We had a great launch to the Killing Cockroaches Tour today in Atlanta at West Ridge Church. And, it was also a great launch to our family vacation. Among other things, we ate at a Japanese grill, played at the pool, cruised the big city of Dallas (Georgia) and ate at The Varsity in downtown Atlanta.

While we’re on the tour/vacation, I’ll be sharing some of the posts that inspired the book…that inspired the tour. Here’s a favorite from the early days of the blog. Here are…

10 Easy Ways to Keep Me from Visiting Your Church Because I Visited Your Website

1. Avoid telling me what’s going to happen at your church this weekend. I found churches that had weather reports but nothing about their upcoming weekend service. I found two churches that had prominent information about upcoming golf scrambles (which I appreciated as a golfer), but nothing about this weekend’s service. Why would I come if I don’t know what I’m going to experience?
2. Put a picture of your building on the main page. After all, ministry is all about the buildings.
3. Use lots of purple and pink and add pictures of flowers. Really. Are you expecting any men to show up? And, for my benefit, please don’t put any doves on your website. Doves scare me. [continue reading>>]

Cockroach Tour Buzz: What, in your opinion, doesn’t belong on the list? And, now that it’s about four years later, what should be added to the list for it to be current?

Tomorrow I begin the Killing Cockroaches Summer Tour with a stop at West Ridge Church in Atlanta. In all, there will be six stops in six cities. Over the next three weeks during the tour, I’m going to share some of the blog posts that inspired the book. Maybe at the end we’ll have some sort of poll for you to pick your favorite.

There’s probably no better place to start than this post. This is how the book got its name…

Killing Cockroaches

I was sitting around the breakfast table with a bunch of guys this morning and was reminded of an incident that took place at a former job. This was before ministry. I was a city manager–kind of like the CEO of a business. I was responsible for leading an organization with a $20 million budget and 150 employees. I was the man. I wore a suit. Everyday.

One day I was working at my desk, and I heard a woman scream from the other side of the office building. Just a few seconds later, the screaming woman ran into my office. She explained that she needed help. She had found a cockroach in her office. And, for whatever reason, she thought this was a problem for the “CEO.” Remember, I was the guy who wore a suit. Everyday.

I’m not sure why I did it, but I slowly pushed my chair away from the desk. Stood up. Walked down the hall. Entered the screaming woman’s office, and proceeded to kill the cockroach. I was wearing my suit, which, of course, I wore…everyday.

It’s been about eight years since that incident. I don’t wear suits anymore, but there are still days when I come home a little mopey. I guess the frustration is all over my face. Emily will take one look at me and ask, “Did you have to kill cockroaches today?” [continue reading>>]

Cockroach Tour Buzz: When was the last time you caught yourself “killing cockroaches?”

I have a friend who has become a Christ-follower in recent years. He’s a marketplace executive. If I mentioned his name, there’s a chance you’d be familiar with him. He’s also a writer.

Now, he’s working on a new book project. Rather than writing about leadership and marketing strategies, he’s going to be sharing his life change story. However, he’s hoping to share the stories of other people as well. Specifically, he’s looking for the stories of men in these categories that have committed their lives to Jesus after pursuing a previous career/lifestyle as:

• The Soldier
• The Executive
• The Addict
• The Fireman
• The Doctor
• The Athlete
• The Alcoholic
• The Prisoner
• The Hit Man
• The Rebel

My friend has already found stories for several of these categories, but he’s still looking for stories of life change from a fireman, doctor, athlete and prisoner. That’s where I need your help.

If you know of someone who you think might have a story to share (whether they’re well known or not), either leave a comment on this post or email me.

Don’t worry. I’ll let you know more details when the book is available. Thanks for your help.

Earlier today, I caught up with Brad Lomenick. I like to call him Mr. Catalyst. I think his official title is something rather tame like “Executive Director.” Brad is really sharp, and he’s orchestrating a movement that’s committed to equipping the next generation of leaders.

TONY: It’s been almost a year since we last talked on my blog, what’s new at Catalyst?

BRAD: Lots of new things on the Catalyst front. This has been a very busy and intense year with moving Catalyst from one event to multiple events and locations. This year we added two new events, with our West Coast event in April and the One Day events with Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel. We have also launched a publishing imprint with Zondervan focused on resources for leaders in the Church, and will be celebrating our 10th anniversary of the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta in October.

