Wednesday, July 30, 2008 Investing in Relationships

Everyone at Encounter must be committed to investing in relationships with people who are far from God. It is only in this way that we can Engage Culture resulting in transformed lives.

As Jesus invested His life into those around Him, we must invest our lives into those around us. We must serve them, befriend them, accept them, and when we speak of our faith, we'll speak from the overflow of our heart.

And one thing to remember about investments is that there is rarely an immediate pay-off. Investing takes time. It took Jesus three years to convince the twelve.

After such an investment, it is much easier and effective to invite people to connect with Encounter. Then it is more natural to resurface the subject later providing opportunities to share your journey with Jesus. Being with other believers at the right kind of event has a way of opening people up or pricking their interest in spiritual things. We all know people whose picture of Christianity is so distorted that they need to see the real thing before they can hear you.

Investing in others' lives is a both a community culture and a personal strategy. It means genuinely caring for people outside the church and then being bold enough to risk the relationship by inviting them to go deeper. It takes energy and effort to build and invest in a relationship. It takes equal compassion and courage to leverage that relationship for the sake of eternity.

Monday, July 28, 2008 LifeGroups

We want everyone to end up in a LifeGroup for spiritual growth, discipleship, accountability, and encouragement. We believe that the best place for people to experience life change is in the small group context.

These groups consist of six to eight individuals or five to six couples who meet regularly for Bible study and prayer and commit to accountability, friendship and support.

They are a safe place to ask tough questions and build lasting friendships in an environment of commitment and strength and security. They are also a great place to grow in our relationship with Jesus and community with others.

Sunday, July 27, 2008 Entry Environments

In our homes, the foyer is the "entry" place that serves as the welcome area for guests and new friends. It's the first step and it's often the only chance to make guests feel comfortable enough to return.

The gathered worship service will be our primary entry environment. This environment must be one where believers can be excited about bringing their un-churched friends. Therefore, it must be an irresistible environment where excellence is experienced with everything we do. From the physical environment to the look and feel, music, video, sound, lights, and hospitality — all must be done in such a way that it honors God and is appealing and enjoyable.

Believers will definitely be challenged spiritually, but the un-churched will experience something so different and unique that they want to come back, whether they believe the teaching or not. Encounter will create all our entry environments where things are done with excellence and where adults, teens, and kids experience a creative God as a result of what we do.

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.