From High Brow Pirate to Hometown Pastor

As I share my personal experiences about the planting process I am not suggesting that I am angry about my experiences nor am I casting judgments on those who helped us plant.  As critical as I am of current planting trends, I am not even saying that they are wrong.  What I am saying is that the core concepts of planting is the most important thing and that the methods of the bricks and mortar are less essential in their mechanisms.  The paths and directions that I wanted to take and had to fight for are not THE way to do it, but A way to do it that is just as valid in my humble opinion as the conventional ways.  End of the day, planting coaches need to be flexible and allow for differing external visions and expressions of church community as opposed to firmly creating and multiplying clones of your own experiences and visions.

If the core beliefs about Jesus, the Gospel, Mission, and Incarnational living are solid and the planter has a honest grasp of these things, then the expression of church community and the founding of that church community can, and should be allowed to differ.  

What was in my heart was to reach the dissillusioned and the ones with many hurts and demands put on them by the church.  The methods I felt compelled to use were wonderful for the "seekers" and the "unchurched" and for a plant where the planter is called to reach those people that is fine.  But when you are reaching the disillusioned and the burned, a different toolbox is needed.  I know of a pastor in Boystown in Chicago who reaches to the GLBT community and his expression and invitations are different than mine and the methods I was asked to use.  There is a church starting on the strip in Vegas trying to reach prostitutes and addicted gamblers…again, different methods.  What of the church trying to reach the homeless community…snazzy music and four color flyers may intimidate them.  It is the same gospel, but there are different expressions of reaching people and loving them and one size does not and cannot be expected to fit all.

In my case (to summarize), door hangers do not earn trust or open the opportunity to earn trust, the music does not have to be perfect (sometimes there is no music), and a conventional core would have been detrimental.  Further, in this first year the community helped form what we are as opposed to us forcing hopes and dreams into it.  Now, almost a year later, we are prepared to invite others to join our community now that we know what we are inviting them to.  

I do hope this better explains my frustration.  It is not with the methods themselves, it is that there needs to be room and allowances for trailblazers and callings that have different external expressions.  Counter culture sometimes means being counter to the conventional methods within the church and if we want to survive in this emerging post modern world, we have to become flexible to these alternative visions and expressions of community.

Ah marketing and models.  In my planting efforts I was having so much fun going into diners and bars and bowling alleys and street corners (literally) and getting to know people and talk to them about Jesus and LifeBridge and what church is not and what it could be and what they wanted it to be.  Then I was made (I suspect unintentionally) to feel compelled to design flyers, gather volunteers, and "canvass the neighborhood" with these four color door hangers.  I was told that this would define who in my core group meant business and who didn’t.  This would show who was willing to work for this and who was not.  So not only was it marketing, but it was some kinda weird test of dedication for my new friends.  My new friends were, like me, walking into bars and bowling alleys and diners and street corners and having the time of their lives meeting people one on one and talking about life.  When I told them about the door hanger plan, they looked at me and could not understand the logic.  I related with them and told them that this was not my idea and when they asked if it was okay if they did not take part in this because it felt commercial, I told them they did not have to. 

I went and passed out the flyers and felt dirty the whole time.  I was conflicted and this was the opposite of what was in my heart.  I was told that behind every door was a story and that story had hearts and needs and I was asked if I wanted to know that story?  Hell yes!  But I get to know that story when I meet them, not when they look at a four color graphic with a clever slogon that looks no different than any other church marketing ploy.  Not one person came in from those flyers and if any of you are reading this, I am so sorry.  I hope you at least recycled the blank side for notepaper or something.  

That same day was the day that I found out that music was not only about worship, but it was also about marketing.  See, this was a scant few weeks prior to the first service and I did not have all my ducks in a row to the satisfaction of my mentor for worship music.  I was fine with it because I knew the community that was forming and the direction we were heading.  But I was told, and I quote, "Do not underestimate the power of awkward music to drive people away from your church.  The last planter underestimated the music and he failed.  Your pulling the trigger here and you are not taking this seriously."  Oh, I WAS taking it seriously.  As far as our music, a year later I will tell you that it is okay and decent from a technical standpoint, but everyone there likes it and it is ours.  Sometimes *gasp* we do not have music.  This last week, my singer got sick and could not make rehearsal and then on Saturday, my guitarist got sick.  So we did not have any music and we still worshipped God without song, but with sincere hearts and NOT ONE PERSON MINDED!

