Creative Scribble

Sorry for the long blog silence. I am writing this post from the library in the sleepy town of Louisiana, Missouri. Thanks to my wife having a business trip nearby, we get a couple of days in an awesome little bed and breakfast here on the banks of the Mississippi River. Trying to enjoy every second of wife-time as possible before life gets crazy in the next few months.

Since the last post, God has answered some humongous prayers. As I posted on April 26, we needed $10,000 to come in miraculously so we could secure the purchase of an almost brand new portable church system (read about it here). I didn’t know how it would happen or where it would come from. But we prayed and it did.

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22 years ago my mom started going to an awesome, new church in Raleigh. It started in a hotel and then moved to a renovated horse barn. The atmosphere was casual and the music was loud - guitars, drums, and just a couple of singers. No choir? Woah! Hymn books and pews were absent, too. The words were on a screen, albeit the handy dandy transparency projector. There was no Sunday School and no services on Sunday nights so people could go to small groups that met in homes.

This church was cutting edge. Contemporary music, small groups, casual atmosphere. Sound familiar?

But did you catch those first three words - “22 years ago.” Granted, I do believe this church was a little ahead of its time in a rather progressive city considering the South. But that was nearly an entire generation ago. Thousands of churches just like it have sprung up since then. They used to be culture-engaging and cutting edge. But are they still?

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One of the biggest things I've learned through preparing to launch a church is that there are a lot more things in my head than I communicate. Certain things that I take as "understoods" aren't as clear to other people that are new to the process or haven't been around me much.

That became very clear to me on Tuesday. I was meeting with a UT student who is going to be a part of the launch team. He comes from a church plant in his home town that started as a group of small groups before they ever launched. Because OneLife is doing it completely differently - focusing on Sunday mornings before starting small groups - he had some legit questions.

In my presentation of this, I had simply said "For the first year we are going to stay simple and focused." But what I had not communicated was how we would ensure people were taken care of, discipled, and didn't fall through the cracks - especially as we hit our target of seeing unchurched and people far from God drawn to Him. This question forced me to think outloud and put words to my thoughts.

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Regardless of what your junk mail folder tells you, size doesn't always matter.

In July of 2004 I preached my first ever sermon to a Sunday morning crowd. There were 19 people there that day at Friendship Church, including me and three people in the nursery. That’s right, 15 people heard me preach and three of those were first time visitors. Talk about scary. In about 17 short minutes I sped through a sermon that would have made an auctioneer proud. But that day changed the course of the rest of my life as I began feeling called away from worship leading and toward pastoring.

Less than two years later this church was booming. Gone were the days of 19 people as 214 crammed the little worship center for Easter in 2006. It wasn’t a one-hit wonder either as that spring’s attendance averaged 181. It was unbelievable to see what God was doing during that time and to see all the changed lives in the process. I was hooked. As the church continued to grow, Pastor Tim and I began dreaming about doing it again in another part of our city and seeing even more people reached for Christ.

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This week was nuts. I was in Charlotte, Atlanta, and Nashville in four days with Knoxville in between each. Won't be doing that again anytime soon! But each conference offered a lot to learn for me. Here's a quick recap.

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