Creativity “attracts” (yeah I know we’re not supposed to use that word…whoops) creativity, weaving together  a beautiful expression of the mission of the church and an accessible way to unveil facets of God’s character.    City Community Church is ridiculously blessed with oodles of creative talent.  Seriously.  Songwriters, theater majors, graphic designers (God send us video producers…yes that was a cheap plug:) fashion folks…the list goes on. It’s rare to see so much amazing ability crammed into a church plant that’s only 13 weeks old.  Makes me giddy with excitement and  tremble in wonder about what God is up to in Indianapolis….  

I love listening to a new song that engages me to interact with God on a totally different level.  I love seeing a dramatic sketch that challenges my often tightly held (and inaccurate) perceptions.  I love a painting that gives my thousand words a rest as I gaze into it’s purpose and meaning.  I love a message that draws me into the tension of a creative moment.  I appreciate creativity that draws me closer to my Creator and gives me a glimpse into the unfathomable depth of His being.  

Traditionalism kills creativity.  Safety kills creativity.  Religiosity kills creativity.  Insecurity kills creativity.  Jealousy kills creativity.  Once you rid yourself of those mindsets and exit the man-made institutional church prisons that foster such ideas, you’ll unleash the creatively redemptive image that dwells inside of your heart and we’ll all grow from it.  

Please.  We need you to create…get to it!  …getabsorbed…n

I see a ton of businesses and church plants try to do the Lone Ranger thing and quite frankly, it often struggles to work.  Did you know Tonto was originally written into the radio script just so the Lone Ranger would have somebody to talk to?  I mean sure the Lone Ranger could kick butt and shoot people yet he was bored, didn’t know where to go, depressed and often suicidal. (ok I made some of that up:)  ”Leadership is lonely at the top,” they say.  Well, it doesn’t have to be.

Of course I think they called him “lone” cause it felt American, independent, tough.  If they woulda called it “Two Guys on Horses” it probably wouldn’t have felt so cool.  I mean nobody wants to share credit, right?  What, did you forget about the other fella?

Tonto wasn’t just a side-kick or a multi-cultural token.  The guy was on par with the Ranger in wit, courage and general whoop-up skills.  Two were way more effective than one and it showed in every half-hour episode.  We at City Community Church know it to be true. 

What about you?  Are you the Lone Ranger type?  Might wanna rethink that one cause well, he kinda wasn’t…getabsorbed…n

Here’s some brief, random things I’m learning from our adventure in Indy known as City Community Church…might be helpful to others planting or just people breathing:)…I still can’t believe God has entrusted this moment to us…are we writing any of this down??

Focus on preparing people for the 167.  (hours that is)

True disciples aren’t mass produced by an efficient “church” machine..they’re hand-made over a lifetime by devoted followers of Jesus Christ

Be flexible…structures gotta bow to functionality.  It’s easy to set something in stone and then 2 days later feel the overwhelming urge to jackhammer it.  Only then you can’t cause it’s too hard.  Might as well just let Jesus be the only Rock and leave everything else soft and pliable. Clayish, if you will.

Be mobile…don’t get too much stuff or you’ll have too much stuff.  The great evangelist and philanthropist George Muller was know to say (I’m paraphrasing) “Never have more stuff than you could pack in a day.”  I want to be ready to go, to do and to become all that God desires.  The more stuff I have the harder that becomes.  Tough to GIVE when all you’re worried about is what you’ve GOT.

Cultivate your first love.

I’m moving from what I was, into I AM

Be there for your family.  Yes, you wanna love the world.  Start with those closest to you.  If your twitter peeps and facebook friends take precedence over your spouse and kids, you’re a sad, sad little person preparing for a lonely virtual existence.  Seriously.  You’re not that important.  But you could be…

Create space in your life. 

Be compassionate…everybody has a story; what’s yours?  It’s easy to become judgmental and impatient until we realize what God continues to do in and for us on a daily basis.  The story drives the action.  Help someone re-write their story or walk alongside as God renews their perspective and you can speak into the future of their actions with growing compassion.  Point fingers and..well…that hasn’t worked out too good.

Look into people’s eyes.

Lead and follow.  Leadership by committee doesn’t work.  Heck doesn’t really make sense but on the other hand, it seems like everybody has been a part of a poor, authoritarian leader’s ego trip.  I’m a leader.  I’m also a follower of the greatest leader the world has ever known and He calls me to serve as He did.  Only servants know how to serve…

Visioneers cast vision that vision-nots can see.  Vision-nevers will try to gag and blindfold both.

Build THE Kingdom…not yours…getabsorbed…n

It’s so easy to get caught up in uselessness.

