Category Archives: actionchurch FAQ

Fresh from the Source.

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I had an interesting question from someone last week about the creative process at actionchurch.  The question was:  “How do you come up with creative ideas for sermon series each month?  What is your creative process?   I think my answer surprised the person that asked…so I thought I’d pass it on to all of you as well.  My answer is:  At actionchurch, we don’t care nearly as much about being creative as we do being “Fresh”.   Yes, every week you see some really stunning artwork from Josiah and others that creatively illustrates each weeks message on the screens.  However, at our core, we are not exactly the most creative church on the planet when it comes to what we teach. We just finished a study of God’s power based mostly on the book of Genesis.   Next week we’ll start a study of the Book of James called “the antidote”.  The following month is Easter…so…you guessed it…we’re going to talk about the resurrection of Jesus.  We do it every year.  And every year at Christmas we talk about the birth of Jesus.  And the other ten months of the year we mostly talk about Jesus as well.    We’re not exactly breaking any new ground here in creativity…but we do serve up “fresh” sermons each week.

If that sounds a bit contradictory, let me explain it with donuts.  Each Sunday morning,  we go to the Maple Donuts on East Market  (the one where the donuts are actually made) and pick up an amazing assortment of donutty goodness.  Every week people comment on how great “our” donuts are…but the truth is…we didn’t even make them…we just did the work of picking them up at the source.  Our donuts are fresh…fresh from the source…EVERY week.    That might not sound like a big deal, but it is.  Last year, as part of our move to the theater, our donuts were supplied to us on Sunday morning by the catering staff.  It was so much easier.  It saved time on sunday morning.  The donuts were beautifully arranged for us on platters at our hospitality table.  They were NOT fresh from the source however…and before long EVERYONE knew.  It was amazing, in a brand new state of the art facility that was better than anything we could have previously imagined…in a place with leather rocker recliner seats…EVERY WEEK people complained about the donuts.   They simply weren’t fresh from the source…and EVERYONE noticed.

That brings me back to the “creative process” that leads up to Sunday morning.  It’s simple.  Each week we go to the source (God…through the Bible) and find fresh things that we need to know and act on as a church.  We don’t actually “create” anything new at all.  We just do the work of “picking it up at the source” EVERY week.  We pray about it.  Josiah and I occasionally “fight” about it.  (He’s usually right :-) )  Although it’s tempting (and would be much easier) we never “re-heat” a series from someone else’s book or sermon series.  Josiah never uses someone else’s graphic packages or branding art.  We value “freshness” over “slick” every time.  That is NOT in any way to criticize the great books and sermon series created by others.  They are amazing…creative…powerful…they just wouldn’t be “fresh” if we re-heated them and served them up on Sunday morning.

Thanks to this little tuesday morning “rant” I am now hungry for maple donuts…and desperately need to get back to the work of coming up with some “fresh” content for initial week of “The Antidote”.  Good question, though.

Do you have a question about how things work at actionchurch…that I can answer with donut analogies?   Let me know in the comments.

 

 

 

Who is actionchurch “designed for”?

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I love the great questions and comments we get after a Sunday Service at actionchurch.  One question that came up this week was so important that I thought I’d post it here on the Blog in case others have wondered the same thing…

The question:   Who is actionchurch “designed for”?  Or, What type of person are you hoping will come through the theater doors on Sunday morning?  Or, in church speak, what demographic are you trying to reach?

The answer is pretty simple, but REALLY important.  It’s not an age thing, although actionchurch probably has a higher percentage of young men than any church I have ever observed.  From the beginning we have been a “man-friendly” church we don’t decorate in pastels, dried flower arrangements, quilts,  and watercolors of “feathered-hair-Jesus” holding sheep or children…we prefer to decorate in steel, leather, and electronics. :-)  However, our target audience has never been based on gender or age.

actionchurch was designed for two types of people.  EVERYONE is welcome, but from the beginning when we met at Fat Daddys Nightclub…to today as we meet in the plush Frank Theaters… two types of people are the reason we do EVERYTHING we do on Sunday morning-and throughout the week.

1. People who have wandered far away from God…and need more than anything to be loved and lead to a right relationship with God through Jesus.

2. People who are followers of Jesus- and because of what Jesus has done for them, want to Love God, Love People, and Take action by joining us on our mission to share the good news of Jesus others who have wandered far away from God.

It’s that simple.

It’s that important.

Want to join us on our mission?

Dear Hacker…

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Dear Hacker,

So you discovered that every week we put up a local network at Frank Theaters.  It’s cleverly named actionchurch…and we use it to run our video and graphics on the screens from our iPhones.  I use it to change the slides while I preach.

You decided to take down the network during the service.  You changed the name of the network  to “Jesus isn’t Real”, installed a new password, made it impossible to remotely control anything during the rest of the service.

We thought it was kind of cute, adorable even.  We laughed about it after the service.  It turns out that Josiah ran like an Olympic sprinter and manually cued the rest of the service from the main Mac.  Most people didn’t even notice.  It was no big deal.

Here’s what I want to say to you.  I hope you come back to actionchurch.  You’re the kind of guy (or gal) that we created this church for.  Jesus is Real.  He’s why we set up literally tons of equipment of equipment at Frank Theaters each week. He’s why we put up the local network you hacked.  He’s why people come from all over to gather and listen to a guy who dropped out of college talk about things that happend two thousand+ years ago.  He’s changed our lives.  We’ve moved from selfish, empty living to “Loving God, Loving People, and Taking Action”.

Are any of Jesus’ more powerful and wealthy contemporaries still discussed and worshiped in our society?  Ever heard of a gathering to talk about the words of King Herod?  Does anyone still gather to discuss the great teachings of Pontius Pilate…or even Caesar?  There’s something about the unemployed construction worker who claimed to be the Son of God that defies explanation…

So,  I hope you’ll come back and hang with us at actionchurch.  Grab a free donut.  Hang out with really loving and accepting folks who are also exploring just what it actually means to be a follower of Jesus.  I’d love to have you on our tech team.  Hope you come back.

P.S.  The network will be encrypted next Sunday.  :-)

Love in action (Why we serve others)

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It was very exciting for me to be able to introduce Kenna Sunday and hear some of the many ways we will be serving in our community this year.  actionchurch started by serving others, and I know that we are going to be even more active and focused on service under Kenna’s leadership.

I want to take a moment though and explain WHY we serve in our community. It’s not just volunteerism…even though actionchurch is made up of volunteers.  It’s not just promotion…even though I think the best (and only) advertisement we have as a church is going out into the community to serve.   It’s not even just our desire “do Good”.   Those are all good reasons…just not THE reason.

The reason we serve and give to others has to be LOVE.

Jesus used words and actions to express his love.  His words offended many.  They were tough…no nonsense…even harsh at times.  Jesus preached of sin, judgement, uncomfortable topics like sex and money, and yes…even Hell.   Yet his actions were kind and gentle.  He fed the hungry.  Healed the sick.  Raised the dead.  Accepted the outcasts into his company.   

It’s tempting as a church (or church goer)  to do ONE OR THE OTHER.  It’s tempting to just say the words of Jesus without demonstrating his love through service. It’s just as tempting to perform good deeds as Jesus did without also speaking his often offensive words.    Neither are enough.  Neither by itself is truly loving.

Without demonstrating your love by serving, the teachings of Jesus come across as Judgement.    “Confess your sins.”  “Repent.” “No one comes to the father except though me. ”  “Go and sin no more. ”

I am also convinced that without the Gospel, without the words of Jesus, all of the good deeds in the world will not truly help someone.  Do people need food?  Yes.  A place to live?  Absolutely. Medical care?  You bet.  Do people who have ALL of those things have any less need for Jesus?  Not at all!   

People need to hear the words of Jesus.

People will often only truly hear the words of Jesus when they experience the good news through the good deeds of his followers. 

It’s not either/or.  

It’s both/and.

Love God. Love People. Take action.

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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.