The Doors

My Contribution to ragamuffinsoul.com’s “Creative Chaos”

As I mentioned last week we started a series at New Life called “Doors” Essentially it’s about how we all have doors in our lives. Some doors we need to close, some we need to open and ultimately we need to decide what thresholds we are going to cross; especially when it is God knocking on our door.

To help deck out our Sanctuary we literally hung doors all over the place. There were doors on the stage and doors hanging from the side walls. The beauty in this lies not just in the fact that we are conveying the name of the series visually or the fact that it provides a good reminder that we all have doors in our lives. While those are possibly the two most important reasons for doing it, there is also a certain value that is conveyed to those who attend. By doing something out of the ordinary, something that definitely took some time and effort it conveys that we are willing to do whatever it takes to make sure people are engaged and catching the message being taught.

There was absolutely a “wow” factor last week when people walked in and saw all of those doors on the walls and as a result those people are talking about the series, inviting their friends to come check it out and they are being reminded of the message.

Anything we can do to show that we value the people that walk through our doors is important.

Geo Caching, Carnapping

Well, this whole geo caching thing that I talked about yesterday has gone to a whole new level at New Life. Today it became part of a “grand theft auto” prank. Three of my co-workers decided to prank our Sr. High Pastor Nik  by relocating his car to a park down the road leaving him only with the coordinates and an offer to drive him in search of his Jetta.

I thought I’d defend my Family Life brother by bringing his car back to the church so that when they went to find the car it would appear as though it had been stolen. haha, pretty sneaky.

The problem was that Nik is a big softy and decided to tell the ”carnappers” of the plot to trick them. lol! I was sold out! haha.

  <—— Nik the big softy (creepy pic)

Oh well, we all still got a good laugh at it.

 I have to say that I work with some of the greatest people in the world and I appreciate their sense of humor so much. Being able to laugh with the people you work with goes such a long way towards creating an enjoyable atmosphere.

Thanks team for being not only so talented but also so humorous.

  Thanks for selling me out big softy. haha.

Avoiding The Church Aversion

It’s interesting talking to people about church. There are a lot of people who have grown up in the Church and have their lenses of how church should look, what it should offer, how people should dress and what the songs should sound like. Then there are others who have only had a few experiences with church. Often times these people have been burned. They’ve had one bad experience or another and now they have an aversion to church. They think all churches are a like. That they are out of date and irrelevant.

The funny thing is if we listen to a lot of the people who have grown up in the Church, they would be out of date. Moreover, they would be filled with all kinds of situations and environments that would be incredibly uncomfortable for someone just checking church out.

That’s why it’s so important today for the Church to be in tune with what’s culturally relevant. The reality is the content of the bible is just as relevant today as it was when it was written, yet the way we convey it and the way we conduct church has to change. The Church also has to recognize that what’s normal and comfortable to someone who understands church can often times turn away someone who is just trying the whole thing out.

It’s a fine line to toe.But, it’s important to find that balance between spiritual practices and creating environments that are comfortable and inviting to guests.

After all the last thing the Church should be doing is creating an aversion to church.

Time To Regroup

Well, Easter was awesome and it was great to spend so much dedicated time on the celebration but I have to admit, it’s nice to jump back into the normal routine. It’s kind of like a lot of vacations. You have an amazing time, but somewhere a long the way you’re ready to get back home. The same thing is truth with ministry. It’s nice to get back to the normal. It’s time to evaluate where we’re at and where we’re going for the rest of the year.

Whether at work or in our personal lives, it’s always important to evaluate what works and what needs tweaking. That’s how we grow…