What's in the way?

I was a youth pastor for 5 years and a high school teacher for 3 years. I've been around teenagers A LOT. And I loved it. There was literally never a dull moment. Some of my favorite moments as a youth pastor were the trips to camps, conferences, or retreats that we would take. All the youth leaders would get together before a trip and go over the game plan for the trip. Our biggest hope was that lives would be changed. And we also knew our biggest challenge would be distractions.

Here were some of the major distractions we knew would get in the way:

1. Horny Guys- There's no other way to put it. Teenagers hormones, especially the dudes, shift into overdrive on trips away from home where there are plenty of girls. I would compare some of the guys I took on trips to caged, rabid animals. Taking them away from home (their cage), was like releasing a wolf amongst sheep.

2. Love struck girls - girls are in full search of "the one". They are looking for a boyfriend who is husband material. It's a scary thing and always leads to some Real Housewives of New Jersey type moments. DRAMA.

3. Sleep Deprivation - Jr. Highers in particular like to pack 72 cans of Red Bull, drink 30 of them on the bus ride up to camp, stay up all night farting and giggling, and then slip into a coma when you actually want them to be awake.

I bring up all the distraction stuff because it is fresh on my mind. On my last post, I asked the question, what cultural tendencies get in the way of you following Jesus? That can be a hard question to answer.

It's hard because it is not easy to be self aware. I know I'm not. Thank God I married a woman who actually has some discernment and wisdom and is willing to share it with me.

I have a burden for you who don't follow Him. I want so badly for you to experience throwing your life into Jesus's story. There is such freedom in it. This freedom, shock, and awe is a natural reaction to an encounter with Christ. Read the story of Jesus healing the blind beggar in John 9. The blind man couldn't explain it. All he could say was, "I don't know...all I do know is I was blind and now I can see!"

I think some of you have drank the "cultural Kool-Aid" for so long you can't even identify the things that distract you from following Jesus. By "cultural Kool-Aid", I mean the distractions, myths and the lies you believe. These distractions, myths, and lies were identified and predicted by Paul in 2 Timothy 4. Read it.

Lack of faith has nothing to do with your reasons for not following Jesus. You have faith. Everyone does.

I have faith in doorknobs. When I turn it, I have faith that the door will open. Lack of faith is not the issue.

Along with faith, we all worship. We just don't all worship the same thing. Some people worship everything except Jesus. Do you worship your job and make it your identity? Do you worship your kids? Just go to any little league game and listen to the parents in the stands who think their kid is the next Albert Pujols. Do you hover over your kids so much that they distract you from any kind of consistent commitment to Jesus? Do you worship the next big life event? Whether it's the weekend, the bar, having a child, a vacation, or a job promotion? Is your life lived waiting for the next exciting event?

We all have faith and we all worship something. Doorknobs, jobs, little league all star teams, children, weekends, alcohol, politics, etc. In about a week, I will fall into my insane idiotic faith in Notre Dame football and that they will actually be good this year.

Are you putting your faith in the truth? Or in a lie?

Are you worshipping Jesus? Or yourself?

My hope is that more of you who aren't following Christ would choose to follow.

What are the cultural tendencies distracting you from becoming a part of His story?

Greek vs. Hebrew

I had a discussion last night with some friends and we were talking about the differences between Greek culture and Hebrew culture. Americans are Greek thinkers. Our culture stems from a Greek mindset. The Old Testament is written in Hebrew and most of the New Testament was written by Jewish writers (Hebrews), although they wrote it in Greek.

There are many HUGE differences between Greek culture and Hebrew culture. And if we let our cultural tendencies control us, they can get in the way of us understanding Jesus, God, and Scripture.

Here's an example of our culture getting in the way of our understanding of the Bible. When reading the Bible...

Greek culture (Americans) have an attitude of "what you see is what you get". We love bullet points, outlines, directions, and steps. We think logically and everything should be explained before we believe it. So when we read the Bible, we expect to know everything. We want the Bible to fill in every detail, answer every question, and tell us every thing we WANT to know. We want all of this before we believe.

We want every movie to come together at the end and get ticked when something isn't explained.

When we buy something, we want very clear steps and instructions for assembly and cuss regularly if something is not clear and easy to understand.

How do we solve problems? By reading books, listening to doctors, and watching TV shows that give us "7 steps to happiness" and "3 steps to financial freedom". We want to know exactly what the journey looks like before we step foot on the path.

Hebrew Thinking - When they see words or numbers, they see depth, meaning, imagery, and symbolism. Rather than bullet points, lists, and everything spelled out for them, they like stories and poetry. For an example, look at Jesus. Many of his teachings were stories in which the audience had to figure out the meaning. Much of the story of creation in the book of Genesis is a Hebrew poem.

Truth is unfolding.

Faith and belief are not abstract nouns, they are concrete actions.

Following God is a story, not a self-help step program.

So how do my cultural tendencies get in the way?

There are a ton of examples that come to mind, here is one, and I'll bet you can think of more.

