Minimalist

I've decided.  If I can be anything better than I am right now, it will be as a minimalist.  I've begun listening to how long it takes me to tell a story (and to all of you who have had to listen to my stories, I apologize, haha).  I've looked around my life to see the necessities and to determine the extras.  (And boy are there lots of extras)  

I've also come to realize that when we communicate, we should say as little as possible while still communicating clearly and effectively.  My friends at Crosspoint do this well.  All their series basically are built around one word.  

I've been wrestling a lot with who exit14church will be.  (And where we'll be, if that will be the name, just lots of wrestling pretty much all the time.)  Last night I was reading in the book, Church Unique.  In the context of talking about your church's mission, he likened mission to really be better explained by the term Mandate.  This is the "must do" of your church.  It's not the hows, it's not the whys, or the whens or the wheres.  That comes later.  

I've thought about our working vision statement.  It basically is that we want to become a community of healthy individuals and families who live out the way of Jesus and are a force for good in the community and the world.  If that's what we want to become, how will we do that?  As I was laying in bed about to fall asleep, three words came to my mind.  I don't know all of what they mean just yet, but I had to get up and write them down because, as I posted before, I don't remember as clearly as I used to like since Feb. 22nd, 2008, Camden's birthday.  (that's what sleep deprivation will do to you)  Here are the words:

Demonstrate Jesus everyday.

As a church, if we demonstrate Jesus, it will make us healthy.  As individuals, if we demonstrate Jesus everyday, it will make us better people, wiser people, healthier family members.  If we demonstrate Jesus everyday, by default we will begin to live the kind of life he lived.  If we demonstrate Jesus daily, we will be a force for good in the community and the world.  

I know this point may be debatable, but go with me here.  I think even people who don't believe Jesus is the messiah could benefit from doing in their lives what He did.  So if a group of people held themselves to living out the example of the One God sent as His Savior for the world but also His example of how to live while IN the world...and we actually began to do that, could that change the face of a neighborhood?  A community?  Is it easily evaluatory?  (Can I ask myself at the end of the day how I did in the demonstrating that day?  Can I ask my church to ponder how we did in the demonstrating on a regular basis?  Could they give an objective response?  Could I?)

And most importantly, isn't that a big part of what we were put on this planet for?  I'd love to hear your thoughts, agreements, disagreements, about this concise little mission statement.  You can post comments here on the blog page, or if you'd like to send those directly to me (so that the rest of the world can't read your thoughts, which is totally okay, too) you can email me at chris@exit14church.org