It’s official! Revolution Church is moving to Camelot Cinemas on September 25, 2011!

This is our 4th move in 2 years! I remember Rick Warren writing about the number of times Saddleback moved in their first 10 years and saying something like ‘The joke was, if you could find us, you could come!’

We don’t want to be confusing, but we do want to be clear: the Church is the people of God meeting for the purpose of God to worship the person of God. It’s not a building.

This is a great move for Revolution! It gives us the space to grow and top notch facilities to do it in. I am more excited about this location than any other venue we have utilized for Revolution!

Here are the details:

Revolution Church (at Camelot Cinemas)
48 East Antrim Drive – Greenville, SC
Service time: 10:30 am
Full adult and children’s worship

We would love to have you join us for a service where our guests are made to feel like family and the atmosphere is casual and engaging. Please visit the website for more details: www.revolutiononline.cc

Filed under: Church Plant, Church Stuff, Revolution Church ]]> http://chrislewisblog.com/2011/08/29/revolution-church-is-moving-woohoo/feed/ 0 Chris Camelotfront http://chrislewisblog.com/2009/12/02/revolution-is-moving/ http://chrislewisblog.com/2009/12/02/revolution-is-moving/#comments Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:00:43 +0000 Chris Lewis http://chrislewisblog.com/?p=1013 ]]>

Several weeks ago, I was preaching through a series at Revolution titled Concealed Weapons dealing with spiritual warfare and our tools to fight against the enemy. One of the weeks was on the topic of fasting and my good friend, accountability partner, and elder at Revolution Church Zach Slagel tackled the topic.

At the conclusion of the service, I challenged our people to join in a 10 or 21 day corporate fast asking God for direction on location and facilities. I was blown away!

I was blown away by the response of the people. It’s easy to get people excited about some things. If you have a building to build or a specific project that results in hungry people getting fed or lost people getting found, you can rally support for that kind of thing with relative ease.

But that was not the case here. We were simply seeking God’s purpose and direction. We wanted to know more fully what His plan for us was. We weren’t asking Him to bless our plan, but rather to reveal His plan so we could jump in with both feet.

The response was somewhat overwhelming. An amazing number of people joined in the fast with the leadership! This is an underutilized spiritual discipline that many fellow Revolutionaries took the opportunity to step into an area of faith development. I am excited to hear the stories of what God showed people during their time of fasting.

I was blown away by the response of God. We asked him to give us a greater glimpse of His plan. We longed to know more fully His purpose for Revolution Church. And He answered.

We are now leasing an amazing space from the Greenville Baptist Association located in the downtown Greenville area. We are now situated in a location that is central to many areas and this is definitely a community we can pour our hearts into and physically display the love of Christ!

There are a handful of times in my walk with God where I have clearly and distinctly heard from Him about a specific situation. There are fewer still where I could see the tangible effects of His handiwork in bringing the situation to bear. This was one of those moments. I can’t recount all the specific details, but this is one that has God’s fingerprints all over it!

I would like to thank so many of you for praying with us in this matter.

This Sunday morning, we will have our first service at the new location and our first morning service ever! If you are reading this and in the area, I would like to personally invite you to come. The details are above and if you click the card you can get directions. I don’t want to pull anyone away from being plugged in at their own church. Sometimes, it’s just encouraging to see what God is up to in other branch locations of The Church!

Change rarely comes without some measure of heartache, mainly because we are all creatures of habit and grow attached and cling to the familiar.  Change is often complex and very difficult (I did a series on “Change” last year).

With that in mind, I need to inform you that I have resigned from my role as Executive & Worship Pastor at Washington Avenue Church.  My prayer is that Washington Avenue Church would continue pursuing the plan God has purposed and designed them to be.  We leave behind many wonderful friends and some of the best ministry experiences of my life.

I would like to thank the people of Washington Avenue and specifically Chuck Bridges for the time we shared together.  Though we will be laboring in different works, we share a common goal.  That goal is that Heaven would be more crowded because of our faithfulness.  I encourage you to pray for WAC and its leadership.  Great things are ahead!

