UNWRAPPING THE GUAZE TO SIMPLIFY

Have you had a wound that you knew was festering, but you hadn't looked at it in quite some time? Finally, when pulling back the band aid brand you noticed how puss-filled and infected it was.

I have had some apprehension about some areas in our church community for a while. Not like big red alarms, but just a sense that something needed tweaking, cleaning. As a pastor I have to use my discernment, and I've been keeping my ear to the ground listening.

Well, at Mitosis a week ago I realized the conference wasn't for what we originally intended. One thing I've known for years about events is that you only understand the purpose of an event after it is done. Well, now I see the purpose of Mitosis.

Mitosis was intended to pull the band aid back! Seriously, we've had some amazing conversations with The Rock Church team in the last 9 days.

Here is the low down of it: There are 660,000 people living in reach of The Rock Church, including those on the other side of the river in Everett. The USA Today told a us a few years ago that 75% (495,000) of them were not going to church on Sunday, and just recently Barna said, 70% of 20-30 year olds are not in church anywhere! Those stats line up, so it is safe to say that as much as we think we are reaching those who don't know Christ WE CAN DO BETTER!

Enough about the down side. Here is the deal. Even though we just passed the 1,000 mark of active members in 2007, many of them saved here, it is not enough. There are far too many people with no clue about how great life can be with the TRUTH at the center of it: Jesus.

So we are looking into The Rock Church and searching to find out what kind of tune up we need to make to reach more people. In reality, the calendar is full, so we are killing good stuff off the calendar to open up time for people to reach their friends. In reality, the themes of our church are cluttered--reaching more, ifit, touching tomorrow together, connecting people to life--so we are killing massive amounts of communication to communicate one thing, our God-given mission: Connecting People to Life (John 14:6; 10:10; Prov 8:35; 1 John 5:12). In reality our core values are direct and good, but they can't be remembered, so we are simplifying: Connect, People and LIFE!

BOTTOM LINE. We pulled back the band aid on our community of Snohomish and North King County and we saw a great opportunity to clean up the clutter in our church to reach the 495,000 people who are not connected to a life-giving church!

Who are we trying to reach anyway? The Christians in another church? NO way, I want to reach people who have no experience with Church/God/Jesus or I want to reach people who have had bad experiences with church/God/Jesus. Why them? Because that is who Jesus reached! I am certainly thankful for those with experience God sends to help, and I want them to join the quest to win our county to Jesus.

Well, I'm getting passionate now reminding myself of why we exist and who we are here to reach everyday...

Perhaps you're going through the same inventory right now...what would you change about your Christian life if it meant reaching people you know? Your schedule? Priorities? It's a tough question, but one we should ask often as a church, and as experienced Christians...