10-10-10
February 4th, 2010I am pumped to say that NLC is planning to launch our 3rd location on 10-10-10 just outside of Boston! I feel like a little kid inside of a candy shop I’m so excited. I’m not ready to give out all of the details yet but we do have a location and are waiting for final approval. I truly believe that NLC is going to reach thousands for Jesus within the first year in Boston!
So how does this affect our Regal location? It doesn’t! We have a heart for the seacoast area and the 100,000 people in it…We will continue to be sold out to seeing this area forever changed by the power of the Gospel message. NLC will continue to grow exponentially, NLC will continue to be used by Jesus to be an inspiration to local churches, NLC will soon be looking for a permanent structure, (soon may be sooner, we are running out of seats and I have no idea what we are going to do if we continue to grow the way we are right now, the thought of Easter pumps me up and scares me at the same time) We will love this community with the love of Christ and do anything short of sin to see people become fully devoted followers of Jesus.
So how does this affect Kaleo? It doesn’t! Kaleo will still be an amazing coffee shop reaching this community, Kaleo will still be a unique location for NLC to meet and for our students program to grow, Kaleo will still adopt people by serving coffee with a cause. We have had 2 churches come from hours away just to see Kaleo already! Kaleo will be used to inspire churches around NE.
So why launch a 3rd location? Because people need Jesus and what better way to reach them than in the largest city of NE. If Jesus has grown NLC in under two years to over 500 people in a population of 100,000 can you even imagine the influence NLC is going to have in a population of 1.2 million? Is it all about the #’s? YES! Every number is a soul that Jesus died on a cross for.
So who will speak? You will never know! I will be moving to a more central location and will speak live at each of the locations. NLC IS NOT ABOUT ME! If you come to NLC because of me…you are coming for the wrong reasons, because God never desired for you to follow after me. We will have several locations….I will speak live at some, I will be on video at others, some locations I will very rarely speak because if a campus pastor has the desire and gifting to communicate God’s word who am I to not allow them to use that gift. I have a heart to church NE and the only way that will happen is if NLC ALWAYS remembers that I AM NOT NLC, WE ARE NLC! And the less NLC focuses on me the more NLC will focus on raising up leaders to help church NE….and yes every campus will have a live band, pastor and staff.
Why not just plant churches? Not the vision! Have no desire to allow the DNA to be changed! It works great for some but as of now that is not even a thought. Jesus can always change that, we shall see!
Won’t some people leave NLC because of change? Yup, but I’m positive the # of people who leave because of change will be tiny compared to the # of people who are forever changed because of change.
What is my dream? To have an NLC campus in every major city and town of NE….I looked around the Garden last night while at the Celtics game and thought how cool would it be to someday bring all of the NLC locations together for one experience and fill the Garden. Do I think that will happen? Seems too big. Do I think it can happen? Yes, because all things are possible with God and I will die trying to push the limits.
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“Best Staff In The Country!”
February 2nd, 2010- I can’t wait for Sunday!
- I walked around the office today and saw the 6 other guys on staff working their bums off and could only think…”oh my goodness, we haven’t seen anything yet”.
- I always wonder what a day looks like at other churches so let me tell you what today looked like at NLC.
- Today is my “staff day” I am 100% available for my staff all day. Now I’m always available but they don’t need to set up a meeting on Tuesdays – I’m all theirs. Wednesday is my “pastors” day. Last month and this month every Wednesday has been and is booked with pastors from all over N.E. coming to hang out and learn from what we are doing and teach us what they are doing. If you are a pastor and would like to hang out, email ben@nlc.tv and he will set something up.
- Okay…we had George working on “care calls”. He was calling people at NLC who needed to be cared for. He also worked hours on Kaleo coffee, safe house adoption and of course enjoyed our all exciting staff meeting. He is awesome!
- We had big dog Ben Airey killing it with all the executive stuff, not sure how to describe that but today I got #’s and %’s of everything happening at NLC. For example, our giving is up 22% from last January, our attendance is up 60% from last January. He also put all of our 1st time visitors into PDS and sent them all a gift. Thankfully Ben took some time to schedule my month as well.
- Roman Archer was focused on the creative team, the big picture calendar and also the weaknesses we have as a church at the Regal location. He’s the campus pastor, so I am agressivley moving myself from that position so that we will be healthy when we launch our next locations. Roman oversees a lot! He met and led the creative team meeting. He doesn’t do any of the “creative stuff” per se, BUT he is the one who oversees all of our videos, music, Sunday experience, graphics, and many other things.
