VERVE Happs

About five times this year I will be out-of-town speaking at some of our supporting churches, and therefore miss Verve's services on Sunday (and maybe Monday). This was one of those weeks, as I was in Savannah on Sunday morning.

I'll tell you what, it is such a cool thing to be able to gone (especially with our church being so new) and know that everything is going to be great. God has given us a lot of really quality people early on, and I think Robb is actually a better speaker than me. (But I hope no one notices.)

Not only is it cool that I can be gone, it's also healthy. Not for me (though that may also be true), but for Verve. So many churches are built on a person/ality, rather than on Jesus. The problem is that a person can die, quit, screw up, but Jesus will never die, quit, or screw up. A person is a poor foundation, Jesus is a great one.

So, even though I hate being gone, and maybe someone misses me, it's a really good thing for Verve. And I'm grateful for the people at Verve who make it possible.

Vince Recommends...

Each week I'm serving as your Life Coach (free of charge!) and explaining to you how you should be living your life. Like just admit it, things have been going way better for you since you started drinking Cream Soda at my recommendation...

So this week I'd like to encourage you to ... go to a Third World country. You don't necessarily have to do it this week, but as soon as you can. Why? Because it will change your view of just about everything.

The first time I did this was 2002 when I went to Laos. Never before had I truly realized that people live in one-room shacks, or that ten or twelve people might all live in one, none having a bed to sleep on. Never before did I realize that people eat the beak of the chicken. And never before had I seen so many dogs having sex. It's all over the streets, it's like a dog version of Studio 54, circa 1978, as dogs do it publicly and with no shame.

But seriously, never before did I realize how well I have it, and how much I have to be thankful for, and how I really need to practice generosity. So get yourself to a Third World country.

You're welcome.

Yo Church Planters

Received a bunch of e-mails from church planters interested in the roundtable/bootcamp type thing we're planning on doing in the Fall. When we know more - will probably be a few weeks - I'll e-mail you all back, and give an update on this blog.

I'm out.

This Is America?

I'm loving watching the World Cup, but I have one concern. Why are there American fans dressed as Elvis, and Uncle Sam, and astronauts? And not a couple, there are lots of them!

Seriously, this is the bizarre stereotype we want to show the world?

Why?!?

One Year Ago Today

It was a year ago today that Michael Jackson died. I have quite a long history with the King of Pop.

Before his death I was in the editing process on my last book, which opens with a goofy description of the year 1988. I had put in a joke about Michael, which my editor asked me to remove. I said no, he said yes, I said no, he insisted, I cried, he laughed at me, and the joke was ultimately left out. It's never been seen. Want to see it? Mmmmmm, okay, here it is: "1988, when Michael Jackson was no longer a black man, but not yet a white woman."

Then last year when he died I blogged something (can't remember what it was now) about him that was sort of funny and some guy left a comment basically threatening to kill me. (By the way, that kind of thing is why I don't allow comments anymore. I barely have time to do a blog; I don't have time to deal with jerky comments.) (And free speech isn't that high of a value to me I guess.)

Anyway, one year later, if I could go back, would I make the funny comment again? Yup. In fact, if I could remember what it was, I'd put it here right now.

this weekend @ VERVE

We are continuing (almost done now) with our series The Jesus You Never Knew and Sunday morning and Monday night we'll be looking at a pretty famous story from the Bible, but in a way you've never looked at it (even if you have looked at it).

On Sunday morning at 11:35 we are having ... the Verve Stupid Human Trick & Karaoke Party. Sweetness! And Ververs, we need you singing and doing your stupid human tricks! If you're thinking, "No way, I can't sing" then you're perfect! Great singers are boring. We want you! And if you can do anything weird or fun, come ready to do that stupid human trick, we'll love it!

Big Games!

USA rocked it yesterday in the World Cup, nearly causing me cardiac arrest. This morning the Azzuri play, go Italia!

By the way, I was talking to a (teenage) girl the other day and she asked me who, other than America, I root for in the World Cup, and I said, "Italy!" and she said, "Yeah, Italian guys are hot." I'm pretty sure she was talking about me. (Cause, you know, I'm hot.)

So I am loving the World Cup, hating the vuvuzelas. Like seriously, can someone destroy the things already?

Heads Up For Church Planters

More to come on this but ... if you are a current or (especially) future church planter: We are planning on having a Church Planter Roundtable/Bootcamp kinda thing this Fall, here in Vegas. September or October. Probably Monday through Wednesday.

