Contagion

So I am switching blog platforms again. I'm giving wordpress a shot because it's got a few more organizational benefits to it that blogger doesn't have. So if you read this blog, you will have to now check this one out http://danrichardson.wordpress.com/

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...God.

The first thing that has led TXC to be where we are after 10 months is undeniably God.

If it weren't for God giving us a dream to plant TXC, it wouldn't have happened. At least, not the way it has. We would probably still be sitting in the nursery of our sending church trying to muster up the courage to step outside! It's the confidence that God has given us this dream that enables us to boldly move ahead.

I still remember the day that this dream to plant a church consumed me as if a tidal wave had just dropped on top of me. I started writing frantically. I went through all the appropriate channels to make sure I wasn't being rebellious (because I was at a church at the time). After making sure I wasn't out of line, everything started falling in place. The preferred ethos (culture) of TXC came to me like I had been thinking about it forever.

One thing that was already set was the name: The CrossCurrent - where life is meant to be lived. God obviously knew what was coming because I had written that down quite a while before, not even knowing I would one day plant a church with that name.

Everything lined up in a way that can only be explained as God. Everyday, I felt this burning inside of me - knowing that God was behind this dream all the way. It was the scariest thing that I had ever attempted to do. I had no idea what the outcome would be. All I knew was that if I didn't plant this church, I would feel as if I was disobeying God. His call inside of me was absolutely undeniable. I couldn't even think of wanting to anything else with my life. God had totally ransacked any other dreams that I had and replaced them with TXC. I knew that this was what I was created to do and was ready to fully jump into the unknown.

And here we are - still green and naive - not really knowing what the heck we are doing. Still taking risks. But most importantly, still listening to where God want to lead us. I think one of the most important "skills" that a church planter can have is the ability to listen to the voice of God and then obey, no matter what the consequences will be.

For instance, God has called us to reconnect people to Jesus and in doing this, we aren't trying to connect with people who are already Christians. It's quite possible that some of our methods won't be approved by the average church going Christian (Someone recently told one of our TXCers that our church is "damned". Nice. Others loathe the fact that we meet in a movie theatre where the devil lives). But that's okay! Because they are already connected to Jesus...buddy down the street isn't!. We don't intentionally try to tick of religious people, but if they get offended by us intentionally trying reconnect people to Jesus, then that is something that we are willing to sacrifice. If we are hated by religious people and loved by those far from God, then we are happy.

We will keep on listening to what God says and obediently following Him. It scares the snot out of me at the best of times...but quite frankly...I can't imagine living my life any other way!


Factor #2 coming tomorrow...

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This week I went out for coffee with one of my mentors who has known me since I was in diapers. He is now on staff at one of Bible Colleges in town but previously was in Ministry for 20+ years. About half of those years were as a Senior Pastor.

We were talking about TXC and how things seem to be progressing at a rate that sometimes freaks me right out. He then said something that I thought was peculiar. He was talking to someone else and mentioned to them that I'm "living every church planter's dream". While I got what he was saying, I certainly don't feel like we've even come close to what God has in store for TXC. However, I don't want to discredit what God has done in our short history. He has definitely shown us favor, especially with those who don't go to church.

So in light of this, throughout next week I am going to attempt to flesh out what I believe are the elements of TXC that have enabled us to get to where we are today as a 10 month old church.

I was thinking the other day that I want to attempt to make blogging more of a regular practice in my life. Not so that people will read my blog (I know the 3 of you that read it will keep reading it :) but so that I can start to get out of me some of the things inside. I feel like I've been just harping on the same things lately and have wanted to start systematically blogging. So this will be my first attempt. I'm going to try and think of 5 things that I believe have been vital to keep TXC moving forward. Again, this is more for me than anyone else but if you're interested, it'll be here for you to read as well!

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I had someone taken aback today at how young I was for being a lead pastor. I just laughed. I agree! The only reason I can have confidence to lead this church is because I know without any doubt that this is God's dream. If it was mine, I probably would have quit by now because I would have second guessed myself way too many times.

This same person made the assumption that our church was full of mainly youth. I too thought this would be who we would mainly connect with but I have been proven wrong! We don't have a main demographic anymore. We have teens, young adults, young marrieds, young families, mature families with teens, divorcees, divorced and remarried, empty nesters, grandparents and I'm sure there are more I'm missing. I honestly can't believe it because we are just a bunch of rag tag followers of Jesus that are simply tired of playing church games...it seems that more people are into that than I originally thought!

This same person also made the comment that her son (who was with her) was sick of lame Christian music. This kind of put me on the spot so I said that I couldn't promise her that our music wouldn't suck but that we try our best. I followed the son out of the auditorium afterwards (like a good stalker-pastor does) and asked him "So, is our music better than crappy Christian radio stations?" And with an emphatic "Totally!", he informed me how much he liked it. Kudo's to dave and the guys! By the way, the sound mix rocked today...lawrence is a machine!

We were in our second week of our "Poison" series today and we addressed the issue of Blame by looking at the phrase "It wasn't me!" I had a feeling that this would strike a nerve in people and my feeling was right. We all love to live in a world of blame where it's never our fault for anything. It originated with Adam and Eve (Adam blaming God for giving him a woman that would lead him to sin!) and then we looked at Saul and how he blamed David for his life falling apart when, in reality, Saul was at fault because he had previously disobeyed one of God's strict commands.

