Vince Recommends...

So this is another recommendation specifically for people who live here in Vegas.  If you're looking for some seriously good barbecue, the best I've found here is Buzz Barbecue.

The ribs are great, the icewater cole slaw is really good, and the cobblers are amazing.  If you go there, don't wipe your hands after, come and see me, and I will lick your fingers.

You're welcome.

Standing Up

Yesterday I shared my first experience doing stand-up. I went on to do open mic nights, then got hired by a "real" show in a casino. Then our show was thrown out of the casino for being to obscene. I mentioned that on this blog and quickly received an e-mail from a "concerned mother" with the subject line, "Mr. Comic."  She wrote:

Mr. A., I follow your blog from time to time. I am really confused about a couple things so I thought the best way to clear this up is to ask you. You are in a show performing and get kicked out for being too raunchy? So it’s moved to an all nude strip club. Ok….  As I read your blog posts, I usually have a feeling that I’m listening to a man that loves Jesus, his family, and truly wants to see people saved. Even in non-traditional ways… I am in no way a qualified minister, yet something about this doesn’t seem like it will lead people to choose Jesus… What am I missing?

It's a good question. My answer? If you want to connect with people who are far from God, and help those people get connected to God, you have to go where those people are.

Jesus did this all the time, repeatedly going where He wasn't supposed to: Samaria, Zaccheaus' house, Matthew's party. So I think if we're following Jesus, we have no choice.

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.

Felt Like The First Time

When I moved to Vegas I decided to try stand-up comedy, for fun and to maybe make some friends. I figured I would bomb the first time I took the stage, so I decided to do it in a town where no one would know me. I was going to be in Austin, Texas to speak at a conference, and a friend told me about an open mic night at a pizza restaurant. It was two years ago today.

The restaurant, called Conan's, has since shut down and I can venture a guess why - people were smoking pot as they ate their pizza. I walked in that night and thought, I think I smell pot. I wonder if someone is smoking pot? Oh, that guy is smoking pot. And that guy. And that lady. And that guy. And this was an open restaurant, with people coming in and out to pick up pizzas and watch the comedy show. I had heard Austin was weird, but this was really weird.

I signed up to perform, and the guy in charge told me they’d call me up to the stage when it was my turn. I had written some jokes about TV shows, and was starting out with a few about the show To Catch a Predator. Finally it was my turn. I hit the stage, smiled, and said…

“Do you ever have a day where you don’t have to work and…”

Some stoner interrupted me by calling out, “Dude, we don’t have jobs.”

“Yeah,” another joined him, “jobs suck.”

“Okay,” I continued, “Well, if you don’t have to work, you ever have a day where you can sit and watch TV all day and…”

“That’s all we do, dude. We watch TV,” stoner guy informed me.

“Yeah, okay,” I didn’t want this to be a conversation with the guy, but it was quickly becoming that. “And you can sit and watch TV all day and you end up watching a marathon of a show. Where they show like an entire season of a show in one day? Well, one time…”

“Awwww, dude, I know what you’re talking about!”

“So this one time I watched like a bunch of episodes of To Catch a Predator.”

“Dude, never heard of it.”

It was a nightmare, in a cloud of smoke. That guy will never remember it, but I’ll never forget.

Best Actor

With the Academy Awards this week, I thought I'd have the audacity to tell you who should win if they gave acting awards for all the movies (well, all the movies I've seen and can remember) from 1980 to 2010.  Last, the Best Actor:

Honorable Mention:  Philip Seymore Hoffman in Capote, Jack Nicholson in About Schmidt, Robert Duval in The Apostle, Billy Bob Thornton in Slingblade, Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs, Dustin Hoffman in Rainman

Nominated:  Robert Duvall in The Great Santini, Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull, Sean Penn in Milk, Tom Hanks in Castaway, Robert Benigni in Life Is Beautiful, Tom Hanks in Philadelphia


The Winner:  Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood

this weekend @ VERVE

We are starting a new series called What Up G?

