Slow Fade

It is always fun to have the opportunity to just do something crazy like imploding a series 10 days before it is supposed to begin. We did just that as a teaching/creative team last Thursday and we feel awesome about it. Here’s the background:

There is this whole “30 Days To Live” kick out there (see LifeChurch, Kerry Shook) that we got caught up in as we were doing our planning a few months back. At first glance, it is a pretty cool idea asking the question, “what would you do if you only had one month to live?” Here’s the problem. I read the book quickly and watched some of the Life Church stuff. I think the whole concept is flawed. In an attempt to convince everyone of the brevity of life (see Psalm 90), the idea of motivating people by imagining a 30 day hourglass is born. Here’s the deal. I’m pretty convinced that if you or I were actually given only one month to live, we would definitely stop doing some things and start doing others. However, the idea of building a legacy, our chasing my dreams, or changing the world, would not be at the top of the list.

Call me insensitive, but my list would look something like this:

• Quit doing all the things that won’t matter in 30 days (work, bills, etc)
• Spend everyone waking moment with the one’s I love the most (namely, my family)
• Bring closure in a positive way to as many relationships as possible
• Reconfirm my position/standing with God and with other people

I wish I could say I would drop everything and go feed the poor. Not reality. Sorry to be so authentic. Anyway enough of that rant, but how about you, what would you do with one month to live?

So anyway we developed this series, but really had only the cute, creative idea and nothing else. We had some phrases/themes life, Live for a Legacy, Live for the moment … but it was all Oprahesh and not biblically based. Always a problem, by the way, when you fall into the trap of starting with the creative before the Bible. We fell hard.

After sitting for a few hours with Shane, our Senior Pastor, we both left that Wednesday afternoon feeling pretty unsettled about the whole thing. I sent him a text message later that night which basically said, “you need to pull me back away from the ledge because I’m not feeling real good about the series.” Keep in mind that we had already ordered our promotional material and were planning on promoting the series in a big way at our Sunday gathering just three days away.

Thursday morning we both arrived and before I could say anything he said, “we’ve got to kill it.” Here’s the questions we began to re-ask,

• “Where have we been as a church community?”
• “Where is our church community right at this moment?”
• “Where does our church community need to go next?

As we began to ask those questions, a truly passionate, heart-felt, and best of all, biblical series began to emerge. Our series begins next week and centers around the life of Solomon, especially one particular episode. Here was Solomon doing all these amazing things for and with God. A man of God’s heart, filled with the wisdom of heart, and tasked with completing the temple of God. And yet, in the end, his life did not end or reach its full potential. Why? A slow fade from a closeness to God’s heart to a distant place. And it didn’t just happen overnight, but was the result of a poor choice; a choice to follow conventional wisdom rather than God’s.

Over the next three weeks, we hope to speak and creatively communicate the truths of Solomon’s life and the pitfalls it portrays to all of us, especially those who are wrapped up in doing “God’s work.” Our Creative Team is extremely excited about it — we’re even throwing a Johnny Cash song into the mix. Will keep you updated or you can check it out week to week at thecrossingonline.com.

~ by Lee Coate on May 13, 2008.