The main point/question was" Is it possible that our lives are screwed up not because of what the other person has done to us, but because our reaction to what they've done is wrong and it's dictating how our lives are being lived?"

We had our highest attended Sunday yet today. People are talking like crazy. We rarely ever tell people to invite their friends to a worship gathering. However, we DO want them to invite their friends. Our goal is to give people the confident to invite their friends without any fear that it's gonna suck. That is happening and every week we see more and more new faces.

You never know...we just may be launching our next location or planting our first church sooner than planned!

Last week I went out for lunch with someone had absolutely no church background whatsoever. They just recently started coming to our church and as I talked with them, I had a very frustrating reality hit me: I have no idea how to talk in a way that doesn't confuse people when it comes to matters of God.

They absolutely love TXC and can't believe how we are turning the stereotypical view of church and Christians on it's head. They also told me that they weren't a Christian and have never really had any need for religion.

As we talked, they asked some questions about how and why we started the church and that's where my words started to lock up. What really got me was that I knew this person had absolutely no frame of reference when it came to God. They said they might remember going to church once when they were almost too little to remember. My first thought as a response is "God told me to do it". But what I've been trying to do is approach the conversation from the other person's perspective. Imagine barely remembering going to church as a kid, having no real need for God and hearing someone say "God told me to do it. He changed my heart. The Holy Spirit spoke to me." Whaaa?! It's just weird.

Now I know those are the "right" answers, but I think that I've/we've been too quick to just assume people know what we're talking about. We throw words and phrases around like they're candy and assume that everyone is on the same page. Maybe one day, those kinds of descriptions will make sense to them but right now - when the horse isn't even out of the gate yet - it's just ridiculous to expect them to understand. I've been so ingrained with a set way of thinking that it is hard to deprogram myself.

I think this is why so many Christians stick within their Christian bubbles - because they are scared spitless. Primarily of looking stupid. Cause when it comes time to talk, alot of times the most natural thing to come out is the most unnatural language for someone who doesn't claim to follow Jesus to understand.

But that doesn't excuse me from establishing friendships with those who are far from God and like it that way. My ultimate purpose as a follower of Jesus is to reconnect people to Him. And if that means that I look like a bumbling fool as I attempt to speak in a way that makes sense, then that's what I've got to do.

If I'm not willing to do that, why do I call myself a follower of Jesus? Afterall, aren't the people that Jesus went to and made the most sense to the people that knew the least about God?

Today was awesome. We launched our POISON series off today and I think it was very well recieved. We had various design elements set up around the theatre including "boiling poison" - eery steam and all, a casket (of which I hid in until the beginning of the gathering and came out - scraring the crap out of Donovan who had no idea that I was in it!) and a table set with place setting, POISON and all.

We looked at the phrase "Just one more..." and how our lives revolve around "our" money and that we buy junk just because we have money to buy it. We explored the idea that "our" money is actually God's money and if we were to just switch our mindset, the world could be different. That we are given lots so that we can give lots.

We ended the morning off with a strong challenge and an experiment: Change the phrase "Just one more" to "Not one more" in our lives over the next two weeks. Don't buy anything that is a want and not a need. Save the money you would have spent. Take that money, go out and buy quality non-perishable food items and toys for the Mission Christmas Bureau. Bring it all back on Sunday, Nov.11. And if you aren't into not buy your coffee or renting your movies or going out for dinner, save your reciepts and match what you spend on needless stuff to make someone's Christmas who can't have one like you will, one too remember!

We decided as a church to partner with services that are in our community that are already doing what we have a heart to do. That way we'll multiply our impact and work with the community all in one.

So we'll see how the experiment goes. We're excited to continue on making our core value "Intentional Generosity" a reality throughout the life of the church. It's only the tip of what we want to see happen through our generosity.

...was the challenge I issued on Sunday. I told the story of The Great Blondin who was known for tightrope walking across Niagara Falls doing various different things - one of which was pushing a wheelbarrow. Upon coming back to the crowd he asked them if they thought that he could push it across with someone inside. The crowd cheered "We believe you can!"

Then he asked for a volunteer. Silence.

The point: It's easy to believe - it's another thing to step away from the believing crowd and turn your belief into obedient, trustfilled action. It's easy to believe in Jesus. The bible says that even the demons believe that. It's another thing to get in the wheelbarrow and trust him with your life.

It's so easy to just go to church, pray before you eat, dress right, talk right, read your Bible,etc and not be actually following Jesus.

We are entering into a new season of TXC where we will all have to make the decision of what we are going to do. Are we going to go through the motions or are we actually going to be followers of Jesus? EVERYTHING we do is about reconnecting people to Jesus and we are going to be stepping out onto the tight rope. We are going to see a revolution take place that is much bigger than our feeble minds can even imagine right now.

It's time to get in the wheelbarrow. It may mean leaving behind a reputation, friends, a job, a lifestyle or a myriad of other things. It will mean taking a huge risk of stepping away from the "just believe" crowd. It's not easy. It can be scary.

It's where life is meant to be lived!