Marty Holman, Scott Michael, and Wesley Keegan

Baptism is a symbol.  A symbol where I as a child, a teenager, or an adult make a decision to publicly identify with Jesus Christ.  I was baptized as an older elementary student with two other guys and three other girls.  But it was my decision.  I love it that whenever we have a baptism at the FC, we have kids, teens, and adults that stand up and say, “I’m committed to this Christ thing.  Thank you Jesus for saving me!”  It reminds me of the day 25 years ago that I jumped in the water and told my church in Fremont, Ohio that…

Jesus is my Savior!

I’ve been thinking about steps lately.

Steps are the easiest way to lead someone to a specific place.  Just like if I want to go to the other side of the road with the chicken, I need to start with the first step, so it is with many journeys of a spiritual nature – step by step.

I have been highly influenced by the teaching of Andy Stanley who talks about steps in the book, “The Seven Practices of Effective Ministry.” The book describes a path we take people on in leadership, and how a path that is narrow in regards to where you want people to be led, is more effective than offering them a hodge podge of choices.  Please remember I’m a pastor, so most of my viewpoints tend to lean towards the church.

At Andy’s church, that path starts with a committed follower of Christ inviting  their friends to a Sunday morning service, continues on to a connecting environment of some sort where individuals or families connect into a small group, the place North Point wants them to grow.

This is the philosophy my predecessor and I have taken on at the FC, but now I’m begining to ask a series of questions (after using the path for 3 years) as to whether its effective or not.  I believe that small groups are the place where fellowship happens, and I think this is the most effective growing point for our church, but its the beginning thats making me wonder.

Why?

Because when someone in Andy Stanley’s church invites their friends to church, the odds are good that the person they are inviting has some sort of reference point from which to view this type of church.  And that reference point, although it may not be the most flattering, probably brings visions of Sunday school songs like “Jesus loves me” and of the pastor bringing down judgment and moisture on those daring enough to sit close to the front of the sanctuary.

But when someone at Fellowship invites their friends to church, the odds are good that the person is thinking, “I’ve never gone to church, and I sure as hell don’t need to go now.” even if they like the person who is asking.  Culturally speaking, it’s a giant leap for someone in New England to come to church, unless the head guy has the title “Father”, and even then, the perception intellectually is irrelevance.

So I’ve been processing and ideating, and I’d like to bring to you the new conceptual first step which focuses on community.  New England loves its towns, and I think we could do a much better job being involved in the community at large than we do.  What this looks like I don’t know yet, but I do know that it begins with a strong online presence, and continues as we, as a church, help make the unchurched aware that we exist.

If it were a path, I guess the first step would look something like this:

Instead of a fellowshipper simply inviting their friends to a Sunday morning service – first, a person becomes aware of the reputation of Fellowship Church through community outside of the church.  This is much easier and cheaper to do (if we get creative) through the web 2.0.  Thank you for teaching me Eric.

I’m processing a lot right now, and I’d like to you help me through this. I appreciate your community, input, and your ideas.  So what do you think?

Am I on the right path?

I’m looking forward to this weekend.  I’m headed here again for a men’s retreat.  Then I’ll be here on Sunday as usual for the opening weekend of the series “One Prayer.”  This is a series that we’re doing with 1300 other churches in 20 countries with an average attendance of 750,000 people.  I am so pumped for this series and what we’re asking God to do in the church as a whole.  The first week, Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church in North Carolina will be preaching via video, and then the following week, I’ll be preaching. 
If you attend Fellowship Church, please make it out to these services and pray for God to do something amazing in our church and in the church at large.  You can see a list of all the churches participating in this video here.

If you had one prayer for the church at large, and it started with “Make us…”,

How would it end?

Earlier in a post I wrote that I was going to write about our lead team retreat this weekend.  It looks like I don’t have to, because Billy, our first impressions director, already did.  Check out this incredible post on Billy’s blog and get a glimpse of the weekend we all had.

Dream, dream, dream.