I’m sure there won’t be a lot of “amens” to my thoughts today, but I am convinced most churches will never change because IT IS ALL ABOUT THEM. They would never admit it, but the large majority of churches care more about what they like, then what it takes to be effective.

Most churches will tell you they want to reach unchurched people AND I believe them.  The problem is they don’t tell the whole story.  They want to reach unchurched people but they want to reach them on their terms.  What they mean is they want to reach lost people as long as the lost people like the music we play, the traditions we have, and the way we do things.  If they don’t like our way of doing, they can die and go to hell. They won’t say it like that, but trust me that is what they mean.

We are a selfish society and nowhere is this more evident than in the church.  As long as we are getting what we like, we are good to go.  Very few people join a church to see how they can help; instead they join to see what is in it for them.

It takes unselfish people to make change happen in church.  It takes people who are willing to put their preferences on the backburner and do whatever it takes (even changing) to reach those who are far from God. Sadly, those type of people are hard to find.

This Sunday at Revolution we are kicking off a new teaching series that YOU created!!  We asked you what questions would you like us to answer from the Bible and we took the top 5 and will be answering them during the month of November.

We thought we’d jump in with BOTH feet the first week by tackling the what is a BIG issue here in the south for churches, the subject of Alcohol.  Can a Christian drink a cold beer?  Did Jesus turn water into wine….or Welch’s Grape Juice?  Can you have a glass of wine with dinner?  Is it alright to get drunk?  We are going to be answering all of those questions this Sunday!

It’s going to be a tense, interesting, and FUN Sunday. The band has a song planned that I can promise you NEVER thought you’d hear in church and I might even drink a beer on stage if I can prove from the Bible it is okay.

Just kidding about that drinking beer thing….

When I was in High School I always was amused at the amount of peer pressure there was to look a certain way, hang out with certain people, and be like everyone else.  When I left High School I thought I left that…until I got in ministry.  There is more pressure in ministry then I’ve seen in most places.  Depending on which “tribe” you run with there are unwritten rules on the way you will do church, the way you will dress, the beliefs you will have, and the traditions you will hold to.

Because of the influence of those they are close to and the way they are looked down upon for changing, most guys will never have the balls that it takes to change their churches,

I got saved in a very strict church. It was KJV only, women couldn’t wear pants, the music was about 50 years behind, and they preached against everything that moved.  They honestly were great people, but they were so set in their ways that as long as you did it their way, you were fine.

DeAnna and I moved to Iowa and started this type of church. After about a year we realized how ineffective it was and how this type of church wouldn’t reach people who use to be like I was before I became a Christ-follower.  The thought of our ineffectiveness kept me up at night.

We had a decision to make:  do we stay comfortable and keep doing what we’ve been doing or do we do what we KNEW would be a more effective in reaching people.  For us the decision was easy because reaching people was way more important than staying comfortable and being liked or thought highly of by the people whose circles we ran in.

We made the decision to make changes.  They came with a HUGE cost.  Our church in Iowa was funded by the support of these churches we were changing from.  In a period of about 2 weeks (word spreads quick) we lost all of our support, lost our entire network of pastors, and basically became preaching fodder for many people who I use to consider friends.

Was it a tough decision? For us, it wasn’t.  My desire to reach people with the Gospel outweighed whether or not I stayed on the “fast track” to speaking engagements, speaking at conferences, and being known in an ineffective movement.

Sadly for many people, it is tough.  They are so in bondage to those the influence of others.  What others think of them matters more than effectiveness.  They will never admit this, but it is true.

Change is hard!  It will cause you to lose friends, people, mentors, and it will cause you to be public enemy number 1.  That’s ok.  Every day when I get emails and messages from people who have had their lives radically transformed, I am reminded just how ok it is. I never saw that before, today I see it every day.

The people who no longer consider us friends are good people.  They love the Lord and I will see them in Heaven.  Matter of fact, I pray God puts my mansion right next to theirs where I can remind them every day that I made it. ☺  They are good people but God didn’t save me to make them happy.  He saved me to put a dent in hell and for many pastors, that is going to take you making some changes.

I reactivated my facebook account this week after having it off for about a year.  I’m not real sure why I turned it back on and I’m not sure how long I will leave it back on, but it has been an interesting week seeing old faces online.

I had a pretty wild past and did a lot of stupid things before giving my life to Christ. I mean I did some STUPID things.  To be honest, I kind of just pushed that part of my life out of my mind.  I had moved away and just never really thought about it that much. Since I’ve turned my facebook account back on it has been very odd to have people commenting on how surprised they are I am in minstry, that I’m alive and that I’m not in jail :)  It is just a reminder of the how awesome God is that He could change a crazy ass person like me.

So to all of you who I haven’t seen in years, hello.  Once you get past the shock on seeing I’m a pastor, you’ll see I haven’t changed that much. I’m still pretty wild, still love to do crazy things, even still like to fight every not and again.  I still love life but love it for a whole bunch of different reasons like that fact that God radically changed me, I have a beautiful wife of 11 years, and 2 great children who might be wilder than I ever was.

Oh yeah, I’m a lot more sober now then when you use to know me.

I think one of the reasons pastors are so unwilling to change is because they equate change with compromise. They feel if they change the style of music, start using an update translation of the Bible (don’t get started on this one), start making their messages relevant to those in their community, or any number of other crazy man made rule the church in implemented that they are compromising the Gospel.

The problem with that line of thinking is the Gospel has NOTHING to do with the type of music we play, the type of clothes you wear, what version of the Bible you use, etc.

I always get a kick out of pastors who talk about sticking with the “old paths.”  What they really mean by “sticking with the old paths” is sticking with what we did in 1950.  For some reason those who are unwilling to change look at this time in the church as the Biblical standard for the church.

Most churches are still dressing like the 50’s, playing music like the 50’s, doing activities from the 50’s and to top it off they are using a Bible version from the 1600’s!!!!  But talk about changing any of these things and you are compromising.  I don’t understand that.

The thing that is crazy to me is the men who are now the leaders of these movements at one time were innovative.  Go back and study out some of the great men of fundamentalism and you will see they were rebels, they were trying outside the box stuff, they were doing things that no one else was doing AND they were looked down because of it.  Now years later those their innovation has become tradition.  Their innovation has become the standard.  If you don’t follow in their footsteps you are compromising.

When you update the music at your church, change the building, start wearing clothes from this decade, you aren’t compromising the Gospel. You might be compromising from man-made rules, but you aren’t compromising the message of Jesus Christ.

I would venture to say when you DON’T change you are compromising the Gospel. Because your church is so out of touch, so stuck in its ways, so driven by tradition that the Gospel doesn’t advance.  That is true compromise.

• Christ didn’t die for the King James Bible
• Christ didn’t die over drums on stage
• Christ didn’t die for Sunday night church services
• Christ didn’t die for Sunday School
• Christ didn’t die for man-made dress standards

So why do churches keep dying over them?

When I gave my life to Christ, I was radically CHANGED.  I quit smoking dope, quit drinking TOTALLY for about 10 years, gave up getting drunk forever, and believe it or not I even cleaned up my mouth (you think it’s bad now, you should have seen me then).

I turned my life over to Christ in a great church. It had a great preacher, some great leaders, a BRAND new building with a 900-seat auditorium, and was located in the fastest growing county in America at the time.  On top of that the church was full of great young guys who were called to full-ministry (There were probably 15 guys around there that should be in full-time ministry).  The church was a KNOWN church in the circles it ran in and truly was a great place.  That was 12 years ago.  Today that church doesn’t exist. The pastor is gone, a Russian congregation bought the building, and the few people who remained are meeting in a warehouse under a new name in a totally different community.

The problem is this church never changed and when you don’t change you die.

I still have contact with one person from those days (they rest think I am a heretic) and when I talk to him I always get upset as I hear stories of churches and pastors I use to follow.  The fact is it is a dying movement and those that are in it can deny it all day long, but the numbers don’t lie.

I see a couple of good things happening in this movement that gives me a little (very little) hope. My friend was telling me he just got back from a conference held by a very traditional group of churches and I was pleasantly surprised as he told me some of the speakers they had. It was a young, progressive group of guys. I was excited my friend got to experience it.

