Where Should the NewThing Network Go Next?

In the last three years the NewThing Network has planted four churches and we have a fifth team preparing to plant in Boston and are now adding affliate sites. Our vision for 100 reproducing church by 2010 in the United States is still solidly in our sites. But over the last 18 months we have been wrestling with the question of an international presences and where should we take NewThing next? We have had a number of opportunities to take NewThing outside the boundaries of the United States and plant churches in other countries. When World Relief came to us and wanted us to partner in Mozambique to plant churches and do leadership development I wasn't sure that was to be our first step internationally...but then I wasn't sure that it was not the next step. My bias - "Jesus already gave us the great commission so go until you get a no". But I just felt no confirmation at all and still said "not yet". Other opportunities came and I just kept thinking that in the words of Peter Drucker, "decisions aren't so much made as they become apparent" - well it hasn't.

I've come to the conclusion that over the next 12 months that we need our lead team to take some trips to some key destinations and them come back with a report. There are a handful of places that I could see us taking our church planting efforts next: Mexico, Domican Republic, Philippines, Rwanda, England or France. In all of these places we have significant relationships upon which we could build a church planting movement. If you were to put your resources into a foreign country with the dream of starting a church planting movement...which country would you pick and why?

Selling Love Pills?

BoingBoing - The Directory of Wonderful Things had an interesting blog about how we fall in love. Check this out - Psychiatrists from Pavia University (wherever that is?) have found a correlation between early romantic love and a biochemical known as nerve growth factor (NGF). Apparently, levels of NGF in the bloodstream were significantly higher in subjects who were in the early stages of romance than individuals not in a relationship. Interestingly, "subjects in love who—after 12–24 months—maintained the same relationship but were no longer in the same mental state to which they had referred during the initial evaluation" did not have elevated NGF levels.

Which brings me to my next great multi-level marketing business idea - selling NGF! Anyone want to be a distributor?