CreativePastors Blog & Podcast

Easter Message Sneak Preview

Ed is excited to release a draft manuscript of this year's Easter message on CreativePastors. Here's a quick note from him:

Easter weekend is just a few days away and my team and I are continuing to tweak the message that will reach one of the largest crowds of the year at Fellowship. The Easter message will actually be the second part in a new series called Doors.

Last weekend we kicked off the series with a challenge to our regular attendees to invite their friends and neighbors to the doors of the church on Easter weekend. Almost anyone will give God a chance on Christmas and Easter. And as people walk through the doors of your church and mine, the doorway to eternity hangs in the balance. Christ is the door to heaven and everyone must make a choice to cross the threshold or slam it. And that's what the Easter message is all about: What are you going to do with the door?

We've been amazed as we have begun to plan and talk about this series just how prevalent the door is in our lives, yet how much we take it for granted. From front doors to garage doors, office doors to back doors, we are continually moving from one place to another. We are confronted with doors every day. Doors are everywhere, giving us access to everything we do. Yet, while we open dozens of doors every day—in both the physical and spiritual sense—we so often ignore the most important doors in life. We'll be talking about that throughout this series over the next several weeks.

Once again, I'm making a pre-release version of my Easter message available to you. I hope that it helps spark some ideas for you as you too prepare for new opportunities to show many, many people a doorway to hope, peace, forgiveness, and eternal life. Keep up the good work and let us know the great things God does in your church this weekend!

Super Bowl Ticket Giveaway

During one of our Saturday night services at Fellowship Church this weekend, we'll be giving away two free tickets to Super Bowl XLI, including airfare and hotel accommodations. Here's a little insight from Ed on why we're doing this:

The Super Bowl is the biggest sporting event in America and we want to leverage that attraction to bring people to what I believe is the most important entity in the universe, the local church. This isn’t just a gimmick. It’s a way to get people to the church who otherwise might not come, so they can find real answers for real life. It’s all about life change. If even one person comes hoping to win a free trip to the Super Bowl and experiences something positive in their life as a result, it’s worth the effort to do this promotion. At Fellowship Church, we major in creativity and are always looking for new ways to connect with our culture. This giveaway is just one of many things we do to help bring people into a new or better relationship with God.

We'll also launch a new series this weekend about happiness, so be sure to stop by CreativePastors next Monday and check it out!

*Update* See coverage of the giveaway by a local news station here.

Fasting Guidelines

Ed began our current series, Larger than Life, with a message on the spiritual discipline of fasting, during which he challenged Fellowship Church to join him in a 21-Day fast. For three weeks we’re  eating pure fruits, vegetables and grains while we participate in a Daniel Fast. We're about halfway through and it's already been an incredible faith adventure! If you would like to participate in a fast like we’ve done at Fellowship, we’re made our fasting guidelines available here.

Watch Ed's Video Journal

To kick off 2007, we've just begun a new series at Fellowship Church, Larger than Life. Over the course of three weeks we'll be looking at the spiritual disciplines of fasting, prayer and giving. Last weekend's message explored the biblical practice of fasting, during which Ed challenged us to join in a church-wide fast. For 21 days, we will participate in a Daniel Fast, the details of which are explained here. Ed will be tracking his progress and offering perspective during the next few weeks in an online video journal, just launched today. We're excited to see what God will do through this time as we turn our hunger towards him.

Hulk Hogan and Ed Young?

Don't miss the hilarious video on our Fellowship Church site featuring Ed Young and Hulk Hogan. They are promoting our new series, Larger than Life, which will look at what we can do to live life on the next level. This will be one you won't want to miss, so be sure to follow along for the next three weeks!

An especially easy way to make sure you don't miss any of Ed's messages is to sign up for one of our sermon subscriptions. Now's the perfect time, because this month they are 10% off!

Listen to Christmas 2006 Message!

