Service Tonight

Things went awesome tonight. We had our most people ever - 120. It was packed! When we arrive there are 79 seats available, we put out extra, there were a total of about 115. 112 seats were taken, and about 8 people were standing.

No protestors, which is a plus.

Lots of cool things happened, cool conversations ... One girl decided to give her life to Christ. God is doing something special there.

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Entertaining Comments

Okay, if you really want to have some fun, go to the newspaper article I mentioned in my last post, and then read the comments about it (there are currently 25). They are unbelievable. I'm wondering if we might have protestors tonight ... for real.

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In the News

Okay, I'm hesitant to do this but ... there was an article today on the front page of the newspaper about our bar service.

The reason I'm hesitant to share this with you all is because in the article I am described as, "A husky 30-something with an urgent air." Wow. That is so uncool. Like, why not just say, "Vince is a fat neurotic 30-something." Or, "Small children run in fear and hide from Vince, because of his gargantuan size and insane demeanor." In the article our worship pastor is described as having a voice like Kurt Cobain. Couldn't the guy have said, "Vince has an Elvis-like presence," and let people decide for themselves if he was referring to young Elvis or old Elvis, and whether it had anything to do with weight at all.

Oh well. If you want to read the article, here you go:

http://hamptonroads.com/pilotonline/

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Do Not Pass Go ...

Here's something you need to do, like right away. You need to read "No Perfect People Allowed," by John Burke. Like do not pass go, do not collect $200, just go straight to the bookstore or your Amazon account and order this book.

John is a friend of mine, but that is not why I'm telling you to read this book. (I'm also not telling you to read it because I'm mentioned in the footnotes.) I'm telling you to read it because (unfortunately) it's very unique. I wish there were more books that do what this one does, but there aren't, so you have to read this one.

John does a masterful job of describing post-modern people and their hang-ups with Christianity. Not only that but he gives practical counsel on how to deal with such people and their questions and issues. The book is filled with incredible stories about people who's lives have been changed dramatically at John's church, Gateway in Austin, Texas.

And that's the last thing I'd add: For seventeen years now I've been searching for churches that are truly reaching people who are seriously far from God. Not churches reaching people who go to church, or used to go to church and stopped for awhile and now they're back. I want to see churches that are reaching people who are shocked that they're going to church, and reaching those people in large numbers. I'm sure there are churches like that out there, but I have found very, very few. Sometimes I'll hear about one, then go check it out and return home disappointed. BUT ... Gateway is the real deal. I've been there three times and I have been completely impressed. If you can go there, go. But if not, read the book!


Until next time ... doh!



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Quote This

Are you like me? Do you like the good quotes? If not, go find something else to do. If so, read on, my friend, read on...

"Experience has shown us that men who are the happiest and most content in their masculine role today are those whose fathers invested a great deal of time and energy in their lives."
- David Stoop and Stephen Arterburn, The Angry Man

OR: "I find the mystery genre disgusting. I hate being titillated."

OR: "Break me off a piece of that Fancy Feast."

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Another Tuesday Night

I've been sharing a story or two from our Tuesday night service in the bar. This week's aren't quite as wild but ...

One of our ladies told me that in the women's bathroom someone wrote on the wall: "Michelle has amazing breasts" and then, "4 got they have church people here!"

Okay, that's just weird. Here's a better one:

That same lady (Natalie) saw a guy sitting at the bar, went up to him, and said, "Hey! You're back!" The guy smiled and replied, "This is the second time in my life I've been in church." She asked, "When was the first time?" He said, "Last Tuesday night. But last time I came here to drink, I didn't know there would be a church here. This week I came for the church." Natalie said, "So you liked it last week?" He answered, "This is so cool. I'll be here every week."

The guy who wants to have a church service/party for his friends in his backyard was back. He's loving it. Unfortunately the guy I talked about last week, Peter, was not there. I'm praying he'll be back next time.

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New Campus / Church Stuff

We just had the third week of our new campuses. A couple of thoughts I'd share with people who are starting new churches and new campuses in the U.S. ---

Nine years ago we started our church using mostly postcards and radio ads, and it worked. I've heard horror stories from others, but it worked big time for us.

