Saturday, July 26, 2008 A Different Spirit

I recently had the opportunity to hear Steve Berger, a lead pastor from Leipers Fork, Tennesee. He talked about how churches and pastors need to have guts in the 21st century and I immediately saw the correlation for us at Encounter.

Referring to Caleb in Numbers 14, God says "He has a different spirit; he follows me passionately." But this is important, because God continues to repeat it up to 6 times.

Caleb followed God fully, passionately. He had a different spirit about him.

In Numbers 13-14, it is the account of the Israelites coming upon the promised land. But as we know, most of the leaders sent in to survey the promised land while it was still inhabited by its native peoples — they were discouraged and convinced they couldn't take the land.

But God promised the land. And Caleb knew this. He quieted the people and reminded them, "we are well able to take the land." He believed God. Unlike the other leaders, he had a different spirit about him.

The others had a spirit of minimizing themselves and maximizing the enemy. They minimized their trust in God and maximized the challenge before them.

This directly relates to the challenge and risk set before us at Encounter. We need to believe in what God has placed before us — a city and region of people far from God who desperately need a growing relationship with Jesus.

Sure there is risk — there must be. Because God wants to put us in the position where if we don't rely on Him, we're going to fail. We must believe in the dream He has set before us — a church community where people will encounter Jesus Christ through intimacy with God, community with believers, and influence with outsiders. A community where people are led into growing, thriving, living relationships with Jesus.

So are you ready to believe God? Are you up to a challenge where, apart from relying on God, you will fail? Do you have a different spirit like Caleb? If so, contact us to find out how you can get involved...

Friday, July 25, 2008 Why Another Church in Helena?

One question you may have about Encounter is "Why another church in Helena?" You may have noticed that there are already a lot of churches here — it's as though there is a church on every corner - we don't seem to need another church.

THE REALITY
The reality is that while 50 percent of people in Helena claim to have any church affiliation, only 10 percent are members of an evangelical church. At best, there is at least another 50 percent that do not — they don't even attend church.

More importantly, we can see there is a massive shortfall of people who are in a growing relationship with Jesus, regardless of the number of churches in Helena. People's lives and souls are being sacrificed because many churches are desperately trying to keep and satisfy a handful of church-goers who are comfortable with these statistics. We are not comfortable with this.

THIS GENERATION
That is why we are willing to create a community that is specifically designed to reach out to those who are far from God — especially a younger generation that has been dis-enfranchised from our faith communities — especially those who have "tried" traditional church and found it lacking or irrelevant to their lives. We are specifically looking to connect with the largely un-reached or under-reached group between the ages of 25 and 44 (nearly 26 percent of Helena according to Census 2000).

EXCELLENCE
We want to create a community that values environments where the un-churched will experience something so different, unique, and life-giving that they want to come back, whether they believe the teaching or not; environments where things are done with excellence and where adults, teens, and kids encounter a creative God as a result of what we do through Christ.

INVEST & INVITE
We also want to create a community that is ready to invest their lives in others in order to invite them to these environments where that can begin a growing relationship with Jesus. This core DNA of Encounter (what we're about, our essence) speaks to the purpose for which we are created and saved - to encounter a life-giving relationship with Christ and to invite others to experience the same.

IS THIS YOU?
If this sounds like the kind of community of Christ-followers that you could be involved with — or if you want to find out more, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 What Does "Encounter" Mean?

David Edwards wrote in this in his book Encountering God:

"The word ENCOUNTER carries a nuance of surprise with it... encounters with God usually occur, not when they have been planned, but in unexpected places when God chooses to reveal Himself in a more personal way."

Quite simply, Encounter will be a church community where people will encounter Jesus. That means first and foremost, we will embody the purpose and personality of Jesus.

HIS PURPOSE
Jesus healed some, He fed some, He made some social comments, but Jesus' main purpose on earth was to seek and save the lost (He said so in Luke 19:10). And now the church, who is the embodiment of Christ on earth, is to carry on the purpose and ministry of Christ. A church community that is truly being "The Church" is about connecting people with the Father through Christ.

HIS PERSONALITY
Jesus was authentic. He despised any tradition that "boxed man in" and "boxed God out." We need to cut through many of the church culture barriers that are more about tradition than about Jesus and God’s inspired word.

Jesus was relevant in His culture and understood people’s lives, concerns, and dreams. Whatever we do as a church community, we must speak into people’s lives with the true relevance of Christ by addressing the questions our culture is asking. What does this have to do with my real life?

Jesus was enjoyable. People loved to be around Jesus, especially skeptics and sinners. The only people who didn’t seem to enjoy Him were the inauthentic religious leaders. Everything we do at Encounter — our communication, music, relationships, physical environments — must be enveloped in a real and enjoyable atmosphere.

Jesus was accepting. With all of His holiness, godliness, and righteousness, was not afraid to embrace people with a past. Instead, He drew them to Himself. In the same way, a church community will strive after that which is pure and right and true, but at the same time, be comfortable with and accepting of those who are very far from God.

