State of the Church (2004)
From the Series—State of the Church
January 29, 2004Next week we’ll begin a new series of evotionals from the book of Nehemiah titled Dream. This evotional is our annual state of the church evotional and it will explore three dimensions of NCC: our vitals, our connections, our dream, and our theme.
Rewind Button
In I Samuel 12 there is a changing of the guard. The prophet Samuel retires and Saul is crowned king of Israel. It marks a major shifting of the geopolitical plates— Israel essentially transitions from a theocracy to a monarchy. Here’s what Samuel does. And I think it’s what any good leader does during times of transition. He says in I Samuel 12:7, “Now stand here quietly before the Lord as I remind you of the great things the Lord has done for you.”
Samuel is saying, “Before we take another step let’s hit the rewind button.” And he reminds the Israelites of how they got where they are. That’s what this evotional is all about. NCC is growing so fast as a church that 64% of NCCers have attended less than one year. The significance of that is this: a lot of NCCers don’t’ know how we got here. So once a year we hit the rewind button and we do what Samuel did. He says, “Now stand here quietly before the Lord as I remind you of the great things the Lord has done for you.”
After hitting the rewind button, Samuel hits the fast forward button. He says, “Now stand here and see the great thing the Lord is about to do.” So Samuel reminds the Israelites of how they got where they are and then he tells them how they’re going to get where God wants them to go. This evotional is a look back at how we got where we are and a look ahead at how we’re going to get where God wants us to go.
Our Vitals
Every January I get a little nostalgic. It was eight years ago that the blizzard of ’96 swept through DC leaving record snowfalls and we set an attendance record that morning. The only people who showed up for church that morning were my wife, Lora, myself and our son, Parker, who was a baby. The good news is that we experienced a 533% increase in attendance in one week—we had 19 people our second Sunday. I still remember a lot of services that first year where we’d start the service with six or eight people in the auditorium.
The early years we experienced what I would call “good old-fashioned hard-earned growth.” There is nothing easy about church planting. If you’ve ever started a business or had children you know exactly what I’m talking about it. It’s hard work. And the truth is, 80% of church plants don’t see their second year. As I look back on those early days I think we could have very easily been part of that statistic.
It took us about five years to grow from 19 to an average attendance of 250. And 250 seems to be where we hit critical mass. In a little more than two years we’ve grown from an average attendance of 250 to our year-end average of 725. Now let me put those numbers in perspective.
Numbers
I Corinthians 3:6 is a biblical window on growth. Paul says, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things growth.” What Paul is saying is this: growth is a God thing. The last thing I’d want to convey is that this number represents some kind of human accomplishment. It doesn’t. All it conveys is that God is sending a lot of people our way. Here is one of my deepest held convictions: I don’t think anybody walks through our doors by accident. I think everybody is here by divine appointment.
Each number represents a person. Last week a group of teenagers caught me after the service. They’ve been serving this past year as congressional pages. It was their last Sunday and they told me, some of them through tears, what a difference NCC had made in their lives this past year! Hardly a week goes by that I don’t hear stories and read emails about people’s lives being touched. I could tell you story after story after story, but let me give you the reader’s digest version of one.
A year ago we started visiting movie theaters to try to determine where we would launch our second location. I still remember visiting Ballston for the first time in February and we met the assistant manager named Gavin. He bent over backwards to help us and I could tell that he was searching for something. Gavin grew up in a pretty pagan environment. He was also pretty lonely. Over the course of the last couple months, Gavin has plugged into NCC @ Ballston, joined several community groups, and last Friday night he was baptized— publically professing his faith in Christ.
I told Gavin that if he was the only one whose life was transformed we would launch a second location all over again! Every number represents a person. Every person represents a story. And every story represents a soul. I’m praying for more people, more stories, and more souls in the year to come!
2004 Giving
A second significant number in this year’s annual ministry report was $855,000. That number is our total giving for 2003 and it represents a 56% increase in giving over 2002.
To be perfectly honest, I’m at a loss for words when I look at that number. But let me try to communicate two things about that vital sign. First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone who has made an investment in what God is doing at NCC. After a message on investing during our Journey series, fifty NCCers committed to tithing —the spiritual discipline of giving the first 10% of our income back to God. During our pre-launch phase this past summer, NCCers invested $80,000 to help get Ballston off the ground. And so many other NCCers faithfully invest in what God is doing through NCC week in and week out.
Before we take offerings at NCC we often mention that giving is one way we worship God. So when I look at $855,000 I see $855,000 worth of worship! That’s a lot of worship. I believe the Lord is pleased and I believe it’s the best investment we can make because it pays eternal dividends.
