Parkview Lockport Blog

The Someone at the Church

Growing up in the church I heard all kind of “church phrases”.  I remember hearing things like “I don’t think they prayed enough and that is why it happened”, “I heard that he can’t keep a job because he drinks a lot”, “Well the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree so you can see why their kids act like they do”, or “Someone from the Church should do something for them”.  Now, I admit most of these I remember being at belt level when I heard these conversations, but nonetheless they stuck with me.  Especially the last one; “Someone from the Church should…” 

At first, I thought there was actually a little guy that lived somewhere in the Church building who was called the “Someone from the Church”.  I imagined he looked like a character from Where the Wild Things Are, but never could see him for myself to confirm it.  I figured that the reason I didn’t see him or know his real name was because he only came around when someone needed something like when a homeless person came in from the street needing money or when a single parent couldn’t pay her electric bill.  Perhaps when I got older, I thought, I would learn the secret to find him when I came across someone that needed something because every older person I knew called him anytime one of the situations came about.  What was interesting to me is that even though they would call the “Someone at the Church” for his help, they always acted like they had done the work and were very proud of themselves when it was obvious that all the work was down the by little guy at the Church.

Well eventually I learned that there is no such person as the “Someone from the Church” (although you can ask any Church secretary or Pastor and they may tell you otherwise).  I came to realize that what those people were really asking for was someone else to do the work of helping someone.  They felt really good about telling other people about people’s problems instead of actually doing something about it.  You see doing something might cause a crack to form in their “Christian Bubble”.  Trust me, cracking this protective bubble would be detrimental to the safe and “perfect” world they lived in and it could potentially cause their hands to get dirty.  Yuck!  No, it was far easier to call the Church and ask the “Someone from the Church” to be unleashed from his hiding place and take care of the problem…however that happened.

Ok, I will jump out of this tongue-in-cheek story to get very real with all of us.  As we open this new Campus there will be no “Someone at the Church” because that someone is you and me.  We are the body of Christ, we are the people that call Jesus Lord and Savior, and we are the people that God has given the breath of life to.  It is all of our responsibility to meet the needs of those we see around us.

So, if you see a single mom out to dinner with her kids and she can’t take a bite of food because she is trying to make sure the kids don’t kill each other, don’t shake your head and grab your phone to call the Church.  Call the server over, tell them to give you the mother’s check, and pay for her meal.  Don’t tell her who it is from, but just have the server tell her that Jesus loves her.  Don’t look for the credit, just meet the need.   

If you know about a family that is having trouble getting school supplies together for their kids, don’t look for the “Someone from the Church” to take up a collection.  Go to Target, get some school supplies, stick it in a back-pack and leave it on their front step with a card inviting them to come to church.  Don’t pass the responsibility on, just meet the need. 

Our mission at Lockport is to show the love of Jesus to as many people as we can and 99% of that mission is accomplished outside the walls of the Church!  Your ministry mission is in your homes, neighborhoods, jobs, sports teams, and anywhere your two feet take you.  Christ needs us to be his hands and feet in all situations and not pass the responsibility on to someone else. 

I’m sorry to say, but I have made an Executive decision.

Effectively immediately I am firing the “Someone at the Church”.  He is out of work, homeless, and there is no chance I’m rehiring him.

Now get out there and meet some needs. 

All for His Glory,

Brian Hunt

Campus Pastor

A Lesson from Private Ryan

Last week I attended the Exponential New Church Planter’s Conference in Orlando, Florida (don’t worry, it was much warmer and nicer than it sounds).  I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by the nearly 3,000 people who were there.  Now some of you may be saying, “Um, Brian, that isn’t even as many people as we have in a weekend at PCC Orland.  What is the big deal?”  The big deal is that those 3,000 people represented the future growth of God’s Kingdom.  Minus the proverbial smell of compost, when you looked around the room, you could clearly see the freshly planted Church seeds resting in the lives of ripe soil, just waiting to burst into new Church life.  What an exciting time to be a Christian!

