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.

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?

It is interesting to track how people arrive to my blog through Google and other search engines. I have the ability to drill down to those kinds of stats through the hosting site I use. I found something interesting the other day…

If you take out searches for “Chris Lewis” and specific searches, one of the biggest search engine phrases that leads people to my blog is “sex in gatlinburg“! I thought that was pretty amazing!

Why does that happen and how does it point people to Jesus? Good question…I’m glad you asked!

Several months back, I did a post titled “Back from SEX in Gatlinburg” that followed up on a trip our youth at WAC had just returned from where we talked openly about the dangers of sex outside of marriage and the priority of purity.

Just to clear up any misunderstanding, let me clear up what’s happening here. Some guy (or girl?) is in Gatlinburg on business or for some other reason. They get on the internet in their hotel room and are looking for sex through prostitution. Among the various options they are presented with is a link to my blog. I just checked on Google and if you type the phrase “sex in gatlinburg”, my blog entry is on the front page.

When they end up on my blog, they read quotes from the messages that weekend from Chuck Bridges and Ricky Motes. They potentially click on other links.

Maybe they stay a while. Maybe they get interested.

Maybe the Holy Spirit speaks to them in that moment in that place.

Maybe a husband refrains from making a mistake he can’t take back. Maybe a father decides to honor his son or daughter by being faithful and pure.

Maybe a young lady considering selling herself for money realizes she is a Princess in the eyes of her King and she is precious and worth so much more than the cash she needs.

Maybe someone is reading this right now…and you needed to know that.

Maybe you just needed to know that someone is praying for you… right now… this moment…

Praying that you will make the right decision. God made you far too precious to live so cheaply.

Send me a comment if need someone to listen.

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.

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!

We had an awesome dinner tonight for a group of very special ladies.  They were all single moms and we did our best to treat them like royalty!  Lisa Freeman, our missions coordinator did a fantastic job lining everything up.

We gave away incredible care packages and hopefully made a lasting impact on some pretty incredible ladies.  Allison Taffer shared with the ladies about the first single mom in scripture…Hagar.  Can I just say…good night! Seriously, Beth Moore has nothing on this woman!

It was a cool night and I am glad I got to be a part of it…Happy Mother’s Day to all Moms out there!

This church has a richly tremendous heritage of reaching the community at large for Christ. This is another step in that direction. Below is a short video of some of the clips we have from the conceptual design.

Generosity is encouraged throughout scripture. Take a look at some of my favorite generosity references right here. Today, WAC took a huge step of faith to demonstrate the concept of generosity to our partners.

Here is an excerpt from the new blog at www.payitforward.cc that explains what happened:

“On April 27, 2008, Washington Avenue Church held our Sunday worship experience and continued the six week series on generosity titles “In God We Trust”. We met at our normal time, with our normal people, our normal pastor, and our normal praise & worship. What happened next was anything but normal!

Inspired by the actions of some other visionary leaders, the leadership of Washington Avenue felt compelled by God to take an extreme risk and display hazardous faith to creatively demonstrate the concept of generosity.

Near the conclusion of the service, the offering bags were passed around. What’s so unusual about that? Instead of people putting things in the baskets, everyone was instructed to take an envelope out. Every envelope contained varying amounts of cash. Some had $20, others $500.

When everyone had their envelope, these instructions were given:

• • You may not spend this money on yourself or your family.
  • You must use this money to bless someone else.
  • You cannot give the money to a church or organization.
  • Act in response to God’s generosity to you.

That’s it. $10,000 was distributed to everyone present that morning – members, attenders, 1st time guests, believers, and non-believers alike.

This site has been set up to share the incredible stories that come from these “purposeful” acts of kindness.”

Keep up with the awesome stories that are shared at www.payitforward.cc.

We are baptizing 29 new believers this Sunday in our services!  As many of you know, we started meeting in another area on campus at the beginning of this year for a number of reasons.  As a result, we have grown and watched God do some amazing things!