But something happened in the last ten years - the world changed. Here are three examples:
- People who are around 30 now (which is who we expect to respond to our advertising) are different from people who were around 30 then. For one thing, they are less likely to have grown up in church. Ten years ago that age group grew up in the 70's and early 80's. Now that age group grew up in the 80's and early 90's. The number of people attending church in those ten years was dropping steadily. (And, since the early 90's has continued to drop, only more drastically). So there are less people who don't go to church but somewhere deep inside know they should. This is typically the kind of person who responds to a postcard or radio ad, but there's just not so many around anymore.
- There is more widespread anti-church, anti-Christian sentiment. Read "unchristian" by David Kinneman. (Seriously, read it.) He did tons of research and reveals what most young people today think of Christians and church. It's not good. So to think that a person who is negative towards Christians/church/Christianity is going to receive a postcard and say, "Yeah, I think I'll go..." Nope, not happening.
- "Cool" churches are everywhere. When we arrived in Va Beach ten years ago, there was nothing like us. No one had done postcards or radio ads. We were featured on the news because we were a church meeting in a movie theater. So for those people who didn't go to church, but would be open to a different kind of church, we were there only option. Now people receive church postcards all the time, radio ads aren't that uncommon, and there's a church in every movie theater.

So, as you might guess, our advertising didn't produce the results it did last time. In fact, this time we were advertising three campuses (not just one) and sent a series of postcards to 87,000 homes (not just 32,000) but the results were about 1/3rd of what we experienced nine years ago.

But here's the cool part. Often a new church will see a big drop in attendance in their second and third weeks (the advertising has stopped, the well-wishers have gone home, the church shoppers have checked you out and moved on) but yesterday (our third Sunday and the first without any advertising) we had our biggest attendance yet at both of our Sunday morning campuses. That's sweet! And the reason? People are excited and bringing their friends with them. I think that's what we're going to have to rely on for church growth in the future which is, probably, a very good thing.

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Quote This

Are you like me? Do you like the good quotes? If not, go find something else to do. If so, read on, my friend, read on...


"I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I awoke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold, service was joy."
- Rabindranath Tagore

Or: "I don't talk to my girlfriend about money, it's rude and unsexual."

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New Tuesday Night Story

Hey, I've been sharing a story from our bar service (if you don't know, we have a Tuesday Night Service in a bar called the White House Pub that is open for business during our service). So tonight I preached about Peter, and about how when he started following Jesus his life became an adventure. I talked about his daily routine of getting up, eating a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerio's for breakfast (as I said, "I don't know what people ate for breakfast back then") and then going out to fish, but how all that changed when Jesus showed up on the beach...

So after the service this guy who was about 23 walked up and said, "Dude, you were totally f-ing talking to ME tonight!" I said, "That's cool. What's your name?" He said, "It's Peter! And my favorite f-ing cereal is Honey Nut Cheerio's, how did you f-ing pull that one out of your f-ing hat?" I laughed and said, "Well, that's God, not me." He said, "And singing Guns n' Roses!" (in my sermon I sang a few lines from "Mr. Brownstone" - "I used to do a little but a little wouldn't do, so the little got more and more, I just keep trying to get a little better said a little better than befo-o-wo.") "Dude," he said, "They're my f-ing favorite f-ing band!" (There were actually more "f-ing"s than this, I'm trying to keep this clean....)

He said, "You know how you said some people might be ready to accept Jesus tonight? I was, but then I lost it." I asked him to explain, so we sat down and he spent the next fifteen minutes telling me how far he was from God, how he knew he had screwed up his life. I told him the parable of the prodigal son, and that God was just waiting for him to take steps towarads home and that He'd run to meet him. We talked about what the next steps towards God might be for him. I gave him a Bible. He promised to come back next week.

It was pretty f-ing cool. (Sorry, had to do it.)

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Sommer's Story

I e-mailed my church about this blog and told people if they wanted I would share their stories on it. I thought it would be cool for you to hear what attracted people to Forefront from them, rather than me "tooting our own horn." So, here's one:

Before coming to Forefront, I was totally church phobic. I was raised in a very cold Penecostal church environment. While my family had been going there for awhile, I could tell even as a child that we looked down upon a great deal because we weren’t as financially well off as most of the members. In addition, the harsh judgment and emotional distance was nearly tangible and it seemed to cloud the room wherever I went.

Around the age of 13, I started experimenting with various churches that my friends attended. I bounced from Baptist to Methodist to Catholic. Unfortunately, I never felt very welcome by the parishioners and I certainly didn’t feel close to God. I stopped going to church completely when I was a teenager. It’s sad to say that after that point, I didn’t really have a place for God in my life, unless of course I was praying to pass a college exam or for money to pay rent.

