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Earlier this week I posted about the Church Volunteer Central conference. John Ortberg and Wayne Cordeiro are the keynote speakers. I looked at the dates wrong. The conference isn’t until next September 30 through October 2, 2009. (It’s not next week.) Now you have lots of time to plan.

Big news! We’ve opened up registrations for the Unleash Conference. The big event is on March 12, 2009 at NewSpring Church. Here are the essentials to keep in mind:

• It’s only one day - making it easier for both staff and volunteers to attend.
• Perry will teach two main sessions, and we’ll have two breakout sessions on over 20 different ministry topics.
• Because we sold out last year, we’re expanding to two locations. You can attend Unleash on the Anderson campus or at the Greenville campus. (fyi… I’ll be at the Greenville location.)
• The Greenville version will have a multi-site focus. Perry’s main sessions will be live using our new video technology, and the breakouts will hit a variety of multi-site topics.
• We’ll have NewSpring bands in both locations leading worship for the two main sessions.
• We’ve lowered the super-duper-early-bird price. It’s only $39 through October 29. (We know. We could charge more, but we want to make it as easy as possible for you to bring your team.)

Now, not to alarm you, but we did sell out last year. We have about 2,000 spots in Anderson. There are only about 1,000 spots available in Greenville. I recommend you register your team early to make sure you get to attend at the location and the price that best fits your group.

I’m looking forward to seeing you at Unleash 2009!

My friend Craig Groeschel, the senior pastor of LifeChurch.tv, has authored another book that was just released by Zondervan. The book is titled It: How Churches and Leaders Can Get It and Keep It. I recently caught up with Craig, and he agreed to participate in a little game of “5 Questions.” Here’s what he had to share:

TONY: For those who aren’t familiar with your story, please tell us a little bit about LifeChurch.tv.

CRAIG: We started Life Church in 1996 in a two-car garage that had been converted into a small dance studio. We were incredibly passionate about reaching people who didn’t have life in Christ. In the first nine months, we met in four different locations. In 2000 we had outgrown our facility and started meeting in two locations. Over the years, with a continued passion for evangelism, developing leaders, and leveraging technology to spread the gospel, we’ve expanded to 13 locations in six states, including an Internet Campus.

TONY: It sounds like you hit a home run at the Leadership Summit last month talking about “IT.” What’s IT?

CRAIG: You asked what IT is. I wish I could confidently answer that question. I can describe IT, but I can’t really define IT specifically. IT is something special that God does in some ministries. I know we can’t create IT. We can’t reproduce IT. One person rarely brings IT. But the “wrong” person can kill IT. Just because you have IT doesn’t mean you’ll keep IT. And if you don’t have IT, by seeking God wholeheartedly, you can get IT.

TONY: If that’s “IT,” why is your church still so committed to technology and media?

CRAIG: Many people misunderstand IT. (And for the record, I am only using IT as a generally descriptive term.) Although I can’t tell you specifically what IT is, I can tell you what IT is not. IT is not haze machines, great videos, cool buildings, or creative sermon titles. IT is something born in the heart of passionate people. The reason we continue to use technology and media is because we believe those things can be used to spread the gospel. They are not a requirement for IT. They are simply useful tools for getting IT out.

TONY: Lots of ministry leaders look to you for wisdom and encouragement. What leaders do you look to for inspiration and to challenge your thinking?

CRAIG: I look to a ton of leaders. I learn from you and your church. I’m a big blog reader. (Some of my favorite ministry blogs include yours, Tim Stevens, Monday Morning Insight, Perry Noble, Dave Ferguson and Steven Furtick. Bill Hybels, Andy Stanely, Rick Warren, and Ed Young have all spoken directly into my life as friends and as mentors. I also enjoy learning from business leaders in our church.

TONY: Folks may not know this, but you and your wife have six kids. Do you think sex is the key to church growth?

CRAIG: Not only is sex one key to church growth, but to a lot of other good things in life! :)

You can follow Craig daily at Swerve where he blogs with Bobby Gruenewald, one of the other pastors at LifeChurch.tv.

Today was the official release date for Lincoln Brewster’s new album, Today is the Day. The album is available on iTunes for download. It’s already the #1 downloaded Christian music album and, as of this post, it’s #21 overall on iTunes. You can catch a preview of one of his new songs here.

While we’re celebrating some cool news regarding one of my site sponsors, you may also want to check out these opportunities:

Church Volunteer Central is hosting a conference next week out in Colorado. Keynote speakers include John Ortberg and Wayne Cordeiro. You also get to pick from eight different workshop trails for developing people and unleashing your volunteer ministry.

