Eric Taylor

Who are we here for?

One of my favorite people is Gary Lamb.  He pastors Revolution Church in Canton, GA and I was reading his blog today and he wrote something that resonated with me about who we are here for.  I've had some conversations with some folks over the past few weeks about why there are so many churches in Auburn and people seem to be starting new ones all the time.  The answer is simple... until there are NO MORE DISCONNECTED PEOPLE in Auburn, Opelika and Lee County... we'll continue to focus on reaching those people. 

...if you want to reduce lostness you have no choice but to focus on those who are far from God. We started Revolution not to have the largest crowd in town, but to do whatever it took to reach those who don’t know God. It isn’t easy. It is messy. It is even CRAZY at times.

But, we have learned that when you get a heart for what God has a heart for that is when God shows up and does awesome things. God’s heartbeat is lost people. We pray regularly for God to send us those no one else wants, those who are hurting, those who have given up on church, and those who are far from perfect.

I thank God for the believers He has sent our way, but they know coming in that this place isn’t about them, it is about those far from God.  They know that lostness wins out everytime over their preferences. I don’t want anyone leaving our church but if I have to choose between a mature believer and a person far from God, the person far from God, wins.  I know the Christian will find another place to worship, I don’t know that about the person far from God.

Go after those no one wants and you WILL build a great church that is making a difference.  Will it always be neat and pretty?  Nope.  But we aren’t called to be neat and pretty, we are called to seek and save that which is lost.

I think I may hack some people off because I talk so much about reaching disconnected people, marginalized people, people who've been kicked to the curb... These are the people Jesus wanted to hang with... not the religious folks of the day. But that's OK, I can live with myself if I hack people off for that reason.   So, as we've been challenging you over the last few weeks to go ALL IN... this is what we're going ALL IN for... because there are people who we bump into every day who are living life far from God... and we have the privilege of helping connect them with the God who loves them and wants to have a real relationship with them. 

Wrestling with the Enemy

I was going through some files that I brought to the new office and ran across some notes from Gary Lamb's Breakout session at Churchplanters.com conference.  I really needed to hear that again... sometimes we don't need NEW INFORMATION... we need to be reminded again of the stuff we already know.  Gary was talking about going all out to reach the unchurched.  That's our vision at Journey... we have a laser sharp focus to go after the unchurched... Gary mentioned a couple of things I needed to be reminded of:

• Unchurched people don't engage in worship... that's a heads up for our band. 
• Unchurched people don't give checks, they give cash (and I'll add, it's usually $1s or $5s... if we really want to go after the unchurched...
• THE DEVIL WILL GO AFTER US HARD. 

That's what's been happening lately.  He's been attacking me personally, my family, our church (health issues, marital issues, financial struggles, etc)... He's coming after us hard... He's whispering to me this statement:  "if you'll tweak this or that, you could get more Christians and have a bigger crowd and more money.  Then you'd be successful like (insert name of a church planter).  I can't tell you how much I've thought about this over the past few weeks... I struggle with wanting to grow faster or have more money, or adding staff.  The reality is, Auburn, Alabama is a very "religious" culture... we have almost 300 churches in our area... and it's tough to find people who are Disconnected.  But here's the realization... Satan wants us to think that everyone's connected, that everyone's OK spiritually... Reality is, we have 80000 people who live in our target area.  Research shows that about 30000 (very liberal estimate) are connected to a church... That leaves about 50000 that are disconnected, disinfranchised, lost, turned off, etc... So, the enemy wants us to leave them alone... but Journey exists to go hard after those 50000 people because we believe they matter to God and where they spend eternity hangs in the balance.  Do you know how I know?  I talked with someone today who has lived here 5 years and never connected to a church... They've visited, but never found a place to belong... The enemy screamed in my ear... don't ask her the "church question"... don't talk to her about spiritual stuff...He was coming hard after me... If I had listened to him, I never would have invited her to Journey.  But because I remembered the Vision... Helping Ordinary People become Passionate Christ Followers...I intentionally talked to her about her life, her family, her spiritual background... and she's coming with her husband in a couple of weeks. 

