What if we started over?

Some have asked me to expand on the in/out discussion at Mars Hill... and I'm planning on doing that, but first I want to share a brief conversation I recently had while waiting on some food yesterday.

I was at Chic-Fil-A, which was packed by the way, with my pastor picking up some lunch. Looking around I saw that restaurant completely packed out. I wondered how many there were connected with a Jesus community... then about the same time I had two converging thoughts. The first was how could our "established" church connect them with Jesus and the second was how all the statistics say that planting a church is the most effective form of evanglesim. Then... it happened. You know, one of those moments when you say "what if..." then you have to decide whether or not you have the freedom to turn your edit button off and let your mind and heart ask. So I continued thinking... what if we started over? completely changed our mindset from that of an established/traditional/old church to that of a church plant. What would be the first thing we did? the next? the next? Continuing to roll this over in my mind... I decided to share it with my pastor, who thought it was a great idea and we spent the remainder of lunch talking about what that would/could look like. What if we tore down 2/3s of our existing sign and replaced it with a vinyl sign that just said "We're starting over." Now I know there are some inherent difficulties, some folk don't like to change, but could it happen?
So, what do you think? Is it possible for a church to start over? What would you do first? next? next? What are the difficulties, both practically and theologically? Feel free to agree or disagree...

rob bell and lex!

so... I thought that a picture of Lex with Rob Bell would be about the coolest thing I could put on here, the last night of the conference. There's really too much to say about today. The morning session was awesome. RB talked about alot of the things that i've been wrestling with over the past two or so years: salvation, heaven, hell, in/out, and the end of the world as we know it. Here's how it started... if we had to answer the question "how is one 'saved'," and the only thing we had to go on was the bible (tongue in cheek), what would the answer be. Well... forty some passages later, the answer was... there would be a lot of different answers. So where did we get the formula??? well... i could keep going about that...

Tonight was even better. The theme was the absolute necessity of endlessly reclaiming your innocence. After some awesome worship time, RB gave about a 10-15 min talk preparing for about an hour plus altar service. It was beautiful. There were people being anointed with oil for healing of sickness and weariness. Some were standing under a Hebrew prayer shawl and the elders of Mars Hill were praying for them. There were communion elements around the stage and other elders served communion. And in the center of the stage was a big cross were many were just crying out. It was all.... honest. The Spirit of God was there, and we were all aware of it.

"Josh needs"

Since all of my posts have been about the conference, I thought I would post something off-subject for humor sake. I did this a little over a year ago, and well... it raised a very long discussion about the use of profanity... sorry. This time, no profanity (I was only copying and pasting what was on google...); so... without further delay... Here's the January 2006 edition of "Josh needs" (copied straight from google.com)
1. Josh needs a replacement tray so his daughter can dine in NEST style.
2. Josh Needs Extra Lovin' to Keep Mind Off ScarJo.
3. Josh needs some way to let off some steam other than either insulting his staff in a thank-you speech or yelling at everyone about the numbers not lining up. (sorry)
4. JOSH NEEDS A HAIRNETT
5. Josh needs know there is a large community of supporters wishing him well, and waiting for his return. (ahh... how touching... thanks you guys)
6. Josh needs to get Bob the highest resolution available for the logo.
7. Josh: needs a new macbook pro :( (YES!!!)
8. Josh needs blood, you have the kind he needs, so your coming back with me.
9. Josh needs to know that staying far, far away from that serial skank would be in his best interest. (um... okay)
10. Josh needs to stop looking at the ridiculous plasma section and come back to cathode-ray reality. (what?!)

so... the jist is to google "____________ needs" (insert your name in the blank) and find the first 10 that are interesting or make you laugh... or you find entertaining... you get it.

After lunch

Walking in after lunch, i thought i would take a couple of pictures of the outside of the old mall. Thats the YMCA on the left and Playworld on the right. In the middle is one of their main entrances. I'll take a picture of another main entrance this morning, and perhaps share it... or maybe i won't. Anyway, went to the Q&A session, and found out something that totally blew my mind. I knew that Mars had hired Don Golden to be their Lead Pastor, but I thought that was their different name for Executive Pastor (handling the business side) because RB still does most all of the teaching. Well, found out in the Q&A that DG really is the "Lead Pastor". He oversees all the ministry, casts vision, makes decisions. RB submits to his leadership. Now... when is the last time you heard of a preacher who, after drawing a big crowd of people, who say... "hey, i'm not real good at this leadership thing, thats not where God has gifted me, what if we brought in somebody to be the Lead Pastor, I would submit to their leadership, continue teaching/preaching because thats what God has gifted me to do... could that work?" Very interesting.
The student session went well. Nothing to dramatic to report. I'm just really amazed at the complete and total level of honesty that you see here. Maybe I'll include a little story in a comment.

The night service (session) was awesome. (sorry for the blurryness of the picture) RB talked about the arts of teaching, preaching and creativity. Again, awesome. I really think RB might be one of the best I've ever heard. If you've read Hope's blog then you know about the cool factor of the music. For me, the cool part was the risk factor. They said, "what if we took some old hyms and sang them over some funk music...? okay, try it." When talking about taking risks, RB said, "We have nothing to fear, because the tomb is empty" (at which point we all shouted with joy... really, not a "pentecostal whoop" but a "yeah...! all right...! whoo hoo...!). After the night session, they had a concert by "The Vigilantes" (they are an indie band who attend Mars Hill... RB gave them a big bowl as a tip jar to raise money to buy them a new van.). Hope and I would have stayed but it was getting late for Lex and 24 was coming on.

