July 2, 2007

I hit the beach early before the crowds invaded. It’s incredibly soul-filling to worship next to God’s amazing and spectacular creation… with a little Hillsongs United blaring through my Ipod. What a great way to usher in a new day. Oswald warmed me up, and six more chapters out of Psalms allowed me to do have some beach-chair prayer time. One chapter of “Simple Church” was all I could muster through the almost gale-force, hurricane-like winds that were pummeling me. Okay… it wasn’t that bad, but the life guards were having a difficult time putting up their umbrella rentals.
This day was incredibly windy. The sun kept trying to poke through the overcast skies, but finally and forcedly gave way to a rather bleak and blustery day at the beach. What do you do when your summer study break gets rudely interrupted with wind gusts of 25 miles per hour? You head for the mall.
So we packed up the family and made our way to the Coastal Carolina Mall. The plan was for Sherry and the kids to take in a movie, while I camped out at Starbucks and did my thing. I was hoping for a quiet corner where I could resume my reading along with a tall, cinnamon latte (non-fat, decaf, whipped). What I hadn’t calculated was that every tourist in South Carolina had also transformed from beachcombers to mall rats. It was crowded. The line at Starbucks was relentless. I never did satisfy my distracted taste buds, but I did get through three more chapters of “Simple Church.”
While reading, I was also able to observe a few interesting things. For instance: Do families sometimes so focus on the “cause” of a vacation, that they forget the people involved? I listen to the conversation next to my small, round table (A practice which Starbucks freely promotes by putting their tables so closely together). I tuned into some intriguing tension. “I don’t want to sit at Starbucks and eat my pizza alone,” bemoaned a cranky teenager. An obviously agitated mother replied, “Well why didn’t you tell me that before we came over here?” At this point I was reluctantly hoping the somewhat bratty teen would cut her losses and remain silent. That didn’t happen, and so I listened some more. The teenager fired back at mom, “I told you I wanted to go with you to get some noodles! I didn’t want to come here in the first place, because you wanted noodles! Aaaaghhh!”
I’m not sure I really know how to spell “aaaaghh,” but I understood the communication completely.
Was this a family extremely focused on the “cause” of their vacation, but they had lost the focus on the important people involved? It seemed they were going to make their way through this highly-planned, much-anticipated getaway … even if they killed each other in doing so.
And then I remembered how Oswald Chambers wrote something about this in my morning reading. Aren’t I, at times, so committed to the “cause” of Christianity that I miss the person of Jesus? Isn’t it even easier to focus more on doctrine, programs, and righteous causes, than to spend disciplined time knowing and hanging out with Jesus?
Isn’t this what gained simplicity in our churches would look like? More Jesus and less stuff. The cause (s) of Christianity is great, but the person of Jesus is even greater. Why have we settled for good, when the best has been afforded at great price?
There are a few emerging churches who are beginning to get this right. There are a few churches who are able to do things so well because they have chosen to only do a few things. These few things always point people towards the person of Jesus.
Simple churches are willing to stop hiding behind good things like Christian schools, midweek services, adult Sunday school, special holiday programs, and other such sacred cows. They are giving up good things because they are hungry for the best. Jesus.
I recall that Jim Collins penned the line: “Good is the enemy of best.”
As I read through Psalms 3-8 this morning, I was struck by David’s struggle with enemies. He is at definite odds with an enemy. He needs rest. He needs rescued. He needs to push the pause button on life (selah) because life has gotten treacherous.
Who are my enemies? I can’t conjure up faces that I would declare as my outright, evil enemy. Could my enemy be “successful” church? Should I be at war with programs and activity that any good lead pastor is supposed to be about? God, I need a selah pause to really figure this one out.

Effective simple churches aren’t afraid to draw lines of war in the sand. Simple churches want to develop real Jesus followers and have simply combined their purpose with their process. A multiplicity of purpose statements, vision statements, mission statements, values, and strategies seem to be in retreat as a result of a front-line attack. Maybe this is war. Maybe I need to recognize and face my enemies.
Deciding to do only a few things well to connect people to Jesus is slowly and somewhat covertly working across the country. There is clarity, movement, alignment, and focus within simple churches because it’s simple … and it’s all about Jesus.
Love, feed, connect, and motivate. Do we have clarity? Is there movement? Alignment? Focus? Do these four pistons point people to Jesus? Is it simple? Could this be our purpose and our process?
At about 5 p.m. the movie was over and my family came to rescue me from the Starbucks chaos. We drove back to the condo, and I went for my evening run. I like to think… and pray… while I run. I call it “sweatin’ with the Ancient of Days.” I’m thinking about making my own exercise video!
When I got back from my run, Michael and Morgan wanted me to get in the pool. It was time to quit being so serious and simply play. It was time to let go of the “cause” of my study break, and enjoy the people I love to do study break with. Michael jumped into the deep end. This was a first. A huge five-year-old breakthrough. I called him “the man,” and he flashed me two elated thumbs up. I would have hated to miss this unforgettable Kodak moment with my son for any good, worthwhile cause. This was simply the best.