Proverbs 16:9 is one of my favorite promises: “In his heart a man plans his course, but God orders His footsteps.”  I’ve circled it for years! I also love Psalm 37 which says the same thing in different words: “the steps of the righteous are ordered of the Lord.” All I know is this: God is awfully good at getting us where He wants us to go!

I feel like I have at least one divine appointment everyday these days. It’s out of control.  And I mean that literally.  I almost feel like a pawn on God’s chessboard.

I live by a simple principle: Don’t worry about meeting the right people.  Focus on meeting with God. If you meet with God, He’ll make sure you meet who you need to meet when you need to meet them!  After all, God knows everyone!

Prayer has a way of turning ordinary appointments into divine appointments.  Nothing like it.  Let God call the shots!  When you follow Jesus, you never know WHO you’ll meet, WHAT you’ll do, or WHERE you’ll go.

In many ways, Ethiopia feels like a second home.  It’s a long story, but it’s part of our heritage as a family.  We love the food. We love the people. And we’re so privileged to have helped Beza International Church get off the ground seven years ago!  It’s NCC East and we’re Beza West. Or maybe it’s NCC Africa and Beza America.

We try to have Pastor Zeb Mengistu speak at NCC every year.  I never hang out with Zeb that I don’t get “a word from the Lord.” He’s a prophetic voice to our generation!  Can’t wait to speak at Beza on Sunday. And it’s their Ethiopian Easter.  Are you kidding?  We get to celebrate Easter twice!

This is my fourth trip to Ethiopia, but it’s our kid’s first visit. Love that they are experiencing the sights and sounds and smells firsthand. Nothing like it.

A few years ago we launched a year-long internship program that we call our protege program. The internship is unpaid so you won’t get rich, but you will get a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It has a mentoring component and each protege has a portfolio. Proteges generally land with one of our ministry teams–worship, kids, media, discipleship or coffeehouse.

We are now taking applications for 2012-2013.

Here’s the 441: Protege

During Lent we did an experiment where we circled II Chronicles 7:14 everyday.  It started with a question: what would happen if we hit our knees everyday to humble ourselves, pray, and seek God’s face?  Well, the last 40 days have been the best of my life. I think that’s true of NCC too.  So why in the world would we stop?  We’re going to continue our 7:14 AM prayer and we’re going to add a PM gathering at 7:14. It’s a time, a name, promise all in one.

I’ll share more details in the coming weeks.

Just thought I’d share 5 core convictions that drive us at National Community Church. These are part of our OS or Operating System as a church.

1. There are ways of doing church that no one had thought of yet.

2. We need lots of different kinds of churches because there are lots of different kinds of people.  Let’s stop criticizing and start celebrating our differences.  If the gospel is being preached, it doesn’t matter what name is over the door!

3. The church ought to be the most creative place on the planet.

4. We ought to be more know for what we’re FOR than what we’re against. Paul didn’t boycott the Areopagus.  He walked into the marketplace of ideas and competed for the truth!

5. The church belongs in the middle of the marketplace.

A church that stays within its four walls isn’t a church at all.  It’s a club. Jesus didn’t just hang out at synagogues. He hung out at wells–natural gathering places in ancient culture.  We can’t wait for people to come to us. We’ve got to go to them. We’ve got to meet them on their turf, their terms.

I’ll never forget our first Easter.  We started out with a core group of 19 people in January of 1996, but we had 42 people our first Easter.  I about died and went to heaven!  So excited.  The excitement is exponential this weekend.

We’ll kick off with a couple Good Friday services @ 7 & 11 PM at our Barracks Row campus.  We’ve got several Easter Eggstravaganzas happening on Saturday.  A Baptism after our Saturday Night service @ 5 PM.  Then we’re capping off our 7:14 ExperiLENT with a 7:14 AM service @ Barracks Row. We’ll serve homemade pop tarts at that service from Ted’s Bulletin!

