Today I’d love to switch gears and ask: of all the things you’ve done to reach outsiders, which have been some of the best ideas, and how might they have offended people?

Here’s a quick survey with a few things we’ve tried:

• We meet in  movie theaters (in part its just practical – it fits us for now).  Some Christians left because they can’t worship in a movie theater.  Some non-Christians come because it’s in a movie theater and not in a church.  For the record, we just keep pointing them all to Jesus.  (It’s not about a movie theater.)
• On Easter 2008, we tattooed a person live on stage.  It was to make the point from Acts 17 that all of us – even non-Christians – have a notion of God imprinted on our hearts.  A handful of Christians left our church over it.  Some non-Christians said it made them want to come back.  The tattoo artist himself hadn’t been to church for years.  He was very suspicious of church.  He said it was a great experience and impacted him deeply spiritually.  He was surprised a group of Christians accepted invited him in.
• We opened Christmas Eve 09 with Led Zeppelin’s Rock and Roll to try to break up the sacharine expectations around Christmas.  No one left. Everybody liked it and thought it was funny.  Clearly not edgy enough. :0)

We’ve done quite a few other things that have ruffled feathers (some male band members dressed up as Beyonce <not sure we’d do that one again, or would we?>, we gave away Starbucks cards to people who brought their friends <we’ll do that again>), all in the desire to see non-churched people move into a growing relationship with Jesus.

What have you done?  Or maybe more interestingly, what do you wish you would have done?  What was the reaction or what feared reaction kept you from doing it?

What did he say?  You’d think he dropped some profanity.  Nope.

You’d think he denounced Jesus.  Not that either.

What did he say?  The word was “Gentiles”.  He simply announced that he was going to work with people outside the boundaries of the existing church.  He was taking the Gospel to outsiders.  To the Gentiles, people who had never had access to Jesus before.

That made the insiders furious. They saw it as scandalous that Paul would actually work with people who didn’t fit their category of righteousness.  The text electrified me when I read it earlier this month because I’m not that sure it’s different today.

What do you think? I believe if you are going to reach outsider, you’re going to offend insiders.  Not that you would set out to offend them.  But if you’re really doing meaningful ministry, you will.

Sometimes the very idea of inviting outsiders in is scandalous (what are people with that kind of past doing in church?) Sometimes the methods are scandalous (why would you play that music in church, preach in that manner, or not cater just to my wants as a Christian?).  But bottom line, it is and likely will be scandalous.

Could it be that if you are not offending insiders from time to time, you’re likely not actually reaching outsiders?  Could it be that if you are not offending insiders, you’ve lost your mission?

What do you think?  What’s your experience and what’s your perspective?

But then this irony struck me – hard.  We start setting up church before 6 a.m. on a Sunday morning.  Trust me, everyone but our volunteers and a handful of gas station clerks are asleep.  As I drove off of campus after lunch, the world is waking up, the parking lots at malls are filling up.  And we’re winding up, putting it all away.  It’s like we missed each other.

I’m not suggesting that we should move worship off Sundays or even off Sunday mornings (churches that have tried it rarely see great results).  If unchurched people are going to attend a service, it’s probably going to be on Sunday mornings. I’m not even saying we should be open 24/7.  That can often just mean the church becomes a cocoon – a retreat from our friends and neighbours.

What I’m thinking about this morning is that I hope there is plenty of evidence of our faith left on Mondays (and Wednesdays and Saturdays).  What a shame it is if as the world goes to sleep, the church wakes up and as the church goes to sleep, the world wakes up.

What do you think is the most effective way to personally and collectively lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus when the world is alive, awake and fully engaged?

One of the hardest battles I face internally is related to my heart.  Like you, I’m most effective when my heart is fully engaged.

But over time, it takes work to keep your heart fully engaged.  It usually unfolds this way – starting out, you give your heart (to someone, something, some worthy cause) and at some point, you get stung.  People you trusted let you down.  People say nasty things. Sure, it wasn’t all their fault.  But regardless, it didn’t turn out as you expected. 

You soldier on.  You give your heart again, only to discover that people and life truly is a mixture of hope and disappointment. And somewhere in the process our hearts get damaged. 

The last three years (leaving a denomination and starting a church) have been incredibly rewarding in ministry but have also included the most challenging passages I’ve had to navigate. 

