The Super Bowl is not only the biggest stage for American football, but almost as importantly, it is the biggest stage in the advertising and marketing industry.  Groups spend millions and millions of dollars to get people’s attention.  Check out this creative ad, “Casket,” for the Super Bowl made by Mosaic Church in LA.  Erwin McManus is the pastor of this very innovative church that has a ton of members that are a part of the TV and film industry in LA.

“Casket” was inspired by one of our team member’s funeral experience where his deceased grandfather requested to be buried with a beer and cigarettes. “Casket” is a commercial where a guy stages his own funeral just to munch Doritos and watch football undisturbed – in a casket. But of course, things don’t go as planned. (from vote for casket.com)

There is a good AP article explaining the reasoning behind their lighthearted spoof.

“We’re not trying to use Doritos to propagate a message, but I think we want people to know that we have a sense of humor, that it’s OK to laugh,” McManus said. “So much of what comes out of the faith community seems so dour and somber and we want to say, ‘Hey, we’re real people. You can be a person of faith and really enjoy life and laugh.”

Phil Cooke, a Christian producer, filmmaker and author says this about the commercial.

“Nobody’s going to fall on their knees and accept Jesus as a result of this spot. But advertisers on Madison Avenue spend millions on a Super Bowl spot because they know it influences people,” said Cooke, the producer. “It might not get someone converted, but I think it will get someone to say, ‘Maybe there is something I ought to investigate.’”

What do you think?  How do you like the “soft” sell approach to faith?

LA megachurch hopes to win Super Bowl ad contest – Yahoo! News.

Here’s a little tip for the city of Panama City Beach. See if you can’t spring for a couple of bucks to send the help to some of the excursions–ANY of the excursions. Basically, the lady(ies) who helped us had not been to ANY of the tours or whatnot in the town. “They were too busy working to have time to go on those things.” What!?! Isn’t that your job to know what tours are good and what tours stink?? Shouldn’t you be able to steer people clear of spare tours and tourist traps?? Seriously, you can be more help than “I think there are some brochures over there on that kind of stuff!”

For what it’s worth, I think that we in the church are a lot like that aren’t we? We are representing something that many of us aren’t really that enthused about, let alone even experienced!! To put it the way Rob Bell puts it, “we aren’t ’smokin’ what we’re sellin’.” You can’t talk about an experience with Jesus until you have come face to face with Him and He comes in and changes your life. This isn’t simply something that you “do” . . . this Christianity thing! It is your “LIFE!” Every time someone comes into one of our environments (churches), people ought to get an “insider’s” view of the Gospel–EVERY TIME! They shouldn’t just hope they “get the good one [volunteer]” or not get the “guy having a bad day, ur, life.” Think about the consequences of not having an insider’s view of the Gospel at your church. Who is there because they had an insider’s, “I once was blind, but not I see” kind of person helping them to understand this crazy thing called the Gospel and the Church? Is someone there because you are “smokin’ what you’re sellin’?” Or are they turned away unsatisfied because you are no better than a bunch of brochures sitting all neatly in a row–lot’s of information, but no passion of an insider’s perspective.

It seems that true customer service is really a thing of the past. Case in point is our internet service provider(s) (both our current and future ISPs). Our internet access has been really pretty poor for quite some time, but we always got the “better check your equipment on your end” line when you call for help. Come to find out, the service we had been charged for was literally impossible for them to provide as we are too far away from the “central hub.” In getting down to the bottom of the problem, a guy in St. Louis was totally dumbfounded that they “sold” us the service. He said we need to call and get a refund on the several years of bad service. Of course I called to get the refund to no avail. Nobody ever wants to admit that there might be a problem that needs to be fixed. I have really been working on this in my own life lately, so I guess I am more sensitive to it.

So we decided we needed to make a change in services. The second company couldn’t make it until Monday “morning.” The guy shows up at about 12:30 p.m. to hook it up, but needs another guy to help him install it, so he said he would be back in the morning. Of course morning comes and goes . . . as does the afternoon. Calling the office is useless as they are scheduled to come “any time from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.” Who else could get away with that big of window of time than the cable company? Plus the irony of a “communications company” that can’t (or won’t) simply pick up the phone and call us to let us know they are stuck at another call, need to move the appointment, etc. Customer service matters! It really matters in ministry too! Because eternity hangs in the balance!

Makes me think of our website hosting company, but don’t get me started on that rant!

On that note, I feel like I am getting into a rhythm with the devos and sermon prep.  I think it helps me feel like I don’t have to preach everything on Sunday.  I have a tendency to not cut enough out of my sermons because “there is just so much good stuff.”  With the devotionals, we can study the Scriptures that we didn’t talk about in the sermon, or was only able to mention in passing.  Now, I am not at all in a blogging rhythm with this site, but of the two blogs, I would rather have the devotional be more consistent.  I know Fran would like that!  Love you Fran, I just had to throw you under the bus.

Our worship band is sounding better each week!  I think next week there will be another new member helping sing as well as play keyboard for us!  You will want to be here to hear the band, they are really working hard to lead us each week.

