Thursday, May 15, 2008
Every time I hear Green Day’s American Idiot I feel like sneaking down to Washington DC under the cover of night and slitting George Bush’s tires.
The pent-up frustration...
The anti-war sentiment...
The weariness the American public feels right now...
The song seems to capture it all.
But it’s the punk band’s 9 minute Jesus of Suburbia that unsettles me more than any song on their latest album.
Even though most evangelical parents will never hear it played on their radio stations, Jesus of Suburbia is one of the most prophetic rebukes of lukewarm Christian faith delivered in years.
Jesus of Suburbia begins…
I'm the son of rage and love
The Jesus of Suburbia
From the bible of "none of the above"
On a steady diet of soda-pop and Ritalin
No one ever died for my sins in hell
As far as I can tell
At least the ones I got away with
Green Day follows in the footsteps of legendary punk bands like The Clash, The Ramones and The Sex Pistols, so you expect them to be anti-everything.
But there’s something deeper lurking behind the words: It’s the thoughts of grown-ups raised in homes sprinkled with a veneer of Christian sensibility – homes with just enough Jesus to keep them off drugs while growing up, but not enough to fully convert the self-centered suburban lifestyles of their parents.
Jesus veneer + unconverted lifestyles of parents = disciples of the Jesus of Suburbia
Their creed? Their statement of faith? Read below…
Everyone's so full of sh--
Born and raised by hypocrites
Hearts recycled but never saved
From the cradle to the grave
We are the kids of war and peace
From Anaheim to the Middle East
We are the stories and disciples
Of the Jesus of Suburbia
Land of Make Believe
And it don't believe in me
Land of Make Believe
And it don't believe
And I don't care!
I don't care
I don't care
I don't care
I don't care!
Every time I pick up a Christian book on parenting the author is quoting some George Barna quote about how we better hurry up and help our kids make a profession of faith before they turn 18 years of age, or we’ll lose them in adulthood.
That’s stupid.
If there’s any hurry, any rush, any sense of radical urgency, it should be to live out the real deal in front of our kids first.
Otherwise we can help them make a zilion professions of faith before 18 and they'll still end up singing right along with Green Day...
How To Raise Kids That Hate Christianity
Loving Joey’s Famous Philly Cheesesteaks
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Last fall our family went to the grand opening of a new sandwich shop in our area.
Fifteen minutes into our visit I said, “I give this place 12 months top and then they’ll turn it into a Yoga studio.”
The food was bland.
The people were mean.
The walls were empty.
I told Lisa, “If I were opening a sandwich shop I’d want to capture people’s imagination with the place – deck the place out with fun stuff. People go to sandwich shops to eat great food, at a great price, and have a little fun.”
Well, someone must have been listening in on my conversation, because on Saturday my family and I stumbled onto what could become our new favorite sandwich shop in the area: Joey’s Famous Philly Cheesesteaks in Phoenixville.
Everything was South Philly…
…Bright colors everywhere
…Autographed pictures of Philly sport’s team celebrities on the walls
…Rocky III playing on the TV
We loved the place.
The food was great -- authentic South Philly. Every time someone rang the bell on the counter the whole staff screamed “Yo!” To top it off they even had a kind elderly woman everyone affectionately called “Mom” serving the food.
The whole time I’m thinking, Church leaders should go to school on this place.
What made the place so great?
1. People were obviously having a blast doing what they were doing.
Everyone working at a new restaurant has fun on opening day. Have you ever noticed that? But 8 times out of 10 when you go back 3 months later people working behind the counter are so bored they’re ripping their eyeballs out. This place has been open for almost a year and they were still having fun.
2. It was authentic.
Customers kept coming in and talking about South Philly and what it was like “back in the day.” The place didn’t come across as if they adopted some cheesy “theme” to sell sandwiches.
3. They went over the top to serve us.
“Mom” saw that my youngest wasn’t eating her ham and cheese sandwich (because they had put Italian dressing and onions on it), so she came by, asked my daughter what she really wanted, and even though my daughter said “No! No! It’s fine!” she grabbed it from her, remade the sandwich and brought it back with a smile in under two minutes.
Dude, this is how to do a restaurant if you’re going to go into the restaurant biz.
It’s also a pretty good way to go about building a great church.
If you’re ever in Phoenixville and looking for a great meal at a good price, check ‘em out and let them what an awesome job they’re doing.
http://www.YoSteaks.com/
413 Schuylkill Rd.
Phoenixville, PA 19460
610-933-Yo44 (9644)
Have a favorite sandwich shop?
