Last week we had our first preview service!
Here are some pictures from our adventures from our favorite photographer!
Enjoy & join us for our next preview service June 27th 5:30pm @ S Louisville Christian church as we discuss how a movement is greater than a church!
So if you have been around us at all lately you have heard us talk about this crazy opportunity at West Hall. The University of Louisville has given us leadership of a dorm on campus. We get to choose the students that live in it, we can run activities out of it… it’s ours. This is crazy for a secular campus and it gives us such a huge opportunity to impact the campus. Our goal is to fill all 20 open rooms, ideally with 10 guys and 10 girls who desire to be missionaries to their campus. We want to meet with, encourage and empower these students on a constant and regular basis. Our dream is that West Hall would become a staging zone for ministry all over campus. We want to see West Hall residents become RA’s of other dorms, presidents of fraternities and sororities, club leaders, student council members 
and etc. We want what happens in West Hall to flood UofL’s campus. We have big dreams for this building, but we need some committed students to kick things off. We need YOU to consider making West Hall your residence. Student housing is working with us and we can get you in West Hall this semester as long as you are a full time UofL student… so what’s stopping you? For more info contact me Travis@avechurch.com
Tonight during a group study we were discussing what it means to be a disciple. We made a list of all of the things that went in to being a disciple and the one thing that struck me was that almost everything on the list was action oriented. A disciple of Jesus is primarily known for what they do. But it seems in America we primarily try to make disciple by what we learn.
Now they two are related, but we make a mistake when we think that learning more leads to different action. For example, has any group in the world been better educated about what healthy living looks like than Americans? Yet no one would argue that Americans are the healthiest group of people. All of the knowledge hasn’t translated into action or change. The same is true with following Christ. No group of people in the world have more tools, resources, and ways to access spiritual growth information. But discipleship is declining in America not increasing. Why?
I think it is becuase studying is easier and less riskier than acting. To study just means reading a chapter or two a week and discussing it with some other people. To act means risking looking stupid, being uncomfortable, confessing and admitting failures. On the good days it’s messy. On the bad days it’s soul wrenching. So we avoid it and bounce from new study to new study. We go from the 5 keys of this to the 6 habits of that. We gain all kinds of knowledge but we remain basically the same.
However, I for one am tired of just gaining knowledge. And that’s what excites me about being here at The Avenue. I am surrounded by other people who also aren’t interested in just talking about becoming more like Jesus. They want to put action behind it. They want to be transformed not just informed. They want to make a difference in other peoples lives. They want to live out scripture not just read it. And as the days and months progress, I believe we’ll begin to look more and more like the church in the New Testament instead of just reading about it. All becuase people are willing to be uncomfortable and do instead of just know.
Hey, we had some technical difficulties these last few days and we know the blog was down. To say we’re sorry to all of our loyal readers we are giving you a 50% discount on your next month of reading this blog. That’s right! For the whole month of June you can read this blog for 50% off the cover price.
Once again we’re sorry, but at least we didn’t spill oil all over the place.
SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY (imagine guy @ the monster truck show voice)
Sunday is our first Preview Worship Service – 5:30 Pm we are meeting @ S Louisville Christian Church
3845 Southern Parkway
Louisville, KY 40214-1756
We would love for you to join us & help in spreading the word
Spread the word for us by inviting all your friends on facebook & let us know if you are coming because rumor has it there is huge meal after the service!
Don’t worry you will be home in time for the finale of LOST!
We are so excited to begin dreaming about what a community of believers can do to change the city, the campus & God’s kingdom together!
Love this quote – What do you think?
“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else” CS Lewis
Alan Hirsch in his new book Untamed says, “of all the ways culture influences the church, nothing has had more of an impact on us than that of a consumerist view of society.” We have been nurtured in a system of good & services that attacks us in a really disturbing way. It tells us what our basic needs are & aren’t. For example, my 8 year old son was watching cartoons the other day when suddenly the commercial came on for moon sand, some ridiculous type of sand that sticks together & who’s only promise should be “this will make a mess”. The commercial ends with the phrase, “every kid needs moonsand!” So he thought he needed it. He said with all sincerity, “dad every kid needs it.” I explained to him without any real success that every kid needs, food & water, clothes, a home, love and a relationship with God. Moon sand doesn’t really make that list, but even from a young age we are indoctrinated into a consumeristic culture that effects how we view everything!
Every other commercial teaches us that their product is more than a want but a need. More than a could have and more of a must have and we buy it. We buy the product and we buy the lie. The lie that we are some how less than whole if we don’t own the latest technology, the latest comfort or unless we haven’t tried the double down from KFC. It is a frightening lie because it reaches past our questions of what we desire and attacks our basic human needs. Suddenly our pursuit of the products of our culture somehow becomes intertwined with our pursuit of joy & happiness.
I would love to report that the church has been unaffected by the longing of our culture for goods and services but its seems that too often the church has become a vendor of its own religious goods and services. So we seek out the church with the best worship and the best preaching and seats that are comfortable and kids programs that are great.
Here is my concern in just a few weeks May 23rd we will roll out our first preview worship service (I don’t even like that name – we need to change it). On that day there will be a crew of people from all over the city who will swing by & check out what we are up to. The question we are asking ourselves is not how can we wow them with our creativity, laser lights & deep wisdom. The question we are asking is how do we begin now to create disciples & not consumers who are simply showing up each week to purchase religious goods & services at our place. We don’t want to become the cool young church in town, we don’t want to be the creative church, we just want to be a faithful church. In fact we think there is a generation of young people who are dieing to reach past the superficiality of the all consuming church & to begin to experience an all consuming God. A God who calls us to give our lives as a living sacrifice to each other & to our communities and most of all to Him! A God who calls us beyond getting fed each week or being entertained each week. A god who gives them a purpose & a church who frees them up to dream.
What happens when we feed or entertain is we create a perpetual cycle of dependency where you show up week after week to consume the food we have for you but never quite learn to eat on your own. It works for both parties, we have churches full of people waiting for us to deliver the meal, waiting for us to wow them & in the process stroking our egos. The problem is there is no gospel progress here. The church is for itself & as we get fat at the table of consumerism each week the world goes hungry!
So as we proceed with getting ready for our 1st “preview worship service” (again terrible name) our goal is not to provide a religious product, its not to provide any religious goods. We need to stop seeing the church as a consumable product & to begin seeing it as a family & a group of co workers called together because we are the light of the world! Because God actually has a plan & a hope for our communities & for our lives & the church is the center of that hope.
So here’s the question how do we move from codependency in the church to a healthy dependency on God?
Discuss!
- Ben Hardman
Hey everyone don’t forget that our learning communities start tonight at 6:30 at the offices 1146 south 3rd street Louisville KY 40203 See you there.
“One of my favorite quotes is by a 17th century pastor by the name of Richard Baxter. He was a writer, theologian and leader of the Restoration movement. He was persecuted and imprisoned for his faith the majority of his life, mainly by the hands of “religious” leaders. He also spent a great deal of his life among other religious peers pleading for unity and fighting heresy of the day. It wasn’t until centuries later that the majority began to take notice and acceptance of his work and everything he fought for.
The same holds true today. We must stand up for Christ and what we believe in no matter the persecution or consequences. Though we don’t know true persecution here in America, we are still called to live each day as if it were our last, because it may be. To live as though we were surrounded by dying people, because we are. To have the greatest impact for the Kingdom as we can while we are here. Oh yea, and the quote……
“I preach as sure to never preach again….as I a dying man to dying men.” – Richard Baxter