Collision Media has joined as the newest sponsor. They’re a full-service web, print, photo, and video design company with a special emphasis on church media. Collision Media’s clients include organizations like Focus on the Family, Sprint/Nextel, Univision and LifeChurch.tv.

Is your business or organization interested in joining the site sponsorship team? Shoot me an email to get more details.

I guess God was trying to get my attention this morning.

First thing you need to know about me is that when it comes to the local church and reaching more people for Jesus in an ever-changing culture, I’m a glass-is-half-full-type of guy. (In fact, I think it’s probably much fuller.) In just about every other area of life, regrettably, I’m wired up as a pessimist. It sucks. I worry. I try to control. It impacts relationships from time to time. I don’t like that part of me, and I’m trying to fix it. God wants me to fix it.

That leads me to this morning. In my current reading plan through the Bible, I’ve landed in Matthew 6. For worry-warts like me, this is a familiar passage. I hate this passage. It helps magnify how human I am. Jesus tells me, “Do not worry about your life.” He then goes on to describe how I need to get my focus on the bigger picture, trust in God and learn to live out his plan for me today. He’ll tackle the challenges (or joy!) that tomorrow will bring. I know from experience that the formula works. You’d think I’d learn.

Then, just to prove that God thinks I’m a slow learner and need an extra push, immediately after closing my Bible I see a link from David’s Twitter feed to this post. He indicates, “If you think you’re in a recession, you are.” He goes on to explain:

“The very best way to get out of a recession is do something really important that helps people: to be in a business that allows you to be obsessively, compulsively preoccupied with the needs of others; to have great products that deliver on everything that they promise; to do what you love and love what you do; to be smart, to save, and to hold in reserve the financial, emotional, physical, and spiritual wherewithal you’ll need to weather difficult times.”

David is smart. Jesus is smarter. I’m still learning.

Now you know how God speaks to me. I’ve never heard the audible voice of God tell me what to do, but God still has a way of getting my attention and pointing me in the right direction. Life would be easier if I always listened. Now you know how to pray for me.

When was the last time you heard from God, and what was he trying to tell you?

In today’s service, Perry talked about baptism. We had hundreds of folks commit to being baptized on October 4 at events we will hold simultaneously in Greenville and Anderson. Here are some lines from Perry’s message that grabbed my attention:

• “I was poor. I had to go to Kentucky Fried Chicken and lick other people’s fingers.”
• “A disciple isn’t someone who knows a lot of information. It’s someone who says, ‘Jesus, I will follow you.’”
• “Would it be the Spirit of God or Satan that wants to keep the Church small?”
• How do we baptize? “We baptize by immersion.”
• Why do we baptize? “It’s about God gaining glory.”
• When do we baptize? “Salvation then baptism.”
• “Jesus walked about 60 miles to get baptized.”
• “Preacher Jim was a big man - big enough to go bear hunting with a switch.”
• About his daughter, “I can’t pick her team. She has to pick her own team.”
• “I would have punted the goose and laughed the whole time.” (Funny story. You’ll have to watch the video.)
• “Quit running from things you don’t need to run from.”

Baylor University released a survey last week that summarized research on spiritual issues in the U.S. The results may surprise you. Among other things, they researched big churches and found some interesting results.

“Their members are also younger, they share their faith more with strangers, and they perform more volunteer work than do members of small churches”

“There are many critics who think the megachurches thrive on people who enjoy dramatic Sunday services with fine music but don’t wish to become very ‘religious’ on a day-to-day basis - that the megachurch appeal is a mile wide and an inch deep,” said “What Americans Really Believe,” a companion book to the survey.

“But it is not true. Those who belong to megachurches display as high a level of personal commitment as do those who attend small congregations.”

Rodney Stark, the co-director of Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion, added, “Apparently they are preaching Jesus and that’s why they get so big.”

Check out the rest of the Washington Times article. There are other spiritual topics that the survey addressed that certainly deserve attention.

I admit it. Pink’s new song, “So What,” is very catchy. The song has climbed to number one in iTunes. Check out what she’s expressing as a woman about her relationship with a man:

So so what?
I’m still a rock star
I got my rock moves
And i don’t need you
And guess what
I’m having more fun
And now that we’re done
I’m gonna show you tonight
I’m alright, I’m just fine
And you’re a tool
So so what?
I am a rock star
I got my rock moves
And i don’t want you tonight

I’m not condemning Pink for revealing the wounds she has experienced from men. It makes me wonder, though, is it just a catchy tune or is the song popular because the words of the song resonate with women? Have men helped fuel an identity crisis for women?

That brings me to our conversation yesterday. We confirmed in our creativity meeting that we’ll be launching a series at NewSpring in October to address this very issue. Last spring we did a series targeted to men. As Perry promised, we’re going to return the favor for women in October. It’ll be called “Beautiful: a Series for Women and the Men who Pursue Them.”

