WE’RE MOVING

A few weeks ago, Christopher VanBuskirk announced to the attendees of Centerpoint that’s we’re moving.

DATE: SEPTEMBER 13, 2009
LOCATION: DANBARRY CINEMAS CHILLICOTHE, OH

Some of you might wonder why a church would move after only one year at its current location. The analogy that Christopher has used is that we’re like the young adult who lives at home. Life’s good, rent’s paid for, but at some point, it’s time to move out. Vineyard Chillicothe has been awful good to us for over a year and at the direction of God and those who have done this thousands of times over, Association of Related Churches, we’re moving from Sunday night to Sunday morning and changing our location to better meet our identity.

BIGGEST reason of all for the move is to meet the needs of more people, to serve more people, and to maximize the amount of people that are exposed to the Gospel of Jesus. That’s it, everything we do will always revolve around that question: how do we point more people to Christ and serve the most amount of people? When churches no longer have a heart for the unchurched and dechurched, then eventually that church ceases to exist.

Centerpoint is uniquely different & passionately real.

telling a story through dance

While I’m neither a dancer or a real creative person, I am highly impressed by both. The following video is a part of last night’s So You Think You Can Dance and the choreographed dance was beautiful, was magical, and told a story of strength through potential tragedy. This piece was an emotional story about a woman and her man struggling with breast cancer. It shows the power humans have with their creative abilities and even the power to tell a story through dance.

No greater love

Right before Jesus’ death, he offers some words for those he is leaving behind. In John 15 Jesus tells them, “love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friend.” Of course Jesus is forthtelling about the sacrifice he’s about to make offering himself for the ransom of the world and to his friends…..

But this verse has always made me wonder about love & sacrifice. While watching a show recently, Raising the Bar on TNT, a former convict was on parole and had been rehabilitated. He encountered a situation where a young man was about to shoot someone but this man was able to disarm the young man…yet when the police arrived, they found the former con with the gun…. and you guessed it, by breaking parole and holding a gun, he was arrested. The former con however wouldn’t give up the name of the young man with the gun, as he told later, “this man still has a chance at a life w/out being behind bars.” In other words, this man went back to jail in order to sacrifice for the young man.

Throughout the years, men & women have laid down their lives for others, for friends, for strangers. Yet we’re told that our world is evil & has no good in it. And sure part of that’s true, even though I do see good in this world; afterall God created us, while we flawed humanity, God’s presence is everywhere. But some people have, many people have, given their lives for others, whether in wars for freedom, or other means, yet some may not have verbally confessed a belief in Christ, or even heard of Christ…. I just wonder, can this type of profound love that Jesus talks about, that Jesus demonstrated, can this action be carried forth w/out some sort of belief in Jesus, in love, in good, in sacrifice?

I guess I just wonder if we can come to know Jesus w/out hearing or thinking about him, but tapping into some act, some divine, or spiritual encounter where we really just understand love and carry it out…

seems like random thoughts, and really it is…

feel free to comment.

I pledge allegiance

I’m not sure why I tend to be late with my posts as they relate to holidays or significant moments. I thought about this post for quite some time and finally decided to give my thoughts on the celebration of independence day of the USA.

Over the weekend, my wife & I travelled to Columbus, Ohio to watch red, white & boom, allegedly the Midwest’s biggest firework’s display. And we were quite entertained as were thousands of other onlookers. The soundtrack to the event featured a patriotic song (God bless the USA) followed by an unrelated pop song (boom boom pow) naturally added for its popularity and likely sound-effect boom boom pow. Then the following night we gathered with a group of close friends and watched our local, not as spectacular, but probably funner fireworks display in Chillicothe.

Anyway, all that to say we spent a solid several hours celebrating our freedom. At one of the events, they started with the pledge of allegiance and I just began thinking, “wait a second, we are seriously pledging our allegiance to a flag and a country.” But I’m a Christian serving a God whose love knows no racial, ethnic, or national boundary…..and here I am giving my loyalty to my country.

Now please read me correctly and thoroughly – I love our country. The USA has done significant good for the rest of the world. Our freedom should be the pinnacle for all humanity to watch. We continue to be a very generous and charitable country. We also have done many wrongs in the world. And while we could continuously discuss America’s role in divine history – that’s not the point of my thoughts or blog… (not sure I have a point btw, I’m just giving my thoughts and questions)

The questions I have though surround where my loyalty falls. The few writers of the NT in Jesus’ time were very familiar with a similiar political landscape of their day – ie the Roman Empire. This empire – uh much like ours here today – loved to be worshipped. The Romans wanted its inhabitants to devoutly worship and adore her. The Romans pledged their allegiance to their empire much like we want to pledge our loyalty to the US.

And Jesus comes along with his political message – ie the Gospel of good news that transcends boundaries, that kicks the Roman empire out of the way offering divine citizenship to the King of Kings. Jesus tells a pharisee he must be born again to fully live. He tells him that his political power and loyalty to the Romans means nothing, it’s vain, it’s life-less, it’s temporary, but citizenship to God offers life, it’s permanent & shall never die. Jesus says, “follow me, pledge allegiance to me.” It’s my grace that will follow you, that will guide you, that will ultimately protect you and offer you hope… not your country, not your government.

So while I believe that we should always celebrate our freedom, that we should forever remember, honor, and celebrate those who went before us then & now fighting for freedoms, we should never forget the ONE who gave us ultimate freedom. So while I believe we should never relent in praying for our leaders, I trust that my allegiance isn’t to the American dream, rather it’s to the KING OF KINGS.

Maybe next year this post will come out prior to independence day. May you find your freedom in Jesus. May you pledge your faith to him. May you recognize & celebrate freedoms in our country, but never forget that our loyalty belongs to the Father and it’s in Him that our true citizenship & identity can be found.