2004 Missions
Let highlight one more number from our annual report. I think it’s the most significant number on the entire page: $130,000.
I still remember writing our first check to a missionary seven years ago. We weren’t even a self-supporting church yet, but I felt like we needed to practice what we preach. One of our core value is you cannot out give God. At the time, our total monthly income was $2000/month. For what it’s worth, 75% of that was eaten up by our $1500 check to rent the school where we were meeting. But we decided to start investing in missions. The next month we experienced a 300% increase in giving and we never looked back. Here’s a personal conviction: I believe the Lord has blessed us because He knows we’re not going to keep the blessing to ourselves. If we had said seven years ago, “We can’t afford to give to missions” I know one thing for sure: we wouldn’t be where we are financially!
Colossians 1:6 says, “All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing.” And we’re a part of that. In fact, the sun never sets on our missionary family.
We now support fifty-six missionaries and ministries in Washington, DC and around the world. From an orphanage in Egypt to a seminary in the Ukraine; from medical missionaries in Asia to church planters in India; from a campus ministry in Japan to riverboat pastors in the Philippines; our investment in missions in bearing fruit and growing. And someday we’ll meet people in heaven that we never knew on earth, but our investment in missions made the difference in their lives.
Church Planting
Let me mention one more development that I’m excited about. About every other week I’m contacted by a church planter who wants to meet with us or spend a weekend with us. There are dozens of churches across the country who are meeting in movie theaters because they’ve been inspired by our story. What’s exciting about that is this: we’re not just having an impact here in Washington, DC! Just as we’ve been inspired by other churches along the way, we’re inspiring another generation of church planters.
And we’ll take our investment in church planting to another level this next year. Scott Aughtmon has been on staff with us this past year, but his position has morphed. He is now our church planter in residence. He will continue to be on staff until June and then Scott and his wife, Sue, and their children Jack and Will will head back to California to plant a church. And we’re going to continue paying Scott’s salary to help them get the church off the ground. I’m excited about being a part of what God is going to do in California through this church plant.
Our Connections
Our mission as a church is to help people connect with God and others. Here are a few ways we’ll do that in 2004.
One way to connect at NCC is to plug into one of our small groups. We’re going to experiment with a semester system in 2004 and let me try to explain why. We’ve got some awesome community groups and community group leaders, but I think we realized this year that it’s tough to get plugged into our groups because there weren’t any entry points or exits points. And the truth is: most of us won’t commit to something unless we know how long it lasts. So we wanted to do something to make it easier to get in and get out of our groups. On 02.08 we’ll kick off our winter semester and we’ll give you what we’re calling a winter pass. That pass will list all of our groups meeting during the winter semester. So stay tuned for more info.
Another great opportunity to connect with God and others is the club. We’ve been doing reconnaissance and checked out dozens of DC clubs. We want to redeem a DC club on Sunday nights and turn it into a place to connect with God and others. And we’ve got some awesome opportunities planned. We’ll kick off with Catacombs in February and then we’ll do our annual variety show in March. We’re having the Robbie Seay band back in April and we’ll do everything from a comedy club to el concierto de la noche. The club is open to everyone! And it’ll be a great place to invite unchurched friends to.
Vision
Proverbs 29:18 says, “Without a vision the people perish.” The word “perish” has several meanings but probably the most graphic is “to rot.” It refers to a piece of fruit that is past its prime and beginning to rot. If you don’t have a God-given vision you begin to rot. If you’ve got a God-given dream you’re never past your prime!
Seven months ago, we had an offsite meeting at the National Cathedral to make a final decision about where to launch our second location. I spent most of my devotional time that day in the book of Joshua and I remember reading Joshua 13:1 where the Lord says, “There are still very large areas of land to be taken over.” I read that passage in the observatory that overlooks the entire DC area. You can see for miles in every direction. And the Lord did something in my spirit that is tough to put into words. At some point during the day I felt like the Spirit of God put a question in my spirit. I am always careful when I say something like that, but it was more than a strong feeling or personal thought. The question the Spirit of God put in my spirit was this: what if we never stood still?
Let me give you one of my theories. I think most church problems aren’t sin problems. I think most church problems are vision problems —there’s not a vision so the church begins to rot. And other problems are just symptoms of a visionless or dreamless church.
Here is my dream for NCC: I pray that we could never stand still. I pray that we’d always be taking the next hill —pursuing God-given dreams and visions. And I feel like that is one of our strengths as a church. Every year we pursue an annual dream. In 2003 we launched our second location on 09.21.03. In 2004 our dream is to build a coffeehouse on Capitol Hill.
