Meshing-  (Machinery). to become or be engaged, as the teeth of one gear with those of another.

It’s probably not something you think of often, but this morning as you head to work in your car, truck, or SUV, you are experiencing the power of gears meshing.  (And, for those of you who have experienced a transmission failure, you can testify that if the gears DON’T mesh…your vehicle will NOT move.  No matter how much you rev the engine).

The idea of gears meshing…engaging with each other and transferring power…was a large part of why we chose a cog to be the logo for actionchurch.  I believe the God’s plan for churches is just that: to transfer his power and love to people when they engage or “mesh” with him and others.

Over the past three years we have seen that principle (if you’ll pardon my pun) in action.  We’ve seen how lives can be changed when ordinary people “mesh” with God and others.   We’ve seen amazing examples of how God’s power can be transferred in very practical ways to very difficult situations through ordinary people. The “big Cog” of actionchurch has grown bigger and is spinning faster.  But that’s just part of the plan…

As actiongroups launch (starting Oct. 2nd) many other smaller “cogs” will begin engaging and “meshing” with God, actionchurch, and their respective communities.  More small groups of ordinary people will do extraordinary things.  More power will be “transferred”.  More of the movement that has begun will gain even more momentum.   Together we’ll create a  more powerful example of what God for people to experience as they live in community as individual followers devoted to him.  It has happened before…

(and yes…If you attended Sunday…I still think this is the “sexiest” passage in the Bible-with or without the Barry White.) 

⁴⁶ They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—⁴⁷ all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.  (Acts 2:46-47 NLT)

Sunday I shared one of the most compelling reasons I have for wanting everyone to live in community with other followers of Jesus as part of an actiongroup:  being a member of the actionchurch crew over the last three years.  I never thought that being part of planting a church would change my mind about what it means to be part of a “small group”…but it did…completely.

From the very beginning, forming actiongroups was part of the “plan”.  What we did not plan, was that for the first 18 months actionchurch was an “actiongroup”… a small group focused on praying for and working on a place called actionchurch where we could comfortably invite our friends who were not “church people” to come to church.  As planning and prayer moved into action (which by the way-it ALWAYS should) We launched our first services at Fat Daddys Nightclub and more people gathered with us to make music, create art, teach children, carry heavy things, provide funding, clean bathrooms, make coffee…whatever it took to make our dream of actionchurch come to life.

Somewhere along the way to becoming the well-oiled machine that is the actionchurch crew  (It is simply amazing to think about all they accomplish each week) true “Christian Community” happened.  It happened over coffee, donuts…and a LOT of cigarettes. It happened as heavy items were carried, and sometimes dropped.  It happened over spontaneous lunches and planned celebrations.  It happened at weddings and parties.  It happened during conversations and fervent prayers for mutual and personal disasters.  It happened through laughter, sarcasm, and occasional tears…but one thing is sure…it happened.

I shared Sunday that there have been weeks where the ONLY reason I had the courage and the strength to show up and attempt to do my part on Sunday mornings, was because of my friends and fellow crew members. (Most of whom I had never met before launching actionchurch)   Without their help, encouragement, sarcastic comments, determination, and support, actionchurch would have ceased to exist years ago.  (And we would have all missed out on all of the wonderful things that God is doing each week now!)

That’s my story.  I’ve already deleted half of it and it’s still too long for a blog post, but it’s the reason that I am so convinced that the VERY BEST PART of actionchurch is NOT just coming to Frank Theaters on Sunday mornings and sitting in a comfy red leather seat.   The best part of church happens before and after the music starts and the final prayer.  I want EVERYONE to experience that kind of community each week.

Here’s the thing though, as I was thinking back over the last three years of being part of the crew, I realized that there were many people who were part of the crew for short periods of time.  People who came and went.  People who started with great enthusiasm and then drifted away for various reasons.  I realized as I thought of them that they would NOT have the same feeling of community and “belonging” as I do from being part of the actionchurch crew…the original “actiongroup”.   Somehow…some way…for a variety of very good and legitimate reasons I am sure…they missed being part of it.

