Archive for the ‘actionchurch FAQ’ Category
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
Sunday I announced that our new “tag line” for actionchurch was changing from “church for people who don’t like church” to “Love God. Love People. Take action.”. All future advertising, invitation cards, wearables, etc will be tagged with the new line.
How it all started: Two years ago when actionchurch launched at Fat Daddys Nightclub, I struggled to find ways to describe what our little “church in a bar/nightclub” would be like. Some of our early taglines were original (re-think happy hour, No cover charge-no dress code-no joke,) and were funny and/or lame attempts to describe what was going to happen at Fat Daddys on Sunday morning. “Church for people who do not like church” was not original (numerous other churches have used it) and not part of our initial launch. After moving from Fat Daddys to Club 19 in October 2008 we begin to us the “church for people…” tag line exclusively because none of our “bar-related” tag lines seemed relevant to our currently non-alcoholic venue.
Why make the change?: Several months ago our creative team (currently Jerry, Josiah, and myself) met to talk about how we could let more people know that a place like actionchurch exists here in York, PA. Since then we have been working on finding new ways to “explain” and remind people both inside and outside of actionchurch why we exist. Being a “church for people who don’t like church” may describe some elements of our Sunday morning “style/flavor” but it simply does not describe who we are as a church. We needed a new descriptive tag line.
Is this a new direction?: Nope. actionchurch began because we Love God, Love people, and took action when we realized that there was not a place where some of our friends would be accepted, loved, and pointed to Jesus in our area. Because a place like actionchurch didn’t exist we took action. It’s why our great volunteer crew work so hard to prepare for Sunday mornings. Because we Love God and Love People we take action when students in our schools need coats, a family needs a fresh start, people suffering with cancer need our help, etc. etc. Loving God, Loving People, and taking action are in our DNA, in our history, in our name…and in our future. I can’t think of a better way to discribe what we do, who we are, and where we want to “go” as a church!
Tommorow: The ”scoop” about how the name actionchurch came to be.
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Friday, August 1st, 2008
I had a really insightful question in an email this week and since I actually had an answer (that doesn’t always happen)…I asked if I could post the question and answer here for everyone. The question was:
“My family and I attended actionchurch this Sunday and loved it (ok maybe they said ‘weren’t totally repulsed by it’)…we know that actionchurch is primarily designed for “people who don’t like church”…we are a family of Jesus followers…can we attend or would we just be taking up valuable seats on Sunday morning?…it looked pretty crowded.
Believe it or not I told them actionchurch was like Chuck E. Cheese. Now before you think I have completely lost my mind think about this… Chuck E. Cheese is designed for kids. Everything about it is geared for kids…but without adults the place would be out of business. Adults pay for the games…cook the “bad pizza”…supervise the play…and care enough about their little ones to bring them to Chuck E’s place-even though it may not be their first choice as a restaurant…
actionchurch is designed for “people who don’t like church”…people who have wandered far away from God…the broken…the cynical…the “burned”. We are going to do everything in our power to “gear” actionchurch on Sunday mornings to that crowd. But guess what, without followers of Jesus joining in, paying the bills, bringing their loved ones, helping us make our own brand of “bad-kid friendly pizza” and fun..we would soon be out of business.
Thanks to all of you who support actionchurch…even those of you who put aside your “church preferences” to bring someone you care about. Thanks to those of you who give financially each week even though all you get in return is our thanks…and maybe a donut. Thanks to those of you who give your time so that others can enjoy a great experience on Sunday morning… Thanks especially to all of you who volunteer in actionkidz so that our “kidz” can have a great memory of church when they grow up. Keep on coming…keep on bringing your friends…if we’ll just be faithful God will provide more seats!
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Thursday, June 19th, 2008
I’ve had a lot of great questions about baptism lately, so I thought I would try to answer them in a post and put it in the FAQ section.
Q. Why would a church that doesn’t seem to care a lot about traditions do some thing like have a baptismal service?
A. Because Baptism is not a tradition…it’s part of being an obedient follower of Jesus. The bible says repent (turn from your old way of living..and join Jesus kingdom plan for life) and be baptized. (Go public with your decision to “choose sides”). (link)
Q. Will Baptism make me a member of actionchurch?
A. No. Baptism is entirely about going public with your decision to become a follower of Jesus…there are “no members allowed” at actionchurch.
Q. Will Baptism “guarantee me a spot in Heaven”?
A. Sorry, no. Baptism won’t “guarantee” you a spot in heaven any more than a wedding “guarantees” a lifetime of wedded bliss. Only your relationship (that you are celebrating in baptism) makes you part of eternity with Jesus…the good news is he promises to never “fail or abandon us” like people sometimes will. He is also legendary for his forgiveness of those of us who fail him.
Q. How do you know that everyone who gets baptized is “serious” about following Jesus?
A. We don’t…In fact Jesus said here (link) that some who initially get very excited about the good news of Jesus will not “finish”. He also said here (link) that it is not our job to try to figure out who is “in or out” of the kingdom…
Q. Why do you fully immerse (Dunk) people when you baptize them?
A. Because that’s the way they did it in Jesus time…There is a lot of symbolism in being taken under the water (buried) and brought out of water (raised to new life)…but our main reason for being “old school” about baptism is because that was the way it was done then.
Q. Shouldn’t you be in a “church” to be baptized?
A. It was many hundreds of years after the time of Jesus before the first “Church” buildings appeared…so being baptized in church is a relatively new development.
If you have any questions concerning the baptism service on Sunday or Baptism in general please send them to info@actionchurch.com. I will update this post as necessary.
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