Solutions telling me that Jen Antonucci has started a new blog for the wives of church planters.  Jen's husband, Vince is the lead pastor at Forefront Church in Virginia Beach.  I love that church.  I read a couple of Jen's posts, and she is a terrific writer.  This looks like a great resource.  Check it out here.

Big Idea Webinar Tomorrow

It's not too late.  You can still register for tomorrow's Big Idea webinar sponsored by Leadership Network.  Join Dave Ferguson, Eric Bramlett, and myself as we discuss our recently released book, The Big Idea.   Click here for more information. 

Christian/Christ-follower on MSNBC

Check out Eric Bramlett's post about how he got word that one of the Christian/Christ-follower (Mac/PC parodies) made it on the news at MSNBC.  Watch the clip and check out the anchors reaction to the clip.  She was diggin' it.