Our society is all about instant gratification. We have download a new album the moment it comes out without having to take the time and energy to drive to the store. We can instantly read books on devices like the Kindle and others. We can have instant face to face conversations with web cams without the need to go and see someone. We can send instant messages, emails, text messages, facebook messages, twitter messages, etc. and know that most of them arrive to the person that moment without need to wait for them to read it later. We are a society obsessed with having the things we want, and having them the moment that we think we want them.

So, where does this leave us spiritually? I think it brings us to a place of asking God for something and expecting the answer before we finish asking. I think it makes us impatient with God and therefore it makes us more reliant on ourselves. I think it makes us spiritually weak. And, I think that for far too long the Church has bent itself and its teaching to suit this type of mentality.

When is the last time that you heard a teaching on fasting? When is the last time that you were asked by the other people in your church body to fast together in order to see God do great things. Fasting is the most basic form of delayed gratification (self denial), it is Biblical and arguably expected of all those who follow Jesus. And yet, Christians rarely talk about it and practice it even less.

Here’s the rub, God acts on His timetable, not ours. Therefore, there are times in life that we need to realize that we are not going to be immediately rewarded for our faithfulness. In fact, I would argue that often there will be long times of waiting on the Lord to bring us into the things that He has for us. Those times may be long, suspenseful, and even painful, but there is purpose in it all.

If we are constantly looking to have our needs met the moment we realize there is a need, and if God delays, we are likely to stop waiting on God to meet that need all together. This is where we get into trouble, by getting ahead of God and His plan by flailing ahead with our own.

So, here is my encouragement. Learn to deny yourself, to delay gratification. Maybe that means fasting from food for a day, maybe it means fasting from something else, like TV or facebook. But, whatever it is, it is imperative that we all learn to deny ourselves so that when God’s call to us goes against our natural inclinations (as it often does) we will be ready to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow.

If you have been a follower of Jesus for long and are actively involved in a local church then it’s likely that it’s time for you to make some new friends. I know that is an odd statement to make, but think about it, I would bet that 90% of your friends are active followers of Jesus just like you. The reason is simple, it’s comfortable and easy to build community within the church. Most Christians start with building community within the church, which is a good thing, but they never get beyond the church, which is a bad thing.

We live in a culture where it is increasingly less permissible to speak into a person’s life without having a relationship with them. What that means for you and I is that the strategy of barely knowing someone and then asking them if they know Jesus is becoming less and less effective, meaning that we now need to get into the trenches, spend time with sinners and pour into their lives.

Think about the example of Jesus, He spent so much time with prostitutes, sinners and drunkards that He was called a wine bibbler by the religious right. He spent so much time with sinners that they mistook Him as one.

So, while I recognize that we have to be careful of the company that we keep in terms of how we are influenced by those around us, I firmly believe that Christians need to get out into the world and make friends. Go to non-Christian concerts, go to bars, go to the mall, go to the park. Meet people there, get to know them because you actually care about them and then share Jesus with them for that same reason.

Its time we got out of our comfort zones. Its time to go from 90% of our friends being Christian to 60%. It’s time to move out into the world and make an impact.

You can’t keep sinners and arms length and wrap them in the love of Jesus at the same time.

Google has undoubted proven to be an innovative, dynamic company. In a very short time (as companies go) they have gone from being a silly word to being a household name and business leader, even rivaling the lumbering giant Microsoft on many fronts. So, I wonder, what can the Church at large learn from Google’s success? What principles can we take away in order to move forward with our mission, a mission that is so much greater than merely  making money? Well, here are 5 things that I have come up with, 5 things that the Church must learn from Google:

1. It’s not about style, it’s about substance.

Ever noticed how plain www.google.com is? There is nothing flashy about it, just a simple search engine that does what it does better than anyone else. That is why Google is #1, because they do what is important better than anyone else, proving that substance has more value than style every day of the week (and twice on Sunday).

Over the last  several decades there have been several fundamental shifts in the way that American’s approach church. Probably the largest unnoticed shift (and the most disturbing one) is the shift from preferring substance to preferring style. Most Christians love Pastors because they are good teachers (style) not because they are Holy men (substance). Most Christians love church services because they like the “feel” of the meeting (style) not because they are deeply connected to that local body (substance). Most Christians get excited about Christian books that make them feel good (style), not books that challenge them to greater Holiness and relationship with God (substance).

I fear that too many believers have settled for a Christianity that is more about them than it is about Jesus and that a preference for style over substance is the primary outcome of that. Caring about style appeals to a person’s selfish nature, caring about substance makes us set aside our selfish nature and focus on Jesus alone, because He is the substance that we need.

2. Focus on what you do best, then find ways to do it better.
   Google is the best at almost everything that do (in my opinion). But, just because gmail is the best web mail client doesn’t mean that they have stopped developing it. All of google’s products are constantly improving, there is never a time that they are not working to make everything they do better.

   Every church, large or small, mega church or house church, has things that they do particularly well. Often the tendency with this is to say, ” We are doing ________ well, so now lets focus on _________ .” But instead we should be asking how we can take what we do well, and make it better. It is never healthy to set something aside because you think you have it down pat, that would be like a quarterback deciding that since he has made it to the pros he no longer needs to practice. That guy won’t be a pro for long. We need to constantly ask God how we can take the gifting that He has given our local body and grow in it.

3. Don’t do anything that takes away from your core value.
   Google has gone from a simple search engine to a vast number of services. But, each of those services compliments or extends their original purpose, which is a web search engine. This seems like an obvious idea, but unfortunately I see churches making this mistake all the time.

   Every church has core values. For example, when I was planting a church one of our core values was building deep community. However, even though that was a core value I found myself getting bogged down in “church work” and not having time to call and stay connected with people, thus taking away from our core value of community. I have seen this very thing happen in every church I have been on staff at, the goal gets pushed aside for the immediate need that is only slightly related to that goal. It is not healthy and does not help the Church produce fruit.

4. Don’t do too much too fast.
   Google was one of the leading search engines before they started expanding their services.  In church, it’s really easy to get excited about what God is doing and get ahead of ourselves. I have done it over and over again in my life and can tell you, it doesn’t get you anywhere.

   An old African proverb says, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” It seems to me that there are a lot of Christians and churches out there that are going fast and are headed for burn out. I think the better approach is to go slow, bring people with you, and go far. It’s time that we stopped looking at building the church through the lens of what we can accomplish is 20 years. It’s time we started building up a Church that will grow and last for 1,000 years.

5. Do something that no one has done before.
   Google didn’t set up a search engine like all the others; they created one that was different and more effective. When they created Gmail they didn’t do web mail like everyone else, they were innovative and creative, making it better than everyone else.

   Almost every church I have ever seen has approached church in this way: “What is ______ church doing that is effective, and how can we copy that here?” That is not healthy. A better approach is to look at your unique church body and your unique community, ask God what unique things He wants to do there, and then do that. Innovation for a community is as simple as asking God what to do, and then doing it.

I have great hope for the Church. I think that God is shifting many things among His people and helping us to rethink many of the assumptions that we have long held. I pray you will take this post and measure it against scripture, weighing what has been said, and that it might challenge the thinking of some. Be encouraged, google offers web searches and a few other fancy features, the Church offers the truth. I pray that we can learn from this secular example and push forward into our communities with the greatest gift that we can offer, Jesus Himself.

Last weekend I randomly realized that it was the one year anniversary of the public launch of our church plant. The church plant that ultimately failed. I have reflected often on my experiences in the last year, come to few conclusions, and ultimately realized that God had purpose in the pain and that my family and I are still headed for great things, perhaps greater than the things I had in mind a year ago.

As I have written before, we are now living with a family in Lawrenceville so that we can become healthy again. So far, this is going really well, and I’m really glad to be here, surrounded by deep community with people that are never to busy to stop and ask how we are doing or what is really going on.

This move has been really powerful for me because the deep community we experience on a daily basis now sits in stark contrast to where I was a year ago. Even though we had many dear friends helping us with the church plant, that time was still very lonely and painful for me. I often felt like it was me against the world rather than our church body coming together as one to do great work. I felt like the church rose and fell on me, and ultimately it did. But now, we are a part of a community of believers whose lives are so intertwined that it takes a decent amount of work to feel lonely. And, it’s even harder to think of my life as me against the world, or that my life is really about me at all.

Living in community has helped me to embrace one of my most dear beliefs, that our spiritual journey is a walk best taken together. This idea flies in the face of American individualism, but it’s true, only through rich community can we really become the follower of Jesus that we are called to be, there is simply no other way.

So, all of that to say, here’s to putting an end to the hardest year of my life so far.

Tonight begins Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. This is a time to reflect on past mistakes, repent and make amends. The next 10 days leading up to the next Jewish Holiday of Yom Kippur are a time to search myself, see where I have gone wrong, repent, and change.

I am looking at this as an ebenezer, a memorial established in remembrance of what God has done. For me and my family, God has led us both into and out of the hardest time we have ever had. Now that time is finished, and by His grace we are recovering. I am continually excited about what the Lord has for us and have no doubt that our lives will continue to be anything but ordinary and boring.

For the few of you that still read my blog, thank you, I am humbled to be able to offer what little teaching or wisdom I might posses. I hope that my journey has, and will encourage you to continue on your journey, knowing that we are walking toward the Lord together.