Our Dream
On February 7, 2002 we purchased a piece of property at 2 nd and F Streets, NE. It is strategically located one block from Union Station, across the street from the Federal Judiciary building and kitty corner to what will be the largest office building in Washington, DC. To put it in real estate terms: location, location, location.
Our dream is a build a multi-level, multi-purpose building. The lower level will provide meeting space for community groups and coffeehouse concerts. I’m also excited about doing a Saturday or Sunday night service @ the coffeehouse. That lower level will have seating for 214. I’m also excited about the environment we’ll be able to create. It’s tough to put aesthetics into words, but we’ll have exposed brick and a fireplace and lighting that will give the lower level a very warm and comfortable and intimate feel to it.
The main level will be a first-class, fully-operation coffeehouse. We are a church in the middle of the marketplace and the last thing we want to do is build a church building that is only used on Sundays and become cloistered behind four walls. The driving vision behind the main level is to have a place where the church and the community can cross paths. We’ll open early and stay open late and it’ll be an environment where people love to hang out.
The upper level will provide offices and additional meeting space for community groups. Our staff has grown from three of us two years ago to ten of us today and we’ll add several new staff members this year so we need space to accommodate our growing team.
The Rest of the Story
Eight years ago, Lora and I moved into DC and I couldn’t help but notice a little run-down eyesore on the corner of 2 nd and F Street. It had this ugly green paint with graffiti all over the building and it was basically falling apart. Almost every time I walked by the building I would pray—not even sure why I was praying—but some seeds were planted in my spirit.
Over the years we did prayer walks around the neighborhood claiming that piece of property. I still remember prayer meetings at 205 F Street, NE —the town home we purchased in 1998—and literally laying hands on the wall that abuts 201 F Street.
To make a long story short, we purchased the property on February 7, 2002 but not without a miracle. We needed to come up with a 10% down payment and after exhausting all financial options we were $7500 short. I had no idea where that money was going to come from so we prayed about it. What happened was one of the most faith-building miracles I’ve ever experienced. Two days before the down payment was due, we got two totally random checks in the mail from people who had no idea we needed a down payment totaling exactly $7500.
After we purchased the property we held a “tear down the for sale sign celebration” because the “for sale” sign had been on the building for nearly two decades. Several neighbors attended the event and asked how much we had paid for the property. I told them $300,000 and every one of them said they had at some point offered more money for it.
I don’t know how else to say this: 201 F Street, NE belongs to God.
This week I was reading in I Chronicles 29 and I came across a verse that captured my heart. Solomon is getting ready to build the temple. And David says something that is so profound. He says, “This is not just another building—this is for the Lord God himself.” The coffeehouse is not just another building. It is an altar to the faithfulness of God.
Shareholders
In the coming weeks we will give every NCCer an opportunity to be part of the dream. Here’s my goal: I want every NCCer to be a shareholder. What I mean by that is this—I want every NCCers to have a vested interest in the dream.
When you walk into the coffeehouse for the first time I don’t want you to feel like a visitor. I want you to know that everything that happens —the community groups meetings, the concerts, the weekend services—happens, in part, because of the investment you made. I don’t want you to feel like a visitor. I want you to feel like a shareholder.
Our Theme
If I had to describe 2003 in one word it would be the word wider. I think the Lord enlarged our territory ala the prayer of Jabez. II had to describe in one word what I think God wants to do at NCC in 2004 it’d be the word deeper. There are four passages the Lord has put on my heart and these four passages are really four dimensions of discipleship.
I Timothy 3:9 says we must “keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience.” That is the intellectual dimension. One of our marquee series this year will be a seven-part series titled Creed where we will explore seven “deep truths.”
The second dimension is the emotional dimension. I Thessalonians 1:5 says “our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.” The truth can’t stay at a cognitive level. The goal isn’t to just grasp the truth. The goal is for deep truths to become deep convictions.
The third dimension is what I could call the mystical dimension of discipleship. I Peter 1 says, “You must travel with a deep consciousness of God.” I think one dimension of spiritual maturity is a growing awareness of everything God is doing in you and around you. My prayer is that you would have a deeper consciousness of God’s presence at the end of the year.
And the fourth and final dimension is the relational dimension. This is where the rubber meets the road. Ephesians 3:18 says, “I pray that you may grasp how long and wide and high and deep is the love of Christ.” My prayer is that you would have a deeper understanding of God’s love and a deeper love for others.
May the Lord take us deeper in 2004!