We had a cookout for folks who were interested in learning more about ICC today.  Once we pumped ‘em full of some of Dad’s world-famous grilled animal flesh, I got to cast the vision, explain why we are doing some of the stuff we’re doing, and invite people to join our launch team as we ramp up to our September 16th Kick-Off Sunday!

We had a decent turnout today (about 25% of our 1st service turnout, counting my family) and added 7 more to the Launch Team.  That brings us up over 20 if my math is correct – I can’t make an exact count right now because I’m “not working”.  I was reminded today of how much I already love Iron City Church.  Just the few folks on the Launch Team who GET IT inspire me and spur me on.

I’m stoked to spend some time with a local reporter this week, make some preparations for MAN DAY on June 17, and get out and meet some more of my neighbors! 

I hope you all had a great Memorial Day!  I thank God for the men and women who have died for the freedoms we enjoy in America.  More than that, I thank God for His Son who died for the spiritual freedoms I enjoy in Christ. 

I’m a lover of all most things marketing.  It is the way I’m wired.  Heck, if it weren’t for my high ethical standards, I might could “sell a ketchup popsicle to a woman in white gloves.”  I’m certainly no expert, but I have thoughts….

That being said, THE MOST STRATEGIC MARKETING plan isn’t enough to make a product (or a church) a hot commodity in and of itself.  For that to happen, there needs to be some BUZZ.  Ah, BUZZ: That hard to define, but easy to recognize quality that accompanies, even defines the latest, greatest thing.

In business its impossible to “guarantee” buzz.  It could be your product being used in a series of popular YouTube clips or TV shows.  It could be that a year after you wanted (and desperately needed) buzz, your product gets it because some celeb or athlete decided they suddenly liked it.  It could just be that it serves a double purpose you never intended for it.  The source, the final buzz generator, could be anything – or it just might not happen.

In church planting buzz is equally unpredictable.  However, the source in this case is the favor of God.  There are churches all over the country that are doing amazing things for God’s Kingdom by fusing creativity, innovation, authenticity, (insert your favorite church planting watchword here), etc. 

These are the churches whose blogs I subscribe to, whose pastors speak at all the big conferences, and whose unfathomable numbers reports baffle/inspire/disgust/overwhelm church planters nationwide each Monday morning.  They have – for whatever reason - found FAVOR with God and He is showing off through their ministries on a grand scale.

There is really no other explanation for it.  Meanwhile there are untold thousands of church plants and planters laboring away in anonymity — many doing a lot of the very same things that these other churches are doing, just without the astonishing fruitfulness.

What do we need to learn from this?  I think it was a Dwight Moody quote: we need to work like it all depends on us, and pray like it all depends on God. 

This is the prayer I’ve been praying for over a month now for Iron City Church (and especially this last week): That we would find favor with God.  That we would be faithful to do what He’s calling us to do and that He would reward that faithfulness with His incomparable favor – numerous lives throughout the Pittsburgh metro area transformed through the ministry of ICC – not for the sake of this church or me, but for the glory of Jesus Christ and for His Kingdom. 

I don’t know what it looks like, and I don’t want to share too much too soon, but I can already begin to see some possible signs that He’s doing His thing.  Hold on, join me in praying, and let’s see what happens….

While I am excited to be getting this trailer this weekend (another piece of the puzzle) I am SO ready to be done with all these 10, 11, 12 hour each way trips.  I am ready to just BE in Pittsburgh and spend time getting to know some people.

Observation: For about the last 2 months or so I have just been aching to get out and build relationships.  I am a very outgoing guy, but as I think through my life experience it normally takes me a while to warm up to a new area after a move.  So I’ve got this internal struggle going on: trying to learn/decipher a new city while knowing I need to (and wanting to) be actively making connections with people in the community.  On top of all that I’ve spent nearly every waking hour getting systems in place for last Sunday’s first service.  And then there’s the traveling….

Prediction: The further I go along this journey of starting Iron City Church, the more I’m going to appreciate all the prep time of the last few months.  Even now, my number one focus between now and Man Day (June 17) is investing in relationships and inviting people to church.  In effect, my prediction is that I’ll be thankful for front-loading the administrative tasks so that I can spend the bulk of my time from here on out on relational tasks…

Well, we’re traveling again.  This time its me and Dad my Catalytic Pastor (also known as: the rest of my pastoral staff, or one of the staff guys) – we drove down today to Cartersville, GA to get a trailer for ICC.  The plan is to hook up with Michael Lukaszewski from Oak Leaf Church in the AM and be back in the ‘Burgh by bedtime tomorrow night.

Michael went through the West Ridge School of Church Planting last year and then planted Oak Leaf – in less than a year they’re running over 500 meeting in a theater in Cartersville (a booming metropolis, I must say, from our minimal exploration tonight).  They do have a very nice iteration of Longhorn Steakhouse, though — two very full thumbs up!

I got the chance back in January to attend the Launch Conference in NYC with Nelson Searcy and his team from The Journey.  I’ve stated before that I think they’re some of the most practical guys out there.  Since then, they’ve done a few half-day versions of the same conference in Atlanta, Dallas, and Los Angeles.

And now they’re about to do it again in Charlotte (July 10) and Tampa (July 12).  If you’re a church planter, trying to determine a launch strategy, or a pastor looking to start new churches, this is a great opportunity for you.  The cost is only $49 (and they’re willing to offer partial scholarships if needed).

I highly recommend this if you’re in either of these areas!