So what do you do different?  This first year was based mostly on word of mouth only.  Our numbers started strong, around April many people left as more and more youth came in with messy lives and tripp pants and our numbers now are less than what they were that first week.  Our money is almost non existant.  What do we have?  We know who we are and what we are and we can now know WHAT we are inviting people to becuase we have an identity as opposed to a rpepackaged plan.  We will use some stickers, we will use you tube videos, we will use tools, but we will use them honestly and without "zing" and wow factors.  We will be simple and honest and the power to spread the invitation still happens on the road because someone has to hand someone a sticker, give a link, and talk about it.  But we waited a year before we even considered a sign.

During my planting internship I learned about this wild Messiah who did not play by the rules of society.  He was so counter culture that the religious elite conspired with governmental forces to kill him.  He spent his time with unsavory people and loved them without condition.  He spoke against not only the norms of government and society, but also the norms of religious thought.  This was revolution and love and messiness and poetry and wonder.  Some of my best and most formative thoughts on Jesus came in a condensed time of nine months that I will be eternally grateful for.  But then came the disconnect.  In following this wild messiah and making disciples that follow in his yoke of beautiful chaos was reduced to formulas and tests and other things that did not compute.  It reminded me of Bible College.  They (Bible College) taught me Hermeneutics-the science of interpreting the Bible.  They gave me the tools to read and interpret and understand for myself.  But when my questions got too uncomfortable or challenged assumptions they held dear, I was being misguided and somehow in error.  I used the tools too well for my own good.  Now here I am, given the gift of a wild messiah with a revolutionary message and call and as I try to walk in His yoke with the very tools of understanding given to me, I was told to ignore it temporarily for pragmatic purposes. 

This whole process of having a core was very troubling to me.  Jesus surrounded himself by the "not good enoughs" and they went out to reach the marginalized and the hurting and the ignored and the honest questioning people who were also "not good enoughs".  How could I reach out to the people who Jesus reached out to with a bunch of people who had the same ingrained bad habits I did and were as out of touch with the world as I was?  To have some of my bad habits broken, I had to go through a personal little "deprogramming" session that took many months and happened one on one.  It just seemed to make more sense to me to strike out with a bunch of people who were in the margins and fed up with churches and say,"hey! let’s chase after the kingdom together!"  So that is exactly what I did.  My planter support group was not offering me core volunteers and yet I had to find them.  So I got them from bars and blogs and bowling alleys and was very careful (though honest) about what I said about my "core".  My core also had some seasoned vets of the faith who are very good people with genuine hearts.  But ya know what?  None of those people are here anymore.  There was not enough offered for them and they needed to be "fed" and they went on to places that could better offer them what they were looking for.  I bear them no ill will and knew from day one that this was not what they were ready for and what they needed.  I tried to tell them what we were chasing as honestly as I could.  

Over the last year since our "launch", the true core I knew was out there developed.  Most of the pre start faces are seen no more and a new batch of people have emerged.  They are honest, raw, rough around the edges, and are beautiful.  They have taken early steps into discipleship and mission without knowing the words for it and they are trying to get others to walk in this journey with them without knowing the subculture and the Christian folkways and mores.  They do not have money, they do not have power, most of them are under 25, and their lives are messy…but they know what is important and they get the core aspects of this journey (the kingdom of God, mission, and the great commission to name a few) more than most Christians I know who have been in the individualistically based faith subculture for years and years.  

As opposed to having a seasoned core that would then decide what others needed and and formulating an offering for them, we spent this year letting the wheat and the chaff sift itself out and becoming a community with a small group of people who know what they identity IS as opposed to what we hope it to be.  They are now ready to invite others into this journey with them.   I went to the beach and asked some people to drop their net and take a journey with me as opposed to the synagogue.  The beaches and the bars and the streets are where we find the people of the beatitudes, also known as the salt of the earth. 