I wrote this so I could remind you AND me that our enemy, the devil is constantly prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour... and if you and I are focused on what God's called us to be and do as a church, we're cutting into his action.  But the battle is worth it... the effort is needed... and our commitment to fulfilling the mission of Journey Church will honor God and impact His Kingdom.

Are you investing in someone who's disconnected? 

College Football and Church Planting

What a wild weekend of college football... My Auburn Tigers put it on the Gators, and tons of other upsets really rocked the polls this week.  It's amazing the difference a few weeks can make.  Just a few weeks ago, Nick Saban was the second coming of Bear Bryant, now, listening to Sports talk shows... some folks are questioning his coaching ability.  Of course when Auburn lost to South Florida and Mississippi State, people were ready to gas up the plane to go look for another coach.  Now, after beating Florida, Tommy Tuberville is popular with the fans again.  Who knows what's going to happen at Michigan or Notre Dame.

If you're a church planter, you can approach what you're doing in one of two ways:  Like the fans do...or like good coaches do.   If we, like the fans, we can be rabid and excited and passionate about winning the world for Jesus... but what happens when it doesn't happen exactly like we planned?  What if it's slower than we think it should be?  What if we don't reach our target audience?  What if we get hit with a couple of early losses?  What do we do then?  Do we pack it in?  Do we give up on the season?  Do we question if this is what we should be doing?  Do we doubt God?  Do we wonder how long it will be before God shows up and does for us what He did for Steven Furtick or Perry Noble or Gary Lamb, or (insert the name of the church planter you're currently comparing yourself to).  If you have weeks where the attendance is low and the offerings are even lower, you may have a tendency to react like some of the football fans that call into the Sports Talk Shows.  You're ready to jump ship, question your calling and sometimes slit your wrists.  Now, people were questioning both Saban's and Tuberville's coaching ability over the last few weeks... but I'm pretty sure, they weren't concerned because they had the Big Picture in mind.  That's how great coaches approach things.  They are focused on building a winning program, not just winning a single game.  They want to win EVERY GAME... if they don't, they don't coach long... but they understand the big picture and sometimes losses can be valuable in helping the program get better. 

For church planters,  if we take this approach, we won't get freaked out and go on suicide watch when attendance drops.  Instead, we look at what happens in the course of a season... we celebrate the wins, evaluate the losses and see what adjustments we can make from them to help us get better and reach our ultimate goal of impacting the world with the Gospel. 

If you're a church planter, I want to encourage you to plan, execute and evaluate every week... we all have to do that... but, I've learned over the past year... it's sometimes a LOT slower than you think it should be, sometimes things don't work out like we anticipate they will (insert "losses" here), and if we freak out over EVERYTHING... we'll burn out and be good for nothing in the long haul.  I'm learning to look at numbers as trends and I'm spending my time listening to more stories of life change.  While I still want to see our numbers go up fast, I have resolved myself to not be reactionary if they drop a week or two... but to be patient... Things grow at different speeds. Our attendance was down a few weeks ago and I was bummed, but someone reminded me that just a few weeks before, we were praying for that many people... now I'm disappointed with that number.. Just like college football fans, church planters are never satisfied.  So,  instead of  just trying to get to a certain number or level, quit comparing yourself to the church down the street or across the country... God has given them a specific task... just like He's given us a specific task...be faithful in whatever He calls you to do...be diligent, be proactive, be strategic, be visionary, lead and execute the game plan He's given to you in your specific context.  Then, over time, as we're faithful, God will bless us with more... maybe not more people, money or fame... but more of His Favor.  And when we're all through, we'll here "well done".   And it will not be based on how many "wins" or "losses" we have.

(I wrote this in the context of church planting and for Church Planters because I've got some friends who are struggling right now and I wanted to encourage them... if you're not a church planter, the principles can be applied to whatever you do too.)

