#5: The Tribe

After 10 years of Forefront we’ve now done over 120 message series. Thought it might be fun and interesting to share with you my top twenty.

Every year or two we do a series on the church: What is the church? Why is the church? Who is the church? What is the purpose of the church? What is the vision and values of our church? We’ve probably done six or seven of these, but “The Tribe” was my favorite.

I got the idea for this series from a great movie called “Around the Bend” (if you haven’t seen it, rent it – but there is some bad language in it) with Michael Cane, Christopher Walken, and Josh Lucas as a grandfather, father, and son. They have all kinds of problems, but still they’re family or, as Michael Caine’s character refers to them “a tribe.” At the end of the movie Christopher Walken is dancing (if you haven’t seen him dance, watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMZwZiU0kKs), he’s asked what he’s doing, and he replies, “I’m dancing for the tribe!”

In this series we talked about our tribe at Forefront, and that we are “A Transformed Tribe,” “An Uncivilized Tribe,” “A Risk-Taking Tribe,” etc. It was all kinds of fun, and I think helped further clarify our identity as a church. That God did not call us to sit around and play spiritual paddycake with each other, but instead to go out and storm the gates of hell. I don’t know about your, but I’m really proud to be a part of my tribe.

– featured on newchurches.com