I had a council meeting last night that went late, and then afterwards my good friend Aaron and I met at the Waffle House for a “midnight snack”. Part of the purpose was to discuss the details of the New Year’s Eve Party. His band is going to be playing one of the sets.

As we’re talking about music, a guy sitting at the counter says, “So what kind of music are you playing?” This led to a very nice conversation with a guy named Shawn who recently got out of the military and has just started a new job in Hagerstown. The reason Shawn had asked is he plays bass guitar in a band. Music was what got the conversation started, but then because of Aaron and I both working in churches, the conversation turned to spiritual things. Aaron has a high tech phone and was able to show Shawn one of the GodPod videos of me dancing around like an idiot.  Like most people, Shawn thought I was a terrible dancer, but even more importantly he said, “I didn’t know you could do that in a church.”   By the time we left at a little after 1am, Shawn had asked for info for both of our churches.

The moral of the story is this:
     1.  Everyone listens to music and so talking about it with your friends or 
          neighbors, or this case in front of a complete stranger will often open
          up an opportunity to talk about how awesome our band is at United
          and let people know that church can be fun, relevant and most 
          importantly…life-changing.

     2.  Talking about your faith doesn’t have to be scary.  In this case, we just
          answered some questions he had in the simplest terms we knew how. 
          No need for big fancy words, it was just 3 guys sitting around having a
          regular old conversation.

     3.  The conversation had no agenda.  People can see through that right
          away, so don’t even try it.  In other words, I didn’t think as soon as he
          started talking with us, “Oh great I’m going to share the Gospel” or “Ok,
          my goal is to get this guy to come to church.”  No, we just sat there, 
          listened to his questions, took a genuine interest in him and his life and 
          allowed the Holy Spirit to prompt us in what to say and or do.

     4.  Other churches are not our competition.  Aaron and I could have easily
          gotten into a “my church is better than your church competition” thus
          making the conversation all about us.  Instead it was Aaron who said,
           “Oh check out this video that Gilbert’s church did” (yeah I know it’s a
          little creepy that he carries videos of me everywhere he goes!).  And
          then I was the one who asked where he was living and when I found 
          out it was Hagerstown, suggested that he check out Crossroads.  My
          former boss at Purpose Driven, Rick Warren, always said it this way, “It
          takes all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people.”  United is not
          the only way or the right way to do church…it’s just one way.  We
          should celebrate the diversity found not only in our community, but
          also in our own church.

Wow that was a long post…sorry about that…hope you got something out of it and Shawn if you’re reading this, it was great meeting you and I hope you’ll comment on what your take was running into 2 pastors, in the middle of the night, at a Waffle House.  Hope to see you again sometime.

• Wow it seemed like a long time since last Sunday…good to be back in church again!
• By the way, I forgot to thank everyone for bringing in food.  Together we collected about 1 ton of food and the homeless shelter and the local food pantry were both overwhelmed by our generosity.  Way to go CFCOG!
• The Experience went well today…nothing too bad, nothing too good.
• Before the dedication I spent some time with each of the kids so they would be used to me…no problems at all…then we get on the stage and the go antsy…all things considered though I thought they did well.
• Because of the dedication, I didn’t have as much time as normal to speak, so I felt a little rushed and like I couldn’t explore the topic as much as I usually like, but the comments were positive, so I guess I can’t complain.
• As bad as he was, I love studying the life of Herod.  A few years back while at another church I did a 4 part series on the life of he and his sons.  When you understand them, you understand the teaching of Jesus much better…can’t wait to dust off this old series for you sometime.
• Attendance was back up today after a bad week last week due to the bad weather…still I wonder how much the rain affected things today.
• Good to have Jeff and Jason be able to fill in today with some of our normal team members absent.
• Andy was teasing me before we left that while I get to go to the pastor’s reception and drink juice and eat cookies, he gets to tear down the tech stuff by himself…hmmm, guess he’s right…stinks to be him…haha!
• Afterwards Lisa and I drove a few different routes to the one home we really like seeing which way is closest.
• Tonight we have CAYA…but for now I’m watching some football. 