About a year and a half ago, I fell on some pretty hard times. I had been in a bad relationship which ended in an even worse break up. I was forced to move out on my own even though I wasn’t financially stable. I was under a great deal of stress and became horribly depressed. I tried everything from self help books to counseling to pick myself up. Nothing worked. I realized the only other option I had was to give church another try. Even though I was nervous and overwhelmed, I began a search for local churches online. Nothing stuck out to me. Oddly enough, a friend, who is not even a churchgoer herself, suggested I try a place that met at a high school in her mom’s neighborhood. She had heard it was a different kind of church and certainly not like the stuffy churches I knew as a child.

Knowing all of this, I was still completely terrified when I walked into the auditorium on Easter Sunday. Yet, all the fear and worry I had was completely alleviated when the service began. It must have been a combination of the hip music and the down to earth message that put me completely at ease. I can remember feeling the presence of God in that place, a very powerful force that seemed to fill the room. A force that I never recalled feeling at any church I attended as a child. I left church that day completely elated and the best part was as I drove home, that “God” feeling I felt in church came with me. It was as if God himself was sitting in the car right next me. Luckily, now I know I can come back to church every Sunday, pick up my Bible, or pray and I’ll be able to feel that presence again. I’ve realized that with God, I can get through anything that comes my way and I never have to feel as hopeless and depressed as I once did again. I’m so thankful that God led me to Forefront. It’s truly a wonderful notion that God creates places like that for even the worst of the church phobics or nonbelievers.

- Summer Thompson

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Quote This

Are you like me? Do you like the good quotes? If not, go find something else to do. If so, read on, my friend, read on...

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around."
- Leo Buscaglia


Or, another great quote: "Me want food!"

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More from the Bar

Last night we had our second service at the bar. We had 3 less people than the prior Tuesday. However, there were less of "our" people there (regular Forefront attenders) so there were actually more "outsiders" there. The service went awesome.

The first week my highlights were: (1) During the message, some guy at the bar yelled "Bullsh*t!" There is some debate about whether he was saying it to me or not. Immediately after, someone yelled, "Shut up!" which most people think was directed at the B.S. guy, not at me. Either way, the owner of the bar grabbed the B.S. guy, put him in a headlock, and escorted him out. I have been preaching for about twelve years, and I've had all kinds of reactions to my sermons, good and bad, but never has anyone had to be put in a headlock and carried out of the room. That is too sweet! (2) After the service this kind of big, kind of tough looking guy came up to me. I realized he had tears in his eyes. He said, "Hey man, thanks for teaching me about forgiveness." Okay, that was seriously awesome.

So check this out: Last night (week two) immediately after the service I went up to that guy and said, "Thanks for coming back." He said, "No, thank you. I would never go to church on a Sunday morning. This is perfect for me. Thanks for doing this for me." I answered, "No problem, man, I'm glad to be here." So he says, "Can I ask you a question. How much would it cost me for a service?" I was like, "Sorry, what do you mean?" He said, "How much would it cost me to have a service?" Me: "Sorry, I don't get what you mean." Him: "How much would it cost to get the guys to come out?" Me: "Do you mean our band?" Him: "Yeah." Me: "Ohhhhh, yeah they do play at all kinds of stuff. I don't know how much it would cost. You'd have to ask Joe." Him: "Okay. See, I have a huge back yard, and I throw huge parties. Huge! So I'll buy all the food and all the drinks, and I'd like to have a service." Me: "A service?" Him: "Yeah, I'm going to invite all my friends, and then surprise them with a service. Just like what you guys did tonight. I want the sermon, the videos, the music." Me: "Wait a second. You mean that you want to have a church service in your back yard for your friends?" Him: "Yeah. Just like you did tonight. So, how much would I have to pay?" Me: "Dude, if you invite all your friends over and let us have a church service in your back yard, you definitely don't have to pay!" Him: "Really?!?" Me: "Really!" Him: "Welllll, then, I'll have you picked up in a limosine." Me: "Uhhh, no, that's okay, I have a car." Him: "So you'd come out and do church for my friends for free?" Me: "Yes!" Him: "Wow! Okay, then you can count on it! We'll do it on a Friday night."

How cool is that?!? This guy is not a Christian, and is going to surprise all his friends with a church service!?! Reminds me of a party some guy named Matthew threw in the Bible...