He then told me of some people we knew that he saw there. I asked how they responded and he admitted they were highly unlikely to be influenced or change as a result. That’s a shame.  These guys will pastor ineffective, struggling churches all their lives because they are more committed to their way of doing things than they are reaching people for Jesus. They would never admit that, but it is the truth whether they realize it or not.

The sad thing is these people that I know are sharp guys.  They are hard workers, some of them are really good preachers, they have a passion for lost people, and deep inside they have a burning desire to do great things for the Kingdom of God.  Yet, the won’t make the changes they KNOW deep inside they must make.

Perry Noble told me one time something that has rocked my world lately.  He said, “Every church is one major change from doubling in size.”  The problem is change is hard, especially when it is our ideas and thoughts that need to change.

The thing about not changing is we hinder the Gospel from being advanced. That is exactly what happened in Acts 6.  The church had grown in size and the way things had been operating need to change.  Widows were being neglected, but that isn’t what this portion of Scripture is about.  It is about the fact that changes were needed in the way the church was running.  As soon as they made the changes, I love what the Bible says in Acts 6:7.

Acts 6:7 (NIV) So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

After they were willing to change, the Gospel spread and the number of disciples increased.  The church grew and got healthier because they leaders were willing to make the necessary changes.  We are in a mode of change right now at Revolution.  We are evaluating everything and making the changes we think have the ability to stop us from reaching people for Christ.

I’ve thought alot about change lately and why churches won’t change. This week I am going to share some thoughts on this subject if for no other reason then to preach to myself.

• GREAT days. Yes, I say that every week, but it truly was a great day.
• I got talk about how Revolution will respond to the craziness happening in our country and just share my heart with our people.
• Basically I told them we won’t be backing down, slowing down, or cutting back. We will continue to do everything in our power to put a dent in hell.
• I heard Holly Springs was ROCKING today!  I love it! I’ll be there live in the month of November and can’t wait to shake it up down there.
• First service at Canton was DEAD. You guys go to start popping some crank or something
• Second service at Canton was rocking.
• The Cherokee Tribune wrote a pretty good article about our Holly Springs Campus. Donna Harris always does a good job. You can read it here.
• The paper might have put the worst picture of me in the paper I have ever seen. I have NO idea where they got that picture but I’ll be sending them some new ones this week that show my sexy side.
• Next week we launch a series called Be Careful What You Ask For…. This is the series YOU asked for. You asked the questions and we’ll be answering them.
• Next week I’ll be answering what the Bible says about drinking alcohol. Yeah, that should be fun
• Got an interesting call last week about a possible meeting space that is open. We’ll see what comes of it.
• I spent the day in Elijay yesterday and God broke my heart over that place.
• I always said we are going to Jasper first, but if a door doesn’t open there we will head to Elijay and rock that town for Jesus.
• We hired Holly Padgett to take over our Tiny Town area. She’s going to be great! Laney isn’t going anywhere but she wants to be at home more with her kids.
• I tried to bring someone on our team this week that I thought would be a huge addition. I got turned down and I am NOT use to that. But I want the right people on staff and it takes a special person to work here.
• Thank you to everyone who did something for me or our staff this month for Pastor Appreciation Month. Not sure why Pastor’s get a whole month and that stuff seems weird to me but THANK YOU for the thoughts and goodies.
• Watching the Falcons game. They are a year or so away but at least this team is something you can be proud of.
• How bout them Dawgs!!!  Offense looked great yesterday. I’ll keep my thoughts about the defense to myself.
• Tech lost. I’m sure their fans are use to it.
• I have the three WORST fantasy football teams in America. I hate them.
• I turned my Facebook account back on. I have no freaking idea why I did it and I am sure it won’t last long. But if you want to check me out, click here.
• We will nail down all our Christmas Eve ideas this week. Including service times.
• I love the fall weather
• Blown away by how many people we have struggling with addictions right now
• Blown away by how many people we have struggling financially right now
• Got to hit the bike this week.  Want to ride?
• I’m trying to teach Ashlyn to ride a bike. Not going well.
• Are you going to TheSticks.tv?  Why not?
• Halloween is this week!!!!  Kids love it and I love watching them.
• I set up my office at our Holly Springs Campus this weekend and I can’t wait to work out of it.
• Georgia vs. Florida this week. Yeah, I’m nervous.
• Putting the kids to be early and chilling with DeAnna tonight to watch a movie.
• I really can feel the MO happening in my life right now.
• It is a weird thing to say but I feel like I am getting some fresh starts in a lot of areas.
• I got a series of posts going up this week about churches and their lack of willingness to change.
• Life is good!
• God is awesome!
• Going to hang out with family so see ya later!