- Dennis was working on the plot and feel for all of our commercial and talk series coming up. He kills it with our videos! What else do I say ?Come to NLC and watch how Dennis makes an almost 2 year old church appear much older.
- David was working on getting our play list to Itunes so that people who attend NLC can download all of our music during the week. He also helps in lots of other creative areas…He has been killing it with the structure of our band. David is as gifted as any worship leader in the country! I know those are big words…but if he stays humble and focuses on the heart of worship, you will be listening to him and the NLC band very soon.
- Lastly Daniel, he worked on Kids, starting point, our discipleship class, our life groups and many other things. He was pumped because we almost broke 100 kids under the age of 12 Sunday. He is our offensive lineman on staff…he doesn’t get seen or talked about much but without him we would never score a touchdown or move the ball down field.
So there you have it! I wanted to talk about the guys who make NLC happen every week. I love these guys more than life itself and would lay my life down for them or their families. I have the best staff in the country and I’m not just saying that I 100% believe it! I Would not want to do this with another group of guys. Now the question I get asked is are we going to hire a woman..YES…when Jesus says too! I don’t know why it has worked out this way, it just has. Boys, I love you and thank you for believing in me when no one else including myself does. You guys are my heroes and I can’t wait to look in your eyes at the end of this year and say …”WOW did Jesus really use us to do that”?
I can’t end this long post without saying…my wife is my #2 everything (only second to God)! These boys are great but without her I WOULD NOT BE DOING WHAT I’M DOING…she allows me to be who God made me. I don’t deserve her! Not to mention Jesus is using her powerfully within the ladies at NLC…She’s the REAL DEAL! What you see is what you get and that equals GREAT!
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Sunday Download
January 31st, 2010-
An awesome Sunday! Can’t wait for next week. Okay here are some thoughts on today.
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Thank you to everyone that came to our 8:30 experience..You are my hero! You are opening up seats for people at our 10:00.
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We had a record attendance in Kid City today! I’m so pumped…here’s why, as a theater church one of the largest things that we have going against us is reaching family’s (people assume a church in a theater has no place for kids) We almost broke 100 kids under 12…that’s HUGE FOR US!
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Kid City workers, THANK YOU! You are not reaching the church of the future you are reaching the church of today…I’m so thankful for you.
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On that note if you volunteer at NLC, thank you for being a servant in the local church. As I said today, you are not at NLC to further my ministry, you are at NLC to be in ministry! I’m no more important than you, we are all the hands and feet of God’s church.
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Can’t wait till Easter! Hoping Kaleo campus is up and running by then, if not we will fill the 480 seat theater twice. WHY NOT? It’s our 2 year anniversary and people need Jesus.
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I’m so sick of the church having man sized dreams, man sized visions, man sized budgets…We serve the freakin creator of the universe! I want to have God sized dreams, visions and budgets.
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It makes no sense for an almost 2 year old church to launch 2 more locations this year…none! It’s a God sized dream! I’m not afraid of failure because those who fear and take responsibility for failure, will take the credit with success and the last I checked it is HIS Kingdom!
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By the way, NLC will fail at times! Period! Even if we fail 4 out of 5 times trying to reach people with the Gospel it is still more effective than never taking a risk!
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Next week we begin a series called “The Essential James” Can’t wait – my favorite book!
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Our band might be ready to cut a CD…by far one of the best bands I’ve ever heard and the fact that they are not even 2 is insane!! They are leading people into some serious worship! They are working on a switchfoot song and sound better than switchfoot!
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So thankful that God is faithful, we went through a season of pruning, without getting into too much detail I’ll say this: People gossip and churches are not always kingdom minded…We’ve had churches make it their goal to grow off of people who attend NLC. I promise I’m not at all bitter or angry but I don’t see anything wrong with calling sin, sin. When a church plant goes from 12 to 500 in 2 years a lot of people are trusted that are not trustworthy. Whatever…all I know is that Jesus is trustworthy and we have NEVER lost focus. This is actually the first time we’ve talked about this and it’s old news by now.
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Here’s what I know, Jesus will always be faithful to those who are faithful to the vision he has given. If a couple of these situations didn’t happen we would have nowhere near enough seats. I’m never happy to see people leave NLC but it’s not my church it’s God’s.
