I have a fear that when we have a “good idea” at Fellowship Church, the idea in our minds won’t translate to getting across a real point of spiritual significance, but will translate into “Man, that sucked.”

Several weeks ago, Carie and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary at the Italian restaurant where Carie’s sister Jessica works.  It’s a nice restaurant that only recently opened by occupying another failed Italian restaurant.  The experience was enjoyable, the food amazingly delicious, and the only negative was the ambiance given off by the restaurant’s 1970ish looking decor.

Fast forward to last weekend when Carie and I decided to hit up a brand new Italian Restaurant in the same city that reoccupied a closed McDonalds.  To say I was skeptical of whether it would be a good experience or not is to under-exaggerate.  I figured that I would not be able to get past the fact that I had spent some time ordering “two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun” at this establishment.  For a short time at the new restaurant I felt this way, but eventually they won me over having redecorated the entire building, so only the outside was reminiscent of the golden arches.  Then the wait staff was outstanding, and the food was even better than the aforementioned Italian restaurant we visited on our anniversary.  (It should be mentioned here in all fairness that we have only eaten at both restaurants once, and in both cases the food was great!)  Also, the restaurant was packed, for this particular restaurant has four other restaurants in Massachusetts, and they clearly did a great job of building their platform nicely on this launching weekend.  Food, check.  Wait staff, check, check.  Atmosphere, triple check.

On the way home, Carie wanted to encourage her sister, who was working at the first restaurant, so we decided to stop by there for dessert.  The first thing we noticed as we walked in was the number of cars in the parking lot.  Clearly most of the Italian restaurant connoisseurs decided to eat we ate that night, as the parking lot loomed largely empty.  As we walked in, the same vibe that had illuminated Jessica’s place of employment 2 weeks earlier had clearly disappeared as we wondered if this was really the result of a new restaurant in town.

The hostess sat down in a booth, and within two minutes of sitting, we noticed something was going on about 20 yards from us on the other side of the bar.  It looked like…No, it couldn’t be.  “Are they setting up for Karaoke?” I asked Carie in disbelief.  Alas, the woman leading the karaoke in charge was about to answer my question as she picked up the microphone and made an announcement that singing and good times would begin in about 5 minutes.

“Are you kidding me?” I asked Carie and now Jessica as she also stood in apparent disbelief, having not known about this before we walked in.  In the next 5 minutes, three couples formerly sitting in booths and enjoying the remains of there dinners quickly left the scene.  And then as tradition has it, the woman leading the Karaoke charge takes the mic, asks the Dj to push play, and begins to bellow a nasty country song worthy of any honky tonk on any side of the ‘ol Mississip.  A new couple walked in holding menus and walked towards a booth, then realizing what was happening, and about the time they were passing our booth, silently and with cat like prowess, they turned around and walked out.  The woman leading the Karaoke charge kept on bellowing.  Nothing could stop her.  And Carie and I were witnesses to the unraveling of a classy Italian restaurant.

Jessica served us our fancy desserts as some guy who had a halfway decent hit a grand slam with a U2 song, the only runs of the evening.  She responded to my inquiries about who in the world thought it was a good idea for a nice Italian restaurant to host karaoke by telling me the Chef was pissed and felt like the evening was a slap in the face to him and his kitchen staff.  By the time we walked out for the evening, the bar held a handful of wedding singers and the booths were practically empty.  Later, the owner confessed to his staff that he was trying to boost his bar numbers, and thought this was a great way to do it.

So he compromised what his restaurant was great at for a lackluster attempt to resurrect what was not going so well, and the result -  at least for that evening…

An epic failure in every area of the restaurant.

This weekend is July 4th weekend.  I live in Massachusetts.

The big thing to do in Massachusetts on July 4th, and I mean really big, is go to Boston.  I’ve done this a few times now, and it is really big and really awesome.  The drawback is that millions of other people agree with you and will be there with you, making the ride to leave the city of Boston impossible to do at a decent hour.

A few years ago at Fellowship, we started a new “tradition” on the Sunday of July 4th weekend.  We began having an outdoor service and a party on our property that day.  Last year, the church surprised me by celebrating my 10th anniversary here at this church.  It’s amazing to be around the people you love.  To hang out and play games and talk and enjoy the beauty of God’s creation with your closest friends.