• God is in control - Problem wondering why I’m just learning that? I already knew it, but I think He likes to remind me pretty often.
• As your church grows, your church MUST change
• The hardest changes are when the ideas I created start changing - I’m pretty partial to my ideas, but as we get bigger we can’t only depend on my ideas
• To much is at stake to screw up.
• The bottom line is PEOPLE.
• Our team has to stop doing and start leading.
• The economy doesn’t scare me because God is in control.
• As we are looking for a new Creative Arts Pastor I am reminded of the importance of team chemistry.
• God is in control. Yeah, I already mentioned that one, but needed to remind myself again

To say I am excited about this Sunday would be a huge understatement!!!!!!  We are doing something we rarely do at Revolution and that is teaching a “stand alone” message. About 3 weeks ago, God placed a message on my heart that I have been waiting to teach and this Sunday I finally get to teach it.

It doen’t take a genius to know that there is a lot of craziness going on in our country.  The fear of uncertainity is bigger than ever.  I keep getting a lot of questions about how Revolution is going to respond and how should we respond.  THIS SUNDAY I’M GOING TO SHARE WITH YOU HOW WE ARE GOING TO RESPOND TO THE CRAZINESS!!!!

It’s going to be a great Sunday and if you call Revolution your home, plan on being here!

• Great day today!!!
• A lot more serious than normal, but a MUCH needed message!
• Talked about overcoming your past today and we hit a nerve.
• LOVED seeing everyone freak out when I started cutting up the pocketbook.  Loved it!
• We’re ending our Beautiful series a week early. I believe God is done and has accomplished what He wanted us to accomplish.
• This week I will be bringing a stand-alone message that I can promise you don’t want to miss. I’ll be talking about the state of affairs in our nation and what that means to the vision of Revolution.
• God has been rocking my world over the last month like never before.  I have no doubt He is preparing us for some huge things!
• God hit with the word “CHANGE” about a month ago and I know now what He was meaning.
• On one hand I hate change. On the other hand, I’m looking forward to what God is going to do through it.
• Ministry is basically all I’ve done my adult life and is all I know.  It is a lot different than most jobs, but I am use to it. I forget that if you haven’t been in ministry before it can be rough to adjust.
• We have our all-staff meeting on Tuesday and I can’t wait!!!!  This might be one of the most important ones we’ve ever had.
• Our middle school and high school students were having their Uprising Worship Service tonight. I’m not there, but I wish I could see how awesome it is.
• Holly Springs had the Crepe Master there today. I wish I would have gotten one.
• I forgot to call my dad on his birthday this week. I am the worst son ever.
• Since my dad reads this blog, let me say to the world that I have the greatest dad in the world!!!!
• For the record, I forgot to call my mom on her birthday too.
• I had 5 TDS between Steven Jackson and Adrian Peterson on my fantasy team today and I am still going to lose.
• My Dawgs looked heartless on Saturday. They’re starting to anger me BIG time.
• Publix Sub for dinner. The BEST sub around.
• How come every time we get in the get out of debt zone, every thing in our house breaks.
• I love that we have our sound issues fixed at both our campuses. The sound has been rocking!
• I’m always overwhelmed on Sundays how many hurting people we have at Revolution. THAT is why we started Revolution.
• Think I’m about to make some cookies for the kids. That will make them love me more than DeAnna for sure.
• I’m going to be preaching live at Holly Springs coming up in November. Which Sunday will it be? You’ll never know.
• We got the police called on us this morning at Holly Springs for the music being to loud. I honestly hate that, but we asked the city about that before moving in and they insured us there wasn’t a problem.
• Note to self: Never buy a home 25 feet from an industrial park.
• If you are from that neighborhood, we’re going to try and get sound down during practice and rehearsal time, but when service starts it is going to be loud so come on over and join us.
• Got someone coming to work on our cameras at Holly Springs tomorrow. Yes!
• Going to hang out with family so I’m out.