Since I’m the "family guy" this weekend, I thought I’d try to find a church somewhere in the country that’s trying to help people develop stronger families. Not only did I find a cool weekend series, I found a cool church…or is it churches?

Seacoast Church in South Carolina is actually one church in nine different locations. They have become one of the poster-children for the multi-site movement that’s beginning to take hold in many places across America. The Leadership Network has done some great research and put together training and other resources to equip churches interested in learning more about the multi-site strategy.

This weekend you can go to any of Seacoast’s nine locations to catch their current series, Family Lies. Here’s the preview from the Mount Pleasant location. I love the cartoon intro to catch people’s attention and give them a sneak peek of what they can expect to see this weekend. It looks like a fun series.

So, if I wasn’t attending the Saturday evening service at Granger Community Church this weekend, I’d go to Seacoast Church, and that makes them my cool church of the week.

I received a fun message from Dave Cox, the senior pastor at Westside Family Church, with an update on what’s happening with the Hollywood Jesus series that I featured in my cool-church-of-the-week post. Here’s the update from Dave:

The series has been great. We did one week each on movies, music and literature. Used a lot of [Granger's] stuff. We changed up the music more than the movies one. Our folks actually "got" the music message better. They liked the movies one but understood better what we were doing and why after the music week. 

Our band did a montage of music by Evanescence, U2, and Joan Osborne. We took cuts/clips from Kanye West, Audioslave, Sting, Tim McGraw, Kansas, and Michelle Branch. Then we closed with this awesome song by Jewell called "Absence of Fear." Very positive impact. All in all, worth the risk.

Thanks for the kind words. Westside is a work in progress for sure. We’re learning from those of you out there on the edge and trying to figure out how to take what we learn and put into our environment. God continues to pour large amounts of grace out on us, which blows my mind. When I visit with others about what’s happening here, we always take a look at I Cor. 3:6 to make sure everyone knows who gets the credit for the growth. 

We launched service #8 in February on Saturday night and have filled up all the prime time seats that were vacated when we created it. We’re now averaging between 3500-3700. That’s our new lid until we can launch an additional service or venue. Construction is going slow on our new campus. We won’t be in until this time next year, but I guess that will be here before we know it.

Dave said some other nice stuff that I’ve deleted to spare you from having to read how swell he thinks we are at Granger. We obviously have some people schnookered. (Old people use the word "schnookered." I’m getting old, aren’t I?)

Guys like Dave are my heroes. Eight services in one weekend? That’s craziness. I’m grateful that he’s doing it, though, because it’s helping people meet Jesus in Kansas.

Thanks for the update, Dave!

We’re not in Kansas anymore–or are we?

As I mentioned in a previous post, I visited Hollywood Boulevard earlier this week and saw the sites and the stars. With that in mind, I thought I’d try to find a church this weekend that was intentionally addressing the hot topics of the culture and helping people embrace the spiritual conversations that surround us in everyday life.

Well, believe it or not, I found just such a church in Kansas. Westside Family Church is located in the suburbs of Kansas City, and they’re is in the middle of a series called "Hollywood Jesus: Our Search for God in the Pop Culture." This is a spin-off of the "Pop Spirituality" series that’s available at WiredChurches.com.

I met Westside’s senior pastor, Dave Cox, out at a conference at Saddleback Church several years ago. Dave has built a great team and a phenomenal ministry to bring Jesus to the west side of Kansas City. And, as this series demonstrates, they’re not afraid to push the envelope by delivering biblical truth using a culturally relevant theme.

So this weekend if I wasn’t attending Granger Community Church, I’d follow the yellow brick road to Kansas and check out Westside Family Church. They’re my nominee for the next star on Hollywood Boulevard, and that makes them my cool church of the week.

This week I celebrated my anniversary. Emily and I have been married for 14 years now. We actually dated for about six years before that. (I don’t recommend that for anyone.) Em and I were high school sweethearts. Yes, that means we were both Piquads.

Since marriage was on my mind this week, I decided to find a cool church somewhere in the country that was talking about that very topic. And, wouldn’t you know it, I ended up finding just such a church in Las Vegas, Nevada–the place where there must be more wedding chapels per capita than any other place in the world.

