…bill’s front porch…

our front porch has changed.  we moved to this new house a few months back and the front porch for awhile didn’t have any furniture so it still wasn’t being used as it was suppose to be used.  we finally got two chairs and a table between them.  it was great.  we go out, sit in our chairs connect with our world and look at the sheep mountains but CHRISTmas came.  the front porch is beautiful.  everybody driving by i know thinks it looks great but it isn’t being used as it is suppose to be used.  the table now has a beautiful flower on it and the chairs have evergreenery, a wreath on both of them with lights all over them.  it is such a festive place but nowhere can i sit.  all of the beauty has stopped the potential for connection.

it makes me think about what has happened to the church.  boy they look beautiful but you have to go in to get the real effect.  all of the CHRISTmas celebration stuff is great but you have to go in.  it seems like we have gotten away from our purpose.  the way luke starts the acts of the apostles is by linking to a former book that told all about what JESUS began to do and kind of implies that we are to take it from there.  in the former book it seems like JESUS did a lot of going to where they were not bringing them to where HE was.  it seems like the purpose of the church has changed and it hasn’t been JESUS who has done the changing.

i really do believe that we need front porches  in the church today.  we really do need places to connect with people who will not walk through our doors.  we have to go to them and start a dialogue of some sort.  all we in the church are doing is going after the same people and leaving 65% of the people alone because we don’t relate to them.  i’m sure glad GOD didn’t do that to us.  HE sent JESUS to earth to connect with us and then sacrifice HIMself for us.  shouldn’t we do that?  i mean, come on, we are CHRIST-followers.  or are we just CHRIST-followers when it is convenient or when we are comfortable but if it involves sacrifice i’m sure that’s not what it means.

though i’m sure it means one thing in the united states and another thing in china or at least i’m afraid we think it does but does it really to CHRIST?  

i am a 60 year old man who has grown up in the way we have done church and i am so tired of our ineffectiveness.  i am desperate to find a more effective way to reach people.  it may mean persecution like the church has in china to get us out of our comfortable churches, our ineffective ways.  we worry so much at having the right people in government but maybe to GOD the right people are the ones who would persecute us and get us involved in survival and then maybe we would get back to being what we were created to be.  authentic CHRIST-followers.  people who really care for what JESUS cares for.  HE died for people. we too need to die for lost people.  die to going into our churches and leaving the lost outside.  if we don’t they won’t be the only ones lost. 

 i’m afraid that we in the church have lost our way.  we are more concerned about our personal freedoms than the lostness of the world.  and maybe the only way we get out of our churches and into the world is to be thrown out of our churches.  that sure was an effective way to reach the lost back in the early church day and it sure is an effective way of the church exploding in china.  

i am afraid that more CHRISTians are more concerned about who will lose the election than the neighbor who is lost.  CHRIST may have a different view on that than we do.  i want to follow CHRIST’s view for HE is my LORD.               

i am reading in the 3rd chapter of the  book of mark in the message.  and right after it talks about JESUS choosing the 12 it says he comes home and a crowd gathers.  it says he had so many people reaching out to HIM that HE didn’t even have time to eat.  then it shows  HIS family’s reaction.  instead of running to HIM with food, to help HIM with what HE was doing, they did what a lot of families believe is their job. it says, they suspected HE was getting carried away with HIMself.  they came to keep HIM humble.

i don’t think that is my job.  my job is to serve you,  to take care of you, to build you up not tear you down, to help you believe in yourself.  to let you know that you aren’t alone that you have someone with you. 

but it does seem that our insecurities sometimes come out when we see someone else making a difference.  we don’t feel good about us so we don’t want you to feel good about you.  i don’t want to do that.  i want to help people to feel good about themselves. our sin is what condemns us and GOD will take care of that.

what is our job?  to be used by GOD to make a difference in someone’s life today.  thanks GOD for the opportunity.  

what if i…, just lives in the world of regrets too many times but what if GOD…, deals in the area of the impossible.

i am reading in mark.  i have been in the first chapter for quite awhile.  starting in verse 40 “a leper came to JESUS…and appealed to HIM…’if YOU want to, YOU can.’….JESUS…stretched out HIS‚ hand and placed it on the leper, saying, ‘of course I want to–be clean.’ ” (Ph)

we are here on the front porch just talking.  does that get you?  “if YOU want to, YOU can…of course I want to–be…”  think of it…if what i want is what GOD wants, nothing can stop us.  then i want to find what GOD wants.  the key phrase is “of course I want to.”  that’s where i want to live!!!!

it’s friday and the weekend is coming.  let’s do some what if’s.  just something to do on friday.

…what if i was 25 again (i’m 60) what would i do different?  it sure wouldn’t be not marrying margaret and having brett & stef as my kids.  apart from my relationship with CHRIST, those three are the best things that have ever happened to me. 

…what if i hadn’t come to vegas to pastor harvest?  where would i want to be?  can’t think of anywhere else.  if i wouldn’t have been here i wouldn’t have known all the awesome people that GOD has allowed me to become great friends with. wouldn’t have had the great privilege of being a part of all these people coming to know JESUS.  wouldn’t have had the joy of dedicating the six very special young individuals that i will be dedicating sunday.  wouldn’t have had the unbelievable privilege of baptizing sunday, brianna and mary -2 of the most important people in my life - & twister - a brand new friend and a brand new CHRISTian, an awesome man.  i wouldn’t have had that privilege and maybe if i hadn’t been here they might not have come to know the LORD.

