Archive - May, 2009

Wanna Get Your Copy of Hip 2B Holy?

May 29, 2009 in Connexus,Current News with 0 Comments

Many of you have asked how you can get a copy of Global TV's Hip 2 B Holy, a documentary that heavily profiled our ministry at Connexus and several other Ontario churches.

The cost is $30 CDN ($28 USD) + GST (6%) and PST (8%) for a total of $34.20 CDN.  Send your requests to:

90th Parallel Productions Ltd
203 Gerrard St. E.
Toronto, Ont  M5A 2E7
Phone: (416) 364-9090
Fax: (416) 364-0580
E-mail:  
www.90thparallel.ca


They'll send you a DVD. 

Thanks to our friends at thinkyouthministry.ca for the info.

The Reason We Do This

May 27, 2009 in Life,Mission,Strategy with 0 Comments

So we've heard from a lots of people this week.  Thank you for the avalanche of messages.  But one or two comments have a way of putting it all into perspective.

Sam spoke volumes when he posted this on the blog.  This is all he wrote:

I'm so glad Connexus came along. I was dying spiritually before. Thanks for introducing me to Christ.

Among the emails was one from a woman who started attending one of our campuses at Easter because a friend invited her.  She is so grateful that her relationship with God is coming back into focus.

Elvis and Katie attend our Orillia campus.  Their story is a powerful indicator of how God puts lives back together again when people are committed to creating the kind of environment where people with little to no church background can find Christ.  

Had another moment on Sunday when I watched several families bring their children in front of God and a community stand around them committed to helping families win at home.  

I love it when stories about people who had given up on church or never thought about church start to pour in.  

Two things:  First, thanks to our incredible team that makes this happen.  Our amazing staff team, our unbelievable volunteers (did you see the blizzard footage in Hip 2B Holy?  Our crew is crazy!) get up every day in the hopes that people would find an environment where they could enter a growing relationship with Jesus.  

Second, church for people who don't go to church is possible. Among the emails and notes have been inquiries from across Canada about whether there are churches like this in their region.  There are some great churches emerging.  It's so encouraging.  But we need more.  More churches that strip away the human baggage and lead people into an authentic relationship with Christ. 

So here's my question: if these stories move you, if there's something burning within you that makes you want to offer this kind of environment, what's stopping you from gathering a team and starting a church in your city or region or repositioning your existing church for a new mission and strategy? 

What if there were hundreds – thousands – more stories waiting to be written, and God was looking to you – as a believer or a skeptic – to be part of the plot line?  

An Open Letter

May 25, 2009 in Leadership,Life,Mission,Online with 32 Comments

Dear Hip 2B Holy Viewer,

If you happened to have watched Hip 2B Holy on Global, and you're one of the people who hasn't gone to church for a long time or ever, this letter's for you.

First, I just want to say sorry for keeping you away for so long.  The church has not done a particularly good job of being clear or even being open to people who aren't part of our club.  That needs to change and I hope it is changing.

Second, sorry for any and all anger directed at you by Christians.  I'm always amazed that Jesus rarely had a harsh word for religious "outisders".  Instead, he kept his harsh words for insiders who didn't reflect God's heart (usually religious leaders).  How we got it backwards, I'll never know. So for the times we've held placards denouncing you and whatever your group stands for – sorry.  It's not like Christ to attack the people He died for.

Third, sorry for behaving like Jesus died for the church.  His compassion and affection were actually sent for the world, not just for a small minority of people or peoples.  When Jesus died and rose again, we were all covered by that.  Sometimes we in the church behave like it was for us only.  That's wrong.

Fourth, sorry for making it so hard to understand what God is saying.  If you've tried church, you realize that often we just get "weird" about how we do church and we make it hard for someone with no background to understand what's happening or going on.  That needs to stop.

Finally, while the documentary did a great job in many respects, I felt a bit bad about its portrayal of mainline Christianity.  Yes, it's in decline.  Yes, I was in mainline circles for a decade and left, but there's no bitterness.  There are pockets of life and some fantastic Christ-followers in mainline churches.  Wish that had come out.  

There is a lot more to be said.  But the bottom line is this: Jesus loved this world passionately enough to die for it and offer us new life.  

I hope you can be part of a new dialogue – a new beginning.  Many of us are still getting our heads around what it means to be loved by God.  I don't fully understand it. 

When we gather, we want to create an open, accessible, even irresistible environment in which people of all backgrounds and life-stories can come together to discover grace, forgiveness, transformation and hope.  

We need you.  We need skeptics, doubters, people who think they are beyond the reach of love, people who feel the whole Christianity thing is garbage.  We need you in community – in our community, to be part of the community and part of the dialogue.

Thanks for watching…If we can help in any way, we're in.  Post a comment.  Drop by our website. Send me an email.  Come to one of our services or drop by a church in your neighbourhood.  

There's a powerful message and relationship with God that's really worth exploring.  I hope we can do that together. 

Carey
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