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For anyone who is addicted to gossip let me say this….instead of talking about all the problems you see, try becoming part of the solution. Gossip is talking to someone who can’t fix the problem. You may say “isn’t that gossip”? NO, I’m becoming part of the solution
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We have began talking about our Boston location…hoping to sign the lease this week and I’ll fill you in on where it is.
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Shooting for 500 souls on our launch day…it’s in an area of 1.2 million people.
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Someone asked me if I would ever leave NLC to pastor a large church down South…NO, the only way I’m leaving NLC is in a body bag after my funeral. That’s why I think NLC should launch a location in Florida…kidding
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Next Level, I love you with all of my heart and appreciate you trusting me as your pastor. I am honored to serve you and although NLC may be imperfect always know this: we are driven to be the church that God desires. We embrace his voice and are ever changing to become more like him. NLC’ers the best is yet to come, we are just getting started!
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What I Believe 2010 looks like for NLC
January 25th, 2010I’ve been thinking a lot about what God has in store for 2010 and I think I’m ready to talk about it. I know the cool thing is to post this blog on the first week of January but I needed to filter through some thoughts. So NLC’ers here are some of my thoughts on what I believe we are going to see in 2010.
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A staff and leadership at NLC hungry for the Holy Spirit. A leadership that is consumed by the thought of a an authentic community of believers loving the community it’s in enough to do anything short of sin to see lives restored and saved by the Gospel message.
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A leadership not interested in “saving face” but rather saving people.
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A leadership that doesn’t compete with other churches, but completes other churches.
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A leadership that doesn’t gossip or defend itself when people try to divide NLC, but rather stays focused on the vision God has called us to.
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A leadership that is more concerned with repentance than attendance.
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A leadership that has no desire to lead God’s church on yesterday’s innovation but rather new, Godly revelation.
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A leadership that understands as NLC grows so will the critics but thankfully we are not living for them.
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I believe we will see hundreds of people give their lives to Jesus and be baptized this year.
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I believe we will see our “new” style of life groups explode!
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I believe we will pay for the adoption of a child this year through Kaleo coffee…. www.kaleocoffee.com
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I believe we will have our Boston location running with hundreds of people attending! I cannot wait for that!
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I believe our Boston location will be our largest location by the end of this year…and will launch with over 500 in attendence.
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I believe that Kaleo will be the most successful coffee house this area has ever seen….I know it’s the nicest!
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I believe we will have the most intimate, authentic, worship experiences that you could imagine.
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I believe new life long friends will be found.
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I believe we will pay for the living expenses of a single mom for one year.
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I believe we will change a community more than any other 2 year old church in this area EVER has!
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I believe we will face trials that will make us stronger.
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I believe people will gossip and lie about our intentions….and at times they might even be right.
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I believe NLC will be reaching over 1000 people each Sunday by the end of 2010…and that may be low!
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I believe marriages will be restored.
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I believe addictions will become small compared to a HUGE God.
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I believe kids will come home and parents hearts will be healed.
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I believe parents will seek forgiveness for the way they have hurt their children.
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I believe singles will find their lover
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I believe the grace of God, which is NLC’s word for 2010, will be contagious.
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I believe churches from all over the county not just NE will look to NLC and what God is doing through a 2 year old church in the least churched area of our county.
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I believe our Kid City of 80-100 will explode and kids will not just learn about Jesus but become sold out to him.
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I believe our youth group meeting at the hottest youth location this side of …whatever….and will explode.
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I believe we will always be imperfect as long as I’m a part of this.
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I believe we will make mistakes and need to ask for forgiveness.
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I believe our volunteers need to be appreciated more….and we intend on doing that!
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I believe our talent can take us further than our character and I’m desperate to not let that happen.
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I believe we will need to be humbled.
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I believe we will need to learn to care more.
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I believe that NLC is one of the churches that is literally going to change the landscape of an entire region and I am blown away at the thought that it’s not only going to happen, but it is happening.
That’s all the time I have right now….we have some things planned in the next couple months that no one has ever seen done in this area! Can’t wait NLC… the best is yet to come…we’re still taxiing on the runway! Love you guys and am honored to be your servant.
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New footage of Kaleo
January 14th, 2010I’m pumped about Kaleo. We are looking to launch on Feb. 15 and I believe it is going to be by far the most successful coffee house this area has ever seen. We are needing more seats so NLC’s 2nd location will be launching soon after the coffee shop opens. Tomorrow I’m going to post the video of my interview with Mark Batterson. But check out the Kaleo video until then.
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