By the way, if anyone reading this has a bunch of non-Christian friends and wants us to come and do church for them in your back yard, we'll do it for free. (But if you live more than 60 miles from my house, send the limo.)

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Ideas 4 Church Planters

Hey - I'm assuming that some who are reading this are future church planters. We launched 2 new campuses this week, so I thought I'd share some of what we did to try and make it a "successful" launch. Hopefully you'll be able to steal some of these ideas (in fact, we stole many of them ourselves). So here's a random list of some of what we did:

1. Had our Launch Team(s) meet once, then twice a month. In these meetings we did vision casting, praying, strategizing, honoring, etc.
2. We did several absolutely free car washes in the community. We accepted no donations. We gave each person a free bottle of water with a Forefront label, and a free frisbee that said "Forefront is coming!"
3. We did donut dropoffs. People on the Launch Team chose businesses, and hospital emergency rooms, and schools - and then once a week (or more) dropped off one or two dozen donuts to the employees of that place, with a "Forefront is coming!" sticker on the box. Some people did this with pizza's instead of donuts.
4. We did a bunch of block parties, where we had our Launch Team invite all their neighbors over for a party. Some set up screens and borrowed our projector and showed a movie at night for families. At these block parties some just discreetly tried to have conversations about the new campus. Others made short announcements that they were a part of a new church startup and to see them if you had questions.
5. We handed out water bottles all over the place. We had Forefront labels on them.
6. We sent a series of 3 postcards to 57,000 homes in the vicinity of our new Sunday morning campus. (These cards did NOT land on the days they were supposed to. That really stunk.)
7. We did radio ads on four secular rock stations and ESPN radio for the week before launch, and the week after launch. The ad played about 5 or 6 times per station, per day. (So about 1,000 ads over two weeks.)
8. We had our people put about 15,000 doorhangers on the homes around the vicinity of our Tuesday night campus.
9. We did 240 days of prayer, where each day we had at least one person who "owned" praying for the launch(es) for that day. This person committed to spend as much time as possible praying (fervantly) for the launch(es).
10. We followed those 240 days with 240 hours of prayer, where we had at least one person praying every minute for 10 straight days. We had calendars where people signed up for round-the-clock praying. (Got this idea from Acts 1-2, sort of via Mark Batterson, where the Christians pray "constantly" from Passover-ish to Pentecost (10 days) and then ... Pentecost happens.)
11. We had lots of people fast for the new campus(es), some for up to ten days.

We did more stuff, but that's most of it (and all I can think of right now).

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Pray 4 Us - New Campus Launch

Sorry to keep asking for prayer but ... Sunday is the grand opening of our new Forefront campus in Chesapeake. Seems like almost everything that can go wrong has. We have had repeated problems with the equipment we purchased; it has been an absolute nightmare. Also, we were supposed to have a postcard "drop" in 87,000 homes on Tuesday, and then another card "drop" in those same homes on Thursday. Well, instead, it's now Friday and almost no one has received any cards. And the few people who have received a card, received the second one in the sequence, not the first.

So, the odds are stacked against us ... but that will just make it more obvious when amazing things happen that it was God, not us.

So please pray that God does amazing things this Sunday and that He receives all the glory.

Thank you!!


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News Story on the Bar Service

Hey all who are following our service in a bar journey ...

There were two news groups there last night. Here is the story one of them did on us:

http://www.hamptonroads.tv/index.cfm?locvid=133836&tid=r700&fv=1

(Remember, the camera adds five pounds.)


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Report on First Real Bar Service

Last night was incredible!

We had our first "official" service in the bar. About ten minutes before it started it was still pretty empty and most of the people who were there were Forefronters. Then people started pouring in - and most of them were people we had never seen. It was absolutely packed. Every chair was taken, and about 20 people had to stand ... and did so throughout the entire service. Crazy!

People were totally into it. They loved the music. You could have heard a pin drop during the sermon. (Actually right towards the beginning of the message two guys were talking at the bar and one said, pretty loudly, to the other, "Bullsh*t!" - which is something I'm not used to hearing while I'm preaching. The cool thing is that several people around him, including the owner, were like, "Sshhhhh," "Shut up!")

Afterwards people surrounded me to say, "Thank you for doing this!" and "I'll be back next week with friends!" One big, tough looking guy had tears in his eyes and said, "Thank you for teaching me about forgiveness." One lady went to our "Welcome Table" and asked for one of the free bibles we provide, when she received it she turned to her friend and said, "This is the first time I've ever touched a bible." -- Awesome!

