Not a very exciting title, is it?  But it’s all I can think about while we wait around to see how the votes we cast at the polls today will be counted later tonight.  I’ve watched the ads, the campaigns on social media outlets, and thought long and hard about whether or not we should be standing for or against, and when it’s all said and done, I really feel like this vote is about truth and consequences.

Give me a second to try and explain, and then you can pick the stones back up.  I don’t feel like I’m a very good “political” preacher.  There are lots of them out there that simply scream the truth the way they see it with a bull horn and a big ‘ol finger pointed squarely at you.  They rant and rave and fill the air with such veracity that it makes everyone who hears them wonder if they have actually ever even met the Jesus that they yell so passionately about.  Is every pastor (or Christian) that way?  Of course not.  But in politically charged moments like these, that stereotype is the one that comes to mind for many of us.  We see the big Bible and the red face and find ourselves rejecting truth simply because we’ve been subjected to someone, somewhere who wasn’t afraid to share with anyone who would listen, even if they didn’t want to, their version of the truth.

But consequences?  They don’t think a lot about that stuff.  They just yell what you should do and leave you alone to figure out how to keep the truth from blowing your already broken life even further to smithereens beyond repair.  And that, if I’m honest, makes me want to not be that guy.  So when the truth seems so clear – and yet so easily misunderstood because it sounds so much like that guy – I feel the tension of saying the truth and yet loving the people whom the truth can hurt the most.

Amendment One has been that for me.  Biblically and naturally, the truth seems clear – marriage is for a man and a woman – and yet the consequences are equally clear.  A vote for the amendment can easily result in people that I feel called to serve choosing to vote me off as someone who is a bigot, racist, homophobe, or – worst of all – religious.  The burden of the possible consequences has been so great that it was enough to make me consider carefully how I should vote concerning Amendment One (and I hope everyone did).  The one realization that helped me the most as I debated?  My life, my preferences, my passions are subject to the truth and not the other way around.

Truth can seem cold, hard, uncaring and biased, but that’s really only when it goes against what I want, hope or feel.  It can seem unfair, but usually only when it goes against my sense of fairness.  If I base my choices on possible consequences alone, then I will never make the call that might upset, hurt, or offend someone, and anyone who has ever led any group of people for any length of time knows how unrealistic that scenario is.

It would seem that the only other possibility is to swing so far to the “fair” side in order to not appear judgmental that we aren’t willing to stand for anything that might push others away.  And yet we do that very thing everyday in life.  We make judgement calls about which restaurant we’ll visit, which doctor will care for us or which church we will attend.  How do we decide those things? We decide them based on what seems best to us, and we don’t typically consider the consequences.  You choose this doctor and so the other doctor loses business.  If loving means acceptance, then you’d have to find some way to see them both, or none at all.  Choosing one implies hurting the other, and that’s a judgement call.

But that’s not the only other option, is it?  There is another option that is remarkable in its simplicity and revolutionary in its potential.  We could simply love each other.  Not love based on acceptance without questions, or love based on adherence to religious requirements. Simply love based on the fact that God is love, and because that is His nature, He made a judgement call about all of us.  He said that we were all walking in darkness and so He sent us a Light (John 3:19) in Jesus so that none of us would have to feel the shame and condemnation that comes from a life lived apart from Him.

God’s love – and His truth – makes a judgement call about our lives.  He doesn’t stand by and say stuff like “to each his own” or “live and let live” or “you live your life and I’ll live mine.”  No, His truth is so much greater than our sense of truth that He not only states it without a quivering lip, but also backed it up through the death of His Son in order to make it possible for each one of us to live lives based on truth more than just on consequences.

To those who may find themselves on the wrong side of the voting, you are loved more than you could ever know by Someone much higher than those who may have opposed you heatedly over the past few months, and He is more powerful than any consequences you may face as a result of the vote.  And as the non-political pastor of a group of people bent on loving more than arguing, there’s always room for you at The Gathering.  We’d be honored to walk with you on the journey.

Basically, when you wrap up the C25K plan you’ll be ready to run a 5k or for 30 minutes without stopping.  The One Hour Runner training plan takes you from running 30 minutes at a time to, you guessed it, one hour at a time. There’s no need to worry about pacing, just run what is comfortable for you.  The “talk test” is a great way to judge whether or not you’re running too fast.  If you have to talk in one word phrases – or can’t talk at all – you’re running too fast.  You should be able to have a conversation while you’re running during this plan (if you run alone, prepare for some weird looks).