TONY: No, I mean what’s really new. Give me some dirt that the tabloids don’t even know about.

BRAD: Launching the West Coast event was a ton of fun. We are really excited about building the Catalyst community and network on the West Coast. And we actually now have a West coast office with LV Hanson leading the charge out of Orange County- our “satellite office.” We are actually concepting some potential online events for 2010, a new international focus, several major partnerships, and a potential BIG global event in 2010 in conjunction with several organizations. That’s all I can say…..

TONY: I’m looking forward to the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta coming in October. Tell us about the speaker line up.

BRAD: It’s the best lineup ever in my opinion, including all of our main session speakers as well as lab session speakers. And a wide range of voices, which is always a Catalyst trademark. We love hearing from all angles around the topic of leadership. Andy Stanley, Louie Giglio, Francis Chan, Dave Ramsey, Rob Bell, Malcolm Gladwell, Tony Dungy, Chuck Swindoll, Matt Chandler, Shane Hipps, Priscilla Shirer, Josh Hamilton, Margaret Feinberg, Perry Noble, Reggie Joiner, Nancy Ortberg, Mark Batterson, Dave Gibbons, Ed Stetzer, and many others.

TONY: Any surprises that will make this year’s conference more “Catalysty” than it’s ever been before.

BRAD: Yes, but I can’t really share them. Let me just say that because it is the 10th year anniversary, we are working hard to make it extra special, and extra “Catalysty” as you put it!

TONY: By the way, I heard a rumor that Andy is really jealous of Malcolm Gladwell’s hair. Is that true?

BRAD: Not sure if Andy is, but I know I am. I definitely have “hair envy” of Malcolm’s hair. But since I have no hair, I am pretty much jealous of any hair.

So, here’s the deal. Not only is Brad a relatively decent interview, he’s also a generous guy. I twisted his arm and he agreed to offer a one-of-kind discount for TonyMorganLive.com readers. Get your pen and paper ready. This could get pretty complicated. You need to register with the priority code “TONY” to get the $40 discount on individual registrations. And you need to do that by the end of the day on Thursday (June 25). If you don’t, the discount goes away.

Now, remember, the priority code is “TONY.” Don’t try to use “ANDY,” because that won’t work. Don’t try to use “LOUIE,” because that won’t work either. And, whatever you do, don’t use “ED.” Everyone knows friends of Ed Stetzer always pay full price.

All the fun begins on Monday! We’re hitting the road for 6 events in 6 cities. I’ll be offering 1/2-day workshops in all these locations:

• Atlanta (June 29) at West Ridge Church in Dallas, Georgia
  
• Dallas (July 2)  at Springcreek Church in Garland, Texas
  
• St. Louis (July 6) at Harvester Christian Church in St. Charles, Missouri
  
• Chicago (July 8) at The Orchard in Aurora, Illinois
  
• Columbus (July 14) at Grace Church in Powell, Ohio
• Nashville (July 17) at Cross Point Church in Nashville, Tennessee

The events are designed for both staff and volunteer leaders. I’ll specifically be addressing these two topics:

• Building Teams and Empowering Leaders (Volunteer/Staffing Strategy)
• Finding Your Focus (Outreach/Discipleship/Communications Strategy)

The early bird rates for the Chicago stop end tomorrow. Registration for all the stops will remain open through the day of the event.

Hope to see you somewhere along the way!

The David Crowder Band released a new single today. You can listen to it free below:

If you like what you hear, you can download from Amazon using my affiliate link.

By the way, what’s your favorite Crowder album? (I vote for Illuminate.)

In case you missed it, the new and improved TonyMorganLive.com launched this weekend. You may be thinking, “Wow, that actually looks good.” Or, you may find yourself saying, “Wow, that site is really fast now.” If so, it’s because I paid professionals to both design and code the site.

You can thank Joshua Blankenship for his design acumen. (Joshua makes everything look prettier.) Nathan Rice was responsible for the coding. (He’s a WordPress aficionado.) And, though I’m actually paying them to say this, I think you should hire them to do spiffy up your site. (I say that because I’ve seen your site.)

