Friday, June 29, 2007

Would Jesus Wear Jeans

So yesterday I had a meeting with a 63-year-old grandma. She was interested in joining C3 and she wanted to come by and talk to me about the vision and direction of the church. She started out by telling me about the first time she visited one of our services, she said she couldn’t believe her eyes, when the pastor came out to preach in jeans (I hear that a lot). Her exact words were “I didn’t know what to think, then he started talking and I heard the Holy Spirit of God talking through this man in jeans.” She then proceeded to tell about how she has been drawn back week after week to experience this “different kind of church.” By the end of our conversation we were both saying how it’s so amazing what people will allow to get in their way of experiencing God. She was saying for her she almost missed the experience of C3 because of jeans. The problem comes when we as people start to put our religious traditions and rituals (like pastors in suites) over and above truth. Jesus experienced this throughout the Bible from the Pharisees and the religious elite. In fact, this morning I was reading Mark 2 where the Pharisees where arguing with Jesus about his disciples picking grain on the Sabbath. They cared so much more about their customs than they did God or the well being of others. So after our meeting I laid out the question; if Jesus were walking on earth today would He wear jeans to church? Our answer; yes. It’s not very hard to believe that if you truly believe that Jesus cared more about connecting with people than He ever did about religious rituals or traditions. That His heart was to love people no matter what they look like and to reach them where they are at.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

New Church Smell

I don’t consider myself much of a car guy. I like cars and all that but, I’m not like my buddy Darrell who knows what every make and model of every car looks like since he was born. Since he was born somewhere in the 50’s that’s really impressive. Right now we have a 10-year-old Honda that seems to be missing some paint and that creaks and moans around every corner but, it has never had any major repairs. We also have a 7 year old minivan that looks (has more paint on it) and sounds a lot better than the Honda but, in the last 6 months it seems to like visiting the mechanic’s garage more than it likes ours. So, naturally Sandi and I started talking about possibly getting a new car. We hadn’t gotten really serious about it until all of a sudden 3 of our friends got brand new cars in about a 1 month period. So I looked in them, sat in them, and sucked in that new car smell and guess what? Yep, I started to get excited about the idea of getting a new car. Literally, every day for like the last 2 or 3 weeks we’ve started to talk about getting a new car; what we should get, when we should get it, how much we should put down. And, of course, the kids are all excited about this too. So last night I started thinking….what if this same phenomenon; you know, me not being much of a car guy getting all excited about a car, was true with church. What if church was as exciting as a new car? What if church could have that new church smell to it and people who are not necessarily church people would get excited about coming every Sunday morning and they talked about it throughout the week? What’s so cool to me is that this is the kind of church we are creating at C3. We are not creating a church that some day will be an antique that everybody just looks at. Instead, we are putting all our energy into creating a church that is dynamic, creative and embraces change. We are creating a church where week after week people tell me their stories about how they had given up on church and God but now they love coming. I love the way one dear lady put it, she said “I feel born again.” That’s exactly right! What I love too is that folks seem to have a great anticipation of – “what they will do next” and that makes it a blast to come to church. I absolutely love being part of a church that doesn’t creak and moan around every corner, but instead looks for ways to be new and fresh.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Does This Thing Work

So this is the blogging world. I’ve been thinking about getting this blog up and running for some time now. However, if you know me you know I’m one of those guys who can never sit still. I always have to be doing something. And while I think that’s great, I know the down side to that is I tend to over-commit myself. Hence, a month after my first thought of having a blog; here it is. Anyway, my friends who are much more accomplished bloggers have told me that I should do a little introduction to start things off. So let’s see if this blog thing really works. I’m married to the most gorgeous woman on the planet and I know for a fact she is the most patient person I’ve ever met as well. As you now know, I always have to be moving or talking or doing something and she puts up with me every day. But, not only does Sandi put up with a hyperactive husband, we have 2 awesome boys that have just about as much energy as I do – pray for her. I also have the coolest job on the planet. I’m one of the pastors at C3 Church in Orlando. So, every day I have the awesome opportunity to lead our Crave (youth), Children’s and Home Team ministries. I consider it an absolute honor to serve in a church that actually does whatever it takes to reach people for Christ; that’s not afraid to step out into the unknown and try something new. And I absolutely love the fact that we have a Senior Pastor and staff who stay focused on what God has called us to do and are determined to not let anything stand in the way of accomplishing that task. Well, this has been fun…talk to ya’ll soon