**UPDATE**

You can now watch the entire service from the final 7|22 at 722.org Click on the all access link and Next Is Now should be listed first. Just make sure to mute the audio player that is floating on the right side of the page.

Last night was the final 7|22.

Ever.

The theme of the night was Next Is Now, mainly because ever since Jarrett announced the end of 7|22 in July, everyone has been asking “What’s next?”. They even passed out business cards with the Next Is Now graphic on the front and nothing on the back, along with golf pencils. 

Jarrett began his message with 1 Chronicles 28:1-6.

1 David assembled at Jerusalem all the officials of Israel, the officials of the tribes, the officers of the divisions that served the king, the commanders of thousands, the commanders of hundreds, the stewards of all the property and livestock of the king and his sons, together with the palace officials, the mighty men and all the seasoned warriors. 2 Then King David rose to his feet and said: Hear me, my brothers and my people. I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord and for the footstool of our God, and I made preparations for building. 3 But God said to me, You may not build a house for my name, for you are a man of war and have shed blood. 4 Yet the Lord God of Israel chose me from all my father’s house to be king over Israel forever. For he chose Judah as leader, and in the house of Judah my father’s house, and among my father’s sons he took pleasure in me to make me king over all Israel. 5 And of all my sons (for the Lord has given me many sons) he has chosen Solomon my son to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. 6 He said to me, It is Solomon your son who shall build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father.

If you want to know about the layout of the temple and it’s history and what all went on there, you can Google it or go to Wikipedia. The one thing Jarrett made mention of was the Holy of Holies. This is where God “resided”. Of course, we know that God is everywhere, but this was where the High Priest would come once a year to make an offering to God. Solomon’s temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 B.C. It’s replacement was built between 537 B.C. and 515 B.C. and later renovated by Herod the Great. Jarrett compared Herod’s renovation to our churches in 2008 by saying “How often do we as Christians, and especially church staff, think ‘We should add ministry department XYZ to our church; that’ll bring in more people.’” And he’s right – I’ve heard plenty of messages that were really just pep rallies for a new ministry or idea that was supposed to flood the church with unchurched people. And it didn’t. 

Jarrett continued by quoting Matthew 27:50-51

50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.

Not going to go too deep here, but what happened was at the exact moment Jesus died (thus becoming the ultimate sacrifice for our sins), the curtain separating the people from the Holy of Holies was torn down the middle, thereby ending the separation between God and man. God was no longer restricted to a certain space; no longer did you have to go to a certain place to worship God. 

Jarrett then quoted 1 Corinthians 3:16-17

16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

Growing up in church, this scripture was used many times; but not in the context in which Jarrett used it. This was always the “Don’t get tattoos, don’t get piercings, don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t do ANYTHING!” scripture. I have two tattoos and you would not believe how many times I’ve had this scripture quoted at me. “You have tattoos!?! Don’t you know you are the temple of God? 1 Corinthians 3:17 says that you are the temple of God and that you aren’t supposed to destroy that temple and a tattoo is destroying your body because Leviticus says no tattoos!”

However, here’s how Jarrett used this scripture: YOU are the temple; YOU are the church. It is not about this building (i.e. wherever you meet for services). If you’re sitting here waiting for the unchurched to come here to this building to hear the Gospel, you’ll be waiting a long time. YOU are the church.

Before someone misunderstands me, church (corporate gathering) is a good thing. At least, its supposed to be. But if we are not going out into the world and being God’s light, then what’s the point? That doesn’t mean to go to your local mall and ask every person you see “Do you know Jesus?”. You don’t want to alienate people. But you don’t want to ignore divine appointments either. Each of us should know someone who doesn’t know Jesus. It could be a friend, coworker or relative. And if you don’t know any non-Christians, what are you doing? Get out there; befriend people. Invest time in people’s lives. Love them. I have a friend that I’ve known for nearly twenty years; he still isn’t a Christian. He knows I am, he knows what I believe. He’s been to church with me many times; yet, he still is not a Christian. I don’t know why; that’s between him and God. But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to give up and cut all ties with him. Why? Because, our friendship is not dependent upon his salvation, but his salvation may be dependent upon our friendship. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:6, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” I may be the only Jesus he ever sees.

By this time, Jarrett was at the end of his message. He reminds us of the cards and pencils we received when we arrived and says, in essence:

Sure, we could continue 7|22. Or we could replace it with another ministry. And it could bring in thousands more. But what if doing so would cause us to miss out on something huge God is doing now? What we’ve been asking God for the past few months is, “What are you doing now? Where is God working now?”. It’s a cliche now, but it still applies: Instead of asking God to bless what you’re doing, maybe you should ask God to show you what He is doing.