Neil Young’s Million-Dollar Question
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
The first time I saw Neil Young in concert was in Athens, Ohio, on the campus of Ohio University.
The place was going nuts – drunk college students running around with nothing but Confederate flags on; a huge plume of marijuana smoke lingering in the air; the uncomfortable feeling that something unexpected was about to happen.
And then without any fanfare an unlit figure slowly meandered on the stage, pulled up a stool, strummed his acoustic guitar, blew a couple times into his harmonica and jumped right into the first song…
I am a child, I'll last a while.
You can't conceive
of the pleasure in my smile.
For the next two and a half hours I sat mesmerized.
Since that cool fall evening in 1983 Neil Young has been a constant companion in the background of my life, encouraging me, disturbing me, and forever causing me to think.
There are a few reasons Neil’s music has had such a lasting impact on me:
1. He has coarse internal terrain.
2. He’s always had a passion for the marginalized.
3. I can sing better than he can! (Hey, I can admit the guy doesn't have an awesome voice!)
Surprisingly, Neil has always been distant from organized religion, a fact that has spurred a tremendous amount of internal dialog in my head over the years.
In a brief song titled Soldier, one that usually only surfaces when I hit the “shuffle songs” feature on my iPod, Neil asks a profound question:
Jesus, I saw you
Walkin' on the river
I don't believe you.
You can't deliver right away
I wonder why.
That question disturbed me for years. It wasn’t until recently that I finally wrestled it to the ground and wrote about it in Second Guessing God,
"We become impatient because we want our situation changed right now. We want a miracle—if not today, definitely this week. We’ll wait, but it better not take a month!
The book of Acts, for example, tells us the history of the birth and growth of the early church. It covers a span of more than thirty years. You would think that what was going on in those days was so important that God would be passing out miracles like a politician handing out campaign flyers. But he didn’t. What strikes me as I peruse Acts is not how many miracle stories I read, but how few.
Waiting on God’s timing can be frustrating, especially when we’re in the hospital lobby wondering about a loved one in surgery or we’re thumbing through the want ads. But God can see the big picture; therefore, he isn’t as concerned as we are with the short-term fix. Once we learn to accept this, we can develop a mystical kind of patience that asserts, “I can’t understand why this is happening, but I’m sure there’s a reason for it. I may find out tomorrow. I may find out twenty-five years from now. Or I may not find out until I die. But one day this will all make sense. Until it does, I’m going to relax and give this problem to God.”
Jesus, I saw you
I don't believe you.
You can't deliver right away
I wonder why.
Neil, thanks for asking the question.
Get Behind Me Foul Allergy Demons
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
The past two weeks have been horrible. My allergies are killing me.
Stuffy head. Scratchy eyes. Almost no voice left. Runny nose.
On Sunday I had two people come up to me and say that the secret to getting rid of allergies is snorting warm salt-water through my nose 2-3 times a day. Is that some old tale?
A chiropractor friend of mine says if I was adjusted on a regular basis they’d disappear.
Any suggestions?
I think I’ll try anything at this point! Salt water. Chiropractor. Converting to Zoroastrianism. Whatever works!
Brian
Don’t Censor Me _ _ _ Dammit
Monday, May 12, 2008
In September of 2005 Panic at the Disco released a song called “I write sins not tragedies.” Here are the first few lines…
I Write Sins Not Tragedies
Oh, well imagine; as I'm pacing the pews in a church corridor,
and I can't help but to hear, no I can't help but to hear an exchanging of words.
"What a beautiful wedding!, What a beautiful wedding!" says a bridesmaid to a waiter.
"Oh yes, but what a shame, what a shame, the poor groom's bride is a whore."
Well, I'd chime in with a "Haven't you people ever heard of closing the god damn door?!"
No, it's much better to face these kinds of things with a sense of poise and rationality.
I'd chime in "Haven't you people ever heard of closing the god damn door?!"
No, it's much better to face these kinds of things with a sense of.....
Honestly, the song’s kind of weird and there’s nothing inherently captivating about Panic at the Disco themselves. But what strikes me when I hear the song on the radio (versus when I hear it on my iPod) is the way it was edited for playtime over the airwaves.
