Servelloism

Its funny how much you can change in a short time. You might think i’m talking about the guy in the picture and i am partly. Meet Tom. One of our best interns in our church ( our church does a nine month internship similar to Masters commissions.) Tom has come a long way from the person we let in on a probationary status in the begining of the year. But Tom’s story is just as much about a change in us as it is in him.

After we did Purpose Driven Life at our church. One of the results is we became more focused on the Lost and more focused on the things that are really important. It was a values shift…not a doing a way of values…but a clarification and a priority of values. To get more pointed. When Tom first came to church he had multiple piercings and as you can see he has many, many, many…did i say many…tatoos, close to 10,000 dollars worth. He didnt wear a suit to church on sunday, or kahkis and a button down shirt, not even dressy jeans and a cool shirt from nordstrom. No he came just as he was, and we accepted him just as he was. We mad a priority of the inward things and didnt focus on the outward. We talked about purity versus impurity and bitterness versus forgiveness. Never making clothes or the outward an issue. I used to be big on outward stuff…mostly becuase of the “church culture” i grew up in, but now i am way more concerned with the inward. I have repented many times for my Religiosity. Is worldliness really about clothing, music, or movies? or is it about submission versus rebelion, or anger and bitterness versus forgiveness, or kindness versus cruelty, or purity versus impurity. Anyways i have a point in all this rambeling.

Last Sunday I was moved to the point of tears after our weekend service. As is my custom I am always one of the last people to leave church. AS I was getting into my car I saw a young couple in their mid to late twenties coming out of church. I had never met them before, and because they were there so late, I got out of my Car and introduced myself. I asked them where they were from and how they came to our church. He bean to tell me his story. He was in a hospital ward when a person he knew came to visit him…it was Tom. He hadn’t seen Tom in a while and was wondering why he would come to see him. Tom shared his testimony with him and a few days later he gave his life to the Lord. He told me when Tom was talking to him he thought…”If God could do it for Tom he could do it for me.” He then explained he wasn’t perfect but he wanted to do what was right. He told me of how he was a skinhead and a pagan and how he had given his life to Jesus. As listened to his story I wondered what would have happened if Tom showed up in the typical “Christian” dress what would have been this guys immediate reaction…Instead he was able to see something beyond clothes…a changed life. He saw where there was despair that now there was peace. Where there was bitterness now there was forgiveness. Where the was hopelessness now there was hope. He saw that if God could work in Tom He could work in him. My hope is that God would help us put a priority on the right things. As things progress in culture I believe I need to be clearer on what is important. It’s not the outward. It’s the inward.

Tom has brought more people to church in the last year than probably older Christians have brought to church in their entire church experience. Sadly, including myself. I’m not criticizing them or me, I think the church and what we have taught and who we have been is more to blame. We have preached the come out and be separate and made it about superficial things rather than the things of substance it should have been. I keep encouraging Tom to reach out to those people who would never listen to me and when they come to church I pray they experience a wide variety of people who aren’t distinguished by the clothes they wear, the music they like, or the movies they watch, but by the universal principles of Love, Forgiveness, Acceptance, and Purity etc that should be what the church is all about.

As far as Tom is concerned, I wish I had a hundred interns just like him.

Today I took my Dog to Cornell in Ithica, NY. I have been taking my dog Bailey to Cornell now for, I think, three years. She had a genetic defect in her eye that is common in Terriers called lens luxation. Once every three months i make a drive almost two hours to take my dog to probably the best animal hospital in the world…Cornell (small animal) Veterinary Hospital. Quite frankly i wish the people hospitals in Utica were as advanced as this one. She’s worth it…she’s a star. My Dog is the middle dog in the picture. She was just a puppy when she had the opportunity to be a model for Coach leather. The big Jack Russell is Eddie from the show Frazier. She was all over the world in one of Coach’s campaigns. She was on billboards and subways, and posters in department stores. Needless to say, I love my Jack Russell.

Which brings up an interesting point that I thought i would post today. I’ve never heard anybody ever teach anything on what the Bible says about animals. I think it’s interesting when you go through the Bible how much God has to say about the treatment of animals. Check these out for your interest. By the way I talked about this at my church as part of a message i did on Great Questions and got a standing ovation.

1. Part of Simeon and Levi missing their blessing from their father was attributed to their cruelty to animals. (Genesis 49:5-7) they were considered violent men and that violence manifested itself in cruelty to animals. It’s interesting that today Psychologists tell us kids who abuse animals should are the marks of serious issues.

2. Bet You didn’t know the Bible had anything to say about Strays
Ex. 23:4-5 “If you come upon your enemy’s ox or donkey that has strayed away, take it back to its owner. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you struggling beneath a heavy load, do not walk by. Instead, stop and offer to help.
Interesting, that’s your enemies animal!

3. It’s interesting that when God judges a land he considers the animals as well as the people. Don’t think so…Look what God said to Jonah about the destruction of Ninevah.
Jonah 4:11 But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”

4. Look what Jesus revealed about the Father and his watching of animals.
Matt. 10:29-31 Not even a sparrow, worth only half a penny, can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to him than a whole flock of sparrows. Does God really know how many goldfish died today? And he cares?

This is no lie…When i read this passage at my Sunday morning service a sparrow came to the front window of the church and persisted to try to get in for at least a solid 3 minutes…I couldnt have scripted this.

I end with one more passage
Prov. 12:10 The godly are concerned for the welfare of their animals, but even the kindness of the wicked is cruel.

I bet everyone has heard of PETA but I’m sure no one has heard of JETA (Jesus for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).

