Go Do and Be

I’ve relocated to Pennsylvania and have started going to a new church. Now I have some strong ideas about the role of the church and what it’s purpose should be. One of the reasons I’ve liked going to this church for lo these 3 weeks in a row is that I think we see eye to eye on what the church is supposed to be. Today Brian Jones pointed out how this church has been successful in fulfilling Christ’s Great Commission and how it has failed.
The church started out in a movie theater in Q4 of 2000 and since then has grown from an average of about 300/week to about 1200/week. That’s a successful, even wonderful, example of church growth, on anybody’s scale. Looking at another statistic however, the church is failing. Baptisms went from 30% of attendees to 7% during that same time. In fact, there was a little spike-up in new faith-commitments a couple of years ago during the decline when the church moved into their building. But, in 2008 the number hit bottom and the church leadership was very clear about why. At the end of 2007, they changed their mission statement.
The mission statement during the last year has been, “Love God, Love each other, Love the World.” That’s great, warm, fuzzy, inclusive, easy-on-the-ears, and pretty easy on people. As of today, they are going back to their old mission statement, (I may not have the words just right here) “Helping to bring people who are far from God, into relationship with Jesus.” That’s a huge difference. We are supposed to go and make disciples. That recapitulated purpose gets to the heart of the great commission and is a call to action. That’s what I’m talking about!
Don’t think that genuinely bringing the good news about Jesus to people who are far from God, and doing so in a loving way can make a difference? Watch this video they played in church today.

Penn on Proselytizing

Penn Jillette, the vocal half of the comedy-magic duo, Penn and Teller, is an affirmed, outspoken and even passionate atheist, as you’ll see from this clip. But he’s also someone who may understand what it means to be a follower of Jesus, better than most of those of us who claim to be do.
Big question - are you living a life like a mustard seed (starting small and growing into something big) or yeast (a small amount working throughout the flour to make the dough huge and having a catalytic influence) or are you more interested in keeping things the same?