This morning Jeanne and I had the joy of waking up to our little Gigi covered in some sort of Allergic Reaction all over her cute little body.  Jeanne and I had the exact same thought at the exact same moment – “How do we avoid having to go to the Hospital over this one?” Don’t get me wrong – We love our baby, we just hate our Health Care Plan.  And to be honest, I break out in an allergic reaction to Hospitals in general.

After embracing the inevitable, we packed Gigi up and took her to Children’s Memorial Hospital here in the city.  Here’s what we experienced in our first few moments there:

1. We found great parking right outside the entrance.
2. Easy to spot Signage that told us exactly which entrance to take.
3. Three people in the first 60 seconds asked us if it was our first time and if we needed any help finding anything.
4. An amazingly engaging and surprisingly calm environment.
5. Someone walked us from the entrance down the hall in the direction we were heading.
6. We got to keep our coffee!

Within 45 minutes we were signing out with the brilliant medical advice of “Just ride it out” (which was actually my advice from the very beginning, although not as welcomed by Jeanne).

We left that hospital wondering, Why can’t people’s First Impression of Church be more like ours at the Hospital (minus the bill)?  Why do we make it so hard and so confusing for so many people who already have a million little battles of resistance running through their morning?  What does a City Hospital know that the Church doesn’t?  I know that not all visits to the Hospital are like this.  But it brings up a great tension.

A great exercise for you and your team to do as often as possible is to go another church and see how they do it.  See what your First Impression is – from when you park your car until you park your rear in a seat.  Or better yet, survey your own experience:

• Where are you setting up unnecessary speed bumps or road blocks to people having a great First Impression?
• What do you assume that people know?  What don’t they know?
• How are you anticipating and and eliminating unnecessary resistance?
• How can you get every single “insider” in your church involved as an owner of your church’s First Impression?

It really would be a shame if people had a better experience at a HOSPITAL than they do at our church.  We could learn a lot.

Our Brand New May Snapshot is out.  It’s a great way for you to get a Quick Snapshot of all that God is doing at Soul City Church.  It’s Chock full of Goodies.  It’s Free.  And all the Cool Kids are reading it.

You can check it out HERE

And subscribe to it HERE

enjoy.

1)   You don’t need to worry about money…but you won’t ever think you have “enough”.

2)   You will not only believe in the power of prayer…you’ll depend on it.

3)   A Clear Mission goes a lot further than a Cool Logo.

4)   The craving for Comfort will be stronger than crack.

5)   You will be on the adventure of a lifetime with people you haven’t even met yet.

6)    You’ll be raising money for as long as you lead this church, you might as well get used to it and you might as well get good at it.

7)   Don’t ever out clever things like the Bible, Prayer, and the Gospel.

8)   The longer you go without an incredible team exercising their spiritual gifts, the shorter you’ll last.

9)   You simply don’t have all that it takes to do this, but you are far more ready than you realize.

So much is going on at Soul City Church.  From our Good Friday Experience, to the launch of Soul City Sundays, to all that’s coming up this month.  If you want to BE a part of it all, make sure you sign up for our monthly Soul City Snapshot.  You can do so by signing up for it in the box to your right.

You can also view this month’s Snapshot by clicking HERE.

We’re so grateful and excited to have you a part of all that God is doing through the adventure of Soul City Church.

We however have the perspective of time that those first followers did not.  We can see the greater narrative.  We can see the fruit of that seed falling and being buried deep into the soil of humanity.  And so….we celebrate.  Odd as it may seem, we celebrate the Death of Jesus, because just like in OUR OWN STORY, it is not the END of the STORY!  Death is really only the beginning.  By celebrating his Death we are actually celebrating the LIFE that comes from it.  That is why this is not merely a good thing…this is the greatest thing we have afforded to us in the time we have in this life.  We must remember.  We must tell the story.  We must tell our story.  We must celebrate.

This is why Soul City Church is so excited to CELEBRATE Good Friday, this Friday at 7.00p.  This death and resurrection is at the Center of our Story as a Church and we pray at the center of your Life and Story as well.

If you live in Chicago and are in any way interested in being a part of Soul City Church, please make change plans to join us this Friday Night as we Celebrate Good Friday.

All the details you need can be found HERE.

It’s not you…it’s us.

The Stevens Family has had a few things going on these past couple weeks:

• We packed up an entire house in Atlanta
• Jarrett replaced the Mother Board on our fridge (yep.  The Mother Board!)
• We drove two U Hauls from ATL to CHI (Special thanks to Eric Edwards and Amy Lawlor)
• We moved in to our new place in Chicago
• Unpacked
• Hung some shelves
• Kept unpacking…
• Wrote this post

We’re excited to finally be up and running here in Chicago and are so grateful to God for our friends and family who helped us throughout these last couple weeks.

More to come.

So much more…

So, if you’re not yet a Subscriber, you can do so by clicking HERE.  Once you do, you’ll become a member of an elite society of insiders who’s inbox’s shutter with shear delight at the start of every month.  We promise.

However, I’ve noticed that for every 1 FAN of Lost there are 784,593 people who are not into it.  Several friends this week have told me that they would love to watch, but it’s just too complicated, too confusing, or they missed too many episodes.  They reiterate the fact that there is no such thing as a Casual Lost Fan.

