Mark Batterson

Dr. Mark Batterson gives our annual State of the Church message. Together, we’ll look back at all God has done in and through NCC in 2020 and look ahead into 2021 and beyond. The church ought to be the most CREATIVE place on the planet. The church ought to be the most DIVERSE place on the planet. Those two things are not unrelated. In fact, you can’t have one without the other. Unity does NOT mean uniformity! Unity is CORPORATE HUMILITY. Maturity does NOT mean conformity. Maturity is UNITY in DIVERSITY. Then, and only then, can we become the BELOVED COMMUNITY God has destined us to be.

Sow today what you want to see tomorrow. Over time, one of two things happens. Either MEMORY overtakes IMAGINATION or IMAGINATION overtakes MEMORY. The difference? Prophetic imagination. It’s seeing the invisible, hearing the inaudible, and believing the impossible. Add to it patient persistence and bold prayer, and it’s game on.

Dr. Mark Batterson continues our Win The Day Series with Habit #6! Time is measured in MINUTES, but life is measured in MOMENTS. You don’t FIND TIME, you have to MAKE TIME. How? For starters, curse the barren fig trees. These are the things that waste time, waste energy. How do you curse the barren fig tree? You establish boundaries and establish priorities. If managing minutes is a science, then managing moments is an art form. It’s recognizing teachable moments and making the most of them. It’s accumulating experiences, rather than possessions.

Check out this bonus message from our Win the Day series! When it comes to goal-setting, problem-solving, and habit-breaking—GRAND GESTURES are key. They are defining decisions, calculated risks, and selfless sacrifices that double as defining moments. Grand Gestures are often the tipping point, the turning point. They are the point of no return. The idea is as old as Old Testament altars.

Dr. Mark Batterson continues our series based on his new book, Win The Day! How you do ANYTHING is how you’ll do EVERYTHING. The good news? If you do little things like they’re big things, God will do big things like they’re little things. The key is kaizen—an uncompromising commitment to continual improvement. It starts with a growth mindset, and there is no finish line. You keep setting stretch goals until the day you die!

Dr. Mark Batterson continues our Win The Day series! Almost anyone can accomplish almost anything if they work at it long enough, hard enough, and smart enough. The key is cultivating DOMINO HABITS—little habits that are high leverage habits. It starts with hacking your habits. The next step is making those habits measurable, meaningful, and maintainable. Then you employ two techniques—habit switching and habit stacking. The good news? If you do LITTLE THINGS like they’re big things, God will do big things like they’re little things!

Dr. Mark Batterson continues our Win The Day series! The obstacle is not the enemy. The obstacle is the way! “I have learned to kiss the wave,” said Charles Spurgeon, “that throws me against the Rock of Ages.” You have to learn the lesson that tough times teach us by asking a critical question: what have you come to teach me?

There are weeks when nothing happens, and there are weeks when decades happen. This felt like one of those weeks. This weekend we catch our breath and collect our thoughts after a difficult week in Washington, DC. We are here for such a time as this. We are here for such a place as this. We stand in the gap as peacemakers, grace givers, and tone-setters. We believe God for racial reconciliation and political healing. We remind ourselves of who we are, where we are, and why we are as a church.

Dr. Mark Batterson kicks off the new year with a new series! If you want to change your life, you have to change your story. You can’t just flip the calendar, you have to FLIP THE SCRIPT. It’s the first of seven habits in Win The Day, and it’s a high leverage habit. In the science of cybernetics, there are two kinds of change. First-order change is behavioral—it’s doing something more or less. First-order change can facilitate a quick-fix, but second-order change passes the test of time. Second-order change is conceptual—it’s mind over matter. At the end of the day, your explanations are more important than your experiences. Long story short? The best story wins!

Covid feels a little bit like the GRINCH that stole Christmas for some of us, but we made a decision at the beginning of this ADVENT series—CHOOSE HOPE. It’s been a hard year in lots of different ways, but that is when and where and why we celebrate Emmanuel, God with us. This Christmas we remember the reason for the season: the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord, and Savior. It’s a season to WORSHIP GOD like the wise men, SEEK GOD like the shepherds, and TRUST GOD like Mary and Joseph.