I think that anyone who has read this blog a few times can guess that I am not too hip on the takeover of business in the church.  I think this is especially prevalent in the church planting racket.  We have developed management training, marketing arks, business strategies and whole bunch of other stuff based on corporate America.  As I have said many a time, if imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, then the church is proving itself to be very enamored by corporate America.  Hell, we kiss corporate America’s ass and have made marketing and strategic planning our idols.  The funny part is, our current economy, the recent Wall Street Crash, the housing crisis, and the over ten percent unemployment figures should tell us that the emporor of consumerism and business strategy has no clothes.  But here we are, using a failed tools, tests, and methods and assigning God to them. 

Though my first beef is not closely related to business strategy, it is related.  In starting churches it is standard practice to have a core group.  As an emerging missional guy, this is a hard one to swallow.  The need for "mature" christians to sit in a room and plot and plan how we are going to bring in and attract real people who are outside the church.  The problem is, that the "converted" know how to reach the other "converted" and you often end up with consumer Christians looking for the latest music, kids programs, and other stuff that does not matter.  Well, it does not matter to those outside the church, but it matters for the consumer Christian.  The problem is that you end up being beholden to these people and you end up performing so much maintenance to keep them happy that you never really do get to fulfilling the mission.  Let me give you an example.  I was once talking to a planter who was getting ready to start a church in a city with needs.  This city has two sides to it.  One side is affluent and the other side is poor.  He claims to be missional, and when he talks about the city’s needs he always talks about the poor side.  So, I asked him, why start on the affluent side when the need is on the poor side?  He said he would leverage the affluence of the rich side to one day make a greater impact on the side with immediate need.  Do you kind of see my problem?  How many years will this take and how many people will he have to appease while people lose homes, live in fear of violence and street gangs, and suffer abuse and marginalization?  What of the needs of the wealthy side?  Rich people have hurts too.  He will spend so much time administering to them with his sensitive and caring nature that he will only have token efforts to the hurting that serve mainly to make the wealthy feel good.  It is backwards…people like Shane Claiborn and  Mother Teresa just go to where the need they claim to have a heart for and do it with what little you have and let God guide the way. 

Now, I realized I strayed, but I just thought of an analogy with my problem of the core group stuff. Imagine Jesus, instead of grabbing his motley crew of fishermen, women, tax collectors, and so forth to change the world and start this movement, he had gone with the core group principle.  He would have to take some mature Jews who know the law…so….maybe a core group of Pharisees and Sadducees.  They would all then sit in regularly scheduled meetings and discuss rationally how they are going to reach the hookers, the centurions, the lepers, and all the rest of the people that they have proved themselves to be painfully out of touch with.  They would also need to work on fund raising, financial viabilities, find some space to rent, and create an awareness marketing campaign.  Then, and only then, would they be ready for a first service and invite everyone-who already does not trust them-to come and see this wonderful new event.

Now that we are almost a year old and it is evident that I have nothing to lose since no one is offering us anything and we are bastard children not getting child support, I may as well discuss openly what I think is a different, and valid way to try things. What I am about to suggest in my next entry is not a better way per se, but it is a different way.  When you hear me speak against different mindsets, please understand that I am not speaking AGAINST anyone or trying to vilify, I am trying to grow out of that.  I am expressing some frustration that I never had the opportunity to be openly different and instead had to test the waters and strike out on my own in what has proved to be a very lonely journey.  Mostly, I am expressing facts as seen through the lense of my existence.  Try not to hold it against me.  There will be a part two to this coming along shortly, I just did not want to make this entry too long. 

YASO is one of those exciting things I have not been talking about, but I should have been.  It pretty much found it’s humble birth at the beginning of the new year.  It was an idea that has been rumbling around in my head and heart since I started volunteering at Coffeehouse.  For those of you who are new to the blog, ***Background Alert***Coffeehouse is a youth out reach I volunteer at.  The point of Coffeehouse is to give kids a chance to have fun on a Friday night without drugs, sex, beer or danger.  It is a different theme every week.  One Friday it is karaoke, the next dance night, the next open mic, then local band concert night.    We meet on the same space they do and the space (and coffeehouse) are owned by the First Congregational Church of Lockport.***End Background Alert***  The idea was to simply dig deeper into the lives of these teens and young adults and get them to talk and get them to act.  I have told a few people in leadership at the Coffeehouse that I think there is a lot more to these "kids" than meets the eye.  Something that we can learn a lesson from and grow from and the community could be enriched by.  Some agreed and the Coffeehouse actually used to intermingle some ministry into the formula, but nothing in the coffeehouse really changed.  Now, understand, I am NOT slamming coffeehouse.  Their mission is fulfilled every week when kids come.  The kids have something to do of Fridays in a safe environment. 

I thought about it and prayed about it and wrestled with it and I finally told some of the younger people in my circle about the core of my idea and asked them to give it a name, a symbol, and then we  invite some of the coffeehouse kids to sit in a room while I pitch the vision and let them tell me what they do and do not like.  It needs to be theirs and they need to help me form it.  The name was chosen by Dana who decreed it YASO (to speak out and it is also an acronym for Young Adults Speaking Out). The first meeting was a chilly Friday night in January. 

The first part was the Thursday night meeting with some of the youg adult volunteers who wanted to help. This one was fun but it gave us as leaders and volunteers a chance to get to the core of things. The fun part was I was surrounded my a group of people who were just as irreverent as I am. We compared this vision to Fight Club and Vegas and Avenue Q and Jesus all rolled up together.

On a serious vein we talked about the hindrances some may be having about coming. It came down to two things…trust and knowing that this is not coffeehouse. The trust thing comes in time. Coffeehouse is for fun, but the kids feel the rules are too restrictive to allow them to be themselves, they perceive there to be an inner circle, and there is a double standard and trust there has been violated by others. The irony here is that the Coffeehouse has been my bridge to their trust and it was also the thing I had to distance myself from in 24 hours. But we also needed to make sure we did it in a positive way as opposed to a negative fashion because to discourage them from cofffeehouse would be wrong.

Then we talked about the order. Our proposal was chilling for about half an hour with pizza and pop, do the talk, end with my Christian perspective, then close and offer those who want to stay and talk or pray the opportunity. For this first one though…we just tell them all this and get their feedback.

Then we closed with discussion on how many pizzas to buy. I said ten, Dana said five….I bought 6.

The second part was the meeting itself. I ordered the pizzas, set up 2 tables, and then moved chairs around the tables. 3 of the young adults who offered to help showed up and one of them (Dana)  simply said, “this is not what I pictured.” So I told her to set it up however she wanted to, grabbed one of the other people with her and went to pick up the pizzas. When we came back, the large tables were gone and replaced with a big ol circle of chairs and some small card tables surrounding the circle. 7 PM hit and we had maybe 6 kids and I am cool….7:15 hits and we are more than 20. Twice during the evening we had to break out more chairs to expand the circle.

I opened up first telling them about me and my suffering abuse as a child and my perspective as a parent who does not hit. Some of the other adults shared as well. This was the first salvo. We cannot have them trust us if we do not show some vulnerability. We opened it up for discussion in the circle. They do not want to discuss porn…cool. They fear the day when trust gets broken. I told them that I cannot promise it would never get broken, but in the meantime, let’s build as strong a community as possible until that dark day comes so we can weather the storm. Then came the close at about 8:30 for this first one and not one person left until ten. There was laughter, misty eyes, and many other things. In essence there was sharing and bonding in a palatable honesty. No one has a crystal ball, but the beginning looks promising.

Third part. A troubled young man with a reputation walking up the path. I saw him in the distance and I thought…nah, couldn’t be him…then others looked and there was a silence. Some kids left and two remained to greet him in the parking lot. He was hugged and brought in to the room with me and a pastor buddy. I won’t disclose what was said in the room. But it was intimate, honest, and gut wrenching. The next day, his mother put him in an institution for rehab. She was there with his pastor and his friends to hold the hand of a young and angry and scared young man. 

Final part for this first installment.  The kids, while sitting in the circle that first night on the ninth of Jan told me that they not only wanted the help of YASO, but they wanted to be an integral part of the solution.  They wanted to not just have the over 30 crowd talk to the kids, but the under 30 crowd as well.  Them.  Peers talking to peers and changing each others lives with the simple act of listening, loving, and breaching the lonelyness that pervades all our lives and makes us feel isolated and disconnected.  When I asked how many really felt this way…16 raised their hands.  I was moved and I was touched and an idea was starting to take form and shape and be put into practice.  More to come.  