the first session: the eucharist

It's lunch break for the conference. We just got out of the morning session, and let me tell you... wow, it was awesome. i don't really have a lot of time to go into it, but it was beautiful, mysterious, inspiring and downright honest. This is mainly a seminar about the local church, so the morning session looked at what is the church and why is she worth dying for. RB made a beautiful statement when he said that the church is the eucharist, broken and poured out for many. Then he proceeded to go through the NT passage either talking about the eucharist or suffering, how our power is in our weakness, and that as leaders, our mission is to be the eucharist, a gift from God broken and poured out so that others may have life. Then he went into how if you are continually pouring and breaking, then you must have a time where God puts you back together and pours into you... again, strongly showing the importance of the sabbath. It was really awesome, the whole session. Even the Q&A afterwards was cool. At one point, when talking about how he disliked "mega-church" stuff, but how God has led him(them) into this position of prominence and power, RB said that he would manipulate his platform and do whatever he could to give those who do not have a voice (the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized) a voice. He would take all the money he could get from those who had money, so he could give it away to those who don't... because God is with the oppressed. It was awesome... I wish you (whoever you are) could have been there. Well, there were plenty of other things I could talk about... and perhaps even more impactful than what I've shared here, but I need to go so I can get back to the old shopping mall (where they gather for church... they make this point often).

sunday night's gathering

So I went to Mars Hill tonight. It was... really good. Not exactly what you might think a +10,000 person church might look like. First, just finding the place is a feat. I read in Velvet Elvis that when they were planting the church, RB wouldn't let them put out a sign to show people where they were located. They still don't have any signs out. I googled their address to get directions, and knew they met in an old shopping mall. I was looking for some sort of sign when I got on the road, but alas there were none. (and I hope this sounds how I want it to...) To find it... I just followed all the other cars. A bunch were turning into this parking lot, so I turned. The only signs were for a YMCA and Playhouse. I parked and noticed A LOT of people walking toward this door, so I followed them and finally saw the name Mars Hill Church on the glass door. I continued following everybody till I found a seat. Worship was a mix of music and scripture reading. I found it deeply moving, almost to the point of tears. Right after the music, RB got up and started the teaching. No frills, no hype. Just raw, straight-to-the-point stuff. The sermon was part teaching, part interview of a Mars member. Media was extremely minimal. The music and sermon were both projected on screens, but just a black background with white words. The songs were either old hymns or home-written. The band had a certain Coldplay feel, as it was very piano-driven with that soaring guitar adding to the sound. It all felt very honest. Maybe thats just me reading into it because of my own preferences. Well... its late and I have an early morning. This is the schedule for the conference. I'll try to blog as much as I can. I'm going to try to find a recorder of some sorts so I can record the sessions. We'll see how that goes.

snowy drive, notre dame and rudy

So this is the scene outside our Kokomo, IN room when I woke up this morning. Mind you, there was no snow when I went to bed, around midnight. I knew this was a possibility, but oh well... we drove on anyway. I'll give it to INDOT (Indiana Department of Transportation), they had the road pretty much clear by the time we left. There were times when it got slushy like in the middle, but nothing treacherous.


Stopped on the way to try to see the Notre Dame campus. I took this picture from across some large pond next to the Sacred Heart Parish Center. I had to take the picture from there because evidently you have to have some sort of pass to get on campus. Everytime we tried, there was a gate keeping us out. Oh well, it wasn't that important anyway, I just wanted a cool picture standing in front of these two buildings... this will have to do.


Needed something to eat after Notre Dame, stopped at Fazoli's in South Bend. Talked about Rudy and how South Bend didn't look that impressive (their sign going into the city says "Building a 21st Century City"). Hit the road again and got to Grand Rapids around 3:45 pm. We are trying to rest right now... well, Hope is trying and Lex is very awake. I'm blogging watching the Bears/Saints game. Mars Hill's night gathering starts @ 6:00. I'm excited. I'll post my first impressions afterwards.

this settles it!

I now have direction in my life...

Your Career Personality: Original, Devoted, and Service Oriented

Your Ideal Careers: Art director Book editor College professor Composer Film director Graphic designer Novelist Stage actor Psychiatrist Writer

The Quick and Dirty Career Test

Mars Hill or bust!

Left today heading towards Mars Hill in Grandville, MI (just outside Grand Rapids). They are hosting a two-day conference on the local church called "Isn't She Beautiful?" We are getting their early so that we can attend the 6:00 pm gathering at Mars. I'm quiet pumped about it all. Rob Bell will be speaking four times, plus two question-and-answer sessions with Don Golden, Mars Hill Lead Pastor. In addition to the general sessions, each day has several discussion/teaching times with Mars Hill leaders. During these, Hope and I are planning on swapping out Lex-watch. On Monday, I'll go to the "Mars Hill Students" discussion and Hope will go back to the hotel for nap time. On Tuesday, I'm at the hotel and Hope is in the Worship session (3,000 person choir - Worship at Mars Hill). I'm planning on blogging my experiences while up here.
The drive wasn't bad... kinda boring with all the flat, straight roads. I thought I would conclude with a picture of what I found to be incredibly fascinating. When was the last time we saw this?Thats the local gas price? What the heck?

Lex and Vertigo 2005

I'm back! After a long hiatus from the blog-world, I have returned to blog again. My wife is really excited about this, as she has been telling me for quiet some time that I need to blog again. Well, I am... and what better subject matter than my son's first viewing of U2's Vertigo concert in Chicago. Lex would hardly take his eyes off the screen while Bono was on there singing. At one point, I had to switch arms while holding him, which turned his head away from the TV. He gave me an aggravated look and jerked his head back towards the TV. Granted, he probably was just turning toward the sound, but I prefer to think he was enthralled with the show. He started nodding off near the end of Sunday Bloody Sunday. I was glad we could share in this together.