Wednesday, May 9
Words from Bill...
Bill Wolf is our worship/arts guy at Crossings. He has done an amazing job the last 8 months or so preparing for launch and creating an environment for our artists to thrive. We so fortunate to have him on our team.He posted something on his blog yesterday that I think is incredibly important for anyone in the world of church planting to read.
Below are his thoughts about our discussion on Saturday morning evaluating the first 12 weeks of life at Crossings:
It was a long discussion. But the reason I wanted to share this with you is because there is a theme among (the thoughts) that stuck out in a major way to me as I typed. I noticed it by about the third answer and as it continued I almost got teary-eyed.
Here it is: all of these characteristics have to do with...people. Not programs. Not an awesome service. Not a rocking band. Not great preaching. Not anything cool or hip or different. Just people.
People.
I cannot explain to you how much that meant to me. See, this past fall/winter one of the biggest items on my to-do list was to oversee the purchasing of all sound, lights and video equipment. We were purchasing everything from scratch and had a very substantial budget to work with.
Through out the whole process, however, I was having serious internal struggles. I kept thinking, "Wait...why do we need to buy anything? I have a projector, its crappy but it'll work. I've got a guitar and a laptop and some cables. Why do we need to spend so much money on this? Wouldn't we be better stewards to spend it elsewhere?" I was so afraid that we were going to be just another one of the churches trying to out do each other with a bigger and better show. And I absolutely did not want that.
Even since we have launched I have sometimes doubted the whole thing, "What are we doing? Does any of this mean anything? Is it all just a waste of time, money and energy?" Now, understand...most of my job, by far, as the worship and creative arts guy, is spent on planning and preparing stuff for Sunday mornings. But the things is, I don't think Sunday mornings are most important. Thus, I am constantly trying to balance these two realities.
The discussion on Saturday morning gave me just a glimpse that maybe what we are doing on Sundays does mean something. That maybe we aren't just a bunch of wanna-be rock stars in a Chris Tomlin cover band trying to do louder and edgier songs than the church down the street. That maybe all the time I spend on equipment and videos and creative planning actually is helping to get the message across.
The message that it is all about God and...people.
Granted, we are only 3 months in...but apparently it has a been a pretty good 3 months.
If you want to read the whole post you can click here: Bill’s blog
Mark Nelson at 5:34 PM 1comments
1 Comments
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at 2:37 PM
said... "Who is Jesus to you?"
"I think one of our problems is that we forget to ask ourselves this question when we set out to start churches. The consequence is weak churches. We speak more about our church "style" and "model" than about the Lord of lords who reigns within it. We tell people why our church is different from or better than other churches in town, thinking they will be attracted to it, but instead they are uninterested. If only we return to our first love and let Jesus be our focus, then many will be drawn in. They will compelled to gain Christ rather than attend a religious service."
- Neil Cole, "Organic Church"
Your post reminded me of this passage. Keep up the great work at Crossings, all of you.
And I'm glad Bill was asking himself those tough questions. Everyone should do so to make sure their content is more appealing than their style.