Reason 2: The Mission of Jesus

In my first post on this topic, I listed the glory of God as the first reason to plant a church. At the end of that post I noted the task of disciples of Jesus is to make other disciples of Jesus worldwide according to what He said in Matthew 28:19-20. This has commonly been referred to as “the Great Commission.” Those of us who are planting Village Church at Midlothian have come to refer to this commonly as the Mission of Jesus.

It is our belief that this is the entire reason that Jesus came to earth, God becoming man. If you look back to the post on the glory of God, you will see indicators throughout Scripture that Jesus is actually the climax of all history. That all of history leads up to His coming, and the rest of history is based on the fact that He came, died for the sins of humanity, and rose from the dead. If this is true, and I submit that it is, then it is the single most important and life-changing event in all of history. It is also significant to realize that this is what God deemed necessary to bring Himself the most glory, namely, that He send His Son in the form of man to die for the sins of man and rise from the dead victoriously in order that man could be redeemed through this sacrifice.

It all starts with that redemption through Jesus, but sadly, that is also where many seem to act as if it stops. This redemption finds it’s promise and trust in verse 18 of Matthew 28: “And Jesus came and said to them, “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” In this statement he is declaring his absolute deity and authority over all of creation. We find more in this declaration though, than the fact that He is God and He has authority over us. It is the type of authority that we often don’t worry about. It is one thing to agree with Jesus, but it is quite another thing to humble yourself under that authority and give in to it with your life.

Maybe what Jesus is doing in this statement is preparing them for the demand that He is about to make of them. Maybe He is declaring His absolute authority over them (and us) because he is getting ready to make the most important demand that He ever has and ever will make of them. What He says next encompasses everything He ever has and ever will demand from His people. His next words are basically, “Because I have authority, Go and make disciples of all nations…”

Jesus’ mission was to come and bring about redemption for all mankind, and right before He leaves, He demands that His people take this mission to the entire world. The fact of the matter is, they begin the Church and immediately begin taking the message of reconciliation with God through Jesus to the entire world building communities of people to live the mission of Jesus in their culture called churches. This is the mission of Jesus, and this is what Jesus was calling His people to. Jesus supplied and still supplies redemption and in return demands authority that He has always and will always have.

Because of this, we do not have the option to bring the mission of Jesus into our lives, but rather, He demands that we bring our lives into the mission of Jesus. That first option does not require complete submission, but instead only what we give it the right to. The second option though, requires our full surrender and submission. It is the life that fully confesses the authority that Jesus has as the God who redeemed us from our sin. It is tangible evidence of the effect that Jesus being God has over us, and shows that we truly believe. It is humility under the hand of an awesome God that calls us to a willingness to allow God to deconstruct every aspect of our lives and rebuild it in accordance to His will in the Mission of Jesus.

This brings about a willingness to examine the Scriptures for what life is to be lived for under the authority of Jesus. When we do this, we begin to see the practices of the early church, and how they developed communities of people on mission. It makes us examine every part of life under the microscope of His mission to see if it accomplishes it and furthers it in our culture and beyond. It really makes you ask the question, “What is the most effective way of making disciples in this culture?”

More on that later…

Just stay with me for a minute. We just finished ordering our first round of flyers for the September 13 launch. Our ambitious goal? To hand out 7,500 of these babies between August 29 and September 6.

These come as door hangers (thus the empty space towards the top), but they can also be dropped off in newspaper boxes. I especially love the rip-card at the bottom. This can be torn off and becomes a business card size reminder card.

There are a few main messages we’re trying to convey. Remember, this is an advertisement to people we don’t know and who don’t know us, and we’re just trying to get them to come out on September 13 and hear about Jesus.

First, we’re different. Why should anyone come to a new church if there’s not something different about us? I didn’t say better, just different. I know from various conversations I’ve had that the “No Perfect People Allowed” in church message is not something a lot of people around here have heard. Your life doesn’t need to be and isn’t supposed to be cleaned up in order to come and hear about Jesus. Also, let’s just be honest that people are busy and frankly a lot of the non-Jesus focused efforts of a lot of churches are a waste of their time. They are a waste of my time too (no, I’m not talking about your church).

Second, at the same time we’re also not corny. Unfortunately a lot of churches, in an effort to be different, just become awkward. Hopefully our design is fresh and professional. Our name, Village Church, relates to our whole community (the Village of Midlothian). We are young, yes, but we are in this for the long-haul, for our city.

