I still don’t know…

Posted on February 13, 2014 by donrecord

It seems entirely appropriate that Steve Warrington snapped this pic during our month long birthday celebration. I can’t count how many times I’ve said those words over the last six years of actionchurch. The truth is, as a leader I rarely have had the information or the skill-set necessary to make even semi-informed decisions. The thing that I HAVE learned over the last six years is to gather the wisest, brightest, most God-focused, people into leadership positions…learn from them…but most of all, learn to closely follow the God who knows all, sees all, and is NEVER surprised!

Here’s a blog post I wrote just weeks before our first service:

“It’s only two weeks ’til actionchurch launches weekly gatherings at Fat Daddy’s. (2.10.08) I have been thinking about the last sixteen months of “planning and planting”. There was so much stuff I had no clue about.

I didn’t know…that an off-hand comment I made in anger would become the name of our church. “I am so freakin’ sick of people just learning about the Bible and never Doing any of it that if I ever had a church I would call it action church”!

I didn’t know…how to “start” a church like the “church for outsiders” we had in mind.

I didn’t know…anyone who had the skills and wanted to help us with this project.

I didn’t know…how to create a website or blog.

I didn’t know…how much money it would cost…or how to pay for it.

I didn’t know…who would be able to “capture”actionchurch in a logo and identity.

I didn’t know…any bands or worship leaders to play music.

I didn’t know…how important finding the “right place” would be to our efforts.

I didn’t know…how close we came to Never being able to meet at Fat Daddy’s.

I didn’t know…that by the time of our launch the club would be completely remodeled and have seating for nearly twice the people.

I didn’t know…some people that I already knew and never expected would go to church…would help us start a church.

I didn’t know…people I had never met would “catch the vision” and be invaluable in creating actionchurch.

I could go on and on with the absolutely crucial information I didn’t know when this dream began. Our success definitely lies not in what I know…but in knowing “the ONE who has the answers to all our questions”! It truly is not what you know…but who you know!
If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. James 1:5″

Some things never Change…

LABELS: CHURCH PLANTING, VISION

Bring Gift Cards to the Christmas Party!

Posted on December 11, 2013 by donrecord

Last Sunday we started a “Christmas Party” that lasts every Sunday ’til Christmas at actionchurch! For the next two weeks we’d like to invite you to bring gifts…make that gift CARDS. Here’s the best part. When you bring a gift card to the actionchurch “Christmas Party” series, you won’t have to participate in a lame gift exchange like you do at work (and end up with a chia pet or a commemorative hockey puck). For the next two Sundays, your gifts will bless people both inside and outside of our church community who will be pleasantly surprised to know that a group of Jesus followers were thinking of them this Christmas season. We’ll say thank you to ALL of the great employees of Frank Theaters, and also refill our “Gift card pantry” that we use to meet financial needs all year longs. All we need are LOADS of gift cards to local stores and restaurants in $10 increments if possible.

Here’s some Gift Card ideas below:

Walmart

Target

Sheetz

Giant

Weiss

McDonalds

Etc. Etc. Etc.

Thanks for being part of Christmas Party 2013!

Power Down Initiative

Posted on January 30, 2013 by donrecord

Five years can pass VERY quickly. (Especially if you are trying to Juggle Leading a start-up church, self-employment, and the most important job of all-being a husband and father). There hasn’t been a lot of time to pause and reflect on everything that has happened. At times I can’t believe it’s been five years (February 10, 2008-February 10, 2013) since our first “official” church service at Fat Daddys nightclub. Other times, I feel like I may have aged 20 years in the last 5. (And I think there are pictures that would be would agree) :-)

To be honest, most of the last five years have been spent either “starting” actionchurch…or trying to keep it “started”. We are so blessed to have been able to Love God, Love People, and Take action during that time in some pretty dramatic ways. But still…much of our budget…our attention…our “power” had to be concentrated on simply keeping the fires lit in the actionchurch engine room during those years. Over the last six months, much of that has changed. As I announced in the “Inside the camp” series, we have officially moved past “starting” the church. We have a great leadership team in place. I’m confident that Bill and Denise, Steve and Tiffany, Rich and Jackie have the leadership skills, character, HEART, and teaching ability needed to lead actionchurch. Josiah has lead the artists of actionchurch into some of the best ORIGINAL design I believe you will find in church-anywhere. We have a talented actionchurch/actionkidz crew that I believe has become simply the BEST in the “business” of making portable church happen each week. They’re fast, hardworking, problem solvers who somehow manage to still have a lot of fun while doing the most difficult jobs. If actionchurch is the first “portable church” you’ve attended, you truly have no idea how blessed we are to have the great crew members we have in EVERY area of our Sunday morning service. We are also blessed with a beautiful venue at Frank Theaters that works well, and will allow us to grow to 400-500 attenders without needing to relocate.

