As I mentioned, my friend Tony from Indy and I were blessed with tickets to Letterman last Thursday and we both agreed that an experience like that had to be blogged about.  In keeping with the spirit of the Late Show, we each decided to roll out our “Top Ten” list.  Here we go:

Top Ten Things I Learned From Letterman:

10. If we’re ever going to be taken seriously, Iron City is going to have to invest in letter jackets.  Lots of them.  All of Dave’s flunkies wear ‘em.

9. Instead of just inviting people to church at 10 AM, we need to have them get in line around 7 or so and get their tickets, then return by 9:30 for #8.

8. Coaching.  And lots of it.  There’s nothing like a team of 18-25 year olds explaining how you can respond (nothing high pitched) and when you can laugh (ALL THE TIME).  We need this if anyone is ever going to start “getting” my jokes.

7. We need to replace the ushers at ICC with “smile monitors” to walk around before and during the service to make sure everyone looks like they’re having a good time.

6. I need a mug girl (to bring out a drink during every commercial break).  Paul has one.  Dave has one.  Tommy needs one.

5. Speaking of commercial breaks, we need those too.  What pastor couldn’t use a couple of minutes mid-sermon for a re-write or two?

4. We need to scratch the welcome time and announcements.  We’re hiring a stand-up comedian to come in and warm up the crowd.

3. Tape at 5, air at 11:30.  And none of the goofs make it through.  Hmmm.  We definitely need to look into tape delay.

2. Wanna put butts in the seats?  Two words: Howard Stern

(drumroll please….)

1. It doesn’t have to be all that good if you can just get people to respond like it is!

It was actually a great experience (thanks Tony) and I had a really good time.  And with Howard Stern as the only guest that night, it was just a bonus (please note the tiny bit of sarcasm).  Anyhoo.  Another item checked off of my “wonder what that’s like” list.  I have a new found respect for the folks that put on a show like that night after night after night . . . .

I had a great time Thursday and Friday in New York City.  I am privileged to be a part of a coaching network with about 15 other pastors from all over the country that meets once a month.  This month’s meeting was last Friday and I was able to break away Thursday and spend some time in the Big Apple. 

I got to spend some time hanging out with my friend Tony Portell and he scored and shared some tickets to the Late Show with David Letterman Thursday night (more on this in my next post).  I don’t know if it was just being out of town or what, but I had the best night’s sleep Thursday night that I have had in a long time.  The only downer of the entire trip was that my flight back home got cancelled Friday and thankfully Jeff was able to get me on another one.  Different airline, different airport, but thankfully they knew where Pittsburgh was.

The network meeting was great on Friday.  I have often said that the journey of planting a church for me has been often marked by great periods of self-discovery: learning and observing who God made me to be.  One thing I know about myself is that I am a passionate learner.  Another thing that I’m fast discovering is that I learn very well in a “learning community” like this network. 

I am a consummate brain-picker (if that’s a word) and this group is just that kind of an opportunity. There are a lot of guys who have been where we are as a church and led their churches much further down the road.  And the guy that leads the group - Nelson Searcy - may be on the list of people I am obligated to name a child after because of all the help he has been to me and ICC, but don’t hold me to that (and don’t tell Amber).

All in all, if you are a pastor or church leader I would highly recommend being involved in a coaching network.  If nothing else, find a group of people who are like-minded and all have similar aims and begin sharing information.  Why should you be willing to share the stuff that God has been teaching you?  One word: KINGDOM!

Yesterday was a great one at ICC.  Setup was a little hectic, but we finally made some upgrades we’ve been wanting to make for months now.  I was out of town for a couple of days this week and Jeff went into turbo mode getting things done (maybe I should leave town more often).  One of our partner churches loaned us a sound system, which was right on time, and we upgraded some things in the Iron City Kids area.  We had another solid crowd (45) and about 6 first time guests.

I’m loving this series we’re in right now.  It’s called “Together” and we’re looking at what our church is called to be and to do together.  At ICC, we say we’re “Charged, Challenging, and Life-Changing.”  We looked yesterday at “Together We’re CHARGED,” and discussed why we do what we do on Sunday mornings.  I thought it was well received and hopefully will help people get involved in reaching out and inviting people to church.

The band was rocking and finished out the day with a hair raising version of “Born to be Wild.”  I really enjoyed the message yesterday because it is something I feel extremely passionate about — making sure our weekend services serve as an opportunity for corporate worship, a challenge to apply the Bible, and especially as an open door to people who are far from God.  I really feel like we’re poised to see some even more amazing things in the coming weeks and months at ICC.

Here’s the link for the message downloads: http://www.ironcitychurch.com/downloads.html

I am privileged to be a part of a coaching network.  It is a group of about 15-20 pastors from all over the country and meet once a month with Nelson Searcy in a “learning community” in New York City.

So I’m sitting in the Pittsburgh Airport (thanks for the free wi-fi) getting ready to head out.  I’ll share later about my experience.  If you’re reading this soon, please pray for safe travel and that I would learn everything I can to become the leader God created me to be.

