In regards to the meeting, do you just invite anyone who God leads you to talk to?

God leads us to connect with many un-churched and has opened doorways to help specifically meet their needs, but how would you encourage us to actually invite them to a meeting? On top of that, do you think they would even have any interest in reading a designated portion of the bible to discuss? With this said, even inviting the ones we know for dinner, would weird them out and it wouldn’t be a motivator for them to come…even if it was Just for dinner. So, do you have any advice or encouragement regarding that?

Chelsea,
Right off let me say that I love how you guys are actively engaging the neighbors and friends that God has put in your life. That’s exactly what Jesus asks us to do. To love and give and serve the people who are in our life’s path. So often, we complicate the mission of Jesus by thinking that it involves large crusades, special techniques, well-crafted presentations, and a good “set-up” so we can “give the Gospel.” This is where I want to challenge each of us as followers of Jesus. It’s a lot simpler, and a lot more real than that.

For Restoration Church, we’re learning to live out the phrase, “Don’t invite someone ‘to church.’ Invite them to dinner.” Let’s try to parse out what this does and does not mean.

First, while most Christ-followers would readily agree that the “church is the people who follow Jesus,” almost universally, we refer to “going to church” as if it’s a place or a meeting. We are all guilty of referencing a building with a steeple on it as a church. But is it really? Isn’t it simply a building where a church meets? If that’s the case, then logic would dictate that you can’t invite someone “to a group of people” but you can invite them to where the church is at any given moment. This is where things get pretty exciting. The church is anywhere you are. Oh. Yeah.

The Great Commandment says to love God with our heart, soul, mind and strength, and the second part is to “love your neighbor” as yourself. I can’t imagine that Jesus meant that just in a general sense so that we go around feeling a sense of goodwill toward everyone. I think he was spelling it out as the mission of God’s people from the beginning for us to really love people as we encounter them. Romans 12 in the “yellow book” (That’s what we call our Bibles that are the New Living Translation. This site makes it make sense.) says, “Don’t pretend to love people. Really love them.” That’s awesome. My question then becomes, “How can we really love someone that we don’t even know?” Why don’t I know the people I work with? Why don’t I know my neighbors two houses down? I think the answer is because I’m too wrapped up in my own life, including “doing the church thing” that I deprive myself of the opportunity to really know and love my neighbors. (By the way, this includes the neighbors we don’t like. See the story Jesus told about the neighborly Samaritan.) Really getting to know the people in your life takes time, effort, and it isn’t always pretty or fun. However, it IS fulfilling, once you realize how integrally it’s tied into the Kingdom of God.

That’s where the “invite them to dinner” part of our saying comes in. That doesn’t mean that inviting your neighbors and co-workers to dinner is the only way to love them. However, having someone into your home and sharing a meal together is a beautiful way to show love because it is one of the most vulnerable things you can do as a family. You open up your “domain” to others and allow them to enjoy what you typically claim as your own. Don’t get too focused on just inviting someone for a meal though. You can live this out a million ways. See what your neighbors and co-workers like to do, and intentionally engage with them there. Spend time with them and just accept them as they are.

Let me be clear about something. The goal of the meal is to have a meal, and to know someone better. It’s not to somehow get them to “give you an opening” to share the Gospel or “invite them TO church.” Nope. This isn’t a bait and switch. I had a friend of mine help make this point clear. Sean’s the pastor of Grace Church in Stoughton, Mass. They’re doing awesome things spreading the Gospel over there. He told me once, “Ask yourself the question: Am I willing to love this person and get involved in their life even if I knew they would NEVER accept Jesus?” Of course, we don’t know that about anyone, but the question is still valid. Are you willing to love someone to simply love someone? That’s what Jesus did.

Probably by now, you’re scratching your head, and wondering how this accomplishes Christ’s mission. Here’s how. As you love people, and pray for these neighbors, and serve these neighbors, God is at work in their lives. He honors those who live out His commands, and He wants your neighbor to accept Jesus more badly than you do! God will do the work in their lives, and He will give you opportunity to “give an answer of the hope that is inside of you.” Without prodding or pushing, your neighbors may give you the opportunity to talk about what motivates and drives you. Chances are those conversations will come up in small bits over time. As God works in their heart, they may even come to where they believe in Jesus Christ for their own salvation.

Am I saying that you shouldn’t talk about your faith to others? Not at all. God will give you plenty of opportunities to do that as you live out this mission.

But what about inviting someone to a church meeting? Where does that come in? It comes in when your friends bring it up. Let God drive the train, not you. You’ll be amazed at how much less pressure you feel as you live out this mission. God calls you to love. He’s the one that does the drawing. The goal is not to get people to go to a meeting. It’s to help people become disciples of Jesus. That can be hard to quantify and measure, and that’s probably why as followers of Jesus we’re always so concerned with getting someone “to church” to hear the Gospel. It lets us know that we’re doing good. We’re succeeding. I think it may be a false sense of success, though. Maybe I’ll elaborate on that more some other time.

