Refuge Launch

You may be arriving here to read the latest on our family.  After all, there are so many things I could write and share by way of our newest son's arrival, our next child's arrival in March, Micah's health, or you name it.

Today, however, I'm talking about the Refuge Church launch. In January of this year when it became clear that the work of the church I pastored would be changing greatly, God led in a most interesting way. It became abundantly clear that God would have a new work to start and He led Sarah and our family to launch out in that direction. 

A lot of work ensued from the end of January to the vision meeting the first of March. Then, on March 31, Refuge Church met for the first worship gathering time as part of something we called pre-launch. In business terms, the last few months have been our "soft" opening as we prepared, did some rethinking, ironed out wrinkles, set best practices into place, and more. Everything isn't perfect and never will be. But now it is time for the "grand opening."

Our official launch is September 8 at 10:30 AM preceded the day before by a fun day for all. You can find that information here.

As we are heading toward Sunday, I've compiled a Top 10 Ways to Have a Great Launch.  Enjoy!

1.         Be Present. Sounds simple, but you won't experience our official launch and the celebration of that day if you aren't present. Prepare for anything and everything to come your way to discourage, distract, or prevent you from coming.

2.         Come Expecting. All right. To come with the expectation that we are worshiping the Most High God who alone has the power to radically transform our lives is an essential of every Sunday. But especially on a day when we want, pray, and expect God to do a great work, we need to come expecting.

3.         Pray. Pray for God to work. Pray for God to prepare your heart. Ask our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to send many who don't know they matter to God. Ask for Jesus to transform lives by the gospel.

4.         Invite. Invite at least one. Invite neighbors, family, friends, coworkers, teammates, hairdressers, store clerks, etc.

5.         Arrive Early. Get up late, leave late, show up late, run into the worship gathering late and you're likely to have a negative view of the launch because you're stressed and flustered. Don't plan to be on time. Plan to be early.

6.         Greet. It is the need of every person at Refuge to make a great first impression upon guests. Don't talk to them and they won't come back. Walk past them like they aren't there and they'll think they don't really matter to us. Greet guests. Make Sundays about new friends, not huddling in long conversations with old friends.

7.         Volunteer. Yes. I'll beat this drum until it ruptures. Volunteers are the backbone of our work at Refuge. Even now, we need volunteers to insure set-up occurs well and on-time; tear down happens quickly and on-time; kids receive great care, parents have great comfort with the care of their kids, and the gospel is unhindered by a frantic child or a worrisome parent; guests receive a first impression that leaves a positive, lasting impression. Where can you volunteer at least ONE Sunday each month?

8.         Celebrate. Celebrate that the God who is perfect has grabbed out from the kingdom of this world and made you a son or daughter in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Celebrate the good news that you have new life. Celebrate with freedom. You can lift your hands, sing out, laugh, cry, stand, sit, bow, or respond as you sense is appropriate before God.

9.         Respond. Hearing God's Word is not enough. We must do what it says. Come expecting that God will ask you to respond to Him in a specific way.

10.       Repeat. So this isn't a "launch" tip. But Sunday, September 8 is the first Sunday of many more worship times to come. Every other Sunday doesn’t have to be second-class to the official launch. God can do an extraordinary work to transform lives by the good news of His kingdom every time we gather. 

Prepare the House

When you have guests coming over to your home, do you prepare? I know that's a dumb question. You don't invite people over and leave the garbage overflowing in the kitchen with a sink full of dishes.  Laundry isn't spilling out of the laundry room into the hallway.  An inch of dust doesn't line every surface in the den.  You prepare.

When your guests arrive, do you greet them warmly and welcome them into your home?  I know that's a dumb question too.  You don't leave them standing at the door waiting for several minutes before someone to comes to answer the door.  When you open the door, you don't say to them, "Oh. It's you."  Nor do you refuse to invite them into your home and make them feel welcome.

While guests are at your home, do you simply sit back and bark out orders for them to serve themselves or serve you? I don't need to say it again. That's crazy. You serve them because they are not some unwanted "visitor."  They are a treasured "guest." You invited them and expected them to come. You want to insure their time in your home communicates your love for them. 

We can think of Refuge Church in similar terms.  Here's the points I'm making:

1.  People most often come by invitation. At Refuge Church, if we want people to come, we must invite them.  "If you build it, they will come," typically only works in Field of Dreams.

2.  You prepare for what you expect. If you expect guests are coming to your house, you prepare for them. Are we inviting, praying, and expecting guests to come. Will the presence of guests catch us off guard as though we didn't expect them to come?

3. Guests are wanted while visitors are often considered intrusions. You'll constantly hear me call non-regular attendees by the name"guest." They are treasures we want and expect. We intend for them to return. They are not leeches on our time or resources or intrusions into our group. 

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4.  Guests are our responsibility. They didn't come to serve us.  We are there to serve them. They don't know where everything is located or how everything operates. Therefore, we are responsible to explain and show. We take them where they are going instead of point and send them off alone. We don't make them retell their information in every handoff.  Those we serve are just as important as the ones who serve.

5. We all can remove the roadblocks. Our mission is to display and declare the good news (gospel) of Jesus Christ to individuals near and far in order that they will encounter and be transformed by Jesus Christ.  Churches are often cluttered with numerous roadblocks to the gospel. On Sunday mornings, we want the only thing that offends to be the gospel.  It is offensive, but it's the only thing that should be offensive. In a real sense, all of us are either creating or removing roadblocks.

SEPTEMBER 8 is the official launch. How are you preparing? Invite, pray, expect, value, serve, and remove any and all roadblocks.