On July 14 our Church has the amazing opportunity of hosting Tony Morgan on his Killing Cockroaches Summer Tour.  (Other lucky cities are: Atlanta, Dallas, St. Louis, Chicago, Nashville). In order to help our community better understand the purpose behind the tour I asked Tony 5 questions:

1. What’s the Big Idea behind Killing Cockroaches?

Back when I was a city manager, I heard a woman scream from the other side of the building. A few minutes later, she showed up in my office. She found a cockroach. For some reason, she thought this was a job for the “CEO” at city hall. I don’t know what possessed me, but I walked to the other side of the building and proceeded to kill the cockroach, with my my fancy, wingtip shoes.

Since then, there are days that I come home and I have that mopey or frustrated look on my face. My wife started to ask me, “Did you have to kill cockroaches today?” For us, it’s become a description of those days when I find myself responding to the urgent things in life rather than the focusing my time and energy on the responsibilities that have the biggest leadership impact.

2. Why the RV tour?

Well, the tour gives me an excuse to build a three-week vacation with my family around stops to talk with church leaders. I’d love to tell you the trip is more about equipping church leaders. Honestly, though, it’s more about the experience with my family. We have four kids ages 14, 11, 8 and 4. We probably aren’t going to have too many more opportunities like this where we can travel for three weeks and see parts of the country we’ve never visited before.

3. What will attendees walk away with?

We’re going to cover two critical topics. The first will be building teams and empowering leaders. Since churches live and die based on the capacity of their volunteers, this is always a challenging dialogue. The second topic is about helping churches find their focus. I’d love to help leaders understand why it’s so critical that they clarify their outreach, discipleship and communications strategy. Oh, and don’t worry, there is plenty of time built into the tour stops for Q&A.

4. What’s the next step for you “post” NewSpring Church?

Well, my family and I are still engaged at NewSpring Church, so it doesn’t really feel like it’s a “post” situation yet. Though we’re waiting for God to reveal our next assignment, I’m pretty confident it’s going to involve serving leaders and churches across the country and helping to spread great stories. That’s the stuff that energizes me and where I find the most fulfillment.

5. Will any cockroaches be accompanying you on the tour (for the sake of props or snacks)?

Though there aren’t any immediate plans to have cockroaches on the tour, it wouldn’t surprise me if we have a few try to hitchhike in our vehicle. The cockroaches down here in South Carolina are huge. In fact, we may ditch the RV and just saddle up a few cockroaches instead. They’re big…and they’re also fast.

More about Tony, the tour, or the book.