No, the "G" does not stand for God.  So, no, we're not talking about asking God questions, praying, or speaking to God in a familiar way.

So what does the G stand for?  Oh, please.  Don't underestimate me.  You have to show up to find out!

I will tell you I think this is a really critical series.  Like I've been thinking about putting it on CD's and giving it out to all the new people who show up at Verve after the series.  Yeah, it's that big a deal.  So don't miss this Sunday/Monday.

Best Actress

With the Academy Awards this week, I thought I'd have the audacity to tell you who should win if they gave acting awards for all the movies (well, all the movies I've seen and can remember) from 1980 to 2010.  This time, the Best Actress:

Honorable Mention:  Hillary Swank in Million Dollar Baby, Juliet Binoche in Chocolat, Jodie Foster in The Accused

Nominated: Julianne Moore in Far From Heaven, Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare In Love, Nicole Kidman in The Hours, Jodie Foster in The Silence of the Lambs, Katherine Hepburn in On Golden Pond


The Winner: Frances McDormand, in Fargo

Best Supporting Actor

With the Academy Awards this week, I thought I'd have the audacity to tell you who should win if they gave acting awards for all the movies (well, all the movies I've seen and can remember) from 1980 to 2010.  This time, the Best Supporting Actor (which, by the way, is the most difficult to choose):

Honorable Mention:  Ed Harris in Apollo 13, Chris Cooper in American Beauty, Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda, Tom Cruise in Magnolia, Cuba Gooding Jr. in Jerry Maguire, Edward Norton in Primal Fear, Kevin Spacey in The Usual Suspects

Nominated: Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, Denzel Washington in Glory


The Winner:  Christian Bale in The Fighter

Best Supporting Actress

With the Academy Awards this week, I thought I'd have the audacity to tell you who should win if they gave acting awards for all the movies (well, all the movies I've seen and can remember) from 1980 to 2010.  First, the Best Supporting Actress:

Honorable Mention:  Mo'Nique in Precious, Judi Dench in Shakespeare in Love, Amy Ryan in Gone Baby Gone

Nominated: Angelina Jolie in Girl, Interrupted, Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction, Linda Hunt in The Year of Living Dangerously, Julianne Moore in The Hours,


The Winner:  Julianne Moore in The Big Lebowski

The Missouri Tour, Featuring Love

Prior to about six months ago, I had only ventured into Missouri once. I went to Law School in Illinois, and I drove to St. Louis once to see the arch and go to a Cardinals game. However, back in the Fall I spoke at a college in Bolivar, and this week I'm speaking at another in Joplin. I feel like I'm on a college tour of Missouri!

This week I'm speaking about four times at a "Preaching & Teaching Convention." I'm psyched about the main session I'm doing because I was asked to speak about grace. About how Christians are told to speak the truth, but to do it in love.

Personally I think truth and love are the two things everyone desperately needs. It's truth that sets us free, but if it doesn't come in the context of love, we're not hearing it. The problem is that Christians have focused on sharing the truth, but not on doing it in God's love. Which makes it even more critical that we lead with love. If we do that, by the way, we're in good company, because it's what Jesus always did.

VERVE Happs

This week we concluded our Crappy Love Songs series.  Robb did a great job talking about what Jesus teaches us we should do when our friendships break down.

Joy Hoover led worship for the first time - she did awesome!  (Speaking of Joy: The ministry she leads, "The Cupcake Girls" is trying to love on and encourage a girl who is leaving her job, and help her by giving her some girly items (hair products, shampoo, conditioner, etc, make-up, candles, etc), nonperishable food items (Mac n Cheese, canned goods, etc), gift cards (gas, groceries, Target, etc.)
and encouraging notes.  If you'd like to be a part of this, please bring one or more of these items on Sunday morning or Monday evening. Give them to someone at the Velcro Bar. Thanks!)

Excited for the baptism service coming up on March 6.  If you're interested in getting baptized, let us know...

