Wishing money grew on trees
Well, the time is coming where we are going to have to start spending money for TXC. I'm super proud of our launch team and how each of us is committing ourselves to this new church with our finances. If we could keep up this trend as TXC gets of the ground, we will have an abundance to give away. But I guess we can't just keep seeing the bank account grow at this point in the short life our church. The reality is that we are 2 months out of our first preview gathering. Schikees! That's a crazy thought! With that gathering comes close to $40,000 worth of expenses. The big one is the sound system, which we will have to get started in the next week or so. It's nice to know that we have the money for it right now. It's just gonna be hard writing the cheque and seeing the balance say 0 (or pretty darn close to it!). I guess this is where faith comes in and trusting that if this God sized dream is in fact God's dream, he's gonna pull it off. And that's a good thing because I don't think I have any means of pulling it off on my own. It's fun and scary all at the same time.
On a different note, I went to the mission folk music festival orientation/training tonight and found out I'm on security! I think that's hilarious cause I've made fun of security guards my whole life. They always seem to be the guys that think they have something to prove and now I find myself being one of them. I think I need to go find some cuffs and a night stick.
Being a Christian takes on a whole different look and feel when you start trying to live missionally; when you see your role as playing a part in redeeming the community in which you live and not just going to church. I read something on another dude's website that said exactly what I've been thinking for a while. He said that he wants their church to be such a big part of the community that if they were to leave in 10 years, people would notice. That's what I want. I want us to care about Mission. I don't just want to be another church that comes in with their own agenda trying to "save" the people. I want us to genuinely care about the city and the people and play our part in making it the best place anyone could ever live. That's why we are doing this free BBQ and doing a gas giveaway in December. It's gonna cost us money (that we don't have yet) but it's worth it.
I think we've done a pretty good job and creating a Christian subculture that hides out behind the church walls waiting for people to come to us. We've put on events that "compete" with the world instead of jumping on board community events and meeting people where they are at. I could be way out in left field and this could just end up being a bomb but somehow I doubt it. I don't see how someone can deny a missional, passionate, generous, authentic and adventurous Jesus. We can say they've denied him this long but I don't think they have. I think they've denied the Jesus that we've portrayed to them by the way we live our lives. What would happen if we were to live our lives like this? What would happen if the Jesus people saw, reflected these five things? I think we might just have an epidemic on our hands.
On a different note, I went to the mission folk music festival orientation/training tonight and found out I'm on security! I think that's hilarious cause I've made fun of security guards my whole life. They always seem to be the guys that think they have something to prove and now I find myself being one of them. I think I need to go find some cuffs and a night stick.
Being a Christian takes on a whole different look and feel when you start trying to live missionally; when you see your role as playing a part in redeeming the community in which you live and not just going to church. I read something on another dude's website that said exactly what I've been thinking for a while. He said that he wants their church to be such a big part of the community that if they were to leave in 10 years, people would notice. That's what I want. I want us to care about Mission. I don't just want to be another church that comes in with their own agenda trying to "save" the people. I want us to genuinely care about the city and the people and play our part in making it the best place anyone could ever live. That's why we are doing this free BBQ and doing a gas giveaway in December. It's gonna cost us money (that we don't have yet) but it's worth it.
I think we've done a pretty good job and creating a Christian subculture that hides out behind the church walls waiting for people to come to us. We've put on events that "compete" with the world instead of jumping on board community events and meeting people where they are at. I could be way out in left field and this could just end up being a bomb but somehow I doubt it. I don't see how someone can deny a missional, passionate, generous, authentic and adventurous Jesus. We can say they've denied him this long but I don't think they have. I think they've denied the Jesus that we've portrayed to them by the way we live our lives. What would happen if we were to live our lives like this? What would happen if the Jesus people saw, reflected these five things? I think we might just have an epidemic on our hands.
