Keeping Up with the Holy Spirit

 

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.

1. 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 3:8  We don't control it.  We just look for where he's blowing and try to ride it to wherever he takes us.
2. 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.
3. 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.

So, How'd It Go?

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!

What Really Matters

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.

Simple Launch Calendar

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.

Date	Event	Location	Time(s)
September 3rd	Neighborhood Picnic	Kiwanis Community Park	4pm-6pm
September 6th	Neighborhood Picnic	Goodrich Park in Milton	noon-2pm
September 7th	First Sunday Service (Preview Service)	Holiday Inn	9:30 Volunteers and Launch Team 10:30 Service
September 9th-24th	Prayer Walking/Door Hanger Distribution	All over Janesville	Whenever is convenient for you.
September 14th	Preview Service	Holiday Inn	9:30 Volunteers and Launch Team 10:30 Service
September 21st	Preview Service (2 Services)	Holiday Inn	9:00 Service 10:30 Service
September 24th	Magic Shows at Schools	Various Elementary Schools	10am School Show 1pm School Show
September 25th	Magic Shows at Schools	Various Elementary Schools	10am School Show 1pm School Show
September 25th	Evening Family Magic Show	Holiday Inn	6:30 Doors Open 7:00 Show Begins
September 26th	Magic Shows at Schools	Various Elementary Schools	10am School Show 1pm School Show
September 26th	Evening Family Magic Show	Holiday Inn	6:30 Doors Open 7:00 Show Begins
September 27th	Setup and Rehearsal for Launch Sunday	Holiday Inn	Times To Be Announced
September 28th	LAUNCH SUNDAY!	Holiday Inn	9:00 Service 10:30 Service 12:00 Lunch Invitations