To get back to your question, specifically, Chelsea, I don’t think that holding Bible studies for your neighbors is what we’re necessarily talking about here. Sure, if a neighbor wants to learn about the Bible, go for it. But don’t make that your strategy. Just keep loving those around you, and be patient as God works.

I hope some of these thoughts are helpful. I’m always open for lively discussion on these topics, and I’d like to think that I can be teachable.

Or, even better, I’d love to hear stories of how you guys have invited someone to dinner instead of “to church.”

Now, it’s not that we don’t want to stay in touch with all the wonderful people we have had in our lives. We just want to make an intentional connection with you, and know that you’re making an intentional connection to reach to us.

We still love email, and that’s honestly the best way to get in touch with us. We’ll try to do better about talking about what’s going on in our lives here. Oh, and Ellie has a blog over at http://elliecummins.com. You can also sign up for our email news that goes out every 8 weeks or so.

Lance’s email: lance -at- lancecummins.com

Jenny’s email: jennynlance -at- gmail.com

Last night, our new church in Rockland, Massachusetts agreed that Restoration Church is a fine way to represent what God is doing in us and through us. We are eager to see God restore lives, restore families, and restore people to a right relationship with Him through the Good News.

Today, three families from Grace Church in Stoughton, Massachusetts were commissioned to “officially” start this new church. We’ve been meeting as a church on Saturdays for over a month, but this next week, we’ll begin meeting on Sunday. That, in itself, doesn’t make us a church, but it does, in a sense, make this endeavor feel a little bigger.

I shared this morning that our two-fold strategy for this church is this: 1. Listen to God’s Spirit for direction. 2. Do what He tells us.

Genius, huh?

We believe that, as a church, we are called out to make disciples of Jesus: people who are “all in” with God’s plan through Jesus Christ. As Christ-followers we are to live a life that is different from the normal American “safe” life. Instead, we’re called to bless our neighbors, our co-workers and even our adversaries. We are called to make a difference in both our words and our actions. We have the opportunity to live out the Gospel of Jesus and bring hope to those who didn’t know it was possible.

We believe that church is not what happens on Sunday, but what happens Monday through Saturday. Sunday’s just our time to celebrate what God is doing in us, through us, and around us. It’s our time to re-focus on the mission God has invited us into, and to welcome those who are just “checking out” what true life-changing faith is all about.

We know that great things are going to happen, and God is going to get ALL the credit!

Again, thanks for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.

I was blown away with the stories, the support, the vision, and the encouragement we were able to share, as we talked about what it might look like to have a new church in Rockland, Mass, that lives out its mission all through the week and then celebrates how God is working each time it gathers. Sean, the pastor of Grace Church in Stoughton, came and reminded us of the history of God’s people forming churches as a means of living out the gospel. We’re excited to be one tiny link in the chain of faithful followers of Jesus.

All of us who were present are at different stops in our spiritual journey with God, so it was refreshing to hear how God is at work in all of our lives.

We didn’t talk about strategy, or schedules, or programs. Instead, we just shared how God is working all around us and this is a natural extension that is just responding to what He’s up to. The next weeks will undoubtedly bring conversation and some “figuring,” but it’s our prayer and hope that the majority of our effort will be spent just listening to what God wants us to do, and then simply doing it. Not complicated. Not over-planned. Not easy. In fact, please pray for all of us who are a part of this grand experiment to resist the temptation to begin to direct, coerce, or “manage” this process.

We’ll get back together this Saturday at 5 p.m. at my house to begin the conversation and investigation of how we will live intentionally both as individual families and as a church body. If you’re around here, feel free to drop in and join the discussion. If you’re not, please pray like crazy for us.

Please pray that God continues to give us direction and purpose!

We have watched God do some incredible things that only He gets credit for, and we can just stand by and applaud. I wish I could list them all out, but for now, many of them are tucked away in my journals, so that I’ll look back on them in difficult times to remember all that God has done.

When we moved to Rockland, back in November, we knew that God had given us a unique opportunity to become a part of a wonderful community here in New England. We have been so encouraged by the wonderful people that we’ve met and we’re excited to be “New Englanders by choice.” (Even if it is pretty cold up here.) Our dream is to live out our lives in New England showing people how much God loves them and wants a relationship with them through Jesus Christ. We have not necessarily laid out a formal plan for how that might happen, but have just been open to what God wants to do.

Well, in typical God-fashion, He has showed us one small “next step” after another. One of the first steps was the decision to become self-employed in web design. I opened my business, NearlyFreeLance.com, on January 1, and God has been so faithful to help me stay quite busy with it. We have also been extremely blessed by the generosity of NewSpring Church and individuals that love us who have made it possible for us to get our feet under us. I believe that God has given me a unique opportunity to pastor without asking a young church to pay my salary. The decision to become self-employed has opened up many doors to meet people and to help people with their own businesses.

Many of our other “next step” decisions are too boring to mention, but we’ve just tried to do the next thing without worrying too much about “down the road.”

