Recently someone said: “Pastor Bernie, are you out of your mind?” They stated this in response to some statements I had made about upgrading some areas of ministry and service to new-comers (guests) at Lompoc Foursquare. They also shared it in regards to the events we have coming up on our calendar: (such as, the Air Force and Public Safety Appreciation BBQ, our assisting the Lompoc PD with their National Night out on August 7th, and the upcoming Lompoc PD / Special Olympics Car Show. Wow! All of that and a growing number of brand new people at LFC and the expansion going on with numerous behind the scenes details and – yeah, sometimes I am out of my mind. But wait….
2 Corinthians 5:13 If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. (NIV)
Sometimes we are just a bit out of our minds – and that is a good thing. Living with a mind that is “Out” means, living beyond, not limited by normal thinking. Since many churches live in normal thinking and thus bringing upon themselves a decline or barely hanging on and since so many churches are just living to fill the seat, we had decided to live beyond that. I spoke with a man this afternoon who attends a church that is barely keeping its doors open. He was at the back of our facilities and looked at our expansion, he had heard of the multi-use space that will take place where the corner house stands and than asked me: “What does your church do in the community?” I of course gave him a watered down and condensed version. I knew he had no frame of reference to understand what we do and more importantly why we do it. I knew if I told him, that he would think I was “out of my mind.”
The bottom line is that if a church wants to impact a community–IT TAKES WORK.
For far too long churches have taken a relaxed approach to ministry and community involvement. They have even been lazy in the care of their facilities and in the greeting of and reception for guests who are seeking God or attempting to find a new church home. We desire that God lead us but we do not want to sit back and ask God to “do it all.” Some have taken that position and claimed that they were being “led by the Spirit.” And then people walk into boring, lifeless and predictable services, students walk into Sunday school or youth gatherings and we give “God all the glory” (or the blame!)
One of the things I have realized in reading Scripture though is that Jesus was far from living in His mind – rather He had God’s mind. He even told us to let His mind be in us.
Philippians 2: 5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus (KJV)
Think of Jesus - He created experiences for His followers–experiences that they NEVER forgot…do you remember…
Jesus walking on water…don’t think for a minute that Peter didn’t think about that moment every time he walked by a lake.
The mount of transfiguration. Peter & John were both so blown away by this that they both wrote about it in Scripture.
- The feeding of the 5,000.
- The day of Pentecost in Acts 2.
- Bringing back Lazarus from the dead.
- Turning water into wine at a wedding.
Jesus was constantly creating experiences that communicated to His followers who He was in a way that they would never forget…
AND THE CHURCH SHOULD BE DOING THE SAME!!!
We will keep going for it – moving forward. Actually the season around the corner will be a Fall Forward time. We will be looking at ways to upgrade things we do at LFC and making room for more and more servants to come onboard too. With all we have going, we need you. Don’t think for a moment we have enough people serving – truth be told, we don’t. We have room for you to join us and we are challenging you to step up and step out. You might be saying to yourself, “Pastor Bernie are you out of your mind – you want me to get connected and serve?” YES! I am out of mind for God, so come and join me.
At LFC, we are doing all we can to take church seriously. Everything you see is done with a purpose and connected to hearts and souls. We are serious about Jesus…and serious about as many people as possible meeting Him. And because of that fact we are willing to do all that we can to reach those people!
We know GOD is in charge–that HE is ultimately responsible for all that is happening…but we also understand that God works THROUGH people…and that He is honored when people plan, pray, work…and then sit back and watch Him make up the difference.
We are serious about making lifting Him up. SO…we are going to always do all we can to make sure that when you attend church on Sunday–that it is the best that it can be and that all we do to impact our community will be the best it can be.
Could God be calling you to assist us in creativity, greeting, parking lot greeting, first impressions and anything that will help people to connect with God at a heart level.
Let God keep changing your heart so that you can be used to change lives.
Let’s keep going for it.
I love being your pastor,
Pastor Bernie
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