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180Weekend at TrueNorth Church Recap

I had the opportunity this weekend and on Wednesday to participate in a movement of God.

A couple of months back Adam asked my friend Shane to speak for TrueNorth Church’s 180 Weekend for their students. Shane was not able to speak because his student ministry at Greenbrier Church was also hosting a similar weekend with their students, but Shane gave Adam my name.

The Theme for 180 was Collide, so I went to their normal Element mid-week service to set things up and give a preview of the weekend. I left on Wednesday really impressed with the genuine worship from both the middle school and the high school, I also left feeling a little nervous. These kids are special and I felt like I may end up hurting what God was trying to do rather than help. After all, the previous two weeks have been CRAZY at home, at work and New Passion. I worked 52 hours the week before 180 at my normal job not including my second job pastoring New Passion and my primary job of husband and dad. I was facing 6 messages between Wednesday and Sunday, so I had no idea what to expect, and for most of the week I just wanted to just stop and shut my eyes. At times I didn’t feel like I had 100% to give this ministry and this special weekend. Of course, God is sovereign and he can use a donkey if he wants to, so I knew He was in control of the weekend.

I thought it was funny to learn that Cliff Jennings was leading worship. I have never heard of Cliff, so I had never met him, however, he is the Worship Leader at Stevens Creek Church in Grovetown. They meet just up the road from us, so here two Grovetown ministers were going to lead at TrueNorth (Come to find out his dad is Gene Jennings, the Executive Pastor at TNC). It’s funny how God puts things together. Let me add right here. Stevens Creek is blessed with a great worship leader, he’s almost as good as Jonothan 🙂 – I got to talk with Cliff for a little bit after the final session, he’s a great guy, and Stevens Creek is blessed to have him.

All I can say is I felt the presence of God strongly at the Blok. A few students shared with me a little of what God was speaking to them from the weekend. If God so chose to use my feebleness, I am truly blessed and thankful.

I have a special place in my heart for North Augusta. My wife and her family are from there, my kids spend the weekends at my mom-in-law’s house there, I lived there for a while, went to school and church over there, and I eat lunch there sometimes. I’ve heard for several years that God is doing something great through TrueNorth, and now I’ve experienced it first hand. I heard things continued over into the Sunday service as well. I cannot wait to watch and see what God does next as they prepare to move onto their new property and continue to take the gospel to the community.

I can only pray that God ignites a fire in New Passion as he has in TrueNorth. Their people are excited, passionate, and the love of Jesus flows through them. I know that God is using their pastor Steve and youth pastor Adam as well as their other leaders greatly. I hope God does the same in Grovetown through New Passion and Stevens Creek what he is doing through TrueNorth.

P.S. We have a bright future. I’ve had the privilege to meet, speak to, and hear from a lot of local students over the last 4+ years, and Jesus has won their hearts and they are going to transform this world like we’ve  never seen before. I just know it!

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Only God Can Get the Glory

I hate preparing a budget. It’s not fun at all. Especially when you have to look at the reality of how much it costs to run a church and the reality of how much money actually comes in to the church; and then there’s the balancing act of budget requests. I never really liked it when I was younger when my dad would tell me that money “doesn’t just grow on trees.” I’ve not only come to realize that as an individual trying to provide for a family, I’ve definitely learned it as a pastor. I could add to my dad’s statement that “God doesn’t just put money in the bank account either, even though its his church.”

I met with our CFO last night and as I was preparing for our meeting I was listing our income versus expenses for the last quarter, laying out some of the things we need to purchase right away, some of the things it would be nice to have right away, and of course the new budget for the second quarter of 2011 (we do a quarterly budget right now since everything is so fluid as a church plant). I was almost tempted to get depressed by what we didn’t have and how little we do have, but in the midst of looking at actual numbers, I was excited and thankful. We are not rich by any means, but we are still breathing and we have what we need to operate and to do a little extra as we need to. See, it wasn’t always this way…

It was only about 22 months ago when things were quite depressing although I made sure to put my happy face on. I wouldn’t recommend starting a church the way I did unless you are absolutely 100% SURE you are called to do it. Most experts will tell you to raise $125,000 or more to do it right, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen. At this point I had asked three friends to be as stupid as me and help me launch  the church, two friends couldn’t do it, and the other, Billy Wilson, agreed to launch with me as New Passion’s Mission’s Director. We absolutely had no money. The only money we had was our tithe and the pastor at the church where we were members recommended that I start tithing to New Passion. We had no choice, we had to.