Canyon Ridge Christian Church is launching a series based on the TV show CSI this weekend. Their very first message will take a look at the DNA of a great marriage. I love it when a church takes a topic that’s relevant to people’s lives, packages it with a theme that’s hot in today’s culture, and uses that opportunity to teach biblical truth to help people take their next step toward Christ. In fact, that’s a great formula for encouraging life transformation.

Relevant Topic + Strategic Theme + Biblical Truth = Life Transformation Potential

Fourteen years ago I was ready to elope to Las Vegas so I could start the rest of my life with Emily. We elected the more traditional church wedding to launch our marriage. I’m glad there are churches like Canyon Ridge, though, who are willing to use non-traditional approaches to help people build strong marriages.

Now, do you want to hear the highlights of our honeymoon?

There’s one thing you should probably know about me, and that’s the fact that I have a strong aversion to traditions particularly as it relates to holidays. Because of that, I typically hate going to church on holidays like Christmas, Easter and Mother’s Day.

I think the reason that bugs me so much is because there are some people that only go to church on holidays. If churches deliver the exact same holiday message that they used last year and the year before that and the year before that, then these holiday-only types never hear anything new. Likely, that also means they never experience a message that leads them to Jesus and life transformation.

With that in mind, I set about trying to find a cool church somewhere in the country that wasn’t advertising a traditional Mother’s Day message this weekend. As you might expect, it was a pretty difficult task. There are lots of opportunities out there for those of you who are looking for a sappy, "Mom’s are the best" service this weekend.

As for me, I’ve decided that if I wasn’t attending the new "Stomp Out Loud" service at Granger Community Church this weekend (not your mother’s traditional Mother’s Day service), I’d probably visit NewSong Church in Irvine, California. NewSong is in the middle of a series they’ve titled "Blink." The series is focused on the choices we make. Senior Pastor Dave Gibbons is helping people understand that the decisions they make, sometimes in the blink of an eye, can dramatically impact what happens in people’s lives. While you’re checking out the NewSong site, make sure you read about the new multi-site venue they’re hoping to launch in southeast Asia. That’s a vision!

Well, I hope I haven’t offended you pastors that will passing out pansies to all the moms this weekend. Your ministry will probably survive the experience, but, really, you should have called 1-800-ASK-TONY.

Word to your mother.

Today I live in Granger, Indiana, but I grew up in Piqua, Ohio. Since I once lived in Piqua, that means I used to be a Piquad (pronounced "pick-wad"). That’s what they call people who live in Piqua. As if the Hoosier jokes aren’t enough, now you can start telling jokes about the guy that you know that used to be a Piquad.

Well, we have an exciting weekend planned at Granger Community Church. If I was traveling back home to Ohio, though, I’d visit Crossroads Community Church in Cincinnati. This weekend they’re hitting the third message in a clever series on prayer called "Fresh Breath." When you visit their website, you’ll also want to check out their online edition of Insight, the church’s magazine.

Crossroads Community Church is my cool church of the week. It may not be as cool as being a Piquad, but it’s still pretty darn cool.

I’ve scoured the Internet and decided if I wasn’t attending Granger Community Church this weekend, this is the church in Indiana I would visit: Northview Christian Life Church in Carmel, Indiana. Good website. Sharp looking leadership team. I appreciated hearing a sample of their music on the Visiting Northview page. And, it doesn’t hurt that this weekend they’re hitting a…how should I say this? Well, let’s just call it a very relevant topic. It’s encouraging to see Northview helping to promote strong marriages in the suburbs of Indianapolis.

Someone at Crossroads Church in Corona, California will be in Hawg Heaven on May 22nd. That’s when the church will draw the name of the winner of a brand new Harley Davidson motorcycle. Crossroads is celebrating the grand opening of their new 3,000-seat auditorium, and in their current series, "Adventures in Friendship," they’re using the Harley give-away as an incentive to attract first-time visitors to the church. Through this program, first-time visitors or members who bring first-time visitors are entered into the drawing to win the Harley.

Crossroads is using the give-away to encourage evangelism and reach out to the community. Senior Pastor Barry McMurtrie explained, "Our goal is to become a community gathering place and this program supports that vision!"

So, I guess if you happen to be in Corona, CA, you may want to visit Crossroads and enter the big drawing. Needless to say, you must be present for the drawing on May 22 to win.