If you read the lyrics you probably noticed that I Write Sins Not Tragedies contains a mildly offensive phrase by today's standards -- “God damn.” Evidently in 2005 the FCC wouldn’t allow a phrase like that to be aired, so the song’s producers were faced with a choice – which word would they edit?
The logical choice would have been to bleep the “damn” part of the phrase, but as anyone who has ever heard the song on the radio can attest, that’s not what they did.
They bleeped out “God.”
"Haven't you people ever heard of closing the BLEEP damn door?!" the song goes.
Every time I’m driving down the road and I hear the song I’m struck by the fact that we live in a culture that finds the word “God” more offensive word than the word “Damn.”
Why?
Spirituality is popular.
Finding meaning and higher consciousness is all the rage.
So why would the concept of God be a socially unfit topic of public discourse?
Here’s my take:
There are two basic rules upon which modern-day culture operates:
Rule #1: Everyone’s ideas, beliefs and lifestyles must be embraced, celebrated, and tolerated.
Rule #2: The only ideas, beliefs and lifestyles to be excluded from public discourse are those that keep us from obeying rule #1.
In America, when people say the word “God” 99.9% of the time it’s shorthand for Jesus.
Not coincidentally Jesus doesn’t give a rip about following Rule #1. Not in the least.
So Rule #2 comes into play.
Here's the un-censored video version of the song on YouTube. Unfortunately the FCC hasn't started censoring lousy video-making yet...
Shuffling God In My iPod
Monday, May 12, 2008
One of my favorite things to do when I’m relaxing is hit the “shuffle songs” feature on my iPod. The “shuffle songs” feature randomly plays songs from any artist, genre, and album that you’ve downloaded.
Since I’ve collected a sizeable number of songs over the years, almost 95% from non-Christian artists, two things inevitably happen when I do this:
1. “Shuffle songs” brings up some great songs I’ve simply ignored. Every album buries the “least marketable” tracks on the 9-10-11-and-12 line-up on the play list. But, as any artist will tell you, sometimes the most profound works of art were never created to have mass-market appeal. In fact, I’ve come to believe that the least marketable works always convey the real texture of an artist’s soul.
2. These songs always trigger challenging thoughts about God. Since the “buried” tracks are usually the ones surfaced by “shuffle songs,” I often find myself being drawn into the complex inner battles the artist was waging at a particular stage in his or her life. More times than not the enemy tends to look and sound like Jesus.
This week I’m going to ramble a bit about the ways some non-Christian songs have shuffled around thoughts in my head about Jesus and Christianity.
I’m not quite sure where this will head. But I guess that’s what I like best about shuffling songs on my iPod.
Are Homosexuals Born That Way? - Questions About Homosexuality (Part 5)
Friday, May 10, 2008
I have this friend who swears that if pastors tell the people in their churches that it is possible that people could be born gay…like…overnight churches will turn into Village People free-for-all orgies.
People will start wearing feather boas to Bible study. Sunday school teachers will start showing clips from Will & Grace re-runs to first graders. Ushers and parking lot attendants will Tivo Jay Leno just to catch a glimpse of “Ross the Intern.”
Utter pandemonium will break out.
“Brian,” he’s told me, “It’s like admitting to people that God made a mistake. People will take that as license to practice homosexuality. You can’t do that.”
Really?
I have lots of friends who are recovering alcoholics and I would venture to say that most of them struggle in part because of genetics – they were born that way.
None that I know, however, use that as an excuse to dive head-long into drunken stupors. Most alcoholics I know are brave, broken, and desperate to stay sober.
Will acknowledging the possibility that people could be born with homosexual tendencies change how God expects us to deal with homosexual behavior?
I don’t think so.
Do I personally think people could be born gay? I don’t know. I honestly don't know how one could conclusively prove such a thing.
It’s pretty clear most secular psychologists and biologists are convinced homosexual orientation is imprinted genetically at birth. And they have piles of studies and journals to back up their claims.
My reaction is simple: So what? How does that change anything?
It’s still sin.
It’s still something to be avoided.
Then hasn’t God tethered those with homosexual urges to a life of constant struggle?
Yep.
That's why I'm betting that those who come to Christ and refrain from acting out on homosexual urges could be one of the few groups of people in the body of Christ who feel the full brunt of James 1:2-5 on a daily basis.
And my heart goes out to them because of it.
Read all the posts in this series:
Questions About Homosexuality
What If We’re Misinterpreting The Bible?
My Greatest Struggle Right Now
Should An Openly Homosexual Person Be Baptized?
