Are we growing up?

This week we finish our series, "Happy Trails." Here is an overview.

The City (Spiritual Exploration Stage)

Characteristics: A sense of awe and discovery. The realization that a savior is needed.

How get stuck: Always exploring, never committing. Feeling worthless and not realizing that you are worth more.

How grow: Commit to following Christ. Find people who can help you grow in your knowledge of the Bible.

The Foothills (New Christ Follower Stage)

Characteristics: Hungry for knowledge, a sense or rightness, belonging to a group.

How get stuck: Becoming judgmental, keep switching churches, “we against them” mentality, self-righteousness.

How grow: Discover spiritual gifts, realize the need to give to others, start serving.

The Trailhead (Minister on Behalf of Jesus)

Characteristics: Using gifts and strengths to serve others, feeling that you belong to a community and are needed, developing a sense of responsibility.

How get stuck: You grow weary in doing good for others. You become too externally focused in your faith. You neglect your soul.

How grow: Question beliefs anew, go through a crisis, let yourself doubt your beliefs/self as you keep seeking God.

Forrest (Internal Journey)

Characteristics: You doubt your beliefs about God. You feel old wounds from your past need to be healed. Favorite spiritual practices do not work for a time. The focus of your journey is what is going on inside of you with God. This stage is often precipitated by a crisis.

How get stuck: You run from the invitation of God to be healed. You run from the work and the suffering. You go back to a more familiar stage.

How grow: Find someone who has gone through this stage and have them coach you. Persevere. Spend ample time reflecting. Deal with emotional issues you are wrestling with.

Treeline (Ministry from Being)

Characteristics: You are comfortable in your own skin. You are shedding your false self. You are busy, but not hurried. Your ministry comes from who you more than what you do. Your life is inner-directed by God. You are yielded to him. You minister out of your brokenness.

How get stuck: You lose your mooring to the Bible and become overly mystical and relativistic.

How grow: Find people who will support you in this stage.

False Peaks (ways we get off the trail)

This is not really a stage. Listen to the MP3 for more information.

Summit (Life of Love)

Characteristics: You are emotionally very mature. You live detached from this world with a non-anxious faith. You are wise and very powerful. You live with a deep sense of being God’s beloved. Your center is strong. Your strength is your weakness. You are marked by compassion and conviction.

How Get Stuck: At this stage people rarely get stuck. They have reached the summit. They have gone as far in this world, as they can, with God. People may worry about how detached they are from things.

How grow: Go to be with the Lord and continue to grow in the next life as you get to know your infinite God at deeper and deeper levels.

We will conclude this series on Saturday night, 5 p.m., 3651 S. Colorado Blvd.

Saturday Night Reflections

Great service last night. We are hitting our stride with worship. Mixed tape is the best description. A mixture of worship rock and old school hymns seems to fit us best. I had fun preaching a longer message with deeper content. God does want to be our Armando, loving our souls to a place of greater health so that his Word can restore us and others through us.

Our community is coming back from a busy summer. It was great to see so many there. Many stayed afterwards to connect with each other. You could feel the Spirit in our church. That was the best part of the night for me. We are creating a place where tired over-achievers, wounded people, skeptics and passionate Christ followers can seek God's grace and healing in one place. Beautiful.

Which Soil Are You?

I am speaking on the parable of the sower, soil and seeds tomorrow night. In the parable there are four kinds of soil. The first three do not lead to the seed being harvested in the future for different reasons. The last soil is fertile and produces varying degree's of bumper crops.

My tendency in the past was to believe I can change my own soil condition. I no longer believe that. I can seek God and discipline myself to live out good spiritual habits like going to church, being in authentic community with others, obeying the promptings of the Holy Spirit in my life, and so forth. But I cannot make my heart change. It is futile. Sin is too powerful and my spirit is too weak. Only God can change the soil conditions of my heart.

This may sound fatalistic, but whenever I cry "uncle" and trust God, change happens! He shows up when I am at the end of myself and I rest in his presence. This is a great paradox to me. Just as I cannot earn my salvation, so I cannot earn my restoration. Effort is involved, but my efforts do not merit my transformation. They simply position me for the grace God wants to give me to grow, when he chooses.

Humbled by God once again!

Worship Music

The style of music a church uses defines the church probably more than anything else. Have a great choir and sing hymns and you will reach lots of senior citizens. Have a worship rock band an you will likely reach teens and twenty-somethings.

So, what do you do when you want to reach multiple generations like we do at Restoration? You do "mixed tape." Last Saturday night we had worship rock, an old school hymn and closed with a folk song a guy named Travis wrote about his grandfather. It was what we want to be. Not a church for everyone, our mission and vision will not appeal to all. But a church that appreciates the music of various generations and mixes them artistically so that the beauty created brings glory to God.

The Scriptures give us great freedom to worship God through various musical styles. We can thank God for that while also praying that we realize it is our hearts he wants. He is looking for worshipers who worship in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:24).