Launch Plan

So this is what our time line for launch looks like:

July 15: 3C gathering, 5:30-8pm @ the Navigator’s

August 19: 3C Worship Service, 10am @ the Navigator’s
This is our first Sunday morning event as a church- the beginning of our launch into public worship

September 9: Preview Service #1 @ Silver City, 10am
September 16: Follow up event

September 30: Preview Service#2 @ Silver City, 10am
October 7: Follow up event

October 14: Preview Service #3 @ Silver City, 10am
October 21: Follow up event

October 28: Preview Service #4 @ Silver City, 10am
November 4: Follow-up event

November 11: Preview Service #5 @ Silver City, 10am
November 18: Follow-up event

Sunday, November 25:
Launch Phase 1- “Connecting with God” @ Silver City
Services December 2, 9, 16 and 23

Logos...

I've been having way too much fun working with a guy named Steve Pye on our website. Actually, we've really only been working on our logo, as that's the first essential component. I've learned a ton about this field and can see how people get swept into it.
Before I get to any unveiling, a few things...
First, occasionally you meet someone who you know is light years away from the pack in their field. I'm no expert, but as far as I can tell, and after talking with a lot of people, Steve is one of those guys. Steve asks the questions I didn't know to ask, and then he gives me answers that make sense. It's a rare and special gift to have that ability- to show people something they could have not pictured on their own.
He's also an answer to prayer. It's been amazing to me, as I've written before, how God brings the right people at the right time.

But anyways, here we go- now this is NOT the finished product. But you'll get a sense of where it's going. I'm pretty excited!

The Connecting Church, pt. 1

After deciding on our church name I started noticing the word "connections" everywhere, including a lot of books. One called "The Connecting Church" got some great reviews. I don't know why it took me so long to actually read this book, but I finally did. It basically has three parts, each essential to making meaningful connections with people- a Common Purpose, a Common Place, and Common Possessions.

The author, Randy Frazee, echos numerous thoughts, ideas, hopes and dreams I've had for our church. He begins with a portrait of modern life through a fictional couple bearing remarkable similarity to the portrait of life I painted once in training session for church leaders. It's a few years old, and long, but I think still rings true...

The normal person you meet at work or in your neighborhood lives believing that the goal of his life is to achieve his fulfillment, by his efforts and through cultural definitions of success. He is under enormous pressure to reach this fulfillment and steadily finds it eluding him.

He has little information about God, mainly vague hopes that God must match our cultural imperatives of tolerance, benign interest, encouragement and non-interference. The fear of imposing religious beliefs keeps him isolated in his ignorance.

If he does have a conception of the God of Christianity, he probably feels that God is against him, is angry at him for not being good enough, and wants him to be better than he desires to be: in short, he believes the Father of Jesus Christ is a contract God who must be conditioned into being gracious. Nothing in the media portrayal of Christianity will disabuse him of this view.

He lives his life wondering anxiously over questions he can barely express: Am I OK? Am I loveable? Am I going to be all right?

He trembles under the naked open spaces of no moral restraints in the culture, watching helplessly as the tide of the culture sweeps through him:

He lives in a world where families fall apart; sacred vows no longer bind behavior or consciences. His children sleep with other children; they risk their lives in search of stimulation amidst the increasing boredom of our vacuous prosperity; they toy with violence and substance abuse.

In his world, lying is normal; revenge is noble and indeed necessary; and the competition is fierce, indifferent and unforgiving.

He is lonely, in debt, under pressure and unsatisfied by a God of his own making. He has unresolved issues in his marriage, if indeed he is still married and no basis for moving towards forgiveness, reconciliation, honesty and depth of communion.

He is distracted by business, overwhelmed with things to take care of, yet never seems to have enough money.

He is watching or has watched his parents die and has formulated some vague hopes about their well being but fear and ignorance keeps him from looking deeper.

He is tired, overworked, stressed out. In short, he is hungry to hear the good news that there is a God, that this God can be known for he has in fact made himself known. In Jesus Christ we see God revealed as unconditional, all-giving, all embracing love.

We do not see this side of people during casual conversations unless we look very carefully. We all play “Happy Face.” Too often, we choose to believe the façade presented to us.

Will we dare to risk looking beneath the façade, probing under the surface to see the misery that will move our hearts to compassionate involvement?

Perhaps this overstates the case for your life (or maybe it understates it), but each day I seem to meet more people who are longing for connections, community, a sense of belonging. I meet them in the church and on the streets. The crushing weight of isolation seems ready to overtake them, they are ready to make a change. They are ready to connect. They just don't know how.

Randy puts it in as simple of terms as I've read- common purpose, common place, common possessions. Without them we will not experience the true depths of community and connection that we were made for. It's that simple, and it that difficult- for it takes a radical restructuring of our lives and priorities.

Just a step behind

I went running yesterday morning and ran by the spot of one of my regrets. A few weeks back I was jogging along, listening to a sermon. I'm such a pastor-geek that I have more sermons than songs on my itunes. So lame, I know.
But here's the really sad part- I'm so into my sermon that I don't really think about it when a car stops in front of me and a woman asks if had seen a red hat on the ground. I had seen it about two blocks back, so, in a sort of runners daze, I just say, yes, about two blocks back.
She quickly says thank you and turns around.
I never saw her again.
I blew it.
That's the thing about opportunities for good deeds- they come up so quickly that you have to be ready for them, or they can pass you by that fast.
The good thing is that they come up often. Most of the time I think I'm ready, but sometimes I'm just a step behind.
I don't think the woman expected me to go back and get her hat. I don't think she even gave it a second thought. But that's the point of good deeds isn't it? You do them when someone doesn't expect or deserve it. You do them to be proactive. You do them out of the goodness of your heart. She never gave it a passing thought, but I've thought about it every time I've run by that spot.
I decided that since I blew one opportunity, I'd try and make up for it. I run by that spot and pray that God would open my eyes to see the opportunities to love my neighbors placed before me each day. I pray that I might be a step ahead to help and serve whenever, wherever, whoever.

