Pastors' Cage Fight (notes from #ElephantRoom)

I'll try to post some thoughts on a few of the discussions from watching the Elephant Room back in February.

Honestly, if you get a chance, last years Elephant Room was much more challenging and "iron sharpening iron" than this years. In 2011, pastors seemed willing to challenge each other in grace, confronted differences, and candidly present their views while agreeing to disagree.

In 2012, it seemed that the design was set to demonstrate a kumbaya-like atmosphere where pastors, who clearly have significant differences, can agree to agree and get along without making a public scene. This IS a key and essential quality due to the rancor of contemporary mudslinging, misrepresentation, and character assassination that goes on all too frequently both among pastors and churches. Since I bear my own scars and wounds from such ill-constructed, misinformed, and ill-placed personal attacks, I deeply appreciate any voice of wisdom and reason that rises up in today's Church to speak against slander, gossip, and abuse of pastoral leadership and biblical communicators.

Over the next few posts, I'll mix in a few of these discussion points and what my personal, and meaningful take-aways were from this event.

We're telling some "Dirty Little Secrets"

It's what the church doesn't want you to know! We're uncovering the secrets of religion.

Whether you've been in church your whole life, or only brushed up against it briefly, there are things about religion that you are uncomfortable with, secrets that you suspect but can’t prove.

So, can we just be honest about religion?

Jesus exposed what religious leaders were trying hard to keep secret.

This is series takes a deep look at Matthew 23 and how Jesus exposed the dirty little secrets of the religious leaders of his time. These secrets reveal religious traps that ensnare so many people today. Discover the principles Jesus taught by listening to our sermons here.

RED CARPET SUNDAY

Here's the plan. We're going all out for our guests on December 7, 2008, rolling out the Red Carpet! And we're breaking all the rules in church:

• Rule #1: you can't have people in every seat in church, 'cause people need their space. We're filling every seat in the theater.
• Rule #2: only stuffy, religious churches have reserved seating, i.e. elderly women with bun in her hair has sat in that same indented pew for 63 years. Don't you dare take her spot! Well not on 12/07. We've got tickets for every seat in the theater, and if you've got that ticket, you've also got exclusive rights to that seat. Woo hoo! On the other hand, if you've got a ticket to a seat, you better make sure there's a warm body in the seat (and your dog doesn't count).
• Rule #3: church is only for religious people. We already broke this rule every week for the last 5 years, but we want everyone to know it. The whole point of Lifehouse is to reach people who are experts in "the way of religious formulas". We're just a bunch of ordinary, "normal" people who love God and want to know how to follow Jesus every day of our lives.
• Rule #4: God will strike you dead if you bring food, coffee, and yes, even that hard candy into church! Again, we blew this rule out the window a long time ago, we're just going public with it now. At Lifehouse, we eat in church, drink coffee during sermons, and beg people to take a breath-mint! And so far no one has been struck by lightning or keeled over from food-poisoning.

So, INVITE YOUR FRIENDS, CO-WORKERS, NEIGHBORS, and FAMILY to Lifehouse East for RED CARPET SUNDAY on December 7 at 10 am. And if you want breakfast, you better get their at 9:30. There will also be:

• FREE Horse Drawn Carriage Rides!
• FREE Professional Family Photos!
• NEW Sermon Series- the X-Mas Files, "the truth is absurd"

SO, DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO GET THE SEATS FILLED! See video below for ideas on how to get people there: