Slowed Economy - Sean

Things happen in our lives that are totally out of our control and when they do it can be scary. We need to know that it’s necessary for us to experience this so that we can realize that we are not in control. I’ve been thinking about this a lot more lately because of the slowing state of our economy. People around the country have been losing jobs left and right and it has hit home right here in our community. I’ve been getting emails with prayer requests that seem to have a nervous tone about them because jobs are in jeopardy and the realization has set in that this is out of our control.

In my thinking about this stuff, randomly something hit me as a possibility. What if God Himself, has slowed down our economy on purpose? Maybe, it’s His way of telling us to stop chasing the dream of more. Ever since I have become a Christian I have heard messages about busyness, and this idea that we can’t be too busy to follow Jesus., and as time has gone on that message seems to be getting louder and louder.

I have personally experienced the slowing of the economy myself. About a year ago I got laid off from my job as a Community Life Minister. It was one of the toughest times in my life. Mentally I was spent everyday. Doing ordinary tasks seemed to become impossible to me. The days felt oddly short, yet filled with eternal boredom. I spent nine months unemployed and it financially wrecked me, but spiritually it brought me to places unknown. I experienced what it means that God alone holds us in His hands. I just want to share this message: it was worth the exchange!

The Polar Opposite of Passion

Yesterday we talked about being passionate warriors for God. God placed us in our roles and we are called to fulfill our God-given assignments. The thing that most often gets in my way is... drum roll please... complacency.

To be complacent means to be "contented to a fault, self satisfied, especially when unaware of impending danger." The key words in this definition are contented, self-satisfied and unaware. Being complacent is being so proud of our own accomplishments, so satisfied with our life-situation that we are content to just enjoy the fruits of our labors. Complacent warriors aren't engaged in a battle - they view all of significant battles as being in the past - and now are content to enjoy the spoils of their own labor.

The story we studied yesterday began this way: "I Nebuchadnezzar, was at home in my palace contented and prosperous" (Dan. 4:4). What he had forgotten - which brought about the impending danger was that - leadership is a stewardship, it was temporary, and he was accountable.

As warriors for the cause of Christ, we don't get to just prop our feet up and enjoy the fruits of "our labor." Our war is on-going and battles must be fought every single day, so as long as we have breath we continue to fight. The greatest threat to our involvement God's work in this world is complacency.

Leaders don't wait for a crisis to answer the call. A leader doesn't wait for his wife to say she is leaving before getting concerned about his marriage. A leader does not wait for his son to develop and addiction before being concerned about the character of his friends. A real leader doesn't wait for a financial crisis at church to begin to reflect on where the resources God has poured into his life are really going. Leaders live their leadership every day, in light of God's purposes, because they know God has placed them in their roles, for this specific time, and they are accountable to Him.

24-Hour Prayer Focus

We had a great time in our LIFE Group last night. One outcome was the proposal that our group invite our church family into a 24-Hour prayer focus this coming weekend. With a critical election before us next Tuesday, families impacted by the economic downturn, God’s mission before us – we must move forward together under God’s direction and in His power. What a way to start a new month of service. Here is our proposal.

Some Questions about our 24-Hour Prayer Focus.

Who: Anyone and everyone who wants to participate, individuals, couples, families or small groups.

What: A 24-hour chain of unbroken prayer

When: 10:00 AM Saturday till 10:00 AM Sunday.

How: Sign up for a ½ hour or hour time-slot and commit to pray for those items mentioned above – and others things that are on your heart. (we’ll provide a list to help guide your thoughts). We should easily be able to fill up all of the time slots. This will provide a 24-hour unbroken chain of prayer from our church family. Michele Keeton will be doing signups on Wednesday evening or you can also sign up by emailing Michele at bluekeeton@comcast.net.

Where: Wherever you are. You don’t need to come to our campus to pray. Spend time in focused prayer wherever you happen to be.

Please join us…

Keeton’s LIFE Group

Where Have All The Men Gone?

This week we begin a message series that focuses on men…and we’ve strategically placed our Men’s Retreat in the middle of this series. I know this may seem a little unfair for our women. But I hope you’ll agree that one of the greatest gifts we can give the women of our church is to help the men in their lives become the men God is calling them to be. If you look around, you have to admit, the church has not been very helpful in this process.

As part of my prep for the series I’m reading a book titled: “Why Men Hate Going To Church.” For a supposedly male-dominated institution, the statistics are staggering.

• The typical U.S. congregation draws an adult crowd that’s 61% female, 39% male. This gender gap shows up in all age categories.
• On any given Sunday there are 13 million more adult women than men in America’s churches.
• This Sunday almost 25 percent of married, churchgoing women will worship without their husbands.
• Midweek activities often draw 70 to 80 percent female participants.
• The majority of church employees are women (except for ordained clergy, who are overwhelmingly male).
• Over 70 percent of the boys who are being raised in church will abandon it during their teens and twenties. Many of these boys will never return.
• More than 90 percent of American men believe in God, and five out of six call themselves Christians. But only two out of six attend church on a given Sunday. The average man accepts the reality of Jesus Christ, but fails to see any value in going to church.
• Churches overseas report gender gaps of up to 9 women for every adult man in attendance.
• Christian universities are becoming convents. The typical Christian college in the U.S. enrolls 2 women for every 1 man.
• Fewer than 10% of U.S. churches are able to establish or maintain a vibrant men’s ministry.