Thoughts on prayer, 2

In thoughts on prayer 1 we established the following:
It matters when and where we pray.
After Jesus finished praying, as the story goes in Luke 11, the disciples asked Jesus how to pray.
What a thought- that we actually need to be taught how to pray.
Jesus goes on to teach them a great, pithy prayer- short and sweet.
But I'm fascinated with the story that follows.
Basically a man is sleeping. His neighbor comes pounding on his door, asking for bread for his visitor. There's so much going on here, too much to get into, but it comes down to this-

"I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs." Luke 11:8

I love the way another translation puts it, because of his bold audacity...
Since Jesus taught his disciples to pray this way, I've lately been taking it at face value. Late at night, and early in the morning, pounding on God's door with bold prayer.
Or as I've been calling it, my tenacious audacious prayers.
I've had a lot lately. Here are just a few:

We need someone to organize our nursery and children's program.
We need a great website.
I want to double in size by September- 50 to 60 committed, invested, inviting adults.
Bless my wife and kids, help me to be a great husband and father.
We need a ministry center and all the stuff to fill it up.
We want 4 small groups running this summer.
I need someone who knows a lot about AV equipment.
Our band needs to ROCK!
We need some great graphics and promotional materials.
But perhaps most boldly,
We want to see people finding Jesus.

"Sicko"

So I meet Michael Moore this past Friday.
I don't think he'd remember me, the guy in the shirt with the camera in the press area- one of many.
But still, I got an invitation to see the premier of "Sicko" in London.
It was a very exciting time for our little city.
Hundreds of folks gathered with all the buzz.
It got me thinking about our premier three months from now.
When you have a radical message, it can draw a crowd. When you believe in something passionately, people will listen to you. When you present something well, or controversial, people will talk.
But you'll never get everyone to agree with you, and you certainly won't get them all to like you.
But it doesn't really matter when you believe it with your entire being.
When you're willing to put yourself on the line.
When you're willing to be the lightening rod if that's what it takes.
All of London was talking about Michael Moore and his movie this weekend.
In three months I hope we give them something even better to talk about! Wouldn't that be awesome.

Oh yeah, and I bumped into the mayor again.

Thoughts on prayer, 1

Lately I've been working to manage my fears in church planting. Mostly I'm filled with great excitement, optimism, enthusiasm and faith.
But then the moment of fear will slip in.
The thoughts of all that could go wrong.
The things that I would do differently now.
The "what if" questions.
I think it's actually a pretty healthy place to be.
It keeps me grounded in the reality that there is no way I can do this.
Oh I can organize it all. Put it together. Pull it off. But it wouldn't really be building the church.
Building the church is God's work.
We just do our part.
That simple truth alone keeps bringing me back to prayer.

"Now Jesus was praying in a certain place..." Luke 11:1

So here's my first reflection on prayer- it matters when and where we pray. It really does.
We have this ideal that our whole life should be a sort of unceasing prayer. It's biblical. But it's really hard.
Richard Foster wrote,

"We can't expect to pray all the time everywhere, if we don't pray sometimes somewhere."

Our relationship with God is much like our human relationships- communication is key. And prayer is simply our communication with God.
I want to have a great relationship with my wife, so we set aside time and we go out on dates, we invest in each other. Then it feels like our relationship is without ceasing. But that only happens through setting up the time and place.
So there are times when if you'd look in my office you'd only see me.
But I'm not alone.
And I am busy.
And God is building His church.

I just want to be here

So we're having a party the other day. About 30 adults plus kids. Lots of kids. I love it.
My mother-in-law is walking through the house and notices one of the neighborhood kids standing at the front door.
In his bike helmet.
Running his fingers up and down the mesh screen.
Looking into the house.
Ida greets him and asks who he is.
He mumbles a bit, then finally gets the right words out:

"I just want to be here."

The party was contagious.
The laughter was infectious.
The life was spilling into the streets.
It was the kind of place you just wanted to be.

This is what people are going to say about our church.
The atmosphere be contagious.
The relationships will be infectious.
The life will spill over into the streets.
It will be the kind of place you just want to be.
People will wonder if they can connect.
And we will say,

"We threw this party just for you."

Growing Pains

My daughter Karis is growing up. I love it, and I hate it.
One of our values for the church is growth. You can read them all along the side.

"We love Growth."

Why do we have this as a value?
Because we have to.
Because you don't plant something and then not encourage its growth.
Because the bible tells the story of God growing His church.

"So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow." 1 Corinthians 3:7

Here's what it really comes down to- if you don't state this as a value, the unspoken value of non-growth will take its place. We've probably all been with that church, or that group, that got to the place where it didn't want to change anymore. It didn't want to grow- it wanted to keep a grip on what it was.
While we were talking about growth with a group, my daughter Karis came into the room laughing and smiling- and holding her first baby tooth to fall out.
Outside I laughed and congratulated her. Inside, I honestly started to cry.
I love my Karis just how she is. I love her innocence. I love how the world is magic to her. I love that I'm the greatest man in her life.
I often joke about starting my kids on a diet of coffee and cigarettes to stunt their growth.
I don't want them to grow.
But I do.
The only thing worse than seeing your children grow would be seeing their growth stunted.
But it still doesn't make it any easier.
You can argue all you want about the abuses of growth. We all know them. We've all experienced them.
We will value the growth of God's church and God's children. It will be hard. It will even make us cry. But the alternative would be even worse.