Ed delivered the first of many Christmas services last night and wants to share it with you. The Divine MP3 is available here, or you can check out an early release of the podcast here. We were blessed with a very full house last night and can't wait to see what God will continue to do at Fellowship Church throughout these services and at your churches as well!

Updated Christmas Message Available

As Ed continues to revise and polish this year's Christmas message, The Divine, he's making the most recent version available to you:

You can feel the excitement, can't you? It's Christmas week. Our first service is Thursday evening and we've been busy with preparations, as I know you have too. Earlier this week I made available two drafts of my Christmas message. And as my team and I continue to fine tune it, I wanted to add the most recent draft into the mix. All three versions will be included in the same download package. You know that a great message isn't just what you say but also what you don't say, so we've taken a lot of stuff out and added some new twists. I'll be tweaking it all the up until our final service on Christmas Eve, but I hope this helps generate some ideas for you. (For those of you who have already purchased the previous drafts, you'll find an updated version in your downloads.)

And, by the way, don't forget to give yourself some distance between prep time and delivery time. I always try to take at least a day off from looking at the sermon. That way, when I come back to it on the big day, I can view it with fresh eyes. My family and I wish you the best this week. Keep your eyes on Christ, The Divine.

God's Best,

Ed

Sneak preview of Fellowship Church 2006 Christmas Message

You can get a sneak peek at the message Ed will be delivering this Christmas at Fellowship Church. It's called The Divine and the early relase draft manuscript with notes is available here. In case you missed the newsletter that went out today, here's a quick note from Ed about it:

I don’t know about you, but I always have mixed emotions at this point in December. Christmas is an incredibly exciting time of year. It’s a time when many people, who don’t darken the door of the church all year long, will give God a chance—just this once. It’s as if thousands of people are following the star to the manger, and we have this God-given appointment to move them from seekers of the Christ child to worshipers of The Christ. The manger is like a magnet. There’s something mysterious about it that draws a curious crowd. Who is this baby? Why did He come? What does He mean to me?

On the other hand, I’m filled with apprehension and, yes, a little bit of fear when this season comes around. As we anticipate record crowds, I wonder how I’m going to bring something new to the Christmas message table after doing this for sixteen years. Well, needless to say, our creative team has been meeting about this message and I’ve gone through quite a few drafts of the sermon. And if you’re interested in joining in the creative process, I’ve made my most recent drafts available on CreativePastors. There are two different versions: one for the Boomer crowd with some nice alliteration and one for the Emergent group that has a more non-linear feel. Let me know what you think!

I pray for all of you this Christmas that the Holy Spirit will guide you as you communicate the truth of this holy season once again. The mystery of the Divine draws a crowd but, through Christ, the mystery has been revealed.

"O Christmas T" Outreach

In Ed's Creative Leader newsletter for November (missed it? sign up here for free!), he discussed some of the things we're doing to get ready for this year's Christmas services at Fellowship Church. One of the ideas we're implementing is something we've never tried before - a project we've dubbed "O Christmas T." We printed vibrant t-shirts featuring our Christmas service information and gave them away to our entire church to wear throughout their Christmas shopping, with an emphasis on one specific shopping day. Seeing 20,000 Fellowship Church t-shirts throughout the Dallas/Ft. Worth area should be a great way to start a conversation and invite someone to our Christmas services! 

Our incredible volunteers came out in full force to help fill bags with a t-shirt, small promotional poster, and invite cards in a business card size and in postcard format. The bags were handed out during the weekend services at several stations throughout our campuses. Even the children who attended FCKids services were given a t-shirt to wear to school!

Ed reminded us that almost anyone will give God a chance and try church during Christmas, so equipping our members with these materials gives them the tools to reach out to those around them. 

The Early Days

This past weekend at Fellowship Church, Preston Mitchell delivered an evangelism-focused message entitled Feet First. A great example of vision casting, it includes accounts from the early days of Fellowship Church which not only give us an appreciation for its history, but also pull us into the continuing story of the amazing things God wants to do through the local church.