How do you view the relationship between EASTER and the CHURCH? It occurred to me recently that many Christians might consider Easter no more than a high attendance weekend.

That thought made me sick to my stomach.

Do we gather to boast big numbers?  After all, it is common for us to celebrate our attendance after a huge day.

Do we gather to SEE and BE SEEN?  My family will definitely take it up a notch fashion-wise on Easter weekend.

Why do we gather on Easter?  Why not scatter and mobilize into the community?

Because as Christians… We WORSHIP TOGETHER.

What is more natural than to gather together to celebrate and remember our risen Christ?  Also, Easter is one of a few opportunities to see MASSIVE life-change.  We see more family trees transformed on Easter than perhaps any other weekend during the year.

If you are new to Keystone, we are ADDICTED to life-change!  Easter is a major celebration of life-change and an opportunity to SEE LIVES CHANGED!

Don’t force an EITHER/OR mentality regarding worship and mission… They swim in the same pool!

Inviting someone to church with you on Easter IS MISSION!  Helping people find life in Christ is not secondary to meeting their physical need.

This Easter we will have literally hundreds of volunteers who will help thousands this weekend by serving their kids, parking their car, or warmly greeting them.  THIS IS MISSION!

Serve it up!  Bring your best worship!  I’ll see you this weekend!!!

The countdown the Launch Finale Celebration is drawing near, anticipation is building, and we are PUMPED for this coming weekend at Keystone Church.  This weekend, we will conclude our Launch journey with a big celebration, and I want you to know that we are praying for you as you prepare to finish strong and bring your best gift.

I love it when we journey together as a spiritual family to do the impossible.  And with everyone going ALL IN, the impossible inches closer to becoming reality.  As we each tap into the sacrificial pocket of giving, we are setting the stage for God to do amazing things in and through our church.

Check out this brief synopsis of the 3 pockets of giving that we see modeled throughout the pages of the bible…

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE TEACH ABOUT GIVING?

In the early days of Keystone Church, I was most tense and uptight when I taught giving. I was petrified that our unchurched friends would brand me a ‘money-grubbin preacher’ and never give Jesus a chance. Yet, the more I dove into what God taught on money the bolder I became.

Now, I love talking about obeying God with our money.

As I have studied Scripture, I am struck by 3 types of giving:

The FIRST… and the 10

POCKET #1: FAITHFUL GIVING:
Often known as the tithe, this type of giving is RETURNING to God a FIRST PORTION of our income. The Old Testament refers to the 10%… In the New Testament, Jesus is quick to affirm the tithe, not as a means to get to God but as a good obedience en route to weightier matters of justice, mercy, and faith (Matthew 23:23-24). For more examples, check out Genesis 14:17-20; 28:20-22; Deuteronomy 26; Leviticus 27:30-33; 1 Corinthians 16. For a stern warning against violating this simple teaching, see Malachi 3:8-10.

The FIRST… and THEN

POCKET #2: GENEROUS GIVING:
Generosity is a thread woven throughout the Bible. We must manage our money in such a way that we are able to be generous at all times. The direct application back then was mainly directed to slaves, foreigners, widows and orphans. In our case, we must always have room to help a family member in need, a single mom, a friend who has lost their job, etc. This also includes spontaneous offerings for children in need or other great opportunities. Some samples of generosity: Deuteronomy 15:13ff; 24:19; James 1:27.

The FIRST… and the WIN

POCKET #3: SACRIFICIAL GIVING
At Keystone, we believe with all our hearts that it is God’s design for every believer to either be preparing for, participating in, or recovering from a sacrificial gift. It is in our spiritual DNA to give until it hurts. These are the types of gifts you can’t just budget… once you give it, you have to financially recover from it! For example, in the New Testament you see Barnabas sell a portion of his land as a sacrificial gift… that’s a gift you can’t replenish! That is a true sacrifice. God does not desire his children to WHINE about financial projects… if your church is constantly raising big sums of money, it means there’s a big vision driving it! That’s a GREAT CHURCH. We’re LAUNCHING a 2-year journey of sacrificial giving next weekend and WE’RE PUMPED! See Mark 10:21; Luke 19; Acts 2:42-46; 4:32; 11:29-30; Romans 15:26-27; 1 Chronicles 29:3.

It is crucial to be healthy in all three areas of giving… it’s how you’re designed! It moves you closer & closer to your God-given potential! Those Keystoners I know who give out of all three pockets are VERY, VERY happy people… they have sacrificed boats, ranch houses, new cars, and high-def plasmas to see God’s mission spread… that’s living on THE EDGE!!!

2 years ago we began a spiritual journey at Keystone Church.  We named it LAUNCH.

I love it when we journey together as a spiritual family to do the impossible.  I remember well the stress and uncertainty two years ago as we saw our campus limitations.  It was easy to imagine turning people away.

Usually, a journey like this will include a very specific vision: build a building, buy some land, or start an additional location. We didn’t have a clear direction in any of these options.

Instead, God wanted us to strengthen our faith by funding the VISION itself!  Our vision is to lead everyone to experience a passionate life in Christ.

I preached through every element of that vision and we all committed to bring over $1 million over and above our normal giving.

