For so many years, my experience as a Christian showed me churches that were primarily focused on developing relationships with the people already inside of the church. The main ways to attract outsiders was to have a weeklong “revival” (which…ironically implies that your church is dead) or by “Vacation Bible School.” Don’t get me wrong…I saw a lot of close knit relationships develop through the church, but there just seemed to be something missing in the development of the church.

I have been thinking a lot about innovation lately. Why is it that most churches are some of the least innovative places and so resistant to change? It’s not just in traditional churches. It’s “contemporary” churches as well. While the methods used may have been considered innovative 15 years ago, it’s definitely lost it’s effectiveness now (Some things of note in 1993: Sega Genesis, Beanie Babies first released, and Leonardo Dicaprio in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape).

Let’s face it, we have to seek ways to be on the cutting edge of innovation. It’s bigger than Facebook, Twitter, or text messaging (if you don’t know what those are…look them up). Sure we can use those things now (and should). But we need to create ways of ministry that are constantly fresh and innovative. Let’s think outside of the proverbial box. Heck…we should be nowhere near the box. Let creativity be more than simply filling in a template for a weekly worship service. Let creativity be more than a clever joke in a sermon. Let creativity be more than an email prayer chain.

Here’s my prayer today: God…not only now, but when I’m 85 years old (let me make it that far please)…I hope that I am open and searching for new ways to teach about you and introduce people to you. Oh…and please let Crocs go out of style. They are so ugly.

Last week, we took our youth to camp…Big Stuf. It was incredible. You can check out video highlights from our youth website, by clicking here.

Anyways, I missed Patty and Isaiah like crazy. We had a good time on the 4th, watching some fireworks right outside our apartment. Here’s some pics to show ya what we’ve been up to.

Here are a couple of pictures of Isaiah’s first trip to the beach. Sorry I’ve been slow blogging. Hopefully I can get consistent soon!

He loved it!

My favorite picture from the trip

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about what church should look like. I guess the question I’ve really been asking is this: Why do we do church the way that we do it?

Don’t get me wrong. This is not about questioning traditions. It’s about making sure that every single aspect of what we do as a church has a purpose. AND…THAT purpose lines up 100% with the main purpose of the church.

Let’s take a typical worship service at our church for example. Some of these things I see the point in, others I do not. Here’s some questions to ask ourselves about each element.

*Countdown- Do people need a countdown to let them know when it’s starting? Does there cell phone not sync up with the satellite?
*Opening Song – Why have a song to signal the start of a service? Kind of like the national anthem maybe?
*Welcome- Why do people need to be welcomed during the service? Did multiple greeters and other people greet them on the way in?
*Worship Set- Why have music at all? Can worship only begin with upbeat music and work gradually to slower, apparently “more worshipful” songs?
*Offering Prayer and Special Song- Why does this need to be in the middle of the service? Can people only give if there is some background music playing?
*Bumper- Why do we need a video that transitions between the offering song and the sermon? I wonder how Jesus could have been effective without it.
*Sermon- Why does it have to be a live speaker giving a lecture? When was the last time you invited your friends to a lecture?
*Invitation- Why should we give an invitation every week? Do you think one more verse will bring them down? (I see that hand).
*Closing Song- Why does it have to end with another song? Was six not enough?

Obviously, I said a lot of things tongue in cheek. I see a lot of reasons that we should do some of the things mentioned above. The main thing is, we have to know why we do what we do. If what we do does not line up with the vision and purpose of the church, we shouldn’t do it. (What is the vision and purpose of your church? Sorry…I couldn’t resist.)

What questions do you think should be asked about church life?

I just finished up some of these for my afternoon snack. Yum…kind of.

Isn’t it amazing how many times we say we’re gonna change something in our lives and we don’t follow through with it? Well…I know there are a couple of changes that I’m making in my life that gonna be hard to stick with, but when all is said and done both will change my life for the better. What are they? Here ya go…

1) Patty and I are gonna be setting up a hardcore budget and paying off stuff as fast as possible. I’m sure that we won’t be able to eat out much and we’ll have to cut back on other things (goodbye cable package), but wow..it will feel great to be out of debt. This post by Seth Godin really sums up how I’m feeling about it. Part of our plan is that I’m gonna do some extra work on the side…maybe even some speaking or music. We’ll see.

2) I’m going to lose weight and get into shape. I need to drop about 35-50 pounds and it begins today. I wish I could find an inexpensive personal trainer (is there such a thing?) but I’m just planning on toughing it out myself until that happens. Let’s face it. Most of us know what we should eat and what we should do to stay in shape. We just don’t do it. The Bible says our bodies are a temple. My temple needs a major renovation.

Should be interesting. I’ll have to give everyone updates on our progress.

He loved being in the pool today. Now if his daddy can just lose some weight, you might see some pics with all of us in the pool!