Have you ever seen someone run the ball to the “wrong” end zone? …get distracted and confused and make a layup on the “wrong” goal? Ok, It’s kind of funny when it’s six year olds- or it’s not “your” team…but in reality it’s just sad. All that energy and talent wasted…on the wrong goal.

At actionchurch we have one “thing”, one “goal”. It’s in our name… Our goal is to put the teachings of Jesus into action…to encourage people who don’t like church to become followers of Jesus. We have to constantly be vigilant about distractions…about things that would divert our energy and momentum toward the “wrong” goal. And guess what? The most “dangerous” distractions are not “bad” things (I don’t think we’ll ever “forget” that we are a church and become a illegal gambling parlor) …it’s the “good” things that distract churches. Things that are not bad…but distract from the “one thing”

• Keeping people “happy”(not offending anyone)- not a bad thing…but when trying to “keep” people interferes with connecting with new people…we are headed for the “wrong” goal.
• Becoming a “big” church– I like big churches…since actionchurch is “the church for people who don’t like church” and there are literally tens of thousands of people who “don’t like church” in York county…we will probably someday be “large”…but if we make that our “goal” we are missing the point.
• Teaching the Bible– Yep, I meant what I wrote. If our goal is to “teach the Bible” we could be successful in that goal…have the most “Biblically informed” church in the county…be “seminary on Sunday morning”…and miss the goal of encouraging people to be followers of Jesus. (And create a lot of arrogant religious “know it alls” in the meantime). We use the Bible to get direction as we put it’s teachings into action…as we encourage others to follow Jesus…just “knowing” Bible stuff is not enough.
• Creating a great “worship experience”- There’s absolutely nothing wrong with having a great time of “worship” at church where people connect with their emotions while singing and praising God. It would however, absolutely interfere with our goal of connecting with people who “don’t like church”… make people coming to church for the first time confused…uncomfortable. I believe in “intimacy with God”…but making that the “goal” on Sunday mornings at actionchurch would cause us to miss our “one thing”.

That’s just a few of the “good” things that could possibly distract actionchurch from our “goal”. There will be more. More “good” things…more “good” suggestions…but they all have to be “tested” against our “one thing”…our one goal. Everything else is just a distraction…