I would also like to share what’s going on with us right now and how you can pray for us.  Tabitha and I are in the middle of an intense season of prayer and refining the next steps God has for us.  As most of you know, we have accepted a call to plant a new church and went on a scouting trip to Boston, MA last October.  Upon our return, God confirmed that Boston was not our destination.

We do have a very clear sense of what God intends our specific next steps to be and are seeking confirmation of this.  Over the next several weeks, I will be posting more updates about what is coming up in our exciting journey.  Thank you so much for your prayers and I can’t wait to share these exciting things with you!

Tabitha and I first visited Romania in October 2007 just as I was coming on staff at WAC.  I did several posts and video updates while we were in Romania.

I thought some of you might enjoy seeing the posts (mostly video) we shared from our last time in Romania.  If so, click on the link below…the older posts are at the bottom with the newer at the top.

Previous Romania Posts

I, like many of you, have almost overdosed on the political minutia that has surrounded this election season that started so early this time around.  I have not and am not making any public comments about who you should vote for, only that you should participate in the process and you should seek God in that as you would anything else.

With that said, I am sharing this link to a convocation service held at Liberty University (the school I attend) last Monday.  Former US Congressman Bob McEwen spoke to the whole student body and it has been reported to be the best speech of the year.

I just watched it…it’s a 30 minute speech and it is worth your time and  awesome!!!  I can’t embed the video but here is the full link:

http://liberty.edgeboss.net/wmedia/liberty/cpo/2008/20081027_convo_bm.asx

God confirmed over 3 1/2 years ago that we were going to plant a church (or churches) in a major unchurched city.  We did not know when or where, but we began making preparations at that time to be in a position to “GO” when God said it was time.

We sold our home in Easley and reduced our financial commitments as I left my professional career and devoted myself to full time ministry.  I had spent about 10 years in telecommunications and had a business partnership that was dissolved in April of 2006.  We moved into an apartment in October 2006 and our genuine attitude toward planting the church was “God we are willing to go wherever you send us – but there is NO WAY we are ready!!!”

Early 2007, God led us to Washington Avenue Church.  We made this our church home as we continued to proclaim the gospel and minister through Damascus Road Ministries.  In October 2007, I joined the full time staff at Washington Avenue, where I have served as the Executive & Worship Pastor.

One of my earliest conversations with Chuck Bridges (Senior Pastor at WAC) was about the vision God had given us to plant a culturally relevant church in a heavily unchurched major US city.  That was one of the primary factors that led us to WAC – the Kingdom minded vision of the pastor and the people.  Tabitha and I knew that this was a place that would support us and get behind the vision God had given us…without being territorial or competitive!

This past Sunday, we shared with our church family that God had given us some clarity on this calling to plant a church.  We believe we are being called to Boston, MA to plant a church that will reach people with the life changing message of hope found only in Jesus Christ!

While we do not know the precise timing or the exact launch date yet, we are diligently seeking to identify, assemble, and equip the rest of the TEAM that God is calling to join us in this effort!  Some will partner with us by praying with frequency and fervency.  Some may participate by providing financial support, while others will actually be a part of the team that relocates and invests their lives in the people of Boston.

It could take a year or longer to see everything come together and I will continue to serve on staff at WAC as long as I am able to fill my role and remain a benefit in the ministry of the church.  There will come a point in time (approximately 90 days prior to relocation to the mission field) where the demands of the church plant and the new calling hinder my availability at WAC making it impossible to serve in my current capacity as Worship & Executive Pastor.  Until that time, I intend to faithfully serve God and the people of Washington Avenue Church.

It is with the strongest sense of urgency I ask you to pray for God to clarify some of these details…as well as confirmation for some who are praying about being a part of this plant!