This year, the two events happen to coincide:  Boston’s July 4th, and the Party in the Park.

And if I had my choice (cause really I don’t this week), I’d go relational before I would experiential.

We love the experiential, don’t we?  To experience big things and huge events and the next great adventure.  But one thing I learned a long time ago is that if I had the choice to do experiential or relational, I should pick relational.  I should be where I know people love me and care about me.  I should pour into them and allow them to pour into me.  And I should wallow in the experience of being with my community.  This is why I’ve turned down free tickets to huge games and concerts to attend date night with my wife or small groups during the week.  Because I know at the end of the day, my wife, and the people I share life with, are going to be there with me long after the season ends or the newest tour is finished.

When I was in high school, I had the opportunity to travel on a trip to Mexico with my friends, classmates, and teachers.  It was kind of a missions trip and kind of a learning adventure to an area  of Mexico called Monterrey.  The trip had been planned and we were all pretty excited to go, when I received a call from my uncle Matt, telling me he had some tickets for me to see DC Talk at his church, and then he was sure I would be able to meet them.  I loved DC Talk!!!  It was going to be so epic, and I couldn’t wait, and it was right in the middle of my planned trip to Mexico.

Naturally, I begged my dad to let me go.  I told him it was only Mexico, like one country away, and I could save my traveling for going to a country farther away some day, and that this opportunity wouldn’t last forever, and that DC Talk’s Free at last was the best album ever.  My dad wasn’t feeling it though, and he calmly said I could go to any concert I wanted after I came back from Mexico.

I learned some big lessons on that trip.  I remember eating a jalapeno so hot that it made me vomit in the middle of the street.  I remember the exhilaration of having a high school crush to the experience of said crush taking my heart and crushing it in her cold bony fingers (that’s poetic more than literal, btw).  I remember the beauty of the mountains in Mexico, and the smell of the marketplace cooking in the towns.  But most of all, I remember the people I met there and the people with whom I traveled.  Amazing people.  People who poured into my life for years and helped make not only this experience, but most experiences in the early part of my life much better.

I’ve since gone to numerous DC Talk shows, and seen about 100 other incredible concerts since then, but the one thing I have since learned, that I believe helped change my life, was when it comes to making a decision – Should I do this or this? – Always make that decision with the people who love you the most in mind.

Experiences will come and go, but relationships will tell the world who you really were.

*By the way, this post isn’t even about how horrible July 4th in Boston is.  My friend Jay goes every year with his closest friends (minus me) and makes a day of it.

 

It’s funny, whenever someone comes to visit Fellowship to speak or to play music or share their ministry with us, they always say the same thing, “You have an incredibly neat church,” or “you have a cool kind of vibe going on here”.  Of course, “neat”, in this context does not necessarily mean clean and “cool” has nothing to do with the pastor, but what they are doing is complimenting the community of people that make up Fellowship Church.

And when it comes to loving people.  First class, that’s what I think.

Jon Acuff, writer of “Stuff Christians like”,  as he spoke yesterday – Yeah, pretty much treated like royalty. (He, by the way is an amazing guy – and truly hilarious)

And The Wrecking, The Black Raspberries, and Steve Patton – I heard quotes all day from them like the ones mentioned above, plus others like, “We’ve never been treated like this” and “You all know how to treat people”, and of course the “It’s a sin if that woman (the lady who hosted the band’s dinner last night) doesn’t have her own restaurant.”

So basically, we know how to treat people.

Today I’m praying that we would also become a church and I would become a pastor who would treat one another as well as we treat strangers.  Sometimes, that’s easier, ya know?  Treating strangers well.  And familiarity can breed contempt and all that.  Like the teenage son who treats his mom like dirt, then goes out and treats his friends like royalty, as if they had something to do with him becoming who he is today.

So the last few weeks have been about bringing in “cool” people and treating them like royalty.  The next few weeks?

Causing the ones who we see each week in life groups and every Sunday in church to say,

“Wow, this sure is a neat church.”

