Ever feel like church is one big pyramid scheme? We need you to leverage your personal relationships so that we can fill whatever empty seats we have, and then we’ll build a bigger building with more seats that your friends will then have to fill. It’s a never-ending cycle that has the feeling of success, but is just another marketing strategy… and sometimes all we’re doing is selling our church, instead of making a huge deal about the extravagant love of Jesus.
Extravagant love. That’s what church is really about. It’s not an organization bent on the business ideal of “success.” Its purpose isn’t to add more and more people into more and more seats to collect more and more money to build bigger and bigger buildings.
The heart of everything we do as a church has got to be aimed at offering up the ridiculous, amazing love of God to people who feel unloved. And when you come to church and you hear us ask you to spend time praying for your friends, looking for opportunities to tell them about your Jesus, and inviting them to church, it’s not a marketing scheme. It’s not just another way to make sure we get our bills paid.
Our hope is that you come to church every week and experience the profound love of Jesus, that you open up your heart to let him mold you into the person he wants you to be, and that your natural reaction is to want to help the people you love find that profound love themselves. We’re not selling our church. We’re not even selling Jesus. We’re inviting people into the same kind of love and forgiveness that we’ve found, hoping that they’ll experience God the same way we have.
That’s why we don’t hesitate to ask you to pray about inviting your friends to church this month. Let’s face it: Christmas is a season that people are willing to try church for the first time. Who do you have in your life that could use a little “peace on Earth” this week? Let’s try not come to church alone this weekend… not so that we can feel “successful” as a Christian, but so that someone you love has a chance to hear about the extravagant love of God.
A hug is an intimate thing, isn’t it? Here… let me smash my body against yours and then we’ll wrap our arms around each other… oh, and what was your name again?
This is a phenomenon that you’ll only find in church. No grocery bagger is going to give you a big hug as they ask, “Paper or plastic?” No bank teller is going to hold you in a soft embrace because you bounced a check. But something weird happens when people walk into a church. The whole world goes nuts and wants to get their hug on. Well, almost the whole world…
I’m not a hugger. Let’s just get that out of the way. A firm handshake or a simple wave will suffice for me. But let’s be honest… a lot of people who show up at church are in desperate need of some deep connection. Maybe that hug they get from Vicki at the front door is the only human contact they'll have all week. Maybe a moment in the care of Carl and Jane, with their heads bowed and arms around each others’ shoulders is the best way for someone to get a tangible sense of the love and grace of God. Maybe there’s something inherently spiritual about human touch, and that’s why people get all touchy at church.
But while I'm learning the value of physical touch, I also know that all this touchy-feely stuff really freaks some people out... especially new poeple. I’ve got a friend that absolutely hates the moments we ask people to introduce themselves to somebody around them. I think he might be planning on bringing mace next time he comes to church.
So how am I supposed to know if you're the "Brothers gotta hug," Tommy Boy type, or a cold fish like me? I think we should all wear t-shirts or something, 'cause sometimes it's hard to tell right away.
So, here are a couple of thoughts on the whole hugging in church thing. First, if you're a hugger, don't judge those of us who aren't. It's not because we've got some deep darkness inside. And if you're not a hugger, don't freak out when somebody puts their hand on your shoulder. In the immortal style of Taylor Swift, huggers gonna hug, hug, hug, hug, hug...
It's one of my favorite things about the body of Christ (a.k.a. the Church.) It takes all kinds. Huggers, listeners, prayers, jokers, lovers, preachers, servers, healers, laughers, planners, and leaders. Wouldn't it be great if we could take 1 Corinthians 12 at face value?
Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.Now if the [hugger] should say, “Because I am not a [laugher], I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.And if the [server] should say, “Because I am not a [joker], I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.If the whole body were a [leader], where would the sense of [prayer] be? If the whole body were a [preacher], where would the sense of [listening] be?But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 1 Corinthians 12:14-18
Okay, save the emails about how I destroyed that passage. I know that Paul is specifically talking about spiritual gifts, but I just think it's time that we celebrate the diversity we have in the church and not expect everybody to fit some cookie-cutter version of what a Christian looks like. We should all just be a little more comfortable in our own skin, and trust that God has us right where he wants us and made us that way for a purpose.
What do you think? What roles do you play in the life of the church?
Our first song in our first service on our first Sunday
I know that waiting on the Lord is an extremely important
habit to develop in our walks, but if I'm honest, I'd always rather be playing
catch-up with the Holy Spirit, like we are right now. I love the feeling of
knowing that there's no way I can keep up with what God's doing, because it
forces me to be more dependent on Him and His church than ever. The image of
the Holy Spirit as a mighty rushing wind seems fitting right now, and we're
just trying to ride it wherever it takes us on this adventure.
