Mark started off the afternoon telling the story from National Community Church in Washington, D.C.

• Mark tried to start a church right after college.
• John Chancellor: "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans."
• The cure for the fear of failure is not success. It is failure in small doses so you build up an immunity to failure.
• Sometimes we'd start with 7 or 8 people, and that included the Father, Son and Holy Spirit...at least on a good Sunday.
• They have two theater locations on Metro stops in D.C. Their primary location is at Union Station on Capitol Hill.
• 73% of attendees are single 20-somethings. They have an annual turnover rate of 50%.
• Last year they opened Ebenezer's -- a coffeehouse outreach.
• There are ways of doing church that no one has thought of.
• Movie screens are postmodern stained glass. God is changing people in today's culture through moving video.
• Neurologically, a picture is worth 10 million words. That's why people learn through visuals.
• Podcasting and blogging are ways to reach people in new ways.

Five quick closing thoughts...

1. Enjoy the journey. Thank God for where you are.
2. Be yourself. Be who God has made you.
3. Stop criticizing. I'm tired of the church being known for what it's against.
4. Offend Pharisees. There will be Phar-Nazi's somewhere that will shoot arrows at you. Who will you be afraid of offending? Mark: "I'm afraid of offending the Holy Spirit."
5. Make mistakes. Surveying people at the end of their life, 84% regret things they didn't do while only 16% regret things they did. So just try stuff.

Great job Batterson!