…how about a Saturday morning blog.   Here are some random thoughts running through my head:

• Why did I just title the post what I did?  Now there’s pressure to make this good in some way.
• Had a really great time last night speaking to 50+ young people in Smithsburg, MD.
• I shared a modified version of the Perhaps message on having a God-given vision for your life.
• People seemed to really like it and were very contemplative afterwards.
• In a whispered voice…”The password is…contemplative.”
• I enjoyed this talk because it was in the town where I graduated from High School.  It was the first time since I became a Christian many years ago, that I’ve had the opportnity to go back and share my faith.
• The worship leader for the night, Curtis Miller, reminded me a lot of David Crowder.  Not in looks…thankfully…hey no offense David, but you’ve got a very “unique” look…no I’m talking in the sound of his voice.  He actually did a lot of Crowder songs which maybe helped as well.
• They did an awesome version of “Angels We Have Heard on High” that I’m trying to get so the United team can do it as well.
• Hey speaking of Christmas, don’t forget we launch our CRIBS series tomorrow…make sure you invite someone to come along.
• Lisa and I started looking for houses this week in C’burg.  We found one we like, but are going to still look at a few more…please pray for us that God would make it super clear which one we are to get and that our house down here in MD would sell quickly.
• Speaking of prayer, please pray for Andy.  He has been fighting a bad infection all week long that has had him off work.
• I hate snow.
• Lisa loves snow.
• She gets to snuggle up in a warm blanket, sip hot chocolate and watch it fall.  I get to shovel it. 
• Now you know.
• Just finished reading Creating Community by Andy Stanley in preparation for the series we’ll be doing on small groups and community in the beginning of 2008.  Can’t wait to get this and them started so that we offer yet another way for people to get plugged into CFCOG.
• This weekend has got to be the arm pit of the sports year as far as I’m concerned.  No college football…college basketball is just getting started, so not quite exciting yet, the Redskins already played, NASCAR is done for the year, my two other Washington teams that I like (the Caps and Wizards) are struggling and the baseball winter meetings just concluded and as usual the Orioles did nothing.  I said all that to say this (inside joke), This is the first free Saturday I’ve had in months and this is the reward I get?  Thanks God!  haha :)
• Ok this post didn’t live up to the hype…sorry about that…there’s 5 minutes of your life you’ll l never get back…I’ll try to make up for it tomorrow during the message…see you then!

Just saw this post on Perry Noble’s blog and thought it was too good not to pass along…   I’ll do a normal post tomorrow, but for today I’m in a zone with some other ministry work…pray for me today as I continue working on it and tonight as I’m out doing some guest speaking for a big college and career age group in MD.

The Bible says in John 8:44 that satan is a liar…actually that he is the father of lies.  What are some lies that he tries to get us to believe today…and what does God’s Word actually say?

• “Jesus could NEVER save you…you’ve messed up WAY too much.”  God says Romans 10:13
• “Sex outside of marriage is ok–just as long as you REALLY love one another.”  God says I Thessalonians 4:3
• “I know marriage is for a lifetime, but he/she is NOT meeting my needs.”  God says Proverbs 5:15-20
• “You can’t tell anyone about that issue you are struggling with, they won’t understand; in fact, they will judge you.”  God says James 5:16
• “Church is not necessary!”  God says Hebrews 10:24-25
• “Yes, the Bible does say forgive others, but what that person did to you is not forgivable.”  God says Ephesians 4:32
• “Your money has nothing to do with your relationship with God.”  God says Matthew 6:21
• “God is the one who keeps reminding you of what you did before meeting Christ.”  God says Romans 8:1 and II Corinthians 5:17

Ever notice how sometimes you have a squeaky door around the house that gets on your nerves…it causes you to cringe every time you hear it and while you have good intentions of someday fixing it…you never do. Now why is that? Well one reason may be that you become used to hearing it and thus it doesn’t bother you as much anymore.

The same thing happens in churches all the time. You tolerate sister so-and-so singing off key, or brother so-and-so teaching in his normal boring way or the service being disorganized because it’s always been done that way. It used to bother you but now it doesn’t because that’s just the way we do things around here.

However, where your attitude begins to change is when your neighbor or your relative whom you’ve been inviting for years suddenly shows up for church one day. Now you are sitting there through the entire service watching and listening through their eyes and ears. “Wow I wonder what they thought of that” is the thought that keeps running through your mind. Whether it’s bad singing, bad teaching, disorganization, using words that only the “insiders” will know or a myriad of other things, you begin to cringe knowing that your friend or relative has got to be perplexed that all this is being allowed to happen.

If our God is as excellent as what we say He is, then He deserves nothing less than our best back in return. So I want to challenge all of you in your lives and in your ministries here at the church to remove the cringe. Always think through the eyes of the person walking in off the street for the first time. Will this make sense to them? Will they be more or less inspired to start a relationship with Christ? If my best friend was not a Christian and they said they’d give church one shot and one shot only, would I still do this, allow this, participate in this, etc.

I know each week as I prepare for the Experience, these are the questions that go through my mind, because I never know who may be giving God one shot. That’s why we do our best to make sure that what you see and hear from the platform is the very best it can be. That’s why in this blog on Sunday afternoons you read me complaining about stupid mistakes that could have been avoided. Is some of it because I’m a perfectionist…yes absolutely, but mostly it has to do with being able to say at the end of each day…”God I gave my very best.” So how about you…is there anything in your life or ministry that would cause the rest of us to cringe? If so, what are you going to do about it?