The sitting area (top) and Welcome Center (bottom) were created
to make a Conference Center look like home.
New People Show Up EVERY WEEK
I can't explain what it does to my heart when I meet another
person who shows up at church for the first time, but it's even better when I
see people who have come now 2 or 3 times. Our leaders and volunteers are
amazing at finding someone who's new and connecting with them. After church
last week, I just took a moment and looked around to see at least a dozen of
our people talking to someone I didn't recognize. I'm just amazed at how God is
using us to step into the lives of others and give them a place to belong and a
chance to be changed by the Presence of the Living God.
Students Ministry Kicked Off With a Bang
On Sunday after church, Josh and Megan Kelly (our students
team leaders), came up to me and said that they would probably buy way too much
stuff for the kickoff party they were planning for students, just in case they
had more than expected. Well, it was a good plan, because they ended up with 25
students, and were even a little short on supplies. And when my two girls got
home, they were on cloud nine. They loved the party, the other kids, and the
adults. By all accounts, the whole thing was a huge success, and it's just the
beginning. We'll be planning fun student events once a month, so keep your eyes
peeled for updates.
First time together as a youth group
Smashing Pumpkins isn't just an awesome band from the 90's
Let's Not Take a Couple of Things for Granted
Here's the truth: I've got friends out there right now who
are planting churches, and they aren't starting with a fantastic launch team.
They don't have financial backing from a great church. They aren't living in
the excitement of way too many people showing up way too early in the life of
the church. But let's remember: it's not because we're any better than they are. I attribute our seeming "success" to three
things.
God is moving among us. It's not because we
deserve it.It's not because we're more
talented or more holy or more anything else. "The wind blows wherever it
pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where
it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” John 3:8We don't control it.We just look for where he's blowing and try
to ride it to wherever he takes us.
Our church leadership is amazing. How
many churches would fully fund a venture like this and then give us complete
freedom to do it however we feel is best? Not only that, but our leadership
believes so strongly in what we're doing that they're willing to move almost
200 people out of the Beloit campus to launch Janesville. I get calls from
elders excited about what's happening, and David and Craig (our Lead and
Executive Pastors) are always ready and willing to support us in everything
we do. In short, this is rare air that we're breathing, and I never want to
take for granted the amazing leadership we have.
Our volunteers are a cut above.Now, I know other churches like to say that
they have the best volunteers and leaders, but they're just wrong (sorry if I
offend.) Over and over, I find myself amazed by the people I get to do life and
church with, and I can't believe how God has blessed us. Our volunteers care
about kids. They work hard. They're committed like I can't believe. They buy
in to what we're doing. I could never ask for any more.
All in all, this has been a crazy, exciting, scary ride, and
I'm so glad that it's just beginning. Come check it out some Sunday, and bring
a friend. We can't wait to see what God has in store next.
I picked Sydnee and Quinn Galvin up at their house at
6:30am. Not much in the world gets me up that early in the morning, but I'd
been awake with anticipation for hours already. Who would show up for church on
our first Sunday? Would we be ready to give them a great spiritual experience?
Would we be able to get out of the way enough to let the Holy Spirit have his
way in people's hearts? The answers were just a few hours away.
Core Team volunteers started showing up as the morning
progressed. Band rehearsal kicked into full gear. Kidzworks was buzzing with
workers creating a great space for kids. Electricity tingled throughout the conference
center all morning, filled with the anticipation of what was to come. An hour before our first service, all of our
volunteers got together to worship and get on the same page for the day, which
turned out to be a great moment for me to quiet my heart, and remember what it
is we're all about.
And then it began.
People started to trickle in. Slowly at first, but as 10:30
approached, it was clear that our goal of 150 in attendance was a little
small. They walked through a transformed
entryway, which volunteers had turned into an inviting space, hoping that
people would feel immediately at home. I tried to shake every hand I could find
and help them know how honored I was that they'd show up, but soon the time had
come to start worship.
There are certain things in your life that, whenever you're
engaged in them, a sense of completeness and wholeness comes over you, convincing
you that you're in just the right place at just the right time. For me, leading worship is one of those
things. As the band kicked in, and my wife, Mandy, started to sing, I was
overwhelmed by the knowledge that God had led us to just this place and time
for just this purpose. As hands went up in worship all around the room, it felt
like all of us sensed the power of God at work in the room.