You’ll want to sandwich your training run between a brisk 5 minute warm up walk and a nice 5 minute cool down walk.  It’s also a good idea to listen to your body.  Some days (and weeks) are better than others, and there’s no rush to get through the plan.  Customize, just keep moving forward! The 10 week plan is below.

Basically the twelve men who had given everything up to make sure that they could be with Jesus anywhere at anytime had finally broken down and admitted that they really had no clue how to pray.  Jesus, of course, wasn’t surprised by this at all, and so He taught them a great model of how to pray. It was such an epic prayer that it has been recited more than any other prayer in the history of praying, and no doubt you’ve recited it in a group or alone more than once.  It’s The Lord’s Prayer, and you know something’s important when every letter in the title is capitalized, even the word “the.”

Of course, with repetition often comes a lack of recognition, and my guess is that we’ve missed a fairly important phrase right there in the middle of the prayer.  Matthew 6:10 says that Jesus – right after telling God how holy He is and right before mentioning anything about physical needs – simply prayed “your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  Think about that for just a minute.  He didn’t pray about how great heaven was (and it is awesome, no doubt) or about how he hoped we could just all hang on and survive “down here” until we can finally get “up there.”  He said, basically, “Help here mirror what’s happening there.”  Jesus taught a bunch of non-prayers to pray for the stuff of heaven to invade the stuff of earth, and that – when you really stop to think about the implications -is enough o leave all of us breathless.

What is heaven like?  Revelation 21:4 mentions a few things that won’t be there that we seem to have an abundance of down here: tears, death, mourning, crying pain.  It is so easy to just accept the fact that we have to deal with all that stuff because we’re not in heaven yet, but what do we do with the famous “every word is capitalized” prayer that Jesus prayed?  How do we mirror heaven in the middle of all the stuff that won’t be there?  Maybe a key is found just one verse in front of the one we just read.  Look at what Revelation 21:3 says:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”

What makes heaven so much different than earth?  24/7, uninterrupted communion with God!  ”He will be with them” and “he will dwell with them” are amazing promises of how His presence changes everything!  Look, all of us have been sick at times, and even when the medicine didn’t help us feel better, we knew that if we could just get to mom, she could make it better.  She didn’t necessarily do anything, but her presence brought a calm and a peace to the situation.  Multiply that effect by about a bazillion and you’ve got an idea of what heaven will be like with the King of kings and the Lord of lords.  We will be with Him in all His glory, in fact so much glory that lights will not be needed (Revelation 22:5)!

So how do we get the stuff of heaven down here?  We allow Jesus to take over more and more in our lives (John 3:30).  We invite His presence into every situation that we face.  We make it our aim to be near God, and in turn we find ourselves bringing Him near men who are far from Him because they want to know the peace in their trials that you and I have come to know in ours.

Our prayer at The Gathering is simply this: God, in every way let the unfiltered presence of Jesus in heaven be seen in my life today here on earth.  Our mission sums all that up: to be near God and near man and to make disciplers of everyone we can.  We are never more like Jesus – who is called “God with us” – than when we are bringing the presence of heaven into the situations on earth.  Carry that with you today, and when you bow your head to honor the National Day of Prayer, remember to ask God to bring heaven to earth through you.  You’ll be amazed at the way things around you will start to change!

Most of the time, we pastor types don’t like looking at data, but I’ve got to say that this past week as we put the finishing touches on the 2011 Annual Report for The Gathering, I found myself reading, worshiping, reading some more, and thanking God over and over for the awesome opportunity that we’ve been given to serve our city and our county.

I’m not going to comment about the report here, because you can just go to the site and read it for yourself, but I do want to say that from the very first meeting with 20 of us in a warm den that had less than sufficient seating until the end of the year celebrating Christmas with a handful of young men giving their hearts to Jesus, I have been overwhelmed by the willingness of God to allow each of us to be a part of His great plan.  It is a phrase that has been overused, but I have to say that as I read it and thought back over the last 6 months of 2011, I couldn’t stop whispering to no one in particular how much I LOVE MY CHURCH!