Recently my wife was listening to a sermon series out of Gateway Church in Dallas.  The series is a great reminder that the Holy Spirit isn’t weird; people are.  I highly recommend it to any kid who grew up scared to bring a friend to church because, well…you know… or any adult who just has basic questions about the Holy Spirit.  Good palette cleanse…

It got me thinking though: how much of what we do, did we learn from relationship to man as opposed to revelation from God?  In other words did someone teach you that concept  which now drives your life from a church pulpit or small group or felt board discussion when you were 8?  Did you ever ask the”why” question or were you told that this is just the way it is?  The ripple effect of poor teaching over time can be rather damaging.  Men have been known to be wrong, self-serving and just flat out ignorant.  Ask anybody who knows me:)

Now contrast that relationship to man with revelation from God.  Revelation from God can happen in an instant (clouds break, bright light, voice that sound eerily like James Earl Jones)…but I’ve found it often takes searching, digging, pursuing over a period of time..ie pulling out YOUR OWN Bible and reading it, setting aside YOUR OWN time to be with God outside of Sunday morning.  It’s a ton more intentional and potentially more transformational.  Unless of course you’re just looking for useless information used to uselessly worship God.  Your call and mine…just know we’re not fooling anybody…  

At City Community Church we’re constantly aware of our tendencies to fall victim to useless worship.  We want to challenge you past uselessness and launch you into a transformational relational revelation of the I AM.  It’s easy to recite something you’ve heard but it’s often useless.    It’s different to draw near with your heart and allow your life to change.  In what areas are you simply giving lip worship to God?  When’s the last time you asked “why?”…getabsorbed…n

“These people draw near Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.  Uselessly do they worship Me, for they teach as doctrines the commands of men.” (Matthew 15:8,9)

First part of this post lives here.

Simply put, I always need little reminders to stay the course and writing it down is one effective way to do it.  City Community Church has the incredible potential, as we all do, to drift from it’s intended course.  Especially in it’s infancy.  Even worse we all have the potential to be so  narrow-minded in our focus that we refuse to listen to God as He whispers new coordinates.  I pray and hope that we’ll all have ears to hear and backs to row…hard to ROCK the boat when your busy ROWING in a unified manner:)

Here are #3 and #4 (yes there are more in the world and I’ll just give ours two at a time) areas or problems that drive our lives and our ministry and help us plot City Com’s navigational devices.  The problems that drive us aren’t glamourous or glitzy.  They’re simply issues we feel compelled to act upon…so we are…and here they are:

3.  People are relationally fractured.  The fall, the hiding, the rebelling against God…all of those things don’t just stay vertical, they manifest themselves in very horizontal ways often damaging the people closest to us.  As I scan the landscape of humanity, one thing is for sure:  we’re all extremely broken and most of us don’t even know it.  Churched people can often be the most dishonest when it comes to this because they’ve been taught to hide the pain.  Even though God has made a way through Christ, our sin hinders our conversations with God and our busyness trying to fill our emptiness masks our inabilities to connect relationally with each other.  It’s a vicious cycle that we have to be intentional about breaking.  At City Com we want to challenge you to create SPACE.  SPACE in your day to be with your Creator and SPACE in your life to be with His creation.  What priorities need to change to allow you to have SPACE with God?  What SPACES can you create at home, work or the local coffee shop to create SPACE for conversation with others that might not necessarily look and think like you, but have the same need for connectedness?  In the summer we’ll be test piloting some small groups at City Com that just might jump start the process…

4.  Injustices permeate the world.  Around 6 or 7  years ago, I had a close friend with LSA from South Africa challenge me with a very pointed question.  He asked, “When you get close to God, what does He say?”  Uhhhh…I feel good?  I get goose bumps?  I get blessed?  Yeah, ok…I was stumped.  Here I was leading people in worship of an Almighty God and I didn’t even know what was on His heart.  I realized most of the time I was on a journey to self (hello!) so I purposefully started on a journey toward the heart of God.  It wasn’t long before I realized His heart for the poor, the oppressed, the widow, the orphan and that He had given ME a voice to speak into the injustice.  At City Com, we will INTERACT with Indianapolis, this nation and this world by not going to church but being the church.  We will open our hearts to the King, open our mouths for those unable to speak and open our lives to administer justice in the world.  We will not only share Christ’s love with each other but we will take His hope to the ends of the earth, knowing that the journey toward His heart means learning to become His hands….getabsorbed…n

