The church is a group of transformed follower of Jesus, who perceive themselves to be the Body of Christ in their local community and to the nations, and live as such.

This is a definition of church.  Help me interact with it and let me know what you think about this.

I really like hanging around people like Allan Karr, Alan Hirsch, Sean Benesh, Michael Frost and such.  But at the same time I really hate it because they JACK UP my way of thinking.  I am an out of the box thinker but they system I am in is so IN the BOX.  So, just when I get comfortable in my box I rub shoulders with these men and they make me ask the question, “Am what I am doing and how I am doing it the most biblical and most effective way of doing it?”

I am in San Francisco for a few days taking a seminary class.  The class is called Intro to Church Planting.  Really it should be titled something like, How to Be a Missionary in Your Culture.  This isn’t a class about best practices but rather a class on theology of church and how we fit into it.  This first day we have heard from the professor and from a guest speaker who just came back from an amazing experience in Thailand and Burma.

The Western church is not getting it done here in the west and if you think you can argue this point… you cant.  I mean if we take Hirsch’s example in his book “The Forgotten Ways” we seem to do church for only 12% of the population in the US.  And even if we do church the way we know it REALLY WELL we will still only do it for 12% of the population.  So, here we are planting more church for 12% of the population.

My question is what does a church look like for the other 82% of the population.  Or for even another 12% of the population and do I have what it takes to reach them?  How can I be a part of seeing Jesus become the savior to the people I love so much, the people of Tucson Arizona?

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It is something that cannot be fully understood. To an outsider it looks as if we are talking to thin air. If we are praying in “our head†(as my 6year old daughter says) we often think, “Are we going nuts, talking to ourselves?â€

I am preaching a series on Prayer at Epic Church. I am taking some of my conversations with my daughter about prayer and preaching about them. This week I am preaching about, “Praying Like Jesus Prayedâ€.

Can I be honest here? Ok. Even though I am a pastor I mess up. Sometimes I mess up big time and others they are small enough that no one really notices. But, when I mess up and yell at the crazy driver in “the other car†my daughter is quick to point out. “Daddy, Jesus loves that person too. You really should be nicer to them.â€

She is 100% correct. Well, when it comes to prayer and me teaching my daughter how to pray and the importance of prayer she insightfully asks, “Daddy, how did Jesus pray?†And my theologian of a daughter also cocks her head and asks, “If Jesus was God then why did he pray?â€

These are the questions I am wrestling with as I prepare this weeks sermon on prayer. I hope you are seeking your Father in Heaven this week though prayer. Drop me a line if you have any insight into these questions or even how you have dealt with them with your kids.