I am a driven person.  This is me.  I work best under deadlines and when the pressure is on.  This is both a blessing and a curse.  It is great because I tend to get a lot done, especially when the heat is on and its go-time.  It is bad because when it goes unchecked it leaves me exhausted, my family wishing for a lucid husband/father, and my relationship with God in shambles because “there’s just not time”.

When harnessed, however, this is a great thing.  I believe God created me this way for just such a task as church planting.  He also has watched me at times go overboard and learn some serious lessons along the way.  That is why I’m so excited right now.  I really overdid it during the last few weeks, timewise, leading up to Sunday’s first service.  But that is becoming the exception in my life, not the rule.

Preaching wipes me out — it energizes me in so many ways, but physically I love that “poured out” feeling after delivering the message God has laid on my heart.  This was the case yesterday.  And rather than driving through it, pressing on zombie-like after some mythical goal of uber-masculinity, I laid down yesterday for a Sunday afternoon nap…

and woke up this morning.  And it felt great.  And I’m more rested today than I’ve been in months.  Thank you God for designing us with a rhythm.  And help me to find and maintain that healthy rhythm you desire for my life.

Let me begin by saying — Yesterday was an unbelievable day for me!

And for the life of Iron City Church, as well.  We had 48 people in attendance and the service was really smooth.  The vast majority of those 48 were church people who came to volunteer and support what we’re doing.  There were 2 or 3 prospective families in attendance, and each of them thought enough of the service to leave their contact info via the connection card so we can follow up with them.

I have rarely been a part of a first gathering of any group (church, para-church, etc.) that went off as smoothly as yesterday.  The patched-together band sounded great with David Christopher (of Faithbridge Community Church in McKees Rocks, PA) leading.  The service flows with only a couple of hiccups.  And the sermon went all right too.  I struggle with that end of things — not the preaching so much as my perception of the preaching.

Now for a little deeper authenticity: Was I hoping for a bigger turnout for this first monthly service? Yes.  Was I disappointed yesterday? Not at all!  My prayer all along for yesterday has been that God would bring out who HE wanted to be there and that He would give us a baseline to work from.  And He did that.  And most exciting to me is that we have most of the infrastructure in place, we know the facility is going to work out great, and I can spend the summer doing what I love — building relationships with people who don’t know Jesus and don’t care too much about church!

The whole day was a result of all the people praying for us, praying that God would show up — and show up He did!  On Saturday, I got calls, emails, and IM’s from California, Georgia, Alabama, Pennsylvania, and a bunch of other places.   All of those prayers were felt on Sunday.  Thanks!

And for the record: the Iron City experience has left the station…. please keep your arms and legs inside the car at all times!

I am so pumped about this Sunday!  So pumped that I can see right through all the junk that the devil is throwing at us this week.  He doesn’t stand a chance.

God has given a vision for Iron City Church to turn the city of Pittsburgh on its head for the glory of Jesus Christ!  I’m just crazy enough to believe that He is going to fulfill HIS VISION by reaching the 2.3 million people living in the Pittsburgh metro area with a church that makes disciple-making disciples and plants church-planting churches!

Lives will be transformed as we are faithful to share the Gospel creatively, passionately, and boldly!  And tonight I found a link to this video from Ken Wilson at Newspring Church in Anderson, SC.  They’re rockin’ the Upstate.  If you ever need a reminder about why we start new churches!  This video messed me up!

Here’s the link: http://www.avclub.us/video/streets.mov

I am a sign freak (mainly just a freak). I got to work with one of the best in the biz for 2 years in Savannah (Vital Signs – Pooler, GA) and it really messed me up. Now I can’t imagine slacking on signage.

Tonight the friendly UPS man delivered round two of our 3 rounds of sign orders. These are digitally printed interior directional banners for the lobby area.

Is there anything more frustrating than going to an unfamiliar place for the first time and finding inadequate signs?

Zooming out: I view a large part of my role as pastor of Iron City Church as removing as many obstacles as possible between the people we are trying to reach and God.

As petty as it sounds, there are people who walk away from their first visit to churches all over America frustrated and disappointed because of poor signage.

I pray to God that this will never be the case at ICC.

There is only one word for what’s going on inside of me — churning.

My stomach is churning because:

• My to-do list for the week is about 219.875 miles long (in spite of getting some things done today, somehow it got longer as the day went on)
• If UPS, FedEx, DHL, or the US Postal Service decides to crap out, we’re going to be doing without something on Sunday
• Our setup, parking, greeting, children’s, worship, and breakdown teams are comprised of various folks from various churches and various mindsets for this first Sunday
• I have yet to put the finishing touches on Sunday’s message, even though I’ve spent more time prepping for it than I have for any message I’ve ever shared

My mind is churning with excitement because: 

• I can’t wait to back the trailer up to the door of the school and set up. 
• I can’t wait to see new families walking through the door and getting to know their neighbors in the Iron City Cafe area. 
• I can’t wait to see all of our teams functioning as one body, in spite of being comprised of various folks from different churches and different mindsets
• I can’t wait to hear our patchwork quilt of a band get up and rock the house
• And I can’t wait to get up and preach the message God continues to shape inside of me! 
• I can’t wait to see who God brings out and how Sunday’s message affects them!
• I just can’t wait and my mind is churning like crazy!

Satan has been on the attack these last few days and you know what?  I’m glad.  If Iron City Church weren’t a threat, he wouldn’t bother.  Guess what — he already got whipped and I know the end of the story!  We’re here to make it hard to go to hell from Pittsburgh and I’m excited that God has given the chance to play a little part in what He’s doing here!!!