One of the downsides is we lost access to the baptistery.  Some new friends of ours at Springwell Church loaned us a portable baptistery to use for these services and said we could use it whenever we needed!  That is precisely the kind of kingdom focused generosity that I believe God is calling His Church to demonstrate today.

Far too long, personal agendas, giant egos, territorial boundaries, and grotesque pride have plagued many churches and pastors.  God is calling His Church to unite and collectively do whatever it takes to reach whoever we can for Christ!

Thanks to Greg, Julio, and the other nice guys we met at Springwell for the loaner and for the encouraging discussion about what Jesus is doing through His bride, the Church, all over the place!

This Sunday we kick off our new 6 week series that will climax on Mother’s Day! This series is centered around the concept of generosity and it’s going to be awesome!

This is probably the most important series we have done as a church and truly has the ability to transform the ministry and impact of Washington Avenue!  We are going to be making some huge announcements that you don’t want to miss!  Invite your friends and get them there!  More to follow…

Kevin Campbell, lead pastor of Elevate San Diego, spoke yesterday and it was awesome.  He really challenged our people.  We are sending a mission team to work with their launch group in August.  The church is scheduled to launch the first of 2009.  Take a look at what Kevin had to say here.

 This Sunday is going to be awesome.  We are three months into our new format and God has done some incredible things!  We are going to take this Sunday and “Celebrate!” some of the great things God has been doing at Washington Avenue! We have a special guest you will want to meet and some real stories of transformation that have taken place.  I can’t wait until it gets here! 

Chuck, me, and the rest of the staff are expecting God to do some more transforming as we celebrate the lives changed when people get real with Jesus and do whatever it takes to reach whoever we can!  I’ll see you Sunday…

We had 544 566 (edit) people at Washington Avenue’s services yesterday and were hoping to see 400! We saw people accept Christ and experienced worship in a tangible way. Here is Chuck’s post about the services. I am convinced of one thing for certain from yesterday – sometimes my view of God is simply too small! Below are a few of the things I am celebrating from the weekend:

• A portable church in Canton, GA (Revolution Church) had 1400 in attendance and saw 20 salvations! That was on top of a ridiculous egg drop on Saturday that around 17,000 people showed up for! Here’s Gary’s post.
• Our friends at NewSpring in Anderson, SC saw more than 12,000 people come through and over 120 people meet Jesus! Perry blogged about it here.
• Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC (who are only two years old by the way) had more than 4800 at their services and…are you ready for this…500 people met Jesus!!! That is INSANE! Steven’s post about it is here.

Like I said, sometimes my expectations of the God of this universe are just too wimpy. God is at work all around and I am so pumped up to hear and read the stories of all the great things God is doing!

Yesterday, our team did and incredibly powerful creative movement during worship. Seriously, it was one of the most moving things I have ever experienced in a worship service. We saw this done by the team at Hillvue Church in Bowling Green, KY. My good friend Keith Scarborough is the Worship Pastor there. One of these days he is going to come around and start blogging – until then…he has a really cool staff page!

Here is the video:

•  Loving others will release you from bondage.
• If your relationship with others is not good, neither is your relationship with God.
• Loving someone who doesn’t love you back is like hugging a board!
• If we miss this one (loving others personally) we can close the doors now.
• When you hear the preacher say something and think “so and so needs to hear this” – you are “so and so”!
• Wounds from sticks and stones heal over time, but wounds from words can last a lifetime.
• Be careful how you talk about The Church – She is the bride of Christ!
• God does not want us to wait to be loved to love (1 John 4:19)

More Chucklets to come…

1. Worship requires the best we have – we can’t even get 1/4 through Genesis before we see this in action. Abel brought the first and best he had – Cain didn’t. God was pleased with one and not with the other. Worship is not about what we get…it’s about what we give. Read that again: worship is not about what we get from God, but what we GIVE Him! So many people enter a worship setting expecting to get, get, get. To experience worship, we need to engage the encounter with the attitude of offering our best sacrifice of praise to a Holy God who desires hearts that seek after Him – not a style or personal preference.