Tell a Better Story

Part 2 of Transforming the Culture has to do with telling a better story.  I have heard over and over again that those who tell the most compelling story is the one that controls the culture.  That's so true in our world today...People are screaming for a good story. While there are some good stories out there... what stories have people been captivated by???? Paris goes to Jail,  Barry Bonds chasing Hank Aaron's home run record (even though tainted by steroids), David Beckham coming to America, Harry Potter's final book... Give me a break!!!! These are the stories that people are hearing over and over and they don't mean JACK!  As Christ Followers, we have the GREATEST STORY TO TELL. It's creative and powerful... It has action, adventure, romance, and for the guys... battles and killing, but most of all it's a story of God who is unfolding His plan to bring the people He created back into a relationship with Him.  This story changes lives, it affects our future, it affects all of eternity.  So why do we  listen up when there's talk of the next Spice Girl's reunion?  Because we've lost the art of the story... we've relegated the Greatest Story Ever Told to a list of Do's and Don'ts and a bunch of facts about people who lived a long time ago...

We have the opportunity to tell the most compelling story ever written... that's still being written... and You and I are in the story...

We can transform the culture, but it will involve us telling a better story... Here's where we start... With Your own Story!  The story of how God rescued you from sin and is transforming your life day by day...The story of God doing His work in you and your family and at Journey Church and in our community.   Everyone has a story... what is yours?  Tell it over and over again.  The more you tell the story, the better you get at it, the more compelling you become and the greater opportunity to transform the culture.

Would you share your story with me?  I'd love to hear from you.  Post a comment with some, or all of your story... I believe it  will encourage and equip others to tell their own story.

Transforming the Culture

I don't know why but I get a lot of ideas while I'm at the gym.  Sure, I've got lots of other stuff going on too, my iPod, the 50 or more TVs that are going, the music in the background, but I believe I heard from God this morning at the gym on the treadmill... Now, if you know me, you know I'm not one of those, "God told me to tell you this..." kind of person, but when God speaks to my heart as loudly as I heard Him today, I've got to share it.  Here's what He said to me:  I want to use Journey Church to Change our Culture.  Wow!  that's  a pretty big order!  But He's a pretty big God and who am I to argue.  There are a couple of things we need to focus on if we're going to go about transforming an entire culture...

1) Change the Language and
2) Tell a Better Story.

Changing the language of a culture is WAY HARD and it takes a LONG TIME.  Organizations have their own language... When I worked bivocationally for State Farm, I had to learn "State Farm's Language", every company has their own language... even churches.  The established church has been notorious for using "insider" language.  While this is good for companies like State Farm, Wal-Mart, and others, for the Church, to use language that only insiders can understand is like speaking gibberish, or pig latin, or that African dialect that has only clicks they make with their mouths-- It's virtually impossible to understand.  So, the church, whose mission is to focus on OUTSIDERS (those disconnected from God and the Church) MUST BEGIN TO SPEAK THE LANGUAGE OF THE CULTURE.  They send missionaries to language school for years sometimes to learn to communicate with the culture they will be impacting.  As a new church, we have to work hard at Speaking the Language of our culture here in Auburn/Opelika.   One thing that we are intentional about is that we don't use the word "Lost" very much... instead, we've opted for calling people that are outside a relationship with God and the Church-- "Disconnected".  I have to thank my friend Shawn Lovejoy at Mountain Lake Church, who helped put it in my vocabulary when I was on staff with them...I hear people at Journey using it all the time to describe a friend who they're praying for or someone they're investing their lives in or someone they've invited to a worship service.  One thing that changing the language does... It forces you to look at things, and people, through a new lens.  What I've noticed at Journey has been that as we talk about reaching Disconnected people, our folks, many of whom had to "unlearn" a lot of church language, have a new passion for CONNECTING the DISCONNECTED.  Thats the first step to transforming our culture. 

I love having conversations with our people and hearing them use the "new language".  But I love more to see them putting it into practice by looking at and interacting with people differently than they have before... seeing them as Jesus sees them...through the lens of the Cross...

Tomorrow we'll look at Telling a Better Story. 

Refreshed and Ready to Go!

Last week was an incredible time of rest for me and my family.  Hanging out in Gulf Shores and having fun with my family helped me relax and renew my mind and body for the days ahead at Journey.  I accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish... I ate seafood--The Original Oyster House is the best, but my son Seth picked a place where we could try something we've never tried before--Royal Reds.  I didn't know what they were but when they brought them... Sonja and Abby almost gagged... Whole Shrimp... Heads, tenticles and all... Seth showed us how to pop the heads, peel the legs and eat the shrimp... What an experience!  We also rode Go Carts... and, while I talked some trash to my kids... They both smoked me on the track... Abby even tried to put me into the wall!  But we had lots of fun.  The highlight for me was hanging out on the beach with my smokin' hot wife, Sonja... We read, talked, dreamed and made plans to come back together...just us!  Oh, we did do the manditory "family pictures on the beach at sunset".  The kids thought it was lame but I know they'll appreciate it when they get older.

