Catalyst Blog [happenings and other things at catalyst]

I have a calendar on my desk. It’s one of those flip calendars. It was a gift from the last church I worked at in Cincinnati. They give them out to all new staff members. It’s a monthly calendar and each page contains a sentence or two that serves as a reminder of why they do what they do. There are only 31 pages and every month you start over so you are constantly reminded of the vision of Crossroads Church. It helps keep leaders focused on what’s important.

After I left staff I took that calendar with me. I use it as a reminder. I still flip the pages every day. Each thought on that 31-day calendar helps remind me of why I’m here and why we’re starting this church in Cullman. I’m looking at one of those thoughts right now. It says,

We’re not here to create a new-and-improved religious service. And we’re not here to try to make Jesus “cool” or relevant. God is always relevant, and “cool” isn’t something to be strived for.

Our purpose in starting a new church isn’t to create an awesome worship experience with killer music. Our purpose is not to have the best teaching in town. We don’t want to have better programming, ministries or events than the church down the street. We’re not here to try to outdo, outperform or out-anything anyone else.

So what are we here for? We’re here for one purpose only…changed lives.

Too many Christians have an overwhelming desire to justify their faith to their non-believing friends. This often leads to foolish attempts to try to make Jesus look cool. And on the macro level this tends to bleeds into our church services. But if you’ve read the New Testament you can’t overlook the fact that Jesus didn’t give a rip about being cool. Neither did the leaders of the early church. They were only interested in changing lives.

We want to be more like Jesus. That’s why we don’t put a lot of stock in being “cool.” We’re more interested in allowing God to be relevant through the timeless truths we find in Scripture.

Now, this doesn’t mean we won’t throw in some great music or stunning visuals. And we hope our teaching is above average. But we’re not so caught up in hoping that our music or our creativity will make somebody like us and want to go to church here. We want to have the kind of effect Jesus did. We want people to rearrange their lives around the freedom found in having a relationship with him. And like Jesus we will do anything, short of sin, to help someone get there. 

posted by Chris Owens