Here are some specific ways you can support us and keep up with all that is going on:

• PRAY
• Follow me on Facebook or join our Facebook Group
• Follow us on Twitter
• Scouting trip to Boston on November 7-10
• Support the plant financially
• Plan or participate in a mission trip to Boston once the church is launched

I will periodically update about the status of the plant here on the blog, but will utilize the Facebook Group as much as possible to keep everyone informed.  Thank you for your prayers in this mission!  My family and I are so excited about this next step of faith in the journey God has called us to!!!

I had an experience with my cell phone provider (who happens to be Sprint) a couple of months ago that completely blew me away.  I want to make an application to church culture, but first let me give you the basics.

I called customer service with an issue on Tabitha‘s phone.  We have a very old plan that did not include many texting minutes.  We received a bill that has an egregious amount of charges for texting Tabitha had incurred.  We owed like $200 over our normal bill!  I called Sprint to see what we could work out.

To begin with, it was a fairly painless process.  I was prepared to be on hold and on the phone for about an hour to get this worked out. That was not what happened!

I had a live voice within 45 seconds and she promptly took my information.  She asked if she could put me on hold and I agreed while I held my breath and figured this was where the run around would start.  After all, we did go WAY over on text messaged and my phone company did nothing that would show they were at fault.  They gave us the text messages that were included in our plan and then, rightly, charged us for the messages we went over.

The young lady returned from hold after about 2 minutes and what she did blew me away.  I was expecting several possible outcomes, but not the one I got.  I thought I had a pretty good idea of the words I would hear her say.  I was not prepared to hear her say:

“I’m sorry, Mr. Lewis!”

“You’re what?”, I asked.

“I am so sorry we have not called you before now.”

“Uh…ok. Why?”

“You sir, are one of our most valued customers. As a token of our appreciation for your loyalty, we would like to give you free unlimited texting on all three of your lines!”

I said, “You would?”

She said, “Absolutely!  And please excuse us for not proactively calling you and offering this to you sooner.”

“Well…just don’t let it happen again.” – Nah! I really didn’t say that!

I was blown away by this.  I was ready and expecting all sorts of things that she could have said, but I was not prepared for her to go out of her way to accomodate me.  It was not something she had to do.  I was not going to leave Sprint if I didn’t get it handled.  But because of what they did, I may be with them forever!  I can tell you this…

It will be very difficult for someone else to convince me to leave by telling me how much they care about me when these guys have demonstrated how much they care about me.

This is the application for the church:

People are not interested in what we say we believe about the gospel.  They only (care/feel/absorb) that part of the gospel that we demonstrate.  Telling the world Jesus loves them is good.  Showing the world Jesus loves them is imperative!

Most people expect hypocrisy in the church.  Most people expect our actions to betray our words.

When our acions positively confound expectations, it opens the door for the Holy Spirit of God to do things that are beyond comprehension and in defiance of expectations.

What is a hero?

Defined by the world’s terms, we envision some larger than life, super human figures.  We expect something of the faster-than-a-speeding-bullet variety!  At the very least, heroes are something that most people would aspire to become.

Defined by Jesus, it’s a whole other story!

During Heroes, we will be taking an uncharacteristic look at the Beattitudes from the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus preached in Matthew 5.  We will consider the contrarian view Jesus had of what made someone a hero and look at some modern day descriptions of what a real Hero looks like.  Should be awesome!

We just finished a series called ‘Living the Dream’ at WAC and it got me thinking about dreams.

Now I’m not talking about the dreams you have at night, scary or otherwise interesting.  I’m talking about the visionary, God-breathed, Holy Spirit empowered dreams that He places within you to pursue and achieve a sense of purpose – God’s purpose – for your life!

That’s a powerful thing to consider.

And sometimes scary.

God’s timing is impeccable and I am never short of amazed at how he carefully crafts and executes things to reveal or accomplish his purpose.  In a couple of weeks, I am going to begin unfolding some of the most exciting plans I have ever been a part of!

It got me thinking about a question I read a couple of years ago.  This is not original with me, but I don’t remember where I read it.

What is the one thing you would do for God if failure was not an option?

