Jonathan Herron

Faith is a Journey, Not a Guilt Trip

Jesus had a simple yet passionate invitation:

"Come and you will see!"
(John 1.39)

Jesus invites Andrew.

Andrew invites Peter.

 

There wasn't much of a formula.  Just a simple invite
punctuated with contagious enthusiasm:

"Follow Me!" (John 1.43)

Jesus invites Phillip.

Phillip invites Nathanael.

 

No hoops to jump through.  No hidden rules or judgment or hypocrisy or church committees.

Just a whimsical, fun invite to spend time with Jesus.

An invitation toward a journey of life-change and explosive purpose in one's life.

 

This is why I'm excited about Life Church.

We believe that faith is a journey, not a guilt trip.

We invite and welcome everyone: religious folk, irreligious folk, Christ-followers, Nones.

 

My friend Norm remarked to me yesterday: 

"What you guys are doing once a month at The Dow is a PARTY!  It's FUN!  Of COURSE people want to join in!"

I like that.

Jesus always threw the best parties.

I'm excited to be part of one this Sunday.

You should come check it out.

Come and you will see!

 

PS - Here are some more easy invites to share on your Facebook:

    

10 Leadership Tips from the life of Steve Jobs

I'm an Apple nut.  Simple yet revolutionary gets my attention.

Last fall I read the biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.  Fantastic insights.

Here’s 10 things I highlighted.  Some apply to leadership.  Some apply to preaching:

 

1. Apple had a 3rd partner, Ron Wayne, who got cold feet after 11 days.  He was paid a buyout of $2,300. Had he stayed, his share would be worth $2.6 billion.  Lesson?  Don't bail too early.  Take a risk and trust.

 

2. The empowering force of naïveté –
“Because I didn’t know it couldn’t be done, I was enabled to do it. ”

 

3. Jobs' haunting question to Pepsi’s Scully as he recruited him –
"Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want a chance to change the world?"

 

4. Jobs responding to a question about how he did market research for the Mac:
“Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before he invented the telephone?”

 

5. What prepared him for the success he would have in Act 3 of his life
was not his success during Act 1 at Apple, but his brilliant failures in Act 2.

 

6. It takes a lot of hard work to make something simple.

 

7. Gretzky – “Skate where the puck is going, not where it has been.”

 

8. Henry Ford – “If I’d asked customers what the wanted, they’d have told me, ‘a faster horse’.”

 

9. "You build a company that will stand for something a generation or two from now. That’s what Walt Disney did, and HP, and the people that built Intel. They created a company to last, not just to make money. That’s what I want Apple to be."

 

10. Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.

 

We are a Generation of Honor and Integrity

Previously:  We are United Under One Vision

                       Found People Find People

                       Movements Move

                       Don't Stick Your Toe in the Water...  CANNONBALL!

                       We Will Be Known For What We Are For

The last couple weeks I've been unpacking the seven big ideas behind our Life Code.  

Our Life Code is our start-up's unique DNA.  
It takes different flavors of churches to reach different flavors of people; this is our flavor!

Our sixth big idea at Life Church is a personal favorite:

We are a Generation of Honor and Integrity.

The gospel transforms us into a community living with changed hearts:

We do not gossip at our church.

No secret meetings or insider politics here.

And we are not "competing" with any churches.

Full of honor and integrity, we aim to do the right thing even when it hurts.

Our heart is to out-love, out-serve, and out-give those who misunderstand us.

 

 

The Top 3 Most-Asked Questions About Life Church

Man oh man, there's lots of buzz about our start-up, Life Church.

Here's the 3 most-asked questions that keep coming up since our first service two weeks ago:

1)  WHEN will Life Church move from MONTHLY worship services to WEEKLY services?

Answer:  ASAP!  To get this new church rolling, our team of grace-addicts took a huge risk and launched out with our first service at The Dow two weeks ago (be sure to check out the VIDEO and PHOTO ESSAY).

Our number one goal right now as a church start-up is to increase NICKELS and NOSES:

Consistent Generosity + Crowd Growth =
Weekly Worship Services!

NICKELS:  Because we currently have no paid staff, our overhead costs are very low.  Since we're brand new, we need to see a rhythm of consistent generosity beyond Sunday mornings:

• Online giving

• Automatic Recurring Gifts

• Traditional Mailing-In-Your-Checks

Then we can better plan out the income and expenditures for weekly rentals.

 

NOSES:  While we will continue to leverage media to create an awareness about our start-up, we researched HOW people heard about us:  Over 80% of our guests reported coming because they were PERSONALLY INVITED on FACEBOOK!  So... keep posting about Life Church and repeatedly inviting - - Found People FIND People!

 

2)  Was all the cool stuff you guys did in Life Kids just a one-time deal?

Answer:  NOPE!  What our kids experienced in  September is just the starting point!  Our aim is to create a thriving kids ministry on steroids!  We want kiddo's from across the region to be in a safe, fun, God-centered environment.

When you come to The Dow on October 14th, your kids will meet Crash the Rhino, bounce in the Jump House and Giant Inflatable Slide, and have a BLAST learning about the Bible from our high-energy Pirates!  You can pre-register your kids online now.