I struggled a bit with what to write next…soooooo…I stopped writing.  A little over a year ago it got in my head to start a church and I thought God may have put this idea there.  So this chronicled the good, bad, and ugly of how we got there with a few temper tantrums along the way that seemed to have provided mass entertainment. But then what?  After that first service I was in figuring it out mode.  So my writing was getting stale and my thoughts were overly pragmatic.  No, that is not true, my thoughts were very deep.  It’s just they were so deep that I had no idea how to get them out.  So all that would come out as I tried to write was xx people came today and tithed $xxx and they liked my sermon and the music was okay.  And while that is factual, it is not very helpful…..or interesting. 

Truth is, I started trying too hard.  I also found myself caught in traps that I was claiming to be raging against.  The worship area looked like a stage and I hit behind the security and comfort of a mic.  I used notes to refer from and did everything in three little points.  I worried too hard about the music being something people would sing along with.  I struggled with communion.  It became a miniaturized version of what most small evangelical church plants are.  In practice, I really had no idea WHAT I was doing and I had more seasoned pastors nodding and smiling as if I learned some life lesson and now I was one of them raging into the machine of conformity and claiming to talk about a rebel and radical Jesus while knowing inside I was blowing this.  But I was not merely blowing MY vision.  I was blowing the renewing that was given to me in my heart by God and confirmed by men and women of action in their faith who lived and wrote about this stuff.  Bonhoeffer, Assisi, Wright,  Theresa, Mandella, McLaren, and some guy named Jesus of Nazereth. 

Over a year of planning and praying and dreaming about movements only to find that the establishment still co opted my practice.  This was not the Jesus of the Gospels, this was the Jesus of the movies with the glazed look on his face, monotone voice, and feathered hair.  This was the Jesus of the WWJD brigade who have carefully stuffed God in a box and gave us permission to be Pharisees again.  I quote David Byrne when I cry out, "My God…what have I become?"  

So, in usual Pat Green fashion I sung the pendulum to the other extreme and had me a sermon where I essentially said, "Hey, ya know that ?  I can’t be that pastor guy you see in consumer church and here are some quotes from the purpose driven church book and why they suck."  Did you know flipping the bird verbally to the establishment who some people see value in does not warm people up to you as well as Jesus like behavior does (now Jesus did go after the system and the pharisees, but it was all in balance).  Insulting systems and establishments does not a movement make.  I am hearing Dan Kimball and Jay Bakker and others saying the same thing, but I did not listen for a spell.

Life seems to forever intertwine great beauty hidden in the midst of confusion.  Some of natures examples are pearls erupting from irritation, a yellow rose in the middle of a desert, and the giggle of a toddler in the middle of a hell called haiti who is too busy spinning in circles to know he is poor and destined for a life of pain and struggle. While I allowed vision to languish in the sea of pragmatic delight, birth was being given to something that would force me to dip deeper into the well of idealism and hope more than ever before.  A youth outreach with more beauty and God in it than anything I have ever seen in my life.  There are no books written that describe what is going on here, no formula, no nothing.  Yet, it is working better than anything I have ever seen in Christiandom.  I would like to say that I am an evil genius, but the truth is, I feel like I am just the guy who picks up the pizza and sets up chairs.  I am humbled, scared, and renewed and these moments of beauty have allowed me to put into practice what has been in my heart.  When you have a dream that is bigger than you, it can be intimidating, but when you start to live that dream and taste it, things start to click.

In a matter of weeks, stadium seating became a semi circle, microphone and a podium got replaced with a chair, notes are no longer needed, intimacy abounds.  As far as the music, I am being most literal when I say that Savage Garden and The Black Eyed Peas have become worship music that people sing along to.

In future entries (coming SOON, I promise), I am gonna tell you about a vision called YASO and the kids within it.

