Community Christian Church

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Pastor Set to Share His BIG IDEA

Published February 1, 2007 - The Daily Herald

By Victoria Pierce

The Rev. Dave Ferguson knows a little something about big ideas.

The founding pastor of Community Christian Church in Naperville gained national attention last year when his church vaulted onto a list of the 50 most influential Christian, non-Catholic congregations in America in a nationwide survey conducted by The Church Report. It was ranked 13th in the poll of more than 2,000 churches.  It was the first time on the list for Community Christian, which attracts more than 4,500 worshippers each weekend and is viewed as a pioneer in operating numerous campuses. The church has eight campuses in the Chicago area alone, including two in Naperville. To keep connected, church leaders teleconference to discuss the main topic they hope to bring to their congregation that week and creative ways to present it. They call their approach The Big Idea.

Now Ferguson is preparing to spread his message still further with the publication of his first book. “The Big Idea: Focus the Message, Multiply the Impact,” which is being released today by Zondervan. It offers suggestions for developing a single religious theme each week and developing cooperative programs to drive the point home for adults, students and children — and help them put it into action once they get home. Ferguson wrote the book with assistance from two other church leaders, Eric Bramlett and Jon Ferguson, his brother. It’s their first such effort but probably won’t be their last. Ferguson recently talked about the book and his future as an author.

Q. What is The Big Idea?

A. We’re getting bombarded by more and more information every day. It just continues to double over and over and over again. You can show up at any church and you get bombarded with many little ideas. What we’ve created are communities of information and not transformation. We decided to instead focus every week on one big idea that comes from Jesus. Not only do we want you to know it, but we want you to live it.

Q. Why share this secret and write a book? Why not focus on continuing to expand your own church?

A. More and more people have been coming to us looking for ideas. We were named one of the most influential churches in a national survey and one of the most innovative churches. It’s just a way of getting the word out. We really hope this is a help to other churches. It’s not a competition.

Q. How do you answer critics who might say The Big Idea is just a gimmick?

A. At the very beginning, when Jesus called his disciples to join him, you could say he looked at Peter and Andrew and challenged them with one big idea, Matthew 4:18, “Come follow me.” In some ways, that is the whole idea of being a Christian. How are you going to do that? I think there’s a strong theological premise for this, it’s not a gimmick. I think The Big Idea brings more clarity and action.

Q. Who is the book geared toward?

A. Anyone can read it and get something from it, but especially church leaders and church staff.

Q. Pastors do a lot of writing, but a book is an extra challenge. How did you find the time?

A. We do almost everything in teams. Jon Ferguson, Eric Bramlett and I wrote this together. It wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun if I had done it alone. But there were some nights and weekends involved, and I stayed in Starbucks until it closed a few times.

Q. Which other authors have influenced you as a pastor?

A. Locally, I’d say Lyle Schaller. He’s probably close to 80, lives in Naperville and is a prolific author. He probably knows more about theology than anyone.

Q. What books are you reading now?

A. One is “The Starfish and the Spider, The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations.” And N.T. Wright’s, “Simply Christian, Why Christianity Makes Sense,” is brilliant. I probably spend most of my time reading about leadership. My kids complain about it.

Q. Do you ever see yourself leaving Community Christian to become a full-time author?

A. No. I think God’s plan was the church was put on Earth to make God’s dream come true. Churches are the only organizations that are kind of given the job of dispensing grace. I like writing, but I think of it as an avenue for helping churches and helping people.

Q. What other projects are on the horizon for you and Community Christian Church?

A. I would like to do something on the reproducing church. We have eight different churches in the Chicago area and nine different churches across the country. Also, something about finding your way back to God. I think that would be a lot of fun. That’s our church motto, “Finding Your Way Back to God.”