Gay First Impressions Ministry?
Are Homosexuals Born That Way?
Gay First Impressions Ministry? – Questions About Homosexuality (Part 4)
Friday, May 09, 2008
There’s a church in our area that is known for having their parking team “size visitors up” as soon as they exit from their car and radio in to their ushers the specific make-up of the people visiting.
New family with small kids? By the time that new family hits the front door greeters from the children’s ministry with small children in hand are there to welcome them and personally escort them to their classes.
In some respects I guess I applaud their commitment to make people feel welcome by having a similar type of person meet them at the door.
Unfortunately too many people have told me that when they visited this church there weren’t any…
…black people to welcome them…
…or single moms…
…or those who had been divorced…
I often wonder what would happen if two openly gay people visited their church.
In Second Guessing God I talked about how a few years ago our church in Philadelphia went through our first crisis: French-kissing homosexuals in the worship service.
One day after services a man in our church’s band approached me and said, “Dude, I just saw my first homosexual kiss!” I said, “Where?” He pointed to the auditorium and said they had been French kissing during the worship service.
I said, “Really? I didn’t see them.” I looked for other staff members, but they said they hadn’t witnessed it either. The next Sunday three people came up to me and said they had seen the same thing. This went on for weeks. It was like the homosexual version of “Where’s Waldo?” During the sermon I would slowly scan the audience looking for lip-locking visitors, but to no avail.
Eventually, for reasons I could never discover, our frisky friends left, but not before I received a nasty e-mail from a woman visiting from another church that saw the couple making out [the same church known for “sizing people up” and radioing in their “type” to their ushers]. She asked, “Is your church the kind of church that welcomes homosexuals?” That was a loaded question.
I e-mailed back and outlined our church’s belief that homosexuality, like all other sins, goes against what is clearly taught in the Bible. I also explained that we would welcome anyone, regardless of their background, to be a part of our church service, jokingly adding that we had a very strict policy against all French kissing during the service—homosexual or heterosexual.
I concluded my e-mail by saying, “I have to be honest; I was glad to hear that two homosexuals felt comfortable enough to attend our church services and weren’t scared away by the adulterers, pornographers, tax cheats, liars and other messed-up people in the seats around them.”
Since day one it’s been my prayer that CCV would be the kind of church that anyone could attend.
Gay. Straight. Young. Old. Poor. Rich. Married. Divorced. Black. White.
Everyone for whom Christ died – and I mean everyone – is welcome to come and hear the good news that God loves us…
…in spite of their sin
…in spite of their sexual orientation
…in spite of their addictions
…in spite of their skin color
…in spite of the size of their wallet
…in spite of anything that people judge other people by on the surface to keep them from hearing the life-changing message of Jesus.
Read all the posts in this series:
Questions About Homosexuality
What If We’re Misinterpreting The Bible?
My Greatest Struggle Right Now
Should An Openly Homosexual Person Be Baptized?
Gay First Impressions Ministry?
Are Homosexuals Born That Way?
Should An Openly Homosexual Person Be Baptized? – Questions About Homosexuality (Part 3)
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
In my previous post I mentioned that I was posed the following question by two homosexuals jointly raising a child,
“Which sin is greater: continuing with the way we choose to live our lives or having one of us move out and ripping apart the only home our son has ever known?”
Here’s what I said…
“Honestly, I don’t know. I’m not God. But even if I did have a strong opinion on the matter, I wouldn’t give it to you. Do you want to know why? Because my hunch is you’re not really looking for an answer as much as you are looking for a reason to leave this church and turn your back on God. Others pastors may have given you reason to do so, but I’m not going to follow suit. You’re here for a reason, and that’s to find your way back to God. Once you do that, He’ll be the one that will help you answer that question.”
Then I hugged them both.
In my mind two more important questions lurked behind the question they asked:
1. Will this pastor guy treat our sin any differently than the other searching non-believers in the Bible study that went home to continue to embezzle money for their employer, look at porn on their computers or abuse prescription drugs?
2. Can I really trust God?
The second question is probably the most important. It’s hard to fathom how hard it is for a struggling homosexual to darken the doors of a church building, let alone contemplate turning their lives over to a deity who is going to ask for radical, painful change. That takes a great leap of faith; probably more than most heterosexual people were required to exercise before they became Christians.
The real issue for me comes down to this: How can we expect any non-believer to truly have a heart for the ways of God BEFORE conversion?
