Why Another Church In Carlisle?

“So, why another Church in Carlisle,” he asked, “Isn’t there already like 400 churches around here anyway?”  I nodded, affirming his sentiment, “You’re right, there are many great churches already in existence in our community.”

My name is Jon Hand. I am the pastor of Engage Community Church.  I was recently invited to become a guest columnist for the Faith in Focus column so I wanted to introduce myself and share a little of where I am coming from. Engage Church started as a new church in our area one year ago last month.  We were sponsored by the Brethren In Chris Denomination of Churches (www.bic-church.org) to start a new church with a unique focus.  Over the last year, since January of 2009, we have had to answer that question on more than one occasion.

Here’s the deal.  Anecdotally and statistically our culture is becoming more secular and less culturally Christianized.  This means that growing numbers of people have grown up with less of an attachment to organized religion than say their parents and definitely their grandparents.   Statistically, church attendance in the Northeastern parts of the U.S. is in decline, especially among younger generations from eighteen yrs. old though their mid-thirties.  Over the past year I have personally met many in their mid twenties to mid to late thirties who are skeptical of organized religion and for a variety of reasons; they simply don’t have the same conviction about faith or religion or church as earlier generations before them.

Why another church? Because we believe that the message of Jesus is earth-shattering, life-changing, world-altering, and has the power to actually change the human heart at the deepest levels possible. But much of that revolutionary message is lost in translation for people standing on the outside looking in.   For many, all they see are stereotypes of judgmental religious people, slick televangelists bilking old ladies of what’s left of their retirement, and the satirical portrayals of White politically conservative Jesus on South Park and pop culture.  Right or wrong, they see church as a nice option for grandma but not a place that deals honestly with life in the way they experience it.

In a world where 24 hr. news coverage dishes out disasters in Haiti, economic recessions, corporate greed, or job loss, it’s easy to lose heart.  Whether you are trying to find your place in the world in your 20s or for those of us with 2.5 kids, trying to advance our careers, and saddled with a mortgage in our 30s,  life certainly feels like a facebook relationship status—“It’s complicated.”  It’s hard for many to see the connection between our complicated 21^st century lives and the Jesus we find in the pages of the gospels.  Like background noise in our soul, often we aren’t even aware of how jaded or cynical we can be about life.  I believe the answer to our complicated skepticism isn’t more plastic coated “happy thoughts”.  The answer is genuine realistic hope. Not the kind we are promised in political campaigns.  But the kind we find anchored in a creator God we can relate to in Jesus.  One who knows us better than we know ourselves and loves us more than we can begin to comprehend.

For me that changes everything!  Why another church in Carlisle?  We don’t think we are better than anyone else. There’s no such thing as a one size fits all church.  But we all need people who can speak our language. We all need people who get where we’re coming from and help us live anchored in hope.  There’s more to life than our complicated lives can imagine. We all need people who help us live for what matters most—it’s a great question and that’s why another church in Carlisle.

Listen to Sermon: Cover Bands Don’t Change the World - Daily Development

Books:
The Holy Longing - Ronald Rolheiser - This book cuts to the core of what drives and feeds our souls as humans. If you want to know why to pray and how to develop an Jesus-shaped imagination of how life could be–read this book.

The Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable. - Godin’s books seem to be about business, but really they apply to life. Living as a follower of Jesus turns you into a Purple Cow. Read the book and you’ll get what I’m saying.

The Story we Find Ourselves In - Brian McLaren - This is a book designed to invite you into the story of the Bible. The book is a fictional story of real people with real questions about God and how God’s Story works in our lives…or is it we work in God’s story?

Listen to Sermon: Cover Bands Don’t Change the World - Combination of Spirit and Flesh

Books for digging deeper to integrate the Spiritual and the Physical.
Sex–Sex God- Rob Bell
Marriage–Love and Respect - Emerson Eggerichs
Work–God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in all of Life - Gene Edward Veith
Creativity–The Complete Artist Way: Creativity as a Spiritual Practice - Julia Cameron

Community Group Discussion Guide

Getting Started

1. Talk about a time when you felt you were especially creative, or a time when you witnessed someone else creatively approaching a situation. What made it so creative?
2. Jon talked about creativity often being the joining of two different ideas to make something new and unique. What are some examples of this? How can this idea be applied to our lives of faith?

From the Book

1. Read Luke 3:7-14. When the people ask John the Baptist what they need to do to live a life of repentance, what does he tell them? What might this mean for a “secular” person? What might this mean for a “religious” person?
2. Read Matthew 9:9-13. How is Jesus being creative in this situation? What makes it so creative?

What are the results?

3. Do you agree with the following quote? If so, what does this mean for our lives?
“Spirituality in human beings is not an extra or “superior” mode of existence. It’s not a hidden stream of separate reality, a separate life running parallel to our bodily existence. It does not consist of special ‘inward’ acts even though it has an inner aspect. It is, rather, a relationship of our embodied selves to God that has the natural and irrepressible effect of making us alive to the Kingdom of God - here and now in the material world.” - Dallas Willard

So What?

1. Consider the following areas of your life: Career, Family, Love Life, Health, Faith, Mind, Finances, Friends. Which area do you have the hardest time seeing God involved in? Take some time to pray about that area. Invite God to show you how to creatively involve Him in that area of your life. If you like, talk about about it with someone you trust.
2. Who are the “tax collectors” in your life. How can you creatively engage them with the love of Christ?