Think about that a little bit.

• Thought this past week’s services were amazing at WAC and looking forward to this Sunday!
• BTW…Josh Wyatt was able to get a new version of the home page up on the WAC website (click above).
• Had several incredible meetings this week with some guys who stretch me in a HUGE way!  I love pouring into other leaders and having them pour into me.
• The weight thing threw me for a little curve.  On Monday I had gained 2 pounds then lost three by Thursday.  Overall I am 11 lbs down with 24 to go.
• Final results for the poll earlier this week are in (the poll is now closed). Pay It Forward won with 34.15% of the vote with Living the Dream coming in 2nd at 19.51%.  Thanks for participating and taking the time to vote!

Have a great weekend!!

Posted in Church Stuff, My Thoughts - Chris, Personal - Chris, Useless Information - Chris ]]> http://chrislewisblog.com/2008/09/26/random-thoughts-6/feed/ 0 Chris http://chrislewisblog.com/2008/09/22/whats-your-favorite-series-this-year/ http://chrislewisblog.com/2008/09/22/whats-your-favorite-series-this-year/#comments Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:34:35 +0000 Chris Lewis http://chrislewisblog.wordpress.com/?p=332 ]]> This one is for WAC members and attenders only.  If you are a regular at Washington Avenue Church, I’d like to have your feedback on this question:

It’s because of Chad.

Chad is the ambassador of oil change excellency!  Seriously…on a standard 1-10 scale of helpfulness…this guy is a 17 without breaking a sweat!  He embraces you when you arrive.  He remembers you.  He makes your experience memorable. You leave feeling special.

What can the Church learn?

The truth is, I could go a thousand different places in Greenville to get my oil changed….but I don’t.  I go to see a guy named Chad who changes oil at a car wash.  Why???  Because that’s where Chad is.

At the end of the day…this simple truth remains: it’s all about people!

Your services can be as snappy and current as the latest segment on E! Channel…but we’re missing the boat if we forget…it’s all about people!  People want to be welcomed.  They want to be embraced.  They want to be made to feel special.

People will get out of bed to come to a place they are welcomed.  Even if they don’t know why they are coming.

People will come to a church with less “bells & whistles” than a church down the road if they know they are wanted and will be missed if they aren’t there.

How are we doing?

• Excited about our current series “Living the Dream” at WAC.  This Sunday is going to be awesome!
• We started Next Steps this week.  This is a “home group” style meeting that meets at the church each Wednesday.  It is the next step a person who is visiting our church takes.
• After dumping it a while ago, I now have a Facebook again.
• Going to our first Clemson game this Saturday!  Really hope it’s a strong showing.
• There is a cat hanging around our home.  It tries to get inside.  It is not looking good for the cat!  We may have some Chinese food tonight!
• I have become addicted to taser videos (videos that show people being tased).  Below is one of my favorites: (if the link doesn’t work go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPENzKOmOl0

You: Do I what?

ME: Twitter.

You: What’s that?

Me: It’s really cool!  It answers the question “What are you doing right now?” in 140 characters or less!

You: Sounds boring.

Me: That’s because you’re a nerd!  It’s really fun to “follow” a group of friends and get the 411 that you have to keep on the DL.  Know what I mean?

You: What?

Me: OMG!

You: Are you okay?

Me: LOL!

You: So how does it work?

Me: I have no idea!  But if you go to http://twitter.com/lewischris you can set your Twitter up and “Follow Me”.

You: Follow you where?

Me: Now you’re just being sarcastic!

You: Okay, okay…anything else I need to know?

Me: Only that you can set Twitter up to send text messages to your phone and you can even get desktop applications to keep your “tweed” (that’s your Twitter-feed) right out front.  Hurry up…it’s fun!

You: Sounds a little overboard!  But I’m going to give it a shot!

Me: Gr8!  C U L8R!

You: Freak!