Encounter is about creating environments that reflect the purpose and personality of Jesus. When our environments reflect Jesus, we are more likely to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.

Thursday, June 12, 2008 A Stirring Deep Within My Heart

Please excuse this long post, but I want to share with you something that has been on my heart.

For the past year, I feel that God has been moving me to take a risk on a passion that He’s planted deep within me. Not knowing what this risk might entail, Andrea and I have been praying and patiently waiting for God to show us more.

Some of that “more” has involved what Bill Hybels talks about in his book Holy Discontent. Hybels says that God places within us the ability to see “broken things” in areas that we are passionate about. God is not calling us to complain or fret over these “broken things,” but to let them serve as fuel for action based on His leading.

CALLED TO BROKEN THINGS
Having not grown up in the church, I have the ability to see what we do in ministry from the un-churched person’s point of view. I see the ways that our churches struggle to connect and share the life-giving message of Jesus with people who, for the most part, see church as irrelevant. I have also seen the way the church has had difficulty speaking into the lives of our young people. Essentially, our churches are effective at reaching certain groups of people, but with those I have the greatest heart for — our effectiveness is “broken.”

God has been calling me to step out and attend to this “broken” thing.

More specifically, God has given me the vision and desire to reach out to people that “traditional” churches in Helena are not effective at reaching; what I call “this generation” and “those who are far from God.” I desperately resonate and identify with those who are not familiar with or who do not connect with traditional church models — who see traditional church as lacking or irrelevant at best, and repelling at worst.

BEING COMFORTABLE IS EASIER
Through many small steps, Andrea and I have seen God directing and preparing us to follow His lead. And after much prayer and seeking His guidance, we feel strongly led to plant a new church here in Helena – for young people and for those who are far from God. We definitely know this is God's working because, frankly, a lot of things would be easier if we remained where we are comfortable.

We have been greatly blessed by serving in worship at Hannaford and feel we have a promising future there. We have made many friends and in many ways have just begun to build this ministry. Several times we have asked God why He has thrown us this “curve ball.” We’ve asked, “why prepare us in worship ministry for so many years and then ask us to change directions?”

Rick Warren says that “neither past nor future generations can serve God’s purpose in this generation.” What we’ve realized is that God has been preparing us for such a time as this. This is not so much a new direction, but a wider emphasis. Now God is asking me to encourage people to worship God not just with song, but with their whole lives.

As we have explored this calling, we’ve learned that planting a church would also be easier somewhere else other than Helena. Some church planting groups would be much more likely to foot the bill for this whole venture if we planted in a larger metro area like Southern California, Reno, or maybe even Billings.

But that is not where God has shown us a great need for a new church community to connect with the younger generation and those far from God. God is not calling us to plant where it is easy, but where there is a need, and specifically where I have a heart for the lost.

I often quote Craig Groeschel in saying "In order to reach people that no one is reaching, you have to do something that no one is doing." That is exactly what Andrea and I have been given a vision to do. We feel like this is such a large endeavor, we can't possible do it. And that really is the best situation to be in — one where you know you will fail UNLESS God makes it happen.

WHAT DO WE DO NOW?
As God brought us closer to the realization of where He is leading us, we began to ask Him how. There have been a great many resources we have studied in coming to this point, but feel strongly that God’s direction right now is a direct outgrowth of Hannaford. It is God’s desire to see His people working together to enlarge His Kingdom.

We want to hear from and speak personally with as many of you as possible. And in that, we also know that God has been preparing some of your hearts as well. So we are looking for like-minded individuals to help us plant a church for young people in Helena.

To know more about the vision that God has given us, and to know more about our journey so far, we invite you to browse through the posts here. (Remember it's a blog, so you may want to read through it from the end to the beginning.) If you feel led to partner with us in prayer or as someone who wants to help make this happen, please let us know immediately. (You can subscribe to this blog or become a prayer partner in the right sidebar.)

Thank you so much for allowing me to share this stirring that God has placed in my heart.

Monday, June 2, 2008 Support Encounter Church

Starting a church is never a small endeavor, but we believe God is calling us to this task. In particular, it will take significant funds to create the types of environments we believe will impact this technological, media-driven generation. Will you dare to dream with us how your monthly support or single donation could impact the lives of many people who are far from God?

MONTHLY SUPPORT

We have been blessed with a number of financial partners, both churches and individuals. God has brought together a significant amount of our ongoing monthly support, but we are still in need of consistent financial partners. Your monthly gift of $1,000, $500, $100, or $50 over one, two, or three years will make a difference. Regarding our startup funds, read about the Thousand Campaign here

CHECKS AND MONEY ORDERS

Checks or money orders are preferred over cash and should be made payable to Encounter Church. It is also helpful if you include a small note to let us know if your tax-deductible gift is a single donation or part of an ongoing monthly support commitment.

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Encounter Church

MARK MEMO:
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MAIL TO:
Encounter Church
P.O. Box 9597
Helena, MT 59604

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