UNSTOPPABLE #1 - “Unstoppable Vision”
When I was a kid a curious thing would happen to me on some Sunday ams. A strange illness would strike. I disliked church so much that I’d fake sick to try to get out of going. I learned this from my 5 older brothers & sisters who were Sunday Syndrome Veterans.
Occasionally my parents would buy it & they’d say ‘Ok, you can stay home.’ As soon as the car would pull out, I was healed! So I’d play for a while. Then I’d have to time my return to bed very carefully to make sure I wasn’t busted. I didn’t enjoy church, & any excuse I could find, I’d try to skip.
Now FF not just 1 hour like today, but many years to these days, & its quite a bit different. My heart towards the church is changed - a lot. Matter of fact, if I’m dealing with something or fighting some bug, I get frustrated if it impairs me from being able to serve the church with my very best.
There’s a guy in the Bible named Saul, and for recreation he’d find church members, lock them up, & some of his cronies were known to have killed a few. Acts 8:3: But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.
Now, FF a few years, & you see a whole different heart in Saul, who became Paul. You see him giving the rest of his life to the church. Finally he was martyred for it! What happened there?
Apostle Peter made a lot of mistakes along the way. One of his biggest was deserting Jesus, denying that he even knew him, & fleeing the night of the crucifixion. Matt 26:75:
Suddenly, Jesus’ words flashed through Peter’s mind: “Before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.” And he went away, weeping bitterly.
FF a bit, & Peter’s heart is changed. Jesus said he’d be a rock for the church. In writings he sz to ppl: ‘You only have 1 life to give to Christ’s church, so give it.’ History tells us that Peter was crucified upside down cuz he didn’t consider himself worthy to be crucified the same way the Savior was.
I’ve known many of you here for years upon years. Some of you could care less about church many years ago. Now its central to your life & you can’t imagine being disconnected from it. You’re all about it. What happened to you? For that matter, what happened to me, and to Saul and to Peter?
Somewhere along the journey not only did we get rightly related to Jesus Christ but beyond that, we got a new vision for what a church could be. Although many of us once saw church as a lifeless, antiquated Sunday function that left us bored, now we see the church how the Bible presents it - as the redemptive hope of the world. When you see church that way, it changes everything.
Management guru Peter Drucker, who rearranged his entire life to helping churches instead of being a highly paid consultant to the corporate world, said this: ‘I finally came to understand that of all the organizations in the world, one that truly changes people’s lives is the local church. And it’s also the only one that changes eternities.’ The Church.
We’re part of the instrument God chose to use as the hope of the world. The Church exploded into being early in the first century immediately following the resurrection and ascension of Christ. A group of loyal followers waited just like Jesus told them to, and as promised, the Holy Spirit crashed the party. These ordinary ppl, followers of Jesus like you and me, were filled and empowered by the Spirits presence, and began to turn their world upside down.
Here’s a snapshot of the first days of the church - from Acts 4, rt after Pentecost. Peter and John are walking down the street, come across a crippled man begging. He wanted money from them, but instead of pulling out their wallets, they pull out the name of Jesus. In his name, they command the guy to stand & walk. And he did! Right there in front of God & the religious leaders. Look at vs 13:
When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. Acts 4:13
That word ‘ordinary’- Heres the beauty of it. Word that’s translated ‘ordinary’ could be something else. Bible translators are very polite. The word in the Greek is the word ideotes. Say that word aloud: Ideotes, and heres what the word means. It means an ignoramus, an ignorant or unlearned person.
It literally means an idiot. Thats what that word could say. They were astonished that these idiots were doing what they were doing. Here’s a wonderful truth: I am surrounded by idiots. Staff members, leaders, volunteers, a bunch of idiots. We are a church full of idiots. You’re probably thinking: ‘Chip, that makes you the chief idiot.’ Exactly. I love being around ppl who are foolish enough to believe that Jesus is who He said He was, and that we can do what He says we can do.
So what has God called us, 360 Church specifically, to do? How does He want us to accomplish it? Is our goal just to get more ppl to go to church? Or is there more? What is, what I like to call, THE BIG IDEA? You’ve heard us say this many times, & seen in print…
To keep company with God and learn a life of love. Ephesians 5:2
Thats the big idea. (Repeat) Thats what we are called by God to lead people to. Now, how do we go about accomplishing that? This plays into our 360 name:
3 concentric circles: Big circle / middle circle / inner circle. This is an image that helps us remember how we do what God called us to do. These circles represent 3 different kinds of environments we create here at 360, & always will. Remember, is it our goal for people to just go to church? No. We want ppl to Keep company w/God and learn a life of love. We want them to progress in their Christian journey, so we think steps and progression. Movement.
Outer circle, to middle circle, to inner circle. And with the helpful inspiration of North Point Church in Atlanta, here’s what we name those environments:
Front door, to Living room, to Kitchen.