Peace out.

For anyone who may be interested, I’m using the 1 Year Bible reading plan from YouVersion.com this year.  Very well done, and you know the Kingdom-minded folks at LifeChurch.tv (who developed YouVersion) continue to fine tune the system.  Thanks guys!

Here’s the link: http://www.youversion.com/1yearbible.php

Can we finally give up this ridiculous argument that the Big Ten (or any other conference) is better than the SEC?

With about a minute left, it looks like my boys from LSU are putting the wraps on a fairly thorough whipping of “the” Ohio State University…

I’m a bit embarassed to say this, but this is a bittersweet moment.  Yes, my team is on the verge of winning their 2nd national title in 4 years, but this also means that there is less than a minute of college football left in this season.

sniffle, sniffle, wipe — I’ll cry about that tomorrow. 

I’ve got to go celebrate! 38-24 LSU!

GEAUX TIGERS!!!!! National Champs!!!

This may not seem like a huge deal, but it is to me.  Since last summer, Brandon Pyles has been helping us out by leading worship.  With all of his other responsibilities elsewhere that was really the best way to say it: he was leading worship for us.

As of a couple of weeks ago, however, that changed.  Brandon let me know that he was ready to step up and so he is now “officially” our Worship Leader. 

Why is that such a big change?  Because it’s really hard to build a solid worship band with “a guy who’s leading worship for us” and I love having someone that I get along with and click with officially “in charge” of that area of our ministry. 

He is a genuine leader and is himself eager to grow.  In addition, he’s passionate about this church and God’s Kingdom.  I thank God for Brandon and all of the musicians that he is privileged to lead.  Can’t wait to see where it goes from here…

Sunday was another good day at ICC.  We kicked off our new “Together” series with the New Year’s ReVolution.  It was basically a reminder of God’s vision for Iron City Church.  Then I got to lay out some of our plans as a church for 2008. 

I had a great time, but I get so amped up when I’m preaching on those things which are closest to my heart that I feel like I have a hard time staying focused.

Here are the high points from yesterday’s message:

• The Together series lays out what we believe the church should be: a family on a mission
• The word “revolution” has two basic meanings —  1) a complete path around a central point or axis (in our case, Jesus at the center of everything we do), and 2) a sudden or momentous change in a situation — and both apply to what the church should be about
• In 2008, ICC will grow larger – by continuing to connect with people from all walks of life who need Jesus and creating an environment where they can safely encounter the Truth that can change their life
• In 2008, ICC will grow smaller – by beginning our small groups ministry next month.  ICC small groups are designed to “build relationships and be the church”
• In 2008, ICC will blow people’s minds with the revolutionary love of Jesus – by taking part in planting at least one additional church, by partnering with at least one church or ministry outside the U.S., and by serving at least 200,000 people in the Pittsburgh metro area with no strings attached within the next 12 months
• I am excited, overwhelmed, and astounded by what God is doing and wants to do in and through this church
• The numbers weren’t great yesterday, but they weren’t bad either
• The music was off the chain — they did a great version of Third Day’s “Come Together” and the Beatles “Revolution”
• We need a sound system like nobody’s business
• I’m glad I get to spend the next three weeks breaking down all the stuff I laid out Sunday

Here’s where you can download the message: http://www.ironcitychurch.com/downloads.html

All in all a good day — maybe not a “great” day, but a good one and a good start to this series.  Can’t wait ’til next Sunday!

I’m currently breaking one of my personal rules: I’m still wrestling with the finishing touches on Sunday’s message.  Normally I like to have it all ready to go by the end of the workday on Thursday, but the short week has me kind of bunched up.  I can’t wait ’til Sunday though – we’re starting our first series of 2008, “TOGETHER”.

This Sunday, instead of talking about my “New Year’s Resolutions” (I don’t really do the resolution thing), I’m going to kick off the new year talking about the Vision of Iron City Church with a message called “The New Year’s ReVolution.”

I am stoked about 2008 and what it’s going to look like for ICC.  If you’re in the Pittsburgh area and interested in hearing what we’re about and where we’re heading as a church, this would be a great series for you to drop by.  We’ll have the coffee ready by 9:45 AM Sunday — DON’T MISS IT!

I know it’s just barely January 3rd (only about 10 minutes left), but I have to post an anniversary thought….

It was exactly one year ago today that God confirmed to me the answer to a question and a season of prayer about the WHERE of church planting. 

In spite of a neat-looking US map with 7 cities (not this one) marked out and nearly 4 months of praying specifically about which of those 7 cities we were supposed to land in, it was 365 days ago that we realized without a doubt that we were exactly where we needed to be — Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

The 12 months since then have been filled with many, many questions and struggles, but knowing the answer to the WHERE question has made it all good.  And I’m way more committed to transforming the Pittsburgh metro area with the love of Jesus today than I was last year at this time!

Can’t wait to see what’s in store in the next year!