Eric's Eddyfications

The New Website

So, the new church website is now up and running. It is very much phase one, there are lots more things and stuffness that is coming, but for now, it's a great new look, lots of cool features, and a new version of our Eddy! Community Christian has a new look, and I couldn't be happier - thanks Tom Greever, for taking the time out of his "regular" job to work on this much needed makeover. And one of the cool features, is that this post, along with all the other staff blogs, are featured on this page, so you can get all your staff rants and raves in one place! Enjoy!

The Upper Room

This weekend we focused on the second chapter of Acts, and developed an idea regarding what might have happened if the disciples tried to plan their church services while waiting for the holy spirit to appear. The format of the "filmed documentary" is incorporated here, which lent itself to a longer format than we're used to - what do you think? Is it too long, or not long enough?

The Willow Summit Experience

The Willow Creek Summit wrapped up today, and once again, it was a pleasure to be able to host it, and participate at CCC. The speakers were mostly excellent, and all the elements came together nicely. A couple of highlights:

Marcus Buckingham is my hero. I love his take on "finding your strengths." It is so right on, even though it flies in the face of everything that our "instincts" tell us about how to become more well-rounded and focus on our weaknesses.

The interview with Richard Curtis was also exceptional. Dave blogged about it quite nicely. I felt like Bill Hybels made too much of a deal about his "spiritual journey not having been figured out yet," but I still thought it was a great interview, and talk about a person you've never heard of who has made a significant dent in changing the world and making them smile all at the same time. Wow. It was inspiring to me personally, and very challenging.

And Kirk Franklin was off the hook. There's a lot of what he does that probably wouldn't play in the burbs every weekend, but he is completely original, in an area where originality is not exactly encouraged.

Great stuff!!!

oh... and if you're still reading... go to joecraveman.com. Do it now.

Shawn's Bringing It

Check out Shawn Lovejoy's recent post about worship leaders. Shawn's a good friend who has a heart for church planting and makes it happen in Hotlanta. I think that his take, coming from the lead pastor p.o.v., is very interesting. What do you think?

We're Not Making This Stuff Up

We continue to get all sorts of violent reactions to our Christian/Christ-follower videos, which is fine. But after seeing Scott Hodge's video from his past weekend services at the Orchard church down the road, well, I guess my passion for the topic has been renewed. The difference between an average joe's perception of Jesus vs. Christians is stark. We can do better. Check it out.

Easter Weekend

Bill Carroll has posted a truckload of pics and videos from the Yellow Box version of this past weekend's Easter Services. I was really proud of what came together for the service as a whole. The videos will pale in comparison of course, but would still give you the general idea. Enjoy.

Christ Has Risen

Happy Easter everyone. Christ has risen! Come to a celebration service at CCC if you're in town. We'd love to see you!

The Big Idea at work

Many people ask how this whole Big Idea thing works with communicating the same Big Idea to adults, students and kids. Well, this past weekend we had a really good example of how it works, particularly for the adults and kids large group services. I thought I'd share. Here is the video we showed to adults on the topic of a "Lost World" - and the need to tell the lost about church, and invite them. We called it "Baptism by the Water Cooler."

And now, here is the video for Kids' City, on the same topic, "Lost", and virtually the same video sketch, though shot differently with different actors. We called it "Baptism by the Drinking Fountain."

Make sense? That's one example of how the Big Idea works... What do you think?

Oldie but a Goodie

Someone requested that I hunt down this clip from our "mountain moving" prayer series called "Impossible is Nothing." So I did - it's called "Prayer Answer-er" - enjoy!

Making More

Sherry Gossman reports in her blog that the church in Omaha where she serves finally showed one of our Mac and PC parody videos. Nice. A bunch of people have been showing them in a bunch of churches and I think it's kind of cool.

In fact, the Mac and PC parody videos are going to be a big part of the Exponential Conference in April, which also masquerades as the National New Church Conference. But for fun, we've decided to make a couple of new ones for the conference.

It was funny to me that we have already started debating the new scripts based on whether or not we would offend anyone. Given the kind of feedback we've received from the old ones on youtube, I'm amazed that the thought even entered our mind. But, I guess we're gluttons for punishment.

Those of you who have seen other Apple commercials, and have a sense of our twisted sense of humor, do you have any ideas for new parodies? We're always open to ideas - remember, there are no bad ideas, only bad people...