Transplanting DNA - What the heck does THAT mean?

My grandpa was a twin.  Identical.  When he and his brother were kids, they used to go to the all-you-can-drink lemonade stand in Port Arthur, Texas and take turns guzzling lemonade... one hiding around the corner and then making the switch.  Nobody could tell them apart.

But by the time I knew them, they were such different people, it was hard to imagine a time that they ever looked that much alike.  They shared the same DNA, and you could see the obvious similarities, but there were just as many distinctives.  They started with the same roadmap, but eventually took different routes along the way... married different kinds of women... took different kinds of jobs... and it made them the wonderful men they turned out to be.

So, we're going to plant a "satellite church," and everybody wants to know exactly what that means.  Do we clone the church we've got and put it up in a building in Janesville?  Or, do we just send the leaders out and tell them "good luck...?"  How much of who we are at Central in Beloit will be a part of this new work?  It's a good question.

David has been speaking to this in our services when he says that Janesville will have its own personality, but will hold on to the DNA that we have as a church.  I'm in complete agreement, but I also know that some of you have told me that you have no idea what that really means.  What is the DNA that we'll be taking along with us to Janesville?  What's the roadmap that we'll start with in common with Central in Beloit?

Many of you know that we've actually defined our DNA and written it down.  A lot of churches write mission statements that don't really connect with who they are, but I really believe that our DNA truly describes what makes us distinct.  When you get down past programs and buildings, our DNA describes what's most important to us as a church, and I'm just as sold out to it now as I've ever been.  Here it goes:  our DNA.

"D" stands for the Dream of God to reconcile people who are far from him back into relationship with him.  The local church is the hope of the world (thanks, Bill Hybels), not so that we can have nice places to worship God together, but so that people who are far from him are drawn back to him.  We wouldn't spend the time and energy and money planting a satellite church in Janesville so that Central people who live there will have a nice club to go to on Sunday mornings.  We do it because we know that God has called us to bring light to the darkness and hope to a dying world, and the church exists first to reach people who are far from God.

"N" is for the Needs before us.  There are people in every community, and increasingly so in Janesville, who need help.  There are single moms who are desperate to support their kids and are doing their best, but their best doesn't seem to be good enough.  There are homeless people, many of whom have a ton of other issues, who have no one looking out for them.  There are people lost in addiction or abused at home or dying of cancer, and while we can't do something about everything, we will do something about what God puts before us.  We don't serve people with some ulterior motive in mind.  We don't serve contingent on their conversion.  We serve because that was what Jesus did.  He saw a need.  He met the need.  Period.

"A" is about All People.  Central Christian Church is for all people all the time.  I think by now it should be obvious that this includes all races and backgrounds, but it's more than that.  What this means is that we will always be a church that's dominated by grace.  We are all woefully aware of our own sinfulness, and are grateful for the grace "in which we now stand." (Romans 5:2)  And we believe that we should be a church that shows that same kind of grace to people who grew up differently than we did, to people who have made different mistakes than we have, and even to people who believe different things than we do.  Democrat, Republican, gay, straight, Baptist, Catholic, Muslim, Pentecostal... none of the past matters.  Wherever you came from, what matters most is that we go looking for Jesus together and see where he takes us.

The Dream of God, the Needs Before Us, and All People... that's our DNA.  That's what we'll be taking to Janesville.  We won't be building a club for ourselves.  All our decisions will point to people outside the walls of our church, meeting their needs, and accepting them into genuine, Jesus-centered community.   It's not all we'll be, but it's the beginning.  It's the foundation.  God will take us where he wants from there.  Who knows?  Maybe we'll end up looking very different from Beloit in the end, but we'll always share the same DNA.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

What about you?  What parts of our DNA resonate with you?  What parts do you struggle with?