The Schizophrenic Meeting (Part 4)

Gonna do a series in the AM of this week to re-introduce myself and my blog to new readers. Something new in the afternoon each day…

That Sunday I went to church for the first time. It was odd. I ended up going to that church for several years, and I love the people there, but it was almost a foreign experience for me. I had no idea people dressed up for church (I had read through the entire New Testament by then but had somehow missed the “Dress Code” verse). I had never heard a “hymn” or seen a “pew.” There were very people near my age.

I came back that Sunday, and I have to tell you, my whole experience of becoming a Christian left me feeling – on one hand – full of joy. I was so excited to have God, Jesus, Heaven. But on the other hand I was angry. I mean, how could I have lived in America for 20 years and no one ever told me?

So I decided to have this meeting in my dorm room. I invited every Christian I knew. … Me. It was just me. And someone in the room said, “Okay, let’s call this meeting to order.” Then someone else said, “Listen: Everyone in the world needs to know about Jesus, and no one seems to be telling them!” Someone else was like, “Yeah!” Someone else said, “Preach it brother.” Then this guy said, “I say we elect someone in this room to start telling people. That we vote and choose someone to be responsible for telling everyone.” Someone else said, “Yeah, let’s vote.” And, well, somehow I got elected. I decided that what I was going to do with my life is help lead as many people as I possibly could to Jesus.

Eventually that decision led me to transfer from Law School to Seminary. I drove there and met with the Admissions Officer. He asked me, “What would you like to major in?” I told him, “I want to major in how I can lead as many people as possible to Jesus with my life.” He said, “Oh… Wellll, we don’t exactly have that major.” “Okay,” I said, “What do you have?” He said, “Well, we have a major called Church Growth. That’s probably the closest to what you said.” I said, “Okay, that’s fine. But listen: I’m not here to get closer to God. I can do that without you. I’m not here to learn more about the Bible. I can do that with you. I’m here because I need to know how I can lead the most people to Jesus in my life.” He said okay.

Next time I’ll tell you what I learned. Until then … use the word perpendicular as often as you can.

– Featured on newchurches.com