Greetings Everyone,
 
I know many of you are wondering how the new church planting efforts are going so here's an update.
 
We've been meeting regularly on Sunday evenings at the Love, INC conference room with those who are interested in being involved in this new work. It's a fairly diverse group of folks and even though we've only been meeting for three months we're beginning to get a sense of community. I feel like we are just getting started, but, that's probably because after three months we are just getting started.
 
A couple weeks ago we did our first focus group designed to listen to people in our area. Our purpose is to learn from the folks we'd like to connect with and find out directly from them what they think about the Church (positive and negative), what has excited them about the way we have traditionally done church and what has turned them off. It was as a very informative and fascinating evening. We started off by showing them a picture of a quaint church building and asked them what they felt and what thoughts it brought to mind. The first person responded in a very positive and warm way. The second responded by shedding a few tears before she was done because of the hurt it brought back. And I'd say the time got more interesting from there. In the end, besides learning some of what we hoped to learn, we came away believing what we gained was a real confirmation that what we are trying to do with this new work is on the right track. The next focus group we're setting up for early May will be with some real estate agents Shirley knows from Keller Williams.
 
Last week Mike Cok and I (Mike is also conducting the focus groups) attended a church planting conference in Orlando, Florida. There were around 20 other CRC individuals there along with about 2,300 other people from all over the world. It was encouraging and challenging to hear what the Lord is doing to build His Church in this generation. We both felt the opportunity to gain some new insights was quite valuable and once again we felt the confirmation that what we are trying to do in this new work is right on track. So, you may be asking yourself at this point what are we trying to do? Well, let me try and answer that.
 
From the very beginning, we at Imagine (even before it was called Imagine) have been looking at why the way we have been doing church is not connecting with people today and why is it even driving some away? Is the Lord simply not building His Church today? Well, as we look around there is clearly some exciting evidence that He is, both here in our valley and as we've just noted around the world. Is the Holy Spirit not working in people heart's or are folks able to resist Him more today than they were in the past? Again observation, as well as Scripture, tells us this is not the case. So, what is going on?
 
Well, this is what we are increasingly being led to believe (and is being continually confirmed). How we view the church determines how we will do church and how we do church has a tremendous impact on the results we get. And, we all know, that if we keep doing the same thing over and over expecting different results, well, that's the definition of insanity. Plus, we also know that the way we are doing church is perfectly designed to to give us the results we are getting. So, the question we've been asking ourselves is: if we aren't satisfied with the results and God is still faithfully building His Church and the Gospel and the Holy Spirit are as powerful as ever then is our lack of results something we are doing (or not doing as the case may be)? As we have been studing the Scriptures together we have been convinced that the answer to that question is a convicting and humbling "YES"!
 
For the sake of space let me give you one example, Acts 4:13. This text says, "When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus." Here in this passage Peter and John were so effective at engaging their culture and making known the message of Jesus that the Jewish authorities arrested them (vs. 1-3). Then we're told the only distinguishing quality the authorities could identify in them to explain their boldness and impact, despite their uneducated background, is that they "had been with Jesus". Don't you find it interesting that what we've got today is just the opposite? We've got people who have been going to church 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 or more years (many who've gone to Christian schools as well), been to countless Bible studies, been taught the best theology (I do believe reformed folks are the best theologically educated people on the planet) but, if you asked them to share the message of Christ with someone they'd say, "Oh, no I couldn't do that I wouldn't know what to say and even if I did I'd be to afraid". If what we are doing in the church today is so faithful to Scripture then why are we getting the exact opposite results? Both in us as disciples and in the impact we're having in our world?
 
Here's another question to think about. Would you agree with the statement that God has a church with a mission? Or, do you think it's more accurate to say, God has a mission with a church? Think about it carefully because how you answer that question reveals a lot about how you view the church. And how you view the church will determine how you do church! Simply put we at Imagine are trying to help each other put all that great education and Christian schooling to work (and to continue to teach God's word) to be people who've "been with Jesus" and to be missional as we engage this culture for Christ. Our desire is to seek God's heart as we join Him in His mission, because He loves this world so much He sent His only begotten Son into it, to redeem it, restore it and reconcile it to Him. So because our focus is going to be missional our veiw of success is going to look a little strange to some folks. Instead of determining success by how many come to Imagine we're going determine success by how many go out. And instead of being excited by how much money we take in we're going to get excited by how much money we can give away.
 
I don't know if this has answered your question. If I haven't at least I hope I've raised some more important questions for us all to ask than what is Imagine doing. The question we ought all to be asking is, what am I doing that reflects a view of the church that is causing me to reflect something different than I see in Scripture?  And how can I better join with God in His mission in this world and in this community? There certainly is so much more we could say about all this. That can be the subject of future articles. But for now, I'll end by saying I believe if we are truly joining with God in His mission in this world the best days for each of us and the churches we're a part of are still ahead of us!
 
Blessings to you all,
 
Randy VanOsdol