…what if i …the truth is i like my life and i am thankful for it and i don’t have any what ifs.  i just have a lot of thank yous to GOD for what HE has and is doing in my life.  i love YOU.  i really, really do.  YOU have given me far more than i deserve. 

…what if i had never had the opportunity to know GOD. that would have been the worst thing that could ever have happened to me but that is a reality out there for so many lost people.  oh GOD my i be faithful to carry on what YOU came to do through JESUS.

…what if i never share YOU with anyone?  i can’t think about that.  i don’t want to think about that. what a waste. 

i love it on the porch.  at least i came outside and i can connect with people on a personal way more easily.  i have made that effort but to really connect with people the passers-by must stop and come up on the porch.

that is what we came up with on our own about this matter of church.  we changed the definition of church from CHRIST followers to a building.  we made the buildings into cathedrals so people would want to come in and see the church.  we made what was happening on the inside so exciting , that buzz that needs to be out in the community so that people would be excited about coming.  we put our building on the right streets so we would get attention of the passers-by so it would be convenient for them to come in but we still did it all in the building.

i have a church planter friend who this last year got into a leased building, a $10,000 a month leased building and he told me that “0″ people have started coming to church since the “building.”  the people he has, came when they were in the library, the theater but not the “building”.  the library, the theater were where the people were.

i understand what it means to not have a building.  we have been meeting in a park during the week this summer and it is now getting darker and we need to find a place.  i understand how much easier it would be to have our own place but…people are the church, and our task is to go and let people know that JESUS is who they are asking for, searching for, even though they don’t know it.

verse 37 of chapter 1 of mark says, (nlt) “everyone is asking for YOU.” and then JESUS says in 38, ” we must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them, too, because that is why I came.”  HE didn’t say, “let’s find a place and let them know so they will come to us–they are asking for ME, so let’s make it easier for them to find ME by being in one place.  what HE said was, “We must go find them…that is why I came.”

the church is not a building, it is individuals who are living out everyday lives, touching people who are hurting, who are harassed, who are aimless, and who don’t know it but who asking for JESUS.

we have go to get off the porch.  at least we are out of the house, but we still have to go to them.  if that is why JESUS came, and i am a CHRIST follower, then that is what i want to do. 

i am reading in my morning time in the book of mark.  there was a phrase in 1.37 that caught my attention this am.  in the new living translation it says…”everyone is asking for you.”  and the thought came to me, is that true today?  is everyone asking for JESUS?  i think the answer is yes but they just don’t know that it is JESUS they are asking for or where to go to find HIM.

so much pain, so much loneliness, so much aimlessness, so much lostness, so much looking but they don’t know where to turn.  if it is the pain of rejection, they may not turn to the church because we are preoccupied in our buildings, in our homes or our political agenda or our keeping things pure around us that we have a tendency without realizing it to reject those outside by our lack of interest.

i’ll be very honest with you, my heart aches to answer people who are asking.  that is why i went to my other front porch this morning, the one where i talk to people everyday, i went to my starbucks and i had one of those people sit down and i heard some of her hurts and it started the conversation going that will eventually lead to the answer who is JESUS. 

listen, we have to get out of our secure house, church or whatever to our front porch where we can start the conversation that will eventually answer the real question that people have, “where is JESUS?”  listen. everyone is asking…are we going to answer?  i am giving my life to doing that.  how about you?

i was at starbucks today with one of my best friends.  he is successful as the world rates success…money…good looks…attractive wife.  he was telling me about another very wealthy guy and the major junk in his life and the junk that he is causing in his relationships.  and  i said, “people who are ’successful’ and hurting are hard to read because they aren’t honest about their hurts, their pain and so they cannot get real help.”

let me ask you since we are here on the front porch, are you honest in your hurts or do you just keep them to yourself?  is your pain pushed down where no one can get to it, not even GOD?  are you a hider?

we have just moved our church and our home to a totally new area.  it has been a great move.  the home we live in has a front porch but we have nothing on it yet.  we are looking for those just right chairs to put out there.  now we are all set up in the back but not the front.

now these chairs have to be just right….they have to look good because we have an imagine to project but they can’t be so good that they get stolen the first night they are out there. 

isn’t that sad.  the truth is, all we really want are some chairs that are comfortable so we can set out there and get to know our neighbors.  the image we want to share is friendliness and who cares if they get stolen. 

i don’t want to live by fear…i want to live by friendliness.   i am so glad that i now have a front porch on my house.     

i have just gone through an experience where CHRIST’s church works.  we have had an awesome family start coming to the church that i pastor who had some it seemed insurmountable needs.  i sent out an e-mail and GOD used it to make a difference in the now surmountable needs that they had.

that is what CHRIST’s church is all about and when it works it really is awesome.  of course because it is a church that is made up of humans it doesn’t always work but when it does it is awesome.

i am sure glad that i am human and not perfect.  that perfect stuff that some people have who are so critical of the church is really a burden isn’t it?  i mean you never can make a mistake and you can never be excited when GOD really does make a difference through you.

GOD’s plan works..it really does work and i am so fortunate to be a part of something that made a difference in some very special people.  thanks GOD for letting me feel so special myself today.  thanks again for letting it work through me.