A little nugget for you.  6 years ago a 13 year old girl tried to get me to come to coffeehouse on ninth street.  4 years later I finally went and the road to ministry began. I tried to start a church in Bolingbrook and I ended up back in that building on ninth.  I tried to start a church for single moms and homeless people, and the kids on ninth cried out in the darkness.  Turns out it begins with them and it began with them.  

I should have posted this weeks ago.  Banks.  So yeah, we got a bank account so that way when people write checks we can deposit them. Shop around on this one.

I was naive enough to think I could just walk into the bank with he lion as the symbol.  Why did I choose that one?  Well, they have a location down the street from me, down the street from where we meet and down the street from my treasurer.  How convenient is that?

Well, we went in there with all our paperwork and an initial deposit of $500.  Ready to sign up.  The bank manager sat us down and gave us an option with 250 free transactions per month and oodles of goodies and low fees and then when we are about to sign up he looks at us and asks,"So are just a church group or a full church?"

"We are a church," I replied.

"Oh, we cannot give you this one."

"Why?"

"Um, we got a memo about churches."

"So what can I get?"

"Um….this model here." He then shows me one for larger companies that has no free transactions, and higher monthly fees.

"But can other 501c3’s that are incorporated use the other one you just spent ten minutes showing me?"

"Yeah"

"But how come churches cannot?"

"We got a memo.  Not really sure why."

"Ah, very well.  So assuming we wanted to get this account here and pay you to let us have an account here…what do we do next?"

"I will need your drivers license and social security cards and $10 from each of you so we can run a credit check.  For churches you need to have a credit rating from every signer of at least 580 to have an account."

"Huh?  Why is that?"

"We got a memo."

"May I see this magic memo you speak so often of?"

"No."

"Have a nice day, we are going somewhere else."

So, 2 banks later we ended up choosing a bank we were comfortable with and had a reasonable fee structure.  It all came down to fees and friendliness at that point.  At none of the other banks were there mysterious memos and strange requests.  We were treated as any other small not for profit.  Shop around before you walk into the bank.

In week 2 of this madcap journey of starting a church I had to preach 3 services.  This is getting to be a habit.  Next week I am preaching 2 services.  Only one is my community, but the other communities are nice.

Anyway, the first service was a very liturgical service and it was fun to wear the stole for my UCC neighbors and preach and serve them their communion, the second service was a contemporary one and having cut my teeth in evangelical culture, it was like wearing an old shoe.  But then came the third service.  

It was a pot luck.  No music, no program, no order of service.  Just people eating food and getting to know each other.  Then, after a point, I broke out the elements of communion and explained that communion happens during a meal and that when Jesus told us to do this in remembrance of him, perhaps it was more than a bit of bread and wine…maybe we are God’s hands and feet and maybe we need to find ways to be broken and poured for each other and others in this new humanity we embrace.  It was a moment filled with beauty and love and a young man nicknamed curly with facial piercings and baggy pants said it best.  It was like the beginning fo family and less like church and more like sitting around a camp fire.  What curly grasped is what community should be and I learned something from his perspective and unbridled enthusiasm by what he saw and felt that day.

Among other things, I am a fan of a little known show called Firefly. 

The lyrics from my fav show go like this:

Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don’t care, I’m still free
You can’t take the sky from me.

And you can’t take the sky from me.

If you follow the show and get to know the characters, you learn that this song reflects well a batch of downtrodden people living life on the ragged edge together despite hurdles, trials, and past horrors.  

Today, this reflects my mood on things.  For those not in the know due to my long silence here is where we stand.  In the numbers side we are averaging about 25 a week, and they are giving enough for us to make our expenses and help a few people.  And help we are doing.  4 boxes of clothing went to a homeless shelter run by a friend of mine.  This friend  does not get a lot of support even in the time of the holidays.  Everyone knows about the Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, Operation Christmas and so forth.  But a little group of people offering transitional housing to homeless couples and homeless with children in a small suburb?  Not so much.  Since this is transitional housing and not a nightly shelter, they get to know and develop relationships with the  people that stay in the house with them.  So Pastor Justin updates us on the stories of someone who has gotten a nice coat for the first time in years, a few changes of clothes, toys for their kids, and even a new toothbrush (you can pack a lot in 4 moving boxes).  This week, a small team of folks are out Christmas shopping for a family we know (that does not attend our church, but that does not matter).  In this family you have mom and dad and 3 kids.  Mom is five years younger than me and has cancer.  Mom is losing the battle and it has been an expensive one.  They do the best they can to pay the bills.  Christmas is not gonna be merry for this family.  So, for one day, they will be showered with presents, have dinner bought for them, and more importantly…know they are loved.  One day where life is not dark and scary.  In a life where every day matters and is a gift, that one day can mean a lot.  