2. Worship proclaims the name of Jesus – I firmly believe that God steers, corrects, encourages, lifts up, and saves people through the preaching of His word through anointed servants. But who said that preaching is limited to 3 points and a poem?  How many times have you heard a song that spoke directly to a situation in your life.  When you are down and need a pick me up, do you listen to a song on your iPod or play your favorite sermon?  I’m just saying that we can’t underestimate God’s power in using music to impact people’s lives…including unbelievers!  Worship is limited to believers, but spectators can be affected by our worship.  I wonder if those watching Paul and Silas here were impacted by the worship they saw?

3. Worship is a lifestyle – Paul clearly tells us here that our entire lives are our purest form of worship. If our lives lack the alignment God requires, our attempts at worship are empty and vain gestures that are quite simply transparent to a God who knows our every thought. This is a bigger issue than we want to face up to.  There are guys who hit the bar on Friday nights and show up at church Sunday morning…but at least they are convicted in their spirits by their actions.   Then there are those that abstain from all the “obvious” sins…but have sick gossipy mouths or are harboring unforgiveness toward someone…and they think their lives are living sacrifices?  Worship (which comes literally from WORTH-SHIP) means we realize the He is it…and we’re not!

Ok…my little rant is over.  There are hundreds of different angles we could take on the topic of worship (and from time to time we will)…but these are some basic thoughts.  I hope this helps someone…and that ultimately the Church is stronger because more believers seek to worship Him in spirit and in truth.

• It is NOT a style of music – there are no musical notes in the Bible…there is a ton of variety though!  David used things like a harp, a tambourine, and a lyre in his worship.   If worship were really stylistic, then I guess we should all get out our ram’s horns!  Over here people use trumpets, and strings, and flutes, clashing and resounding cymbals, and even dancing!  People used all sorts of things in expressing their praise and adoration toward God.
• It is NOT a specific outer display – There is no right way to worship outwardly.  The real question a person should ask is whether or  not I am worshiping internally.  Worship is an issue of the heart.  Jesus said here that his worshipers would worship him in spirit and in truth.  I DO believe we should be enthusiastic in our worship. I believe it grieves God deeply to watch his people get more excited at a football game or a shopping trip to the mall than the opportunity to experience His presence in a worship experience!
• It is NOT ritualistic – The Pharisees were masters at looking the part.  Jesus consistently dropped the spiritual smack down on them for doing things for show.  Israel received a strong word through Isaiah for seeming to be something they weren’t.  God does not want our sincere rituals – He sincerely wants our hearts!  Anything we do repeatedly can lose meaning and diminish our ability to internalize the meaning.  Variety is essential to worship…one of the most murderous statements toward worship (or the Church’s mission for that matter) is the phrase – “We’ve never done it that way before”!

So that’s a good start to what worship is not…but what IS it?  Check back later this week for Part 2.

This girl came up to me in the Cafe’ and asked if there was some kind of card her friend could fill out? I asked what for and she said, “Well, I got my friend at school saved-ed and we thought we needed to tell somebody”. I asked her to tell me about her friend getting “saved-ed” and she explained it was because of her daddy.

A lot of people have been hit by this flu bug – some worse than others. This little girl’s whole family was down and they had to miss church. Since they were home the Dad pulled the family together and said that even thought they couldn’t be at church, they were still going to have church. They have a Bible Study time and then the dad gives them a challenge: if you will share Jesus with someone who doesn’t know him, I’ll give you $5 and take you bowling Friday night!

How awesome is that! Of course, as mature believers we share our faith out of love for and obedience to Jesus. This Dad is creatively equipping his kids to extend the love of Christ and engage their world with the life changing message of hope that is found only in Jesus! I think that’s awesome and love hearing and sharing e3 stories like that…look for more as I hear of them.

