Your time is a precious nonrenewable resource (and possibly money too!) so here are the cliff notes version of my blog and the full version is below it... Here we go.

If "leading people to become fully devoted followers of Christ" is our main goal, why, when we have all the people at church, do we spend half our time singing and the other half preaching? Is that really working? Hands are being raised and no doubt that's extremely exciting, but we are fully aware that we do not have the Life Groups in place to help the thousands of people that attend Life and those hundreds every month, who are new believers, to become fully devoted followers of Christ. So whose fault is it that people just leave after the hour they spend here? Ultimately it is theirs but should we not share a significant part of the blame?

To turn this on its head then, daydream with me for a few minutes and imagine completely changing the worship service or the "experience" - still having the worship but then cutting the message down to only 10 minutes. Short, sweet, and probably more memorable just because it is short! Still offer a time to allow people to receive Jesus as their Savior but not get bent out of shape if the numbers go down because it's in the next 20 minutes where the real magic happens, the beginning of true and lasting life change, not just a hand raised. Craig and the campus pastors then emphasize the next 20 minutes, literally the last third of the experience, are for you to hang out in your communities (which is explained further in the long version), such as The Singles Community, The Womens, etc. Each community would have leaders in place during each experience to help them get plugged in, basically having a "Life Groups Connection Event" every single time a person comes to church, not only providing them with plenty of opportunities to jump in but really proving to them that we believe this is critical to your success as a believer and follower of Christ!

Then, once they get connected and go to the Life Group, you hear the second part of Craig's message which is just more meaty than the first, which allows everyone to get more in depth teaching but also do something we can't do now and that's discuss the message within our Life Groups immediately after we hear it, setting it even deeper within us!

I've heard it said and I'm sure you'd agree, if everyone at LifeChurch.tv suddenly wanted to be in a LifeGroup, there's no way - we can't deliver. And if that's what we promote as being an essential part of learning to become a fully devoted follower of Christ, which it is, something needs to change... yesterday. If people are slipping through the cracks or leaving because of dysfunctional Life Groups, we, the amazing LifeChurch.tv, are the problem.

The full version...

If you saw these words "NO PREACHING ALLOWED" on a sign at your church, you'd think that the government had something to do it for sure and you'd be petrified! No preaching? How can you even have church if you don't have preaching?

Well what if our idea of preaching was wrong?

It's usually a good half an hour of 3 points that are clever and hopefully memorable, some good jokes to break it up, and ultimately a humdinger of a salvation message that causes people to want to receive Jesus as their Savior. Sounds great so why and how could I possibly question it? But I'm just curious, is that a Biblical model? It must be because that's how most preachers do it, right? The main question I want to ask, though, is this: Does it work? And when I ask that, I don't mean working measured by the number of peeps that come forward or raise their hands, I mean measured biblically, such as by the example of when the church first began. The scripture I'm referring to is at the bottom of this blog (for a reason).

So maybe that sign isn't such a trip if our idea of preaching is bogus. Does it free you up to think outside the box with me for a minute?

Maybe I should explain first why I think this is a big deal. I see hundreds of people, thousands over 6 worship services or "experiences" as we call them, who come in the doors, stop off at the coffee and doughnut area, stay for an hour, and leave. They all come to church but very few are actually being the church... and if that isn't happening inside the walls of their "home" church, how in the world can it happen outside, where the lost and hurting are? So is that their fault? OR IS IT OURS? By "ours" I'm referring to anyone who has been led by God into a leadership role, whether you're on staff or not. Ultimately of course each person is responsible for his or her decisions but hopefully you'll agree that we share a large part of the blame.

Now let me back up for a sec and tell you my pastor, who is also the main preacher of my church, is Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv, no question one of the most dynamic, innovative, and influential leaders of my generation, and a truly incredible preacher, measured by our traditional standards anyway. Do I think he could be better? I believe so and I'll explain how.

First of all, though, we need to realize and confess our "fault" in all of this. Maybe a better word is sin! It's not p.c. even in some churches now but if you don't identify it as sin, aren't you just going to continue doing the same thing, getting the same result? We also need to remember James 3:1, "...we who teach will be judged more strictly." God comforts us in the next verse by assuring us he realizes we all stumble and it's good to admit fault because otherwise you'd be perfect and we all know there's only one who was and is perfect. Does that mean he still won't "judge more strictly"? You know the answer.

So if we can agree that the way we do church right now isn't working, as measured by Acts 2, and that we admit and repent of our sin of ineffective leadership, where do we go from here? Well what's the main goal? By now you're probably all over it - people... more specifically, "leading people to become fully devoted followers of Christ," our goal at Life. So how do you do that?

Well here's the exciting part so just daydream with me while you read. What if we still had some awesome worship music to still facilitate corporate worship which is good for the Body and afterwards our pastor gave a short message, about 10 minutes long, short and sweet, still offering a time to receive Christ but also emphasizing that's ONLY THE BEGINNING of being a fully devoted follower of Christ. Then we'll prove we're serious by doing something crazy different, dedicating the next 20 minutes, one third of our worship time, in our Life Group Communities ("the fellowship/meet together in the temple courts"). The Life Group Communities would literally serve as a "Life Groups Connections Event" for every single experience that we have! I can imagine the entire lobby transformed and dedicated to this, helping peeps get plugged in by having their own area, equipped with Life Groups leaders volunteering just as if they were an usher or in LifeKids. Each campus would have the same look and feel and names, just like they do in the LifeKids area. If someone goes to another campus for whatever reason, they will immediately recognize where they belong and more quickly and comfortably get plugged in. For example, the singles community called "Singled Out", just a suggestion, will have it's own logo hanging over its area and be at every campus, instantly recognizable. Or South OKC has "Impact Groups" for their missions oriented groups - I love it!

Now there will obviously be those that will leave after the message but if we do our job right and have adequate leaders in each community at each service, I believe THEN we will begin to see The Church. Can you imagine? We would literally be changing the way people think about going to church and then being the church! There will be resistance of course but the numbers of people that will begin to experience true love from their brothers and sisters in Christ and want to bring others in to experience that as well... will e x p l o d e.

Now keep daydreaming with me and imagine this! What if the "preaching" took place in a Life Group at someone's home during the week, instead of at church? In other words, what if Craig's half hour message today is actually cut into two parts? A 10 minute message that gets us thinkin' on a certain subject and hits us hard and quick and keeps us thinking throughout the week but the real meat of the message is in the 20 minute part that you watch corporately within your Life Group. Right now Life usually provides a dvd to the leaders to help the discussion along and I recommend continuing that but tagging that on the end of a message that can literally be discussed immediately after it's watched, unlike what we're able to do currently! People just get up and leave after a message now but doing it this way, you take care of both problems - people can get connected and plugged in to a Life Group at church and then get more out of the message by being able to discuss it within the group they've joined! Oh I feel like I'm about to start preachin' right now!!

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." There's alot more that happened after that but before I go on, I'm asking are we even doing this?

"Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

~Acts 2:42-47

My last question: Are we doing church backwards?