As excited as I was to be there, I must confess that the experience humbled me beyond words.  For some reason, I couldn’t get the image of one of the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan out of my head.  You may remember it too.  In one particular scene, Tom Hanks and his troops were on an amphibious craft, referred to as a Landing Craft, Infantry (or LCI), heading to Omaha Beach during the Normandy Invasion.

A brief history lesson tells us that of the five beaches stormed, the bloodiest fighting occurred at Omaha, where the Americans suffered more than 2,000 casualties¹.  President Eisenhower ordered 3,000 landing craft similar to those depicted in the movie.  Each carried approximately 41 men^2,3, so quick math tells us that in landing crafts along, approximately 123,000 soldiers when ashore at these battles.  Of the soldiers who fought, 70% were between the ages of 20 and 34, and 20% were under the age of 20⁴. 

Following scenes in the movie depicted the boats coming ashore.  The large iron doors that protected them as they motored in would drop down and the men would rush out of the boat to storm the beaches.  However, as artillery rained down into their boats, many of the men never made it out alive, and were killed before the battle even began.

This struck me so hard because as I looked around at the conference, all I could see was a group of Church Planters traveling to shore to go to battle.  Of course, the difference is our battle field.  You see, our battle field includes Atheists, Agnostics, Deists, Buddhists, Islamists, and every “-ist” in-between.  It is complete with hypocrites, closed minded Christians, lukewarm Christians, and every other version of Christian you can think of.  And if I can be honest, it is a battle field that is littered with thousands of bodies of other churches that didn’t make it. 

What we can learn from the Normandy Invasion and the soldiers who fought, can be found in three distinct areas: 1) Most soldiers, if not all, were fearful as the motored to the battle field.  They knew that not everyone would make it through.  They had come to grips with that reality, and they still chose to fight.  2) Even more sobering was that each soldier knew that even if their personal mission was unsuccessful their overall mission was for something bigger than themselves.  3) Every one of them believed they would succeed.  Every soldier was determined to make it to the top of that hill, to make their commander proud, to complete the mission, to scream at the top of their lungs in victory.  THEY ALL BELIEVED THEY WOULD WIN.

I don’t know for sure, but I would guess some of you have those same feelings I do.  You wrestle with the fear of the unknown at this new campus, only to find yourself, later that day, so pumped up and confident that you could run through a wall.  The polarity of your emotions seems to be so extreme that you wonder if you should just invest in a white jacket without sleeves just to be ahead of the game.

My encouragement to you is found in Romans 8, where it says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”  As I read this, I just want you to know how proud I am to be on this boat with you.  It is an honor to be your leader as we take on this battle field together, knowing that we are not blindly going into this fight alone.  Rather, we are following the flag of our God, who “is for us”.  Because of that faith, we are assured victory.  So as we continue together toward the opening of PCC Lockport, I encourage you to link arms with one another, build relationships with each other, and get ready to storm the gates of hell as we continue to Grow the Kingdom of God together.

All For His Glory,

Brian Hunt

Campus Pastor

May 3rd Lockport Gathering

Dear Lockport Campus Core,

Please don’t forget about the next Lockport Gathering this Saturday May 3^rd.  To change things up, we will be grilling out on the Patio, which is outside of the West doors of the building, and the gathering will begin following the Saturday night worship service.  If this is your first Lockport Gathering or you have come before, we would love to have you join us to hear more about this amazing Campus.

As part of this month’s gathering, you will see that we are asking groups of people to bring a different food item to the event.  For those of you who will be coming to the Saturday service, we will have large coolers inside each set of doors for you to place your items that need refrigeration.  Our staff will then be happy to take care of bringing these items to the Patio for you.  Also, in the event of rain or just crummy weather, we will relocate to the Skyroom. 

