CAMPUS LAUNCH PAD

Unprecedented. Unheard of. Never before. These are the words that people use to describe this COVID-19 situation. The church has gone online and families adjust to the “new normal” of social distancing and quarantine. What we’ve done before will not work wherever we are now or where we are headed.  We can crumple up the road map, because there are no maps where we are headed as a church, because no one has ever been there before! What an honor that God would allow us to steward his church during this season. We are the generation that will lead the church off the map.  The questions are endless and the answers are fluid and untested. When there are fewer knowns than unknowns there are a few things to remember: THE MISSION IS NOT CANCELLED. First, we have to realize that God knows it all and has seen it all, so when he issued his promises and commands he did it with the FULL VIEW of time.  This means that when God made promises to us and commands for us,  h...

Make Disciples: Virtual 1on1s. Sunday morning I, like most Christians, sat on the couch with my family and watched our church service online. I gotta admit, it was kind of a cool experience! Later that afternoon, I caught a couple more services from churches around town.  I watched as the CHURCH broke Facebook Live!  Never before has the Church been so digital and so available!  On the campus ministry front: our students have gone and our campuses have gone online. Therefore, we go virtual!  Never before has this been an option in the history of the church! But, let’s not buy into the lie.  In the same way that in-person worship services never produced the same quality disciples as the intentional one-on-one investment, the well done, live-stream worship service will fall short just the same.  If nothing else, it will take consumeristic, church-hopping Christianity to the next level!  Before we take our large groups online, what’s our plan for...

The Comparison Game The past week my social media feed has been overwhelmed by the number of live-streamed ministries. I’m guessing yours has been too! Some of them have been simple recordings off a phone or tablet and others have been high-tech productions.  And if I’m honest, REALLY honest, as our team was prepping for our own virtual launch I was feeling a TON of pressure to produce something studio worthy and have it stream on a hundred different platforms we weren’t even on.  I was tempted to spend tons of money that we didn’t have, so we could have a nice polished ministry broadcast so people would think we were something we aren’t!  My friends, I have been living in sin.  The sin of comparison! Comparison is the thief of joy and the fuel that feeds our insecurities’ flame. In an age where everything we do is online for all to see, the comparison virus is in full swing! It’s more contagious than corona and spiritually more dangerous! What a cruddy wa...

GOD IS STILL ON HIS THRONE Chances are you’ve felt like the whole world is falling apart.  God is still good and God is still on his throne.  Perhaps he is giving his people a platform to serve and love the world instead of cower in fear, without hope, like our non-believing neighbors.  God has given us a spirit of power, not a spirit of fear and timidity.  The gospel runs in when everyone else runs out.  Don’t buy into the hysteria and fear-mongering! THE GOSPEL CALL HASN’T CHANGED It is times like these where the gospel has spread the quickest.  World-wide panic and fear?  The peace of the gospel is the cure.  Isolation and broken relationships?  The family of God leans in.  Corona Virus may have forced us into social distancing, but social distancing DOES NOT mean relational distancing.  Pick up the phone and call.  FaceTime, Google Hangout, Zoom call.  Find ways to stay connected and feed each others souls....