Follow Up on The CORE

About three times each year, we gather folks from our church at an event we call "The Core". Increasingly, folks 'come' via UStream and our internet feed and are able to participate fully. People also come in person, though, because it's hard to eat the great food from your living room! Either way, what we hope is that:
1) People who want to know what's going on are better informed
2) Excitement builds for cool new things that are coming for our church
3) There is a growing understanding that PCC is an open book
4) Questions are answered.

So, this past Sunday, we celebrated what God was doing through worship and some great stories and we shared info and data about our campuses, growth, finances, our upcoming Project Freedom initiative, and staff changes.

But the best part of these gatherings, to me, are always in the questions that people ask. PCC leaders are sharp, and when they ask questions, they ask GOOD questions. Sometimes I scratch my head and say, "I never thought of that!" or "I'll have to get back to you." Often, I defer to another member of our staff or another leader because they know better than I do.

And there are a few questions that, after I process in the hours and days following, I think, "I needed to say more about that." So I wanted to clarify a couple of things here.

Our Teaching Team. This past summer, I was away for an extended break (which I normally take every summer). In preparation for this year, I spent a few weeks working with a few gifted communicators,helping them refine their gift and preparing with them for a series they would do entirely on their own. (called Improv) I would coach them, and we would hear the messages ahead of time so that we could critique each other. Many, many people responded very positively and let me know they felt like this was a successful venture.

So, I've gotten a good bit of questions (both before and at the CORE meeting) about how and when I would use this team. There are a few parts to the answer.

1) I am in the process of planning my schedule through next September. That should be done in the next 4 weeks. Then I'll know when we need someone to be the teaching pastor for our weekend services. When I'm not on the stage, one of those folks will usually be the go-to person.

2) I'm hoping, over time, to use them not just when I'm away, but to train them and equip them to teach at times even when I'm 'here'. This is good baton-passing and helps the church be more healthy.

3) While they ALL did a great job, two folks have said that they essentially don't feel a strong sense of calling to that ministry. So the exact makeup of the Teaching Team is still being formed.

4) There are other opportunities for a teaching team to be used, including video and live teaching for discipleship-type classes that we will be offering (and offer today, like Bible Basics, SHAPE, etc.)

Saturday Night Service. On question that we took had to do with the style and teaching for our Saturday night service. Specifically, had I considered a different teaching pastor and musical style for that. The short answer is, "yes." and that's how I answered it that night. But there is more to it.

If we change the service and make it different, it becomes very complicated. A DUPLICATED service means that people will come to that one OR a Sunday morning service. But if we change the service and make it different, we'll have folks come on Saturday for that service and then come back on Sunday for the other one. That doesn't free seats. It actually hurts us instead of helping us.

We started our Saturday night service for 2 reasons: 1) to free some seats on Sunday morning by folks shifting to it, 2) to reach people who will not or cannot come on Sunday morning but who will or can come on Saturday evening. The duplication of our service, done as close to the same with the same teaching and the same music, etc, does that to the best of our ability.

Our strategy has been to offer the same service experience (to the best of our ability) at all of our venues. This is a strategy that has worked for us and other churches, will keep us united and operating as one church, and is the simplest to execute.

By the way, we've had two very reliable people come to us and make HUGE offers to help with Saturday nights. Please keep praying for us on that.

Care. I took a really good question about caring for folks by possibly publishing a list of deaths and births each week. Logistically, this will not be easy to pull off and I'm not sure it's feasible for our church. But we are talking about it.

If YOU have questions, please don't hesitate to email or FB or comment here or call. And while I'm at it, there are numerous ways you can stay informed through our text platform, weekly eblast, website, Facebook, Blogger, Twitter, and UStream, not to mention what we hand out on weekends if you come to church.

Hope this helps!