Verve's Amazing Race is coming up on March 12.  We're going to do a Amazing Race style scavenger hunt all over Las Vegas.  We need to have an idea how many to expect, so please sign up for it at the Velcro Bar.  After the Race, we're gonna have a party with food and live bands...


Our new series, What Up G? starts this week.  It's going to be REALLY important.  And we're gonna make a few big announcements during it...

Vivalaverve!

Vince Recommends...

If you are a pastor or maybe someone who leads a small group or Sunday school class, and you're looking for a great series to do, I totally recommend Not A Fan.  It's a video curriculum - six 30 minute videos, with all kinds of other resources available on line.

The idea is that a lot of people are fans of Jesus, but Jesus isn't looking for fans, He's looking for followers.  The videos are an ongoing movie-like series, with great teaching artfully mixed in.  The point is to become a completely committed follower of Jesus.

I watched the videos because I was wondering if we should use them for one of our Verve University courses, but I'll be honest, they got me.  The last video in the series more than got me, several times it crushed me - in a very cool way.

I Can Only Love You

When I do seminars on my book Guerrilla Lovers, I encourage people to pray, "Jesus, give me your heart for this person" every time they interact with anyone. So I loved this quote I read from Dorothy Day. She was the founder of the Catholic Worker movement, and wrote this in her diary about why she didn't give up on the addicts and broken people she ministered to:

Yes, I see only too clearly how bad people are. I wish I did not see it so. It is my own sins that give me such clarity. If I did not bear the scars of so many sins to dim my sight and dull my capacity for love and joy, then I would see Christ more clearly in you all. I cannot worry much about your sins and miseries when I have so many of my own. I can only love you all, poor fellow travelers, fellow sufferers. I do not want to add one least straw to the burden you already carry. My prayer  from day to day is hat God will so enlarge my heart that I will see you all, and live with you all, in His love.

If we all just had that attitude...

Commercial Blocks

I only watch TV shows I recorded on my DVR, so I'm constantly fast-forwarding through commercials, and I use the 30 second advance button.

Do you realize that there will be four minute commercial blocks early in a show, but six (and sometimes eight) minute blocks of commercials later in a show?  Why?  Because they know you're not engaged enough in the show early on to wait six minutes for it to return.  But once you've been watching for awhile, you're not going to leave, so they can give you what you don't want for longer.

So, if you're a pastor, or a professional communicator, what do you learn from that?  How does it apply to what you do?

this weekend @ VERVE

We are concluding our Crappy Love Songs series.  So ...

• What crappy love song will our band be covering?
• Will there be another round of Can You Beat Paul in Karoake?
• What crappy love song will be our theme?
• What kind of relationship will we be talking about, and what will be the principle God gives us to change it from bad to good?
• Will it change your life?

I ain't telling.  So you're gonna have to show up to find out!

What's Success For You?

Saturday I got to spend time with one of my favorite people, Kevin Colon, who happens to be a church planter. He told me the first question he asks every church planter is, "What are you after? What's success for you?"

That is the question. Not just for church planters, it could be posed to you as employee, empoyer, spouse, parent, Little League coach, anything... Just as a person. What are you after? What's success for you?

For church planters, if you can't answer that question, you're not yet ready to start. If you don't have an answer, you don't have a target to shoot at.

So what's success for you? And a good follow-up question: Does your answer sound like something God would agree with?


If you want to deal with more of the critical questions church planters must face, register for Vault!

Follow The Victim

Rene Girard is a brilliant French philosopher and anthropologist and professor (later in life at Stanford). He became fascinated with the fact that in modern times a "marginalized" person assumes a moral authority, that we root for underdogs, that we celebrate victims.  His fascination grew out of the fact that he could find nothing comparable in his readings of ancient literature.

As he continued his research, he traced this relatively new phenomena to ... Jesus.  He realized that Jesus' story cut across the grain of every heroic story from its time. That Jesus took the side of, and even lived the life of, the marginalized, the poor, the underdogs.  Girard concluded that Jesus introduced an entirely new plot line into history.