You may not know it, but Jesus had a lot to say about women and their identity. I’ve seen outlines of what Perry plans to share in this series. I can assure you, women will walk away with an entirely new perspective of themselves. And, honestly, I think men are going to really appreciate the frank nature of this conversation as well. Speaking from experience, there’s nothing more beautiful (and sexy) than a woman who fully grasps her identity in Christ.

Get ready to see Perry show off his rock moves. Watch for more details about this new series starting October 19 at both the Anderson and Greenville campuses.

Let me introduce you to the newest member of my team, Zac Smith. Zac will be filling the role of IT Director here at NewSpring. He’ll be joining us after moving his family from the Denver area to the Upstate region. Here’s a brief interview I did with him to help you get to know him.

TONY: Tell us a little bit our your spiritual journey.

ZAC: I grew up in Ecuador as the son of Baptist missionary parents. I believed in Jesus and trusted Him for salvation at an early age. During my college years, I was relatively unchurched and though I challenged my beliefs, I always came back to a solid belief in God. I met Mandy (his wife) in college. She was a believer, though we both acknowledge we were not living as we should. Our path led us to Los Angeles area where we decided we should regularly attend church. God worked on our hearts and we saw a need for a young-married group — so we started one. Through the friendships that blossomed in that group, I found myself deeply involved in the college ministry — eventually becoming the lay college pastor. I enrolled in Talbot Seminary and began pursuing a Master’s in Philosophy of Religion. A few months later, Mandy and I decided to move to Colorado. There I attended both Fuller and Denver Seminaries and my increasing knowledge about the church increased my frustration with the way I saw church being done. Our struggles have led us to the point we are at now: to a church where less is more; a church we are simply excited to attend.

TONY: Share with folks about your previous jobs and how they’ve prepared you for the IT Director role at NewSpring.

ZAC: I have been in a variety of IT jobs throughout my career — each of which has given me value for the IT Director role at NewSpring. I worked as a sysadmin in both first-level and then third-level mission critical for MCI’s call centers. There I learned the basics of making people happy, solving problems quickly and efficiently, and understanding how to support a large dynamic system of systems. Next I worked in, and then managed, a team of System/Network Administrators at Northrop Grumman. This was a complete operation in a DoD Classified environment where we were responsible for servers, desktops, switches, cabling, storage appliances, and user support, while also looking to future architecture needs. I then came back to MCI, which then became Verizon, and worked as an Enterprise Architect for a few years. The focus was on standardization, consolidation, and right-sizing. We worked with hundreds of internal customers to architect the right solution for their projects. Most recently, I worked as a Sales Engineer/Enterprise Architect for Sun Microsystems. This job was a blend of real-world sales with consulting. I did both pre-sales engineering and post-sales consulting for many large corporations, most notably the largest company on earth: WalMart. In the end, I see a variety of skills that collectively form a unique blend that fits perfectly with the path NewSpring is taking: solving problems, customer service, leadership, and architecture of future solutions.

TONY: It’s a huge jump from the marketplace to ministry. How has God prepared you for that transition?

ZAC: Since our time in LA, the option of working for a church/ministry has always been there. We just have never found the right balance of [Shane Duffey's formula] burden and opportunity. From a job standpoint the fit seems right and — perhaps I am being ignorant — I am not worried. I am curious about the intermingling of our church life with my job life, but I sense that will only result in a crazy level of community. From a financial standpoint, I see now that God has been preparing us for this. Earlier this year, at Denver Seminary, I worked with some mentors on developing a plan for financial dependence. My thesis was that we are not ever to be financially independent; we should always depend on God no matter how much money we may have. I felt like I really learned that lesson then, but now I see that we are only beginning to learn that lesson! The cool part is that we are prepared for it.

TONY: What are you most excited about as you prepare start your role at NewSpring?

ZAC: The most exciting thing about starting at NewSpring is to be able to bump into (or trip) Tony Morgan in the hallway. But seriously, there is a great deal of excitement related to being surrounded by so many cool people. There are two things I see that excite me. First, I am so pumped about the Internet campus concept and coming up with a way to make that happen. Second, I am stoked to be instantly involved in NewSpring. I am on board and fully committed to the mission and vision — I just can’t wait to be part of that worship experience every week.

TONY: Why do you think technology is so important to our mission as a church?

ZAC: Technology is going to be the way that NewSpring is able to reach 100,000 (or more) for Christ. I share the opinion of senior leadership that only with an aggressive reliance on cutting [bleeding] edge technology. I am also deeply impressed with NewSpring’s willingness to fail. The fact that failure is an option does not allow for mediocrity, but rather increases the risk/reward continuum.