Then David got up to speak... or better said, we put him up
on the screen. I've got to admit, I was nervous. How would people respond? Would they be
engaged? Well, as with most worry, it was misplaced. As soon as David mentioned
Janesville, people erupted in applause, both in Beloit and in the room we were
in. From that moment on, I really don't believe that we missed much of anything
with David on video. His sermon was compelling and energetic, and people
laughed and clapped as if he was in the room.
Now, you might think that I'm saying that everything went perfectly,
but you'd be very wrong. There were lots of glitches, although most people in
the room might not have noticed. We had some problems with quite a few people
not being able to see the screen well, which we plan to have fixed by launch
weekend for sure. We spent a little too much time talking and explaining, which
we'll shore up in the next couple of weeks. There were some technical glitches
we'll be working on. But overall, things
went better than I could have even hoped for our first preview service.
So, I know the question I haven't yet answered is "How
many people showed up?" Here we go... all told, we had 198 people... 126
in the big room and 72 kids and volunteers in Kidzworks. And while it's great
to celebrate the fact that we were significantly over our goal, I also never
want our success to be defined solely by how many people show up. Having said
that, it was great to have a big group of great people all worshipping God
together.
All told, I can't imagine any way I could have hoped that
our first Sunday service could have been better. I'm blown away by the work we've been called
to do and the people I get to do it with.
God has been good to me in ways I can't even explain. And the best part: we get to do it all over
again next week, and I can't wait!
Hey, everybody! So I thought I would recap some of the main themes that we’ve hit in our lead-up to launch. Take a few minutes to remind yourself of the real reasons we’re doing this whole thing, and pray that God will continue to be all over it. Here we go…
At Central, everybody gets in. And when we say, “everybody,” we mean EVERYBODY. It doesn’t matter how far we’ve fallen, how ugly our lives have gotten, or how self-involved we’ve been. What matters is that we’re a community of people who are trying to learn what it means to be loved by God in spite of our mess. We won’t shrink from the truth of Scripture, because it’s our lifeline to finding God’s will in our lives, but we won’t use it to belittle anyone or negate in any way the all-sufficiency of the cross in our often-wrecked lives.
We will meet the needs before us. We know that we can’t fix all the wrongs in the world or even in our city, but we know that we have been called to do something about that which is before us. God will continue to call us to make a tangible difference for hurting children and hungry people here in our own backyard and around the world.
We are not a club for Christians… We exist to help people find their way
back to God. Anything and everything we do can find its purpose in
helping people find Life the way Jesus experienced it. So, we don’t show
up for church because we’re hoping for somebody to serve us. We come
expecting to bless God and somebody else. We come ready to live openly
and honestly before people who are trying just like we are to find and
live the life of Jesus in our every day. Sometimes we’re good at it.
Lots of times we fail. But we will always be a church marked by grace,
because that’s how Jesus lived, “full of grace and truth.”
We will be friendly at church and connect with others outside of Sunday morning. When we come to church, we won’t be always looking for our little groups of friends. We’ll spend most of our time looking for someone new to get to know. We’ll regularly invite perfect strangers out to lunch with us, because we know what it’s like to come to a new place and not know anybody. We want people to walk in and immediately feel at home.
We will sacrifice our time, energy, and money to see God’s vision for Central in Janesville come to pass. One of the best ways to get connected to other people and our church as a whole is to join a serving team. It takes a whole huge group of people just to pull off what will happen on Sunday mornings, let alone all the ministry that will happen throughout the week. No matter where you are in your walk, there’s always a place where you can plug in and make a difference.
I’ve been asked to put together a simple list of everything going on in the lead-up to launch. While most of it is on our Calendar page, here it all is as simply as I can make it. It includes neighborhood picnics, outreach events, preview services, and door hanger dates.
Can you believe it’s already here? This has been the fastest summer in history, but I’m not complaining. I’m ready to launch! The next few weeks are going to be crazy, but I’m convinced that on September 28th, we’ll be as ready as we can be to offer a great worship experience to everybody that God brings. Kidzworks will blow new people out of the water. Worship will be engaging and spirit-filled. Our Launch Team will be all about making new people feel welcome, led by a first-class First Impressions Team. I know that God is bringing all of that together, and I’m grateful.
But here’s what I’m really excited about: New people, our friends and family, are about to find Life. And I don’t mean this counterfeit life with a house, a car, and 2.5 kids. I mean the kind of Life that Jesus said he came to give. “I have come that they might have Life, and that Life to the full.” John 10:10. We’re not here to help people find church. We’re not here to make a club for Christians. We’re here to help people find a life filled with purpose, a life marked by loving and serving those in need, a life that’s not afraid to enjoy the wonder of creation and the beauty of the people around us.
