This Sunday is a historic day at OneLife. It is our last Sunday in just one service. To be making this move in less than 7 months is nothing short of miraculous.

There are a lot of reasons OneLife has been able to reach people so quickly. And those reasons are why I love OneLife. In no certain order, here they are:

• We are a church full of people that aren’t perfect but are transparent and sincere.
• Don’t believe me? Just come walk through the parking lots and lobby one Sunday morning. You’ll see.
• OneLifers aren’t a bunch of churchy people hopping around from church to church, looking for what they selfishly want. Most OneLifers were not going to church – and some even hated church – when they decided to give it a shot.
• We have fun! During set-up, before the service, during the service, tearing down, and throughout the week. Church is fun!
• We have people who would take a bullet for the vision of reaching this community for Christ. We’re here to honor God and reach the lost. Period.
• They understand that there is no such thing as just “going to church.” If you’re just showing up somewhere on Sunday mornings, why bother?
• These are people who volunteer on Sundays, throughout the week, late at night, and early in the morning. They realize the ultimate sacrifice Jesus made on the cross. A few hours a week? It’s the least we can do!
• OneLifers LOVE inviting other people! I would guess that 90 percent of our first time guests have come because of a personal invitation.
• We have a staff of guys that I wouldn’t trade for the world. They’re young, growing in their leadership daily, abnormally fun to be around, and, well, abnormal And I love them!
• We’re reaching people of all ages and backgrounds. Young and old. Rich and poor. Single and married.
• OneLifers don’t just sacrifice time, but also their finances.
• Each week, more and more are stepping up and being obedient with their giving. 10 percent is a lot for most of us, but that sacrifice is allowing us to reach more and more people. Once again, after what Jesus sacrificed, 10 percent of our money is chump change!
• We have lots of new life – both literally and figuratively! And new things are fun
• 30 people have given their lives to Christ for new spiritual life. And on any given Sunday we’ll have upwards of 25 babies ages 2 and under. Not to mention the at least six pregnant ladies!

The reasons could go on and on and on. But the bottom line is this. God is up to something unusual around here. It’s not normal. But I am extremely thankful to be a part.

I love you, OneLife!

OneLife turned six months old this past Sunday! Unbelievable. One of the keys to us being able to hit the ground running was great support from other churches. Below is a letter sent to those churches keeping them posted on all that God is doing at and through OneLife. There is a lot to celebrate!

Dear Partners, 

It’s hard to believe, but our baby is six-months old! This past Sunday marked six months since the launch of OneLife Church. Because of your support and an unbelievable move of God, amazing stories of life-change are truly happening. I wanted to take a moment at this milestone and update you so you can give an update to your churches and so you and your churches can continue to pray for us as we move into the second half of our first year.

Life Change – About 80% of the people at OneLife have not come from other churches. Many have been wounded in the past by church experiences, some are new to the community, and many others have simply not been involved in a church for many years, if ever. Because of that, it has been amazing to see 30 people express to us that they have given their lives to Christ and this Sunday we will baptize six people, totaling 12 baptisms since we launched. We are also seeing many new believers and young Christians get involved in ministry for the first time in their lives.

Involvement – We intentionally launched with a very simple model, focusing solely on Sunday mornings (children’s ministries and adult worship). Because of that we emphasized volunteerism as our small groups model. Volunteer teams (tech, band, children, greeters, parking lot, etc.) meet together before the morning service to build relationships, share a devotional together, pray, etc. This approach has led to more than 100 people volunteering on a Sunday morning at some point and an average of 60 volunteers weekly. This fall we will launch home groups from these volunteer teams. Later this spring we will launch small groups for middle and high school students.

Growth – Attendance has grown significantly each month. Throughout the last three weeks of November we averaged 147 each week. Over three recent weeks, we averaged 244. That’s nearly 100 new people on average in just three months! This has maxed out several of our children’s rooms and has the auditorium nearing 80% on some Sundays. With this in mind, we have decided to launch a second service on Easter. This is a big step of faith that we are excited about! 

