Preaching the Big Idea: An Interview with Dave Ferguson...Continued from page 3

Michael Duduit

Preaching: So once you’ve got the 1.0 to work with, you have guys in multiple churches that have that manuscript. How closely does everyone feel the need to stick to the common manuscript or does each person have the flexibility to adapt and modify it?

Ferguson: Each person has the flexibility to do exactly as they want. I think because of how the whole process works -- the teaching teams actually pick the Big Ideas a year in advance, then we get to design the message three weeks in advance -- there is a high level of ownership. It is not like you get to one point and say, “What’s that? I have never seen that before.” You basically you own that – “Oh yeah, I remember when we agreed to do that; this is exactly the best stuff. That is the feeling you have when it comes in – “Oh good, here it is.”

But even at that, you still have those two weeks where you have complete latitude. Something can happen to you and you say, “Oh, this will be a great story,” and of course you put it in. What is a little bit different though, in our situation, is that every time you do an edit to the message, there is an understanding that you email that edit to everyone else on the team. So everyone has the advantage. You usually put in your notes for the 2.0 things like: “I have a brand new story, can you please check this out. I am not really feeling great about that first point -- you guys got any ideas?” So there’s that kind of ongoing collaboration that even happens going into the last couple of weeks. It is usually up to 4.0, 5.0 before it ever gets delivered. Everybody feels very comfortable and it’s nuanced to take on their own personality of what they want to say.

Preaching: How many churches are in a networked relationship with your church?

Ferguson: We have eight sites of Community Christian Church locally, and there are about ten churches as part of our New Thing Network.

Preaching: Are the pastors of those different settings all a part of the 105 minute process, or do they simply join if they choose to?

Ferguson: Within our CCC are eight sites, and we have about 25 celebration services -- about half of our services have in-person teachi

ng and the other half are video-cast. So all of the people in the CCC are very involved in this process as well. Those people who are pastoring and teaching in the churches in our New Thing Network, they are as well. Like this week, I was gone so I wasn’t there on Tuesday for our Big Idea teaching team meeting. I missed it, but the process goes on. I guess there is enough relationship that even though they designed that -- I had input in the beginning when we first talked about it -- so that when the 1.0 shows up I still feel ownership about that and feel engaged. It does work that way, but that is not the ideal.