2012 is going to be (and has already been) a year full of trying and learning and giving ourselves over fully to God’s plan for a local body that will intentionally and unashamedly share the great news of Jesus with the hurting in our region.  More than likely there will be a move, a launch, and an undeniable presence of grace that takes place in The Gathering, and our job now is to do all we can to make sure that we are ready for the uncontainable growth that God wants to entrust us with.

Don’t let that phrase throw you, either.  Uncontainable growth is so much more than numbers and becoming the “next great thing” in a county full of great men and women who have been praying for years to see God move.  Uncontainable growth is exactly what it sounds like: a catch of souls for Jesus that no one church can contain. I believe that God has found us faithful with a little, and according to Scripture, that means that He can make us faithful with a lot (Luke 16:10).

Now is the time for each of us to get on our servant clothes and make ourselves ready to serve the hurting whom God will send us to.  We will not sit back.  We will not wait for them.  We will not market in a way that places the burden of moving on those who are least able to move.  We will go, and we will start where we are.  Join an iOS Team.  Determine in your heart to begin now, not later, and let’s see what God can do through us when we are available for 12 months, not just 6.

You all amaze me, but you glorify Him, and that makes both of us smile!

I heard about a roller coaster that opened this spring in the UK (that’s the country, not the NCAA Champs) called “The Swarm.”  Boasting of speeds up to 62 mph, it is designed to take up to 28 screaming riders – with hands and legs dangling – on a “flight through apocalyptic devastation on Europe’s tallest winged roller coaster.”  Throw in the 127-foot inverted drop and near-misses with walls and stuff and you’ve got the makings of a pretty good thrill ride.

Only one problem.  2 weeks before it was set to open, crash dummies came back with limbs missing.  Ooops.

2 lessons can be learned from this that apply to The Gathering (or your church plant):

One: no matter how excited you might be about the great things you’re doing, a little patience can go a long way.  Look, nobody likes to wait when it feels like you’re on the verge of something great, and none of us would be on the church planting ride if we didn’t sense that there was something great in store for our churches.  But the worst thing we can do is move so quickly that we harm the body.  None of us want the people who have jumped on this ride with us to come back without crucial parts of who they are because we were impatient and wanted what we want NOW.  Back off, pray, and let time work for you, not against you.

Two: planning is a must.  Inherent in planning are to things that we don’t get a thrill from: time and testing.  We’ve already talked about the time, but let’s brush against it one more time with an eye to the Boston Marathon that just took place this past Monday.  Having run 2 of those beasts (marathons, not the one in Boston – yet) I can tell you with absolute certainty that you cannot wake up on a Friday morning and decide to go run 26.2 miles the next day without having spent the necessary time working through a training plan.  Most of them last 18-20 weeks.  You can see how time and planning go hand in hand.  The church you’re planting is worth the time it takes.

But what about testing?  What if the engineers had decided to just “give it a go” and opened the ride without sending out anybody (dummy or real) on a test run?  A lot of blood, a lot of legal headaches, a lot of pain.  In short, one big mess.  So work your plan, and then test the work to make sure it’s the best ride it can be.  The people that get on board will be glad you did, and you’ll find that they enjoy the ride a lot more, too.  In fact, they’ll probably bring friends back to ride with them.

What does it all mean for us at The Gathering?  It means that there is a timing in this whole process that is 100% perfectly in line with God’s.  It means that no matter how full our space gets, the last thing we should do is rush to find a solution without patience and planning.  And best of all, it means that when we’ve done just that, the end result will be a ride worth taking again, and again, and again.

I LOVE MY CHURCH!!!

I saw a lot of things on Easter Sunday that thrilled me, motivated me, and left me speechless.  Now, a few days removed from it all, I’m beginning to put some words to what I saw.

First, you guys at The Gathering took a special day and kicked it up a notch or two!  As people kept pouring in the doors, I kept thinking about how hungry people are for truth, for something real, and I was humbled that the Lord would trust us with those people.  The team from Park Ridge Christian School opened the morning with an awesome creative dance and then I got to listen to a coffee shop turn into a worship-fest!!

