The Chocolate Fountain Church

Okay, its about time for a completely random blog. Today I would like to propose a new ministry concept that I am certain will sweep our blue planet with the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. I call it The Chocolate Fountain Church. It would make a great book title don't you think? The idea is pretty simple really, you get yourself a building, a ginormus chocolate fountain and some dippable delights. The statistics don't lie 122.9% of people surveyed love chocolate fountains but hate having to wait for weddings to partake of them. You wouldnt need any advertising as the word of mouth will travel quickly and in a few weeks you wont be able to hold the droves of people. I cannot think of a more prolific ministry tool. You could even program the worship elements around it, singing songs like Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing and use verses like "taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8). I can assure you of this, many will come to know Him through the chocolate fountain. Thats all I got today, mull on that and let me know what you think.

Frontline Arlington VIP Night

Frontline Arlinton's VIP Night was certainly the place to be on Friday evening and a lot of fun for our staff and volunteers. This was a special thank you event providing our Arlington Campus staff an opportunity to serve the leaders and volunteers who have truly made Frontline Arlington a success. This grand gala was held atop Gallery Place at Virginia Square featuring the red carpet extravaganza, incredible food, and amazing views. Everyone who entered got the VIP treatment they deserve. And, yes, as a matter of fact there was a chocolate fountain, which I secretly believe is the key to evangelizing the Globe.

To view a few pics from red carpet and earlier in the evening click http://picasaweb.google.com/therealtodd/VIPNight

Thanks again to all those who serve at FLARL.

11 IMMERSED

This past Monday night 543 young adults from Frontline Arlington packed out The Church at Clarendon. The highlight of the evening was the 11 people who were a part of our first baptism service as a community campus.

It was an amazing sight to see hundreds of young adults pouring into a church with so many coming and going on the street nearby. I have already heard several different stories of people who came in after being invited off the street and from the metro. I am eager to see what happens this week.

See a few of the baptisms at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mtxNOpi1L4

Small Things

I had aother affirmation yesterday about how God is in both the big and small things with Frontline Arlington. I was having a lunch meeting with David Wall, who is over Monday night teams, talking about preparations for IMMERSED at 7:30 on Monday night at The Church at Clarendon. As I was trying to explain the layout and where I thought we might post volunteers he stopped me and told me he had worked on the site plans for the church as an engineer with his company. How cool is that a couple years ago God worked it out so that one of our key guys would know this special venue inside and out. Information

See you Monday!

Thirty Professions of Faith

It was amazing to be a part of the first Easter Monday at Frontline Arlington. Last night toward the end of the service a significant number of people breathed eternally for the first time. Thirty of those people who prayed along with Todd to accept Christ stopped by our welcome center to give us their information and pick up a new believers kit.
In the last month close to 70 people have given their lives to Christ at McLean Bible Church's first community campus. For those that ask themselves if community campuses are effective at reaching the unreached where they live, work, and play; the answer is YES! Pray for our staff as we follow up with these new believers over the next week.

Confessions

I used to read a couple books a week, now I'm lucky to get one in a month. As a result I have become quite discriminatory about the books I spend valuable reading time on. Earlier this week someone gave me a new book and last night I cracked it open for the first time. I have a system I go through to see if I want to read a book or not. It always helps if there is a recommendation from a respected friend, but I still work a book over before a commitment. I look at who's on the back, the publisher, the synopsis and after a glance at the table of contents I sample the first chapter and the most interesting sounding chapter. Yes, I'm a book snob.

Confessions Of A Pastor has me hooked. I am committed after the first chapter no questions asked, no need to sample the most interesting looking chapter as it was the first entitled, I Can't Stand A Lot Of Christians. Craig Groeschel describes what pastors and many Christians deal with as they supposedly mature; fear of being found out for who and what you really are. As a result we often feel the pressure to Pose putting on the right masks for the the every situation and setting. I'll let you know how it challenges me as I go along this week.

Baptisms at Frontline Arlington

Special Service on April 23rd at The Church at Clarendon

This morning I was thinking about putting together an analysis of the first 90 days of our new campus. I soon realized that in essence we are having a 90 day celebration on April 23rd complete with baptism of some of those who've come to know Christ in first few weeks of our existence. Perfect timing!!! I'm still amazed how God continues to go before us removing obstacles and making our paths straight. When we first signed a contract with the Rosslyn Spectrum there was a glitch on Monday, April 23rd. What appeared as an obstacle, God has turned into a blessing. Not only did we find a facility in the heart of Arlington that has a great location, free parking, and can hold us all in one service; we also have the ability to celebrate in baptism making this a very special service. An added bonus is that Total Praise, Frontline's singing community, will be able to participate as we will have a larger stage. We couldn't have planned it better 6 months ago if we tried. Its crazy to see how God continues to drop things into place.

