Separation of Church and Family

Times have certainly changed since I was a kid. I remember my parents saying the same thing. For example the whole idea of adolescence (the transition from childhood to adulthood) did not even exist for my Eisenhower generation parents. They thought of themselves as adults by the time they were teenagers. I was pretty aware of adolescence and its delay thanks to Gen X movies like “Reality Bites.” My kids just accept it as part of life. I am realizing what a difficult and yet life shaping, stage this is for my two oldest kids. I know I have only a few short, high influence years left to impact them. I was hitting tennis balls with Cole this morning and imagined him leaving for college. He did not see the tears welling up in my eyes as I tortured him with one pattern drill after another.

The church has the average kid about 40 hours a year. The average parent has their kids around 4,000 hours a year. Who do you think will have the most influence? I don’t need to answer that one. So, let me ask another question. How can the church and parents partner in the best way possible to see our kids become healthy, well adjusted, Jesus loving, human beings who live highly fruitful, world changing lives?

Deuteronomy 6 is part of a larger sermon where Moses is telling religious leaders and every member of the various adult generations in his audience, that they are responsible for raising up the next generation in the knowledge of God. He tells the parents to do the heavy lifting of impressing God’s Word on their kids with their example and teaching. But the whole nation was held responsible, according to Moses sermon, for the spiritual well being of the future generations among them.

At Restoration Community Church we will take this very seriously. We plan to create kids and students ministries where parents and volunteers and church leaders all partner up to create a discipleship synergy that optimizes the probability of our kids growing up to love Jesus and desire to be like Him. Please pray God will raise up the leaders and volunteers we will need to see this vision fulfilled.

We Are Not Starting A Church

I have started three churches and coached a number of people starting churches and frankly the glamour is gone. Don’t get me wrong, I love the church and I love starting new things, especially churches, but if that alone is the goal, count me out.

I don’t see the early Christians trying to start churches or church planting movements or even attempting social transformation projects. The same is true of our brothers and sisters in third world countries.

I have been in third world countries where Christianity is exploding and I don’t hear them talking about church planting or social justice. I think they get church planting and cultural transformation a lot more than most of us in the west, but whereas we get excited about models and movements and fashionable theories (at least I do), they are passionate about Jesus. They have experienced the transformation of their lives and they want others to experience the same.

They also have an understanding of the Holy Spirit we seem to lack. They follow the Spirit of God in all his mystery rather than a five year plan developed over a weekend with a consultant in the room. Instead they try to do what the Spirit is leading them to do day by day and the result is that lives are transformed by God’s love and grace, through countless moments of service and compassion. Wherever and whenever groups of people fall in love with Jesus, churches naturally spring up and social transformation projects occur rising out of gratitude and excitement about Jesus.

So, those of us committing to start Restoration Community Church are not about creating a new church or a new kind of church. Our excitement is not about a new model or way of doing church that is more culturally relevant or contextualized. No, what we want to do is simply follow Jesus as he leads us by his Spirit. We want to be in love with Jesus and totally surrendered to him. As we do this we will experience God’s restoration of our lives, marriages and families and we will virally infect those around us with the restorative power and grace of God. A church will be birthed out of this that is healthy and life changing for married folks, kids and singles. Other churches and ministries will be birthed out of the overflow of our common love for Jesus and each other. And we will see our city and world experience the restoration of God’s image.

Who wants to just start a church when we can have so much more fun and impact simply following Jesus?