And as Girard continued his studies, to the dismay of his colleagues, he decided he wanted to spend his life following Jesus.

One Year Ago Today

One year ago today we had our first two Verve baptisms as Travis and Kim gave their lives to Jesus at the Greek Isles Hotel & Casino after one of our Launch Team Meetings.  Good memories...

Strategic Planning II

Yesterday I shared kind of the foundation for strategic planning.  I think of this in terms of church, but it's the same process for anything - a business, your life, personal finances, or your marriage.  I shared about needing to first know your core values, mission, and vision.  Only then can you really ask the how question that strategic planning answers.

When you're there, and ready to start planning, here are some questions that help developing the strategy:

1. Whom are we trying to reach?  (This is huge!  For instance, a lot of churches try to copy the strategic plan of another church, but don't realize that they're not trying to reach the same people.  That people in Iowa are different from those in Atlanta, and those differences can change your strategy.)
2. What are we attempting to do for/with them?  (Understanding the core of your "business" is critical.  Too often we fall in love and commit to methods, rather than to the mission.  Like, for a church, what you're attempting to do isn't a Sunday morning service or small groups - that's your method.  What you're attempting to do is help people become committed followers of Jesus.)
3. Who will do this for them?  (This is about your team.  Who do you need to turn the vision into reality?)
4. Where will this take place?  (What facilities do you need to accomplish the mission?  How can you make those facilities best work for you?)
5. How much will it cost?  (What resources are necessary?  How much will it cost to get those resources?  How will you make that happen?)

Strategic Planning I

You know how there are some things that are natural strengths, and others you have to develop and fight to learn and do well?  Strategic planning is not a natural strength of mine, but it's important - personally (to mature it really helps to have a strategic plan), in church planting (to establish a healthy church you need a strategic plan), in business (to have a healthy organization...)

Thought it might be helpful to share a few things I've learned about strategic planning.  Today - the things you need to know before you even start thinking about your strategy:

1. Know Your Core Values:  Your core values are why you do you do what you do, the way you do it.  (By the way, the best stuff I've read on core values is in Jim Collin's book, Built To Last, where he argues that you can't choose your core values, you discover them.  Look carefully at who you are, and you'll discern your core values.  If you try to choose values that seem right, but don't truly represent who you are, it will end up being counterproductive.)
2. Know Your Mission:  The mission defines what you're supposed to be doing.
3. Know Your Vision: This answers the question: What kind of church do we want to become?  (Or: What kind of person do I want to become?  Or: What do I want my financial situation to be like in the future?  Or: What will our business look like if it turns out right?)  We see a picture of our preferred future.
4. NOW you can start planning.  Only after you address the core values, mission, and vision an you develop a strategy.  And the strategy answers the "how" question.  HOW are we going to do what we're supposed to do?  It is the overall process that enables a church to accomplish its mission.  For instance, if the church's mission is to make disciples, the strategy directs how the church will make disciples.

Tomorrow I'll delve just a little into some of the key questions we need to ask as we start the process of strategic planning.

this weekend @ VERVE

We are continuing our brand new series Crazy Love Songs in which we're talking about what to do with hurting and broken relationships.  We've all got 'em, right?  Life is tough, and it's hard on relationships.  So what do you when you find yourself ... hating yourself?  Or no longer feeling the way you used to about your spouse?  Or at odds with a friend?  Join us at Verve and we'll talk about it.

Another cool thing happening this week is that you have the opportunity to buy some delicious cupcakes, and support an awesome ministry.  One of the new ministries at Verve is The Cupcake Girls, some women (including my wife) who go each week to some strip clubs, bringing cupcakes, loving on the girls, and (when the opportunity is right) inviting them to Verve.  So ... we're going to have the same (awesome) cupcakes for sale on Sunday morning and Monday evening.  The deal is that you pay $20, which gets you a dozen cupcakes and pays for a dozen cupcakes to be brought to a Strip Club.  You get to eat well, and support a great ministry!