I found myself in a dialogue with God this fall asking Him to give me 100 passion for ministry.  I had a commitment to ministry, even an excitement over it.  But I felt my passion wasn’t where I longed for it to be.  Not sure everyone around me saw it, but I promise you inside I felt it.  I was puzzled.

I prayed about it and talked to a few people about it and then one night, I believe God showed me so clearly what the issue was – it was my heart. Having been stung a few times, I think it had quietly shrunk back – not wanting to be hurt again. It may have been 90% there, but 10% was hiding out in the back, cautious, reserved.

Late one night as I was praying with my wife and some friends, it was as though I heard God nudge me to say "I’m in, if you’re in."   It was a weird message, for sure.   Why would God not be "in"?  Maybe it was the nudge I need to get going.  Maybe it’s a reflection of God’s character – He usually partners with people and prefers not to do things alone (see 2 Corinthians 5). 

But I realized if God was in it, I had nothing to fear.  That what I need to do most is fully throw myself into this – every last ounce.  Every bit of this constantly-beating heart.

After all, don’t you love seeing someone whose heart is in it?  Whether it’s a hockey player, a chef, or a kid in a Christmas play, the people who bring their whole hearts to whatever they do are not only more interesting to watch, they are better people to follow and do life with.  They are fully alive.

So, here’s my heart.  It’s fully engaged.  I’m putting it out there every day. I know I’ll need to do that again, but I’m doing it now.

How about you?  Does your heart get banged around?  Does it shrink back after attack?  What do you need to throw your heart into: your marriage, your family, your ministry, your job?  God is in it, what’s keeping you back?  What would help you fully engage your heart?

Question:  does your input exceed your output?

If you are even a bit driven (like many of us are), you and I will be tempted to measure everything by output.  Did we produce?  Did we hit all the deadlines, create new goals, climb new mountains? What are we accomplishing?

But what I realize more and more is that for long term value and sustainability, my input has to be greater than my output, or at least equal my output.  It’s like a car.  If you hope to travel hundreds of kilometers, you better have a tank full of gas.  If you try to run your automotive output higher than your input, you end up sitting at the side of the road going nowhere.

Jesus mastered the art of input.  I am still stunned that he only ministered for three years and yet turned the world upside down.  You don’t even have to be a Christ-follower to acknowledge that Jesus left a huge impact. 

I’m pretty sure one of the reasons his three years counted for so much was because he prepared for them for 30 years.  Ten parts preparation to one part execution.  Suck on that mint for a while.

Did he need to?  Well, we know that by age 12, he was wowing the religious brass.  Couldn’t he have launched out at 13?  I guess. 

But he wanted more time with his Father. He really valued God’s input and knew his mission would require full focus.  The Gospels are a story of everyone but His Heavenly Father trying to throw him off mission.

Jesus actually never stopped getting input. Even during the three years, he would simply disappear on his disciples.  He’d withdraw to pray all night.  He launched his ministry not with a killer message, but with a 40 day desert retreat. 

His input was so significant that his output was bound to have incredible quality.

Can we learn something from that? 

Um, I think so.  I know I can.  The longer I’m at this, the more I need to spend time not doing ministry so I can end up doing what I hope is meaningful in ministry.  I don’t think that’s just a ministry thing – it’s a life thing.  It’s how God designed us.

If your output exceeds your input, you will no longer be a leader worth listening to or following.  If your output exceeds your input, you will eventually run out of anything worth saying.

What do you think?  Do you agree?  Why do you think most of us (me included) find it so hard to slow down and tap into great input?

It hit me hard because it was so stark.  But it also hit me hard because it’s so true.

Even successful organizations who are not intentionally going through deep change are headed toward slow death.  Now occassionally we find ourselves part of a movement that is not heading toward slow death, but rapid death.  That’s easy to spot.

But what if every successful, moderately successful or plateaued organization embraced the concept that the two choices facing them were deep change or slow death?  In fact, the more successful you are, the more seriously you need to take this truth. The greatest disincentive to change is success, because people only change with the pain associated with the status quo is greater than the pain associated with change.  No pain, no change.  And if you are successful today, why change?

Slow death…deep change.

Got me thinking into 2010 and beyond.  How are we going to change?  If we (and every church) keep missing the 90% of the population of Central Ontario that don’t go to church, what will we change?

Even got me thinking personally, how am I going to change as a leader?

Slow death or deep change.  Do you agree?  What do you think most needs to be changed?