This Sunday we celebrated actionchurch’s third birthday.  It was a great time of remembering what God has done over the last three years.  Millie (Outside the Cake Box) even created a beautiful birthday cake for the occasion.  After the service, as we were tearing down the equipment and storing it away for another week,  I was reminded of how much has changed over the last three years.

The 50 inch plasma TVs that flank our stage each week were amazing (and expensive) technology when we purchased them for our first “practice” service in December, 2007.  At the time,  Lcd televisions were not available in sizes over 32″ and LED televisions were not even on the market.   Each week as we lug our screens which weigh three times as much, and last half as long as their modern replacements, I remember how much things have changed in the last three years.

When actionchurch launched, the iPhone had only been on the market for six months, and I only knew two people who owned one.  I thought they were an “expensive fad” and vowed never to own one.  :-)  Three years later, everything you see on the screens on a Sunday morning is controlled by myself or one of  the tech team via iPhone, I often update the Blog from my own iPhone 4, and  that “expensive fad” is fast on it’s way to becoming the most common way that people access the actionchurch website. 

Three years ago the Housing market was considered an unshakably safe investment, Myspace was the most popular social networking site, and Facebook was not even a consideration for our advertising or marketing.  I could go on…but I realized Sunday that over the last few years EVERYTHING has changed.

Except the Church.

The Church is still on the same mission that it was on thousands of years ago after Jesus predicted that:  “I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.”   Not just actionchurch (lower case c) but the Church (Capital C) universal.  It’s mission has been the same for the last two thousand years.  It will be the same for the next three years…and if Christ does not return…the next three THOUSAND years.  It’s unchanging, perhaps the only unchanging thing in the world.

So, what could happen in the next three years?  What changes could come in society, technology, and our world?  I have no idea.  I just know that the mission of actionchurch will remain to Love God, Love people, and to take action. 

How we will do those things is the exciting mystery…