Creative Scribble

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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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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At our launch team interest meeting I talked about the problem that stoked my vision for seeing a new church come to Knoxville. That problem is based on 80%. This is the number of unchurched people in our community, the number of 18-22 year olds that leave the church never to return, and the number churches that are not growing or are dying.

Encouraging, huh?

But as one of my favorite pastors and bloggers Perry Noble says, "Any idiot can point out a problem. It takes a leader to do something about it!" OneLife Church wants to do something about it.

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If influence is a key word, the question must be asked who are we influencing? "Disconnected" is the key word that keeps surfacing as the answer to that question.

Notice this isn't just the catch all term "the lost." That generally refers to people who don't know Jesus. They are obviously disconnected! But one thing I'm finding here in the south is that a lot of people were once connected to Jesus. Then their church, a family member, or pastor stepped in and screwed them up. So for years, maybe decades, they have given up on the church - not Jesus - the church. They are disconnected.

So are some churches. Nearly 4,000 churches die each year. That means they shut their doors never to open again. On top of that, 80% of America's churches have plateaued or are declining and of the 20% that are growing, only 3% are growing because of new believers coming to Christ. That tells us that more than 99% of America's churches are disconnected from what Jesus said we are supposed to be doing.

So if we are going to be a church of influence, we want to influence the disconnected. Those who have never been connected, those who have become disconnected from the church, and those churches who have lost connection with the Great Commission.

How will we do that? Those key words are coming soon!

Over the past couple of weeks I've had the chance to "cast the vision" of OneLife Church to two potential worship leaders, two churches, a missions group, and the invisible man in the shower that gets to hear all of my crazy ideas each day. Wait, maybe it shouldn't be a man? Anyway...

It has all given me great practice at sharing what I think God is leading us to do. That practice has helped me nail down what I think the big, overarching vision and strategy are to help us do what we are supposed to be doing. It's not to the point of being a nice and neat sentence that would fit on a bumper sticker. But a few key words have emerged.

The first is influence. I believe if we are doing what God wants and it is indeed a God-sized vision, then we will have no choice but to be a church of influence. First to individuals. Then to our community, our city, and ultimately the region. Jesus was a man of influence who changed the course of history, so much so that the calendar was divided because of him. If we are his bride, I am convinced that we should resemble that influence.

How does your life influence those around you because of Jesus? How is your church being a church that has influence? These are the questions OneLife Church is called to help people answer.