Most pastors I know won’t baptize an openly homosexual person.
This is utter non-sense.
I understand there are varying theologies on conversion and baptism, but the one thing we can all agree on is that by the time someone has been baptized they’ve turned their life over to Jesus and have received the gift of the Holy Spirit (FYI -- at CCV we baptize immediately after someone's profession of faith...not once a year, etc.).
God in us.
Power.
Illumination.
An internal craving for the things of God.
A new mind.
A new heart.
This only happens post conversion.
How can we expect an openly homosexual person to even want to change their life without their minds and hearts being born again?
That’s like a doctor telling someone with radically spreading lymphoma to show signs of remission before he’ll give them chemo.
What we do here at CCV is allow anyone to make a declaration of faith and get baptized.
There’s no “sin litmus test.”
We don’t check to see if anyone is shacking up, or look for heroin tracks on their arms, or condoms in their back pockets. We assume that everyone is as screwed up as I was before I came to Christ.
Now, we make it clear before baptism that Jesus asks us to forsake everything that is out of line with his will expressed in the Bible, but we don’t stand at the baptismal with an exhaustive checklist in hand.
Afterwards, however, that’s when the work of discipleship begins – teaching people how to obey everything that Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:18-20). People must be taught how to obey following baptism, not before it.
That’s when the subject of someone’s specific sin comes up.
And not before.
Read all the posts in this series:
Questions About Homosexuality
What If We’re Misinterpreting The Bible?
My Greatest Struggle Right Now
Should An Openly Homosexual Person Be Baptized?
Gay First Impressions Ministry?
Are Homosexuals Born That Way?
Building Casas Por Christo
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
In a little over a week 30 people from CCV will head down to Juarez Mexico to build two homes for families in need.
Maria Albarado is a single mom with a 14 year old son named Jonathan. Together they live in a wooden shack in the slums of Juarez. She’s 39 years old and makes $70 a week.
Javier and Maria Velazquez and their three children -- Consuelo (20), Areli (10), and Itzel (5) -- live in a thrown together shanty no larger than the shed in the backyard of many Americans. He makes $75 a week for a family of five!
CCV’ers…because of your hard work, prayers and generosity Jesus is about to change their world.
Love God. Love each other. Love our world. That's what it's all about!
Man do I love the people of this church!
F.Y.I. -- Here’s a video of the trip we took last time. Expect another one in a few weeks.
My Greatest Struggle Right Now – Questions About Homosexuality (Part 2)
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
While I was serving as an associate pastor at a large church in Florida years ago two people approached me after Wednesday night Bible study.
“We’d like to become Christians,” they said with smiles on their faces.
“That’s great! Congratulations!”
“But we’re not going to stop being gay,” they quickly added. “Besides, we’ve been raising our 10 year old son together since he was born. We’re the only family he knows.”
I paused, and then gently said, “Are you familiar with what the Bible says about homosexual activity?”
“Yes. But we have a question for you. Which sin is greater: continuing with the way we choose to live our lives or having one of us move out and ripping apart the only home our son has ever known?”
How would you have answered that question?
Read all the posts in this series:
Questions About Homosexuality
What If We’re Misinterpreting The Bible?
My Greatest Struggle Right Now
Should An Openly Homosexual Person Be Baptized?
Gay First Impressions Ministry?
Are Homosexuals Born That Way?
What If We’re Misinterpreting The Bible? – Questions About Homosexuality (Part 1)
Monday, May 05, 2008
It’s clear that the writers of the New Testament saw nothing contradictory whatsoever between following Jesus and upholding the culture’s position on slavery.
There is no command, no teaching, not even a hint among the New Testament writers that slavery was an evil institution to be abolished.
Quite the contrary…
Slaves were encouraged to accept their lot in life…
1 Corinthians 7:20-23:
20 Each of you should remain in the situation you were in when God called you. 21 Were you a slave when you were called? Don't let it trouble you—although if you can gain your freedom, do so. 22 For those who were slaves when called to faith in the Lord are the Lord's freed people; similarly, those who were free when called are Christ's slaves. 23 You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings. 24 Brothers and sisters, all of you, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation in which God called you.
Slaves were taught to obey their masters in everything…
Titus 2:9-11
9 Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, 10 and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive. 11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age…
Slaves were taught to endure beatings joyfully…
1 Peter 2:18-21
18 Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. 19 For it is commendable if you bear up under the pain of unjust suffering because you are conscious of God. 20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
The entire witness of the New Testament leads us to one inescapable conclusion: God doesn’t have that big of a problem with slavery; otherwise the early church leaders would have gone ballistic over it.
