”We will do anything short of sin to reach people for Jesus.”

Now before I go into detail here about my thoughts on the subject, I do want to say that I’m not sure that this is a right or wrong issue.  I have plenty of friends who use this phrase at their churches, and even in my own ministry have used it because of the energy the phrase brings to reaching people for Jesus.  But after further review, I’ve been thinking through it and have the following issues with it:

The thing about Glass Door and Indeed and these reviews is that the companies can’t touch or edit the reviews.  They don’t have the control over those employees in those ecosystems, so they can get a bad reputation quickly from treating their employees poorly.  By the time I found the site and the reviews, Next Level Church had found Glass Door, began to understand the ramifications of these new sites and their reviews, and then asked their current employees to write an honest review on those sites.

In 2014, as a church we frequently sang “Oceans” as an anthem to what was ahead.  We decided to move forward with selling our possessions, building, and land and move to Showcase North Cinemas Three miles away.  We lived out the instructions of the song, and I am thankful that we did.  Over time that band separated, moved on to different locations, churches, and even belief systems.

e moved on, I longed for more.  Not more money or fame or influence, but more people.  I wanted more people to connect and view Fellowship as a part of their family. I wanted more people to fill the seats and worship Jesus.  And I wanted more people to join the fun I was generally having almost every day of my life

There are two choices at play here.  Freedom and the past.  Part of Christianity is freeing yourself from the past so that you can now live free in Christ.  One group had come to believe in the risen Christ and found freedom  in that so much so that they could now walk into a pagan temple and purchase and eat and live in this new found freedom, knowing they were no longer in chains to those places or scenarios.  The other group still searched for that freedom and felt like their conscience was violated by eating that meat in those places.  Paul made it clear that neither was wrong, but finished this portion of his letter with this:  “So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live- for I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble.”

I’m sorry…

As a young boy, my parents taught me how to follow Jesus.  They were both good and bad at it, as most of us are, and in the end, I had a decision to make.  I remember being at a crossroads in my 23rd year of life, and realizing I could make any decision I wanted about Christianity.  I locked myself in my room, and believe that I encountered Christ during those intense days.

I don’t know which was worse.  Declan Dumais attempting to hijack an airplane to prove the earth is flat or that he rejected his wife to accomplish his mission.

I’m sitting in my office right now, pondering John 1:6-14.  “And we have seen his glory, the Glory of the Father’s one and only Son.”  I’ve had a few conversation today, worked on some admin work, and prepared for a group of students I’ll be meeting with tomorrow night.  In the midst of all that, the song “Waymaker” by Leeland pops onto my Amazon Echo, and I’m changed.  I start to worship in my office, not caring if anyone from the one or two groups meeting around me, hear me or see me should they pass my windowed door.