The questions are many: What comes next? What should we attempt…what should we plan…what should we prepare for in the next five years of actionchurch? Should actionchurch change? Has actionchurch changed? Has the world changed in the last five years? What should we do next? I’ve been thinking about all of those questions a LOT over the last six months.

The short answer is that as a church body we MUST continue Loving God, Loving People, and taking action. Just how we DO that is something I look forward to sharing with you all over the upcoming weeks in the month of February. There’s something I’d like you to do in the meantime if you call actionchurch your home on Sunday mornings. Please Pray for our leadership team. I’d love your prayer for Michele, Reagan and Myself. Pray for our crew…and most of all…pray that God will give you wisdom to see just where you fit into the future of actionchurch as we “Power Down”.

Perspective

Posted on January 29, 2013 by donrecord

I recently encountered this amazing statement about the Nation of Israel’s epic 40 year journey from Egypt to the Land that God promised them, written YEARS later by the prophet Nehemiah:

19 “But in your great mercy you did not abandon them to die in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud still led them forward by day, and the pillar of fire showed them the way through the night. 20 You sent your good Spirit to instruct them, and you did not stop giving them manna from heaven or water for their thirst. 21 For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell! (Nehemiah 9:19-21)

I have a feeling that the people who were part of that meandering 40 year hike might not have felt the same way about their journey. I’m pretty sure that the guy wearing the same sandals he bought at the Egyptian Walmart was probably more interested in getting a new pair than marveling that they hadn’t worn out in FORTY years. I’m pretty sure that even though God LITERALLY lead them through the desert with a “pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of smoke by night” there had to be times where they felt abandoned as the years passed between leaving Egypt and seeing the benefit of their journey. Scripture records the times that instead of feeling blessed to be able to eat the manna God provided them each day, they complained about never having anything new on the menu.

However, due to the perspective that time brings, the prophet Nehemiah was absolutely CORRECT to say that God cared for his ancestors…that God sustained them in an impossible situation…and that in fact they lacked NOTHING! Just because the people did not feel “blessed” didn’t mean that they weren’t. Just because they FELT LIKE God was absent or lacked control of their situation…didn’t mean that he was!

I have this to be true as I look back over the portion of my life that I have followed Jesus, particularly over the last 6 years I have been involved with actionchurch start-up. When God seemed to be “absent”, looking back I can clearly see that he was right with us…every step of the way. When it seemed like we didn’t have ANYTHING, we really lacked NOTHING that we needed to continue. When I had NO IDEA what to do, it was God’s spirit that whispered little pieces of encouragement and guidance into my soul. Looking back I realize I often had the greatest desire to quit, right before we experienced our greatest victories as a church.

If you are a follower of Jesus, I know the same will be true of your story. I just thought you could use a little perspective this morning.

Do your best (then Do it Better)

Posted on September 5, 2012 by donrecord

This month during the “Inside the Camp” series we are following the example of Deuteronomy in remembering as a church: Where we came from, Who we are, and Who we serve.

Here’s a little visual reminder of all of those things. Above is a picture from one of our first services Fat Daddy’s Nightclub. That sturdy metal stand that the plasma is sitting on is actually a wobbly bar table wrapped in corrugated tin roofing, duct tape, and blood from the many times I got cut each sunday “constructing” it. The chairs are plastic patio chairs “borrowed” from the deck area, and the graphics are low-res powerpoint courtesy of yours truly. It was the best we could do.

We didn’t wait to start actionchurch until conditions were perfect. We didn’t even wait to start until we could do things “well”. We were so convinced that there needed to be “a place” like actionchurch that we simply did the best we could…with what we had.

Below is a picture taken ten months later before one of our first services at our next venue, Club 19. Someone had donated “real” truss Plasma stands. Josiah was working his magic with our graphics and signage. Matching folding chairs and plastic tables felt positively luxurious.

Today we are blessed to have a truck load of equipment, a great crew that actually understands how it works, 350 cushy seats, and a screen that is bigger than the floor plan of our first venue. God has clearly blessed us beyond anything we imagined. But…NONE of this would have happened if we had not STARTED. And…NONE of it would have happened if we would have decided that our best effort was “good enough”.

Don’t wait. Start something.

Do your very best. Then do it better!