No Perfect People Allowed

I thorougly enjoyed John Burkes ministry yesterday at the ‘No Perfect People Allowed’ conference.  John knows his stuff, he is a smart guy and he has a unique perspective on extending God’s grace to the most irreligious people especially the skeptics and the cynicals.

John inspired me last year to look at how Jesus confronts the Pharisees and religiosity that stops people from encountering God in personal authentic way.

I have never been to a conference before where a speaker asks so many questions. I like it. I think most conference speakers spoon feed peopel rather than getting them to think, because most of the time we know it but don’t think.

Here are some of the Johns questions:

Do I have non chrsitian friends who are becoming the church?

How well do we equip leaders to bridge to the culture?

Do we publicly tell stories of messy people finding faith, growth or healing?

How much do I priortize life-on-life community for myself?

How do we equip our leaders to live in authentic community?

Who are we investing into?

How can I better value developing multiplying leaders?

What systems, processes, or structures are needed to see life-on-life development multiply for years?

These are just afew of the many questions asked at the conference.

My mission this week, is to try and answer each of these questions with all honesty and action to follow.

Sunday Reflections

With great excitement I worshipped God, did a little dance with my 2 year old daughter at the front.

Did something different with our offering to encourage people to give as part of their worship not a collection. Dropped the offering containers for a box at the front. (fanx Misi)

The Servolution RAP was amazing…..wow!! those girls can rap!!! Still can’t believe that even the most introverted people can rap and rap well!! Thanks Guys, blessed with the initiative, creativity and passion to Serve. Yeah!! Servolution is coming!! 10 more days!!

Kicked off our new series at LifeChurch called RATED. During this series we will explore 4 Areas. REAL, RIGHT & RADICAL and RESCUE:

Real: where we are with God (admission)
Right: what do we do about it (repentance)
Radical: result of forgiveness – changed heart (living out christianity)
Rescue: Special Easter – evangelistic focus (Easter Sunday )

During the messages people rate themselves. 1 – poor, 2 – average, 3 – good

The purpose is to help move people from 1 & 2 to 3. Transformation – become more Christlike. Grow spiritually and deal with areas holding them back from where God wants them to be.

This inspiration for this series came after a round table talk with Bill Hybels last year when he openly shared with us the results of the REVEAL survey their church took. Got me thinking about where we are in our walk with God. I wrote down my convictions on that day.  ‘I want to be a REAL Christian who is planted in a REAL church, serving a REAL world, following the REAL Christ’

The title of my message on Sunday was ‘Getting real with God’

Must admit it wasn’t the most easiest sermon to preach.

One of our Core Values at LifeChurch is ‘Authenticity”. We want to produce Christ followers that are real not fake. Radical for God not Religious. Christ followers that are real with their struggles and issues. The good, the bad and the ugly. We do not want to produce FAKE Christians. In the time of Jesus they were called “Pharisees”.One of the main reason why people don’t come to church is because there are so many hypocrites at church.

Ok…. I better stop here. didn’t mean to preach a sermon……..

Blessings for today!!

Am I faking it?

Hearing about Michael Guglielmucci’s admission to faking his cancer illness made me stop and think. I thought about what is going on in his mind right now, his wife and family, and his church. The embarrassment is beyond words and the hurt is indescribable. He has hurt a lot of people especially those closest to him. Michael has been living a life of fraud, betrayal, lies, pretense, dishonesty…. for the last two years. All because he faked being sick. (in the last 2 years).

Since then I have been searching my own soul as a pastor, a leader, a husband, father and a Christian. Someone who claims to be in a relationship with Jesus for over 22 years. I have been asking myself lots of questions to check where I am in my relationship with God. May be I will post some of those questions later but here’s the BIG Question. Am I faking it?

1. Am I faking the whole Christian thing or am I in a growing, intimate, passionate relationship with Jesus. Am I faking loving God.
1. Am I faking loving people. Do I genuinely love the people I do life with, my family, my leaders, my church, etc…. Do I really love them or is it all fake?
2. Am I faking my relationship with my wife! Is she still the number one woman in my life (like what I said on our wedding day) or have I been faking the whole marriage thing for the last several years.

I heard Casey Treat said the other day that ‘the reason why so many Christian leaders fail is because leaders fail to do the basic Christian stuff’. That basic Christian stuff is praying, bible reading, soul searching, repenting, etc….

When our character is not in an authentic position in God, our ministry is a fake.