Welcome to another installmant of Ask Jon Anything.
As always, feel free to ask anything in the Comments below.
This week I thought we'd tackle some of the Frequently Asked Questions about our new church start-up.
Q: What's a "church start-up?"
A: It's when a fresh new church is started from scratch. Christians often call it "church planting;"
I prefer "church start-up" because it makes more sense to everybody.
Q: Why start a church?
A: Great question! The Reader's Digest version is:
- Jesus tells us to in the Bible
- The New Testament is all about church start-ups
- Studies show it's the BEST way to reach people far from God
- Michigan NEEDS more new churches
- God told Amber and me to bloom where He planted us.
Q: Why Mid-Michigan?
A: Because for whatever reason, God has blessed and used our flavor of ministry to impact hundreds of lives over the past couple years here. For what it's worth, a lot of people tell us all the time that we somehow "cracked" the ministry code in reaching irreligious people in this region.
Well, God told our family to bloom where He has planted us. There are literally thousands in this region who generally sleep-in on Sunday mornings because they aren't feeling compelled to darken a church door. So we want to start a church for people who don't like going to church.
Q: Wait, your flavor? What's your flavor?
A: I believe that it takes all different flavors of churches to reach all different flavors of people. This isn't a competition between churches; it's a completion of what God's already doing!
Our flavor is summed up on our church website. Basically, I get excited about church environments where people feel like they can belong before they believe. We dream of a life-giving church that will offer fun and engaging kids' environments, loud modern music, laugh-out-loud messages that teach the Bible and point toward life-change, mid-week small groups that develop safe relationships and promote inward growth, and a movement of grace-addicts who try to out-love, out-give, and out-serve each other!
Q: What's your church start-up called?
A: Life Church Michigan. "Life" because of John 10:10, "Church" because of Matthew 16:18, and Michigan because we envision launching multiple campuses throughout Mid-Michigan in the future (and if "Michigan" were in a Bible verse, I'd totally quote it here to make it sound legit!).
Q: Where is your church going to be?
A: In Michigan. Because if we started Life Church Michigan in Canada, everyone would look at us funny and say, "Eh?" Actually, come to think of it, all Canadians already do that.
Q: No, seriously. What city is it going to start in?
A: We don't know. Yet. Our mailing address is in Saginaw, our Informational Meetings have been in Caro, and we have been blessed with church leaders from Lapeer giving us great advice. We've got a strong sense on where we want to launch out from initially, but we're waiting on God to give us the green light.
Q: When will Life Church officially launch?
A: We're hoping this Fall, but again, that's totally up to God. His church; His decision.
As we gear up for weekly worship services, our launch team is meeting to celebrate, connect, and contribute together. You are welcome to come join us.
I'm really excited that weekly Sunday morning launch team gatherings begin Sunday, May 6th at 11am in the banquet facility of Arrowhead Golf Club! The plan is to meet every week through the summer for engaging teaching and planning for our official launch this Fall. And yes, we will have fun, engaging, Jesus-centered stuff for your kiddo's too! There's more info over on Facebook.
Q: Last question. How are you funding a new church start-up?
A: Let's be honest - it costs money to get a new church off the ground and running.
My wife and I believe in the vision for Life Church so deeply that we are both working outside jobs to support our family so that Life won't have to carry that financial burden and is instead freed up to use our church budget for start-up costs, kids ministry needs, and outreach.
That said, this May and June, we have to raise $50k in 50 days. That's right, 50 in 50!
We naturally think that the more we give, the less we'll have. Not true. God can do more with 90% than we can do with 100%! It comes down to the law of measures that Jesus taught: "By the measure you measure, it will be measured back to you."
Whether its a one-time gift or on-going, regular monthly support, your tax-deductible donations will help us bring Life to Mid-Michigan. You can give online here.
Thanks for taking the time to read these FAQ's! More FAQ's can be found on our church website.
Feel free to ask anything in the Comments below!