 

 

3)  Hey Jon, are you just starting this church and then moving on to something else or what's your plans?

Great question!  Easy answer: I'm going NOWHERE!  Listen, the easy route would be to leave this region and go where the grass is greener.  I'm no quitter!   I'm excited about pouring my life into this grass!

God called our family to this region for a purpose.  We are now entering our fourth year of living here and LOVE it!  We bought a house locally in the Spring of 2011, our kids go to school and are growing up in this region, and we aren't going anywhere.  Y'all are stuck with me! :)  

I believe to my core that together, God is going to work through us to bring Life to the Great Lakes Bay Region.  As I always tell our volunteers, its going to be fun a decade from now when we look back at all we will have accomplished together.  

 

We'd love to have you come check things out Sunday, October 14th, 11am at The Dow Event Center.

You can sign up for our weekly e*newsletter here, follow us @LifeMichigan on Twitter, and always get the latest updates on our Facebook Page.

Plus we have a FREE APP for your iPhone or Android.  

And don't get me started about our YouTube and Vimeo stuff...

 

HOW TO KICK FEAR IN THE FACE (in 3 Easy Steps)

Over the past twelve months, I have pushed through multiple obstacles to generate new sources of income for our family, launch a new church totally from scratch, write a new book (coming out early next year), and walk through the trans-racial adoption process. 

Its been a BLAST... but also a personal exercise in Kicking Fear in the Face.  
I've learned a couple principles along the way.

We are told nearly 150 times throughout Scripture to "Fear Not."

And yet we do.  We struggle with butterflies in the stomach and paralyzing insecurities.

"THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO NEVER FAIL ARE THOSE WHO NEVER TRY." - ILKA CHASE

I view life as an adventure to be leapt into.  Instead of being on defense, its more fun to run offense.  
I believe you should engage a challenge in life that causes a chill to run down your spine.

If you fear failure, you will fail because you will not try.

Here are 3 easy steps toward trying (and kicking fear in the face):

 

1.  Assume the Worst-Case Scenario.  
In his awesome book EntreLeadership (Wait, what?  You don't already own this book?  Go get it!),
Dave Ramsey says: 

"I am amazed at how much power it gives me when I emotionally digest and accept the absolute worst-case scenario."

Don't let the fears in your mind dictate reality.  Turn your fears on their head by assuming they'll happen: "As long as 'death' in some vague sense looms in the distance or in the future you will struggle to move forward."

Real World Example: Launching a New Church with No People.  There was a fear that we would fail.  So I drilled into the minds of our launch team the absolute worst-case scenario: that only five people would show up at The Dow Event Center.  Then I added that if that happened, we'd still worship our faces off and have a blast together!  Quantifying what we saw as absolute doomsday helped us shake off the fear, lower the pressure we were placing on ourselves, and move forward with confidence and a sense of humor (and by-the-way, Day One was awesome!).

 

2.  Choose Wonder & Whimsy Over Conformity.

Nobody cares about visiting the campus of IBM or Microsoft.  

Booor-ing.

But taking a peek at Pixar Studios?  Yes, please!  I want to go to there!

When you were a kid, whimsy and wonder dictated your direction, not fear.

Its more fun to take a risk than to risk conformity.  Don't waste your life.  Go back to those days.  
Do whatever it takes to regain your sense of imagination and play.

Dream.  Stretch.  Believe.

And remember...

 

3.  At the end of the day, Jesus is enough.

Let go of your "reputation."  Your identity does not rest on pass/fail.  
It rests in the already-completed, totally finished, no-receipt-required work of Christ.

I was watching a guy prepare to walk across Niagra Falls on a tightrope.  Niagra Falls on a tightrope!!  The reporter asked him if he was afraid.  His answer on live network television was stunning: "I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus."

At the end of the day, you still get Jesus.  And Jesus is enough.  Your church plant could implode.  The gossip behind your back could crescendo into a group mob demanding your firing.  You may never end up on the cover of Time Magazine.   Whatever it is you fear, its not the end of the world.  It only feels like the end of the world.  

But its not.   Because Jesus is enough.  

You still get Him.  No matter how everything else pans out, you get Him.

So move forward in faith.  Take a God-sized risk.  Kick Fear in the Face.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'VE POSTED MORE ON KICKING FEAR IN THE FACE BEFORE.
CHECK OUT...

Fail Harder          "Here's to the Crazy Ones"        Fear-Less

He now showed the disciples the full extent of His love.

When I want to show someone love, I send them a Hallmark card.  Maybe an encouraging text.  

But not this:

He took off his robe... and began to wash the disiple's feet.

It is considered bad ettiquette in the Middle East to reveal one's feet.  

Yet Jesus draws out what is kept hidden.

 

The dust and grime of ancient streets covered the disciple's feet.  

One by one, The Master wiped off their muck.  

Their heels, soles, toes were all tenderly wiped by someone else's clean towel.

 

After washing their feet, He put on His robe again.

All that mud and junk was no longer on the men.  It was on Jesus' robe.

"I have given you an example to follow."