Now, I know that there are other communities and bodies that do a lot more than we do and I also know they are doing them to reach more people.  But bear with me.

Underneath it all is a spirit.  As these people who only met a few scant weeks ago catch this fire in my belly of mercy and justice and love, they are doing it for and to each other.  I am seeing a couple in our group touched by others as they find hope in the wake of an expensive civil court battle they lost.  They are not asking where is God because, even though they are down, they are showered with love and friends who are reminding them that-for better or for worse-it is over.  There are young adults who come because one of their friends from the Rocky Horror Picture Show crew sings and sets up for us.  They come and look at me and say,"I’ve not been to a church or sermon in ten years that I have liked.  I gave up on religion.  I like this.  This means something.  What can I do to help change the world?"  Now, maybe I should brag about conversions and alter calls to be a good little evangelical.  But a prayer at an alter is, at best, the beginning of awareness of a different journey.  End of the day, love needs to be felt and experienced before it can be explained.  This is not love with a hook, this is unconditional and real and of people’s own volition, they are willing to help each other and love each other and explore this thing a little deeper.  

New churches springing up are not doing as well as they used to.  But the magic number of outside support seems to be 20-30k a year.  We have zero financial support, extremely limited (but VERY appreciative) offers of support for things like use of a copier and dirt cheap rent, and to my knowledge, not a whole lot of peeps from other places that helped us morally on this journey roll up sleeves.  By all accounts and all statistics, bastard children like us should not have a prayer or statistical shot.  But here we are, in the black, shining a light and no one can take the sky from me.  

Me?  I am willing to die for this cause, these people, and this idea.  This journey for love consumes me and God has shown himself to us in the strangest of ways and with the little things that, if we are not paying attention, we just might miss.   

Before I go another step further.  I am a Jesus Christ Superstar junkie.

Tell me what happened is a question I have been getting from so many people today and it is hard to encapsulate it all.   From two fronts I have this.  Why should you want to know (hee hee hee) and how do you describe something you do not completely understand?  I’m not sure.  I can give blow by blow, feelings, or something else entirely.

Okay, for the volume people.  We had 25 people.  Mostly couples in their mid 30’s to 40’s.  I could have had some more college age people…but hey.  It’s all good.

Now for the spirit of the vibe folk.  Children giggling and impossible to contain socializing before and after "service".  Service was in quotes because I consider that to be a part of service.  The most important part.  People were like family…well..many of them seem to BE family (literally) or they have known each other a few decades.  I love it!

Now for the play by play peeps.  Okay, set up was a breeze.  People came. Tony kept reminding me that no matter how many people we get it is all good. Dana had Cameron as her guitarist not show.  Ace from the north burbs came with his crew of Allison and Cassie and Ace grabbed Jens guitar and played the song (Down in Flames) so Dana could sing her heart out.  Sing she did.  Mario sang his heart out as well.  WOW!  Jen and Dana led worship and it was simple and good.  Then I preached.  I preached from Amos and Isaiah and Matthew and spoke about all the stuff I speak about here.  Can I be honest for a moment?  I am still not comfortable preaching…I just like talking.  This first service I had to an MC…it will be sooo nice to not have to do that and to have more opportunity for interaction in future services…but this service….well…I had to set the tone of what we are, are not, and what we want to be.  It was a good day.  We were there about 4 hours.

After service I had to visit two coffeehouse kids in the hospital.  One has a lung in serious jeopardy and the other has mystery pain.   But…you do not get to preach Mt 25 and think your gonna get away with anything less.  I would have loved to have bought some people lunch, but I had to go be with the kids. 

Overall, it was a good first day and the beginning of something that I hope is good.