A friend who pastor’s a house church sent me a message and wanted to meet with me. He said that their church wanted to help us, but because they were only a small group of around 8 people and had little money themselves, they could only offer us a loan of $5,000 which would have no due date, no interest, we would just pay them 10% of whatever we brought in the offering every month. We had no money, no building or location to meet, no equipment, we had a CFO outside the church, Billy Wilson and his family was the only leader who had committed, and we had only one other family who was praying about jumping on-board, and I wanted to borrow $5,000. Do you know what you can do with $5,000? A lot with God. I don’t think any of them thought it was a GREAT idea, but they knew we didn’t have too many other options, so they gave me the good ‘ol ‘whatever you think pastor‘ commitment and we signed the papers.

I think I came to the realization at that moment and it has been my personal slogan and motto ever since that “God was going to build New Passion in such a way that only He can get the glory!” Which honestly should be the story of any church. Let me put this into a little bit of perspective though. Between our church logo (one of the first things we bought), our trailer, our first community, “Hey where coming to the area come join us” event, and our mix-matched sound system over $3,800 of that loan was spent. Here’s a few more notes of interest:

  • We launched with a team of 35, oh yeah half of those were children and they can’t serve.
  • When we secured a location, it was an Elementary School, the school board just doubled their rates, we were looking at a lease of $1,740 on a four week month and $2,100 for a five week month.
  • We didn’t have a worship leader until one month before we launched. I asked five other leaders who didn’t work out.
  • We had no other churches partner with us. We had two churches give us $1,000 each and tell us they were praying for us, the spiritual definition of that means, “Good Luck!” 🙂
  • We did have some individuals give us one time gifts while one friend gave us a re-occurring gift for 6 months.
  • We finally (right before we launched) got $5,000 in start-up funds from the GA Baptist Convention.
  • By the way…Our Church Planting “Coach” left mid-way through our launch process, so we really had no help or guidance in the last couple of months of our launch.
  • All said and done, we launched New Passion with $15,000; $5,000 of which was a loan (oh yeah…and a lot of PVC).
  • Jonothan Powell and his family came on-board as our Worship Leader in August and we launched in September. One of the first things he asked to see was what we had for sound. I showed him our $800 investment, his immediate response was a giggle and a reply, “So, how much money do we have?” We used that sound equipment for a couple of months or more until Jonothan sold his personal motorcycle and used the money to buy a very nice sound board and two very nice speakers.

We were also fortunate to have received a phone call from a guy who I had only talked with a couple of times on the phone and connected with through the internet. His church had some equipment they were not going to be using for a while, so they loaned it to us (cafe items, lights, children’s stuff, etc). This was huge because we couldn’t afford any of it.

I can go on and on and on and tell story after story of small and big risks we took and how we shouldn’t even be breathing as a church. If it were up to the belief others had in us, we’d be dead. However, there is only one thing I have had to cling to over the last 18+ months, this is what I know God called me to do.

Sure we aren’t running thousands of people. This isn’t an Elevation story. This is the story of New Passion in Grovetown, Georgia that has about 15,000 residents. We’ve seen God take a team of 35, most of which have gone back to their own churches, and turned it into a weekly average of around 110 (including children), he took a group of nine people $5,000 in debt to a church that is averaging approximately $6,000 per month in giving (which could literally be doubled if more people would embrace Biblical Giving). We’ve already been able to send more financial support to two churches each, one in Baltimore, MD and the other in Surfside Beach, SC, than we received total from any other church to help us. Most importantly, we’re seeing lives changed by the gospel

God is literally building this church in such a way that only he can get the glory. There is still a lot of stuff we cannot do as a church, but we will be able to in God’s timing. I have nothing to complain about, I can only stand amazed at what God has done in 18 short months.