Books, Books, Books

I made quarterly goals for myself, and one of mine for the first quarter of this year was to read 13 books. I'm not doing well with another one or two of my goals, but I'm on track with my reading. Here's what I've read so far:

1. The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence (about the 8th time I've read this book)
2. Driven By Eternity, John Bevere
3. ID: The True You, Mark Batterson
4. Throw It Down, Jud Wilhite
5. Delivering Happiness, Tony Hsieh
6. Raising Girls, Melissa Trevathan & Sissy Goth
7. Radical, David Platt
8. The Reason for God, Tim Keller

The Reason For God is one of the best books I've read.  If you have questions about Christianity, or your friends do...  Or if you wonder if there is good reason to believe in God, or your friends do... Then you need to read this book. Seriously. Do it. It's brilliant.

Seedless

This watermelon looks good, doesn't it?  The thing that makes it really great is that it's seedless. No annoying seeds to worry about.

But there's something wrong with that, isn't there? Because God designed watermelon to have seeds. They're supposed to reproduce.

The sad thing is that this watermelon reminds me of most Christians, and most churches. God designed us to reproduce, to help produce more Christ-followers and more communities of faith. But many are seedless. They focus on themselves and not on others, which may give them less to worry about, but it means they're ignoring what God designed them for. Because they're supposed to reproduce.

You're supposed to reproduce. You're church is supposed to reproduce. So, are you doing it? Or are you seedless?

VERVE Happs

Super fun weekend at Verve:

Started our new series, Crappy Love Songs.

We played, "Can You Beat Paul in Karoake?" and it doesn't get much more fun that that.

The Super Bowl Party was a blast. Didn't count, but there were a ton of people, and way too much food.

Robb went out of town Monday morning, so a friend of mine named Julian guest led worship for us. He did a great job.

One of the cool things happening at Verve is that we have several women who have a ministry (called The Cupcake Girls) where they have been regularly visiting about twelve strip clubs.  They bring cupcakes and hang out with the girls, loving and caring for them.  They've been able to bring quite a few to Verve as well.  Sounds like the kind of thing Jesus would do!

Why Not? Well, Lots of Reasons...

Recently I was with a guy who has to raise money. He's got a great heart, and a very fuzzy vision - lack of clarity on what his goals are and how he'll accomplish them. His answer to why people would give money to what he's doing was, "Why wouldn't they give money to what I'm doing?"

Well, because IF they have money they want to give to something, there are all kinds of other somethings they can give their money to. Saying yes to you means saying no to a bunch of other worthy causes. So why wouldn't I give to you? Because the other person asking me has clear vision - lots of clarity on goals and the strategy to accomplish them.

If you want to start something, and especially if you want to raise money for it, develop a crystal clear vision and a sound strategy -- or don't start it, and definitely don't ask me for money.

To learn more about this kind of stuff, you should come to Vault!

Super Sunday

Tomorrow we're having a Super Bowl party.  We really debated it, because we're in Las Vegas, which is the capital of the world when it comes to Super Bowl parties.  We didn't want to have one just to have one, or to be redundant.

But we did a survey and lots of people said there are tons of Super Bowl parties, but not that are family friendly.  And almost no one shows the game on as big a screen as we have!

So come tomorrow for the party.  You can bring food (to share), friends, and your family.  We'll provide drinks, and the game - large and loud.

Also, we're going to do Vervalicious at halftime.  Vervalicious is an event where we share the story of Verve, our vision, and how you can fit into it all.  We'll have halftime on in a different room if you want to watch it, but if you don't mind missing the show, you can experience Vervalicious.

this weekend @ VERVE

This weekend we're starting a brand new series, Crappy Love Songs.  You know how when you first start a relationship you'll hear a love song on the radio and it makes you feel all warm and gooey on the inside.  But fast-forward and the relationship is falling a part and maybe you hear a hate-filled song and it resonates with you...