One of my desires was to begin a brand new church out here, and honestly, I thought it would be quite a while before that would happen. But, once again, God has some other plan in mind.

It has become clear, and has been confirmed by my conversations with Sean, pastor at Grace Church in Stoughton, Mass., that we have a green light to begin crafting what this local church might look and feel like, and begin making preparations for this new church very soon! I can hardly stand my excitement! I’m crazy excited and completely energized by what I believe that God wants to do in this area and across New England.

When I say “very soon,” I mean it. I will be holding a meeting at my house on April 16th to tell whomever is interested about how this church will look and feel. Many people who live in our area who currently attend Grace Church will receive an invitation to come and see what’s going on. I’ll have the chance to give details and take questions and share my excitement of what I believe God is going to accomplish through this church. I believe we will be able to join the momentum that God has created throughout this area in helping people become disciples of Jesus.

There are some tentative dates that we have created, but all of them are completely flexible with what God wants to do. They may be totally off. It just helps me know what my next steps are.

For each Saturday evening in April, we will open our home up and will talk about the potential of this church. It’s going to be radically different than what many of us who grew up in church are used to, because my dream is to attempt to live out the concept that the “church” is actually the people who follow Jesus, and that wherever those people are is the church is. I’ll attempt to flesh that out more in these meetings. These meetings do not ask for any sort of commitment from those who attend.

The first weekend of May, we’re going to have another meeting at my house, but this time, it’s for those who have decided that they’d like to help us actually start this new church. This group of people will covenant together to be the church and we’ll begin working together weekly to pray, plan, and encourage each other in this new work. For the months of May and June, those who are members of Grace Church will continue attending Grace’s Sunday service.

In July and August, we’ll begin to meet on our own on Sunday, but probably not weekly. Maybe just once a month, depending on if we’re able to access a place that’s large enough to be a reasonable meeting space.

There is potential that we would begin meeting every weekend starting the 3rd week of September: September 18.

So, please pray for us as a church that we will truly live out our calling to help make disciples of Jesus Christ and that God does this in such a way that ONLY He gets any kind of credit or praise.

The last thing I want to do is force any kind of time constraints or schedules on God. He’s quite a bit bigger than that. However, I’m eager to see what the next steps are, and I’m completely convinced that God is about to do some even-more-amazing things!

Today, though, I’m pulling for the small guy, or gal, to be exact. For the best cup of joe, you don’t have to look farther than Marylou’s Coffee. And, they’re not hard to spot. Their stores are all bright pink! To top it all off, my house is literally 4 minutes walking distance to Marylou’s in Rockland. I think there are 24 of them throughout the area, so the chain is not exactly tiny.

The crazy part about our Marylou’s, though, is that there is NO parking. I don’t mean inconvenient parking, I mean ZERO, NADA. You have to stop your car on the side of the street and run in and grab your coffee. The first time I went in, I walked down there in hopes of grabbing a table and using some Wi-Fi. They don’t have either. And, they don’t take debit cards. It’s cash or nothing. But, I’m learning…and any inconvenience is totally worth it.

So far, the only beverages I have had is just the good ol’ medium regular, but Ellie says their hot chocolate is pretty good, too. Now, if I could just talk them into wi-fi and a table just for me…

So, I thought I would just start with this one because, honestly, it’s been one of the biggest surprises to me.

I’ve heard that Boston drivers are crazy, and they might be. But, I have been quite surprised by how friendly the drivers are here, just south of Boston. In fact, I have never been “waved through” so many intersections in my life. At first I thought, maybe people somehow sensed that I was in need of help being from out of state, but as I’ve talked to more and more people, I realize that it is universal. You can just expect to be waved, signaled, or otherwise instructed on how to drive as you navigate the streets of the South Shore.

Let me see if I can explain: Let’s say you are driving down a two-lane road, and there’s plenty of traffic coming from the other direction. You need to turn left so you put on your turn signal and stop, preparing to wait for several minutes while the huge line of traffic empties. Suddenly, with no warning, one of the drivers slams on his brakes and gives you the friendly “wave” to turn in front of the waiting wall of vehicles. You turn, and life returns to normal. Unreal.

Or this one: You come to a 4-way stop, and instead of just doing the “I got here first” thing, you stop. The guy on your left looks at you and genuinely wants you to go first so he gives you the “wave” and you think to yourself, “That guy is nice,” but then you think, “Hey, wait a minute! Didn’t I have the right-of-way?” Why yes, yes you did. But don’t lose sight of the main point: that guy is just a Nice Driver.

Sure, there’s the occasional “road-rager” or the “honker” but they seem to be laying low for now. So now, go spread the news: New Englanders (at least those who live in South Shore) drive nice.

We found our home in Rockland, Massachusetts. It is a 4 bedroom, 1 bath house, and it looks like it will meet our needs perfectly.

View photos on Flickr

Now, we’re excited about meeting our neighbors and becoming New Englanders! There are a couple of donut/coffee shops within walking distance so that makes me pretty happy.