developing lifestyle worshipers

This may be one of my favorite church signs I have ever collected. I found this one on the internet a few years back and it reads, “Baptism by Fire! Enroll in Preschool.”

It doesn’t take too long to see why this one is so fantastic. First off, the whole concept behind fire baptism is scriptural. In Matthew 3:11, John the Baptist is telling about Jesus, the coming Messiah, and says,

“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

What the original Baptist was saying was that his religious act of baptizing people on the outside was going to pale in comparison to the baptism that Jesus would bring which would truly change lives. So it is a biblical message. Now, I don’t know who it is speaking to. Are you using your marquee to speak to non-believers? Because if they are, they don’t understand that and it actually probably freaks them out. “Hey, come to our church and we will baptize you (the unchurched not aware of what baptism actually is), but we will do it really good, we’ll baptize you through fire!”

I’m sure that message sent thousands of people to the doors of their church.

But what makes this message even better is after threatening to rain down fire upon anyone brave enough to darken the doors of their church, they encourage you to enroll your precious child into their blazing preschool. Come, experience the purifying ministry of our preschool as you watch your kids flee in horror from the flames.

OK, maybe I’m getting a little carried away, but the point is still the same: churches – be careful of the message you are sending the unchurched.

In our last week of God’s Believe It or Not, we focused on one last unbelievable claim from Scripture: believe it or not, Jesus is coming again.

Concerning Christ’s Second Coming, Christians either try to figure out all the details concerning his return or forget about it altogether because it is too difficult to understand. While we will never be sure about times and details of his return, we can be sure of this – we have hope – he is coming again!

As a 26-year old, I don’t often think about Jesus’ return. And that is a big problem. I think sometimes in our youth and prosperity and love of the things of this world that we fail to realize that we ain’t home yet! This isn’t it! The best is still yet to come! But our level of longing indicates our level of living.

If we truly live with no sense of expectation that the best is still on its way, we miss the point of his return. Whether he comes back before I die, or I rise to be with him, the best is coming for those in Christ. If you weren’t with us today, you should really check out this sermon on our website. If you listen, you’ll understand the picture of the helicopter on this spot and Jeff’s incredible conclusion to the message.

He’s coming back!

We worshiped to these following songs today:

• Salvation is Here – Hillsong United
• Jesus Paid It All – Kristian Stanfill
• Glory in the Highest – Chris Tomlin
• All Who are Thirsty (tag) – Brenton Brown
• I Saw the Light – David Crowder Band
• I’ll Fly Away – Traditional

Two things about today’s worship:

1. If you don’t know anything about media, let me tell you something – today’s service was very difficult to pull off! With the different video clips, sound elements, etc., there were about a thousand ways that we could have messed it up, but our media team is outstanding! They are worship leaders, and you couldn’t have experienced what happened today without them. So thank your projectionists, video switchers, light guys, camera guys, sound guys, and band for a fantastic job!
2. I love a good hoedown. After that message, that was all we could do, and our mandolin, banjo, harmonica, and so much more hysteria was a fun way to end today! But the greatest part of it all was our church’s excitement. Not in a good musical time, but in rejoicing about our King’s return! I cannot say this enough – I love worshiping with you.

That is the conclusion of our series, but I am really excited about the next two-weeks. We are going to be doing a life focus series entitled, Credit or Debit? To understand the premise of this series, go here.

Also, later this week, you will be able to evite your friends about the series and inviting them to come to North Side. There is one little bug remaining with the evite, so make sure to check back here, because I will post the link as soon as I have it. This is a great way to send out a message with a chance for your friends to get more info concerning North Side.

A couple of weeks ago, I conducted a theological survey of our adults at North Side. This is for a requirement for my next degree, but I tailored the questions to help our staff discern teaching and directional needs for our church in the area of evangelism and missions.

Concerning conducting this survey, I was hesitant. A number of our people who are coming to our church are unchurched, dechurched, previously badly churched, or something else. So some of these questions are “senior level” questions for many people who are just getting the foundation laid. For that sake, I did some extra survey info to see which answers came from people if they were in Sunday School, C-Groups, church member, how long a Christian, etc.

We didn’t have every adult that Sunday turn a survey in. In fact, we probably only had a third of the adults in attendance actually turn in the survey, but that is still good enough to get a good reading. I am still trying to cipher through the info regarding whether or not they or a church member or not, but I listed the top answers to the ten questions below. For size of space, I only posted the highest recorded answers for each question (either agreed and strongly agreed, uncertain, or disagreed or strongly disagreed). Each question was answered on a scale of strongly agreed, agreed, uncertain, disagreed, or strongly disagreed.

1. A sincere religious person, regardless of religion, may go to heaven. (72% disagreed or strongly disagreed)
2. More people will be in heaven than in hell. (48% uncertain)
3. Hell is a real place where the unsaved will suffer for eternity. (94% strongly agreed or agreed)
4. If a person is morally good, God may let that person into heaven even if he hasn’t heard of Jesus. (77% disagreed or strongly disagreed)
5. God is aware of who is going to be in heaven. (97% agreed or strongly agreed)
6. God expects me to share the saving news of Jesus Christ with people all over the world. (98% agreed or strongly agreed)
7. People get into heaven by being a good person and trying to keep God’s commandments. (82% disagreed or strongly disagreed)
8. If a person is baptized, he or she will go to heaven. (79% disagreed or strongly disagreed)
9. If a person prays the “sinner’s prayer,” he or she will go to heaven. (58% agreed or strongly agreed)
10. I regularly share with people in our town how a person can be saved. (48% agreed or strongly agreed)

One thing showed to be consistent on this survey – we do have a few sympathetic, closet-pluralists (the belief that any way to heaven is fine) or at least inclusivists (the belief that Jesus is the only savior, but if you pray to Buddha, you are OK, cause you’re actually praying to Jesus). I am anxious to see if those people are new Christians, younger people, or non-members. Time will tell. Looking at the answers, the answers concerning other ways to heaven revealed that the same people answered the same way each time.

The answer to number six regarding people’s responsibility to share the good news all over the world was very encouraging. You can tell what we have been emphasizing the last couple of years.

But the answer to number 10, concerning regularly sharing faith, reveals that only 48% of our people regularly share their faith. I think this answer is honest, but also tricky to ascertain. I struggled with how I should answer that one. How much is “regularly”?

Overall, this gave me some good things to think about and knowing some directions to go. The number one thing we are going to have to address is the worldview issue and engage the discussion concerning the roles/credibility of other paths to God. I think people’s love for other people on the other side of the world makes them think surely God will provide another way to heaven.

Over the next few days, I will take these questions and break them down biblically to see what the Bible actually says concerning these issues. So, check back!