jonferguson.org

NewThing Blogs

NewThing's mission is to be a catalyst for a movement of reproducing churches.  The most important peice of that vsion is our growing networks of affiliate churches.  We now have three reproducing networks that include 17 affiliates.  Several of the lead pastors from these Affiliate Churches have some great blogs. Here are the ones that I read, and I would encouage you to check them out as well.

• Troy McMahon from Restore Community Church in Kansas City, MO
• Mark Nelson from The Crossings in Knoxville, TN
• Matt Reece from The Path in Egan, MN
• Jeff Pessina from Frontline Ministries in The Philippines
• Greg Lee from Suncrest Christian Church in St. John, IN
• Matt Mehaffey from The Pursuit Church in Miami, FL
• Matt Payne from Chruch at Bethany in Portland, OR
• Dave Ferguson from Community Christian Church in Chicago, IL

Yep, God was at Romeoville

This was a great weekend at the Romeoville Campus.  While I love most weekends at any of our Community Campuses, occasionally something happens that leaves you exceptionally grateful for what God is doing among us.  This weekend we continued our series, Losing Your Religion  Today's topic was "Finding Freedom" and the combination of worship, music, videos, and teaching created some powerful moments I won't soon forget.  Check out Tim's version of this weekend's talk and the accompanying videos right here. I was especially moved by Romeoville's Gospel Choir singing "I am a Friend of God" led by Renee Taylor.  They were on fire!  Hats off to Greg Eichelberger, Roger Seagroves, Renee Taylor, and everyone else who worked so hard to create an experience where God could do what only He can do!

New CCC Video Player

If you have yet to do so, be sure to check out the new YouTube-like video player on Community's new website.  It's super user-friendly and the videos are in categories to make it easy to find any video.  Check it out here.

Congratulations Leanne Robison

My cousin Leanne Robison plays for the women's basketball team at Oral Roberts University.  They have a monster-huge challenge tonight in the first round of the NCAA Tourney as they go up against the Lady Volunteers from Tennessee.  Who knows?  Maybe a 16-seed could upset a 1-seed?  Good luck Leanne.

Happy Easter

"Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance." (John 20:1)

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

This past weekend was a first for Lisa and me.  We wrapped up our series Crazy Little Thing Called Love by team-teaching at our Romeoville Campus.  We had a great time teaching and the good people at the Romeoville Campus were more than gracious and made us feel very welcome. I couldn't have been more proud of Lisa.  She is such an incredible wife and mother.  It was fun getting the chance to let a lot more people have a snapshot of how good I have it all the time!

NewThing in New York

It's been a busy last few days, and I realized that I never had a chance to post on my experience in New York on Sunday and Monday.  I went from Northeast Virginia to New York City Saturday evening.  Yes, there is quite a contrast between the two places.  After a very scary flight into La Guardia (we finally landed on our third attempt) I got to bed sometime after midnight. Of course it was time change weekend, so I don't even know how late it was.

Sunday was great. I began by going to our NewThing church - Forefront Community Church.  This is one of my favorite churches in the world.  They are now meeting at the Blender Theater in Gramercy.  The church is about 2 1/2 years old, and they just started meeting in this theater last July.  The music was great, the theater moment was outstanding, and Brian Moll's message was right on.  They were in the second week of a series - "Sexuality and Spirituality" based on a NewThing series done at CCC called "Designer Sex."  It was great to see so many people there for the service.  They've been having close to 300 at their two Sunday morning services.  Brian told me that the day before at Leadership Community he announced their plans to add another location within the next 18 months.  Be sure to keep Forefront in your prayers.

That evening I took in some more church as I went to Redeemer Presbyterian for their Sunday night Jazz Service on the Upper West Side.  There had to be close to 600 people packed into the First Baptist church building.  There's nothing flashy about the music, and there's no media, but Tim Keller gave a great talk on some of the last words of Jesus as he was on the cross.  My church tour ended with a visit to Origins New York.  John Tyson is the lead pastor of this new church with two locations in Manhattan.  They meet in an old German Lutheran church in Chelsea.  It was a great setting, and once again, the place was full.  God is definitely up to some great things in New York!

Multi-Site in Northeast VA

The last couple of days I was with John Blumberg in Richlands, Virginia working with Community Heights Church.  They attended a NewThing Multi-Site Practicum and invited us to coach them as they launch a new campus.  We flew from O'hare to Charlotte, NC and from Charlotte to Tri-City Airport in Johnson City, TN.  From there we drove another hour through the hills of Tennessee.  This is a long ways from pretty much anywhere.  The church is located in Richlands, Virginia and has plans to launch a new campus in nearby Lebanon, Virginia. 

One of the highlights of working with this church (in addition to the great home-cooked meal they served us) was getting an insider's look at the friendship between Lead Pastor, Allen Jessee and the new Site Pastor, Timmy Brown.  Allan and Timmy started their friendship when Timmy was in high school and it has grown over the past seven plus years into an amazing partnership that God is now using to expand His kingdom in Northeast Virginia. 

Back to Virginia

Last year John Blumberg, one of our coaches at NewThing and I spent some time in Virginia on behalf of NewThing coaching several churches who are going multi-site.  It was a great time and several of the churches have done some amazing things.  Tomorrow morning we head back in that direction for a day to work with Community Heights Baptist Church in Cedar Bluff, VA.

Great Day in Plainfield

While I enjoy being on CCC's Teaching Team, I have to admit I was glad when I realized I was free to take in the grand opening of our new Plainfield Campus yesterday.  I arrived at about 8:30 AM and was blown away by how the launch team was so well-prepared for all the newcomers.  The directional signage leading to the school was super helpful, the look and feel of the inside was stellar, and the celebration service - music, teaching, media was great!  The place was electric the entire morning and at the end of the day over 640 people were there to take it all in. 

Congratulations to Brad, Chris, Cathy, Brian and the entire launch team.  I was so proud of the people who made missional moves from the Naperville, Romeoville, Shorewood, and other campuses to be part of this launch.  I was super impressed with the Kids City set-up, especially the pre-school space that utilized tents to transform a cafeteria into a great place for kids.  The idea was borrowed from our NewThing church near Detroit - 242 Community Church in Brighton, MI.

Sometimes I want to pinch myself just to make sure this is all real, and yesterday was one of those days.  I am so blessed to be part of a great church and movement of God that can celebrate an additional 1000 people (between Restore KC and the Plainfield Campus) finding their way back to God in just one day.  Thank you God!  For additional pics from the celebration service at Plainfield, check out Bill Carroll's blog.  And for some great pics of the Kids City, see Tammy Melchien's blog.