And this isn't gonna be a "Here's the 10 Steps to Start a Church" - this is going to be a "How to Start a Church That Actually Does What Jesus Wants It To Do, No Simple Easy Steps, No Cookie-Cutter Model to Follow, No 'Let's Create the Coolest Church in Town So All the Christians From Other Churches Flock To It,' Let's Get Serious and Down and Dirty and Really Talk About How To Do This." (Wow, we may want to shorten the name of this thing.)

If you're interested you can let me know (vince@vivalaverve.org) but we're working out the final details and I'll be sharing it all with you in the next few weeks.

VERVE Happs

Cool weekend at Verve...

Saturday we had a baptism over at my house. The person who got baptized is quickly becoming one of my favorite people at Verve, and I'm not sure if I've ever met anyone more surprised that they now believe in God and have given their lives to Christ. Too cool.

I thought we had a great service as we looked at one of the greatest questions of all time: Do you want to get well?

Robb has been gone, in stinkin' Hawaii! (his in-laws brought his family with them to Hawaii - what is up with that?!!?) and so Mike has been leading the band the last two weeks. This week we also had our bass guitarist out-of-town, but the band still pulled it off. So ... smoke it Robb!

On Sunday we had an Indoor Block Party, with bounce houses, corn hole, tons of food, World Cup game on the big screen - all the important stuff. It was fun.

Vince Recommends...

So you want to live your life with a WWVD bracelet on? (Yes, What Would Vince Do.) And so you want to know, what exactly does Vince do? How does he live his life? What's important to him? Well, here you go...

This week, Vince recommends: ESPN'S 30 For 30. Have you seen any of these? It's a documentary series featuring 30 films from some great film makers. Some aren't quite so great (Straight Outta L.A.) and some are just fascinating (No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson).

So stop watching your soap operas and your TMZ and start watching 30 For 30.

You're welcome.

Antonucci Weekend

My kid's school had "Daddies and Donuts" on Friday. My daughter's teacher told me that the day before the class was talking about the solar system when a girl raised her hand and said, "I believe that the world came into existence all at once, by mistake." My daughter raised her hand and said, "Well, I believe that Someone made the world, and we get to live in it until He returns."

Dang!

Friday night we had friends (the Austins) arrive from Virginia Beach. They were some of the first friends we made when we moved there in 1997, our kids have been best friends, and Barb worked on my staff at our church for ten years. They drove across the country to be with us (that's how great we are!) and it's been awesome to get to spend time with them.

Transparency, Reputation & Guts Trump Slickness

Great post from Seth Godin that so totally applies to churches:

For a long time, the best way to tell if something was professional, high grade and worth a premium was by judging the slickness of the production values.

The Bourne Identity cost more to make than The Toxic Avenger. John Grisham's latest novel was clearly worth more than a self-published typewritten book of poetry. Sergeant Pepper was a more professional album than something from the Skinny Americans, that garage band down the street.

And so, restaurants got slicker, as did business proposals. We looked for cues on websites or in the way a conference was presented and the stage was dressed.

Now of course, there's autotune and ProTools, which can make any band sound like Brittany. There's Kinko's and Moo cards and plenty of people who will sell you gloss for not so much money.

So I guess instead of slick we're now seeking transparency and reputation and guts.

Serve! with Steve Sjogren

If you're a Christian who cares about serving your community you've probably heard of Steve Sjogren. He became well known as the pastor of the Vineyard Church in Cincinnati, which took serving their community to levels few churches had ever even thought of. For pastors who want their churches to show compassion through acts of service, Steve is kind of a hero.

So ... it was a real honor when he contacted me about a month ago. He had heard about my book, and about the church we're starting here in Vegas, and wanted to know more. We e-mailed back and forth a bunch of times, and eventually Steve asked me to write an article from my book for his online magazine. That article just came out, you can check it out here. Thanks Steve!

U.S.A.!

Up early to watch America beat Slovenia in the World Cup, go U.S.A.! (And someone please destroy the vuvuzelas. I'll pay you!)

Here's the fun part: My daughter is up. As I walked into the kitchen from the living room, she just said, "Daddy, can you do me a big favor, oh, never mind, I need to live by my priorities." I said, "What do you mean?" She said, "I was going to ask you to get me my DS, but I'm not dressed yet, and I need to live by my priorities."