It’s so easy to get blown off course.  
(Man the “s” key is really sticking on my laptop…probably the kids spilled something…you know they shouldn’t even be allowed to touch this precious Mac Air let alone…) SEE WHAT I MEAN?
One minute you’re headed straight for open water where/what you charted out, then you take your eyes off the horizon and the next thing you know you’ve bunny trailed into a direction leagues  away from your stated destination .  So as a reminder to myself and our incredible team at City Community Church, I thought I’d blog a few different posts and give a quick review.  (Gheez, now the “w” is acting goofy…of course it is right next to the “s”..which makes sense, cause…:) SEE WHAT I MEAN?
Here are 4 (yes there are more in the world and I’ll just give ours two at a time) areas or problems that drive our lives and our ministry and help us plot City Com’s navigational devices.  The problems that drive us aren’t glamourous or glitzy.  They’re simply issues we feel compelled to act upon…so we are…and here they are:
1.  People are far away from God.  Feels like a “duh” statement but me, we, all of us need to be reminded.  As a result of the fall, man has been separated from God.  Our willful disobedience keeps us from Him and the gap can never be bridged by our efforts.  Left alone, we would be eternally separated.    Only through trusting in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and His shed blood on the cross can mankind be reconciled to God, offered peace in this life and eternity with God forever.  This transformation comes through faith and is available to everyone…this is hope…this is Good News and we have a responsibility to share it with the world.
2.  Churches are often painfully irrelevant.  Look around you.  If you live in the United States chances are you know at least the location of 3 churches right in your area but you probably wouldn’t go there. Unfortunately the greatest message in the world often comes off stale, unnecessary and irrelevant inside the walls of our religious institutions. At City Community Church, we work hard to make the message of Jesus Christ alive, accessible and understandable in the context and culture we live in.  This attitude of accessibility permeates everything we do in creating weekend environments that are Spirit-led, engaging, challenging and limitless in their creative expression.  We want you to feel like City Community Church is a place you can encounter God, grow in love with Him and invite others to join you on the journey….getabsorbed…n

New = Different.  Or, at least maybe it should…

Indianapolis folks have been challenging me for years.,”Nathan, when you do FINALLY start this new church expression in downtown Indy (and stop just talking about it), please, for the love of all that’s pure and holy, make it different.”

City Community Church has an official launch of March 1 and we’d love to see YOU there.  Our weekend gatherings will be held at the Central Library in the Clowes Auditorium but I hope that’s where a ton of similarities stop between what was and what will be.

This isn’t boring, weekend, your-mom-dragged-you-here church nor is it a dog and pony show. For starters, we’re much more than just an hour on Sunday. Sure you’ll find gatherings full of great music, relevant teaching, a casual atmosphere and lots of fun for kids. But all of that is geared toward inspiring you to personally draw near to God and interact with the city of Indianapolis no matter what day of the week. Oh, and another thing.  We promise you’ll feel welcome here, no matter where you are on your spiritual journey (hey, we’ve got questions too). City Community Church is a place that will accept you for who you are, but also challenge you to become all you were created to be.

We’re just ordinary people with an extraordinary belief that God is doing something amazing in the city of Indianapolis. City Community Church is a brand new expression in the heart of downtown Indy, passionate about God and purposeful in loving this city and the world. We’re a community with a cause, rekindling the imagination of a city through the hope of Jesus Christ. We’re a people on a journey, moving toward the heart of God, seeking to serve the city in our own spheres of influence.

Bring in the New.  Bring on the Different.  May the world never be the same.  The Heartbeat of God in the Heart of the City….City Community Church.

What kind of environment do you exist in and why? I was so refreshed at our meeting last night at the Central Library.  

Good productivity takes incredible intentionality.  I find that while variety and spontinatiy might be included in the spices of life, the meat of the dish takes hard and pre-planned work.

For a dream to have sustainability, there must be a sense of personal responsibility.
In other words, for most of my personal dreams or goals or ideas to awaken from sleep to reality, there has to be a strong sense of personal obligation.  It’s not up to the economy or my past or my this or that..etc,etc.  I have to see the dream come into fruition by working at it.  Hard.  Constantly.

For Christians, I think there is often a critical misunderstanding when it comes to working hard.  I’m not suggesting you work hard for your salvation; that would be heresy.  I am however, suggesting you work hard BECAUSE of your salvation…which for some ears is still a bit heretical but your faith without works results in a barren existence.  It is what it is.

Ask any business owner, community leader or successful church planter.  They didn’t just wake up one day and head a large organization making change on a global scale.  They WORKED at it. And worked at it some more.  And chances are while you’re reading this, they’re working at it still.
What dreams are YOU going to take personal responsibility for?  A sense of responsibility will equal sustainability which equals change.  And that’s a dream worth waking up for…getabsorbed…n