Doesn't this look like a family that had a great week at the beach?

Hangin with Dave

Yesterday I got a chance to hang out all day with a new friend, Dave Anderson. Dave started Crosspoint Church in Decatur, AL and I met him at a roundtable at Gary Lamb's church.  He had never been to Auburn, so he drove down for the day and we talked about how we can help each other.  They are just ahead of where we are in numbers and we talked about all sorts of church planting stuff.  The thing I love about this guy is he is FEARLESS.  He is doing whatever it takes to reach his city and county for Jesus.  It really was an "iron sharpening iron" time yesterday.   I have been to a lot of church planting conferences, but what we did yesterday may have been some of the most practically helpful stuff I've ever done.  We're going to collaborate on some creative stuff and we'll see if we can't dream big dreams together and make some noise in the state of Alabama as we work together to reach disconnected people for Christ.

It's amazing what you can do when you get an Auburn fan and a Bama fan together and not focus on football.  Oh, but we did that too... I took him on a tour of campus and we stopped at the Athletic Dept and went through the trophy room and sports museum.  He had good things to say about Auburn and even had his picture taken with Bo Jackson's heisman trophy.  I'm looking forward to getting up to Decatur and hanging out with him in his town... Dude, you owe me some Bob Gibson's BBQ!

Leadership

Today I got to spend time with some of my favorite church planters.  This morning, I got a phone call from Gary Lamb.  I emailed him a few days ago with some questions and the dude gave me a call and invested some time in me.  I appreciate Gary a ton.  He and his staff at Ridgestone are getting it done in Canton, GA. That made my morning... Then, I got to hang out with a couple of guys at lunch and ask lots of questions.  Thanks Matt Hawkins and Rusty Hutson. These guys encouraged me and I left there feeling more and more excited about what God is doing in Auburn and at Journey.

Don't forget about FRIEND DAY coming up May 20th.  It's a great time to begin inviting people to come to Journey that day.  More about friend day later.

Exponential Conference 07

This week I was suppose to be at the Exponential Conference in Orlando.  A few months ago at the churchplanters.com conference I won free registrations for 3 people... but, long story short, I couldn't go so I gave up the spots.  I'm a little bummed out that I'm not there...but because I've got lots of friends who are there and are blogging, It's like I'm getting the cliff notes version of the conference!  All the high points of the sessions, but I get to sleep in my own bed at night (I do miss the time I would be able to hang out and network with tons of other church planters.). 

As it turned out, had I gone to Orlando, I would've missed out on a GOD MOMENT with someone who just started visiting our church.  God is at work in the person's life and I can't wait to see how God does His thing in them.

This week, we're finishing up our series called "ROLLING STONES".  This week's message:  Stones of Disappointment...You don't want to miss it because we will close out the series with something special that could echo into the months and years to come...Invite your friends and bring them with you this Sunday!

Hanging with Church Planters

This week I got to hang out with some church planters that are doing it well in their churches.  Wednesday I went to Birmingham and spent the day at the Developing Churches Network roundtable.  We talked about family ministry and small groups.  Great stuff and lots of info shared.  Thursday, Andrew Kulp, our Growth Group Coordinator, and I went to Canton, GA to Ridgestone Church and hung out with Gary Lamb and his staff.  Those guys really rock.  We had a big time hanging out and hearing their story.  I also got to meet several other church planters and got connected with a new friend here in Alabama-- Dave Anderson.  Dave is at Crosspoint in Decatur, AL.  This guy is creative and funny and I want to hang out with him some more.  Hopefully we'll get to connect again after Easter.

Speaking of Easter... It's a week away.  We're sending 15,000 out all over Auburn/Opelika and our prayer is that over the next few weeks, lots of new folks will visit Journey.  Pray that the they will make their way into the hands of people who are disconnected from God and from Church and come to Journey on Easter.

I can't wait to see what great things God does on Easter!