I am excited to share that Engage raised $1,190 in cash with an additional $970 pledged. WOW. That’s over $2,200 from the Engage. We are people who want God to use us as a part of his ongoing plan to bring his people and his creation back into harmonious relationship with Him.  God use us! Stretch us. May the grinding routines of life not suffocate the clarity of how good you are.  May our petty complaints be replaced by clear visions of what you could do…what you want to do..when we stand willing with ears to hear and eyes to see. Challenge our small notions of who you are! Challenge our small notions of ourselves and what we are capable of by your grace and power!

Stephen Santos wrote this song for Haiti last Sunday:

“Shatter our Hearts”

This old world shatters and shakes
This old world bends and breaks
God tell me what’s the place
For a big loss in the human race

And if God can’t break our hearts from across an ocean
He may come here to draw a tear
And if we stay afraid to show emotion
While one’s like us are dying there
Then I’m afraid we’ve become the saddest generation
That traded hearts for stone
God’s not satisfied with a part of your heart
He wants the throne

Tv man counts the numbers out loud
We’ll follow the story till a new one comes around
But there’s too much emotion in the end
We may realize those were fathers, mothers, friends

Stay tuned for more of how you can show mercy and love to Haiti….

Listen to Sermon: Cover Bands Don’t Change the World - Apprentices

Follow this link to view more pictures on our Flickr account

Peace,
jon

Mike Greene Baptism @ Engage from Engage Community Church on Vimeo.

Amy Greene Baptism @ Engage from Engage Community Church on Vimeo.

Mitchell Greene Baptism @ Engage from Engage Community Church on Vimeo.

Evelyn Cruzat Baptism @ Engage from Engage Community Church on Vimeo.

Elijah Hyndman Baptism @ Engage from Engage Community Church on Vimeo.

Desirae Moyer Baptism @ Engage from Engage Community Church on Vimeo.

Anna Jane Friess Baptism @ Engage from Engage Community Church on Vimeo.

Listen to Sermon: Creative Community: Baptism

Listen to Sermon: Cover Bands Don’t Change the World - Living Creatively in Mundane Life

Fully engaging the PRESENT
On January 10th Engage Church will celebrate our one year anniversary by having our first baptism service.  Baptism is admittedly a weird act of faith.  But there is a megaton of symbolism packed into this out-of-the- ordinary act of faith.   If you consider Engage to be your community of faith, please be at Engage on January 10th to help us celebrate God’s goodness and lives deeply changed by Christ.   No party is complete without food.   So plan on sticking around on Jan. 10th as we will be having a meal to follow our celebration.  How can you help? Good question, thanks for asking. If your last name starts with an A-M please bring a side dish and a drink to share and if your last name begins with a N-Z please bring a main dish to share.

New Sunday Morning Series:
For the next five weeks starting Jan. 3rd we are doing a series called, “Cover Bands Don’t Change the World: Living Creatively in Mundane Life”.  Most people don’t associate “God” with creativity. In fact, most people have come to see religion as more dull and drab than compelling and innovative.  In Jesus we find a creative and innovative God who gives us new eyes and a deep motivation to live everyday life creatively.  Ever been to a wedding and danced it up to the old familiar cover band tunes? Cover bands just recycle what everyone else is doing.  They simply follow the crowd. It’s easy for us to just live life taking it as it comes and follow what everyone else is doing.  That doesn’t take much creativity.  Over the next month  we will explore  together  the intersection of creativity, imagination, and the life and teachings of Jesus.   The more you encounter Jesus the more your imagination grows.  You begin to see everyday situations, people, work, and family in God-infused creative ways. The call of Jesus is a call to create life around you with God.  Join us at Engage as we seek to live creatively.

Shaping the FUTURE
Well, ‘09 is now a thing of the past.  I don’t know how ‘09 was for you, but for me ‘09 was exciting and hard at times.  We had a dream to start a church for people who aren’t connecting with God at church as they’ve known it.  God did that this year through us!  That is no small feat. Only one in 7 church plants like Engage grow to a numerical size of 100 or more in the first 3-4 years of their existence.  That means God has greatly blessed our efforts at Engage.  People are coming, lives are changing, relationships are being forged, and we are engaging our community.

Now we look ahead into 2010. What does God have for Engage in 2010? When we started Engage a group of us asked God to show us what He wanted to do, who He wanted Engage to reach, what He wanted Engage to look like?  We built Engage on the answers to those questions.  As we look ahead, we realize Engage is not the same church as it was one year ago.  Leading up to the start of Engage we believed that God was speaking His vision for Engage to “us”, not just “me”.   So we want to hear your visions and dreams for Engage in 2010.  Over the month of January the Leadership Team at Engage (Harold Travis, Kelly Chripczuk, Jon Hand, Matt Tuckey, and Jeremy Owen) will be listening, praying, seeking, and planning ways we can live out God’s dream for Engage in 2010.  Please help us by leaving your dreams, vision, and what God is speaking to you by leaving a comment.  We need your input as we seek God’s direction for Engage in 2010. All of your comments will be read and considered by the leadership team.  Please leave your comments from now until January 15th. SCROLL UP AND CLICK ON THE TITLE OF THIS POST TO LEAVE A COMMENT. Thanks for contributing to the future of Engage.

Take a look at the pdf on baptism and find out why we encourage people to go public with their faith in this weird way…

engage_baptism_jan102010