Wow. That girl has good parents!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changing People

Have you ever wanted to change? Strike that, have you had even one day of your life where there wasn't at least something you wanted to change about yourself? We all want to change.

But: Have you ever felt like you couldn't change? Strike that, do you pretty much always feel like you can't change?

Guess what? You're probably right; most likely you can't change.

But there is good news. Jesus is really good at changing people, and that's exactly what we're gonna talk about this weekend at Verve. Don't miss it!

Hey Ververs

We've got a few projects at The Venue tomorrow - setting things up for the indoor block party we're doing this Sunday after service, pouring sand into some new street signs that just came in - pretty easy stuff, but it would help us to have some, well, help.

So if you're not doing anything, we could use you. If you can come in between 10 and 12 that would be awesome. We may have more work to do after noon, but you might want to call first (425 - 3948) to make sure there's more to do before you drive over.

Thanks!

Where We Go

In our message this week I mentioned one of my favorite things about Jesus, which is that He never went where He was supposed to go.

Jesus didn’t hang out in the Christian coffee shops with the good people. No, he went straight into the heart of darkness. He had to, because he was God’s light. And the purpose of light is to illuminate the darkness. In fact, light can only serve its purpose if it’s in the darkness.

So Jesus went into Samaria, where no self-respecting Jew would go because the people there weren’t God’s people. And Jesus befriends a woman who had kind of gotten lost in her life's journey, and Jesus got her found. He helped her find her way home and back into the Father's arms.

And Jesus went into the home of the chief tax collector of Jericho, a man named Zaccheaus. Zaccheaus was the most hated man in town, because the tax collectors were Jews who had sided with the Romans, and who were now extorting money from the Jews. But Jesus befriended Zaccheaus because he had gotten lost, and Jesus got him found. He helped him find his way home and back into the Father's arms.

And Jesus went to Jerusalem where, instead of visiting the synagogue, he went to a pool where the blind, lame and paralyzed hung out. It was a place religious people would never go because the sick were considered cursed by God and to be avoided. But they had gotten lost. And Jesus befriended this guy there and got him found. He helped him find his way home and back into the Father's arms.

And Jesus went to a party at another tax collector’s house, a guy named Matthew. And the religious leaders stood outside and judged Jesus for being there and associating with those people. But they didn’t understand. Those people had gotten lost. And Jesus had to get them found. He had to help them find their way home and back into the Father's arms.

Reading all those stories, I do wonder if Jesus ever had moments where he looked around and thought, “What am I doing here?!” But I don’t think so. Because, as He said, He came to "seek and save the lost." And the place you do that is where the lost people have gotten lost.

Jesus once said, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

That means that we are sent to seek and save the lost. Which is great because we've been there. We've all gotten lost in our life's journey. And so what better thing can we do with our lives than help others get found and find their way home. And the place you do that is where the lost people have gotten lost. So we don’t hang out in Christian coffee shops with the good people. We go straight into the heart of darkness. We have to, because we are God’s light, and we can only serve our purpose if we’re in the darkness. And if we’re going to be people who follow Jesus, we probably need to go pretty far and get quite uncomfortable. In fact, if we never ask, “What am I doing here?” – maybe we’re not truly following Jesus.

Verve Update

Another cool week at Verve. After being out-of-town last weekend, it was great to be back. We're still in our series looking at the stories from Jesus' life in the book of John, chapters 1 thru 6. It's also been cool introducing Tommy, who is our "Church Planter In Residence," to Verve in this series.

So here's the real deal: God is doing amazing things in people's lives at Verve. I'm not sharing their stories, because they are their stories, but it's wild. Seriously. We've only been doing this for three months but already God is changing people's lives, and the fun part is how amazed those people are. These are people who cannot believe that they are attending church, and cannot believe that they are believing in God and saying yes to Jesus. And it is so cool to have a front row seat for this.

To all those who have supported us in prayer and financially, thank you for helping to make Verve happen, and your investment in this is paying big dividends.

Glo?

Anyone out there own the new digital Glo Bible? If so, what do you think? Easy to use? Worth the cost? E-mail me (vince@vivalaverve.org) and let me know...

Vince Recommends...

So lately I've given you some suggestions on entertainment, food, technology. Today? Some life skill advice. And what I recommend is ... not gaining a butt-load of weight.

This is a do as I say, not as I do situation, because I have gained a butt-load of weight. I moved to Vegas overweight, and in my year-and-a-half here have gained maybe 20 pounds. (And yes, I've done the math, and if you add it all up it equals a butt-load.)

