2013 at Aspen Ridge

I’ve been preaching my vision for this year for a couple months now it seems.  I see Aspen Ridge Church as a group of people invading their world like a good virus - for Jesus Christ. Call it 'the long tail'. Call it 'the long arm'. Sunday services are for edification, worship, and encouraging one another.  I’m hope I’m not being too specific on my expectations but I’d love to see the halls, classrooms and worship center alive with interaction on Sunday mornings - discussions about seeds you've planted and conversations you've had during the week. I envision a church where we can’t wait to get to church to talk amongst ourselves of God’s faithfulness. I think 2013 is not about exciting new programs we’ve come up with or sermon series that bring people in off the streets. I think it’s about you and me being the church all week long.  Maybe this is too much to ask, but I don’t think so.  God is calling a people to himself who are committed to Him and the gospel in a shallow, self-centered, entertainment deadened generation.  He is still calling out a people for himself and He is using Aspen Ridge.  If not - no matter how big or small we are - we ought to close shop!  I refuse to look at size or money as the bottom line for success. Lets each one trust God to expand the tent poles of our lives and let God worry about expanding our church.   Meanwhile - ‘The Bible’ is the book of the month for March!  Let’s get at it!  It all starts this Sunday at church & Sunday night on the History Channel!

A modern parable

Once upon a time there was a business called ‘Blockbusters’.  It majored in renting blockbuster movies to the public - the bigger the better. One day little red boxes started popping up. Netflix followed. Many of the movies they listed weren’t well known. They had discovered a simple fact - there was more money to be made from lots of lesser known films that appealed to smaller segments of the public than from Blockbusters.  They were more efficient too in their nooks & crannies and by the US mail! Blockbusters soon went out of business.  Big hits & big names were the head but it had a very long tail of lesser stars that won the day. Imagine a dragon. The church is a lot like Blockbusters. We try to attract the public to come to us. Our big programs and great preaching is the head.  But stadiums don’t fill to hear George Beverly Shay sing and a gaggle of big name stars share their stories, and Billy Graham preach a sermon. Not any more. The world isn’t interested at best, and downright antagonistic at worst, toward the gospel nowadays or so it seems. Do we circle the wagons and hunker down for the siege? Or do we become ‘the long tail’ of evangelism where each one of us takes the gospel into our world as we listen and help people talk their way into the kingdom.  We are not ashamed of the gospel. We respect it most highly, highly enough not to present it for ridicule. We will boldly pray, serve and question our way into a person’s heart with the love that we carry into a hurting world.  A survey of 10,000 people found: 80% of new people came to church because you invited them - only 6% because they like the pastor; only 5% because they like the Bible study teacher; only 3% because of programs.  You see, we are most like Jesus when we are being the church not going to church!  You are the long arm of Aspen Ridge Church or is that ‘the long tail’?  You are God’s means to spread His love around in the nooks and crannies of life.