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Messy Church

“Everyone has hurts, habits, and hang-ups.” – Rick Warren

If the above statement is true (and it is), it means that every church is messy. I’ve heard the above statement used and abused. For some its a convenient cliche and used as false self-deprivation to give an appearance  that one relates to people in their struggles when the true motivation is to create a personal empire versus the Kingdom of God. For others, this is a part of their church’s DNA. Whether the principle is presented word for word (Everyone has hurts, habits, and hang-ups) or in like meaning but using other terminology like Cross Point Church does with their view that Everyone is Welcome, Nobody is Perfect, and Anything is Possible. I want this principle to be a core principle of our DNA at New Passion, not just words.

Sunday, we showed our last One Prayer message for 2010. It was on the Unstoppable Church by Scott Hodge. Scott focuses on the fact that if we are going to be an unstoppable church we must be willing to embrace the mess. Check the video out if you have 26 minutes and then think on the questions I presented on Sunday to our congregation:

How would you answer these questions?

  1. What do we (you) do with the messy and broken people that God leads our (your) way?
    1 (a). Are we afraid of the mess?
  2. Are you being honest about your messiness & brokenness?
    2 (a). Are you hiding behind a mask pretending like everything is okay, when it’s not?
  3. Are we a church of prayer?
    3 (a). Are we as individuals and as a church praying for each other? For the church & its leaders? For miracles

Join the Conversation…I’d love to know your thoughts!

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I Give You Permission…

Dear New Passion,

This Sunday as we join together at our worship service, I give you permission to…

Bottom-line…I give you permission to come Sunday with a heart of worship and the freedom to express it to God!

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What Lion Do You Need to Chase?

I absolutely loved this message by Craig Groeschel that we at New Passion opened our One Prayer series with this past Sunday. It’s called “Unstoppable Courage” and it hits home because I have some friends right now who are staring some Lions in the face and they are either going to have to decide to chase the Lion and kill it, or allow the Lion to destroy them. I pray they have their eyes opened to how big their God is:

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Does Your Guilt Cause You To Accuse?

I saw this lady that I know in Wal-Mart tonight.

She was with a new man. That’s nothing new.

I see people all the time who I haven’t seen in a while who didn’t make it with their spouse.

However, this lady is different.

There was a short stint in my life where I had to sell cars to try and feed my family while I was interviewing for another sales job.

Part of my training required me and all of the new salespeople to test drive cars together. It was the companies way of getting their new hires to learn about the vehicles and a great way to role play with another person to explain the features of the vehicle.

I happened to be test driving a car with another young lady one day.

guiltyA few days later my wife told me that the lady, who I saw in Wal-Mart tonight, went to her mom (my mother-in-law) trying to get me in trouble because she saw me in the car with “another” woman and was concerned! I believe if my memory is correct, my mother-in-law explained to her that I had a new job and part of it was to take people (even women) on test drives.

It was such a surprise to see her tonight without her husband. I couldn’t help but wonder, if she was accusing me several years ago because she had something she was hiding that made her feel guilty. Does guilt cause us to accuse other people of what we are doing?

I’m not judging her and why she is no longer with her husband, but it sure did make me think!