Shock Jock?

Some guy reviewed my new book Guerrilla Lovers. It's an almost all positive and (I'd say) fair review. But the funniest thing is that he called me a "shock jock." I don't even know what to think of that...

If you want to check out the review you can do so here.

The Week In Brief(s) (3/30/10)

Every Sunday I'm sharing a recap on some of what happened that week. It will be quick (in brief) and I'll write in my underwear (in briefs). Here ya go:

All kinds of cool stuff going on this week at Verve...

We did our first food distribution of the food co-op we've started. Such a cool way to serve our community during tough financial times.

We were able to donate stuff to another new church here in Vegas. How fun is that. We had so many churches that were so generous with us, that we were able to pass on a little of the excess - and it was really good stuff!

The signs finally went up on our building. Look for the red V when you're driving on the 15 or just south of the Strip on Las Vegas Blvd!

We had our third week of services. What almost always happens with new churches is that however many people you have at your first service, you'll go down to about half that number by your second or third week. Well, our total attendance has been: Week One: 277. Week Two: 257. Week Three: 272.

Don't get the wrong idea, I'm not all about the numbers, I'm all about individual people who need to experience God's life-changing unconditional love. But our numbers are just a cool sign of what God is doing at Verve and how people are responding. Can't wait to see what happens next.

Vince Recommends...

Cream Soda.

Let me tell you a story that may just change your life. When my wife and I met and started dating I would occasionally get a Cream Soda and ask her if she's like a sip. She would exclaim, with some disgust, that she hated Cream Soda.

After some years of this I again offered Cream Soda and she denied me again. But this time I asked. I asked, "Jen ... have you ever tried Cream Soda?" She thought for a second and then admitted that she never had. I basically forced her to try it and upon doing so she exclaimed, with some shock, that she loved Cream Soda.

So I must ask you: Have you tried Cream Soda?

Food Distribution

When we moved to Vegas we decided to do all we could to make a difference, and that led us to start not only a church, but also a community service organization called The Verve Foundation.

One of the projects we are launching out of the Foundation is the Las Vegas Food Co-Op, where we'll be able to provide food (fresh food, the same food you'd get in a grocery store) for about half the price you'd pay retail. It's going to be a cool way to help people hurt by the economy.

Well, today is our first food distribution! We've found that people are a little slow to understand the concept and not completely trusting about it, so it's starting kind of small, but we're hoping to see steady growth as people catch on and see that there's no catch to it.

Spring Training

My son and I are huge baseball fans, and die hard L.A. Dodgers fans. I've been since I ... well, was old enough to be a fan.

So we are spending two days at the Dodger's Spring Training. We're gonna see two games (they are CHEAP) and watch them practice and you can actually get close to and talk to the players. It is going to be fun.

This Weekend @ Verve

So, first let me establish, "weekend" for me (and many people in Las Vegas) now means Sunday and Monday. Deal with it.

And I'm psyched for this weekend at Verve. It's our third, and we're going to finish off our initial series, Church For People Who Don't Like Church by talking about ... BORED.

Some people don't like church, and stay away from God, because they're afraid of being bored. Well, I promise you won't be bored at Verve this week AND we'll talk about how when we truly follow Jesus it actually leads us from boredom to an adventure.

So I'll see you there!

Different Kind Of Pictures

So earlier I shared a few shots of inside our building, and you can see that it looks pretty nice. But ... maybe some of you who are following us from afar are thinking, "They probably moved into a nice upper middle class neighborhood like most churches." Not so much. In fact, check out these two pictures.

The first is taken about 30 yards from our building. In Vegas there are newspaper stands everywhere with catalogs of girls you can get "Direct to your room in 20 minutes." I counted, there are about 75 of these stands within 4/10th of a mile of our building.

The second was taken in our building. You'll notice the cig butt on the ground. Do we allow smoking in the building? No. How did it get there? Good question. In the background you'll see the nice street signs we bought and now ... on two of them ... a gang spray painted their gang symbol. I just want to know if that gang is going to reimburse me for the cost of those two signs?

