Loud & Clear

what if we did live q&a every week?

So this series has been amazing. You can learn a lot about a culture when you invite them to ask anything and remain anonymous. I think we’ve learned more about our church through this series than any poll, survey or study we’ve ever done.

But even more so, the live Q&A has been amazing. To be able to teach on a subject and give people the opportunity to ask questions about what they just heard is amazing. Instant feedback. Absolute clarity. Which got me thinking…

What if we had a live Q&A with every service, every series? Every time you came to church you knew that you’d have the opportunity to get ask the pastor what he meant by X or how you could apply X to your unique situation?

Our culture demands interaction and anonymity. It craves to be noticed but protected in safety. It wants real answers without the stigma of perception.

Live Q&A, every service. Every series.

I don’t think there’s a church anywhere that’s doing this. Like us, some may do it occasionally.  Could we be the first? It’s not up to me, but I think it could be amazing.

What do you think?

redeeming grace backdrop

Well, it’s late as the series is officially over. But if you didn’t see it, here was the backdrop design we had for it.

As a series though, wow… What an amazing four weeks. God did some awesome things and I continue to hear stories of relationships God is restoring because of it.

Oh, and see if you can find the little easter egg we put in there.

ask anything

I’m super stoked about this.

The church at large has a bad reputation and history of being a place where you shouldn’t ask questions. Not Clovis Hills.

We’ve done services like this throughout our history, where people could ask questions during the message and we’d answer them live at the end. No prep time, just Pastor Steve on the spot.

Well, inspired by what some other churches have done, we’re taking that to the next level. We’re going to do an entire series entirely based on the questions people want to ask the church.

So here’s the deal. If you don’t go to church, have a bone to pick with the church or God, or feel the church has let you down, go to askanything.clovishills.com and ask your question.

It’s completely anonymous. We’re going to spend the month of October answering the questions you ask. THEN, we’re going to take more questions during the service and answer them live at the end.

So go ahead. What do you want to ask? askanything.clovishills.com

Influence set preview

Here’s a little preview for our set this coming weekend.

I’m leaving town for some family stuff I’ll fill you in later about, so won’t be here this weekend to take a pic of the finished product (complete with haze, lighting and awesome worship people). You’ll have to wait a little for that. Maybe Paul Haugen will post a pic. You can bug him on his blog, The Open Door (link to the right).

Enjoy.

most awesome series promo ever

I can’t be redundant with the title. This is the most awesome series promo ever. Shall I say it again? When Kevin and I brainstorm for series promo’s these kinds of ideas pop out, but as we could never pull them off, we sigh and get back to reality.

That said, check out this series promo for lifechurch.tv’s new summer series.

new message series - Simple.

We start a new message series this week. I’m pretty excited about this series. In our fast paced, info saturated society (of which I am a prime example) we tend to think that nothing is simple. We watch behind the scenes documentaries, listen to DVD director commentaries and wade through the political idealisms looking for concrete strategies.

We look at our faith the same way. We need our Greek / English lexicon, our Strong’s Concordance, our 54 volume set of scriptural commentaries and hopefully a PHD to give us what the Bible’s really trying to say.

We forget that Jesus spoke mostly to the common people of his day. He used stories to communicate. He said, “Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.” And he said if you did that, you’d obey every commandment of the Bible. How’s that for Simple?

Is it time for you to get back to a childlike faith? Not blind or unquestioning. And going deeper has it’s place. But if you find yourself in spiritual analysis paralysis, or the thought of trying to understand a relationship with God seems overwhelming, or even if you’ve found yourself in a rut or stalled out and don’t know what to do next- you’re going to love this series.