I think its important for the church to address the issues that are facing society today. God has a lot to say about how we treat our animals, its sad that in America where it is such a popular topic it has never been addressed…because when its not people get out of control We start saving the Dolphins and killing the children. God lets us hunt but when does it get out of hand? Does he have anything to say about it? just a clue(Deut. 22:6-7 )

My friend told me of an article he read where a man was talking about where he saw a post for a reminder of the fine for killing an endangered species of bird and also the potential consequence and right next to it was a sign for an abortion clinic. I love my Dog but in the words of Jesus…God cares about animals but we (human beings) are more valuable than animals. TO end I think the bottom line application wise for us is…Creation should know we are Christians by the way we treat it. This includes the environment by the way….

I want to do a couple of posts as to why i respect Bill Hybels so much, but im waiting on some video to show you what i mean rather than just telling you.

I thought it would be good to talk about Bernie MAc some more. That whole statement he said…”You see, its not about God.” That is huge. I used to think if people didnt like my church…or more pointedly if they didnt like the way we did church it was because they were hopelessly lost. I began to change when i did a Purpose Driven Life group in my neighborhood. My wife and I passed out PD books in our neighborhood, 22-23 in all, and we had about 13 people show up at a PD small group we did. I had about 8-9 people come to my group from varying religious backgrounds…most of which dont attend church on a regular basis. I found they were very open to Jesus and what He said to them on how to live their lives. I even saw some of them cry as they accepted Jesus as rick warren led the prayer at the end of the video. Then it occured to me…”its not about God”…truely it is about the style and how we present it. Im not talking about compromise im simply talking about how we do what we do. Purpose driven life changed my wife and I…we have found ourselves reaching out a whole lot more. This past Christmas we had a “christmas party” at our house for our neighbors we had a grat time…and the more i talk with people who dont know Christ the more I have come to the conviction the “its not about God” its about the WAY we do church…that, by the way, I believe Jesus would willingly change in a NY second to reach these people.

Today is Mothers Day. Happy Mothers Day to all the Mothers out there.

We had Keri Wyatt Kent speak at our church as part of our overall strategic plan to take advantage of holidays and make church services more memorable. She did a great Job. She was real, down to earth, relevant, and funny. Simply stated she was refreshing. I loved her points and i know every Mom in the room felt like they had someone who understood what they went through or ARE going through! At the same time she offered them practical advice about motherhood and how to grow grow spiritually in the process. What is great is as a man and husband i felt equipped to do a better job.

What I liked most about Keri were the undertones of the message. Those undertones would be the things we are striving for at mount zion…Evangleism, Community, and discovery and use of spiritual gifts. Excellent!!! I cannot say enough good things about her.

ASSIMILATION

There is a lot of talk about “shutting the back door” in church. In my opinion, the problem is not the back door…the problem is the house. Bernie Mac says, “i aint going back to that church that is the most boring church…”

Bernie Mac, “Dont get me wrong, nothing id’ rather have than a long term commitment with the Lord at ANY CHURCH, but with this church id rather have a one night stand…” Profound..

Then the end…Great Stuff

Uncle Bernie Don’t we love GOd…Bernie Responds…”its not about GOd baby, see the thing its not about God, the service takes forever. If i knew a church that had shorter time…Baby i would take you to church right now.” “its not about GOD”, again, Profound.

Then Bernie Mac’s dream…He wakes up from what he has as a dream of church. Is his Dream really just that a Dream or is do the unchurched have a ligitimate gripe with the modern day church? just a question. Anybody want to answer?

Questions…
Is it compromise to have shorter church services?
Is it compromise to be strategic in what you want to be conviciting about?

Bernie Mac Comes To Church - What i’d to call our maybe one shot at the unchurched. What Do they experience. Again, what a Caricature…
1. Services that are too long (2 long songs later, 10 short ones later).
2. The “longness” is filled with a lot of unnessesary junk (long announcemnts, etc)
3. Being offensive on things Jesus wouldnt be offensive about. A church needs to be clear what it should be offensve about. in my opinion it should only be the message of the gospel.(”the original King?… have you ever fed a multitude..)
4. A difference in expectations on experiences between the church and the unchurched. (Relevance, childrens ministry, value of time.)

The whole idea of “Bernie Mac Day” is classic. Again, a caricature of people’s day off. The unchurched are working people who look forward to their weekends, their time is extremly valuable to them even if that does mean doing nothing but sitting in a chair and taking in a game or even taking a nap. People come to church for all sorts of reasons but the main reason is they believe the church can help them with their personal lives. This belief will motivate them to them to do something different with their Sunday or Saturday night. I think it is intereting that Bernie Mac decieds to come to chruch and give up “Bernie Mac Day” because he wants his kids to be trained. In the next post I want to discuss what happens when he comes to church…that will be interesting and I would appreciate your comments.

I would apprecite any commnets on the video.

Its always interesting to see the perspectives of those who come to church for the first time. I thought it would be interesting to look through the eyes of Bernie Mac. I had never seen the Bernie Mac show but on this day it had to be a “Godthing” as I caught it at the begining of the show and watched the whole thing. The title of this show was “saving Bernie Mac”.

When i was a kid ill never forget having my Caricature done by an artist at the mall. Caricature implies ludicrous exaggeration of the characteristic features of a subject. YOu may have seen these in political Cartoons. A politician may be defined by an exageration of facial featue like his nose or forhead or maybe even his belly. Although these videos I will be showing are not 1oo perent accurate representation they do offer a caricature of what happens in churches on a typical Sunday Morning.