Coming Alive

This past Sunday we ran through setting up all the stuff we have to make Morrisette Paper look a little more comfortable.  It’s amazing how far you can get with a lot of creativity…even with a low budget.  We made the decision a while back not to invest a lot of $ into stuff that will only be used an hour a week.  Although this frees us up to do some pretty amazing things it really does limit us on Sundays. 

I’ve seen some churches do some pretty amazing stuff that really impressed me.  Honestly, I am a little jealous.  If we had their budget we would be stealing ideas left and right!  However, I am really seeing the benefit of doing this thing cheap:

1.  It has taken a group effort – A lot of our stuff has been made by Patio people.  Our cafe sign is AWESOME and it was done by ladies in the church and the community. 
2.  It frees us up to give - I’m saddened by churches that spend so much on their buildings that they can’t give outside to other works.  There has to be something wrong with that.
3.  It makes everything MUCH easier – Sunday morning set up time is well under an hour.  2-3 people can knock it out in 45 minutes.  With everyone helping it is a 20 minute job!  

There is absolutely no straightforward resource online for ideas on How to KILL Your Neighbor!  Plenty of stuff on how to kill your neighbor’s dog…but NOTHING on taking your neighbor out.  What a rip.

Our first series at The Patio is How To KILL Your Neighbor.  Man, I am getting pretty psyched!

This Sunday – Killing your neighbor relationally.  10am @ Morrisette Paper.

Get ready Reedy Fork!

We are exactly one week away from the first public worship gathering of The Patio!  Feelings?  Maybe a little calm before the storm kinda thing.  Then again maybe I really have begun to finally hear the advice and encouragements from so many to just relax and focus on how good God has been to us. 

It’s probably a little bit of both. 

Let me just get this out there though: My expectations are HIGH!  God is for His Church.  He is for every gathering of believers pursuing Him and His callings.  We may have 30 people next week and we may have 100, but either way my expectations are through the roof that God is going to do a great work in the lives of those at The Patio and in the community of Reedy Fork Ranch. 

If you are able to join us this Sunday morning for our launch service hit up our website: www.patiochurch.com for directions and information on our first series – “How to KILL Your Neighbor”

During a game of “Would you Rather?” an interesting question came up: “Would you rather have the ability to plant factual information or emotion into people’s minds?” 

Obviously my first instinct is to have the ability to plant truth.  Emotion is flaky, untrustworthy, and short-lived.  Truth, on the other hand, is key to freedom…according to Jesus anyway. 

Why, then, do so many people who have all the right answers still make terrible decisions. 
Fact: Bible is the word of God – 9 out of 10 people who claim to know this as a fact rarely, if ever, open their Bible outside of Sunday morning (if then)
Fact: Prayer is communication with God – 6.  that’s how many minutes a day the average PASTOR spends praying (according to some study that I’m too lazy to go find right now…do you really think it’s wrong?)
Fact: The Bible says sex is a gift for married couples – I find it hard to believe that the countless college students I counseled over the years simply didn’t KNOW what they were doing was wrong.

OK, and set aside Biblical facts for a second.  No one thinks smoking is making them run the mile any quicker.  The doller menu at Wendy’s isn’t making my butt any firmer…sometimes I think about this as I order my chicken nuggets and frosty (then I drown my guilt in frozen vanilla goodness).

Bottom line: facts don’t change lives like we think they do.  There is more to it than information.  It’s sad, but true that people make decisions based on emotion and justify them with their logic.  I don’t think that emotions separate from Truth are safe.  I recognize that there are times that the two need each other to be effective. 

It’s nearly impossible to change something in your life without your emotions behind it
Without Truth, the change is short-lived.

It is insane that The Patio will be officially starting next month!  So much has changed.  We have some great families with us that I didn’t even know when God called me to do this thing.  In the beginning I envisioned us making it here, but not quite as easily as we have. 

There are some difficult things that go along with church planting, but for the most part, this experience has gone pretty smoothly.  There are a lot more stories of planters who struggle than who see things fall together perfectly.  Let me say as a word of encouragement to those planters…it has very little to do with your talent!

I can think of 5 different church plants in my area starting within a year of The Patio that are led by much more capable guys than me.  Our experience, however, has been fairly easy…and a whole lot of fun! 

So, what has made it so great?  Simple – a vision well aligned to our community and a great surrounding group of people. 

Sometimes things don’t work out.  Only God knows what The Patio will look like 10 years from now.  Our vision and supporting cast make success more likely, but it doesn’t assure anything.  What it does assure is that no matter what, we are having a great time with this thing! 

Enjoyment is really underestimated in ministry.  I enjoy what I do.  Even the tougher moments.