Author Archives: Vince Antonucci

About Vince Antonucci

Vince Antonucci is the planter of Verve in Las Vegas. The host of the immersive seminar Vault. The author of two books, I Became a Christian and All I Got was this Lousy T-shirt and Guerilla Lovers. He blogs at www.vinceantonucci.com

Free Book Summaries!

summaries

I love to read books, but don’t have enough time to read all the books I want to read. A while back I heard about someone who was creating book summaries of great books and I was like, “Yes! I get to digest the important points of some important books, without having to read the entire book!” – and then I found out I had to pay for these book summaries, and I was like, “No! I’m not going to do that!”

But now there is someone giving FREE book summaries. That is AWESOME. Auxano has just launched SUMS, free book summaries created for church leaders.

Auxano is a great friend of ELI and we encourage you to sign-up to receive SUMS.

Talent Isn’t Enough

Recently watched the documentary Pearl Jam 20by Cameron Crowe (I love you Cameron Crowe!), and I thought it had a ton of lessons for church planters. Here’s one…

Andrew Wood (singer for Mother Love Bone, which later kind of morphed into Pearl Jam) and Chris Cornel (singer for Soundgarden, and later Audioslave, and who has a voice straight from God) lived together when they were first starting out, and each wrote and recorded a song every single day, which they would then play for each other. Like workaholic singer/songwriter accountability.

The idea exists that some singers just have this innate talent and jump on a stage and get discovered. The reality is that even talented people have to work their butts off if they want to succeed.

Why do some guys start churches that thrive, while others start churches that don’t even survive? There are all kinds of factors, but one of them is hard work. Some people might say I’m smart or gifted, but I don’t know about that. I think what God has used in me is hard work. You can get a lot of ministry done when you put in 65 to 80 hours a week, every week.

And you know what? If you write enough songs you keep getting better at it, and some of the songs end up working. And if you do enough ministry you keep getting better at it, and some of the ministries in your church end up working.

Talent isn’t enough. It takes hard work. Lots of hard work.

So … if you’re a church planter, or thinking about starting a church, how hard are you really willing to work?

Influences

By: Vince Antonucci

Vince Antonucci is the planter of Verve in Las Vegas. The host of the immersive seminar Vault. The author of two books, I Became a Christian and All I Got was this Lousy T-shirt and Guerilla Lovers. He blogs at www.vinceantonucci.com.

When I teach church planting seminars or coach planters I sometimes talk about intentionally choosing your influences.

Obviously if the Bible speaks on a topic, we should follow the Bible. But what about when it doesn’t? I think one of the (many) reasons churches reach church goers (rather than people who don’t like church) is because they look to other churches for their influences. We’ve tried to intentionally find non-church influences for non-theological issues. Here are some examples of influences you can use:

How should you do your church lobby? Don’t look at another church, look at Starbucks.

You may want to check out Disney for how they do “skits” – especially noticing how they often have an audience member volunteer in a role. It breaks down the barrier between the “crowd” and the stage, and makes it more fun for everyone.

We have followed Conan O’Brien’s lead on having some recurring “characters.”

Style of music? Listen to what’s hot on the radio not in Australian churches.

Children’s Ministry? Why do kids love to go to Chuck E. Cheese?

For tips on speaking style? Watch some professional comedians.

Color scheme? Graphic design? What websites and magazines do the people you’re trying to reach read?