Christ Lifted Up from Restore Community Church on Vimeo.

Why is this so hard to watch?

My friends at CCC came to KC and shot this video of the Wegers. It’s a great story and a must watch.

Finding Your Way Back to God Story- David & Debby from Restore Community Church on Vimeo.

When all else fails, do what Oprah does… right? Ok, maybe not. But this year for Christmas we wanting to empower generosity at Restore without pointing people in a specific direction. The people of Restore have proven that they know how to be generous and we knew it was time to dream up ways to give BIG this Christmas.

Here’s what we did: Troy McMahon was giving his normal warm wishes from the stage, updating people on some of the upcoming things at Restore when he stepped off the stage, onto a subwoofer, and then on to the floor, face to face with the people. He asked everyone to pull out there wallet. (That’s never a good thing when a church asked you directly to get your wallet out). He said “Take out your largest bill”…people did, hesitantly. He walked over to a man with a $10 bill, and handed him an additional $10 bill. Then to a woman with a $20 bill, then a $50, even on to a man with an $100 bill.

“What the heck are we supposed to do with this $?” was written all over their faces. “Watch this”, we told them.

Restore’s Big Give from Restore Community Church on Vimeo.

What do you think?? What are your churches doing this year? Would love to hear more idea.

I have plenty to share from my Catalyst experience last week but I want to first share with you this video. It was somewhat meaningless compared to the lineup of speakers but it had the crowd of 13,500 completely silent.

Captain Splash at Catalyst from Tommy Bowman on Vimeo.

My 10 month old has been showing us a love for drums or at least beating the snot out of things to a specific rhythm. We’ve upgraded him from plastic sticks to the real deal. Check it out:

Tristan Drumming @ 10 months from Tommy Bowman on Vimeo.

1. Sunday was a big day at Restore. We announced the launch of our 2nd campus in Liberty, MO led by Nate Williams. Liberty is set to launch in the Spring of 2010.

2. Along with that, we challenged our people to either GO or Stay to GO. We got an overwhelming response from people saying that they we’re either going to Liberty or staying and stepping up into a contributing role.

3. If you made a GO commitment, you’re next step is to tell the Facebook world. Go to Restore’s GO page to find out how you can share your GO with others!!

4. Of course, we love to tell stories at Restore. Here’s Tracy’s GO story

Tracy’s Go story from Restore Community Church on Vimeo.

We’re continuing to journey through our Testament series at Restore and it’s been great. (You may have caught one of my previous posts on this series, here & here)

As we sat in our Big Idea meeting a couple months back and we reflected on this week, my own story kept coming to mind. I decided that if we couldn’t come up with the right person, I would nominate my story which I was hestitant to do.

If I wanted someone to walk away with 2 lessons from my story, it’s:

1. Don’t become so arrogant in your faith that you neglect to live my faith
2. You can’t outrun God’s love

Here it is on video:

Testament: Dysfunction from Restore Community Church on Vimeo.

We started our Testament series yesterday at Restore and we kicked it off with talking about Blessing. We told the story of Abraham, God’s blessing, and how we are blessed to bless others.

I love this series because every week we tell the story of someone from Restore through the lens of the book of Genesis. It’s gonna be fun – check back for more episodes.

Testament: Abram from Restore Community Church on Vimeo.

New series started at Restore Sunday, Renegade Joy. Today, Nate talked about having joy in opposition and fighting the temptation.

We told the story of the opposition that Patrick O’Connell, a former Wealth Manager, now faces at the office of Restore.

The Restore Office from Restore Community Church on Vimeo.