Mike Edmisten Follower of Jesus. Husband of Nicki. Father of Ryan & Brock. Communicator of the Word.

Man Up Reflections

I'm still pondering everything that happened at ACC over the last month. When we started our Man Up series, I knew it was going to hit hard. I knew it would be challenging and, at times, pretty uncomfortable. But I didn't understand the full impact that it would have on our men.

I saw that impact in full force this past Sunday. The men of our church flooded the stage.  They took a knee before God, desperate for His leading and His blessing. Many ladies cried as they watched their men make this move of humble leadership.

It was a powerful, defining moment. It was a moment where we got to see what our church is really all about.  It was a moment where we saw what our men are made of. It was a moment where God's Spirit completely took over. And I absolutely believe that it was a watershed moment for many of our men.

You can check out all four of the messages from this series on our website.

Man Up series

A Disproportionate God

After writing about being a disproportionate church, I thought a follow-up post was in order.

The reason that the church should have a disproportionate focus is because we serve a disproportionate God.

God is not balanced. Not at all. He is gloriously disproportionate.

His love for His people is not well-balanced. It is not something that is kept in check. It is wild. It is untamed. It is unpredictable. It is unfathomable.

It is not neat or tidy. It is passionate. It is messy. It knows no limits.

God's love is the very definition of disproportionate.

If His love for us was proportionate to our obedience and our worthiness, things would look a lot different. But in His mercy, God offers us a very different scenario.

"…he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities." (Psalm 103:10)

That is the unbalanced, illogical, completely disproportionate love of our God.

The Disproportionate Church

We need to declare war on the word "balanced."

We are told that the key to a happy, healthy life is balance. You can't focus on one thing too much because then you'll neglect something else.  Everything must be balanced.

Actually, I don't want to live a balanced life. And I definitely don't want to be part of a balanced church. The church should proudly and boldly live a disproportionate life.

A balanced church is going to attempt to do everything. That church needs a men's ministry, women's ministry, singles ministry, quilting ministry, hunting ministry, seniors ministry, skateboarding ministry, youth ministry, recovery ministry, coffee ministry, and classic car ministry.

For the record, I know of churches who have every one of those ministries I listed. And I'm not criticizing those ministries at all. I'm sure that God is doing good things in all of them.

But the point is that no church can do all of them.  A balanced church will try…and fail.

A disproportionate church will simply decide what specific things God is calling them to do…and then devote a disproportionate amount of time and resources to do it.

Our church has a very simple vision: Connecting, Growing, Serving.

We believe God has called us to create experiences where people who are far from God can connect with Him. That's why a disproportionate amount of time and energy is put into every single worship service. You wouldn't believe the detailed planning leading up to our services and the detailed review that follows our services.  It's purposely disproportionate.

We believe that God has called us to help people grow to become more like Jesus.  And we believe that happens best in a small group.  So, we have a disproportionate amount of focus on our small groups.

We believe that God has called us to serve, so we are laser-focused on getting every single one of our people involved in ministry, both inside and outside the church. It gets a disproportionate amount of our attention.

Our children's ministry, our student ministry, and our adult ministry are all aligned around this simple vision. If something falls outside our vision, we aren't going to do it. Not because we think it's bad.  It might actually be a very good thing…it's just not our thing.

We are not balanced. We are, to the glory of God, a disproportionate church.

Man Up Wraps Up

We are wrapping up our Man Up series this weekend.  Guys, you have to be there! There are going to be some powerful moments this weekend at ACC.

The party starts at 11:00 am this Sunday. See you there.

Play a New Game

Adam Jones is a student minister and a very direct, very gutsy blogger. But it is straight-up truth.

This post is uncomfortable…and dead-on right.

Play a New Game – Adam Jones

World Cup Passion

So are you watching the World Cup? Or do you find it as exciting as watching linoleum curl?

As far as I can tell, the U.S. cares less about its World Cup team than any other nation in the tournament.  Sure, there are some die hard fans in our country. But there seem to be many more people who vary from mildly interested to couldn't care less.

I'm somewhere on that continuum. I'll watch some of the U.S. games if I have the time, but I am very far from a passionate fan.

You definitely can't say that about the people who fill the stands  at these games. The shouts, the cheers, the vuvuzelas all add up to one thing…passion.

And this passion is widespread. Think about it this way…the Super Bowl will have somewhere between 105-110 million viewers. The World Cup final will have over 700 million viewers.

Passion.

And here's something else I've noticed.  When someone is a soccer fan, they will fervently try to convert you. They will sing the praises of soccer and the World Cup, all in attempt to win you over. They evangelize their sport.

Passion.

Here's my question (and it's a fairly obvious one)…what if we could infuse the church with this kind of passion?

If the church had this kind of passion…

how would our worship be different?

how would our service be different?

how would our cities be different?

Maybe it's time to grab a vuvuzela and bring it to church this Sunday.