Our mission statement at WAC is “doing whatever it takes to reach whoever we can with the hope found in Jesus Christ”. This morning we learned a little about how we view the “Extend” portion of our strategy.  I firmly believe that “The Church” will explode when believers join together and accept responsibility for extending the love of Christ on a personal level – rather than leaving it up to the professionals.

The task is too great…and there are far too many people who need Jesus to sit around and wait on someone else to do it.  We all have a position to play!  I am honored to serve with so many awesome people who “get it” at WAC!

Yesterday 35 people from WAC flew to San Diego to work with Elevate Church and Lead Pastor Kevin Campbell to help them prepare for their launch in January.  We video conferenced with the team live this morning in both services!  It was amazing – and best of all…FREE!

Pray for the team this week…and you can get updates on Chuck’s blog.

There is no doubt that we will make the most of our date weekend and have a great time sharing life with close friends…but on top of all that…we will be visiting Hillvue Heights Church again!  The entire pastoral staff from WAC visited Hillvue last September and met with some of their staff to ask questions and learn about the way God has moved there over the last decade.  It is nothing short of amazing!

I will update next week…but you will have to follow my Twitter feed to get updates while I’m there.  you can see the recent ones on the right side of this page or go to http://twitter.com/lewischris and follow me.

NOTE: I have posted previously about some stuff God showed me through Hillvue.

You can read the summary from the staff trip post here and another one that includes a stirring worship movement that Hillvue inspired…this is the one we did on Easter at WAC.

It was really one of those Jeremiah 20:9 feelings.  I felt like I had fire in my bones!  I love preaching and could not imagine doing anything else. How cool is it do be blessed to do something you ABSOLUTELY LOVE???

I am still amazed that God can use someone like me!  My life verse (1 Tim 1:15-16) says it all.  Seriously, if God can use me, He can use anybody!

Hey here’s a pretty cool idea for a series we will be doing late summer called “Got Questions?” The premise is simple, ask a question about the Bible or God that you would like to know the answer to. We will address the top questions during this series.

You can go to this page to submit your questions.

I encourage you to read the full post, but his summary points on how the Celtics were successful and what that means to the church are:

1. Embracing change, not living on legacy

2. Staying hungry, not fat and satisfied

3. Staying faithful, not flashy

4. Keep it simple

We will never, never, ever replace or improve upon the simple yet remarkably insurmountable task of making disciples that Jesus left as his marching orders for us.  There is no room for change-resistance, complacency, compromise, or complications.

The time we invest in accomplishing that purpose is really the only investment that yields kingdom dividends.  The rest is just wasted effort, tilting at windmills and settling for apparent short term gains that sacrifice the heart and intent of the kingdom focused portfolio.

Stand and pray for these churches and pastors as we UNITE together in One Prayer for The Church:

Church Name – Pastor Name (Location)

Cedar Creek Church – Phillip Lee (Aiken, SC)

Lakeview Baptist Church – Thomas Maxwell (Anderson, SC)

Hope Fellowship – Mark Gasque (Anderson, SC)

NewSpring Church – Perry Noble (Anderson, SC)

New Life Worship Center – Eric Thompson (Central, SC)

Chapin Baptist Church – Dr. Ken Kelly (Chapin, SC)

The Mount – Bob Lentz (Clemson, SC)

Ignite Kids – Eric Cole (Easley, SC)

Trinity Point Church – Michael Mohler (Easley, SC)

5 Point Fellowship – Dean Herman (Easley, SC)

Cross Fire – Matt Suttle (Easley, SC)

Marathon Church North – Reggie Smith (Greenville, SC)

Edwards Road Baptist Church – Aaron Rayburn (Greenville, SC)

Metamorphosis Church – Chad Bowen (Greenville, SC)

Washington Avenue Church – Chuck Bridges (Greenville, SC)

Trinity Community Church – Richard Bowers (Greenville, SC)

Freedom Fellowship – Cliff Marshall (Greer, SC)

Ridge Point Church – Shane Stone (Inman, SC)

New Journey – James Reppart (Laurens, SC)

