I also hope that as you watch this teaching in other places you will join with fresh life in this season of; praying for revival and in taking radical steps to order our lives in such a way as to make a a work of revival possible.

The Bible says that God’s eyes run to and fro on the earth looking to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to Him. (2 Chronicles 16:9) God is going to move in power through somebody, He will find those whose hearts are ready to be ignited into flame and He will use them to shake the very gates of hell–why not you, why not now?

Remember–only you can prevent yourself from being on fire!

Though we have heard from many wonderful guest speakers, and it is wonderful to hear from fresh voices and outside perspectives, there is something to be said for maintaining the energy and momentum by not putting a series on hold. In order to do that (until science nails the whole cloning thing) for the past few years we have been using video teachings that I record prior to leaving town.

The hardest part about this, surprisingly, isn’t teaching to an empty room, it’s having to prepare three messages in a week instead of two, with the additional pressure of preparing for the trip. For some reason preaching with no audience isn’t really that different from a normal Sunday, I just think and pray for those who will be listening just like I am also thinking of the web/radio audience that I can’t see every other week.

A definite benefit is that the media team has time to post-produce the video, dialing it in. I especially love the unique Nehemiah themed lower thirds that the team generated for this particular message.

Here is the most recent “virtual levi” (as my staff affectionately refers to this teaching style) rock this city teaching from this past weekend. In it, Sanballat and co. try to assassinate Nehemiah as the wall nears completion.

If you are on a mobile device you can watch the movie on vimeo with this link: http://vimeo.com/m/#/12498843

We also had some live sheep at both of our theatre’s for the launch weekend which made the messages come to life with the sounds and smells of livestock. And to send the message that it’s not just David that is apart of God’s flock–we are God’s sheep too–we had “sheep yourself” cutouts where people could take pictures of themselves as happy lambs before and after services. No end to the fun.

What better way to experience the season of spring on the inside than exploring this beloved passage? Alexander Maclaren once said, “The world could get along without many a large book better than this sunny little psalm.” It is written from the perspective of a stoked sheep who is so pumped about his Shepherd that he takes to his blog, bragging about how awesome He really is.

As a whole, our art and graphics tend to have a dark and somewhat macabre feel to them (it’s kind of a part of our vibe–we do have a service called skull church…) And our series media, by and large, tends to be either very hard-hitting, in your face and explosive, or melancholy, mysterious and a little haunting. This isn’t a bad thing necessarily, it’s what we like and we are good at it. But an unguarded strength can become a double weakness.

In a creative planning meeting a while back we were talking about how any one style can be fatiguing and lose it’s impact if it is employed exclusively. We decided that we would go in the exact opposite direction for this series. (As much as I personally would have loved to see an emo sheep shuffling through the valley of the shadow of death to a song in a minor-key.) One important thing to remember in life and in art is to change it up every once in a while and not get stuck or defined by any one style.

So we declared a month-long moratorium on dark colors, war-drums, thundering anthems, and challenged ourselves to paint with a different atmospheric palette. I reassured my creative team that this wouldn’t be permanent, and that they could get back to producing media that depresses people and scares children soon. I begged for some sunshine, lollipops, and a few woodland creatures–just this one time. The end result was a happy “spoonful of sugar” type of a campaign that makes me smile every time I see it. Enjoy.

For the series launch we had live sheep, in pens, at the entrances to both of our theaters to set the pastoral mood as people arrived at church. It was a lot of fun.

What are some things you have done or could do to change the vibe up in your world?

I believe that the first step to take in effectively reaching young people (or any people) is simply having the desire to reach them. You have to have a burden from the Lord for them. It wasn’t until Paul was provoked within His spirit in Acts 17 that he went out and preached Christ in Athens. Similarly, we often read of Jesus being moved with compassion in the gospels and then speaking or ministering. If our actions flow from anywhere other than a genuine burden for lost people that comes from the Holy Spirit we will find the challenges to be too great. If on the other hand we ask the Lord to ignite a fire in our hearts and to give us His love for the lost then it won’t matter how challenging the road and how many obstacles are in our way.  If our hearts are set ablaze from on high, we will be unstoppable!

