Turnaround

Title: turnaround. Why? When I came to Christ, I had to make a turnaround in my life. I am in the midst of a turnaround church, and Christ is still at work turning me around to following Him more closely.

Monday, January 08, 2007

Adventure and Change

We need to sacrifice the stability of the past in order to reach the opportunities of the future.


Change: In essence, over the course of time, the drive for self-preservation overwhelms the desire for true growth. The Second Coming of the Church, George Barna p. 46


Churches are notorious for keeping the status quo. Status quo is boring, dull, and lacks any creativity. And besides, it is making the church of Jesus increasingly irrelevant. Jesus is anything but irrelevant, and we need to show that.

posted by kansasscott @ 11:04 AM  

1 Comments:

  • At 12:45 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    This kind of stuff fires me up. Church is supposed to matter, and most churches don't.

    Here's a quote from Perry Noble, of NewSpring Church in South Carolina about the same thing. It's long, but it's important:

    "From time to time we will have a pastor/church leader call NewSpring & want to know what in the world we are doing to reach so many people.

    I have had this conversation with many people…and I have seen many walk away from that conversation either discouraged or disappointed because I could not give them a magic formula or a program.

    The bottom line is that if a church wants to impact a community–IT TAKES WORK.

    For far too long the church has been lazy…that’s right…LAZY. We have sat back on our butt and done nothing, asking God to “do it all” and claiming to be “led by the Spirit.” And then people walk into our boring, lifeless and predictable services and we give “God all the glory” (or the blame!)

    One of the things I have realized in reading Scripture though is that Jesus was far from boring–He created experiences for His followers–experiences that they NEVER forgot…do you remember…

    Jesus walking on water…don’t think for a minute that Peter didn’t think about that moment every time he walked by a lake.
    The mount of transfiguration. Peter & John were both so blown away by this that they both wrote about it in Scripture.
    The feeding of the 5,000.
    The day of Pentecost in Acts 2.
    Bringing back Lazarus from the dead.
    Turning water into wine (the Baptist hate that one!)
    I could go on–the bottom line is that Jesus was constantly creating experiences that communicated to His followers who He was in a way that they would never forget…

    AND THE CHURCH SHOULD BE DOING THE SAME!!!

    Today I sat in a room for two hours as our creative team talked about the next several Sunday’s. We spent around 10-15 minutes on how to conclude the sermon for the 17th of this month…we are serious about Sunday’s and the experience that is created for people coming in these doors.

    I have heard pastors say that our process leaves no room for the Holy Spirit…and that we are not open…and quite frankly if one ever says that to my face I will have to be restrained from punching him in the throat!

    I am sick and tired of pastors and church leaders blaming their laziness and lack of preparation on the Holy Spirit!!! One of the things that we have discovered here at NewSpring is that the Holy Spirit is always at work…and NOT just on Sunday’s–but during sessions where ideas are brainstormed and well thought out.

    If you attend NewSpring–let me make you a promise. We take church seriously. Everything you see is done with a purpose. We are serious about Jesus…and serious about as many people as possible meeting Him. And because of that fact we are willing to do all that we can to reach those people!

    It is our desire NOT to just have a church service–but to create an experience through song, video, messages…and any other tools that the Holy Spirit might choose to place in front of us.

    Sure–we’ve been accused of entertaining people…I always say I would much rather entertain you than bore you!!! Jesus didn’t mind creating experiences…and His church shouldn’t either.

    We know GOD is in charge–that HE is ultimately responsible for all that is happening…but we also understand that God works THROUGH people…and that He is honored when people plan, pray, work…and then sit back and watch Him make up the difference.

    We are serious about making His name famous…and that just can’t happen when church is boring. (I believe a boring church is a sin!!!) SO…we are going to always do all we can to make sure that when you attend church on Sunday–that is one of the BEST hours of your week!!!

    Seriously–I believe people should look more forward to church that they do 24, Lost, or American Idol. WOW…there’s something…those shows actually put hard work and effort into their programming…and it shows! Hmmm, maybe if the church was as serious as Hollywood in reaching people…we would be reaching people.

    Hollywood has discovered something that the church runs from though…it takes work to create an experience that people will remember.

    Saying all of that to say this--DON’T MISS ONE SINGLE SUNDAY IN DECEMBER!!! Our team has put together some stuff that we know God is going to use to impact thousands of lives. We care about Jesus–we care about His church…and we will always do our best to make sure your hour on Sunday is not wasted but meaningful!!!

    Now I am off to catch my flight…our video crew is on our way to a place where we will be working to create an experience for our Christmas services…I will post about our location tomorrow!"

     

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