Happy 18 months New Passion. May God continue to always receive the glory from our church.

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Love Wins by Rob Bell, My Thoughts and Opinions

I love Rob Bell and all of my friends who agree with him and the views that he proposes in his new book Love Wins which releases today. However, I disagree with Rob Bell and I would have to disagree with my friends who agree with the views he proposes in his new book. However, despite my disagreement, Love should Win among us all, and we should not allow our disagreements, no matter how deep they are to divide our love for one another. The moment your beliefs steal your love your beliefs becomes your god.

(UPDATED) Note: I have started reading the book, but am not finished, so far everything in the post stands true. I HAVE NOT read Rob Bell’s new book. I am was solely basing my opinion on three things: 1) The reviews from supporters of Rob Bell’s book and the reviews from non-supporters of the book (overall, the reviews agree on what’s being said on the content, but the disagreement comes in the beliefs of the theology and subject matter). 2) Rob Bell’s own views expressed in his interviews. 3) The pre-video released by Rob Bell to promote the book. 4) The theology of Universalism (in general)

Here are some of my major disagreements and initial thoughts on the subject. I’ll start with the most top disagreements in case you stop reading 🙂

The Chasm

No one can disregard the parable by Jesus, because it’s Jesus talking. I hear people all the time wanting to disregard words by Paul and others because it wasn’t Jesus, however this Scripture is from Jesus, so it carries a lot of weight.

Luke 16:19-31 is the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Why is this so important to Rob’s new book, Love Wins? Well, Rob said himself that he does not believe that Hell is locked from the outside, rather some people create Hell here on Earth while they are other people’s Hell. He also expressed views that painted Hell as a temporary place, a time-out, if you will. To Rob and his supporters it is a place that people choose to go until they are willing to view God for who he is and at that point, because Love Wins, they are free from their Hell. For Rob, Hell is not a permanent place.

Yet, the Bible and Jesus refute this view in Luke 16:19-31. In this parable the rich man goes to Hell and is in torment. He is suffering to the place where he requests that Abraham would send Lazarus to him to just give him a drop of water. Abraham refuses and says that Lazarus is with him being comforted while the Rich man was there in torment. He expresses even if they wanted to, they couldn’t because there is a great chasm separating them.  The rich man then requests for Abraham to send someone from the dead, like Moses, to WARN his family of the pending torment of Hell.

There are three main issues here that must be focused on:

  1. The rich man being in torment would have done anything and everything possible to get out of Hell being in the anguish and torment (flames) that he was in. He would have no problem at this point seeing God for who he really was and repenting to leave Hell.
  2. Abraham says that there is a great chasm separating the two places and neither groups can get to each other even if they wanted to. This is the most destructive truth to Rob’s viewpoint of an open door Hell.
  3. Notice the rich man did not ask Abraham to send him from Hell. He knew there was no escape and no way to leave, or he would have. He asked that Abraham would send someone from his side.

I don’t believe Rob leaves so many questions open ended because he is genuinely asking the question for his own benefit. He is asking the question to point people in the direction he believes, as well, he is painting a picture of those who disagree with him as being hateful towards him and attacking him. This is not true. I disagree with him but I am not attacking him. However, since we are asking questions, shouldn’t this one be asked and answered? What about the Chasm?

Hyper-Calvinist without the Calvinist

The Hyper-Calvinist that I know do not believe in evangelism. Why? Because in the end they believe that God’s elect are going to be chosen regardless and through His own means God is going to redeem those who he has predestined to be saved. Rob Bell’s view is not much different, he’s just promoting that EVERYONE is predestined because Love Wins and it would be unjust for God to allow anyone to go to Hell if he is love. There’s only one problem with this reverse Hyper-Calvinism and with Hyper-Calvinism while we are at it:

Romans 10:13-15 – Not only must a person have faith in Jesus alone for their salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9), but they must call on the name of the Lord to be saved. Romans goes on to say that how can someone believe on a person they don’t know about and how can they know about someone they’ve never heard about. Beautiful are the feet of those who go and share the Good News of Jesus. This would be a moot point if in the end, someone can make a final decision that they were wrong this entire time and they need to believe on Jesus for their salvation. The need for the message of the Good News would be pointless and void because in the end, everyone (or for the Hyper-Calvinist, the elect) will be saved. Basically this view is saying we can be lazy and silent about Jesus because in the end Love Wins anyway.