Family Communion

Last night was indeed a special night for Frontline Arlington as we came to the table shared in communion for the very first time as a body of believers. This act has always been and always will be a "family" affair. The actions of taking bread and taking wine, praying a blessing over them and passing them to those gathered around the meal table was something which happened in every Hebrew home and especially at Passover. In the New Testament at his "Last Supper"we see Christ giving this traditional act new significance and meaning by stating that the bread was his body broken and the wine his blood poured out. He then said these do in remembrance of me. I know we've been launched for over two months now, but for me there was something about last night's celebration of remembrance that solidified the family ties of our community in Arlington. It's my most memorable service to date and one I won't soon forget.

Office Space

Checked out some prime office space today in Arlington between Ballston and Virginia Square. The space was previously a tanning salon and as such has a nice coconut smell. Please be in prayer for this potential location as we desperately want to office closer to where we church.

P.S. Don't forget to thank God it's Monday!

Frontlines Latest Blitz Card

Frontline will be rolling out a new blitz card this coming week. The new card capitalizes on the overwhelming success of the first metro blitz card in bringing new people to both campuses by promoting both campuses at once. On the back of the card is frontlines new url www.frontlinedc.com which takes you to a splash page where you can choose your campus. We will be passing out 10,000 of the new blitz cards at metro stations all around D.C. on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the first two weeks of April. If you would like to help us blitz the metro stations Click Here

God Sightings

A friend of mine used to send me emails from time to time he called "God Sightings." I guess it was a kind of pseudo blog before its time. Basically, it was his personal stories of how God was working in the lives of those around him. It was great to hear all of the little miracles he encountered along his way each week. My favorite thing over the last two months has been hearing the personal stories about how Frontline Arlington is making an impact on your friends, coworkers and families. Nearly every meeting I have involves someone telling me about someone they know who has been impacted by our community. Whether its been about a person they've invited or how easy it was to get someone to FLARL verses a Sunday night in Tyson's it seems as though everyones got a story. A couple days ago I had lunch with one of our small group leaders who told me about a couple in his neighborhood he has consistently invited to Frontline at Tyson's (for 2yrs) to no avail. Where do you suppose they finally showed up? That's right. There are a dozen more stories like it, I blogged about hearing these kind of things a month ago, but I am blessed to say it hasn't let up.

I even hear things about whats going on at Arlington when I travel. Last week I was in Louisville at Southern Seminary where I did my MDIV and had a guy walk up to me just say thanks. He said he had a sibling who hadn't been to church in years who had been coming to FLARL for over a month. It meant a great deal to his family and he hoped it would open doors in his own relationship with him as well. He didn't know who had invited him but he was quite happy that they did.

If you've got a story of your own to pass along we would love to hear it.

FL Arlington Back on the Front Page

It's been around a month since we had an opportunity to buy a friend a copy of a newspaper and invite them to Frontline Arlington. This morning we were on the front page of the Sun Gazette. If you can't get your hands on a copy here's a link to the story.

http://www.sungazette.net/articles/2007/03/07/arlington/news/nws659.txt

Frontline Arlington Service Moves To 7pm

Frontline Arlington's service times will now be on Monday Nights at 7:00pm and 8:30pm. We are committed to keeping the services 1 hour in length to ensure everyone has plenty of time to connect with friends and ministry opportunities between services. After all, these are in deed "Community Campuses."

Frontline Arlington All Over The News

Okay, here's the deal, yesterday morning we got the front page of the Washington Post. Which was cool because now there are dozens of media outlets (Fox 5, NBC 4, AP, UPI, etc.) and bloggers picking it up as well. This morning they were even discussing MBC and Frontline on DC 101 Elliot In The Morning. I got to hear a Frontliner invite Elliot to Arlington tonight telling him it was a Monday night service for people just like him. I gotta tell you that this was the highlight of my year thus far, she stepped up and made the ask on the air, unbelievable. I cant wait to see what God does through all this. As a staff we are praying for the conversations you can easily have with this much publicity and will be participating with you in inviting people out to FL Arlington.

I'll include some links below, but google it and be blessed and overwhelmed by what you see.

Helpful Links

As Area Congregations Grow, Churches Build Satellite Sites ...Washington Post, DC - Feb 3, 2007By Jacqueline L. Salmon and Hamil R. Harris. With 13000 worshipers, a $93 million campus and multimillion-dollar budget, can McLean Bible Church -- the ...

Frontline ministry draws young adults with musicWashington Times, DC - Jan 21, 2007McLean Bible Church is the place to be Sunday nights for many young Christians in the region. The evangelical church's popular Frontline services attract ...