Jarrett then asked us to take the next couple minutes to write on the back of our card what we feel God stirring in us. He gave some examples that people had emailed him. One was a couple that had met at 7|22; they’ve started a small ministry where they cook food and then take it to the homeless. Instead of making the homeless go to a soup kitchen or food pantry, they go to the homeless, wherever they’re at. Another person emailed Jarrett saying that he was starting a website where people could anonymously ask questions about God, Jesus, Christianity, etc. that maybe they wouldn’t feel comfortable asking face to face. So here’s what I wrote: Northeast Louisiana. Ever since I left last year, I’ve felt a burden for my home. And seeing what God is doing through churches in the Atlanta metroplex actually makes that burden more painful. The churches here aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty; they’re not afraid to go into the world and love. And they aren’t afraid to help each other. That alone made a huge impact on me – to see churches lift each other up in prayer, to see churches offering resources and training to each other instead of competing and tearing each other down. But while all that is awesome, it reminds me of Northeast Louisiana, where churches don’t get along very well. They aren’t very open to helping each other. It is more about who has the largest attendance, instead of being about going into the community and making your community a better place. We’ve forgotten what it’s all about: it isn’t about who has the best music department, or children’s department, or youth group, or holiday celebrations – it’s about Jesus and making Him famous. We’re focused more on doing church than on being the church.

What does this mean for me? I don’t really know. I’m still waiting on an answer from God. The only thing I know for sure is it means spending more time in the community than in church. I’m sure some people will ask, “Why’d you leave in the first place?” God. I truly believe God brought me to Atlanta, even if only for a year, so I could see examples of the Great Commission being done correctly. Church done right. Some may say this is a financial decision, but the truth is, I’ve been feeling this way for several months now; finances have only dictated that I leave now, as opposed to putting it off. To be honest, if I had spent less time wrestling with God maybe I would have left earlier, before finances became an issue.

So what’s next? Only God knows, but next is now.

J

So, yeah, it’s been more than a few days.

Okay; more like a month.

No excuses. So here goes.

**DISCLAIMER**
I used a little language in this post. If you don’t like it, that’s okay. I’m sure you’ll get over it.

First, thanks to everyone who posted a reply to the original Sacred vs. Secular post. I had some great discussions with people because of their comments, and even a few who didn’t comment, but read the post and comments.

As for my beliefs (again, MINE, doesn’t mean you have to agree), while the Bible tells us to use our talents for God’s glory, it doesn’t tell us how. I love that, at the end of Rob Bell’s Everything Is Spiritual DVD he points out that for the Jews in the first century A.D., there was no disctinction between the spiritual and non-spiritual. He goes on to say, “If you could travel back in time and ask Jesus how his spirit-man is, he would look at you as if you were crazy.”. And he’s right! To the ancient Jews and early Christians, everything was spiritual; they sought to glorify God in everything. Does that mean that every stanza of poetry, every verse of song, every chapter in a book that an early Christian was about Jesus? NO! What it meant was that in all you do, do it for God.

So, the first topic I addressed was that of Christian artists who branch out into the mainstream. I’ve heard the opinions of several artists and even managed to talk to a few and there are two things they all share in common: first, the desire to get outside the Christian subculture and reach an audience that, had they stayed in “the church”, would never have heard them. Second, they all get labeled by Christians as everything from “not Christian enough”, to sell-outs, to heretical. All because they wrote a song or two dedicated to their wives and performed on the Warped Tour instead of CreationFest.

There’s a reason I still listen to secular music – it’s real. Not to make a generalization about Christian artists, but too many of them seem fake. Maybe their albums are overproduced, maybe the songs are written for them, but I’ve heard too many contemporary Christian songs that are just, well, full of shit. As in the same way that pop music is (by pop, I mean Britney Spears, etc.). There’s no emotion. It’s just some American Idol wannabe with a decent producer and lyrics that mean nothing to them. When I listen to Metallica, I can hear the emotion in James’ voice. He knows what he is singing about because he lived it. But this is also why I like Christian artists like Anberlin. And that is why I get angry when someone attacks Anberlin (or another Christian group that crosses over to mainstream) simply because of the venues they play, or the bands they share billing with, or because they don’t have the word “God” in every song.