And all that starts this month.
This is one of three posts in three days throughout your Labor Day weekend, so keep your eyes peeled for a detailed calendar of the next month and then a reminder of everything we’ve talked about in our launch team meetings. Are you ready?
(an open letter about how to help us launch Central in Janesville)
Holy smokes, September is almost here!
And for me, it can’t come soon enough. I’m ready to get past the planning and into the doing! I hope you are, too, because now is the time for every person who’s involved to step up and join a team, if you haven’t already. I’m looking for two things from each of you:
Join a team. Help us be as ready as we can for launch. I know that we’ll have other teams forming as time goes on (Small Groups, Men’s and Women’s Ministry, etc.), but I’m asking every person who wants to make Central Janesville their home church to join at least one of the following teams:
First Impressions (Greeting/Communion/Offering)
Kidzworks
Setup/Tear Down
Follow Up (Phone Calling)
Prayer Team
Host a Picnic. Instead of having a booth at the fair or the farmer’s market, we decided to host small picnics at neighborhood parks around town. We had our first one last week, and it was amazing. Anna Kokity has made this process about as simple as it can be. Here are the details:
No money needs to come out of the host’s pocket.
All supplies are available and ready to go.
Anna will get you a “How to host a Janesville picnic” sheet.
You just choose the day, the time, and the park and let us know.
We’re hoping for at least 10-15 picnics before launch (and we only have 4 hosts so far, so WE NEED YOUR HELP!)
Call, text, email, or Facebook message me your response to one or both of these two challenges, because I’m hoping to connect with every one of you about it before our next meeting, which is Sunday, August 24th, at 6pm. That night, we'll do some worship together, and then we'll break up into the above 5 teams for training and planning. Whatever you do, don't miss that night!
So glad to be doing this with you all... I know God has amazing things planned, and I just want to jump in with both feet. Hope to hear from you soon!
Hey, it’s been a while since we updated you on where we are in our Janesville Launch. Right now, we’re in the middle of pulling together all of the materials and people we’ll need to start weekend services in September. It’s a pretty big job, but it’s slowly coming together.
Here’s a little sketch of what the next couple of months will look like. It’s a little less inspirational and a little more nuts-and-bolts, but I know there are a lot of people who read this blog who haven’t been able to make it to a Sunday night, and we wanted you to be in the loop.
Only 2 more Sunday night launch team meetings left!
This Sunday night, July 27th, we’ll be talking about what it means to get ourselves ready to build new relationships with the people who show up on launch weekend. This is really important, so if you can’t make it, we’ll hopefully have something (audio or video) that you can watch or listen to later.
Then, our last Sunday night will be on August 24th. We’ll start off with some worship together, and then we’ll break off into teams to do some training. There won’t be a large group teaching that night. It’ll be a time where we “get stuff done,” and we need everybody to be there.
Preview Services in September
Beginning the weekend after Labor Day, we’ll have three Sundays before our public launch where we work to get our act together before the big day.We will run those weekends like “dress rehearsals,” with full Kidzworks ministry, video sermons streamed in live from Beloit, greeters, worship band, sound and lights, and every other kind of ministry.
There are still quite a few Central people who live in Janesville who haven’t been interested in being a part of the launch team, but want to begin attending when we start. We’ll be inviting all of these people to come beginning the first week in September.
Community Park Parties
We’ve decided to spend time, energy, and money creating some fun, simple events at a bunch of community parks all over the city.We’ll offer free food, and have activities planned for kids.The whole purpose is to get to know people, serve them, and invite them to church.Our hope is that we’ll have a lot more success in parks than we might in the fair or at the farmer’s market.
Prayer Walking Janesville and Door Hangers
This has kind of become a part of the culture of our church, but we’ve never done it on a large scale in Janesville. We’ll have hundreds of people (including people from Beloit) walking up and down the streets of Janesville, praying for each house, and delivering a door hanger with information about a free magic show we’ll be hosting (see below) and the big launch weekend for our church. We’ve seen some great results from this in the past, and we’re excited about what God will do through it in Janesville.
Magic Shows?
We’ve been given the opportunity to bring in Tim Hannig of the Pro Kids Show to 6 elementary schools in the week leading up to launch. He will do two school shows per day on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, which are super-fun, but also teach kids about values like honesty and integrity. He will then invite them to bring their parents to one of two family shows on Thursday and Friday evenings, held in our church room. Our expectation and our prayer is that hundreds of families will show up for a magic show, and we’ll get the chance to invite them to church that Sunday.
Launch Weekend: September 28th
Here’s the big news: We’ll be launching with two services right off the bat, with service times the same as Beloit… 9am and 10:30am. (Our setup and worship teams better be filled with morning people!) We’re asking our launch team and any other people willing to give us 6 weeks, beginning in September, where you’re there every week for both services. We’re hoping and praying to be overwhelmed with people, and we’ll need all hands on deck to serve them well, especially in Kidzworks.
After the Launch
Wait, there’s an after the launch?We’d better start thinking about that! Just kidding… we’ll save that for another post.
Have you ever lived in the middle of a project, and it's
kind of all-consuming, and you think about it night and day, and there's
nothing in the world that can make the obsession stop except getting to the end
of it? And then you look around you at
all the other people who are kind of connected to the project, and you think,
"Why hasn't this taken over your
life like it has mine?"
Call it passion. Call
it a calling from God. Call it whatever
you like, but it's like you're living in the flow of what it is you were made
to do, and few things feel quite as good.
That's where I've been living for the past six months. It's kind of weird that I think of this time
as one of the best in my life, because so many things in our family life have
been turned upside down, but I just have this feeling that God is creating
something new, and we get to be a part of it.
It almost feels like I can see the future, and it's not
about huge numbers or big budgets or fancy programs (although I'm praying for
all those things as a means to an end.) It
might sound hokey, but I can see people in Janesville finding and living the
life of Jesus and turning around to give that life away. I can see previously disconnected Central
people from Janesville making an impact on their own community, helping the
hurting, serving the poor, and loving on kids. I can see groups of people eating lunch
together after church, who never would have met otherwise. I can see the executive hanging out with the
custodian and the single mom getting coffee with the empty nester. I can see them sharing their struggles and
their victories, their excitement and their fear, and taking it all to
Jesus.
But a Sunday morning worship service doesn't create that.
Even a good small groups ministry doesn't create that.
The only thing that creates that kind of community is people...
people who are committed, not just to building a church, but to loving and
serving whoever's in front of them. People
who have made space in their lives for inviting new people over to their house
for lunch. People who are ready to love
those who are often hard to love. People
who don't just greet somebody at church with a handshake, but step into their
lives, get to know them, ask them questions, and invite them to sit in church
together.
Over the course of the next three months, we're going to be
working hard to create a first class experience for people when they show up on
Sunday mornings, both in the worship center, and in Kidzworks. But no matter how good our weekend experience
might be, our church will live and die by the way we treat new people who walk
in the door. My hope is that we would be
at least as concerned with being
welcoming people as we are with creating a welcoming environment. My prayer is that on opening weekend, new
families will walk into the Holiday Inn Express Conference Center and be blown
away by the power of the Holy Spirit and the love of the people they meet.
Come pray with us this Sunday night, June 29th, at 6pm at
the Holiday Inn. Josh Calhoun, our
friend from Citizen Way, is leading worship. We'll listen to a fantastic teaching by
Danielle Strickland on rethinking our witness.
And we'll pray that God turns us into the kind of people who make his
dreams into reality.
Okay, I know that our Facebook invitation (click here to check it out) told you to bring
your elementary kids this week, but a simple invitation isn't enough. Here comes the hard sell...
Up until now, Sunday nights in Janesville have been all
about adults. Oh, sure, we started
providing "child care," but that was just so that we adults could
talk about the business of planting a church.
But I've been convicted that our kids shouldn't just be "along for
the ride." I think our kids can and
should play just as big a role in launching this work as their parents do. Let me explain.
On launch weekend, all of us adults will be working our
tails off preparing for all of the people that will come from the
community. We will have spent weeks in
outreach and marketing and inviting our friends and serving the people around
us, and we will be creating a great place for people to come and meet
Jesus. We aren't doing it so that we can
look good. We aren't doing it so that we
can feel like a "success."
We're willing to put in the blood, sweat, and tears so that people we
know and love who are far from God will have a place to come back to him.
And what in that previous paragraph isn't true of our
kids? Do they have people they love and
want to introduce to Jesus? Do they have
friends and neighbors and other kids at school who are hurting and could use a
place that accepts them just as they are?
Of course they do. And if we rob
our kids of the opportunity to be a part of creating that kind of place for
their friends, shame on us.
So, when your elementary aged kids (K-5th) come this Sunday
night, they'll experience our worship time with us, and then they will head out
with some adults who are ready to help bring them into the process. They'll spend time talking about the kind of
place that their friends might want to come to.
They'll have fun, but our hope is that they'll leave feeling like
they're a part of something, not just along for the ride.
Don't miss this Sunday night... and don't let your kids miss
it, either.
(We will have child care and games for the little ones
through the entire service as well.)
I have friends who God talks to all the time. "God spoke to me in the shower
yesterday." "I was talking to the lady at Dunkin' Donuts and God told
me what to say." I think it's
awesome. It's just not my
experience. I'm sure it's because I'm
too busy or too caught up in my own life to listen, but I just don't have that
many back-and-forth's with the Father.
Don't get me wrong... I pray. I spend regular time in his Presence and his
word. I look for his leading every
chance I get. Often, I look back on my
recent past and see where he's guided me, but it's not very often that I
clearly sense God saying something specific to me at a specific time.
Until this week.
And, can I just say "Holy Crap" without offending
you? Because holy crap. I'm in Orlando
at the Exponential church planters conference and God is rocking my world. He keeps whispering things over my soul. Specific things. And just when I think he's done, I step into
another session he throws me another curve-ball.
A week ago, I would have told you that I couldn't have
possibly been any more excited than I am about what God is about to do in
Janesville. I think of our Launch Team,
and I am completely blown away with the caliber of people God is raising up. I think
of our entire church and their support and willingness to give us the freedom
to try anything, and I thank God for the opportunities that opens up. I think of the leadership in our church, both
staff and elders, and I know that God has been aligning all of the pieces for
just this place at just this time, and I'm overwhelmed that I get to play a role
in it.
You see, God is at work all around us. Sometimes we see it. Other times we don't. This week, I'm privileged to have been given
a glimpse of what God is doing, and I'm bursting to share some of it with
you. So you'd better make sure you're
there this Sunday night at 6pm at Parker High School (yes, that's a shameless
plug.) Get ready, because God is filling
me up this week, and I can't wait for him to pour it out all over our Launch
Team on Sunday.
Okay, so it's been a while since we last updated all of you
about where we are in our lead up to launch in October. We'll start with the bullet points, and then
you can read on and get more details if you care to.
We've made a decision about where we're hoping to launch the
church (pending approval from church leadership): The Janesville Convention Center, next to the
Holiday Inn at the intersection of I-90 and Hwy. 14.
Our next Janesville service will be on Sunday, May 4th, at
6pm at Parker High School (the convention center is undergoing
renovations). We'll be talking specifics
about what it means to meet the needs in our community and staff the teams in
our church. You're not going to want to
miss it.
We have some team leadership coming together already: Kidzworks, Prayer, Setup, and Greeters are
all starting to make plans. Let us know
if you're interested in leading out or serving in any of these areas.
As of now, we have set a tentative public launch date of
Sunday, October 12. We will be running
pre-launch services on Sunday mornings beginning September 7, so that our teams
have a little experience under their belts before our public launch.
We're developing a Launch Calendar to keep you up to date on
all of our plans leading up to the fall.
You can find it above, under the "Launch Calendar" tab. This will serve as our official planning
calendar. If you see conflicts or
mistakes, please let Erik know as soon as possible.
Why the Janesville Convention Center at the Holiday Inn?
Okay, now that we've gotten rid of all the people who just
wanted a quick read, I've got a story to tell.
I've got to be honest and say that I was a little nervous before our
meeting on April 2nd about the location for our launch. We really hadn't gotten together to have a
conversation like this before, and I knew that there might be differences of
opinion about what would be best. I
didn't want it to be something that would become divisive right off the bat,
but I also wanted to hear what everybody had to say before making our
decision.
After a confusing change of venue (due to my lack of
planning), we ended up at A&W, and about 20 of us got to business. We laid out all of the options and started
the conversation. I've got to tell you
that I couldn't have been happier with the way things went. We had some passionate but respectful
disagreements about whether to launch in the areas of greatest need or in the
place that gave us the best chance of starting a viable, healthy church. We weighed pros and cons. I really think everybody came with a unified
heart, and a openness to allowing for differing opinions. We talked for over an hour, and although we
didn't all come to complete agreement about where would be the best place to
launch, we did agree to let the leaders of our church lead.
Oh, wait... that's me!
While I was moved by my friends, Anna and Tani, and their
passion for reaching the hurting and marginalized in Janesville, I still
believed that launching our church in the most advantageous place possible for
starting a new work was the right direction to head. I believe that place is the Janesville
Convention Center.
First of all, it's in a great location. It's right in the middle of all of the retail
and restaurants in Janesville and is right off the interstate, making it more possible
to reach Milton, Edgerton, Evansville, and Whitewater. It's also a fantastic venue. Lots of parking, a simple layout, plenty of
space, and easy setup and tear down were all big plusses. The cost of it is comparable to what we would
pay for a school auditorium, but we will have access to it all day for that one
fee.
At the end of the evening, I shared that, even though
reaching the needy and marginalized in Janesville still needs to be a core
competency of our church, I believe that growing a healthy congregation from
the northeast side will give us the people and financial resources to make a
profound impact on all of Janesville.
And for me, this was the moment that showed the character of
the people in the room and the power of the Holy Spirit at work. After having passionately defended their
positions, every single person around the room got behind it and we left with
one voice and one direction. I was proud
to be a part of something so gratifying.
I also believe that God spoke through his people and changed my heart on
some of my assumptions through the wisdom and experiences of people who are
different than me. And isn't that what
church should be about?
So, the Janesville Convention Center it is. We won't be able to have our first worship
service in there until June 1st, as it's currently under renovation, but come
this summer and fall, it'll be our new home.
Over and over, I've been blown away by God's faithfulness as we take
each step, and I can't wait to see what he'll do next.
Stay tuned for more details on some of the other bullet points above...
I remember the first time I was scared to death to make a
decision. I had just graduated from
college. I had all of these options
available to me, and I knew that the rest of my life might be defined by this
huge moment. I felt the pressure because
I was convinced that, out of all the possibilities before me, God had decided
on just one that was the right one, and it was my job to figure out which one
it was. If I made the wrong decision, I
would be outside the will of God, and couldn't expect God to bless me or use me
in ministry.
I felt like the little girl in the video... willing to fall
into the trustworthy arms of God... just not sure where God was standing, and
scared to death that I would do a trust-fall in the wrong direction and fall
flat on my face. Somehow I had developed
the belief that God had just one perfect path for my life. If I deviated from that path, I would be
completely out of the will of God. If I
chose the wrong job, moved to the wrong city, had kids at the wrong time,
bought the wrong car, I would be off course, and getting back on in might take
years to correct.
Mandy and I prayed.
We wrote out lists. We listened
to the voice of God. Nothing. So we prayed some more. We got away for a weekend to quiet our souls
and listen. We argued. We cried.
I remember the very real fear that we might make the wrong decision and
step off that "perfect path."
I was just about at the end of myself when I had a talk with
David, my pastor. I think he could see
the anguish in my young eyes, and he had just the right words at just the right
time. He might not even remember it, but
it went something like this:
"Calm down, Erik. (ok, David was probably nicer than
that) God's will for your life is rarely
dependent on your job or where you live or when you choose to have kids. God's will for your life isn't about which
decisions you make, when. It's less
about what you do than it is about who you are when you do what you
do. You've got options. Great.
You might stay here, and God will bless you here. You might move to Denver, and God will use
you and bless you there. You might be a math
teacher or you might go into full time ministry, but what God is most
interested in is who you are and how you love.
I'm not saying God doesn't have opinions about what decisions you make,
but sometimes when we just don't know what to do, it's because God is giving us
a choice. You've been knocking yourself
out looking for the one right answer.
Maybe there isn't one. Maybe God
is giving you a choice. Maybe he's
asking, 'What do you want to do,
Erik? I'll make you into the man I want
you to be either way.'"
I knew I was supposed to pray. I was supposed to listen for his voice. I was supposed to wait on Him and then step
out in faith. And those all sounded like
nice, churchy things to say, but when it came to making decisions, it sure
would have been nice to have some face-time with the boss and get a straight
answer, am I right? But this
conversation with David was life-changing for me, because it took the pressure
off. It's not my job to always know
where God is when I'm doing the trust-fall into his arms. He doesn't abandon me if I fall in the wrong
direction. He's not just behind me. He's all around me.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
Psalm 139:7-8
God is often more interested in teaching us to listen to him than
he is in which little decision we're about to make, because he's at the other
end of every path we might choose. God
wants us to learn what it means to pray, to listen, to wait, and then to step
out in faith, and the only way we learn it is to do it. Sometimes we get it right. Sometimes we don't. But every time we try, we learn a little more
how it works.
This Janesville launch is full of those kinds of questions,
not the least of which is about where we'll hold Sunday services beginning this
fall. We've been at Edison and Parker
High School up until now, but we've also been asking God to reveal to us if
he's got the one perfect place for us.
Our launch team has committed to praying regularly that God would open
doors for where we might be, because up until last week, every place we had
looked at is either way too expensive or in the absolute wrong location. We pray separately. We pray together. We listen to the still, small voice of
God. We wait on him and his perfect
timing. And the time is coming where
we'll step out in faith.
On Wednesday, April 2nd, at 6:30pm, we're going to be at
Mocha Moment for anybody who is interested in being a part of the discussion
about where we might meet. By then, we
should have all of the options available to us on the table, including some
new, more doable choices. We'll
pray. We'll talk. We might even disagree somewhat. But we'll be looking for God to reveal to us
where he wants us to launch this church, and shortly after this meeting, with
the help of our church leadership, we'll make a decision on location.
Here's the thing: I'm
not worried about it. God knows exactly
what he's doing. We're not playing a
guessing game as to where God is hiding.
He is just as interested in giving us direction as we are in getting
it. And, no matter which direction we
fall, he'll always be there to catch us.
One day, God said to Phillip, "Start walking
south." That's it. Just walk.
And Phillip did it. He had no
idea what the plan was. He had no
concept of what God had in mind other than to walk. So he walked.
Phillip was completely unaware that a super important dude
from Africa would be on that same road at that same time. He had no idea that very dude would be
reading from the Hebrew scriptures at that very moment. He had no clue that the chess pieces were
being put into place for the message of the Gospel to be spread to
Ethiopia. Here's what he knew: Walk
south.
Sometimes I picture God like he's playing a board game...
Just the right people at just the right places at just the right time, creating
wonderfully crazy experiences. I start
thinking about everything that had to go just right for Phillip to walk up
alongside that specific chariot at that perfect place in time, and I remember
that God sees it all. He doesn't just
see all that's happening. He sees how
it's all connected and how one happening changes another and how all of it
moves us along towards some greater end.
And here's the best part: He can be trusted with it all.
When Mandy and I said that we would take this step of faith
into Janesville, I kind of felt like Phillip.
Start walking south. (except that Janesville is north, but you get the
point) Just walk...north. You don't need to see all of the pieces I'm
putting into place. You don't need to
know that I've been working on hearts of people in Janesville for exactly this
purpose. You don't need to understand
every part of my plan. Just walk. So we walked.
Slowly but surely, God keeps moving more and more pieces
into place. My friend, Shawn, is
principal at Lincoln Elementary in Janesville, and he and his wife are just as
sold out to redefining the relationship between a church and a school as Mandy
and I are. The school district tells us
that we can have our pick of school facilities for a fraction of what we would
spend on anything else. Over 100 people
show up at our first meeting in the midst of a snowstorm, ready and willing to
do whatever it takes to bring their friends and family to Jesus.
Every time another piece falls into place, I start to think,
"There it is. That's why God told
us to walk north." But then another
piece falls into place. And
another. And I'm learning that no matter
how much I want to understand the entirety of the plan, if we just keep walking
and trusting, it will unfold in ways that we never could have imagined.
Sunday night at Parker High School, we had our second
meeting, and we talked about how important it is to remember that we aren't
creating an institution. We're not
starting something with our best efforts and smartest plans. We're hoping to be a part of a supernatural
move of God, and while we have got to be willing to put plans and systems and
organization in place, we should only do it in response to the supernatural
movement and leading of the Holy Spirit.
So we prayed. We sang. We shared our stories. We prayed some more. Because the most important thing that might
happen in the lead-up to launch isn't our planning or our marketing. It's our complete and utter dependence on a
supernatural move of God.
I'd always rather we wait on the Lord and then play catch-up
than make our own plans and ask him to bless them. Look at what he's already doing. We have over 70 people who've committed to
being on the Launch Team, and we don't even know where we're going yet. Double that are already interested in being a
part of the ministry in some other way.
We've got people interested in running Kidzworks, Guest Services,
Prayer, Administration, and Community Service Teams.
None of this has been in the plan so soon, but God has been
moving the pieces into place in his timing, and we're just going to do our best
to keep up. So keep praying. It's the only real part we play in calling
down his supernatural power to be at work in our church and in all of
Janesville. We pray and we walk. North.
Ever feel like church is one big pyramid scheme? We need you to leverage your personal relationships so that we can fill whatever empty seats we have, and then we’ll build a bigger building with more seats that your friends will then have to fill. It’s a never-ending cycle that has the feeling of success, but is just another marketing strategy… and sometimes all we’re doing is selling our church, instead of making a huge deal about the extravagant love of Jesus.
