Understand Jesus…
Being a part of a church plant is definitely something I would consider fun, an experience, and most definitely a challenge… to say the least. I get excited to think about what the “DNA” (as some would call it,) of this church is going to end up looking like.
Are we going to be seeker focused? Charismatic? Baptist? (haha.)
When I was hired on into this wonderful family, it was displayed for me that this church’s “DNA” was going to be focused on people. Our efforts, both physically and in prayer, will be focused on serving our city and loving people; through this extroverted action we will display the love of Christ to others with the love that He has placed inside of us. We will “serve a city” rather than “start a church.”
But the one thing I’ve been wondering is “if people come on a Sunday, will they really understand who we are?”
Thinking about this has rattled my brain for the past few months. Is Sunday going to be focused on anything specific? Will our Sunday’s implore groups walking outside and giving money to homeless people? Will our pastors always speak on topics that involve us getting out there and fulfilling the Great Commission? Will we work on improving how things look or sound or feel? Will those elements even matter to us? Will Sunday be all that we have? My lovely girlfriend and I sat in on a discussion between our pastor and his mentor, and a lot of these questions were quietly answered between the lines of their conversation.
“we’re not sure how it’s supposed to look, but we’re doing it! we’re taking them in deep right away, even the unbelievers.”
My thought is that most churches, (i’m not saying all, but I believe that most churches operate this way,) operate out of an unnoticed fear that if we don’t take action in a specific, based-on-a-model-way, then gazillions of people won’t make it to our services to hear our pastors speak about the most important message that anyone could ever hear! We’ve operated out of fear that if we were to drop our guard and change things about our services or about our thinking, we could lose people who attend our church, and they could walk out on the Lord! This just in, walking out of a building is NOT walking away from Jesus.
Now slow down for a minute. I am NOT bashing the church here. I’m bashing the idea that labels on buildings, and the way they do things at the building across the street, and how worship is viewed at that one building down the road is what makes the church. Nope. The church is the people, and the people are the Bride. We’ve set ourselves up for failure in presenting Jesus to the world, because all of us present Him in different ways! Whether it’s tradition, only works, just faith, being charismatic, what have you! It’d be hard for someone to understand who Jesus is if we’re all telling them He’s someone different. We’ve set ourselves up for denominational separation from each other as a body, and from the lost who need to be found. We’ve operated out of a fear that people won’t understand who Jesus is, and through that fear we end up not trusting our Father with this area, so we act on our own. We make our services look attractive, and feel good to the average joe, (which is not a bad thing at all… feeling comfortable at your home-place of corporate worship is a beautiful thing,) but when it becomes the focus of making sure people are happy and pleased and keep coming, that can become dangerous. I’m trailing off.
I guess what the “crux” of what I’m trying to say here, is that we don’t need to reproduce, or even create something attractive in order for people to be attracted to Jesus. Jesus is the most attractive “thing” people could ever come across. When a non-believer sees someone raising their hands in worship for a few minutes they may generally think that person is a bit nutty for lifting their hands to someone that they believe isn’t real. But after a solid hour of that nonbeliever seeing that person with their hands raised, they start to wonder, “why would this person be singing and shouting at the top of their lungs, hands raised, towards someone that isn’t real? why would 25 other people in this room be doing the same thing for an entire hour? there HAS to be something real about this. God HAS to be real.” So they open up their heart, and in that moment, Jesus becomes real to that person. It could be 110 degrees in that tiny room, no air conditioning, smelly from sweaty people, and uncomfortable to the average person, but Jesus becomes real to that person, and that becomes a moment. A beautiful moment where God takes ahold of someone’s heart… and it had nothing to do with anything except people with a passionate love for Christ, displaying it in worship.
Anyways, I’m excited! I’m in love with my Savior and so “super jazzed” that He has led me to this place. We are headed in a direction where our Sundays will be geared towards looking attractive and comfortable, (which is not at all a bad thing!) but will still be challenging and thought provoking; and throughout the week we will have small Community Groups/ House church that is more relaxed, and looks more like what was displayed in the small scenario above, “sweaty and smelly.” haha. We will focus on the vision of the church, have a time for teaching and corporate prayer/ gifts sharing, and a time for worship. We will invite believers and non-believers, and shamelessly display our love for Christ, and the truths of His Good News.
…invite them to your small groups. let them experience worship, and prayer groups and being in a small room where people are laying hands on each other in prayer. let them be exposed to people using their spiritual gifts. even though they’re unbelievers…
So that’s what we’re doing! we love to serve the city, and display our love for people with the love that Christ has put inside of us. We’re all about serving, and all about the Kingdom. Our actions and our prayers are outwardly focused, and we’re loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. That’s the direction we’re headed, and I’m really really excited 
I’m stoked to see believers come together and get sweaty for Jesus, hahaha.
Well, God has been popping me in the head about this all day. I pray and pray about it, and the conclusion I’ve come to in regards to that question “if people come on a Sunday…” is that it doesn’t matter if people understand who we are. What matters is that they understand Jesus. I think that with the direction in which we are headed, and with the vision that we will all be united in here very soon, we will do well in being vessels that allow people to understand Jesus.
