Immersion

At Finding Life Church, one of our 7 core values is what we call immersion. We use a little catch phrase to go along with it in order to define what that means in our context... "People find Jesus through relationship." Of all our core values, this is my favorite. This is what makes Finding Life Church Distinct. This is my answer to people who ask, "Why do we need another church?" or, "what's different about this church than any of the other ones?"

We value immersion!!!

So, I am in the middle of a series at FLC, where I am preaching the core values. The series is titled, "Influence flows from intentionality: Becoming a values living church." My next sermon will be on the value of immersion, so naturally I have been doing a lot of thinking, and contemplating this value. What does it mean? What does it look like? I have always told myself that Immersion is something you do... You go, immerse yourself into something or someone that you value, for the sake of real impact. Now i am not so sure that's what it is.

Immersion is not something you do, it is something you are. The real definition of Immersions, or at least the kind I want to adapt personally and see the people of Finding Life Church grab a hold of is much bigger than that. it is much more radical. It is much more risky. Ultimately, it is much more life changing.

Immersion is really about 5 things, and i think, if one of them is missing, then the potential for impact, is smashed.

Leaving: Going where people are. replacing some personal or christian activities with ones that place you smack dab in the middle of culture.

Typically, in the church we see leaving as going over seas on a short-term missions trip, or venturing down town for a saturday afternoon to volunteer at the local shelter. These are great things, please don't misunderstand me, but these are not what leaving is all about in the conversation on Immersions. Leaving is about altering your life, re-positioning your life, and re-tooling your pursuits so that you are in fact a part of culture. Maybe you are wondering why I am explaining something as obvious as this. Well, I guess it's because in the church we have gotten so good, and expended lots of energy on keeping ourselves separate from culture. We have Bible studies in the homes of Christians that only include Christians, we have pot luck dinners, board meetings, and planning sessions. We have worship services and sunday school classes. The truth is, any church worth it's salt, will have something for you to fill your life with every night of the week. If it's a really good church, it will facilitate a complete and total separation from culture. We can very easily find ourselves in what has become knows as, "The Christian Bubble." It's safe their, our kids are only around other good kids, we don't have be around people that think, look, and act different than we do. Then on occasion we will step out of that bubble and reach out, but keep in mind, we will be heading right back that bubble as soon as possible. Spending too much time out of it after all, might be bad for us, we might be sucked into the world, and all that it propagates. No, the bubble is much safer.

At this point if you are not picking up my sarcasm, then you should probably quit reading, if you have sensed it, please understand my desire is not to offend, but to clarify.

There is a problem, and our wrong understanding of what it means to, "GO," is that problem.

Jesus modeled something totally different than that. He took intentional wrong turns, entered into unwelcoming cities, in order to relate with people who society, especially within the church would have deemed, "Undesirable." When asked why, he simply said, because these are the people I came for. This is why I exist. My life is intentionally positioned right smack dab in the middle of culture, because I came to love the world.

So where are we on this, how do we change it? How do we, "position our lives," in the middle of culture.

The answer, slowly begin replacing christian, or personal activities, with ones that put you where people are. If you like to work out at home with a video, don't stop working out, go get a gym membership, and start working out with people. If you have a Bible study with a bunch of friends, leave the safety of the church building, or home, and take it to a local starbucks.

The first step, and by the way, it is only a first step, is to start re-positioning your life so that you have a natural connection with the world.

Imagine if the church, was more intent on bringing the grace of God into the market place, than we are with making sure our kids have the "right," to pray in school. Or petition the congressman to keep the 10 commandments posted on the walls of the local court house. We can be the incarnation of Jesus in the darkest places of this world, it begins with re-orienting ourselves with that world we have neglected for so many years.

To be continued...