Something about the human nature that you’ve no doubt seen or experienced, and the chances are good that you’ve done it:  Most of us have probably gone on record in social networking either by blogging or twittering or “facebook statusing” to make some sort of reactionary statement against something that has either happened to them in the past or a perceived popular notion that easily has another side that’s been apparently neglected by whoever came up with the notion.

I’m thinking about this because recently I’ve seen many people take a few jabs at Rick Warren in the Facebook world.  Now I understand taking jabs at some extremes like the KJV only position or preaching against alcohol or any number of insane extreme personal convictions that are not backed up by Scripture but simply by the Holy Spirit convicting an individual (this of course is not wrong, and I applaud those who have different convictions from others), but come on, Rick Warren?

The guy preaches what he preaches, and it is the gospel, gives away 90% of his income, and so now countless numbers of people decide that this guys fluff, why?  Because he’s not reformed or uses his influence to reach far outside of the church?  One thing I’m learning about the church and myself:  We need to pick on someone.  We have a desire in our hearts (clearly not from the Spirit, so where’s it coming from?) to find what we assume is a weakness in someone because of what they didn’t say or what their book didn’t point out, and we call them out.  I call them out.

Enough of that crap!  I’m not doing it anymore.  If someone’s preaching a gospel that’s different than the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus, that’s one thing.  But Fellowship Church in Massachusetts will not be known for our who we pick on or who we call out.  We are called to build up, and encourage, and esteem others better than ourselves.  And that starts with me.

And that starts now.

I’ll cut to the chase.  Sunday morning at Fellowship we’ll be hosting a great author, an author of a book one of my fave pastors, Andy Stanley says, “I Can’t put it down.”  His name is Jon Acuff, and he writes the popular blog “Stuff Christians Like”.  He’ll be speaking at our 10:30 am service, and frankly, I can’t wait!

Here’s one of my favorite posts from him about “Our prayer requests that aren’t big enough”:

“Uh oh,” my friend said the other night at the end of our men’s group, “I don’t think I should share my prayer request anymore.”

Why did he say this? Simple, he didn’t have a “big prayer request.”

After hearing everyone’s very serious, very heartfelt prayer requests, his suddenly felt small and insignificant. He didn’t want to say it out loud. He was struck with a bought of prayer envy or “prenvy.” And you hate to see that kind of thing strike a kid so young. It’s a shame, a dang shame.

So to help him, and others out there, I thought it would be a good idea to review some ways to prevent feeling like your prayer request isn’t “big enough.”… (read the rest and more here)

This Sunday.  10:30.  Fellowship Church.

Its been a crazy few weeks.  About two months ago a famous musician/blogger confirmed to do a benefit concert for Fellowship Church, which was great considering we needed to raise some money for Phase 1 of our new building project.  Unfortunately, with 2 and a half weeks to go, the headliner cancelled and I was up a creek without a paddle.  Metaphysically, of course.

For whatever reason, I allowed the loss of the headliner to bring up a whole bunch of other negative things that were going on in my life, nothing harrowing mind you, but enough to make me plunge into a negative mindset for about 3 days.  I called friends, emailed famous people, and after 3 days of working hard to find another headliner, I got nothin’.  On Thursday night I met with our lead team at the FC and canceled the concert scheduled for 2 weeks and 3 days away.

Then Friday morning hit.

And a beautiful day landscaped Central New England.  Not that it needed to be beautiful for what was about to happen, but it helped.  I received a call from a band I had contacted earlier in the week about headlining the concert, and after some chatting back and forth, and a bit of negotiation, “The Wrecking” was our new headlining band!

So this Sunday, June 13th, from 6-9, our church will be hosting an amazing concert that I know kids from 5 to 65 will enjoy  (And possibly even older)!  The Wrecking will be headlining along with an excellent set from the Black Raspberries, honestly one of my favorite up and coming bands.  And we’ll be opening up with some sweet hip hop from The Czar, Steve Patton and Aima.  This has turned out to be an excellent concert and I can’t wait!

We’ll even be having dinner from 5-6 out in the cafe for those who are interested in some pizzas and other such goodies. Tickets are $15 in advance (Either online or at Sunday mornings @ Fellowship) or $20 at the door.

You can buy your Ticket to this great concert here!

Or you can just say hello to me here.