Pictures of the Venue

For those who have been following us from afar and haven't been able to see our building...

We hired Church Solutions Group to help manage our project and to do the design and interior, and they were great. They worked hard, kept our expenses down, everything we could ask. I totally recommend them.

Recently on their blog they put up some pictures of our space. So ... Here are some before/work getting done pictures. And here are some of the (almost) finished product pictures from our opening day.

Video of Opening

One of my friends was in town for the Grand Opening of Verve last week and put together a little highlight video. If you're interested, here ya go:

The Week In Brief(s) (3/22/10)

Each week I've been sharing a recap on some of what happened that week. It's quick (in brief) and I write in my underwear (in briefs). Here ya go:

Week two went really well. We had lots of people come back, and a bunch of new people. We even heard from some of the people who didn't return, telling us they couldn't make it but were planning on coming back soon.

I thought the service went well. Band was rocking, a really fun creative element, and the guy who spoke was totally sexy.

We talked about being broken, and what God does with our brokenness. Lots of people in tears but leaving feeling encouraged.

We don't count anyone we know is from out-of-town, and we don't count any of our people twice (even if they come to two services). So, not counting any of those people, I think we had 247 people.

The only reason that number matters is because it represents individual people. People who have never gone to church, or who long ago left church behind, and who have come and felt comfortable and are taking a step towards God. And that is very cool.

Vince Recommends...

Thought I would start a new regular feature on the blog called ... "Vince Recommends." Why? Because I know you sit at home daring to hope that I would share my opinions with you. Dreaming and praying that maybe, just maybe, you could find out something I think about, well, something. Well, dreams really do come true.

Today's recommendation? It's for Vegas locals only, and it's the Rio Buffet. Why? Well, it's got lots and lots of food, tons of variety, killer Prime Rib, and ... it's half price for locals! $12 for dinner!! I don't think that applies on weekends.

So ... get yourself to the Rio Buffet.

Second Sunday of Verve

I will give more detail after tomorrow night's service, but this morning we had our second ever Sunday morning at Verve. We're still getting used to our new facility, and to working together as a team to pull off the service, but I think it went really well.

We had a bunch of new people, most of them filled out connection cards, and a bunch of them had very positive things to say. We talked about being broken, and several people left in tears.

God is starting something really cool in the heart of Las Vegas.....

PRO-fessional

So ... drum roll please ... I, for the first time, got paid for doing stand-up. I've been in a "real" comedy show for several months now, but hadn't gotten paid. So on Thursday night I got back paid, and I got paid for that night.

We get a percentage of the profits. The issue is that almost everyone who comes gets comped. So how much was my pay? Well, I could buy any extra value meal on the McDonald's menu. And then ... I wouldn't have enough money to buy you an extra value meal. Yup, I'm rich.

Oh Canada

Radio interview about Guerrilla Lovers with a station in Edmonton, Canada this morning at 6 a.m.

My plan of attack:

1. Say "Eh" a lot.
2. Mention Wayne Gretzky.
3. Eat Canadian bacon during the interview.
4. Try not to make fun of mounted police.
5. Say "Eh" some more.
6. End with a medley of Brian Adams songs.

That, my friends, will sell lots and lots of books.

Guerrilla Review

Received this e-mail today about my new book from a guy named Greg, very cool:

Vince,

Got the book in the mail yesterday from Amazon. Finished reading the book today at lunch. I can't recall a more challenging, inspiring, honest (and funny) book.

I am ready to jump...and will lead our small, but growing church, to jump as well. As I turned the pages of Guerrilla Lovers, God's whisper became a shout.

Greg

What's Guerrilla?

There’s a twelve-year-old named Jacob who has been coming to the church I started in Virginia Beach most of his young life. One chilly November morning Jacob left his house to walk to the bus stop. As he walked up something stopped him. It was a rock. The kids at the bus stop were throwing rocks at him. They were also shouting. “You’re fat.” “Go home you faggot!” “Don’t cry, you fat faggot!” Jacob ran home, blinded with rage and shame, tasting the salt of his tears. His mother was surprised to see him, but after learning what happened, told Jacob she would drive him to school. Jacob knew the same bullies would be at school and begged to stay home, but his mother insisted he go.