Once you have a burden for a particular group, audience or people, next you must take radical steps to target them. I am no fishermen but I know that if you have decided you want to fish for trout there are different things you will bring than if you want to fish for salmon, and that is an altogether different equipment list than will be needed if you are fishing for marlin. Companies realize this–that is why they are constantly addressing and readdressing the intangible attributes of their brands. From Cadillac to Nike to Nickelodeon–companies are never satisfied with how their brand is perceived right now, they know that in a few short years (or months) everything can change and they are constantly targeting youth.

Now in saying that, I know that many will immediately wonder, what we should be willing to change exactly? I suggest you tweak the Style not the Substance, your Methods not the Message. To use the fishing analogy–adjust the bait, chum and lures not the hook, the line or the net. We must not try so hard to be just like the world in order to reach the world and in the process give up what we had to offer to the world in the first place. The message is unchanging but the media delivery vehicles employed, graphic design, vibe, feel, sound and expression should be fluid and changing with the culture.

I have heard pastors, leaders, and others complain to me many times that there aren’t young people in their churches, and they ask, why do I think that is? I tell them it is probably because they are catering everything to those who are their age. And that is never a revelation to them, they nod because they already intrinsically knew that. But then they often admit they are reticent to do things differently. Why? The most common fear that I have heard is not wanting to offend those who are already there. They are afraid that the “tithe base” would all leave if they were willing to try “risky” things in order to reach lost young people.

I am constantly asked about the age of those who come to fresh life—given my age, the fact that we have given announcements through auto-tune and have a bible study called skull church, they probably expect to hear me say that there is no one over 30 and that freshlife is a big overgrown youth-group. But that is not the case at all, there are tons of young people, but tons of grownups also, all worshipping together. Visitors to our church and guest speakers are often surprised at the age diversity. The hairstyles say it all, there are mohawks, faux-hawks and no hawks. Sure there are those with gauged ears and tatted arms, but there are also those rocking grey and silver strands as well.

What I have found is 2 things:

1. Many who are advanced in years actually dig the current stuff. They are being exposed to things that they love or learn to love–we have discovered a whole slew of secretly rocked out senior citizens. Often we don’t give people enough credit at adapting.

2. Even if they don’t like the music or style personally, they can put up with it because they love that those who will be living when they are gone are into it. I hear over and over and over again from people, how much they love seeing youth in church and people (of all ages) coming to know Christ. I even had one older gentleman show me that he brought earplugs to church for the music but loved the Bible study. LOL

One of my favorite pictures illustrating this is a shot of an awesome guy in our church named Warren that was taken a while back. He serves wholeheartedly at skull church, counseling the new believers that make decisions for Christ at the service. In the pic he is rocking his skeleton crew shirt and is getting a little tutoring on the use of a blackberry.

Warren might not ever “tweet” questions during the service (as those who attend can) or buy a red bull at the espresso bar, but he does enjoy the vs by vs Bible teaching, he is stoked on all those who have given their lives to Christ, and he is happy to be apart of bringing the uncompromising gospel message to a lost generation in a culturally relevant way.

And to those who are afraid of shaking things up for fear of offending people, I would say that anyone who isn’t thrilled by the prospect of reaching the next generation for Christ, you shouldn’t be too bummed on losing if they do leave. I would rather have a few people leave the church because we aren’t doing things the way they like, or the way their last church did things than for us to depart from the mission that God has called us to. That may sound harsh but my thinking is that if they are a Christian, they are already saved, and there are plenty of churches they can go to that are doing things the way they want them to be done. Those who don’t know Christ are the ones I am concerned about. And I have been so blessed by the sheer volume of support from those who are “advanced in years” as we have unapologetically stated that we want to see those who are stranded in sin find life and liberty in Christ. Because they know that if we don’t focus on the next generation, it will end with us.

Mark 2:17 When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

This week is also the kick-off week for our brand new fresh life groups (talk about a big week!) which are our intentional approach to fulfilling the need for community in a growing church.  A large amount of those who attend fresh life are now in one of these groups meeting in homes throughout the city.  I am so thrilled to see what God will do through them. Hopefully by next trimester we are able to get even more people plugged in. Through technology, I am able to visit every group each week and jumpstart the discussion with some thoughts about how the text we have studied that week in church should intersect with our daily lives.