RETHINKING CHURCH (Part 3)

Recently, Perry Noble’s blog post "It’s Not the Product… It’s the Service, Part Two of Two" caught my attention. I wrote my thoughts about the INSIDE of the church view. Today, I’m going to speak to the “outside of the church” view, giving my commentary on what he had to say.

OUTSIDE of the Church View

“Nope…it’s not enough to just come to church and then go home…what we do outside the walls of the church in many ways is way more important that what happens on the inside. Saying that here are some ways we can take it to the next level in regards to making Matthew 5:14-16 become a reality.

• Teach people to read their Bibles…to discover the reality of Hebrews 4:12, the LIVING/ACTIVE Word of God. A person who learns to hear the voice of God through the lens of Scripture is UNSTOPPABLE!

In order to teach people to read their Bibles the LEADERSHIP of the church need to be reading it themselves...REGULARLY…and I don’t mean reading the Bible for information…but TRANSFORMATION!

• Challenge the church to take care of “one another” instead of hiring professionals to do it all!
• Treat people outside of the church like they have a heart and soul…for example, being incredible kind to the server at the restaurant, DESPITE the “service” that they give. They might have had the roughest day of their life…and the last thing they need is someone wearing a Christian t-shirt and has a fish on their car being a complete butthole to them because their water glass wasn’t filled!

We teach that we should all be living out EXTRAVAGANT GENEROCITY

• SERVE the world we live in rather than screaming at it. (The stupidity of some people in the church who believe lost people should act like Christians still blows my mind!)

Plain and simple: saved people serve people!

• Stop looking down on others who commit “those sins” and realize that, were it not for the grace of God that we would be the very people we criticize!
• Repent of our own sins before we call out the sins in others! (It blows my mind how an obese person can look at a drunkard and try to point out their sin without addressing their own! Whew…that was tense because FOOD has become the idol in the American church that many pastors are afraid to address.)

Ok, Perry got me with this one! But the truth is the truth.

• STOP trying to isolate ourselves from the world that God was so desperate for that He sent His Son to LIVE HERE for 33 years and then gave His life for it!
• Stop trying to win God’s approval through legalistic effort and walk in the incredible grace that HE gives us in Christ.
  The world can try to deny Christ and Christianity all day long…but when a church gets on fire because the people are on fire and we actually do and become what Jesus has called us to do and become…I believe we’ll see an outpouring of God’s favor and anointing like NEVER before.

I'll close with a quote from John Wesley…."Give me one hundred men who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and I care not whether they be clergyman or laymen, they alone will shake the gates of Hell and set up the kingdom of Heaven upon the earth.”


At LifeSpring Church, we’re trying to love, serve, teach, and develop the “one hundred” men and woman that John Wesley speaks of… disciples of Jesus Christ… are you one of the “one hundred”?

RETHINKING CHURCH (Part 2)

In my last post I referenced Perry Noble, the pastor of NewSpring Church in South Carolina, and his comments in “It's Not the Product… It’s the Service, Part One of Two.” In a later post on the same subject ("It's Not the Product… It’s the Service, Part Two of Two"), Perry brought up some interesting perspectives on the church, that I AGREE WITH and I wanted to share with you.

The two perspectives or views that are mentioned are:

1. The “inside of the church” view.
2. The “outside of the church” view.

Today, I want to focus on what He had to say about the "inside of the church" perspective. Here are a few of my thoughts on what Perry had to say...

The way many church services are conducted many would conclude that Jesus never rose from the grave!

We do not serve a God who is lifeless, boring and dull…thus our church services should not be either. I DO believe in reverence…yet many have concluded that term with rigor mortis!

This isn’t a “Traditional” vs. “Contemporary” service debate here… it’s a cry for MORE PASSION in worship. This week I was at a worship service for the pastors, spouses, and administrative assistants (That sounds like an odd gathering, doesn’t it?) of the churches of the United Methodist Statesboro District prior to our yearly setup and planning meeting. Dr. Ben Martin, Statesboro District Superintendent, gave an inspirational message on effectiveness in growing the Kingdom of God by our “sharpening our tools” and not “grinding an axe”. Prior to his message, Brandi Womack Harvey, sang Mercy Me’s song “Word of God Speak”.

There was no “big band” playing back up for her; just her and the piano. No production team, lights, cameras, projector screens, no choir robes, pipe organ, hymn book… just the piano, Brandi’s voice, and most importantly Brandi’s PASSIONATE HEART of LOVE for Jesus Christ!

From the first note that she sang, Brandi’s love of Jesus penetrated every heart in the room! This was no performance to her. It was an outward expression of her love for Jesus through this song…

Where is the PASSIONATE HEART OF LOVE FOR JESUS in the church today?

Back to Perry’s comments…

The following are some personal convictions that I really do believe that, if applied, CAN make a difference.

• When people show up they should be greeted by people who smile, say hello and are actually GLAD that they are there (and not worried about whether or not “those new people” are going to get the seat they’ve had for 20 years!)
• If we actually believe what Jesus said in Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15, Luke 24:48, John 20:21 and Acts 1:8 instead of claiming the extremely unbiblical line that “we aren’t one of those church who like to reach people… we just want to love one another.”
• Jesus did not save us for our glory… He saved us for HIS!
• If, when people showed up the music was actually good instead of letting the deacons niece sing, which always causes people’s ears to bleed and makes people pray for Jesus to come back at that moment!
• Actually taking time to PLAN the worship experience (with open hands of course) instead of letting a bunch of really bad things happen in consecutive order and then blaming the entire thing on the Holy Spirit.
• Begging God for HIS unbelievable power to be demonstrated among us!
• (BTW…some people say plan, others say pray…I believe the Bible says DO BOTH!!!)
• Use language that people can actually understand! (I’m all about the blood of Jesus…but if I am an unchurched person and you ask me if I’ve been washed in the blood of the Lamb… I am peeing my pants and then running like a bat out of Hades away from you!)

I could go on and on… what I’m really trying to say is that if we spent more time in our church services actually caring about reaching people rather than keeping people… I really do believe we could make a dent in the number of lost and unchurched people on the planet.

I look forward to hearing your comments on this. Later this week, I will be sharing about the “outside of the church” view!

RETHINKING CHURCH

Hey Guys,

I love reading other peoples writings on their thoughts about life, God, the future, or whatever. Books, blogs, twitters, Facebook pages, it doesn’t matter. You see, when I read other’s writings about their thoughts, it stimulates my own thinking.

For instance, the United Methodist Church has started a campaign about “RETHINKING CHURCH” . Trying to get people to take a different look, or different perspective when they look at their church and how the church is serving God by serving others.

Then I saw a blog from a new friend of mine, Perry Noble, the pastor of NewSpring Church in South Carolina. Perry was my coach in church planting over the last 6 months, and between him and his wonderful staff, I have been RETHINKING CHURCH. What it means to me, to others, and most especially, what it means to JESUS, as we are beginning our new church LifeSpring.

Take a look at his blog post and let me know what you think about his comments. I will post his next blog on the subject when I get it.

I look forward to seeing you face to face. Until then, we can still "DO LIFE TOGETHER" through Jesus Christ, growing the Kingdom, one person at a time.

BOUGHT IN to the vision

“Bought in” is when a person decides to relinquish their old lifestyles and pursue another way. To give up an old way of doing things in exchange for the new.

Though God’s vision for an individual or the church may not be completely clear, it IS clear enough to desire a change in how they have been doing things. Are you BOUGHT IN to God's vision for your local church?

We see the example of being “bought in” in the story of Zacchaeus in the Book of Luke in the Bible. Jesus paid a visit to Zacchaeus' home after Zaaccaeus went to tremendous lengths just to get a glimpse of Jesus, to “see who Jesus was” as he was passing by.

Just by just being in the presence of Jesus, Zacchaeus realized enough of God’s purpose for his life to make a bold change in the direction of his life.

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount." (Luke19.8)

So, let's do a quick math lesson here. If Zacchaeus' possessions added up to, let's say, $1000, this would mean that he made an immediate contribution of $500 to the poor. That leaves him with $500. If we divide that amount by four, we come up with $125. That means that if Zacchaeus had cheated anybody out of more than $125, in our example, and he paid them back four times that amount, he would be flat broke, and unable to fulfill his commitment to Jesus.

So in order to pay back more than this amount, or any amount, Zacchaeus would have to continue to work to make money to repay his debt to others. A stark contrast to why he was working before meeting Jesus. Before, Zacchaeus' vision was working to build his own personal kingdom. After meeting Jesus, Zacchaeus was repaying others, in order to follow Jesus’ vision of expanding God’s Kingdom.

Yep. I would say that Zacchaeus was “Bought In” to Jesus' vision for his life, wouldn’t you?

Sold Out

I recently tweeted an idea I thought I would share here on the blog to help unpack it over the next few days. The statement was:

When your staff's SOLD OUT for Jesus, BOUGHT IN to the vision, PASSIONATELY serving others, & ON FIRE to see life-change, leading is easy!

SOLD OUT for Jesus
For me, the phrase “sold out” means that a person is giving all they have. They have no reserves left. For those of you who are poker players (or watch “Celebrity High Stakes Poker”) a similar term would be ALL IN.

In the Bible, there is a story where Jesus asked a man to “sell everything” and follow him...

Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." (Mark10.21)

“Everything” for the man in this story was what the man depended on… For him it was his wealth. This is what Jesus asked him to give up, in order to be “sold out”… but the man just couldn’t do it.

At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!"(Mark10.22-23)

For some people it’s not wealth they depend on, it’s power. For some, they depend on being accepted by others. Or maybe they depend on being at the center of everything. In fact, for some, they so badly want to be seen as having what others have that they're willing to depend on DEBT…

From this story I have learned that whatever it is you depend on other than Jesus, you need to get rid of it! You need to be SOLD OUT, COMPLETELY, then, and only then, are we able to truly understand what it means to enter into the Kingdom of God, the place where Jesus wants to lead us.

My chips are in the middle of the table. I'm ALL IN! It's your move...