Third, we want a bit of a hint that there is a deeper message about Jesus here. No one is going to get saved reading our flyer. There’s no way we can explain our core values or what being a follower of Jesus looks like. So our main goal is simply a hint that there could be more to this thing, thus the “Find out WHO WHY WHAT about Jesus” phrase.

And fourth, the details to get them there. Time, place, map, etc.

So what is the theology of a flyer? Why do we put so much effort and time into this? After all, some would ask if we really even need to “advertise” our church. Isn’t God in control, and won’t he bring the people he wants to our church? Yes, we believe that whole heartedly. But we at Village Church are a strange hybrid, and we’re proud of that (a lot like Paul, I think). Yes, God will do as he pleases, but he’s also asked us to go and take this message of reconciliation to the people. I’ll refer you to Romans 10 in Steve’s post below. How are people going to believe if they haven’t heard? How are they going to hear if no one is preaching? And who will preach if no one is sent? A good flyer is us being responsible to send out the message so that people will hear the preaching that will reconcile them to God through Jesus!

Here’s the thing, we’re not just about people worshiping Jesus. We’re about MORE people worshiping Jesus. We’re about the MOST people possible worshiping Jesus. We don’t pretend that we have any control over the extent to which that happens, yet we’re going to give our entire lives to that idea. If your theology can’t handle that paradigm, you need to read your Bible more. And that’s the theology of a flyer.

“I am a Church Planter.” For the past year or so, these are the words that I have used to describe what I do. I actually love saying this phrase, because it typically leads to an interesting conversation in which I have the opportunity to tell people about our church, and Jesus. The reason for this is mostly because no one really knows what a “Church planter” is. That is not a common phrase or profession. One curious person even asked my father if that meant I worked in a greenhouse, and what type of flower or plant was a church?

I have come to find out that many people don’t know that people still start churches. This is another part of the subculture of the Christianity. We know that people start churches, but others outside of the church have no idea that such ventures exist. The ones that do are shocked to find out that we are not a group of people who have split from another church. They are shocked to find out that a group of relatively young people is starting a church from scratch with zero axes to grind against the other local churches.

The question then becomes, “Why are you starting a church?” This is one of those questions that take a long time to answer if you give them every reason that you have. Because of that, I thought I would spend a few blogs talking about that issue. I will attempt to answer that question. It will be more like, “Why am I planting a church?” because this is a look at my personal reasons for planting a church. I realize that many people have many different reasons for planting, some good and some bad.

Reason 1: The Glory of God

I thought I would start with more of a foundational look at church planting, and explain the biggest reason for this venture, and then narrow it down to the more practical reasons. In 1646 a group of wise, Jesus loving church leaders got together and wrote a document entitled dubbed, “The Westminster Confession of Faith.” In its shortened version, the first question is, “What is the chief end of man?” The answer was put this way. “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” For the past few years, I have attempted to use this statement as a type of guide in my decisions. This statement seems to be the totality of what Scripture shows the world as going towards, and what I want to line my life up with.

The question then becomes, “what brings God glory?” or, even better yet, “what brings God the most glory?” I think that Revelation 7:9,10 helps me begin to answer that question. In this passage, John is given a glimpse at the consummation of all things. This is what he sees: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” This verse helps me to see where God is bringing his people. People from all over the world, gathered before His throne, worshiping, extolling Him and giving Him complete credit for the salvation of His people. This is a glimpse of God’s desires and the direction that He points our lives toward when we become Christ followers. Because of this, I need to rewind in the story and ask, “How do we get there?” The answer isn’t as complicated as we may think. The answer is Jesus. Through His death and resurrection, we can trust completely in Him for what is to come.

What does that have to do with church planting though? Well, it has everything to do with it. Romans 10 is a section of Scripture often used to show that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” This is helpful, but it’s not the whole story. The following verses give us some keen observation into what Paul is really talking about. “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” The way that people call on God and receive this salvation is through someone telling them the why and the what of what they are actually calling on. The why and the what are spelled out in the “good news” which is what the word “Gospel” actually means.

Jesus puts it this way as He is leaving earth, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Jesus came to earth, God becoming man, in order to bring salvation from sin and death to man by his death and resurrection. He was completely victorious, and then as He is leaving earth, He tells His disciples that since salvation has been secured, the mission is now to take the message of it to the world in order that they can hear it and believe it, which brings about that trust and salvation in their lives. The task is still the same for all disciples of Jesus worldwide. This is the way in which God has chosen to receive the most glory: The gathering of people through trust in the Gospel, which creates a worshiper of God.

Because of this, I must respond and ask, “What is the best way to accomplish this task with the rest of my life?”

More on that later…

Quick random-but-not-really-random thought: We have to make time for people.