So last week I started the crappy process of losing the weight and this, my friends, is why you shouldn't gain a butt-load of weight, because it sucks to have to lose a butt-load of weight. I'll do it, I'm pretty sure, because I'm an over-achiever and tend to accomplish my goals. But the big question will be: Will I then re-gain a butt-load of weight? So, when that time comes, remind me of this post, okay?

(And yes, the real purpose of this post was to see how many times I could say butt-load without it getting ridiculously awkward. And the answer is ... seven.)

Guerrilla Posts

Cool words about Guerrilla Lovers... and more here.

World Cup!!

I am psyched! I LOVE the World Cup and it has begun! And today we're playing England and I can't wait...

USA! USA! USA!

Seriously?!

So someone broke into our building the other day and stole ... our drum shield. Just our drum shield.

Now I hate drum shields. Basically the only place you see them is in churches, which means lame. But, unfortunately, we must have a drum shield because we have an extremely live room. In fact, our band practiced yesterday without one and all you could hear were the drums. So we really need the drum shield.

But now it's gone. Someone got into our building, our church building, and stole our drum shield. Just our drum shield. How ballsy is it to steal from a church, and how stupid is it to only steal a drum shield? It's almost inconceivable except that it actually happened.

Anyone want to buy us a decent drum shield?

Coming Up at Verve

This weekend at Verve we're continuing our new series, The Jesus You Never Knew, and I'll be sharing one of my favorite stories from the Bible. There are so many reasons I love it, and you'll just have to come to find out why. There's a rumor that the band will be playing Use Somebody, by Kings Of Leon - but you know what they say about rumors.

At 11:35 on Sunday we're doing another Community Building event (every Sunday in June!) and this one will be a lot cooler than last week's - where we asked everyone to go out and work in 110 heat. (Sorry!) This week we'll be staying inside, having fun, getting to know people, and maybe even eating popcorn. (Another rumor.) (Again, you know what they say about rumors.)

Wait, what do they say about rumors?

Love Your Neighbor

God has put our church in a warehouse/office complex. And God has told us to love our neighbor. Now our "neighbor" can be anyone in need, but sometimes it's our ... neighbor.

So ... last week our staff invited all the people who work in all the other businesses in our complex over for lunch. We grilled hot dogs, and had chips and cupcakes. Only about a dozen people showed up, but at least we were able to show them a little love.

Then on Sunday we did a community service project after church. Across from our building is a large field which is absolutely filthy. It's also the home to quite a few homeless people. So after our service about 40 Ververs went out (in 110 degree heat!!) and cleaned up the field for about an hour. (And collected a LOT of trash; the picture only shows a little of it.) We may not be able to "cure" homelessness, but we can at least make their "home" a little nicer...

Verve Happs

This was the first weekend of Verve I missed. I hated being gone, but I have to miss a few weekends this year to be out on the road, connecting with the churches that are supporting us financially. Unfortunately, this is just a reality of our situation. What we're doing and want to do in Las Vegas isn't cheap, and the people of Verve aren't paying for it. (One of our services actually had an offering of ... $7. Total! That is not a typo. It is kind of funny, except it means that without outside financial support, we would have to immediately shut down.) This is one of the realities of being church for people who don't like church. People who don't like church don't show up and start giving. (And I don't blame them.)

So I was gone, speaking at Real Life Church in Los Angeles, but things went great at Verve. God has given us a phenomenal teacher in Robb, and we did things a little different with me not being there, and instead of it being a sub-par service because I wasn't there, I think it was probably better.

Last Comic

Did you watch Last Comic Standing tonight? If so, you saw four of the guys from the show I'm in. (The show I'm in has about 12 comedians, with like 5 or 6 performing in each night for ten to twenty minutes each.)

By the way, I am not currently performing in the show because ... we got kicked out of the casino we were in for the show being too raunchy (in Vegas!), and we're looking for a new casino to have the show in, but in the meantime ... the show is happening in an all-nude strip club. I guess it's a better fit, but too much skin for me, so I'm sitting this one out...

Vince Recommends...

Wipeout.

Okay, seriously, if you're not watching Wipeout, what are you doing? And if you've seen it and think you're too good for Wipeout well, you're just too good for me. We probably can't be friends, because holy crap is it fun.