An Open Letter to PCC

Dear PCC Friends,

Right now, PCC is coming out of 'summer' mode and into the high-speed, fast paced, quickly changing environment of the fall. This, of course, leads directly into the crazy chaos of January, when we normally see the already growing numbers of Christmas explode into something between overwhelming and awesome, all at the same time.

Add to that 'normal' cycle the gutsy move we've made to launch Project Freedom, the ever-controversial 'Christmas falls on a Sunday this year', and a couple of exciting staff changes (all good), and we have the makings of a whirlwind. Or maybe it will feel more like a mighty rushing wind, as the Holy Spirit blows with a force powerful enough to change lives on a huge scale right in front of our eyes and through our church.

I believe that's what He has been preparing for us. And I think we'll see that in the next few months.

If you are a part of PCC, I want you to see it, too. This coming Sunday, September 25, at 6pm at the Powhatan Campus, we'll have a CORE event. In 90 minutes together, we'll have some worship, share some information, and we'll enjoy some Q&A, as always. Refreshments will be there, too. (your kids are welcome to come, but we won't have any childcare).

I hope you can and will make it as we only do this 3 times a year and The CORE is a part of our strategy to keep you up to date. If you can't come in person, we'll live stream it at www.pccwiredlive.net. You can even ask your questions there in real time.

See you Sunday,

Brian

The CORE and Strategy

I loved being able to do a Q & A time last night at the CORE meeting. In case you didn't know, this is the gathering of PCC folks where we share info about where we're headed, what's been going on and update changes, etc. We do this 3 or 4 times a year, and the next one is scheduled for Sunday, September 25, at 6pm.

Anyway, during the Q & A, there were a few questions that warrant a little more clarification.

First, the easy one. The PCC Concert raised $3,724. Every dollar of that will go to helping us pave the parking lot.

Second, I was asked a great question about strategy that was something like 'Given the growth of PCC, what is our strategy as we look out in the 3, 5, or even 10 year range?' I think I fumbled the answer a bit. Let me see if I can clarify.

Part of the culture of PCC, and one of the things that is a signature for us, is that we really do try to stay in tune with the winds of the Spirit of God. I know that sounds churchy and maybe even over-the-top, but it's true. We have, so many times, done things that were counterintuitive, with very little preparation, simply because we had a strong sense that God was moving. When we first went to 2 services, the auditorium at the High School was not even half full, but we sensed it was time. When we moved into the High School. When we bought our land. The launching of Westchester. Recently, I would put our Saturday night service into this list. And there are other decisions, too, but you get the point.

This is not an argument for intentional poor planning that we conveniently blame on God. I think it's smart to have an idea of where we think God is taking us. For PCC, I would say I think God is leading us to more campuses, more venues at our existing campuses (won't it be neat with WC has 2 services, Powhatan has 5 weekend services, etc.). I feel a pretty strong tug to begin doing some preliminary work to the north and to the west on that. And I could easily see a Sunday evening service and another Sunday morning service or two at Powhatan, as well as 2 services at WC. I can see us begin to explore different stylistic choices - a country or bluegrass venue, for instance. Or a cafe style venue.

Yes, there are hundreds of unanswered questions with all of these options. But that's the point of following God. We are on a need to know basis.

My foundation for this kind of thinking is not entirely limited to faith-based thinking. The secular world makes a similar argument, albeit one that does not overtly include God.

Jack Welsh, the legendary former CEO of GE, wrote the best management book I've ever read, and one of the best leadership books I have, called Winning. He has an entire chapter on strategy and here are some notable quotes:

"Forget the arduous, intellectualized number crunching and data grinding that gurus say you have to go through to get strategy right. Forget the scenario planning, yearlong studies, and hundred-plus-page reports. They're time consuming and expensive and you just don't need them.

"In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a general direction and implement like hell."

"The more you think about it, and the more you grind down into the data and the details, the more you tie yourself in knots about what to do. That's not strategy, that's suffering."

"Most managers I know see strategy as I do - an approximate course of action that you frequently revisit and redefine..."