So, what do you think? I say Joshua and Nathan hit a home run. Aren’t you jealous?

My good friend Lee McFarland leads one of my favorite churches in the country out in Phoenix. Radiant Church is not your normal church, and Lee is not your normal pastor. They embrace a bizarre mix of wanting to reach as many people for Jesus and willingness to try just about anything. With that, Radiant recently launched a Saturday night service incorporating hip hop elements.

Here are some highlights of what they’re doing:

• The music is done by their “Garage Band”–it’s basically the student ministry band.
• footklan.com (a local dance group) participated in the service on the debut weekend.
• Travis, one of the other staff pastors, is teaching at this service.  He’s doing a series on the book of Acts. It’s very different teaching than what’s happening in the other three services.
• They “renovated” their smallest service (Saturday 6:15) by replacing it with the new hip hop format and instantly more than doubled their attendance.  That’s helping them create more space on Sunday mornings.
• The whole ambiance of the room is changed for the service. The lighting is much darker. Small blue floor lights are placed under aisle chairs. They’ve added colorful canned lights on stage. Everyone sits in front half of the worship center. They’ve created a really intimate, connected feeling.
• The worship is much more intense than the other services.  It lasts longer, and it starts back up at the end of the service. That’s very different than Radiant’s other services.

It’s hard to say what’s really helping Radiant reach more people on Saturday nights. Is it because they’ve added hip hop elements? Or, is it simply because they’re doing something different? In my experience, different creates buzz. And, when there’s buzz, more people are talking about it and inviting their friends.

That makes me curious to know what you’ve recently done that’s different. What did you do, and what was the response?

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to sit around a table at Panera and talk about the future of spiritual formation in local churches. I heard the vision from Mark Bankord, the Directional Leader and co-founder of Heartland Community Church in Rockford, Illinois, and Eric Parks, the Chief Creative Officer of monvee.

Here are a few things that distinguished monvee from anything else I’ve seen to help people growth in their faith:

• It’s web-based. People can access it at any time.
• It doesn’t involve the creation of new church programs, but it connects people to their local church.
• It walks people through a discovery process to identify their personalized spiritual growth plan. This is not a one-size-fits-all strategy or program.
• It recommends resources and practices to help people experience growth through their time, their mind, their experiences and their relationships.
• Even though this is a web-based solution, it helps bring people together.
• It is built to get smarter and recommend better resources as more people use the system.
• It measures spiritual growth rather than ministry participation.
• It has helpful dashboards built into the system to help church leaders monitor their spiritual growth of their people.
• Oh…and it doesn’t hurt that guys like John Ortberg and Dallas Willard have been involved in shaping the solution.

monvee is in beta right now. In fact, your church may be interested in participating. If so, church leaders can learn more about the beta phase and apply to join.

I’ll try to keep you posted as I learn more about this new tool to help churches help people grow spiritually.

I’ve had several more opportunities within the last couple weeks to connect with some great churches across the country. Here are the highlights:

• West Ridge Church (Dallas, GA) – I  attended a Sunday service at West Ridge with my family. Their senior pastor, Brian Bloye, is a solid guy. Love his heart for church planters in particular. I’m excited that West Ridge is my first stop on the Killing Cockroaches Summer Tour.
• Christ Fellowship (Miami, FL) – It was fun talking about leadership with the staff team at Christ Fellowship, and then discussing communications strategy with with their new communications group. And, I was honored to hangout with Eric Geiger, their executive pastor. You need to read his book, Simple Church, if you haven’t already.
• Harvest Church (Billings, MT) – No, I haven’t been to Montana, but it would be fun to make the trip at some point. I did, however, get to chat with Vern Streeter, the lead pastor at Harvest Church, about what’s happening in their ministry in Big Sky Country.
• VantagePoint Church (Eastvale, CA) – I got to hang out with Mark Lee and the team of VantagePoint for a day. The church launched about a year ago, and they’ve already had over 800 people attend their services in recent weeks. In case you’re wondering, that’s not normal. With that rapid growth in mind, we had a chance to talk about some next steps to help them continue to reach more people for Jesus.

I don’t exactly know what the future looks like, but I’m loving the chance I’ve had in recent weeks to connect with great leaders in vibrant churches across the country. It’s been a fun journey.