The other crazy thing that happened was that about 40 minutes before the service two different news camera crews showed up. Joe (our worship leader and campus pastor for this location) and I spent the half hour before the service doing interviews. Then the cameras were moving around all during the service and pulling people out of the service for interviews.

Thank you to everyone who prayed - your prayers were powerful and effective! If you'd like to keep praying for us, this Sunday we have the Grand Opening of our brand new Chesapeake campus......



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Going All the Way

Craig Groeschel had a new book come out today! If you don't know him (or of him) he is an amazing leader at one of the most effective, dynamic churches in the world (lifechurch.tv). More importantly, he's a great guy. We first met almost ten years ago before he was famous and I was ... well, the same as I am now (not famous!).


Anyway, his book is on marriage - and I realize we all have perfect marriages and no need of help in that department - but I would encourage you to get it anyway. Check out:
http://swerve.lifechurch.tv/

Later, and until then ... you had me at hello.

More Pictures from Bar Service

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Pictures from Bar Service

Some of you have asked for pictures from what we're doing on Tuesday nights at the White Horse Pub. These are from the practice service we had last week...

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In a Bar?

I thought with what we’ve been talking about lately, this would be a good time to address the question, “Vince, why does one of your church campuses meet in a bar?” (In case you don’t know, one of our church campuses meets in a bar. We have a service there on Tuesday nights. The bar is open for business when we meet. The service is basically identical to our Sunday morning service. So, yes, we sing songs, preach a sermon, offer communion, take an offering.)

So why in a bar? Well, thinking back on last week … if you wanted to fish for sharks, where should you fish? You can go to the place where fish are, and hope some sharks are in the area. Another option is to hang out in your swimming pool and send postcards to the sharks inviting them to come for a visit. But I’m guessing the most effective place to fish for sharks is where the sharks are. And that’s why we meet in a bar.

Ironically we’ve had a few Christians who go to bars complain, saying it's okay for them to go hang out in a bar, but it's not okay for us to have "church" in a bar. I barely think that deserves a response, but briefly I would say that I’m pretty sure the New Testament teaches that wherever a Christian goes, he or she has brought God there, whether someone calls it “church” or not.

Other Christians complain, and these are the types who would never set foot in a bar. I understand their feeling cautious, and probably some of them shouldn't go in a bar. But saying that no Christian can, that's a bit extreme. Especially since Jesus hung out in drinking places with drinking people (to the extent that people accused him of being a drunkard).

By the way, I get to talk to a lot of future church planters and most would prefer to meet in a school to a movie theater. And I’ve heard some planters who meet in a theater but wish they could meet in a school. Let me just say this: That’s crazy. Our church has spent years in a theater and years in a school. And if you’re trying to reach lost people a theater is a better option hands down. Why? Because lost people hang out in movie theaters, they like theaters, they go to theaters. If you meet in one, you are going to them, meeting on their territory. That’s a very good thing. On the other hand, who graduates from High School and thinks, “I hope somehow I get a chance to go back. I just loved going to school so much, I can’t imagine not getting to hang out in a school building again”?

Sure, there are some challenges meeting in a movie theater, but they’re not nearly as significant as the challenge of meeting in a school, which is that lost people don’t want to go there.

So that’s it. I'm going to add another two posts that show pictures from our practice service in the bar. If you've got a minute, pray for the service we're having in the bar tonight. It's our first "official" service there. See ya next time.

And until then, get a theme song – you need one.


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I Heard It On the Radio....

Tomorrow night is our first "official" service at the White Horse Pub, and this Sunday morning is the Grand Opening of our Chesapeake campus. To let people know, we're doing radio ads on five stations. (If you're local, the stations are 96X, 100.5MAX, 94.9The Point, 106.1ENERGY, and 1310ESPN).

We haven't done radio ads in two years, but before that we used them several weeks a year for about six years. I've heard a lot of stories from churches about how radio ads didn't work for them, but they have for us.

We had a couple factors going against us this time as far as the quality of the ads, so I'm not thrilled with them. But, if you want to hear them, here are the two that will rotate throughout the next two weeks:

Radio Ad #1- Leslie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKdCUYcEmag

Radio Ad #2- Monkey http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS-1Tffcqbg


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