Commitment is a word that brings up all sorts of thoughts, baggage, and preconceived notions.  At our final Whiteboard Session (two Sundays ago now) we began to talk about commitment.  I asked everyone to list the things that they are committed to.  Someone said parenting, someone said work, one mentioned marriage, a wise-guy said student loans.  There are lots of things that we are committed to in life.  Ironically, no one said God.  No one said Jesus. And no one said the Church.

Church Isn’t a Building

We live in a culture and a time that sees church as something that we should fit-into our already crazy busy life.  It’s a periphery thing that hangs out there and if we’re able to fit that into the equation of life, then we’re a good person.  AND if we’re able to mix in a small/home/life group, then we’re doubly awesome.  We ask questions like, “Which church do you go to?” or “Where is your church?”  Inherent in these questions is an underlying philosophy that says that church is a building that you go to or a service that you attend.

But church isn’t a building or a service that you “go to.”  It’s a people.  It’s an identity.  It should be central to who we are as Christians.  Rather than a periphery thing that we try to fit into our already packed-out life, church (as an identity) should be at the center – with everything else branching out of that. Note that this does not mean that all of your life should be spent “at the church.” Quite the contrary.

Rather than ask the question, “Which church to you go to?” we should ask, “Which church are you a part of.” Church is a body.  The answer to “Where is your church?” should be “all over this city” (or at least as widely spread as the zip codes of those involved).  People are not “at church” or “not at church” we “are the church.”

Church Isn’t a Grocery Store

If we slip into thinking of church as a building or a service, the danger is that we also slip into treating the church like a grocery store.  When my wife and I buy groceries, we shop for the best products at the best prices in order to get the most bang for our buck and optimize our budget.  We treat the church like a grocery store when sermons and worship music become bacon and eggs and programs and events become milk and cereal.  We treat the church like a grocery store when we shop for the best items – where we can get the most bang for our buck and optimize our budget which is made up of the currency of time, effort, finances, and convenience.

Church Isn’t a Phone App

We live in a consumeristic culture that tells us we need the best phone with the best apps that will save us time, money, and energy simultaneous with making our life easier.  The problem is that we often approach church with this same consumeristic attitude – looking for a church to “go to” on Sundays with a few extras that “fit into our already packed-out life.” One that doesn’t cost us too much money or energy and one that makes us feel good about ourselves.

But the church isn’t an iPhone app.  It won’t save you time, money, energy, or make your life easier.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  Being a part of a church – really “being the church” will cost you time, money, and energy.  It won’t make your life feel easier – it should make it more complicated because the church is a body.  Being a part of the body means being a part of other people’s lives.  And other people have problems – just like you.  So take all of your problems and combine them with others’ and you can see that things complicate really quickly.  But that’s the point.

Christ Loved the Church and Gave Himself up for Her

Galatians 6:2 tells us that we are to bear one another’s burdens.  Bearing one another’s burdens does not come without a cost.  That’s why Jesus said in Matthew 16:24 that “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”  Taking up your cross requires laying down your life.  Denying yourself.  Not because Jesus demands it in order to be in right-standing before him, but rather because that’s exactly what he did for us.  He laid down his life.  Ephesians 5:25 reminds us that “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”  Acts 20:28 reminds us that he “bought His church with His own blood.”

If we are Christ’s followers, we too will love the church that he gave himself up for.  Jesus is all in.  He’s fully and radically committed to the church.  Are you?

[Read all posts On Commitment]

(picture via: motivatedphotos.com)

One of the hardest truths early-on in church planting is discerning who is with you and who is not.  We have been on the ground now for four months – casting vision, gathering people around that vision, and praying over that vision.  In May we begin to really ask: “Who’s with us?”

As I have met and had conversations with people, I’m learning that there are six categories into which someone falls.  Evaluating people through this grid is helping me to determine where to focus my time and energy as well as wake-up to the reality that I don’t want to face which is that some people, despite their excitement and interest, simply are not on-board.

Family

The first category is what I call “family.”  These are the folks that are all-in.  They’ve caught the vision and want to help in any way possible.  They are servant-leaders and their commitment is apparent via a verbal conversation in which they express their commitment.  It is important to realize that simply showing up at things does not make someone part of the family (consistency does not necessarily equal commitment).  A better gauge is to combine their consistency with their language.  Folks who are in the family use phrases with first-personal plurals like “our church” or “we can do this…”.

Fence

The second category is what I call the “fence.”  These are people that are interested in what we’re doing, excited about what we’re doing, have come to one or more of the vision meetings, or expressed their interest/excitement over coffee or lunch.  People in this category require patience.  Often times people on the fence are plugged-in to other church communities and asking them to up-root from that to join what we’re doing is a complicated decision and process. I tell these people all the time that we are not in the business of stealing people from other churches, but that my role is to cast the vision and trust that the Holy Spirit will do his job.

In a church plant, people on the fence ultimately have to be called by the church planter to commitment.  A church plant consisting of interested and excited people (but with no commitment) will fail.  This is the category where the most time and prayer is to be spent.  In addition, a prayerful ear to the Spirit’s prompting of when to call them to commit must be discerned.  The goal is to move people from the fence to the family or discern if perhaps they are simply a “friend.”

Fans

On Facebook, having a lot of fans is great.  In a church plant – not so much.  Fans love what you’re doing, express their excitement, follow you on Twitter, meet you for coffee, let you buy them lunch, but never come to anything that you organize.  Fans are typically podcasting Driscoll, reading John Piper, and can give you the latest update on Chandler’s cancer faster than it takes for you to find it on the web.  Fans will suck the energy out of you.  Often times people in this category are another “F” word I like to use – “floaters.” Meaning they don’t have a church home, they float from one church to another, avoid commitment, and really see themselves as getting “fed” from guys they podcast.  Fans love to talk about the terms “gospel-centered” and “missionally-focused” but fail to ever translate their talk to their walk.

Fans need to be quickly moved to the fence or the farm or they will consume your time and distract you from the mission.

Friends

Friends are typically gospel-centered people that are playing in the same league but just on a different team.  They are interested in what you’re doing, realize the importance of it, want to support you in ways they can, but in the end are plugged-into and committed to another church.  Friends are brothers and sisters in Christ.  Friends are great, but they’re not family.  You can call on friends for practical help and outside advice, but when you’re trying to build a family, sometimes you have to limit your time with friends.

Farm

The farm is made up of people that were on the fence that turned out to not be in the family when you called them to commit or else folks that were fans that you simply had to move to farm as they were much more interested in hanging out in the grandstands than ever making it onto the field.  Instead of being “all-in,” they’ve verbally or non-verbally stated that they are “all-out.”  As much as it can sometimes hurt, the sad reality of a church planter is that once people are on the farm, it is typically a distraction from the mission to continue to pursue them.  Call them like you see them and move on.  If they want to rejoin the fence – trust that they will on their own.

Foes

Foes are the critics.  These are the opposite of “family.” We’ve had a few of these in our short history as a church plant including one lady who accused me of trying to attract people to our church with beer and another whom I’ve never met that sent me an email with some poor exegesis of 1 Timothy 3 and tried to tell me that I was not qualified to be an elder.  It would have been nice to meet her.

Up until now, we have been casting the vision widely, allowing people to sniff us out, and giving people room to seek God’s direction for whether or not he wants them to be a part of it. We’ve got a growing family, several on the fence, a host of fans, some good friends, a growing farm, and a few foes. Our goal for the month of May is call people to commit and determine who’s in the family so that we can march forward with our mission to reach the unreached for Christ and transform the city of Lincoln by loving God and loving people.

May it be that God would grow and strengthen the family of 2 Pillars Church.