1. We naturally resist change. We love to find our comfort zone and stay there. We want things to be orderly, neat, and rational. But that comfort zone becomes a rut quickly because truth is actually unfolding. If we decide to follow Jesus, we are deciding to be in a story. And stories have ups and downs, scary parts, happy parts, and climactic events. The Hebrew God is a God that asks us to live in His story...and it is an adventurous and irrational one. Think about some of the guys in the Bible who chose to dive into the story.

Noah - built a boat as big as the Titanic in the middle of the freakin' desert and it had never rained before. People didn't even know what a flood was. That's irrational!

Peter - was making a living in the family business of fishing and made the decision to "drop his nets" and follow a Jewish carpenter for the rest of his life. This decision cost him his life. His life changed dramatically by entering into God's story.

So when you're reading the Bible, and reading stories about these people who chose to enter God's story, ask yourself these questions:

What cultural tendency would I push aside in order to get deeper into Jesus's story?

Am I willing to do something irrational for Him?

What comfort zone does He want to pull me out of?

What's a church plant?

For the past 4 months, Karrie and I have taken the first steps and started preparing for church-planting. As a pastor and as a couple, we've been under assessment with a church planting organization called Stadia.

So many people I've talked with look at me sort of cross-eyed when I throw the term "church plant" out there. And trying to look at it from the outside, I can see how those words sound really weird together. If you're wondering, "What the heck is a 'church plant'?" let me explain.

Churches all over America are on the decline. Churches are shutting down and closing their doors in record numbers. Why?

I don't necessarily consider myself an expert on the "Why churches are closing" topic, but I've been reading about it for quite sometime. Here are some basic reasons I've put together from what I have seen and studied:

1. Many churches are ignoring culture change. Many churches are more interested in preserving traditions than reaching and connecting to people in our postmodern, ever-changing culture. Some churches are stubbornly clinging to traditions like pews, hymnals, the use of any instrument other than an organ, and other human traditions. For many people, church has just become irrelevant, boring, and old. I had a great leader tell me recently, "It's a sin to bore someone with Jesus."

2. Many churches have ceased to be revolutionary. While many are adapting to culture, they aren't leading culture in revolutionary ways. Many churches that are on the decline have adopted new traditions and methods to try and keep up with culture, like "contemporary worship", the use of video and media, the senior pastor dressing more casual, etc. But they have done it with their heels dug in, stubbornly letting culture drag them into new methods against their will. It's almost like these churches are angrily and pridefully saying, "Fine, we will get rid of the hymnals and use video instead!"

This attitude will just lead to a slow death for a church. It's like trying to put a band-aid on an artery that's been cut. It's not going to solve the problem, it will just slightly slow down death.

3. Many churches are stagnant. These churches are not driven by reaching people, but by keeping people once they walk through the doors of the church. Their entire philosophy is driven by their passion to please people and their fear of losing them.

Everything about these churches says, "Yes! We are a cool church!" because they are doing everything they can to appeal to the consumer, an attempt to get you in the doors and keep you from leaving. When you come, you will be treated with snacks, coffee, funny videos, good music, and an engaging speaker. The speaker will tell you funny stories for 20 minutes about the week's topic. It will be something like "Worry", "Financial Security", or "Raising your kids", with random Bible verses splashed in so that the message looks like it came straight from the Bible. Aside from the weekend services, these types of churches have a program and events for everything and clubs for everyone. They are using newer, more contemporary methods. Your kids will love the programs they attend because of the cool games, toys, music, and videos.

Some of you may be thinking, "Hey, that sounds like my church and I love my church!". Are all these things bad? No. They are good intentioned methods. It's the heart, the mindset, the driving force behind the methods that can be bad. If it's something other than Jesus, then the church will ultimately die.

All of these types of churches have good intentions. They've been doing good things for a long time, good things that once brought the results they were looking for. They have good people in leadership who love God and believe they are doing the right thing. But with all their good intentions and all the 'good' things they're doing, they're missing something.

What's missing in the 3 different church types described above?

Jesus.

Jesus is getting lost in everything they are doing.

Here's where I think Jesus is missing in each church example:

1. Many churches don't change methods because their methods become sacred to them. People worship pews, hymnals, dress code, and their style of music. In some cases, those things become more important to them than actual sacred things like The Bible, Jesus, and God.

Being relevant to cultural happenings, trends, and needs was vital to Jesus. Think about it, his first miracle was at a wedding party. They ran out of wine and Jesus hooked them up. How many people would invite their Senior Pastor to a party that lasted for a week? How many people would admit to their Senior Pastor, "Uhh, we thought we had enough wine to last us for the week but we drank all of it. Can you get us some more?"

There were groups of people in the Bible who were called the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They were religious, arrogant, and didn't like Jesus. They accused Jesus of being a drunkard, glutton, and got after him for hanging out with the riff raff. Check out this verse.

Jesus didn't ignore culture, He engaged it.

2. Jesus did some controversial and radical stuff to connect with people in His culture. Read John 4. He crossed into Samaria, talked with a Samaritan woman, and showed concern and care for her. This was a major social no-no. In that day, Jews would avoid traveling through Samaria and would instead walk around the entire country, just to avoid the Samaritan people. Jews did not like Samaritans. No rabbi would ever talk to a woman alone, especially a Samaritan. Most of the religious leaders of the day would have demanded she be put to death because she was sexually impure.