The Outer circle represents the front-door environments of the church – the main entry point, where people are introduced to 360, & right now thats this- our Sunday service. In time there’ll be many more - maybe a concert, a Christmas Eve service, a Marriage Seminar, etc. Right now its our Sunday service & that will always be our main front door event. But coming to a Sunday service is not the end, its the beginning! Its where we want people to start, but thats not the sum total of our hope for them. Why? Cuz we want them to: Keep company w/God & learn a life of love.
Although they might learn how to start keeping company w/God in our service, there’s not much chance for them to learn a life of love. In order to do that, you’ve got to connect w/people. And we have better environments for that.
What does a Front door represent? It represents the official entry to your home. For many ppl, if someone comes thru your front door, you probably don’t know them very well, or they’re delivering something. Family & friends might use the garage or kitchen door or whatever. But that Front door is most formal area of your home & its where you welcome guests for the 1st time.
In our Front door environments as a church, we’re expecting guests. People that I invite here, people that you invite here. But just like in your home, at the front door, there are certain things you probably don’t do w/guests. Certain family routines you don’t do. You don’t change your values or what you believe, but there are things you don’t talk about or do w/guests – you don’t talk about your finances or your marriage problems at the front door w/guests. Thats normal.
Thats how we look at our Sunday service. We take great time & effort to carefully present God’s way for everyone here, but, with the knowledge that there are guests in our home.
I drove by a church with a big sign out front saying ‘We’re Relevant.’ Thats fine & in my opinion, thats hopefully a given – kind of a “duh” factor. Why even do a church if you’re gona be irrelevant?
I don’t want us just be relevant – as author Erwin McManus says, “I want us to be magnetic.” When people walk out after a 360 service, I don’t want them to say, ‘That was relevant.’ I want them to say: ‘Wow. I had no idea. I’m not sure yet what I believe, but that was undeniably powerful & I want to come back and figure this out.’ If people feel that, thats a WIN.
Matter of fact, I was sharing about this in our staff meeting this week. We intentionally wire this service to be helpful to anyone who walks in the doors. You DONT have to water down the truth of Gods word in order to do that. I talk to people all the time - some here I talked to after you visited, and many of you said something like ‘I get it. This made sense - its kinda new to me right now, but I can see it in a way I never saw it before.’ Thats a WIN.
Thats the Front door environment. We’re expecting guests. We endeavor to help ppl move from the Outer circle– front door environments– services, to the middle circle. Remember, steps & progression. Movement. The Front door is not the end-all. Its the starting point.
The middle circle is the Living room. If the front door corresponds to Guests, the Living room is for Friends. The next environment for progression.
Maybe you’ve wondered why we do LIFE groups & you’re always hearing about that. Thats a different environment for a different purpose. Life groups are so people can begin to connect w/other people.
Remember, where are we taking people? To Keep company w/God & learn a life of love.
The ‘learning a life of love’ part takes place when you begin to connect w/people. Nobody has problems loving people when there are no people around to bug them. Christianity was always meant to be lived out in community. Deep down, we cry out for this.
There are people who come to 360 & are thinking ‘Can I fit in here? Can I connect here?’
I say groups help people begin to connect for a reason. Friendships take time to develop. They’ve gotta begin somewhere, & the Front door environment, the Sunday service, is not the place that relational development will take place; its not designed to do that. If you only go to Sunday services, you’re not going to connect w/people.
These Living room environments - LIFE groups, are where people go home afterwards & say ‘I’m getting to know some people - now I have someone to sit with on Sunday.’ or ‘I got to meet someone I’ve seen around church, but never met.’ That may not sound like a big deal, but it is.
This Living Room / Life group is the environment where learning a life of love takes place, up close and personal. This is where discipleship takes place. This is where healthy accountability happens. This is where people feel cared for. This is where life-long friendships are established. This is where effective corporate prayer takes place.
Many of the most significant spiritual moments of my walk came in a small group environment, after a small group environment, or as a result of the relationships established in a small group environment.
We want everybody to end up in a Life group! Not just group junkies, but everyone.
Next environment is the Inner circle – the Kitchen environment. When people who are really close to you come to your home, where do you inevitably end up hanging out? In & around the kitchen.
The inner circle- Kitchen environments represent our serving teams. If the services correspond to Guests, & the LIFE groups correspond to Friends, the serving teams correspond to Family. These are the people you serve alongside. There’s nothing quite like shared serving experiences to draw people together.
There are people I’ve served alongside thru things that were fun, & thru things that were a real bummer at the time. Now I look back and treasure that shared experience w/those people. In some ways the more difficult experiences drew us closer together. The team that went to the DR last summer bonded deeply, probably not becuz of the miracle of multiplying backpacks, but becuz of a condition that will forever be known as ‘mangorrhea’.