One of the things that I love is the freedom at The Gathering to share with passion and without fear what we sense the Spirit is doing each and every moment, and it was off the charts to experience with each of you how very near God is to all of us, but especially on Sunday to those who are fighting off addictions.  The word of the Lord was clear and true.  YOU ARE FREE and He is with you in EVERY WAY AND EVERY MOMENT!

The teaching was a relief, not because I dreaded it but because I was so full of what God had shown me in Scripture specifically for that day and I was so glad to finally get to share it.  The resurrection of Jesus is, without a doubt, the greatest sign that JESUS IS LORD.  Believing that He is alive is good, but Romans 10:9 says that we’ve got to combine that with yielding our lives to Him as our LORD AND KING.

Angels threw a huge party when one person did just that, followed by a couple dozen who stood to publicly say that they wanted Jesus to rule their lives in every moment as Lord.

It can’t get better, I thought.  I was wrong.

As the afternoon went on, I watched 2 things unfold simultaneously: my Twitter feed showing church numbers from around the region and Bubba Watson marching toward an improbable Masters victory.  As I watched them both, everything came together and I realized something: ordinary Bubbas get to have their day.

Let me explain.  Bubba Watson may be the most unlikely and at the same time the most likable Masters champion ever.  He’s raw, he cries (a lot!), and he seems a bit uncomfortable, appearing unsure how to handle himself in the Butler’s Cabin during the jacket ceremony.  Asked if he ever dreamed of winning what may be the most prestigious tournament in professional golf, he humbly said, “I’m not sure.  I’ve never dreamed this far.”

He was so honest, so real, so unpolished, so vulnerable, so much like how I feel about The Gathering.

Watching Twitter cemented that feeling for me.  I saw unreal numbers of people in attendance at other churches and encouraging reports of how many new brothers and sisters we all have as a result of their services and I started to feel a bit like Bubba in comparison to Tiger.  Smaller, less polished, less prepared for the victory that had come almost unexpectedly because the dream had seemed almost unattainable.  And yet, ordinary Bubbas get to have their day.

You may feel ordinary, unpolished, raw.  Maybe you lead a church of a few and cringe when you read about the victories of the churches of the many.  Maybe you find yourself wishing you could feel more “with it.”  Wishing that your numbers from Easter 2012 were measured in hundreds instead of tens.  Maybe you’re lost in the woods searching for a shot that went way right when you needed it to stay in play.  The lesson we learn from Bubba isn’t what we’ll do in the good times, but in the hard times.  Those are the times that will define us.

And so, we keep our heads down. We play with courage from wherever we find ourselves; sometimes in the fairway, sometimes – often, in the worst possible times – in the woods needing a miracle to emerge victorious.  And in those moments, we swing with confidence that we are not alone and there is One Who loves to breathe His breath into the moments that take away ours.  And when we find ourselves on the green putting for a jacket of the same color, we weep, not because we don’t belong, but exactly because of the opposite: we belong there with everyone else who has stood there before and everyone who will stand there on sunny spring days still to come.

We weep because we realize that victory isn’t so much about standing alone on top of a mountain as much as it is about standing in a circle with others who have won before, too.

Everyone wins, from the polished Tiger to the weeping Bubba.

That, for me, is good news.

Anyway, the point of the title is that I ran a little experiment over the week-end here that made me a bit of a blogging rock star for a couple of days and it reminded me of how important it is that we never over-promise and under-deliver as a church.  On Friday, as I was scrolling through my wall on Facebook, I noticed a couple of my friends liked a link entitled “Look what this girl is wearing at the beach in front of thousands of people” that was accompanied with a picture of – you guessed it – a girl on the beach in a bikini.  ”Busted!” was the first thing that went through my mind (since I knew my friends had followed a link just to see more), and then I thought that a quick Google search might reveal the truth behind this obvious scam.

I clicked the first result and found a page saying it probably wasn’t a harmful scam or virus, but that it wasn’t wise to click the link on Facebook.  The author made a comment about how his blog had blown up lately with people searching for answers about the lady on the beach, and suddenly I had an idea.

I would write a blog post basically saying nothing and title it “Look what this girl is wearing at the beach in front of thousands of people” and see what my blog stats would do.  I posted it halfway through Friday and ended that day with 584 visitors (up from the 200/day I typically see).

Saturday was 1,250, Sunday was 1,143, Monday was 555 and today is trending back down to the 350 range.