Martyrs and Missionaries Must Be the Stupidest People on the Planet

If Love Wins as Rob Bell sees it and everyone ends up in Heaven anyway, then he just made Martyrs and Missionaries the stupidest people on the planet. Why would anyone risk their life or give up their life preaching a message that in the end doesn’t matter much for the people of other faiths who have good intentions, but just doesn’t happen to use the name Jesus when they refer to their god? I work for a church who supports a lot of missionaries. Some of these missionaries cannot have their names or locations printed in any material or posted on the internet because their lives are in such danger. What stupid people! Pack-up and come home, live life, have fun, enjoy every minute of it, and let God woo those people in the end.

How does this view of an empty or an open, non-permanent Hell, with an afterlife decision opportunity not diminish the gospel and the work of Christ here and now? How does this view not diminish the commission of Jesus himself to “go make disciples?” Do those of us who are able to lead people to Christ here and save God that extra work get some kind of prize in the end? Rob’s view, in my humble opinion, just keeps unraveling for me.

Hints of Mormonism

I guess if other religions despite their belief in the actual Jesus is acceptable in the end, then, it is also okay to grab a few ideas from the Mormon religion. From my understanding, Mormons believe that there are second chances after death as well. Of course there is some temple work that has to be done on the part of the persons loved one, but regardless, death is not the end, it is the beginning. People who hold a traditional view of the gospel message is being painted by Rob Bell as being closed minded and unwilling to accept new ideas about a progressive faith, he even gives a slight pity party to say how people hate him and are attacking him, which I have not seen. However, I believe what I believe because I have studied it out #1 for myself and it stands firm on Scripture. The question I have is this, “Where is there any hint of a second chance in the afterlife to choose Jesus or to see God for who he really is, anywhere in the Bible?” “Where did Jesus even hint at such a possibility?” Rob says he wants to have a conversation on these issues, so in my conversation, I would like these questions answered.

The Bottom Line

It wasn’t a day after the first blog popped up declaring that Rob Bell may be a Universalist, that those from Rob’s viewpoint started saying that people like myself only believe in Hell because it gives us permission to hate our enemies and that we have a twisted viewpoint to want there to be a full Hell, etc. I’ve never heard something  more outrageous in my life!!! I believe in a literal, hot, tormenting Hell, and I don’t believe there is a second chance after this life to choose Jesus. That’s why the reality of Hell must be preached here and that’s why the gospel must be preached now. I don’t want a full Hell, but that’s what I believe it will be if we become silent about Jesus and the gospel and if we start telling people to live life to its fullest now because in the end there is no way a loving God is going to let them go to Hell, so they can choose Him anytime they want. If I hated my enemy, this is the message I would preach. If I hated my enemy, why would I want to warn them about Hell? See how dumb that accusation is?

Love Wins because God loved a world full of people who took the perfect gift he gave us and we rebelled against him and through our sin we broke his ideal plan. Through this love of His, he sent the perfect sacrifice through his son, Jesus, so that all those who believe in him, would be redeemed. It would be disgraceful to call this act by God hate and it would diminish God’s power to say it’s not good enough and that we need an after-death grace period because the time on Earth He gave us was not long enough. Rob Bell wants to talk about Hell limiting the power & love of God, however, saying that a person cannot come to faith in the lifespan God gave them, would diminish God even more.

I may be totally wrong about Rob Bell’s views on this matter once I read the book, but based on his own answers in his interview and the reviews from those who both agree and disagree with him, I believe I am completely accurate. If I find I am wrong I will apologize and correct it as emphatically as I have dismissed it.

**Also, please note, I have not and am not attacking Rob Bell or those who agree with him, I have simply pointed out some of the areas where we disagree, Love Wins**

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Stay Classy

@jakerutenbar and friends have done it again with their new music video “Stay Classy” – Check it out below: