What’s even more impressive is it only took Derek Sivers less than three minutes to make his point. This is his entire talk from the TED Conference.

TobyMac’s newest album, Tonight, released today. I love his music, and I want to give you a chance to love it too. Here’s your chance to listen to the album one time in its entirety for free:

By the way, I have a special treat for you. I’m going to be streaming a live event with TobyMac next Tuesday evening right here on my website. You’ll get to hear some music and the stories behind the new album. Stay tuned for more details.

If you like what you hear, you can download the new album using my Amazon link. See you back here next Tuesday evening.

I’ve been working on my calendar today. Here’s where I’m going to be heading over the next several months:

• Launching two new coaching networks here in Atlanta and on the Web
• Speaking to the staff of 12Stone Church in Lawrenceville, Georgia
• Speaking at the Velocity Conference in Cumming, Georgia
• Consulting with The Rock Church in Monroe, Washington
• Speaking at the “Killing Cockroaches Tour Stop” in Seattle (Register for free!)
• Consulting at Cornerstone Church in Auburn, Alabama
• Attending the Exponential Conference in Orlando
• Consulting at Brand New Church in Harrison, Arkansas
• Speaking at The Whiteboard Sessions in Virginia Beach

I may be able to squeeze in one or two more stops between now and the end of May. The summer schedule is starting to fill up as well, so now is the time to connect if I can serve you and your church. Let me know if you’d like to talk.

I’m really excited to announce two leadership openings at a church here in the Atlanta region. Mountain Lake Church in Cumming, Georgia is hiring both an executive pastor and a children’s pastor. Mountain Lake was planted by its lead pastor, Shawn Lovejoy. The church is about ten years old. It meets in a brand new facility and currently runs about 2,500 people in attendance.

If you are interested in either role, please email William Vanderbloemen, my teammate at FaithSearch Partners, with questions or to submit your resume. All correspondence is kept in strict confidence. If you want to chat with me about either role and see Mountain Lake Church, then attend the ChurchPlanters.com conference, Velocity, in two weeks.

On another note, we have been able to secure ten free tickets to the Velocity Conference. We have decided to give those away to the first ten children’s pastors who contact us. Just send William your email address and a contact phone number. He and I will announce the winners in a couple of days. See you at Velocity!

Here are some pictures from my recent trip to Burkina Faso. I’ll post more about my experience in the coming days, but the pictures capture more than I could ever communicate in writing. Click on the button to turn on the background music if you’d prefer.

As more and more churches embrace multi-site, one of the first issues that ministries have to wrestle with is whether to invest in technology to deliver messages live or to consider the cheaper (and sometimes more reliable) option of just using a DVD of the message. For those churches that choose the latter and don’t have a Saturday evening service for recording the message, that often means they’re operating on a week-delay at their remote campuses.

Before folks began to embrace social media, the option of week-delay was very viable. In fact, in many respects it could be preferable because you have much more flexibility with the timing of the services and the length of the service elements leading up to the message.

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you view it), social media changes the game. Now folks are sharing thoughts and reactions about their experiences as the services are taking place. People are using Facebook and Twitter to let their friends know what’s happening as the service unfolds. Then it’s not uncommon for someone, possibly even the teaching pastor, to summarize the highlights of the service including the message. That potentially creates a challenge for campuses who won’t be viewing that message for another week.

Ironically, the television networks are wrestling with this same issue. In years past, events like award shows were delayed on the west coast to make sure the programming took place in prime time. With the increase in social media, though, folks on the west coast were seeing the results before the programs were televised. As a result, viewers declined. Christina Warren, a blogger for Mashable, recently wrote:

Social media has only made the need for live programming even more clear. In the old days, web forums or IM chats or liveblogs could give people the play-by-play, but people had to know where to look. Now, live events immediately take over Twitter and Facebook streams. If you don’t want the surprise to be spoiled, you pretty much have to stay off any social network during the live telecast.

So the question is will this same dynamic impact churches? Will the increasing use of social media make week-delayed messages a thing of the past? For those of you who are engaged in multi-site and multi-service settings, have you noticed any negative reaction?

West Ridge Church is working with other ministries to plant new churches across the world. In the coming months, we will be launching a new network to identify future church planters, train them through our school of church planting and provide financial resources to help them get started. This network will also engage existing churches to leverage the synergy of our combined experiences and to provide an ongoing relationship for church planters.

Before we can do that, though, we need to find a special person. We’re trying to find the leader who will work with us and our partner churches. This person will help us make it all happen. You might label this role the “executive director” or the “chief launch officer,” but, regardless of the title, this is a big role for a big leader. Here’s an example of what we’re looking for:

• Leader – You know how to lead and empower a diverse group of people.
• Connector – You desire to network with people and ministries and understand the power of “we.”
• Evangelist – You are a gifted storyteller and know how to spread that story through personal and online engagement.
• Strategic Thinker – You envision the steps that it takes to get from here to there.
• Character – You’ve demonstrated integrity over the years in your words, relationships and actions.
• Likability – You are someone others (especially me) loves to be around.
• Experience – You’ve helped plant healthy, growing churches…but not necessarily as the senior pastor.

Ultimately, this person will be employed by the network. Initially, West Ridge Church will be picking up the tab. Ultimately, you will be working for the team of pastors that will make up the new network board. Initially, you will be working directly with Brian, a couple other pastors and me to get the beta version of this network shipped.

Read Seth Godin’s new book. (That’s my Amazon affiliate link.) We’re looking for a “linchpin.” This is going to be the dream role for the right “artist” with the right passions to see hundreds of new churches launched in the coming years. We want to see life change. We want communities to be transformed.

Selfishly, I’m looking for a ministry friend and partner. The two of us are going to be doing life together. If that scares you, please don’t apply. If this post makes your mind race, you may be our person. If you’re interested, shoot me a note and let’s begin the conversation.

Vince Antonucci is touring the blog world today to let people know about his new book, Guerrilla Lovers: Changing the World with Revolutionary Compassion.  I’m excited to be a part of it and get to ask Vince about his book.

TONY: So Vince, I appreciate you challenging people to become guerrilla lovers, but I guess what I’m wondering is if it really makes a difference in people’s lives…

VINCE: That’s the question, isn’t it?  Here’s part of my answer:

There’s a twelve-year-old named Jacob who has been coming to the church I started in Virginia Beach most of his young life. One chilly November morning Jacob left his house to walk to the bus stop. As he walked up something stopped him. It was a rock. The kids at the bus stop were throwing rocks at him. They were also shouting. “You’re fat.” “Go home you faggot!” “Don’t cry, you fat faggot!” Jacob ran home, blinded with rage and shame, tasting the salt of his tears. His mother was surprised to see him, but after learning what happened, told Jacob she would drive him to school. Jacob knew the same bullies would be at school and begged to stay home, but his mother insisted he go.

That night the rest of his family heard about what happened. His older brother said, “Tomorrow morning we’re gonna go there together and beat those kids up.” His parents discussed calling the bully’s parents.

But Jacob had a different idea.

He explained that he wanted to invite the kid who had been most abusive to sleep over on Saturday night and go with the family to church on Sunday. His parents were flabbergasted. They asked, “Jacob, why would you want to do that? I mean, after what he did to you?”

You know why? Jacob had learned about being a guerrilla lover. Jacob was a guerrilla lover.

And the next day Jacob invited his attacker to sleep over and come to church with his family. Surprisingly, he said yes. That Saturday night he slept over, that Sunday he came to church, and he’s been going to church with Jacob every Sunday since.
That’s guerrilla.

Thanks Vince! You may order Vince’s book using my Amazon link.   There’s also all kinds of free resources for pastors, guerrilla assignments, and more at www.guerrillalovers.com.