We got a whole bunch of our invite cards handed out to our people.  We are going the invite card route this year instead of the mass mailing.  Mainly it is a financial issue, but it is also an issue of focus.  We feel like our strategy of “invest and invite” is much better than sending out a mass mailing.  Basically, I am more likely to attend a church because someone personally invited me.  We had a huge success with the Harvest Blowout invite cards and had the largest attendance in that event’s history.  Plus we will save around a thousand dollars over the mailing in just postage!

Tucker was/is under the weather a bit and Jenny had to take him to the doctor after getting the All Stars set up yesterday morning.  (He is doing a whole lot better. . . Mr. Destructo is back in business again . . . put away all your valuables!)  This was a huge bummer for her as she will be serving in the service next month and wanted to hear the sermon.  BUT, drum roll please . . . she will be able to hear the sermon audio soon via download and podcast! We are working to get our sermon podcasting up and going so that our church family can hear when they are gone, working in the children’s ministry, etc.  We have several people who are traveling with work. . . some out of the country, but have access to the internet.  They will be able to hear the message via downloaded podcast and not miss a beat when they return home.

I know pod casted sermons have been huge in my faith journey over the last couple of years and I want to be able to leverage technology for His Glory.  It is really inexpensive and the benefits far outweigh the costs. We already record the sermons on CD, so it is just a couple more steps to get them on the web for our people to benefit.

Hope you all have a great week.  I will post later when the podcasts are up and going.

Their parking lot greeters were GREAT! Smiling and welcoming us with a big “Good Morning” and wave. We went in and got Tucker checked in after having a lady from the Hospitality Desk walk us to the nursery check-in. We left Tucker with them, took our security number, and headed to the sanctuary.

Visiting churches with children is pretty much a beating, we decided. (If it isn’t a beating, it sure isn’t as easy if it was just adults!) Taylor, our 5 year old Kindergarten student, rethought his initial “deal” with mommy the night before to be her “undercover agent” for the children’s ministry! Just too much sensory overload with a pretty busy lobby, didn’t know anyone, kind of shy kid anyway. . . so we got to take him into the service with us. He actually did really good . . . he loves worship and therefore loved the band.

When we got into the sanctuary, there was an usher asking how many in our party. He then sent us down to the next aisle down, where another usher pointed us toward the front, where a final usher was at the row ushering us to our seats. I was quite impressed indeed. Well oiled machine. I know that stuff like that doesn’t just happen. . . especially on a Sunday that weather and power outages could have kept many people, and workers away.

The worship was very good. The transitions were excellent from element to element. You could tell it was something they probably worked on a lot. At the first transition, the pastor showed his humor in saying, “welcome to North Point Church, powered by the Spirit of God, and a big honkin’ generator out back!” Sweet line in the midst of a very difficult time of power outages all around that north side of Springfield. Then he tells us that if you are a first time guest, you can go by the Hospitality Center and get a Viewmaster with pictures of the church and the people. No way!! Yeah, it is cool, and a conversational piece sitting in my office!! What a cool idea!
Then the parents’ worst fear. . . NURSERY # 74712 flashed as big as possible on the screen. Tucker Liam was not happy to be at North Point, it seemed! So I set Taylor down, put my head down as to not make eye contact with anyone, and headed back to rescue Tucker from his fit. Again, the usher was really cool as I asked if it was alright to bring Tucker into the service. . . “oh, you bet.” I missed the offering as I was out getting Tucker, but Jenny said “they just skipped us.” Don’t know if that was on purpose because we looked like guests, but interesting. Taylor was all freaked out that we weren’t ready for the offering. . . getting into mommy’s purse to give to the offering. Funny, even the 5 year old knows what is going down when we break out the plate (or buckets in this case)!

Pastor Tommy’s message was absolutely great! God couldn’t have brought a better message topic to tie into Regeneration and what God has been teaching me lately! They are in the middle of a series called “The Winning Hand”– series based on cards. Really cool. . . definitely not a Baptist series, ha! The message was “Learning to Read the Cards,” based on Nehemiah 1-4. His transparency came through as he read excerpts from his journal as they were getting ready to plant the church 3 years ago. His passion, humor, and care for his people was really refreshing to see! It was nice to hear, “great, Tommy. 6 points from Nehemiah. . . great story . . . but what about for me. . . tomorrow . . . in my life.” APPLICATION of Scripture!! One of our core values. And then to top it all off. . . they handed out a jack of hearts playing card with the series art on the back to each person leaving the sanctuary! A memory devise to carry around, put up in front of you, etc. . . . awesome!

On the subject of graphic arts, of which I am a self-proclaimed graphic arts nerd. . . really nice pieces. The graphics used with the worship were subtle, but nice. They had banners in the sanctuary that were five playing cards to go along with each sermon. The “bulletin” was a normal size piece of paper–full color. . . very nice. The informational piece for guests was really well done as well.

Overall, I think it was a great visit for us. It was a good exercise in what it feels like to be a guest. If I weren’t so sure of my calling at Finley Crossings, and lived a bit closer, I would definitely put them on the top of my list of relevant churches that I would love to be a part of. You can’t argue with their unbelievable growth as well as their outreach into the community. Thank you North Point Church for a great visit!