I think that it is very important to remember that one of the keys to starting this new campus is relationships.  Relationships are inarguably the foundation of Christianity.  Our personal relationships sharpen and encourage each other along our Spiritual walks.  Our daily interactions provide opportunities to show Christ’s impact on our lives to those who are far from Christ.  And our relationship with Jesus Christ is how we connect with the almighty God.  We must understand that each relationship is vital to our Faith.   

I pray that Saturday will be a chance to connect with one another, develop new relationships, and join together for this great adventure.  Please let us know if you have any questions and I look forward to seeing you all there!

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Lockport Gathering

May 3, 2008

Following Saturday Worship Service

Last Names A – M à Bring Desert

Last Names N – Z à Bring Side Dish

Please RSVP to Jeanna at jeanna.lentes@parkviewchurch.com

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All For His Glory,

Brian Hunt

Campus Pastor

The Good Looking Gospel

“…so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.”  - Titus 2:10c

I have two brothers Brad and Brandon.  We all grew up in Rapid City, South Dakota with my mom, dad, and dog, Kokomo (may she rest in doggie peace J ).  As the oldest, one of my “jobs” was to be the guinea pig for most everything we did.  It fell to me to test out all the sports, activities, and anything we did for that matter so my brothers could just fall into the good ones after I sank or swam.  The list of beta testing activities was lengthy and included such things as pole vaulting, gymnastics, soccer, baseball, swimming, basketball, football, children’s choir, band, science teams, and a myriad of other mind numbing functions that would make a grown man cry.  In the end, my brothers and I were known most for our achievements in baseball and I’m proud to say we were successful. Two of us played Division I baseball, one played Division II baseball, and I was fortunate enough to play professionally for a time.   However, none of that would have happened if I didn’t approve of playing baseball while testing out all of those activities.  If I did not make baseball look appealing to my brothers they never would have played and would not have reached the levels that they did.

“Wow Brian that’s great, but what in the world does this have to do with Lockport?”

As we prepare to open the Lockport Campus we will come across thousands of people that have been trying out all kinds of things in their lives.  Some of them will have chosen to try out Religion.  They will have sampled Buddhism, Catholicism, Hinduism, and every other “-ism” in between.  Others will have chosen to enter into the buffet line of the World.  They will come to us having sampled drugs, alcohol, sex, money, success, and Cub’s baseball.  Regardless of the diversity in their choices the goal is nearly always the same.  They want to be complete.  They want to find something that is real and permanent in their lives to fill the empty hole they find inside of them.  These are the people that we are going to meet when we open our doors.

Our responsibility as Christians is not to live perfectly.  After all Jesus was the only one who did that and we are not Him.  It also isn’t our calling to live our lives never seeing these people because we have our noses too far in the air.  In Jesus’ time, these people were called Pharisees and He had less than positive things to say to them.  No, our responsibility is to do what Paul tells us in the book of Titus when he says that in every way we should make Jesus look attractive to those around us.  If you read the book (which I hope you do) you will see Paul outlining all different types of groups of how they should live.  He doesn’t leave any group of people out as he talks to men, women, children, old, young, slaves, and on and on he goes.  His message is not to tell them how to live perfectly, but to live in such as way that their lives make the Gospel, the Truth of Jesus, the promise of Salvation, the hope of all Nations look attractive.  To have it look like something they want in their lives.

I want to be very clear.  Paul doesn’t say that we make the Gospel look attractive by changing, manipulating, misquoting, altering, or sugar coating the message of Jesus so that everyone likes it.  Rather he is saying that people should look at your life, your family, your decisions, your convictions, your passion for Christ and say “I want to be part of that.  If they can do it, I can do it!”

That is what we want people to experience when they walk through the doors at Lockport.  Not a building with a bunch of people that think they have it all figured out, but a bunch of people that are living a life that strives to be like Christ and are wanting to make the message of Jesus attractive to everyone. 

Friends, the greatest part is that we can start living that way now!  We don’t have to wait until September, we can start living and breathing a life that is honoring of Christ.  We can start making the Gospel look good now. 