Fellowship Community Church – Clark Ford (Liberty, SC)

The Dwelling Place – Michael Stewart (Little River, SC)

Faith Wesleyan Church – Scott Smith (Little River, SC)

Pelzer Wesleyan Church – Phillip Modlin (Pelzer, SC)

Oak Pointe Church – Mike Morris (Piedmont, SC)

Hub City Church – Jonathan Everette (Spartanburg, SC)

Springwell Church – Scott McAlister (Taylors, SC)

Ridgeview Church – Tommy Hargrove (Taylors, SC)

CenterPoint Church – Bryan Parris (Taylors, SC)

Frontline Student Ministries – Jon Brown (Walhalla, SC)

Here’s the deal: over 1200 churches from over 25 countries are standing together in the month of June in a corporate series called One Prayer. Here’s the premise: pastors from all over will answer the question, “Pastor, if you had only one prayer to pray for the church at large, what would you pray?” These messages have been collected from several of the churches participating in the series. Over the series, churches will hear from their pastor, as well as other world class communicators via video!

That is AWESOME and unprecedented…and here’s why! The Church has not exhibited this kind of unity except perhaps in the 1st century and possibly other times of great persecution in history. Not only is there AMAZING unity, but the extent of the unity is larger than ever before possible…because of the technology that exists today!

The vast number and difference of groups who will participate in this is due primarily to the internet and technology advances in video and multimedia.  Without the benefit of modern technology, something like this would not be feasible!  The sheer expense of getting all these pastors to the places they will preach would be exorbitant!  Add to that the limitation of the time-space continuum…one person can only be in one place at one time. But because of technology, churches around the world can come together in unity and pastors can preach in a limitless number of places at one time!  WOW!

This is an incredible time to be alive to share the gospel!  Here’s a thought…Jesus wants all people to be saved (2 Pet 3:9).  He commanded us to go to the ends of the earth (do whatever it takes) with His message (Matt 28:19-20).  We should use all means necessary and available to do that!

…So here’s the thought:

If technology could be used as one of the most powerful tools for sharing the gospel, could we be working against an incredible move of God by failing to embrace it to the fullest?  And anytime we work against God…we know what that is…SIN!

I even asked him to be sure I heard it correctly. I said, “Exceptional service?” and he said “Absolutely!” So I was pumped! Only one problem with the exceptional service he offered…it was exceptionally average – maybe even a little below average.

People want to have their expectations blown away. This is true in business relationships, our personal lives, and yes…OUR CHURCHES! The interesting thing is, it’s really not that hard to knock people out of their seats at church because the bar has been set so unbelievably low we have to be careful not to trip over it!

I was challenged and reminded recently to embrace the creative energies placed in me by my Designer and resist the urge to settle for mediocrity.  My experience with this waiter reminded me that saying something is good doesn’t make it so.  We must deliver!

This has been on my mind a lot lately…I’m not entirely sure why…but I am sharing with you and will have some more thoughts as they develop.

Last night, Christy Nockels and her husband Nathan (Watermark) led worship. That chick has some pipes! Steven Furtick delivered the Word last night and God challenged me in one of those in your face kind of ways.  I have only felt God stir my heart like that one other time…that was the night He called me to preach.

It was unreal!  They are talking in the conference now and looking at me funny because I am blogging.  I better go before they confiscate my laptop…

Aubrey Spears spoke for the first session.  This is one of the smartest guys I have ever heard in person!  Seriously, his vocabulary is Brobdingnagian and prodigious I had to come back and look some things up!

He spoke about art & imagination.  He highlighted the creative power of God and the need for the church, and specifically the worship pastors, to return to the craft of producing high quality art that reflects a Christian worldview.

Incredible stuff.  More later.  Here’s a couple of shots from worship tonight:

I am actually going to be using Twitter to post live updates while we are here.  You should be able to see the last few entries on the right side of the blog.  I just started messing with Twitter so be sure when you click on the link that you then “follow” me.

Looking forward to a great time!