Here’s the 411: www.theaterchurch.com

To top it off, the Today Show story on National Community Church is supposed to air on Easter Sunday morning. It might be on NBC Nightly News as well. Not sure yet.  Set your DVR.

We began an experiLENT on Ash Wednesday. What would happen if we circled II Chronicles 7:14 everyday during Lent by hitting our knees in humility and seeking God’s face? Well, I’m in awe. Actually, a better description would be: shock and awe. I don’t know how else to describe it. Sometimes God shows up and that’s awesome.  Sometimes God shows off.  Not sure how else to say it.  God reveals His glory in a way that is so unmistakable that you’ll never be the same.  That’s how I feel right now.  I’ve been swept in the powerful current of prayer and it’s taking me places I never imagined. God has proven once again that “He is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine.” I feel like I’m walking on clouds, breathing rare air, and marveling at God’s sovereignty.  Speechless.

So here’s my question: why would we stop hitting our knees when Lent ends?  Why would we stop circling Chronicles 7:14?  What I thought was an experiment has become a way of life!   I look back and I’m not who I was! And I don’t want to go back!  I’m going to press in and press on.  This is my new normal.  I feel like God has given me a glimpse of what life can be like when prayer and fasting become a way of life and there is no other way to live!  Every day is an adventure filled with holy anticipation.  Don’t get me wrong. It doesn’t come without a cost.  I’ve never experienced spiritual warfare like this.  I still have bad days.  And there is nothing easy about dying to myself daily.  But I’m done with business as usual. Business as usual is out of business!  I’m going to be about the Father’s business!

Not only are we going to continue our 7:14 AM prayer meetings, but there is a 7:14 PM gathering on its way. I don’t know when. I’m not sure where.  But it’s coming.  God is birthing something in our spirits.  I’m believing for nothing less than revival in our nation’s capitol.  We don’t have to start it or lead it, but we want in on it.

Still circling II Chronicles 7:14!

I love graphic designers and digital artists!  They play such a critical role in the kingdom of God, especially in a visual culture.  We’ve got a position available at National Community Church and we’re praying for the right person.  We’re looking for someone who can do motion graphics and still graphics.  They’ve got to have an eye for branding, a passion for excellence, and a kindred spirit that the church ought to be the most creative place on the planet.

To get a position portfolio, email our COO, Jim.Tanious@theaterchurch.com.

Just thought I’d share a few reflections on the news coverage we’ve received in recent weeks. The article in the Washington Post continues to spawn news stories. The latest is a visit from NBC News and The Today Show this past weekend.  They filmed during our 9 AM service @ Barracks Row and we interviewed for about an hour afterward.  The story is scheduled to air on Easter Sunday.

First of all, I’ve always believed that the good news ought to make the news. We ought to be making enough of a difference that it cannot be ignored. By definition, a true expression of the gospel is newsworthy!  If you have enough compassion, enough faith, enough joy–in other words, if you become more and more like Jesus–you will be unignorable.  Not sure if that’s even a word, but I like.

Second, I don’t think it’s coincidental that all of this is happening during our 40 day experilent with II Chronicles 7:14.  We’re hitting our knees everyday humbling ourselves before God.  When you get on your knees, you essentially get out of the way of what God wants to do! Favor is the natural or supernatural byproduct.

Now here are a few candid thoughts.

We live in a culture that overvalues 15 minutes of fame and undervalues a lifetime of faithfulness. I could care less about 15 minutes of fame. In fact, news coverage complicates things on a personal level.  It attracts opposition from those who are opposed to our message. It riles people up and the net result is frontal attacks from those who are adamantly opposed to Christ.  I would expect nothing less.  What is painfully disappointing, however, is that it seems to have the same effect inside the camp.  And the enemy just laughs while we throw stones at each other.  If we could convert that sideways energy into forward motion, I’m convinced we could win the world for Christ.

The upside of news coverage is that it puts our church on the radar.  It brings visitors. It creates conversations.  The newspaper article is creating opportunities to share my faith with people.  At the end of the day, the only acceptable and desirable outcome is God’s glory! If God can leverage a news story, so be it.  Bring it on!