In just 2 weeks, we will complete this journey of faith.  We are almost 80% there!

More importantly, it’s been SO ENCOURAGING to SCOREBOARD the results:

November 5/6 we will finish this awesome journey. How we finish LAUNCH will impact how we begin the next great Keystone chapter.

Don’t miss it!  It’s going to be A-MAZING!

This weekend we are launching a new series, KICKS. I am convinced that if you really invest in these messages, OTHERS will thank you!

You see, we are ADDICTED to LIFE-CHANGE at Keystone Church! We just can’t get enough of it.

It is SO SATISFYING to hear the stories of lives impacted by Jesus, marriages healed, and families united. Yet, in order to experience so much transformation… it requires massive investment! It’s HARD WORK to change the world!

Here are some tangible ways we give LIFE-CHANGE a priority place at Keystone:

1. We pray about it. Prayer reveals your passion. God will honor your prayers, if they align with his passions!
2. We talk about it. Each staff meeting we remind ourselves of the people and their stories.
3. We beg God for it. If we are running out of new life-change stories, WE BEG GOD to trust us with his broken people… We will pray as a staff for more opportunities to help others.
4. We plan for it. Each service includes a FILTER for the unchurched or de-churched. We don’t assume biblical knowledge of basic characters, for example. We lay out bridges (songs, jokes, videos, illustrations, etc.) to bring the good news of Christ to interested ears. We also have strategic ‘harvest weekends’ that mobilize the church for evangelism.
5. We anticipate it. We believe that many will be spontaneously baptized, so we have everything ready for them. We are not SHOCKED when God moves… we are BLOWN AWAY!
6. We fund it. Mailers, Community-wide events, Street Teams, and many more strategies are funded for life-change. We put our money where our mouths are!
7. We empower it. This one is HUGE. We have many things at Keystone designed only for believers (community groups, men’s/women’s groups, communion gatherings, etc.). By doing this, we are empowering evangelism through TRAINING, ENCOURAGEMENT, PRAYER, SCRIPTURE, etc.
8. We evaluate it. We hold ourselves accountable at a staff level to a 1/10 ratio. In other words, for every 10 people you see in the lobby on a weekend… at least 1 of them has been baptized this past year. This is not a biblical mandate, but we believe it honors the biblical mandate of Matthew 28.

How can you EMPOWER life-change on a personal level?

Where will you be in 5 years?

What will you be doing in 5 years?

What are your goals for the next 5 years?

Recently, I was on a panel at a conference for church leaders and we were all posed with the question, “What does your life look like in 5 years?”  They were specifically asking what Keystone could possibly look like.

I’d like to share my answer.

Answer #1: I hope to be in ministry in the next 5 years.

That may have been a JARRING answer.  If I could read THOUGHT BUBBLES, perhaps they would have been asking, “What is he HIDING?!?”  I simply believe that ministry is a priviledge.  I have grown up in this life.  As the son of a preacher, I understand the value of the leadership gift.  I know how vulnerable that gift truly is.  I pray God continues to trust me with his vision for the next 5 years… 50 years!!!

Answer #2: We will be living with the consequences of decisions that I’m making RIGHT NOW.

Have you stopped to consider the massive impact of your decisions?  Your choices set off a chain reaction, altering life as you WILL know it!  I’m convinced that’s why Paul encouraged a lifestyle of ‘praying without ceasing.’  This should not FREEZE you into INACTIVITY, but rather give you a sense of the gravity that comes with authority.

Answer #3: I pray we will be leading a movement of new-edge worship.

I am SO EXCITED about our addition of HIP-HOP & DJ elements in our worship.  I’m MORE EXCITED that it doesn’t feel like a ‘worship SIDE-SHOW.’  People are excited.  People are ENGAGED.  I’m convinced we have an opportunity to tap into new art and culture as we stretch our own limitations regarding music style.

There’s a lot more I could say… but that about sums up my answer.

You mustn’t underestimate the value of a good START.

There are two basic types of a good start.

First, there is the VOLCANO:

• BIG vision
• BIGGER opportunity
• Major funding
• Loyal, vision-soaked team
• Time is your enemy
• Gifted, Charismatic leader

There is also the LOCOMOTIVE:

• Team mostly developed on-site
• Team mostly groomed by the leader
• Time is your friend
• Highly relational
• Funding built over time
• Very good, strategic leader

Certainly there are various breeds and combinations… No two starts are entirely the same. Keystone doesn’t fall neatly into these categories, but I think it’s helpful to know that God doesn’t always do things the way you think.

Consider how Jesus performed his miracles. Once, he spit into the dirt and healed a man’s blindness from the mud he made. He also just spoke and people were healed! Perhaps to keep his disciples from spitting on every sick person they met, he changed it up!

Early in my Keystone journey, God gave me this clear word: STOP COVETING SOMEONE ELSE’S MIRACLE… RECEIVE YOUR UNIQUE, CUSTOM-MADE MIRACLE!

No two miracles are the same. If your START will be a miracle, consider that he may do things differently in you than others you admire.

Two great books for church planters wanting a GOOD START:

• LAUNCH by Nelson Searcy
• GO BIG by Bil Cornelius