I realize this morning that the very best we can hope to offer as we launch actiongroups is opportunities to form community…opportunities to be part of groups that will change your life and create memories and friendships that will last forever.  Each group formed will be an opportunity to use talents you never knew you had…opportunities to develop skills that no one else had noticed…opportunities to be encouraged and pushed to live a life that is somehow “More” than you had imagined-just as I have experienced as part of the actionchurch crew.  The rest is up to you.  The rest depends on signing up, showing up, and opening up.   So many opportunities…no guarantees.

I was fortunate enough yesterday to spend time on a catwalk overlooking the Susquehanna river fishing for catfish with my son.  I didn’t catch anything.  I tangled my line so badly I had to restring my reel.  It was hot.  My feet got sunburned.  I broke my line and lost a bait and weight rig, and I TOTALLY enjoyed myself!

Seriously, it was a great morning.  I can’t wait to go back. I’m sure that next time I’ll “hook the big one”.

Jesus started his ministry here on earth by recruiting fisherman to join him and urging them to leave their nets to “fish for people”.   There are MANY great analogies that work when it comes to comparing the work of the church with fishing, but here’s what yesterday makes me think  though:   It matters who you fish with.

I had a great time fishing on the river yesterday, not because conditions were great or I had great results… I enjoyed the time spent with my son. Fishing with friends and family can make a “bad day of fishing” a pretty great time!

I am grateful the group of family and friends that I “fish” with at actionchurch.  We’ve had some great “catches” of the last three years.   We’ve had other weeks where everything went wrong…when it seemed that no one was “biting”.  That’s when doing life and church with people you enjoy being around becomes most important…it matters who you fish with.

If you are looking for a group of people to serve God with…a group of people to fish with…a group to spend life Loving God, Loving People, and Taking Action with:  I don’t think you will find better that the crew of actionchurch.

¹⁸ One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. ¹⁹ Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” ²⁰ And they left their nets at once and followed him.  Matthew 4:18-20

The first actiongroups planning meeting was held this past Thursday.  The meeting was a great time of fellowship and learning.  During this meeting we discussed the vision for actiongroups.  Below is a link to “The Basics” about actiongroups.  I hope everyone will review the document and get excited about actiongroups!

The Basics

Sunday I talked about “working hard to show the results of your salvation” from Phillipians 2:12-13.  The difficulty most of us have is knowing what it is that we should be “working at”.   What should our spiritual “work” entail?  Everyone has their favorite exercise…at the gym…and in the spiritual disciplines.

There are “prayer people”- people who if given the chance would turn every day of the week into a 24 hour prayer meeting.

There are” service people”- people who feel that everything from Bible Study to Church services are a waste of time.  “If we want to be like Jesus we should be serving the poor and disadvantaged” they say.

There are “knowledge people”- people who put their entire effort into learning scripture, studying scripture, dissecting scripture.  Ask them a question, and their answer is always to learn more scripture.

Other folks value community over all else.  If you ask them what the most important aspect of Church is, they will say living in community with other believers is the most important thing.

For every spiritual pursuit or discipline, you can find someone who chooses that “exercise” above all others…who, if left to their own spiritual devices, would exclusively practice it until they became as spiritually unwieldy and awkward as the bodybuilder at the gym with rippling upper body muscles wobbling around on tiny bird legs.

In our upcoming actiongroups that we will be launching in the Fall, the Spiritual Disciplines we are encouraging members to participate in are: Bible study, prayer, confession, worship, community, service to others and recreation..yeah…that means having fun together.   ALL of those disciplines together make up a a BALANCE of spiritual ”work”.  And yes, I know the prayer folks will probably attend for the prayer, and the knowledge folks will attend hoping there will be more Bible study, the community folks will be ecstatic just to have a small group meeting to attend.  I know that everyone has their own favorite excercise that they enjoy like I enjoy decline bench press.  I believe that   will help us all do the “work” of the Spiritual Disciplines in a balanced and enjoyable community setting.