All For His Glory,

Brian Hunt

Campus Pastor

The Reluctant Leader

We have all heard of “Natural Born Leaders”.  They are the kind of leaders that seem to just rise to the top.  They are the captains of the football team, the Science Project leaders, the people you just seem to look up to and you are not really sure why but after awhile you have followed them for miles like Forest Gump running down the road.  You can just look at them and say…yep…they are a leader! 

But many more times than not we see what an author calls “reluctant leaders”.   These leaders are reluctant to lead because of some sort of inadequacy they perceive or actually have within them.  It might be a lack of self confidence, a physical abnormality, they don’t feel they have enough experience; it could be any number of reasons that cause leaders to be reluctant.

Ironically, reluctant leaders most often show a sincere heartfelt calling to leadership because they are less focused on what they are doing and more focused on what God is doing.  They are quick to deflect success or challenge to God and give Him the praise for all of it.  We all can learn a valuable lesson from Reluctant Leaders. 

Whether you are a Natural Born or Reluctant Leader, God has a call for your life.  He wants to see you push yourself and trust him in the areas of your life that aren’t spelled out clearly.  He wants to see you apply what you are good at and overcome your inadequacies for His glory. You see God has a tendency to push us to step outside of ourselves - outside of our comfort, outside of what we think we know, outside of what we have “always done”.  He pushes us to the point where we get scared and have to trust Him because, if we didn’t, we would never do it. 

Please know that we do not blindly follow a leader that is running along with no plan in mind like Forest Gump.  We will not be let down someday and find out our guide is now “tired and wants to go home”.  No!  We follow the Living God that is sprinting out in front showing us the path we should take.  He is encouraging us, defending us, rejoicing with us, and leading us on a journey for His Kingdom.  Our job is to faithfully follow and remain obedient to his call whatever that may be. 

As we continue to journey toward the new Lockport Campus, many opportunities will arise to serve and lead.  My encouragement to you is to listen to God’s call to you in this process.  Listen to His knock on your heart and allow yourself to open the door to new possibilities.  Whether you are reluctant or chomping at the bit to get going, do not allow Satan a foothold of doubt in your spirit.  Cling firm the promise that God is on your side and is thrilled to see you stretch your Faith.  He will continue to do a great work in your life through this journey.

All For His Glory,

Brian Hunt

 

Campus Pastor

Lockport Small Group Community is Building!!

As we embark on this great adventure, I wanted to share this from a recent study:

Americans are connected as never before, with social networking Web sites on our laptops, cell phones on our belts, iPods in our ears, instant messaging at our fingertips and Blackberry text messaging under our thumbs. However, even though some people claim to have hundreds of "friends" on their MySpace or Face-book accounts, multiple studies in the past couple of years illustrate how uncommon it is to find authentic companions.

In fact, a General Social Survey suggests Internet usage may even interfere with personal communication in the home. When a person is busy interacting with a laptop, face-to-face time suffers, according to the 2006 study, published in "American Sociological Review." Our increasingly virtual society is making us an ever-more-isolated people.

"Access to great communication doesn't translate into experiencing relationships," says licensed counselor Brian Frizzell, owner of Christian Counseling Services in Springfield, Missouri. "Those are pseudo connections."

The survey showed that 25 percent of Americans said they had no one they could trust to discuss important matters. That compares to 10 percent two decades earlier.

Can you imagine - 1 in 4 people said they have no one whom they can trust.  Wow.  If that doesn't serve as motivation for our small groups, I don't know what will.

We are forming three new groups in the Lockport Area.  A Wednesday night group at 159th and Bell Road, a Thursday night group at 151st and Farrell, and a Friday night group.  Also, we are planning our first Lockport Area Women's group.

If you are interested in any of those, please contact Jon Zabrocki at 708-478-7477 or jon.zabrocki@parkviewchurch.com.