Welch goes on to lay out a very simple, three pronged approach:

1) "Come up with a big aha for your business - a smart, realistic, relatively fast way to gain sustainable competitive advantage."

2) "Put the right people in the right jobs to drive the big aha forward."

3) "Relentlessly seek out the best practices to achieve your big aha, whether inside or out, adapt them, and continually improve them."

All that is to say, our strategy is to be relentlessly focused on our niche: reaching people who don't go to church through innovation, technology, creativity, excellence, and rooted firmly in the Bible. Our strategy is multi-site, multi-venue, and completely following the winds of the Spirit.

That's the best I know about strategy at PCC.

A Season of Huge Growth

Last weekend, we had a fantastic evening with a couple hundred PCC'ers and talked about the up-and-coming things that are happening in our church. Here are a few highlights:

• Latest Trends. PCC is in a major growth right now. (see graphs below)

Just for kicks, if we only grew 20% from January to January going forward (less than our historical rate above), we'll have 2,200 people every week at PCC in 36 months!

This naturally leads to a question: What are we going to do? We're almost completely out of space at the Powhatan Campus - especially for the 11:15 service. We have to have some room to grow. More ideas will take shape, but for now, here are a few things we're doing:

1) Saturday evening service. We're going to launch this in March and do it on an experimental basis. When we surveyed PCC folks a few months ago, there was a notable percentage who indicated they would switch to Saturday evenings if given the chance. If you are one of those folks, this is your chance. It will be the exact same service as Sunday morning. If folks come, and if they - and you - invite your friends - we expect to see God work as powerfully in that service as he does on Sunday mornings. If it doesn't seem to be a good fit for our purpose and our mission, we'll go back to the drawing board. However, we believe this is a great opportunity to for you to invite those you know who aren't interested in or able to attend a Sunday morning church service. Maybe Saturday night would be a great fit for them!

2) The Green Room. We have worked hard to get the big room on the main hall ready. This coming Sunday, the Green room will be equipped with great sound and great live feed. It will be ready for approx. 80 people. Check it out...I'll be in that room during our worship time this week!

3) Westchester. We ARE a multi-campus church, and Westchester has plenty of great parking and great comfortable seating. Our music there is exceptionally good, and you'll get the same message from the same pastor on the big screen. Plus, this weekend is donut Sunday at Westchester and you'll be in for a special treat on the stage.

4) Come Early. The 9:30 service has some empty seats left. If none of the other options appeal to you, consider coming at 9:30.

• Staff Changes. It's important that we begin to think and act our size. Large and rapidly growing churches like PCC have constantly changing staff makeups. We need to get used to this. We've had some staff departures, additions, and some restructuring. More is on the way. Here are some highlights:

• Chauncey Starkey. As the Campus Pastor in Powhatan, Chauncey is doing an increasing amount of pastor-type work. This is what we need him to do. We are taking the finances (especially the outflows) off of his plate. He will oversee facility maintenance as well as logistics, in addition to pastoral care.
• Dennis Green. The final few special projects for our building are almost complete, and Dennis will focus on growing our Westchester Campus, staff management and financial oversight.
• Lindsay Harris will be the Communications Director, in addition to her role as Worship Leader at Westchester.

• Connections Team. We are really excited that Katherine Ramsey is building a new team that will focus on helping people connect into service and small groups at PCC. Sammy Frame showed us how information will flow so that people can make meaningful connections at PCC.

• Communications. Lindsay introduced our new Texting platform, which we will roll out the entire church on February 13. She is also working on a comprehensive communications strategy that will streamline communications and make them more effective.

• Building issues. Dennis shared a few of the new and exciting things with our building. We now have screens in the atrium, a workday is being planned, and there is a plan in the works to possibly pave our parking lot!

This is a cliff-notes version of our time at the CORE, but there is a LOT happening at PCC! I'm glad I'm a part of what God is doing!