I’m excited for this, and many other, benefits that will come from the actiongroups launch that James McBride and crew are preparing.  I hope you’ll be a part of it.

Otherwise, you just might end up with bird legs.

As we prepare for our launch this fall I would like to share with you the FTW of actiongroups.  If you recall from our recent series, FTW stands for For The Win.  I believe there is a FTW or what I call an Ultimate Win that comes with actiongroups.  This win is that “No One Walks Alone”.  That no one would walk through life without a community of believers to offer support and understanding.

One model for this win is a miracle performed by Jesus.  During His ministry Jesus had an encounter with and healed ten men with leprosy (Luke 17:11-19).

Having leprosy during Jesus day was a permanent sentence of exclusion.  Leprosy is a contagious disease and individuals with leprosy were forced to live apart from the rest of the society.  If someone came near a leper the leper had to yell, “Unclean, unclean”, to keep people from coming to close.  It would have been socially expectable to Jesus to ignore the lepers and keep moving.

The thing is, Jesus did not ignore the lepers and move on.  Jesus healed the lepers.  Jesus included the lepers in His community.  Jesus did not want anyone to walk alone.

I pray that actiongroups will build a community where No One Walks Alone.

For starters, if it wasn’t for a small group I likely wouldn’t know Christ as my Savior today. I did not come to faith because of a powerful sermon or song. I came to faith because people in a small group lived out their faith in Christ. They built relationships with me, served me, prayed with and for me. What happens in a small group setting can impact someone’s eternity. I am proof of that.

Another reason I am passionate about small groups is because Jesus was passionate about small groups. Christ modeled small groups by forming the first small group, the disciples. Christ did not just “do church” with the disciples and others one day a week. Jesus did LIFE with the disciples. They prayed together, ate together, served together every day. We should not use excuses about time and commitments to avoid small groups, because despite knowing His time was short, Christ was passionate about His small group. He then sent the disciples out as small groups to teach and heal. I believe strongly that if Jesus thought small groups were important so should we.

I look forward to many more actiongroups posts and keeping everyone up to date on the exciting things that are to come. Thanks!

Imagine a world where discoveries and knowledge weren’t shared.  I’m not talking about a place where “paparazzi” didn’t “inform” us of everytime Lindsay Lohan gets a new zit or DUI.   I’m talking about a place where if you wanted an automobile you had to literally “re-invent the wheel”.  A place where everyone had to discover how to “make fire” for themselves or live a life eating cold tuna salad sandwiches and leftover pizza (that is if they were gifted enough to have been able to assemble a refrigerator themselves.)   A world where no one communicated their “discoveries”…where everyone had to “figure it out for themselves”… would be a much darker, difficult, and lonely place. 

I think one of the greatest gifts God gave us beyond the priviledge of talking to him through prayer,  is the ability to communicate and share information.  We have the ability to access other’s knowledge and wisdom…to learn from their life experiences…we don’t have to always “figure it out for ourselves”.  I am so thankful for the people who are wiser than me…who have “been there, done that”…who are willing to share their struggles and victories…who help guide my thinking  in difficult times.  The difficulty, though;  is “opening up” and sharing our lives with others. It’s much “safer” to act like you have it all figured out than to admit that you have questions and “issues”.  

Every week as I prepare to speak I pray that the sermon will answer someone’s “life question”.  I pray that what God’s word says will encourage them to chose the right path instead of the “easy one”.  I share my experiences…we even allow txt msg questions during the service.  I know however, that inspite of all we can do as a church in one hour on Sunday morning, it’s not going to “answer” all the questions people have.  It’s not going to “cover” all the issues we deal with. 

Thank you for all of you who are offering your help (and homes) to provide a place where people can “access” the collective wisdom and experience of others…let’s keep the discussion and planning going…but let’s not stop there.  Let’s not wait for the “action underground” small groups to start to share our lives with others.  Invite someone over for dinner.  Make a phone call.  Open up.  We were not meant to live this life alone.  We don’t have to “figure it out for ourselves”…most likely, someone you know has already “been there-done that”.

Yesterday I started a discussion about  “small groups” starting during the week at actionchurch.  (if you missed it go there).

So what would “actiongroups” do?

Have fun…hang out…get to know people in an environment outside church.   Fun is important…if it’s a chore or obligation it will fail!

Discuss questions raised Sunday morning in a small open environment.   (example: this week we would have discussed what it means to give “no strings attached”)

Celebrate Communion…old school…with fellow followers of Jesus…with either grapejuice or (gasp!) wine depending on the group.

Help those (outside) in the community.  I envision actiongroups taking on small projects as a group to help people they are personally connected to outside of actionchurch.

Help each other.   Visit each other if someone is in the hospital.  Network to find a job for an unemployed member.  In short…become “extended family” …a “gang”…a “tribe”…help each other “get through life” together. 

What would “actiongroups”  look like?

“Affinity Groups”   actiongroups would be made up of people who share like interests.   They could be made up of “20 something” gamers.  (Halo group anyone?)  Young families…empty nesters…Harley riders…moped riders…groups of people with common interests.

“Free Market”-   We have no plans to “assign” anyone to an actiongroup.  We will help groups “advertise” their existance…we will design a system to “refer” interested people to groups that might “fit” them…but everyone will be free to chose to attend…or not attend the group of their choice.  …kinda like church on Sunday morning.

“Mobile”   actiongroups could “happen” over lunch at starbucks…at a local bar or restaurant…at someones home.   We never want to base leading an actiongroup on whether someone has a sweet “MTV Cribs” style mansion to host it in…they can happen anywhere.

“Transformational vs Informational”   Like actionchurch on Sunday mornings I envision discussions and honest questioning leading to “learning”…but actiongroups will never be primarily “Bible Studies”.  

So that’s the “framework” for what actiongroups would “look like”.  Questions? Comments? Ideas?

There’s been a lot of talk lately about starting some sort of small group environment so that actionchurch folks can “do life” with people who are also interested in putting the teachings of Jesus into action.  People stop me nearly every Sunday morning to ask… it shows up in the questions and comments…in short- “demand” is building for something more than “just Sunday morning”.   I’m excited about what I am hearing.  From the  beginning we intended for there to be “actiongroups” that met outside of Sunday morning toallow people to build friendships, share their stories, serve their communities, take their relationships with God and others to a “whole nutha level”.

Tomorrow I’ll post the vision for what I think “actiongroups” should “look like”…but I want to take a few moments today first to let everyone “in” on what we will need to be able to start “small groups” at actionchurch.

One year ago, when we started out as a church we made a decision to wait 6 months to a year to start any small groups.  We wanted to wait for people to build relationships…build communitiy…for potential small group leaders to “appear”.   I think one year later those things are happening.  We will need more- but several people have expressed interest in leading groups in their homes…restaurants…and yes, bars.

What we need to “make this happen” is a “community organizer”  (Sorry President Obama is too busy).  We need someone to organize a system to match interested folks with small groups.  Someone to set up a small group “plan” so everyone is on the same page.  Someone to “visit” the various actiongroups and “inspect rather than expect”.   Someone to organize occassional “all play” events (Parties, bbq etc)  where we could all get to know each other better…and possibly discover an actiongroup that “fits” us personally.  The actionchurch “small group czar” will have to be one part manager, one part revolutionary leader, and one part “party planner”.  Someone able to put together a proposal based on our vision…present it for approval…and then execute it…without a lot of input or “hand holding”.

I’m not sure who our new “small group czar” is.  Everyone on our crew is operating at or way above “capacity”  We’re too busy now.   My “prime directive”  for myself and family is to take on LESS reponsibility in this second year of actionchurch.  Beyond that, I SUCK at  management and organization…so the thought of designing and administering a “system” makes me want to put a gun in my mouth    I am certain that God has someone that is passionate about relationships…someone who “knows” about, or wants to learn how to run a small group system.  Someone who loves to organize “events” and parties.  Someone who wants to perform top level work for zero pay    Is it you?  Will you pray with me that that person will “show up”?    

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.  More tomorrow…