All our planning, all our strategy, all our cultural awareness is for nothing if we’re too busy for people. Anyone who knows me knows I struggle with this. And this doesn’t mean that things still don’t have to get done, because they do. But we can work ourselves to death and if we’re too busy for the very people we’re laboring to see reconciled to God, well then it’s all been for nothing.

Church Planting is both an art and a science.  In order to impact the culture that a church is being planted in, there is typically going to be some sort of gathering that is commonly thought of as a “worship service.”  At the Village, we are attempting to create more than a service.  Instead, we are attempting to create more of an experience.  Our desire is to create a worship experience that is not the norm of the Midlothian area.  We want people to experience something that they have never experienced before in order to connect people to God through the hope that is found in His Son, Jesus.

In order to do this, we made the decision to do some research by going to a few churches that are intentionally creating atmospheres in their Sunday morning gatherings designed to create a memorable experience for those in attendance.  The first church was Lifepoint Church in Fredericksburg, VA.  A few weeks ago, Nate did an excellent job of capturing what was learned from a logistics standpoint.  The systems that Lifepoint has designed are excellent, and from the moment that a person drives onto their campus to the moment that they drive off, it is an experience unlike any other church in that area.  From their signage to their sound and lighting they are executing everything with excellence.  They successfully transform a high school into Lifepoint Church every single Sunday.  Through the signs, pipe and draping, and lighting; it barely resembles that of a high school once completely set up.  We learned some very valuable lessons and were able to take inventory of what will be needed in order to transform a school into a church campus.  This also has a great deal to do with their people.  We were able to spend a lot of time talking to the people that make up the volunteer staff of Lifepoint, and the greatest reason that they are able to pull off excellence every single Sunday is based largely on the willingness and worshipful attitude of their people.

This past Sunday, we had the opportunity to go to Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC.  Elevation is one of the fastest growing churches in the US.  They have 3 portable campuses offering 8 different service times.  The question that we are forced to ask about them is, “what is it that sets them apart that has brought such growth?”  From a completely human standpoint, after experiencing 2 different services, I would have to say that it is the atmosphere that they offer in their worship experience.  From the moment you walk into the auditorium there is a buzz of anticipation that begins with a 5-minute countdown, with amazing graphic imagery on 6 different screens covering from stage floor to ceiling.  This makes it possible to easily change the imagery in seconds, which they did a few times throughout the morning.

At the 2 campuses that we were able to attend, it was also obvious that both of the worship bands were committed to what they were doing.  Their stage presence as well as their precision on the instrumentation and singing was not by accident.  They obviously spend hours week in and week out practicing and strategizing as to how best to create an atmosphere conducive to worship.  Nothing during these services happened by accident, because it was all planned out and executed intentionally.

The things that we have learned from both of these churches are very challenging, but very necessary to help us to realize the time, energy, and effort that we must put into creating a worship experience that will connect people to God.  It is not going to happen by accident, and it will definitely not happen by simply showing up on Sunday morning.  It is going to take hours of preparation behind the scenes that no one will see to create an hour that will change people’s lives by introducing them to Jesus.

We had a great weekend visiting Lifepoint Church up in Fredericksburg. Lifepoint is doing portable church in a high school and they’re doing it with excellence, so it was a great time to get some ideas and get a vision for what the future looks like at Village Church. Lifepoint was awesome in allowing our team to serve with them for a Sunday morning, and we couldn’t be more grateful. The amount of attention they gave us was above and beyond anything we expected and is going to be a huge help.

A few thoughts:

• A) Systematically, structurally – we can do this. We have a lot of hard work in front of us, but we have a team that can pull this off.  It’s only through God’s power that hearts and lives will be changed, but He’s given us everything we need to create an awesome environment for corporate worship in a portable space. We’re ready to take this thing bigger.
• B) Signs and curtains. EVERYWHERE.
• C) I love our team’s work ethic. We might screw up a lot of things along the way, but it won’t be said of us that we didn’t put ourselves out there and show up when it counts. Leadership core value – “Always Show Up.” God’s not going to use you if you’re not there.
• D) Portable Church Industries is expensive and awesome. I hope we can get a system like that sooner than later.
• E) There will be a lot of practice to get there, but I just think our music is going to rock. And Pro-Presenter is going to be fun.
• F) We’ve got a lot of stuff to buy, and a lot more $$ to raise to make this thing happen. But we’re well on our way and it is starting to roll.

Ok, that’s all I can think of for now. Steve might have some more to add. Overall a very pragmatic but also encouraging weekend. Thanks again, Lifepoint!