The downside of news coverage is this: the target on your back gets bigger. That is the price you pay.  It’s easier for people to take shots at you. That is true of writing as well.  Writing a book is like taking your heart out of your chest and exposing it to the world.  It’s an incredibly vulnerable experience. The trick in all of this is cultivating a thick skin and a soft heart.  Not easy.  You have to care less and less about what people think and more and more about what God thinks.  After all, you will only stand before one Judge.  Live for the applause of nail scarred hands!

How do I handle criticism? I obviously process it to see if it’s accurate.  No one is above rebuke!  But I don’t just consider the criticism. I consider the source. Far more important than the content of the criticism is the spirit of the person who is criticizing. Is it delivered in love and gentleness? Or is it delivered in jealousy or anger or pride?  There are a handful of Pharisees who seem to believe that criticism is their spiritual gift. In those instances my advice is this: thou shalt offend Pharisees!

Now here’s the key to figuring out whether to repent or rebuke: don’t let an dagger of criticism pierce your heart unless it passes through the shield of Scripture. If it does, repent.  If it doesn’t, shake the dust off your feet.

A few more observations.

Even unfounded criticism has a way of keeping you humble.  It counterbalances the compliments.  Just don’t let it give into your spirit.  Go ahead and chew on the criticism, but don’t swallow it whole if it’s unfounded. Spit it out.

One of the verses that memorized coming in 2012 was Proverbs 19:11: “It is to the glory of a man to overlook an offense.”  If you don’t overlook the offense, you’ll get defensive. That’s when you stop making a difference! You quit playing offense and start playing defense. You stop leading and start reacting!

The only way you aren’t going to offend someone is if you do nothing! Of course, then you are offending God. I decided long ago that I just don’t play defense!  I don’t have the time or energy to defend myself.  Plus I have an amazing Advocate who acts in my defense.  I also have the Paraclete who’s got my back.  If I focus on God’s reputation, I figure God will take care of mine. I wonder if that is what the Psalmist meant when he said, “The Lord is my Strength and my Shield.”

I don’t play defense. Life is too short.  God is too good.

There are some battlefields I’m not called to die on.

No leader in history was more attacked than Abraham Lincoln.  I try to live and lead by a motto he coined: “You can please some of the people all of the time; all of the people some of the time; but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.”

Listen to my leaders: there is always a bell curve!  You can come down from Mount Sinai with stone tablets inscribed the finger of God and 16% of the people will still resist you.  It’s the categorization of adopters!  For what it’s worth, 16% will drink the kool aid because they are early adopters so be careful lest you put a millstone around someone’s neck!

I’m not sure who said it first but it’s so true: may our gifts never take us where our character cannot sustain us!  One of my prayers is that God would not bless me beyond my ability to handle it. If I’m going to mishandle it I don’t want it.  But if God can be glorified, bring it on!

I’m marking this day. We gained a position in intercession!  The spirit moved so powerfully that our 30 minute staff meeting turned into a 2 hour prayer meeting.

We’ve been inviting local pastors to share their story, share their hearts with our staff.  The Lord sent a prophet today, Stuart McAlpine from Christ our Shepherd. I can’t even put into words what happened. It was like the Holy Spirit hit us upside the head with a 2 x 4 and it felt good.  We literally hit our knees and just kept praying.  There are times when you don’t dare to quench the Holy Spirit.  This was one of those!

Stuart talked about spiritual breakthroughs.  When we embraced each other in prayer, I felt like something broke! I also felt like the Heavenly Father was loving that two of his children were loving each other!

I believe that revival is our destiny–our generation, our nation.  We don’t have to start it, but we want in on it.  I don’t want to miss out on what God is doing and it’s so easy to “miss God in the middle of doing ministry.”  I think one of the linchpins that will allow revival to break out is when we care more about the King and His Kingdom than the name over our church door! That’s when we’re on the brink of something historic!