The point?  It’s not that hard to draw a crowd, but you better have something to give them or they won’t stay around.

What does this mean for The Gathering and any other church plant (or existing churches for that matter)?  It means we need to have more invested in this thing than just great marketing and events to get people in the doors.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that (thanks, Seinfeld!), but growth is better if it’s more than just a high water mark on a couple of Sundays in the calendar year.

Like “We Want Justin Shirtless Tour” on Twitter, the goal is for our attendance to trend upwards over time, not bounce up and down like a bobber in the water as fish nibble and leave.

At The Gathering, I’m thrilled to say that while we aren’t ashamed to count the numbers, we’re more than just about the numbers.  We are committed to being good stewards of the people those number s represent.

Hopefully, if you Googled before you clicked, you found this or any other post telling you that it really is a SCAM.  Do not click it.

{But I bet you still want to…}

1. There are a lot of sounds that are awesome, but there is NO SOUND AS AWESOME AS PEOPLE WORSHIPPING AS ONE!  I couldn’t help but catch myself smiling as I stood and heard our church raising their voices literally as ONE VOICE to exalt our God.  And as much as I loved it, don’t you know that GOD LVOED IT EVEN MORE!

2. It isn’t every Sunday that the application of the message is as obvious as this week.  Simply put, OPEN UP!  For many of us, that means a first visit to one of the area Community Groups.  Get more info about them on our website.

3. BAKE A DOZEN COOKIES!!!  Take them and give them to someone near you and see how that simple step to open your home will help them open their heart!

4. I’m already STOKED about the messages over the next 2 weeks!!  UNCONTAINABLE GROWTH and RADICAL EVANGELISM!!  Palm Sunday and Easter will be fun at The Gathering.

5. If you’re a teenage girl or the mother of one, be sure to take advantage of the “Revolutionary Love Girls’ Conference” taking place THIS SATURDAY at First Assembly here in Albemarle.  It’s free and will be a great 3 hours!  9:00 am until noon!

6. One of the coolest things happening at our church is that the LIST OF WAYS TO SERVE OUR CITY keeps getting longer!!  I ? MY CITY is quickly moving from a “once a month” event to a “here’s a lot of ideas – pick some” type of movement. Be on the lookout for some changes on the website about how we get that information to you!

7. I’m still bummed that NC STATE lost in the tourney, and my bracket is busted up BIG TIME!  But, all of us are still winning THE BIGGEST GAME OF ALL when we make the decision to follow Jesus.  If you’ve been attending The Gathering for awhile and have decided that Jesus is the REAL DEAL, don’t wait until Sunday to respond to Him.  Tuesday is just fine! Simply confess your sin to Him, decide to give Him full access to your life, and then call someone and let them know what you just did! Oh, and BE SURE TO LET US KNOW Sunday that you did. It’s great to be loved by Jesus.

1. I HEART MY CITY is more than just once a month, and there are tons of opportunities coming up for you to get PLUGGED IN as a servant!  One specific way is through the BBQ FUNDRAISER for the Community Inn.  Come Sunday prepared to get your tickets.  Good food. A greater cause.

2. “@ our core” has turned into one of my favorite teaching series!  I love how FOCUSED it has helped us become as a church about WHAT MATTERS MOST!!  This week’s message will open your eyes even more to how simple and powerful sharing your faith can be. We’ll be learning about GENUINE HOSPITALITY and how open homes can lead to open hearts! Don’t miss out!

3. Hurting people are everywhere.  I keep thinking over and over about the truth of this statement: IF YOU LOVE HURTING PEOPLE, YOU’LL ALWAYS HAVE WORK TO DO.  It doesn’t meant that loving people who are hurting is work, but that you’ll never run out of people who are hurting.  I think of Jesus’ own words in John  4:35 – “Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” No one likes to be cramped, uncomfortable, and confused about where to sit, but if we follow Jesus’ words, it means that we can’t wait to harvest.  We can’t wait for more space, more money, more chairs.  The time to harvest is NOW. Hurting people are all around you, so OPEN YOUR EYES AND LOOK AT THEM and when you see them, INVITE THEM TO CHURCH!  Statistics say that most people will come to church if they are simply asked.  I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of a better church to invite them to. I LOVE MY CHURCH!!!