Baptism, big ideas, and buildings

Baptism
well as I am getting ready to crash for the evening, I am thinking about the week I am about to face. This time next Friday we will have completed our first baptismal service. We have at least 4 people who are ready to go ahead a get wet. I love baptism, partially because Jesus did it and partially because I love how Romans talks about being "buried in baptism." It speaks of the symbolism of dying to yourself and emerging again new and refreshed and ready to follow God in everything He has for the believer. It is absolutely my favorite "church" thing to do. I have visions of baptisms every week. So many that we have to rethink even how we are going to handle the "traffic"of getting everyone baptized.

Another reason I love baptism is because the last thing Jesus says to do is to go and make disciples. The church today is "good" at counting decisions for Christ (of which I am guilty). But the command of Jesus wasn't to simply help people make decisions for Christ, but it was to help them become a disciple or Christ follower. Anyone can raise there hand during a service and be caught up in the emotion of the moment. But it takes someone who has really thought things through to say I want to be baptized in water to show everyone my new commitment.

I am passionate about baptism, so much I was baptized twice. Once when I was 8 and really at that time felt like I was a Christ follower. The the teen years came around and I strayed form any faith I once had. So after I got real with Jesus shortly before I turned 18, I decided to have it done again. My dad and my grandfather baptized me in water in the fall of 1995. Wonderful!

Big Ideas....

I have been checking in regularly with Mark Batterson and tracking what they do and how they have been effective. One of the things they do, is make sure every service has one big idea. From the front to the back every where they can they try to make sure that one thing they are trying to communicate is presented in 6, 8 maybe 10 different ways. I like that. Too often we try to do and say too much.

I heard a comment once that people only retain 5-7% of what they hear. So why do we try to say a 1000 things... I am not sure. Woudnt it be better to just say one great thing over and over in different ways so people leave with something they can apply to their life that very day.

Well we are going to work to that very thing. Less is more, and planning is key, followed by communication.

Building

I have had a couple phone calls or emails from girls wanting to use our church for their wedding. They are pretty quick to get off the phone when they find out we meet in theater. Interesting though. What are we going to do when someone wants to be married? That is going to be a great problem.

Really I am not tired of packing and unpacking yet at the theater, because we have a good system. Granted a rotating team is ideal, and we are far from that but it is coming. But I must admit there are times I lay awake at night designing a building to accommodate everything we want to do. Building an off site coffee shop that roasts its own brand of beans, which we use of course on Sundays. A stage that actually moves so we can have dramas that interact with the service during teaching times, a media presentation that is like none other, live internet stations in the foyer, wireless capabilities to download the sermon onto your palm during the service, podcasts that feed regularly and video casts of our services that sync to the new color Ipod, I need to stop, because you get the idea...

We are right on track to being a great church. Invite your friends and neighbors. Lets encounter God together.