Chuck was down with the flu so Ricky Motes, another associate pastor, pinch hit for him.  This series is so exciting as we explore the topic of LOVE.  We looked at Jacob and Rachel and the lengths true love will drive us to.

One thought kept running through my mind as I thought about how all this connected: what did I used to do for my wife to show her love and affection that I don’t do today?  Let’s be honest – a lot of guys are all about the courtship!  We’re hunters, not farmers – and we have the attention span of an Alzheimer’s-ridden, absent-minded gnat.  Not to get too thick with the dairy product, but my wife needs the hunter and the farmer.  She has parts of her spirit that have to be cultivated and gently tended to over time.  True love will do that.  I ask myself this question regularly: has there ever been a time when my wife felt more secure in my love than today?

Marriage is a spiritual relationship, so it’s no surprise that we can draw a parallel to our relationship with our Father from this example.  Ask the same initial question: what did I used to do for my Father to show Him my love and affection that I don’t do today?  That’s a sobering question that only stings worse when we ask: has there ever been a time when I was closer to God than I am right now?  If the answer to that one is yes – guess who moved?

Those words came to my mind as I thought about the new series we started today at church: Navigate Love. I think a lot of people ask that question today. What does love have to do with it anyway? Actually – EVERYTHING! Love is the very focal point of God’s redemptive plan for you and me. Love is the catalyst behind creation. Love is the active foundation of the foreknowledge of your very existence God designed in eternity past. Love has EVERYTHING to do with it! And our thoughts about love could not be more warped! This is going to be an exciting journey as we look at God’s plan for to Navigate Love.

I got a GPS for Christmas, which is a good thing since I can get lost going to the grocery store.  We are using this theme in the series to draw an analogy to God’s Positioning Standard which helps us navigate the various love relationships and stages we encounter in life.  This should be a huge series and it’s a great time to bring someone who’s out of church!  The culture’s view of love is twisted and out of focus.  Let’s engage our peers as we step through the looking glass and view love from God’s perspective…

We just finished our Transformer’s series today and it was great! If you missed any part of the series, you can request a copy from the church. We have some awesome stuff coming up and I am so excited about what God has in store for us at Washington Avenue!!! Here are a few nuggets I pulled from Chuck’s messages:

• Status is irrelevant to God. This woman flipped her town upside down for Jesus and we don’t even know her name!
• Transformation results in actual life change!
• Attitudes and traditions of men are some of the hardest things to let go of. I wonder what God would do if the church really got over this one!
• A Transformer does not give 10% – they realize that 100% belongs to God! Zacchaeus realized that he was just the financial manager and not the owner.
• Once a person has been transformed, he cannot help but speak about it! These guys would not shut up!
• Sometimes people get offended when others speak up. Political correctness is not the top priority.
• Transformers never quit. It’s like the Energizer Bunny (hey there’s e³!)

Dr. Caner says this: “Tradition is the living faith of dead men that has been passed down through generations”.  Jude says it’s the faith entrusted to all the saints. “Traditionalism is the dead faith of living men that says ‘We’ve never done it that way before’ – ‘You’re stretching me outside of my comfort zone’”.  This is precisely the kind of traditionalism that Jesus went of on time and time again.

I don’t want to ever be accused of doing something that’s different simply for the sake of being different.  We are all unique when it comes to personality and style.  At the same time, I don’t ever want to back down from an approach, an idea, or a conviction that I believe God can use, simply because that’s not the way we’ve always done it!

I don’t know about you, but I cherish every tradition and facet of the faith that has passed from generation to generation.  Many of the ‘old time favorites’ are favorites of mine.   What I do not cherish, are legalistic comforts that I still sometimes cling to that provide some sort of boundary for me to feel good about myself but do absolutely nothing to point someone to Jesus!  My life’s purpose is to do whatever I can to see that as many people stay out of hell as possible.  The rest is just window dressing.  What about you?