Remember when we all went and worked at the Primrose Center? Its a center for developmentally challenged adults in downtown Orlando. We dug and scraped and painted and landscaped for them, bcuz it was something they couldn’t do for themselves. So we all paid for the supplies and did the grunt work, shoulder to shoulder that day. It was hard. Going to brunch would have been easier. If I would have gathered all of us together and said, ‘What do we want to do right now? Want to go have a nice brunch, or, do you want to give money you dont have to do work you don’t feel like doing, for people you dont know?’ Serving is counter-intuitive, but it is part of Gods call to us. And when we step out and do it, God blesses. We were hot, sweaty, filthy from head to toe, but we’ll always remember that day. You do that kind of stuff together over and over, and pretty soon you start feeling like family.
We want nobody to stand alone. We want everybody here together on Sundays, to connect with a LIFE group with friends, and develop family-strength relationships by serving together.
Remember, the goal: To keep company w/God and learn a life of love. Our best shot at fulfilling the call God gave us, To keep company w/God & learn a life of love, is for all of us to pursue this progression from services / to life groups / to serving teams. From Front door to Living room to Kitchen. From outer circle to middle to inner circle. Got it?
Now let me say a few words about where it all begins. It begins at the Front door. If you’ve been with us for a while, you may remember what we’ve talked about since day 1: Concept of Invest & Invite.
We are called by God to reach out to those we care about, who don’t yet know Him.
Think about this. If there are not new people coming to faith & being integrated into 360, people that we can guide / teach / grow / get into Life groups of community / help find their gifts & so on, if there are not new people steadily coming in, the whole dynamic of the church stalls. You want to kill a church? Just shut down the Invest & Invite part, & the church just shrivels up from the inside out.
But you want to supercharge a church? Make it Unstoppable? Flow a stream of freshly redeemed lives into the church, so we’re reminded that God still changes human lives! Then we start to pray differently, serve differently, and we reach out differently. We do it w/excitement & faith.
All of us here at 360 must engage personally in the lives of not-yet believers, and be an outstretched hand of God thru the ministry of 360. Thats our personal responsibility before God.
Corporately, in our services, we’re going to continue to do series that are invitation-sensitive so we can get dialed in to this, and invite our friends. We take the planning of our services very seriously, to be effective & helpful for all of us, but also planned w/guests in mind.
I have this growing sense of urgency, for us to be mission-minded & grace-driven, always reaching out to people far from God. I hope that’s growing in you as well.
I’ve seen God-things happen. I’ve seen lives change & broken people put back together again & people healed & marriages restored. God hasn’t lost his stuff! I think he’s fully capable of empowering us to keep proclaiming the Good News to people in our community who need the Jesus. We are the ones he uses! Us. Flesh & blood fallen people like you & me. You count.
We’re still young - kind of a toddler church, just a bit over 3 years old. And its the opportunity of a lifetime for you to say ‘I’m in.’ So roll up your sleeves & say ‘I’m not just going to be a spectator or a taker, I’m going to be a part of something thats Unstoppable.’
Its hard to convey what Gods been doing in my spirit, building a sense of anticipation about the future. And I’m not trying to be funny, I can say this literally: ‘I don’t have anything better to do.’ Cuz there is nothing better to do! There isn’t a challenge on planet Earth that I’d rather give myself to, than developing the full potential, the unrealized potential of this church. Theres nothing I’d rather do.
This church was birthed in the heart of God, who wanted to see us give our dead-level best to fulfill our call. To do what? To help people Keep company w/God & learn a life of love. Cuz doing that makes you the best person you can be; it makes us become the best church we can be.
I believe, friends, that our future at 360 is Unstoppable - it holds signs & wonders, conversions, miracles, breakthroughs & reconciliations like we’ve never seen before. I think thats what the future is holding for all of us who want to be a part of it. There is a specific assignment that God has given us- a redemptive role to play in this city, and in the world.
Let me close by saying this. If the sight of God working mightily thru your church makes you smile, if seeing a sin-hardened person cave in to the love of Jesus Christ, becoming everything he/she was created to be, if that picture stirs something deep inside you, then you ought to join the Unstoppable, cuz we’re going to see a lot of that.
If the thought of moving casual Christians out of the bleachers of spectatorship and onto the playing field for the sake of our Savior, if that brings a sense of satisfaction to your soul, you ought to join the Unstoppable.
If the knowledge that more people will move from spiritual stagnancy to spiritual vibrancy, from being non-worshipers to being God-worshipers, from living life alone to finding deep community w/other believers in a life-giving small group, if the vision of all that quickens your pulse a little bit, then you ought to join the Unstoppable.
If banding together as a church family and using our resources so the Gospel can be communicated well, the needy can be helped, and the hopeless can find hope, if being a part of something Unstoppable floods your life with a sense of meaning, then you ought to join the Unstoppable.
And if, when you come to the end of your one & only life, its enough for you to hear Jesus Christ say ‘Well done, Son, well done, Daughter. You gave your life to what I gave mine for - the Church’, then you ought to join the Unstoppable. You were made for this. I was made for this. I’m all in.