I think the same could be said of our Churches.  Without even realizing it, we’ve created Churches that are more complicated than Lost.  There’s too much Insider Language.  Too many Complicated and Confusing Linear Strategies.  Too many Detours that make it difficult if not impossible for an “outsider” to get it.  While there is no such thing as a Casual Lost Fan, there are 100,000’s Causal Church Goers in your community.

The question is – How are you making it SIMPLE for people to Get It, Get Started, and actually Grow.

Here’s Four Ideas for how you can make your church Simpler

1) Change Your Language.  Listen to what you’re saying.  Listen for what you’re not saying.  From Worship Leaders, to Teachers, to Printed Materials.  Think first of the First Time Person who hasn’t been here as long as you and don’t have a clue what things like Connexxus or Axiom are or even mean.

2) Change Your Website.  This is your Virtual Front Door and if someone has to walk around the house two or three times before they can find the front door, they’re not coming back. I love the simplicity of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley.  Clear and to the point.

3) Have a SIMPLE Strategy and stick to it. I know that you’re a Linchpin and you love changing, tweaking, and tinkering, but you have to remember – They Are Not.  They weren’t here when you used to call it Area Home Groups.  They weren’t here when you used to do it Tuesday Nights.  They don’t care.  They need to be able to get within the first 2 minutes WHAT you about and WHERE they can START.

4) Go to another Church.  Learn from their simplicity.  Learn from their complexity.  Listen to their Language.  Better yet, go to the Apple Store (which you probably have in the last 7 days).  Within 60 seconds you can find what you need and figure out what to do with it.  And in the case that you can’t – there’s always an Apple Cult Member Employee within 5 feet to help.

Following Jesus is hard. Finding him shouldn’t be.  Let’s fight for Simplicity!

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(btw – if you know what the picture is at the top of this post…than you truly are as much of a nerd as me.  I’m praying for us now.)

• This post was written by Jarrett Stevens
• Co-Leader of Soul City Church,
• who believes that Nikki and Paulo are the key to it all!
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While listening to an over-excited Vaynerchuk on a recent podcast, he passionately pontificated on the new “THANK YOU ECONOMY” that we are now a part of.  In his words, we are living in a day when it’s no longer ok to push your “product” on people, tell them to buy it, and be done with them.  We are here to SERVE those who are somehow engaged and connected to us, and when we do that well, we won’t have to push or sell anything to them.

He’s right. But this is not one of Gary’s crazy ideas, or even a new idea.  This has been / should be the posture of the Church from day one.  We are created and called to Love and Serve in and especially Outside our walls.  It is precisely our forgetfulness and neglectfulness of this posture that has led to Overt Evangelism Campaigns and Strategies, and Bring A Friend Weekends.

When we love and serve, first and foremost, we position ourselves to be heard, respected, and followed.  In other words, “…let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” (Matthew 5:16 NLT)

So, HOW are you “Thanking” the community that your church serves?  Do they even know you exist other than the traffic hassle you cause on Sundays?  What do they “get” from your church that is above and beyond Attending one of your services?

AND

WHO do you personally need to “Thank” this week?  Who and How can you extend the Gospel in your neighborhood with no expectation in return?

And yet there are those who are not willing to let go of the past.  They are deeply rooted in the meaning that these things once held.  They are stuck in the systems that these former “innovations” have created, unable to embrace what is now.  Here are FOUR examples (of many) from our Culutre and ONE Question that each of us must wrestle with.

The Encyclopedia.

A brilliant breakthrough of the Modern Era.  Knowledge for the masses!  Everyone can own…26 Giant Books with Tiny Print.  We had a set in our house growing up – grossly outdated and too expensive and complicated to update, they became fantastic door stoppers and forts for my G.I. Joes.

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The Phonebook.

Eclipsing the wisdom of a centralized Operator, now anyone could find a litany of phone numbers for 24 hour plumbers.  They represent a centralized collection of localized limitedness that had to be updated every year with a new 18 pound 1384 page waste of paper.  Not sustainable.

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The Home Phone.

The Cordless Phone simply was not enough to save the icon of a bygone era of simplicity and boundaries.  ”Call me sometime…when I’m home…not on another call…and am willing to stand still long enough for our conversation.”

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The Newspaper.

An inky papery connection to the world around you…that the editors saw fit to represent.  The world continues to move too fast, too far, and too wide for this iconic connection to the Greatest Generation.  While the Newspaper may not die, it most certainly will not thrive in it’s current atomic state.

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Right or Wrong.  Good or Bad.  These are FOUR things that matter(ed) to our parents.  But they simply DON’T to us anymore. They have been replaced by innovation that itself will be replaced in a matter of time.

The Question is – WHAT IS YOUR CHURCH STILL DOING THAT MATTERED TO OUR PARENTS, BUT SIMPLY DOES NOT MATTER TO THE WORLD WE CURRENTLY LIVE IN?

What are we still holding on to because of it’s unorthodox and uncritical “history” and meaning to us?  What is it that we are still doing because we are too entrenched in the systems we’ve created around it?  AND…WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?