Multi-Site News: Conference in San Diego / McLean Bible Church ...Monday Morning Insight, By Todd Rhoades And today and tomorrow, over 700 people from a couple hundred more churches are here to learn more about what's happening in this area of the church. All this as McLean Bible Church, a huge church already, announces plans to open up ...

Megachurch Planning 'Spiritual Beltway'NBC 4.com, DC - 23 hours agoMcLEAN, Va. -- One of the country's largest and fastest-growing churches is getting even bigger. The McLean Bible Church in Tyson's Corner is launching an ...

http://mondaymorninginsight.com/index.php/site/comments/multi_site_news_conference_in_san_diego_mclean_bible_church_announces_nine/ ((MMI Monday Morning Insight)

http://www.gopusa.com/news/2007/february/0205_mega_churches.shtml (UPI)

http://www.wdbj7.com/Global/story.asp?S=6035049&nav=S6aK (WDBJ 7 Roanoke, Associated Press)

Sharing Your Story

I got an email this morning from someone who has a great story from Monday night. She said, "This is amazing. I invited my co-worker (who doesn't do church) to go and it turned out that I had to stay late at work, but she still went. She loved it and was so impressed. She has invited another friend to go with us this coming Monday." I hope this is as encouraging to you as it is to me. If you've got a cool story from Monday we would love to hear about it. We all saw the big picture Monday night with the overflow and the large crowd, but what is really important is how God moved personally in and through individuals. Take a few moments to let us know what really happened on Monday....and don't just share it here.....

We all have a story to tell. Take an opportunity to share what you did or what you saw on Monday with someone God has placed in your path. Just like the girl above who came to frontline for the first time share what you experienced and invite someone to experience it with you.

Want To Know A Secret

I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Todd's sermon on Monday night was not the original message he had planned to bring to us. Don't worry you will get to hear it this Monday at frontline. I do believe, however, it was perfect for the night and one of the best sermons I've ever heard him preach. I finally got to hear it in the second service at 830 and when I did I was completely floored. Earlier last week I was asked to write a devotional for the prayer guide that MBC will put out in March and the passage I was given to work from occurred just before the Disciples went out with Jesus on the boat. Jesus had just told the disciples if they had faith the size of a mustard seed they could move mountains and then took them into the storm. Needless to say I had to do a serious gut check, I had to think about what I had already written about faith to see how I measured up to my own words. For me, my part in moving the mountain that is frontline to a new location has taken a great deal of Faith. As I sat there, in a second service that was necessary because of the tremendous number that showed up at 730, I was amazed at the faithfulness and favor that God has graciously granted to me personally and to our church as well. I trust you walked away with your own ahaah moment and if you did I hope you've gotten a chance to process a bit more and somehow make some application to your own life.

Amazing Turnout

Last nights campus launch was amazing to say the least. God showed up in an amazing way and so did 594 of you and your friends. Thanks so much to those of you who volunteered or came back for the impromptu 8:30 service after overflow was overflowing. Almost a third of the people that showed up were brand new to Frontline Arlington. You guys have done so much incredible promo and another tool is available to you in an article from the front page of the Washington Times. Link this article to your own blog or send it to someone in whom you've been investing to invite. http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20070122-125427-2971r.htm

A Question About Your Feet?

And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!” Romans 10:15.

What continues to amaze me is the number of people who already know we’re coming, not to mention the couple of times I’ve started to post a card on a community board and one of you guys already beat me too it. Even more exciting to me is the thought of each one of you out there leveraging your relationships and cultivating opportunities where you live, work and play. After hearing the third point of Todd’s message last night we must all consider ourselves as having been SENT as in the verse above.

The real question we must now begin to ask ourselves is this.

How beautiful are your feet?

My Run In With The Metro Police

This morning I decided to pass out promo cards at the Rosslyn Metro, a preemptive strike if you will, before our Metro Blitz the next two Mondays. I wanted to be sure I understood the boundaries when passing out promo and also wanted to see how people would respond. It was a blessing to run into a number of frontliner’s, even better was the number of people that told me somebody had already given them a card. What made the morning, however is what happened next. I got a little nervous when a metro security officer came over and asked for one of my cards. I said, “am I alright, can I stand here?” She took a card, asked me a couple of questions, and said, “huh, this is what I’ve been looking for.” This isn’t propaganda, I’m not making this up!!! I did not hand her a cue card and ask her to read it aloud. It gets better…then she told me I could come inside where it was warmer if I wanted too. Yes, I wanted too. Leave it to me to pass out cards on the first day of sub-freezing temperatures. I can't wait to hear some of your stories as well.

Adkins