I had a nice time with Jeremy down in Ohio yesterday. It is always good to catch up with a buddy, even if you have to drive a few hours to do it. Heck, it gave me time to catch up on my radio if nothing else. But here’s a little takeaway from our hours of chatting. See, Jeremy’s church is huge into the Saddleback, Purpose-driven thing. They just ride that horse like crazy and it’s done well for them. Their church has been able to really focus on a few key areas and move a long way. As he mentioned, when George (their SP) got there 18 years ago, they had roughly 32 people. Really zeroing in on a few keys things has helped that tiny church grow… a lot. It’s kind of fun to see a church grow like a weed in a town that is turning into weeds. Here’s my point. New Hope does all the purpose driven stuff. They buy the philosophy, they use their materials, they copy shamelessly from the best churches in the country.

Part of me looks at that and says, "Are they so uncreative that they just copy everything from everyone? What are their churches paying them to…." That’s when it sinks in. The value their church has sent to the staff is that the people want the staff’s time invested in equipping, not curricuclum development. Less time in the books means more time in front of people. Less time making cool graphics means more time with people. Less time preparing for small groups means a better small group. That’s a lot to chew on for me. In some ways, doing what they are doing takes a lot of pride swallowing. It’s not that Jeremy and the rest of the staff can’t create great materials, their own vision and goals, it’s that they chose not to for the sake of equipping people. That’s a pretty unique take on it.

Pretty smart for a bunch of copy-cats.

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