150 years ago pastors used these very verses to justify slavery.
What if 150 years from now people look back on modern-day evangelicals and think the same thing about the way we view homosexuality?
Does the Bible give us unambiguous direction on the issue? Certainly. Homosexuality is a sin. No issue is any more clear in scripture.
But 150 years ago people used the unambiguous teaching of the Bible to justify their belief that slavery was okay.
150 years later we think, Who cares what the Bible teaches on slavery? It’s wrong. Not because of what the Bible teaches, but because of everything we know to be true about life as Christians.
Abolitionists fought against the evils of slavery in spite of what the Bible taught.
And they were right.
No Christian today denies that.
What if it’s the same situation with homosexuality?
I have unashamedly upheld the Bible’s teaching that homosexuality is a sin for 20 years of ministry. But what if 150 years from now Christians look back on me and think the same thing that we think about pastors who 150 years ago taught slavery was okay?
I haven’t changed my position in the least. I’m just asking the question.
Read all the posts in this series:
Questions About Homosexuality
What If We’re Misinterpreting The Bible?
My Greatest Struggle Right Now
Should An Openly Homosexual Person Be Baptized?
Gay First Impressions Ministry?
Are Homosexuals Born That Way?
Questions About Homosexuality
Monday, May 05, 2008
A few weeks ago I met a sharp business guy in our church for lunch who has been reluctant to buy into the whole Christianity thing.
He asked, “Do I have to believe that homosexuality is wrong to become a Christian?”
I get asked that a lot, along with a whole slew of questions about homosexuality that I’ve been reluctant to talk about publicly.
I’m thinking it’s time to open up that can of worms.
Read all the posts in this series:
Questions About Homosexuality
What If We’re Misinterpreting The Bible?
My Greatest Struggle Right Now
Should An Openly Homosexual Person Be Baptized?
Gay First Impressions Ministry?
Are Homosexuals Born That Way?
Should We Start A Saturday Night Service?
Friday, May 02, 2008
A while ago a pastor friend of mine in VA emailed me and asked my advice concerning whether or not I thought his church should start a Saturday night service. Lots of pastors routinely weigh whether or not this is a good move, and rightly so. Here’s what I told him:
Vince,
If you call me on my cell I can talk a lot faster than I can type, but in a nutshell here was our experience:
1. We surveyed pastors for one full year about Saturday night services and decided to launch one in December of 2005. We killed it in April of 06, four and a half months later.
2. The service was reaching 150 people (we ran 800+ in the other three), but 95% of them were CCV transfers from Sunday morning to Saturday night. Of those people who switched services well over 1/3 of them STILL came to Sunday morning.
3. We cast vision for one year, recruited a massive team of incredible volunteers to pull it off, and sunk $ into direct-mail and signs to advertise it. We gave it EVERYTHING WE HAD.
4. Everyone told us that if you are going to be successful you had to offer the IDENTICAL programs you offer on Sunday mornings, so we offered a full kid’s and teen program identical to our Sunday service. Everything was the same.
5. Personally I hated life more during the four months we did Saturday night services than any other time during our church's six year history. It robbed a day from my work week because we made Monday a mandatory day off. Saturdays with my family were gone. Over. Outta here. I had to cut out of everything at noon. That one service began to trap staff and volunteer families into the internal orbit of the church like a black hole. My personal evangelism began to suffer. We gave staff weekends off to compensate for their weekends being completely ripped off from them, but then we noticed a severe lack of continuity between programming and the overall quality of the services and kids' programs. Everything suffered: The quality of our programs; the morale of our staff and volunteers; my overall attitude toward the church.
6. If I had seen measurable data that showed the Saturday night service was a killer outreach venue I would have given it much, much longer to play out, but we couldn't see any progress toward that goal, so it became a HUGE relief to our staff when one day I stood up before everyone and said, "Guys, does anyone else besides me think this Saturday night service was a really stupid idea?"
7. The decision to launch a Saturday night service was one of my worst decisions made here at CCV. My decision to kill it was one of my best.
8. We have adopted Andy Stanley's philosophy here: Never, as long as we have other viable alternatives, will we ever have a Saturday night service. The value we have on caring for our staff and volunteers takes precedence over adding a few more people to our aggregate worship attendance.
Brian