Jesus didn't have to be dragged across cultural boundaries, he shattered boundaries in shocking fashion. His methods blew people away. Churches need to be excited to use radical methods to connect to people in our culture. This is how Jesus did it.

Jesus didn't try to catch up to culture, He led culture in radical and revolutionary ways. He did stuff no one had thought of before. He was original.

3. Re-read #3 from above again. Notice anything missing?

Jesus!

These churches use Jesus in parts of their church. He's talked about and acknowledged. But he's not the foundation or the focus.

Churches that operate with fear, and not with an unconditional love for Jesus will die. Why would a church be more inclined to please people than please Jesus? Because it's safer. Jesus is a polarizing God and He asks us to do some radical stuff. Some churches are dying because they are being led by weak men and women. Hey Parkway people, your pastor would call this "the wussification of the church."

So that was a long introduction to the questions, "What's a church plant and why are they needed?"

A church plant is the start of a new church. Statistically, church plants are reaching and connecting with people who don't know Jesus and have never been connected to church. Church Planting is a pretty big and imporant phenomenon right now. Basically, there are hundreds of churches being planted all over the nation.

With so many churches dying, church plants are NEEDED.

Why are church plants succeeding?

Mainly because they are completely, utterly, and passionately focused on Jesus. And when a church does that, since the church is the bride of Christ, the church will succeed.

Just like Jesus, churches will engage culture, radically lead culture, and be obedient to his teachings and The Bible

So last week, Karrie and I spent 3 days at the Church Plant Assessment Center with Stadia, other current church planters, and potential church planters. It was the most grueling 3 days of our lives. We were put through many different tests, initiatives, exercises.

And the great news is Stadia affirmed our call to plant a church. Having Stadia back us and want to partner with us is a HUGE step. This is the starting point of a very exciting journey. We are excited to be a part of the future of reaching people for Jesus as part of this vast, scary, and exciting adventure that is church planting.

Church Planting Assessment

I was going to write something explaining what Karrie and I are up to this week. But Karrie already did so I'll just copy and paste what she wrote. I'll blog again when we get back this weekend...

Aaron and I have both mentioned our plans in our blogs in bits and pieces. We've not been 100% clear about our plans and have not given any real details, due mostly to the fact that we've still been putting them together! Though I still don't have a ton of info to share yet, I think it is safe to share our intentions and a little bit of our plan for our family.

After much consideration, prayer, research and the start of planning, Aaron and I have decided to plant a church. What this means, really, is that we're starting a church, with a team of course, and Aaron will be the Lead Pastor. The whole endeavor is just as difficult, crazy and complex as it sounds, so this is something that will take a long time and a great amount of support to put together.

Crazy, huh? Believe me, we're still trying to figure out how God thinks a goofy, crazy hooligan like Aaron and a space-cadet like me have the business to lead a church. At the same time, we've been blown away by seeing God's hand on our lives in preparation for this adventure. Just in case it isn't obvious, we both feel called to do this. And I wouldn't be the sap I am if I didn't share that I'm so proud and confident of my husband who I feel has the DNA and makeup to be a great, great leader and teacher for God.

Part of our preparation over the last three months has been getting ready for an assessment with a Christian church-planting organization called Stadia. (You can read more about what and who Stadia is by clicking here) They have an assessment process for people considering to take part in church-planting as done through another program called CPAC (Church Planting Assessment Center). Endorsement through this program is vital to receive support from Stadia.

The first chunk of the process is completing an enormous amount of paperwork: surveys, various personality profiles, and the beast of all applications in which I felt like we were writing out every thought we've EVER had about God and the meaning of life. That wasn't necessarily exactly what they were looking for, it just felt like we wrote A LOT. We had to individually fill out these lengthy questionnaires in which every single answer was an essay. Aaron, of course, had more to do than me. We also had to have several references fill out evaluations on us personally and on our marriage.

All this paperwork was preparation for the 4-day interview/assessment that we are physically on our way to as I type this! It is the end and the culmination of the assessment process and we are so excited the time has finally come for it. We've been waiting for it for months! So, after kissing and hugging our boys 800 million times, we left them in the care of Grandma, Papa, Uncle Nate and Grammy for the next four days. I already miss them, but I'm so excited and ready for this week. We are praying and are confident that it will be revealing and confirming.

Thank you to all of you who have been so helpful and encouraging through these last few months. There are some people in our lives that we have been so blessed by and, as cliche as it sounds, we would not have been able to do some of the incredible and insane things we've done had it not been for God's provision through you. Thank you, more than anything, to our families - you've been AMAZING and incredibly supportive and helpful since the day we left for Arizona and entered a life of full-time-ministry over five years ago. This summer you've been no different, and we are so grateful.

To all of you, we humbly request some of your prayers. Pray with us as we go into this assessment and ultimately endeavor the adventure of starting a church. We are hopeful that through every facet of our lives it is God who is at the center and not us... and that is precisely what we are praying for with this church-planting/starting endeavor.