Sunday, November 16, 2008
This month marks my second year at Palm Valley Church. I love it here. This place is special. Every time I turn my head or pan my eyes, I see something else that makes me thank God that He's placed me here. This series of posts will be a recollection of the past two years, blended with my favorite things that this church represents, and sprinkled with lots of love and hope for reaching the tens of thousands of people who live in my community and don't know who Jesus Christ is.
We have a growing understanding of the potential of music.
Since I first started (and even before I came) we've used all kinds of music in our services in hopes of relating to the people of our community. Anything from the latest Tomlin and Crowder to the Beatles and Rascal Flatts to St. Francis of Assisi, literally. We understand that God created music, not KLOVE. The spectrum of music here is bright, dark, vast, and narrow; depending on where you're sitting... or if you're walking out. One of my favorite memories of my first two years came a little over a year ago. The message that weekend centered around communicating with God through prayer. Just before the message, we ripped into Bon Jovi's Livin' on a Prayer. Within the first 48 seconds a family stood up from their seat and walked out the door.
"We aren't the church for everyone."
It was obvious they were Christians, the bible fanny packs gave them away (no knock on the Bible zipper pouch, if you have one :) ). This was a family that was visiting us for the first time and... bless their hearts... they had no idea what they were in for. I obviously don't know this family, but for me they represent the boat-loads of Christians who have walked through the doors of PVC only to march out moments later. For various reasons. We didn't play music they liked. They weren't "fed" during the message. The person sitting next to them had a neck tattoo. They got uncomfortable hearing truth. Whatever. See... the thing is... we're passionate about reaching lost people with knowledge of Jesus. No, seriously... we're PASSIONATE about it. I think it was Rick Warren who said "everyone wants to reach lost people until you start reaching lost people." I'd take it a step further: Christians stop reaching lost people when the necessary means of reaching people interfere with the unnecessary needs of the already Believer. The bottom line is we don't spend a lot of time trying to please Christians; our efforts are focused on discipling people (leading people to take that next step in their walk towards Christ).
It starts at the top. Our pastor is known for saying "we're not the church for everyone." This has been he most liberating statement of my first two years here. That statement if freedom for me. I'm free to plan and create without the need of contouring what I do to appease or pacify. I'm free to try new things and push the envelope. I'm free to pour into people and challenge them to lead. I'm free to loving send people away when they don't connect with the vision of our church. I'm free knowing that I'm trusted; my lead pastor and the staff have my back. Most importantly, I'm free to be me.
