Church is not a building, institution or organization.  It is a family.

It’s not like a family, it IS a family.

And like any family, you should want to be a part of BUILDING a great family!  Not just being awkward uncle Richard who just attends the large gatherings to feed off the generosity of others.

If you are a follower of Jesus, you are a part of a lasting, real family of God.

You don’t “go to” church.  You get together with the family on Sundays and then with a few of them during the week in a smaller group.

You don’t say stuff like “when will YOU GUYS do ____.” You say “how can I serve our family?”

If you are a follower of Jesus, your local church isn’t a place you go TO and comment ON.  Your local church is a family you do life WITH.

The Bible has no evidence or concept of a follower of Jesus that is NOT connected to a local church.  God says, “quit church shopping and commit!  That’s what I’ve designed you for and you will never experience all the life and purpose and support and foundation I have for you if you continue being awkward uncle Richard.”

That’s a paraphrase of course.

God wants us to understand that a follower of Jesus that is not connected to a church family is an orphan.

You were never made to go through life alone.  Jump in!

Our very first purpose in life - from which all other purposes flow - is to worship God.  From the mundane and ordinary to the significant events and messes - God wants to be a part of it all.

Having a beer with a buddy?  Acknowledge and thank God for great drink, friends and the enjoyment you get our of what He created first.

Singing along to the music on Sundays?  Make sure it’s about offering your surrender to Him, not putting on a show.

Having sex with your spouse?  Enjoy it to the full as God’s design for pleasure.

Have you been blessed with abilities, gifts, time, money and other resources?  Make sure to use what He first gave you for Him!  That’s what you were created for.

But in our decision to make our whole lives an act of worship, we absolutely must realize that it is a RESPONSE to God’s love which He first gave us.  We don’t do these things because “that’s what you’re supposed to do” or because we think we need to earn God’s love.  That’s cold, rules-for-rules-sake religion.

God wants a real relationship.

He knows you can’t do enough to earn His love, that is why He lovingly gave it to you freely through Jesus.  So in return, as a response to His love, He wants you to love him back with all your heart (passion), mind (thoughts, decisions) and strength (your abilities.)

This is real worship.

#3 - Common sense and a “guest” mentality are critical to reaching people.

God gave us a brain to use it.

Sounds like common sense, doesn’t it?  One thing we’ve done that has been a certifiable home run is treating Sunday services as if we’re expecting guests…because we are.  We do this in many ways.

• Programs that tell you exactly what to expect.
• Someone from the stage letting you know you can relax.
• Everyone from first timer to member fills out connection cards.
• From greeters to the stage- speaking normally, you know like people do Monday through Saturday.
• Free food, coffee and resources.
• Dressing how you’re comfy.
• Fun, safe and interactive Kids programming.
• Not embarrassing or singling out visitors (of which we have a lot every week.)
• Cleaning up, making things presentable.

Again, these sound like common sense, or really almost insignificant to the point where someone could say “Really?  Does that REALLY have an impact on someone’s experience?”

Yep.  And I have several surveys and plugged in volunteers, attenders and members to prove it.  Each one of those bullet points have been mentioned more than once in reference to how someone immediately felt comfortable, made them not feel awkward or allowed them to really listen to the day’s message and, *gasp*, ENJOY being at a church service!

What?  You can enjoy being at a church service?  Say it ain’t so!

And what former “churched” people are finding is that a fun and welcoming experience is not mutually exclusive with sound teaching about Jesus.

Now, we’ve done things we’ve gotten rid of because it was dumb and didn’t work - we’re FAR from a perfect church.  But I can say with confidence, if you work so hard to make your house a welcoming place when guests come over, why on Earth would you not want to apply the same common sense at your own church?

How’s that for hype?

To be honest, hype for hype’s sake annoys me.  Empty hyperbole and exaggeration never end in anything but unfulfilled promises.  So understand when I say that if you commit the next six weeks to learning God’s five purposes for you, it will change your life.

Have you ever asked something to the effect of “Why am I alive?”

God answers that in the Bible by saying “I made you to love you.”

Have you ever asked something like “Does my life matter?”

God would answer it by saying “You matter so much that I intend on keeping you with me forever.  Through Jesus I’ve given a free way to last forever.”

And the big question which we’ll unpack the next five weeks is “What is my purpose in life?”

God would begin to answer that by saying “The only way you’ll understand your purpose in life is by first connecting to Me.”

You were made by God.

You were made for God.

You were designed to carry out His purposes.

Until we understand that life will just be a meaningless cycle of wake up - eat - work - talk - sleep - rinse -repeat.

Until we understand that we were created for God, life won’t make sense.

#4 Taking a day off is critical, Biblical and very, very hard to do.

I loved my game job, yet I had no problem taking a day off.  Back then I had no problem leaving the office, going away from home to do something with Emily or friends.

Being a church planter resulted in the biggest paradigm shift in taking a day off.  It’s difficult.  I love my “job” so much that Tuesdays - my day off - I am still learning how to rest and disconnect.  The first thing I think is, “I wanna do something fun!”  Well, the most fun thing for me at this point is working on the church.  How can I make next Sunday’s message better?  How can I make the mailer/graphics/web experience look better?  Ooh, let me go find a funnier clip.  Oh I know, how can I use social media better to reach those we want to reach?  What relevant book should I read next?

Not all of these are my daily tasks, but are still “working.”  That’s what’s fun to me.  I still love video games and movies for sure, but on Tuesdays - my day off - I still feel this need to be productive for the church.

But, like for all of us, this is dangerous.  When you don’t take a day off, you’re just living a life exhaling without ever stopping to breathe in and catch fresh air.

