Days of Service

The past two days have been wonderful days of service in the life our new church plant. The entire launch team of Northwest Community Church is grateful for the support, encouragement, and hard work of the students at Walnut Street Baptist Church in Louisville, KY. They completed service projects at two different Boys and Girls Clubs in Benton County, hosted a free (no donations accepted) car wash in the Bella Vista town center, and last night helped our church present Screen on the Green as we invited the entire community to a free outdoor family movie night. The ten students from Walnut Street managed to wash between 160-170 cars in a 4 hour time period! We literally almost caused traffic problems. It was so funny to see the look on people's faces when we refused to accept their donations and explained to them that we simply wanted to serve the community in the name of Christ with no strings attached. People were almost uncomfortable with the idea of receiving something for free. Servant evangelism truly is one of the most effective ways Christ followers are able to win over people's attitude towards Christ and his church. Our prayer is that people will be drawn to our church as a result of our serving spirit.

As Walnut Street travels home today, please pray for their safe travels. I am completely humbled by their commitment and willingness to serve in the name of Christ. In addition, I am spurred on by their example and pray that one day Northwest can encourage other local churches in the same way.

July 4th Weekend

This week is an exciting week in the life of Northwest Community Church. We have two important events designed to connect and serve the families of Bella Vista. If you are within driving distances, get involved. Otherwise please lift us up in prayer specifically on Thursday and Friday of this week.

Beginning on Wednesday evening we have the youth group from Walnut Street Baptist Church in Louisville, KY arriving to be involved in what Christ is doing at Northwest. The students will stay in the homes of our church members and serve alongside us for three days while we invest in the families of Bella Vista. On Thursday, July 1 from 12pm - 4pm Northwest Community Church is hosting a totally free car wash (no donations accepted) at a newly opened gas station in Bella Vista, The Finish Line. This is our way of partnering with local businesses in an effort to serve the community in tangible ways. Then on Friday evening, July 2nd we are hosting our very own "Screen on the Green" on the lawn of the Bella Vista Boys and Girls Club. This will be another event designed for families to develop new friendships. We are showing the movie "Up" which will start at dark. Be sure to tring your own lawn chair and invite your friends and neighbors.

Please pray that the Bella Vista families who need to be connected with our church will see the ads we put in the paper or receive one of the 7k postcards we mailed out inviting them to these events. As always, our desire is to see unchurched families come to experience what a new life in Christ is all about. In addition, please pray for the students and leadership of Walnut Street Baptist Church as they courageously serve in our church plant. Pray that this experience will ignite in them a passion to see other churches planted around the globe.

Suggestions For A More Radical Christianity

As a follow up to my previous post. Here are five suggestions Dr. Rainer presented in response to the cultural trends facing the church in the U.S. These suggestions are meant to lead the church towards a more radical Christianity:

1. A broken heart for the lostness of humanity.
2. Become an Acts 6 Christian...The early church was in danger of being good instead of great. If the pastors have to do all the "church work" the church will not become great. All the church is to do ministry. Ministry is never to be "hired out."
3. Be missional and incarnational in your community. In other words Christ followers must live intentionally as if they are being sent out into the community for other people to see Christ living in them.
4. Help raise the bar of church membership.
5. Move from churchianity to Christianity. Instead of business as usual we must live differently and proclaim the radical message of the gospel.

On the surface, few churches or Christians could disagree with Dr. Rainer's message. You might even say these suggestions are no-brainers. And yet radical Christianity as Dr. Rainer pointed out is basically a heart issue. Churches cannot merely make cosmetic or programatic changes and expect an entire congregation to live out a radical Christianity. Likewise, individual Christians cannot make outward changes to their lifestyle and suddenly expect God to use them to change the world. True spiritual transformation always starts with the heart and works its way out.

As sobering as these realities are, I am not at all discouraged. And here's why...God has given Northwest Community Church all the raw materials for a life-giving, world-changing, God loving, people loving, healthy church. I am truly honored to serve alongside a team of people who are committed to live out a more radical Christianity.

Cultural Trends

A few weeks ago, Greg and I had the opportunity to worship at the Church at Pinnacle Hills on a Sunday night. The speaker that evening was Dr. Thom Rainer who is a former professor at Southern Seminary and is now serving as the CEO of Lifeway. Dr. Rainer's writings have proved to be extremely helpful to our entire launch team. In fact, I had our team read Simple Church as we were laying the ground work for Northwest Community Church and developing the process for how we were going to achieve our vision of leading people to experience a new life in Christ. At any rate, Dr. Rainer's talk that evening was divided up into two parts:

1. 7 Cultural Trends in the U.S.
2. 5 Suggestions for a More Radical Christianity

Both sections were insightful, challenging, and accurately dealt with current reality. In fact, it was the truth behind Dr. Rainer's talk which compelled us to plant Northwest Community Church and God willing will allow us to plant other healthy, missional churches. I'll you the bullet points of Dr. Rainer's talk and make my own comments along the way. Oh yeah, and I will break this blog up into two sections so it does not get too lengthy. And by the way, I feel certain Dr. Rainer is about to come out with a new book addressing the essence of his talk...buy it when it comes out, you will not regret it. Seven Cultural Trends in the U.S.:

1. The lostness of the U.S. is increasing. This a no-brainer. All you have to do is talk to your neighbors to realize this fact and yet most churches are doing absolutely zero about it. There are 80 million Americans born 1980-2000 (makes up the largest generation in U.S. history) and only 15% are Christian.
2. The attitude of the unchurched in America is changing from receptive to indifference. People don't see the importance of church.
3. There will be no successful senior adult ministry in 10 years because older Boomers do not see themselves as "old" or "senior."
4. Family will be the most (and is) important core value to Millennials (1980-2000). Typically Boomer and Builders had very private relationships, but that is changing.
5. In less than 20 years there will be no majority group in U.S. racially. Churches that are going to reach Millenials must be cross-cultural.
6. Boomers my become the first generation to become more receptive to the Gospel in older years. The reason...Boomers have tried everything and nothing satisfies.
7. How healthy churches define community is changing. There is a move to become more missional (one who is sent) and incarnational (in the flesh). Churches who are serious about impacting cultural realize the advantages of sending people out from their campus and into the community as opposed to always expecting the "lost" to come to us.

Despite the fact that these trends are sobering, there is hope. In fact the beauty of the church is that it can adapt to fit any cultural at any time without ever compromising the life-giving message of Jesus Christ. Dr. Rainer's suggestions for a proper response to these cultural trends will be in my next blog.