Get it!

As I spend countless hours absorbed in the world of church planting, I wonder sometimes if we as a group really get it. "What does it mean to get it?" You ask… Well…The moment you are reading something and you suddenly stop reading because you get this feeling in your stomach much like the felling you get on a roller coaster when you are just about to go over the top of the first hill. You know…the moment when you’re not going fast, but the coaster is just picking up speed. You get this feeling of excitement about the ride that is about to take place and yet there is this nagging thought in the back of your head that says “Hey…What’s it gonna be like if this thing flies off of the rails?...” A wonderful anticipation and excitement and all at the same time this huge sense of fear. I love the look in a persons eyes when he or she gets it…They always have such a new found passion.
So what is it that we are supposed to get? Well…when you suddenly are overwhelmed with this sense of urgency and responsibility to tell as many people about Jesus as possible. When you look out at crowds of people and your heart is broken over lost souls, such to the point that it drives you like a freight train. Then you realize that you hold the answer to every problem any of those people have ever had or will ever have. Then you think “I’ve GOT to tell them! GOT TO!” There is such anticipation at this time. Then suddenly there is a drop in your heart when you realize that you don’t know very many lost people well enough to tell them about Jesus because you’ve always been so caught up with being with other Christians. Then you realize that you’ve rarely been a disciple of Jesus at all, but that for most of your life you’ve in fact been a disciple of some established order of right and wrong. This is a heart breaking reality when you get it, but it carries with it such anticipation because you now have a new perspective of what it means to be a disciple of Christ and not a disciple of man’s regulations. Then you begin to see the freedom that you really have in Christ; The freedom to sit with a man who is smoking a cigarette or drinking a beer, and to truly enjoy the company of that individual. The freedom to not spend every waking moment with other Christians, and to not listen to Christian music all the time and not spend most free time in a church building. The freedom to go into a bar and spend time with someone who needs Jesus. When you get it, you can truly say that the church is not a building and you can really mean what you say. When you get it, you can be a real close friend to a lost person, maybe even their best friend, and you can spend truly significant time with them. You can even have lost people over to your house on a regular basis. And when you really get it, you see that you not only have the freedom to do and not do these certain things that you have felt obligated to your whole life, but you will see the NECESSITY to do and not do those things. When you truly get it, you are struck with a very real sense of fear, guilt and disdain of who you have always been as a Christian, and you are overwhelmed with the need to change your whole lifestyle. When you get it, you get such a real look at your own self righteousness. That’s what I mean by “Do we get it?” That’s what we have all GOT to get before we can move on with this church plant. It’s about lost people becoming disciples of Christ.

P.S. If you felt a little uncomfortable while reading this blog, then you almost certainly don’t get it!