Not only is it God’s design for us to take a day off and rest, but it’s good mental and physical health - which of course is no coincidence.

And those handful of times I’ve actually disconnected and done something else have always been followed by the most energized and focused Wednesdays.

Not the “Precious Moments” sanitized version of a nativity scene you’re used to at Christmas time, right?

Jesus’s life began with the profound statement that He isn’t afraid of a mess.  Likewise, He’s not afraid of yours.  But we tend to sanitize or hide the real messes from others and God, somehow pretending that if no one knows, we’re safe.  When the reality is that we are being destroyed by our secrets, sabotaged by believing the lies of “one day it’ll magically go away”, and our growth is being stunted by not giving our mess to God.

It’s easy to say things like “God is so good” when we’re in a season of emotional highs and we feel good in life.  But our tendency is to say things like “God, where are you?” when our stuff hits the fan.  This is the irony.  Not only can we trust that God is with us in those times, but if we choose to stay on track and follow him in our mess, He will use it for something greater.  We will come out the other side with greater character, greater trust, greater understanding of what real satisfaction is and overall be greater news to those around us.

Now they know the hot, humid truth.

Over the course of the next few weeks, I wanna pass on five things I’ve learned as a new pastor and church planter:

#5 Vision suffers when you care too much about what other people think.

If you believe God has led you in life with a specific vision for something, don’t just stick to it, but champion it constantly, clearly, sharply and without reservation until God changes your mind.

Of course I want people to love EastLake.  And of course I want to see God move in people’s lives. And guess what? That’s happening in spades.

However, it’s my tendency to make certain things softer for some people so that they’d stick around.  Why?   To tack on an extra couple to the attendance?  Who cares!  Sometimes growth is about pulling weeds.  Or is it just some hope that someday they’ll get it even though they’re a potential poison to guests? If you’re planting a church or business or any large venture and you’re like me: DON’T SOFTEN YOUR VISION…EVER.  You must learn that you are only out to please an audience of one…God.

Why are you coddling people that don’t get it or are willing to accept how things run?  In my experience, these are always long-time Christians that try to make style choices into deep theological issues.  They’re also the people who never serve or give either.  Translation: They’re not interested in how to be a part of what God is doing, they’re interested only in themselves.

Get rid of these people as quickly as possible because they are a cancer to those you’re trying to reach.  “We’ll that’s not very loving” you might say.  On the contrary, it’s incredibly loving because you are jumping in to protect the rest of your church and those God has yet to reach and bring through the doors.

Your vision must always be built on the solid foundation of God and the vision He’s given you.  Once you move that vision to the foundation of people’s opinions, don’t be shocked when it fully collapses.

The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. 1 Corinthians 10:13

This is talking about temptation.  It gets twisted when we apply “more than you can stand” to every life situation, especially when it’s our own fault for getting us where we are.  Regardless of how we get to our present issue, there is an implied condition for the temptation to do wrong to have a way out provided: we choose God’s way forward so that God can build endurance in us.

Later this week I will begin a Top 5 blog series!  On August 5th we will have been back in Lawrence exactly one year.  I just want to pass on the top 5 things I’ve learned, possibly the hard way, about launching a church or just living in Lawrence again.

This is so easy for us to adopt because it’s the social norm.  But when we’re so consumed with chasing our personal, brittle version of happiness and we let that guide our lives, it only leads to disappointment, hurt, jealousy and anger.

If your spouse isn’t currently making you happy but some other person is, whatever you choose to do after that is justified since your personal truth is defined by “happiness.”

If you want to acquire more money and more things, then however you choose to get that stuff, whether legal or illegal, right or wrong, well, it’s not wrong for you, since your subjective truth is merely based on your feelings or emotional highs.

The Bible shows us in James 3:16 that this mindset only leads to disorder and messes and evils of all kinds.  And honestly, we don’t need the Bible to prove this to us.  Just look at the results of our past decisions based on our “feelings.”

God never promises to eliminate all of the messes or unhappy times, but when we decide to make Jesus the leader in our lives, it leads to a satisfaction and contentment that outlasts and outshines whatever “happiness” we’re chasing; which in reality what we usually chase is some emotional high, not a sustainable satisfaction.  God is more interested in making us more like Jesus, not being some anti-unhappy vending machine.

When we make Jesus the leader in our lives it allows us to navigate the highs with humility and the lows with the strength only found in God.

Wow how true that is.  Not only that, but the other greatest tricks involve lies…but little ones we consider true.  Sound good.  Feel good.  Accepted as good.  But really they’re counterfeit…true-ish.

One of the biggest ones we tend to buy into hook, line and sinker is that if we believe that Jesus is truly the only way to God, somehow believing that absolute truth makes us arrogant or dangerous.   But just believing or having knowledge of truth doesn’t make someone arrogant or dangerous, but rather it’s how it’s presented that shows others if we are loving or judgmental, merciful or hateful.

For those of us that are Christians, know this: we aren’t called to be the world’s moral police.  It’s not our job to change people.  That’s God’s job.  It’s our job to be loving, accepting, merciful and full of grace - and that’s not mutually exclusive with believing absolute truth!

But the fact we follow Jesus should be great news for our co-workers, friends and neighbors.  That doesn’t mean we have to be awkward, memorize some lame script and go door to door.  Not at all.  Love people.  Invite them to EastLake where it’s safe to check things out.

But we can’t believe the lie that we should keep “our beliefs” to ourselves when we truly believe that someone can have an eternal relationship with God!

Atheist Penn Jillette (of the comedy duo Penn and Teller) says it best: