All tagged church

Rhythm of Life: Fighting for Church

For the first time in a decade, I don’t work for the local church. When that change happened in November, it was wild. That first Sunday morning especially, I felt like I was breaking the rules. As if there was some sort of law enforcement officer who was standing behind the curtain waiting to arrest me for my deviance.

Finding Your Ministry

You don’t need the church to share the Gospel, you don’t need the church to disciple & love your neighbor, and you certainly don’t need the church to do the right thing (whatever that right thing might be). My buddy Justin Gravitt talks about this concept in great detail in our last podcast. He goes on to say that one of the most important things we can do is to live into the ministry right where God has us.

For the past two weeks, I have had the distinct honor of visiting some of the “industry leaders” inside the United Methodist Church. We've tied this into a family vacation, and hash-tagged it the #adamtour. As we were planning this escapade we noticed all three churches had lead pastors named "Adam" so the #adamtour was born. Today I am going to write on the first two churches and hit the third church in a future blog. 

This week on all the church’s social media channels we officially announced that we are rebranding the church. What was once known as Centerville United Methodist Church will now become Restoration Church Centerville. August 19th will be Restoration Sunday, and we have big plans to launch this fresh expression of what God is doing in our community.

Three years ago, I walked into the church like a starving man on Thanksgiving Day. I wanted to grow, I wanted to grow younger, I wanted soooo many things for the Kingdom of God. Some things I prayed for but didn’t understand, some other things I thought I understood, but never prayed for.

I have strong opinions on disciple-making, and I went in with a critical eye of what to expect from these organizations. Thankfully, they didn’t disappoint. We spent hours talking about what disciple-making looks like in the local church, and it was intriguing to hear people discuss a call back to authentic community. One of the major themes this year is that people wanted to be connected in deeply personal relationships.

Have you ever met someone that you just connected with immediately?

That’s the way it was with me and Corey. I walked into United Theological Seminary and immediately sought the sanctuary of the corner, I don’t know if you know this or not, but the people who aren’t sure about what’s going to happen like to hide in the corner.