My Worship Revolution

A couple of weeks ago I’m in a room of people.  Just hangin.
Someone asks what I’m up to in life and our church planting plans come up.
And then it comes.
From someone else in the room who heard about it the day before:

“So, what made you think Santa Cruz needs another church?”

I’m not positive if the skepticism behind the question was as strong as I thought or if I just perceived it that way cause I’m an artist which puts me on par with chicks on the sensitivity scale sometimes, but it isn’t the first time I’ve heard the question.
In fact sometimes it causes me to wonder the same thing.  In the discouraged moments, I can’t say I haven’t laid awake at night considering if we’re foolish.
But then I start to remember the things that God has called me to be, and how he has called me to go about it, and where I think he’s called me to do it.  That isn’t necessarily a sufficient answer for someone who doesn’t really get the whole idea of church planting, though.

Then I’m reminded of the need for the Gospel, the need for churches, and the need for church planting when someone like John Piper lays it out so clearly.
Check this out:

The best estimates we’ve been able to find, Santa Cruz is in the vicinity of 93% unchurched.
That leaves somewhere over 50,000 people in Santa Cruz city who aren’t engaged in a local community of faith.
Around 270,000 for the county.

But as another friend of mine pointed out, Santa Cruz is 93% unchurched…and it wants to stay that way.
In a lot of ways, that’s why I think Santa Cruz, and probably a WHOLE LOT of other cities across the U.S., need not only new churches, but a different kind of church.
I am stoked to be friends and partners with so many different leaders of so many different types of churches in our area.
So the question begins to arise…what kind of church are WE called to be?
What will THIS expression of THE church in Santa Cruz look like?
That question has a lot of answers to it.  It’s probably another 15 posts at least this long.
And then there are the other 30 posts of answers that we are still yet to discover.
Perhaps if I can get blogging more again you’ll get a feel for what that looks like to us.

But what I do know is this: we want to intentionally love and befriend people all over Santa Cruz.  We want to immerse ourselve in the daily rhythms and life of our city.  We want to do our part to make this county a better place to be, all the while being unashamed of our love and devotion to this leader of our lives, Jesus Christ.
And as we live out a passionate spirituality, a gospel larger than life, a life of faith and radical grace, we will see people experience God’s kingdom more clearly and ultimately encounter Jesus in a way that they can’t help but be transformed by him.
Sure, this is a simplification of the whole process.  I guess.
But I think our city needs a ‘church’ like that.
I think your city needs a ‘church; like that.
In fact, I think we need more than A church like that.
And when you run the numbers, I can’t imagine us ever having too many communities of faith that live this way, whether it’s a community of 6 people or 6000 people.

There’s a few reasons I think we need another church in Santa Cruz.