Two at TNL

People say, ‘Time flies when you are having fun.’  If that is true I am in a time warp.

April 1 will mark my 2nd anniversary at TNL.  And let me tell you it has been such a rush!  Over the past two years I  have laughed, cried and challenged you, and you me.  Together we have shared meals, our stories and our lives.  I have visited some of you in the hospital, trusted others to watch my sons, and I’ve even had to say good-bye to some in my time here.

Even with all the ups and downs, the joy and sorrow, and the critiques and compliments there is not any other church community I want to be a part of, journey with or lead.  Just this morning I was thinking about how difficult it would be to find another church like TNL. I think TNL has wrecked me for other churches.

We are a community of people who are honest and messy in our faith. We are not pretentious about our successes or distraught in our failures. We are generous not only with our money, but with our lives.  We hope for the best but will deal with whatever comes next. And when that “next” does comes we do not let it destroy us, but we let it shape us. Not only who we are and who we are becoming by the grace of God.

Over the past two years I have loved getting to know the people that make The Next Level Church. I am humbled by how you have impacted my journey with Jesus.  I think I have underestimated how greatly you have shaped me as a Christ follower, a father, a husband and as a pastor…one of your pastors.  For all of this I am grateful.

Splitting My Time

The Next Level Church has it's new website up and rolling. The new site has a blog which I will regularly be contributing to.  So much of my blogging will show up there, like this post from Ash Wednesday.

However, this blog will remain the place where I can shoot off my mouth without endangering the church.  This is the place I will post what I think without it being edited or making it sound a certain way. This is the place where stuff will go that just rolls out of my head.

A Lot To Live Up To

Letter to Diognetus: 2nd Century

"Christians are not distinguished from other men by country, language, nor by the customs which they observe. They do not inhabit cities of their own, use a particular way of speaking, nor lead a life marked out by any curiosity. The course of conduct they follow has not been devised by the speculation and deliberation of inquisitive men. The do not, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of merely human doctrines.

Instead, they inhabit both Greek and barbarian cities, however things have fallen to each of them. And it is while following the customs of the natives in clothing, food, and the rest of ordinary life that they display to us their wonderful and admittedly striking way of life.

They live in their own countries, but they do so as those who are just passing through. As citizens they participate in everything with others, yet they endure everything as if they were foreigners. Every foreign land is like their homeland to them, and every land of their birth is like a land of strangers.

They marry, like everyone else, and they have children, but they do not destroy their offspring.

They share a common table, but not a common bed.

They exist in the flesh, but they do not live by the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, all the while surpassing the laws by their lives.

They love all men and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned. They are put to death and restored to life.

They are poor, yet make many rich. They lack everything, yet they overflow in everything.

They are dishonored, and yet in their very dishonor they are glorified; they are spoken ill of and yet are justified; they are reviled but bless; they are insulted and repay the insult with honor; they do good, yet are punished as evildoers; when punished, they rejoice as if raised from the dead. They are assailed by the Jews as barbarians; they are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to give any reason for their hatred.

To sum it all up in one word, what the soul is in the body, that is what Christians are in the world."

Church Advertising: What's the Difference?

What is the difference between these two ADs?

Both are from churches.
Both confront a topic the church is not comfortable dealing with.
Both want people to attend the events associate with them.
Both are creative.
Both are hard to forget.

However, the second AD requires out of the box thinking.  It does not rely purely on shock value.  In comparison the shock value of the second AD is low.  Is it head-scratching without explanation, yes (a church hosting a bra drive?), but not too shocking. The first is suggestive and the second thought provoking.  The first communicates sex and the second communicates a cause and information.

The first AD is also bate and switch. The person interested in a sex life that does not suck, will go to the advertised website only to find a video filled with discouraging statistics about how society has mishandled sex, not steamy videos of the couple.  The site also reveals the need for another step before you get the better sex life, "Oh yeah, we led you here to mainly tell you about our church."

Mood killer!

Now, I am all for a biblical understanding of sex and how God's version of intimacy is so much more enjoyable, satisfying and "exciting." But the first AD looks more like a Viagra AD, then a church teaching series.  It mimics cultural advertising in the fact that it lacks intelligence and is aimed at a lowest common denominator audience. While the second is honest and authentic.

Then again, maybe I am just be bias.

Organized Religion Is Big Business, But Should It Be?

"It's the economy, stupid . . .

Big Businesses famously roll on in this country because we're scared of letting them fail. And if there truly is an American business that's too big to send swirling down the economy's drain, it's the Organized Religion Industry (O.R.I). For an industry of which the major American branch (Christianity) uses as its mission statement the anti-materialist words of a poor carpenter, the O.R.I has done all right in the rapacious fray known as the American economy."

Read more

Pushing People Forward

Have you ever been volunteered for something? Ever been in a line of people and had no one step forward to accept a challenge, but saw everyone step back making it look like you were the one to step up?  Well, TNL has doing that to people in the past weeks.

As TNL prepares to host Denver's Biggest Bra Drive we have been purposely pushing other people, businesses and organisations into the lime light. We have not wanted to be the recipients of all the attention and focus.  We have actually tried to redirect any attention to others involved in this event. People like Andrea Ball, who will be preforming. Organizations like Free The Girls, who is actually collecting and distributing the bras.  Businesses like the Gothic Theater and Cafe 180, where the event is held and who are providing a pay-what-you-can dinner for the event (respectively).  Not to mention, that Jesus is the sole reason for all of this.

TNL is not looking for press. We are not looking to be the center of attention. We are not looking to be seen as cool, progressive or holier-than-thou.  We just want to be a community who seeks to be active in setting wrongs right, dispensing mercy and walking humbly (behind the scenes) with our God. 

Why Would a Church Hold a Bra Drive?

Usually church is a place where you go wearing your "Sunday Best" not a place you go carrying your underwear.  So, why would The Next Level Church partner with Free The Girls to host Denver's Biggest Bra Drive?  Church is no place to talk about "unmentionables," right?

Wrong!

When you think about it, the church is the perfect and most appropriate place to have a bra drive when you understand:

• Pound for pound bras sell for 5 times the cost of other used clothing items in Africa.

• Bras are the number one demanded used clothing item in Africa. When large containers of used clothes arrive in Africa bras are always the first items taken.  Followed second by shoes!

• A women who wear a bra in Africa is seen as having disposable income, a job and being more self reliant.  This makes her less of a target for adbuse and mistreatment.  Simply put, an African women who wears a bras is less liekly to be raped!

This bra drive is about mercy, justice and love. All things the church should be about! With this in mind how could the church not host bras drives all over the US?

“Truly I tell you, whatever you 

did for one of the least of these

 brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."  

-Jesus