How does all that affect music in church? The first issue is the music used in church worship services. I and a friend used to have a joke between us at our old church that went something like this: “Why should I watch American Idol when I get to see it in church every Sunday morning?”. All too often we saw people who would sing songs that they really didn’t understand. The songs themselves weren’t bad; the lyrics were powerful and true, but for whatever reasons, the person/people singing didn’t comprehend the weight of those lyrics and just went through the motions. Most often, it happened with the hymns. The elderly in that church were feeling disconnected from worship because it seemed as if we were doing new songs every week and they couldn’t keep up. So the pastor and worship leader decided to begin services each week with a hymn so that the elderly would have at least one song to sing that they knew. Do you see the problem? It became a chore, not only to the music department, but to the congregation – even the group of people it was supposed to reach. Why? Because they weren’t singing the hymn to glorify God, they were singing it to appease a group of people. And don’t even get me started on the people who got up to perform, I mean sing a solo. Some understood what they were doing; it isn’t about them, it’s about God. Others looked like they were auditioning for American Idol.

The second issue of music in church is the use of secular music. I’m going to keep it simple: there are songs that are appropriate for church and there are songs that are not. The key word is redeem. A perfect example is the song “Free Fallin’” by Tom Petty. It’s a great song, a classic. But is it appropriate for church? Probably not. The lyrics have no relevance to God, Jesus, worship, etc. And the week we did it, no relevance to the message. Like I said, great song, but the only way to redeem this song is to rewrite the lyrics or play an instrumental version. An example of a redeemable song is “Gravity”, by John Mayer. At Four Points, we replaced the word “gravity” with “depravity”. Nothing else needed to change (except for the line “Depravity, stay the hell away from me”; only because our audience is a mix of traditional, contemporary, modern and post-modern, so some would be offended). And it was one of the first songs our congregation really connected with. When I look out across an audience and they’re just standing there, staring at the band, it’s not good. But when I’m mixing the band and start wondering, “Where are those extra voices coming from?” and then realize that’s our audience – they’re actually singing OVER the band! – that’s a good feeling. They get it. It’s not about them, it’s not about the band; it’s about Jesus. So, the question isn’t “Can secular music be played in church?”, the question is “Can this song be redeemed so that the lyrics speak to people?”.

J

LifeChurch.tv and Ragamuffin Soul have joined together for LifeShare: a 7 day online challenge.
I could explain it all here, but the links above sum it up best.
Here’s the schedule:
9/18 @ 9 pm EST
9/20 @ 12 noon EST
9/21 @ 9 pm EST
9/22 @ 12 noon EST
9/24 @ 9 pm EST

Join the community!

I love my church. 

But one reason I love my church is because we’re not so stuck on ourselves that we don’t look to other churches, ministries and leaders for inspiration, advice, guidance, etc.

Which is why I love the other churches in this area. They help each other. They realize that they can’t do it alone; I heard a statistic at Buckhead Church a few weeks ago: there are over 300,000 unchurched people living in the Buckhead Community. Buckhead Church seats 3,000. They can’t reach that community alone, and they know that. In Acworth, where Four Points is located, there are 60,000 homes within an 8 mile radius of our current meeting location. Granted, some of those people know Jesus already and are going to a church. But if the stats are correct then in many of those homes on Sunday morning the last thought is church.

Which brings me to my next point: for too long Christians have taken a certain scripture out of context. 1 John 2:15 ring a bell? “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (ESV)

I say people should be reminded of a few other scriptures: John 1:10, John 3:17 and my favorite, John 9:5, which states, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

Now some would argue that the church (i.e. physical building) is the light, but I argue that the church (i.e. all Christians, regardless of where they are or where they gather) is the light. Which is why I love the Buckhead Music Project. Instead of trying to explain it, I’m going to repost a blog that Carlos Whittaker, Service Programming Director at Buckhead Church, wrote.

We are in the middle of an experiment.  It is not grand by any means.  It is simply a test.
A test to see how our church responds to the community and how the community responds to our church.
It is called The Buckhead Music Project.
The premise is simple.
Take the amazing musicians and singer songwriters in our church and unleash them into the bars and clubs of Atlanta.
Most people know more people than not that would never step foot into a church.
Or so I thought.
So.
We’ll go to them.
When we initially announced this idea there was a great buzz.  I could begin to sense that these venues were going to have a line wrapped around the block with no room at the inn.  So I made a call.
Tell our church people that they are not allowed into the venue unless they have a person that would never step foot into our church or any church with them.
This rule accomplished 2 things.
1.  It suddenly cut our attendees by 95% and made lots of room in the bars for the people we actually want there.
2.  It made me realize how many Christians have relationships with zero non Christians.
So we are only half way through our little experiment called the Buckhead Music Project.
Both nights at Vinyl and Andrews Upstairs have been packed.
But they were packed with the right people.
After all the planning and implementation I think the thing I am going to take away from this first phase is that we need to stop spending so much time together.
The church cannot reach the city unless the city knows it is trying to be reached.
And you knew the worst part of it all.
I had to break my own rule.
What steps have you taken to build real relationships with people outside your faith?

Carlos