But definitely my favorite part about watching Wipeout is not watching it. It's watching my kids, who laugh hysterically almost from start to finish. I could watch Wipeout for hours just to watch my kids and listen to them laugh.

Field Trips

Remember back when you were in school and you took a class field trip? Where did you go? Maybe the zoo? Or to a museum? We went to ... a field. Well, it was a farm, but what is a farm if not a field with some animals walking around in it. And this made the whole field trip thing make a lot of sense.

Today my son is on a class field trip ... to Disney Land. Does he go to a public school? Yes. Do you have to pay for it? No. In fact, not only is his admission paid for, they give him spending money!

Craziness. And if just feels wrong to me. Like, if it was Disney Field, maybe that would be better...

Wow!

You all should read this post! Talk about guerrilla love?! Talk about inspiring?!

http://donmilleris.com/2010/06/04/bob-goff-turns-the-idea-of-charity-upside-down/

The Bee

My daughter just turned on the TV, and ESPN was the channel it had been on last, and what's on but ... the 2010 National Spelling Bee.

This is some weird stuff.

Everything about it is kind of weird, but this reveals how odd the whole thing gets: Some girl just walked up to the podium, and in introducing her the announcer tells us that of everyone in the world, the person she would most like to meet is ... the kid who won the first ever National Spelling Bee.

Seriously?

Not the President? Not Apollo Ono, Jesus, Bill Gates? Not Miley Cyrus? Nope. The boy who won the first National Spelling Bee. Make sure you get an autograph. (And I bet he'll spell his name right.)

And Don't Miss...

Over the summer Verve is having only one Sunday morning service (at 10:05). We will bring the 11:35 service back on August 22, but until then we are doing a special event every week at 11:35. In July and August we'll have some great classes available.

This Sunday we have a surprise special event planned, that will take about an hour (so you'll be done by 12:30). Here's the one rule: You need to wear closed-toe shoes.

So ... attend either the Sunday at 10:05 or the Monday at 7:05 pm service and, if you can, don't miss the special event at 11:35 on Sunday.

The Verve Service You Never Knew

This week we continue our brand new series "The Jesus You Never Knew" and the service we have planned is different than anything we've done. It's "The Verve Service You Never Knew."

I'm psyched about it.

Sure, we all like some normalcy, some things that we know are coming and feel comfortable to us. But too much normalcy and comfort become boring and too expected. So it's fun that every week at Verve has it's own personality and you never fully know what to expect. And it's cool to once in awhile really change things up.

So don't miss this Sunday morning (10:05) or Monday night (7:05).

Why I Write Books

Received this e-mail a couple days ago:

I am an Anglican ordinand teaching at a Catholic high school for low-income kids in inner city Detroit. My friend works for Baker and thought I would enjoy your title, so she sent me a copy last week. It arrived for me at work and I had it on my desk, not even having a chance to look through it of yet.

One of my students, Orthodox by background but professing to not believe in Jesus or church anymore, saw the book and thought it looked cool. I let her borrow it, not knowing what the content was like...

Every morning she tells me about how great it is. The chapter that talks about TWLOHA moved her in a strong way, as she admitted that she loves TWLOHA (as do I, I share about my involvement with it in class regularly) and didn't know that it came from a deep sense of following Christ.

My favorite quote of hers: "This books makes me want to love Jesus and go to church again! I love it!"

Verve Happs

We had an incredible weekend at Verve, highlighted by 13 people giving their lives to Christ in baptism on Sunday. It was phenomenal. For a church that didn't exist three months ago, and thirteen people who weren't going to church three months ago, it was just a wow moment.

We did it after our Sunday morning service, out back in the parking lot, in a kiddie pool ('cause, you know, kiddie pools in parking lots just scream "This is a holy moment!"). Each person shared their stories, lots of tears, tons of cheering and hugging. Actually, it was a holy moment.

We then had our first Verve barbecue, which was a lot of fun, and allowed our mass of all new people to meet some of the other new people.

There were actually another three people who wanted to get baptized, but yesterday didn't work for them. And there were another two people who I talked out of getting baptized. (I know most pastors talk people into getting baptized, but I've never understood that. Where do you see Jesus talking people into following Him? No where. But where do we see Jesus talking people out of following Him? A lot of where's!)

So even though we're only twelve weeks old as a church, we already have a bunch of people who are experiencing the life change that only Jesus can bring ... and there is lots more to come! Viva la verve revolucion!