The author concludes that today's church has feminized Jesus and expects attenders to participate in intimate, nurturing behavior including things like singing “love songs” to Jesus, hand-holding, sharing feelings, while inviting everyone to have a “personal relationship” with the Savior. Many men feel uncomfortable in such an environment and choose not to go. In fact, nearly every man in America has experienced church at some point in his life, yet two-thirds of them do not currently feel it worthy of two hours of their time on a Sunday morning. Something is tragically wrong.

You can draw two different conclusions to this data.

· You could conclude that men are inherently unspiritual. It’s easy to blame the men. Yet, almost every other religion (Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim) reverse the men/women percentages mentioned above.

· You could conclude that most of our churches have become environments that are not very inviting to men. Therefore, they are choosing to express their spirituality in other ways and in other places.

Why does this matter? At a recent seminar our leaders attended together, the speaker shared these statistics: If a child attends church first, 17% of the time the parents will follow; if a woman attends church first, 33% of the time the family will follow; if a man attends church first, 93% of the time the family will follow.

We must be intentional about “making room” for men in our churches and be intentional about inviting them to be the “real men” that God is calling them to be.

Becoming A Sticky Church

On Sunday a newcomer engaged me following our worship. She spoke of her gratitude for Community and I said: “I’m really glad you found us.” With tears in her eyes, she replied: “We didn’t find you – God led us here. From the first time I walked into this building, I knew we were home.”

God is creating a church that people love to come to. But, what if, rather than just creating a church that people love to come to - what if we also created a church that people refuse to leave."

For years, the primary focus in many churches has been on the “front door”—people coming into the church. And while such an emphasis remains the Great Commission priority, our leaders are equally concerned with integrating newcomers into the life of the church.

Researchers have discovered four major factors that are at work when churches close the back door effectively. If all four are in play, the back door closed tight. But any one of these factors still contributes to more effective assimilation.

1. High Expectations

The American Church went through a period of more than 10 years when churches significantly lowered their expectations of members and attendees. The result was an exodus of people from the church. “Why would I want to be a part of something that expects nothing of me?” a former active church member told a research team. People want to be challenged to invest their lives in something that matters. We must establish clear expectations of service, stewardship and attendance, etc. We need people invested in the most important mission on this planet.

2. Small Groups

Second, churches that close the back door seek to get as many of their members as possible into small groups. Connections and life-change happens best in small groups. If you are only a Sunday attender, let me challenge you to be involved at a deeper level in our spiritual family. You will be blessed. You can find a list of our small groups on our website at www.heart4communtiy.org. It is in our small groups that we begin “doing life together.”

3. Ministry Involvement

The third key component is ministry involvement. The earlier a new member or attendee can get involved in a church’s ministries, the higher the likelihood of effective assimilation. This is a critical time-frame that our ministry leaders monitor closely. Churches that close the back door have a clear plan to get people involved and doing ministry as quickly as possible. We currently have a high guest-retention rate – one reason is that newcomers get involved in serving very quickly. Incidentally, the newcomer I mentioned at the beginning of this article - signed up to serve the second Sunday she and her husband attended.

4. Relationship Connections

Finally, the more new members connect with longer-term members, the greater the opportunity for assimilation. In an interesting twist in the research, they found that most of these relationships developed before the new member ever came to the church. In other words, members were intentionally developing relationships with people outside the walls of the church. They invited them to church after the relationship had been established.

You’ll have to judge how we are doing in each of these areas. One thing I would ask is that you help make Community a “sticky church.”

Countering Our American Culture

In college I had a really good friend named Legesse. He was from Ethiopia, and had actually spent a lot of time in the country of Yemen. When he moved here to America and eventually to college with me he obviously brought with him some foreign mannerisms. For example, in America, if there is open seating at a movie or anywhere, and you are going with a friend, when you sit down you will naturally leave an empty seat or two between you. It’s part of our American culture. We are all about space. Legesse didn’t have that. If I sat down with him in class or at a movie or a conference he would sit right next to me and it felt like almost right on top of me! At first I was very uncomfortable. I didn’t like not having personal space. But after a while it didn’t bother me. And I started to see this lack of personal space as a good thing because literally and figuratively I allowed people to get closer to me.

Why do I bring this story up? Well, there are times to embrace culture and times we need to counter our culture. I noticed we are encountering something phenomenal here at CCC. We are experiencing growth. Not just in maturity (although I think we are), but we are also experiencing God bringing us more people, and with this awesome phenomenon comes some hiccups that we have to deal with. This past Sunday for the first time I sat in the back row at CCC. I noticed that in front of me there were a lot of empty spaces, empty chairs, even some rows that were barren. I realized that just like in high school on the bus everyone seems to cling to the back! I understand Brent smells a little, but come on people! No, but hear me out on this. Imagine you are a new person coming to Community for the first time. You get there but you are a little late. As you quietly open the doors to where people are meeting you scan the crowd and see that there are no seats open in the back row. You now have two choices: 1. Make the walk of shame – you have to walk past everyone as they watch you. Find a seat right up front as you crawl over people at the end of the isles, and you have to risk someone publically embarrassing you. Or, 2. You just leave. If you were new, which would you choose, and be honest?

I don’t want people to miss out on an opportunity to possibly meet God for the first time because we were sitting in the back to have our own space. That’s not what we as a church are all about. I just want to challenge all of us, myself included, to sit closer to the front and leave the back open. To sit next to someone instead of leaving gaps in the seats. To not just nab the aisle seat because you like the aisle. Let’s consider others even when it comes to where to sit. Let’s counter our American culture.

One Month To Live Inro Video

In case you missed it, we used this video to kick off our One Month To Live Series. We have had several comments on the video, hope it encourages you on your spiritual journey toward a "no-regrets life."