That night the rest of his family heard about what happened. His older brother said, “Tomorrow morning we’re gonna go there together and beat those kids up.” His parents discussed calling the bully’s parents.

But Jacob had a different idea.

He explained that he wanted to invite the kid who had been most abusive to sleep over on Saturday night and go with the family to church on Sunday. His parents were flabbergasted. They asked, “Jacob, why would you want to do that? I mean, after what he did to you?”

You know why? Jacob had learned about being a guerrilla lover. Jacob was a guerrilla lover.

And the next day Jacob invited his attacker to sleep over and come to church with his family. Surprisingly, he said yes. That Saturday night he slept over, that Sunday he came to church, and he’s been going to church with Jacob every Sunday since.

That’s guerrilla.

Crazy Stuff

So ...

Been hearing all kinds of great feedback on this past weekend from all kinds of places.

The other night went to meet with one of the managers of the Hard Rock Cafe because they're interested in having us maybe do something there...

The E! Network is interviewing me next Wednesday. They're interviewing me about our church. The story their doing isn't about us, but we may be included in it.

Like the title says ... crazy stuff.

Vivalaverve, Take One

So our first "weekend" of Verve gatherings is complete. I know a lot of people around the country who have been supporting us in all kinds of ways are wondering what happened, so here's a review:

1. Overall, I thought things went awesome.
2. Our building barely got done on time, which was stressful, but it looks great.
3. All of our creative elements came together and, I thought, were very cool.
4. Our band rocked. In fact, last night we went over (at the invitation of a manager) to the Hard Rock because they are showing interest in booking our band. (I'm not kidding. Sunday was only, I think, the sixth time they had played together, but after hearing them the Hard Rock is talking about maybe having them play. Wild.)
5. I thought the message was clear: No matter who you are, no matter where you've been, no matter what you've done, God loves you with a perfect love.
6. For people new to church, there was probably a whole lot of Jesus in the message - I just counted, I said "Jesus" at least 41 times. Hard not to talk about someone who loves you that much, and who has changed my life so dramatically.
7. We didn't count people from out-of-town (and there were a lot). We also didn't count the adult volunteers in our Children's Ministry (figuring they would obviously all come to one of the adult services, and we didn't want to count anyone twice). We tried not to count anyone twice - so, for instance, people like me who were at all the services were only counted once . So our attendance number should be a pretty accurate count not of how many people were there, but of how many people were there who might actually come back next week.
8. The total number was 277.
9. A cool thing is that we designed it to be a "Grand Opening Month" rather than a "Grand Opening Day." So instead of doing all our advertising before the first Sunday, we have spread it out from March 8 to April 3. So we're assuming we may get almost as many new people the next few weeks as we did this week.
10. I was surprised that we received 67 Connection Cards on Sunday morning. (Still haven't heard about Monday night.) Those 67 cards probably represented about 140 people. I assume that someone who fills out a Connection Card at the end of the service enjoyed the service, and is planning on coming back.
11. A bigger surprise is that a bunch of new people left not only telling us they'd be back, but saying they'd bring their friends with them, and even asking for invite cards to give out.
12. Maybe the best thing were the comments we received. TONS of people were raving about their experience. "I didn't know church could be like this." "I've been waiting for this my entire life." "Is it really gonna be like this every Sunday?" Several people left in tears. (Good, not bad, tears!) And I've received some amazing e-mails from people who felt like their one experience has already begun to change their lives.

So ... one weekend down, couple thousand to go. Thanks, so much, to everyone for all the support you've given us and helping to make this dream a reality. Vivalaverve.

1st Annual Verve Bracket Challenge

Just for fun, we're doing the 1st Annual Verve Bracket Challenge. So if you think you can pick the NCAA Tournament with the big boys...

1. Go to espn.com.

2. Click on the Tournament Bracket Challenge bar.

3. Click "Create Entry".

4. Set up a profile if you don't already have one.

5. Make your picks.

6. Click "Create or Join a Group".

7. Type "vivalaverve" (which is our group name) into the search box.

8. Click on the "vivalaverve" link.

9. Enter our password: "StrippingChurch" and click "Join this group".

10. Prepare to lose to me.

Monday, Monday

Because we have our Monday night gathering tonight, I'm going to wait till late or tomorrow morning to give a full fledged update on how things went for the "Grand Opening" of Verve.

I will tell you:

- Yesterday went great. Lots of fun.

- We got our building "done" (it's still not quite done) at 4:30 in the morning on Sunday, like 5 hours before people started showing up. That wasn't due to poor planning on our part, but because of delays from the county on permits we needed to get certain projects going.

- Our signs for the building didn't get done on time, again (oddly) some kind of permit issue, so we had to just throw banners up on the building. Disappointing, but oh well.

- What else is disappointing is that my team - the University of Illinois Fighting Illini - didn't make the tournament. What up? All we did was beat Michigan St., and Vanderbilt, and Wisconsin, twice.

The Week In Brief(s) (3/14/10)

Every Sunday I'm sharing a recap on some of what's happening with our efforts here in Vegas. It's quick (in brief) and I write in my underwear (in briefs). Here ya go:

I'm going to wait till Monday night or Tuesday to give you an update, so I can let you know how our grand opening services on Sunday AND Monday went. Thanks!

The Venue?

Twelve years ago I started a church in Virginia Beach and we had our services in a movie theater. We planned to do the same here but when we decided to do services on Sunday mornings AND Monday evenings, the cost to rent two places a week grew. With the economy there are a ton of empty buildings here in Vegas. So we started investigating and found a warehouse we could rent for a great price, just south of the Strip.

Suddenly we realized we were going to have our own (10,680 sq ft) space. And we thought, "It would be kind of greedy to keep it to ourselves. And dumb for it to sit open when we're not using it." So we have designed our building to be used by the community. For what? Concerts, comedy shows, AA meetings, family movie nights, corporate events, art shows, you name it. We're running it as a non-profit, and so will only charge minimal fees to help cover our costs.

Interested in using it? Then check out www.TheVenueVegas.com.

Creating Movement ... From Nothing

Awhile back I was at an event where they had people trying to pull a truck. Guys would pull with all their might, it might budge an inch or two, then they would stop pulling quite so hard for a second, and the truck would roll right back into it's original spot. It took not only incredible strength, but also non-stop pulling.

That is a great image of what it's like to start a church. When you lead a church that already exists it has some momentum going for it - a building, people, programs. When you plant a church, there is no momentum. You have to create it.  And if you're not constantly pushing it forward, it will settle back to it's original spot - basically nothing.

A year ago this week we launched a new church called Verve, and it's been constant pulling and pushing ever since...

Want to learn about church planting, especially how to start a church for people who don't like church? Then come to our next Vault Church Planting Lab.

Verve Launch Update

For those supporting us around the country and wondering what's happening here with Verve ... things are crazy.

- In the next days we're putting the finishing touches on our building.
- We have about 40 friends from around the country here to help us this weekend.
- We are doing all sorts of advertising to invite the community to check us out.
- We were contacted by Las Vegas City Life, who want to do a story on us.
- We are buying stuff like crazy for opening day.
- In fact, we don't have a church credit card, so we're using my credit card, and it was shut down for fraudulent use! We've had it put back on, I guess they're just not used to us buying diapers and cribs and trash cans and lumber and ..., and ..., and ...

So it's crazy, but it's fun. And we're excited to see how it all comes together this Sunday morning and Monday evening.

A Church? For the Strip?

I mentioned a couple days ago that we are starting a church for people who don't like church. One of the other unusual things is that it's a church specifically for people who work on and live around the Strip.

There are some good churches in Las Vegas (mostly for people who do like church) but they are basically all out in the suburbs. On and around the Strip there is almost nothing. So we decided there should be something, and we're calling it Verve, and it starts this Sunday.

Originally the idea was that we'd be in the middle of the Strip, but people who worked on the Strip made it obvious that we should be close to but not on the Strip. And so we will be meeting at 7850 S. Dean Martin Drive, facing the Strip and the 15, and about 2 miles south of Mandalay Bay.

Being a church for people who work on the Strip also meant we needed a non-Sunday morning option, as so many work weekends. That's why we're offering services not only at 10:05 and 11:35 on Sundays, but also at 7:05 on Monday evenings.

If you're here in Vegas, and you don't like church, show up and check us out.

A Star Is Born

Earlier I shared about the Food Co-Op we are starting through our Verve Foundation.

Well, we had a "release party" for the Food Co-Op a few weeks ago, and it has gotten a little press. Check this out.

But There's Nothing In It For You

We moved to Vegas a year ago, and proceeded to do a "needs assessment survey" interviewing hundreds of people to learn of the needs in the community that were not being met.

One idea that kept coming up was that due to the economy there are a lot of people struggling to make ends meet, but who aren't quite poor enough qualify for most forms of assistance. Many community leaders were asking how these people could be helped so they could feed their kids and not lose their homes.

This led us to create the Las Vegas Food Co-op. The idea is that by cutting out the grocer and getting (fresh!) food straight from distributors, we are able to provide $100 worth of groceries (to anyone!) for about $40. It will take a massive volunteer effort, but it will be worth it.

My wife was explaining all this to a co-worker recently and he was baffled as to why we'd do this, saying, "But there's nothing in it for you." And that may be true. But can you imagine a world where people put others first and worked to improve their communities? How good would that be? And if that would create a better world, why don't we just start living that way?

A Church? For People Who Don't Like Church?

I did not grow up going to church ... at all. Since becoming a Christian I've learned that there are a lot people who believe in God, want a spiritual dimension to their lives, are even open to the idea of Jesus ... they just don't like church.

Maybe it's because they've never gone to church and so feel like they couldn't relate. Or it might be that they have been to church and were turned off, or just felt like it wasn't for them.

That's why one of the things we've decided to do in Vegas is start a church ... for people who don't like church. For people who are kind of open to God, Jesus, spirituality. For people who think there's got to be more to life. For people who are seeking and searching. For people who need something authentic. For people who want something better for their kids.

Those are the people who will like Verve. Because it's church ... for people who don't like church.

You Moved to Vegas?

About a year ago my family moved to Las Vegas. The idea was to live and learn, and then serve and make a difference. The wild thing is that we ended up having about 20 people who decided to move here and be a part of what we're doing. (Crazy!)

Well, after a year of lots of living and learning and a little serving and making a difference, there's about to be a shift. Starting now there will be lots of serving and making a difference. This week I'm gonna share some of the things we've learned, and ways we'll be serving.

The Week In Brief(s) (3/7/10)

Every Sunday I'm sharing a recap on some of what's happening with our efforts here in Vegas. It's quick (in brief) and I write in my underwear (in briefs). Here ya go:

Things are CRAZY here. We are only 7 days from our first "Grand Opening" Sunday, and construction continues on our building. Yikes! We're hoping to have our final inspection from the county on Tuesday, and then need to have them give us our Certificate of Occupancy before Sunday. Insane! Please pray for that!

We are going to try to put 120,000 door hangers on homes in the next couple weeks, inviting our community to come and check us out. Did 10,000 last week, and hope to do at least 22,000 this week. We also start radio and Facebook ads tomorrow. We know there are a ton of people who think they could never like church, who WILL like Verve, and we're hoping they'll come see for themselves.

We are about to launch our Food Co-Op, and introduce our building (which we're calling "The Venue") as a facility that can be used by the community for all kinds of events (concerts, comedy shows, family movie nights, corporate events, etc.).

We have about 45 friends from around the country coming in this week to help us prepare for and pull off our first Grand Opening weekend. We so appreciate everyone who have helped us pull this off. It's been a massive effort, and we never could have pulled it off without so many people coming together to help and resource us.

Last Comic Not Auditioning

Last night, for the first time, I was the emcee of the stand-up comedy show I'm in. As the emcee you go up first, do a couple minutes to get the crowd going, then introduce the first comedian. Then you go back up and do another minute of comedy before you introduce all the other comedians in the show.

This Saturday there are auditions for Last Comic Standing in L.A. I would LOVE to try out. I don't think I'd make it, but the experience would be so much fun. Unfortunately I can't go as we I've got way too much going on. Oh well. Maybe next year.

Guerrilla Lovers .COM

Have you checked out the web site for my new book? At www.guerrillalovers.com you'll find a guerrilla lover podcast, and all kinds of materials for churches that want to do a guerrilla lover series.

And check this: Starting April 5th there will be weekly guerrilla lover assignments on video. You'll be given a specific challenge to go out and ambush someone with love. And then you'll be able to come back and share about your experience on the community blog on the site.

Re-Inventing

So I've been doing this blog for ... I don't know ... maybe 3 years? And I've had I think two times in the past where I kind of reinvented it. Slightly altered the "target audience" and the themes I was covering. Like one time was when I moved to Vegas. I decided to use this blog primarily as a way to give updates on what we're doing - for supporters and for other church planters who were interested.

Well, it's re-inventing time again. The church is about to launch, and I think the best thing I can do with this is aim it a little more at people here in Vegas and who are coming to Verve.

Obviously anyone and everyone are still invited to read it, but you'll notice a little shift. Some updates, but less, and more of me trying to interact with people who are interested in Verve.

When I re-invent the blog I clear out the history. I've been told emphatically by people in the blog world that I'm an idiot for doing this and that it will totally hurt the amount of readers I have and my getting new readers, because I've wiped out all the links through which they'll find the blog. Oh well. I'm not in this for numbers. I don't even have a counter to tell me how many people read this, so I guess ignorance is bliss...

Okay, so there's your explanation, thanks for reading and supporting us. I appreciate all of you!

Our church meets in a warehouse space, and a year ago we were renovating it to make it a home for our church services. There's a big blank wall we wanted to have painted in a cool way. We started searching for a local graffiti artist and one day I got an excited call from an member of our little core group. She's an aerialist in a Cirque show. "I think I found one!" she exclaimed. "I asked around the show and heard about a graffiti artist. I called, and he's willing to do the wall, for free!"
     "That's awesome!" I told her.
     "There's only one problem," she hesitated. "He's colorblind."
     "Colorblind?"
     "Yes, colorblind. But he brings his brother with him to tell him what colors he's using."

So I gave the guy a call. It started weird, then got weirder. The guy, or I think more appropriately I should call him the "dude" said, "Here's my deal: I'll show up with a smile on my face, joy in my heart, and a guitar on my back. And if I'm not welcome with you, I will leave in peace."

     I didn't know what to say.

So the day arrived to meet with the dude. He and his brother pulled up and got out of their car. It looked they had stolen their clothes off of passed out bodies at Woodstock. The dude did, indeed, have a guitar. And a cake. His brother carried in bongos. They walked in, bowed to us, and sat on the ground. The dude explained he had recently become enlightened and sat on the ground to be closer to the earth. And that he worked in a bakery and brought a cake as a peace offering. And that his father wouldn't allow him to paint for free. He wasn't sure, he had to check with the spirits and his daddy, but he promised he wouldn't charge us more than a couple thousand dollars. Apparently the spirits were capitalists.

I informed him that I didn't have a couple thousand dollars. I had a couple hundred dollars. Could the joy in his heart and the smile on his face, not to mention his father, allow him to consider doing it for that much? I was going to offer to pay him in cash, thinking the green of the money might tempt him. But then I remembered... yeah... colorblind.

Just FYI: We didn't end up using the colorblind graffiti artist. But the cake was delicious.