What do you do when relationships go bad?  How do you get them back to good?

The next three weeks at Verve, we're talking about it.

Groundboob Day

I'll never forget the first time my family went bowling here in Vegas. The bowling alleys are almost all in casinos, which is kinda odd. But the stranger thing was the attire. Typically bowlers wear jeans or sweatpants, t-shirts or sweatshirts. But the ladies bowling at the Orleans Casino were wearing their hoochie mama outfits.


There was a lady on the lane next to us wearing a short, tight dress. My wife saw one of her boobs pop out, twice.

Unfortunately, that boob didn't see her other boob, which I'm pretty sure means six more weeks of winter.

Radical Dependence

So I've been thinking that underlying most of our prayers is a desire to be independent of God, but God's desire for our lives is one of radical dependence on Him.

It's true, right?  We pray for problem-free marriages, for God to take away that temptation, for a great paying stress-less job, for our kids to behave, for good health.  And if God were to grant us all those requests?  Well, then we wouldn't really need God.  I can make it through my day just fine without God if everything's perfect.  It's all the crap of life that drives me to my knees and makes me look up.

I wonder sometimes when we're praying if God is like, "Do you even understand what you're asking?"

Coaching

I've been spending a few days in Melbourne, Florida at a church planter's retreat, where I'm getting to do some teaching and coaching for about 50 church planters and their wives.

I love doing this.  Church planters are typically visionaries and entrepreneur types, and are inspiring to hang out with. I love it that I've been able to start a church (or two) but when I can help other church planters it's like I get to multiply my experiences and learning and, hopefully, impact.

And, by the way, if you're interested in getting some great teaching and coaching on starting a church for people who don't like church, you should totally attend Vault, and we also do some one-on-one coaching, let me know if you're interested: vince@vivalaverve.org.

A Guerrilla Year Ago Today

A year ago today my book Guerrilla Lovers came out. There have been some amazing stories of how it's inspired Christ-followers to love people in the name of Jesus. A bunch of churches have used the free materials we provide to do a "Guerrilla Lover" series, and have seen great results.

But, honestly, sales have been lower and slower than expected. Why? Well, I think mostly it's because people didn't hear about it. Part of that is there was less marketing than needed. And part is that I am turned off by self-promotion. When you write a book you need to promote it yourself, and I try, but that's really difficult for me.  For instance, we just did our own conference in October, and didn't have my books out, or available to buy. Not smart business on my part, but I just prefer to point to Jesus and not myself.

So here's my hope: the idea of guerrilla methodology is that it's a patient strategy and that the impact adds up slowly until victory is gained. Hopefully that will be the story of this book...

VERVE Happs

This week we concluded our series on Reel Prayer by talking about two kind of specialized prayer skills: (1) Inquiring of the Lord, and (2) Worshipping God through singing.  I hope it was a step forward for Verve as we continue to learn what it looks like to live in a relationship with God, and as we grow towards become God stalkers.

We looked at one of the funkiest stories in the Bible, in 2 Chronicles 20, and saw that when life is complicated, one of the best things we can do is to lay our situation before God and then pray, "Lord, I don't know what to do, but my eyes are upon You."

I was at Verve on Sunday morning, but right after flew to Florida for a church planter's conference I'm speaking at, so we showed a video from the Sunday message at the Monday night service.  I heard the audio on the video wasn't excellent, and I apologize, and if we ever do a video again (no plans to currently) we will make sure it's better.

Excited this Sunday for our brand new series, Crappy Love Songs.  It's a GREAT one to bring friends to, so invite some people.  Even if you've invited them before and they didn't show up, give 'em another chance, and let them know this series is about what to do when love and relationships go bad.

Another great "bring a friend" event is the Super Bowl party on Sunday.  Game starts at 3:30, but the doors will be open at 3:00.  Bring some food to share...