Sports Camp Reflections

Sports Camp 2010 is in the books. Now that we're a few days removed from it, I've had some time to reflect on this year's Sports Camp.  Here are a few of the key thoughts that I've been mulling over…

• Children's ministry matters. Kids are precious to Jesus, so they had better be precious to us.
• Sports Camp is a unique niche for our church. I believe that the Church (capital "C") should be unified in the gospel of Christ. But in the midst of that unity is great diversity. Every local church should find the unique things that God is calling them to do in order to reach the people in their community. Sports Camp is a unique ministry in our area. When a church discovers a unique calling, God can do amazing things through them.
• Excellence matters. I've heard all the arguments about how a church shouldn't worry about programming. We shouldn't be concerned about doing things with excellence. The people who say that are either ignorant or lazy. I'm not saying that every church has to rise to the same level of production (lights, huge sound system, etc.), but whatever a church produces should be, to the best of their ability, excellent. The programming at Sports Camp was excellent…and I'm proud of that.
• Heat + Humidity = Misery. It was hotter than blue blazes, especially on Monday and Tuesday. Anyone who says, "This is my kind of weather" is in serious need of psychiatric evaluation. My kind of weather will arrive in October.
• The need in our community is great. There is great financial need in our area. There is even greater spiritual need. Sports Camp is one great step in the right direction for our church as we meet the people in our community where they are.
• Marie Young is an amazing leader. She is organized, passionate, and incredibly gifted. Other than her husband, Josh, I don't think anyone knows the amount of time, effort, energy, and prayer that Marie poured into Sports Camp. But the results were obvious for all to see.
• The people of our church are amazing. Sports Camp is a massive event. In all honesty, I don't know of many churches our size that would even attempt it. But our vision is bigger than our current attendance. Our passion doesn't allow us to see what we can't do, but only what we can do together. Most of all, our God is huge, so our plans and dreams are, too.  I can't thank our people enough. If you volunteered in any way at Sports Camp…THANK YOU! You are the reason that it was such an amazing week. Only God knows the full Kingdom impact of our efforts last week.

Top Ten Signs of a Dying Church

Dr. James Emery White had a great blog post listing this top ten.  It's so good and so practical that I'm posting the whole thing verbatim.

———————————————————————

10.    There’s plenty of parking near the building for weekend services.

9.      You can always get your favorite seat, or simply ask who is sitting in it to move.

8.      The music is always familiar, and never too loud.

7.      The pastor has been in everyone’s home, and knows everybody’s name.

6.      You are never asked for money.

5.      Phrases like, “We’ve never done it that way before,” “I’m not being faithless, just realistic,” “Why pray? God’s gonna do what God’s gonna do,” “If God wants His church to grow it will grow – we don’t have to do anything,” and “They really should do something about that” are common refrains.

4.      You can be confident that whatever change there is will be incremental, insignificant, and will only happen with your direct input and approval.

3.      There aren’t any of those left-leaning, evolution-believing, gay-marriage supporting, Harry Potter reading pagans daring to attend; just the pro-family, Christian-radio listening, fish-sticker wearing, big-Bible carrying types.

2.      The Bible is seldom taught in ways that are uncomfortable or challenging.

1.      It is always about you – getting fed, getting ministered to, with services evaluated by what you get out of it.

Yep, there you have it. The top ten signs of

…a dying church.

John Goebel

The kids at Sports Camp got a big surprise last night. John Goebel, senior running back for the UC Bearcats, showed up to hang out with them.

I was so impressed with him. This didn't feel like a celebrity visit at all.  John is so humble and gracious. He was honored that we invited him.

He wanted to meet all the kids and watch them play their sports. He patiently answered all kinds questions from the kids (even ones that were WAY off topic!). I'm sure his hand was aching after he signed an autograph for every single kid.

Most importantly, John's love for Jesus was evident. He shared his faith and how it has helped him overcome all kinds of obstacles in his life. The kids were locked in as John shared his story.

Even if you're not a UC fan, you need to be a John Goebel fan. This guy is the real deal, on and off the field.

Fact-finding Before Faultfinding

In Acts 21, a riot broke out in Jerusalem that almost cost the Apostle Paul his life. The city was so angered by Paul that a riot ensued where they were about to beat him to death.  When the commander of the Roman troops got word of this ruckus, he and his troops immediately went to restore order.  But listen to how he dealt with Paul.

"The commander came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. Then he asked who he was and what he had done." (Acts 21:33)

I don't know about you, but this sounds a little out of order to me. The commander arrested Paul, bound him with chains, and then asked who he was and what he had done. Shouldn't he have gotten his facts before making the arrest? Shouldn't he have at least figured out who Paul was before he placed him in shackles?

Of course he should have.

But before we get too high and mighty here, shouldn't we get the facts before we criticize? Shouldn't we find out the truth about a situation before we jump to conclusions? Shouldn't we hold our tongues when we obviously don't know the whole story?

We chain people with our words and our criticism all the time…but how often do we have all the facts? How often do we try to find out more about a person before we say arresting things about them?

Let's get the order right. Fact-finding always comes before faultfinding.