Reproduction – It is important to us to be involved in church planting early and often. We have already helped a new work starting at Bakertown Apartments (a government housing project) by donating equipment and helping them with an outreach event. They launch weekly services on Easter Sunday. Another new church will launch this fall or Spring 2011 in South Knoxville that will be similar to OneLife. I have been very involved with helping the planter there as much as we can. OneLife has committed to help support this new church from our missions budget. It will not be much but will represent our commitment to church planting. Additionally, we are already praying and seeking God about where our next step may be in terms of OneLife reproducing in another part of Knoxville, maybe as soon as 2011. Finally, we have met many other church planters from Lynchburg, VA to Cleveland, TN that we have been able to network with and help in their planning processes.

Missional Focus – Our goal is to lead individuals to be missional in their everyday lives rather than them relying on the church to be missional. However, we do offer opportunities for our church to come together and focus on outward initiatives together. At Christmas, OneLifers provided gifts for 35 foster children. The gifts were given directly to the children in their foster homes on Christmas morning. Following the Haiti earthquake, OneLife partnered with One Vision International to provide medical supplies for relief teams. Since launching we have partnered with Powell High School to paint bathrooms, plant flowers, clean parking lots, clean landscaping, and provide breakfast for teachers. This Spring we will partner with Angelic Ministries, a homeless ministry in the inner-city, to provide meals on Saturdays and lead worship for a Saturday service in the inner city. We are also in the research process of how we can partner with ministries who help those involved in sex-trafficing, the world’s largest, most prevalent crime. On the Saturday before Easter we are hosting a community event (www.droptheeggs.com) to build relationships with the community.

Thanks again for your support. Please continue to pray for us and come visit when you get the chance!

 Rodney Arnold
Lead Pastor
OneLife Church
www.onelifeknox.com

• OneLife turned 6 months old this week!
• We kicked off a new series this week about the dirty “E” word – evangelism!
• It’s not as hard as you think.
• We are going verse-by-verse through 1 Thessalonians 1 and 2 over the next three weeks.
• The first chapter taught us something we could all benefit from – when our lives look like Christ and we are different, that’s all we need to be evangelistic! You won’t have to say a single word.
• The people in this church we talked about were turning the place upside down just because the outsiders noticed they were different.
• We experienced one of the most powerful moments in OneLife’s short existence at the end of the service. We had everyone come up to the front and write the names of those they want to reach for Jesus on plexiglass panels. Those panels will be part of the stage set over the next three weeks and we will be praying like crazy for these people.
• It was somewhere around 400 names! That’s a lot of people we believe that OneLifers are going to reach for Jesus.
• We are going to make room for them as they come to Christ and get plugged in to a place to worship each week.
• So we made a big announcement about what’s coming next for OneLife: Starting on Easter, we are moving to two services each week! 10 and 11:30 a.m.
• That means only two more weeks of the current schedule – 1 service at 11 a.m.
• To make it work, we are counting on OneLifers to do two major things.
• 1 – spend time with those people whose names you wrote down, be contagious for Jesus, and invite them to come experiene Him with you through worship at OneLife.
• 2 – Worship at one of the services and volunteer at the other. We need YOU! Especially if you want to play a role in changing the lives of kids. Even if that’s not for you, we have a spot that is. Email volunteer@onelifeknox.com for more info or to express interest.
• Next Sunday we continue the series and have an AWESOME worship set lined up AND we will have baptisms again!
• There’s a mom and her two kids, a teenager, and a married couple getting baptized. Going to be incredible.
• Invite someone to come with you and we’ll see ya there!
• Oh yeah, and we shared a little personal news, too. Harrison and I are having a baby! October 21 is the expected date for baby Arnold. Can’t wait!

One thing that starting a new church does is it forces you to think outside of the proverbial box. One of the smallest boxes new churches have is space to practice for their band! We were blessed to have several of our partner churches offer their facilities. That was great but they were all on the other side of town and made it hard on the band guys. So what did our guys do? They got creative! The band now practices at the OneLife office, using three different offices to make it work.

Our awesome creative director Tyler Goode was the brains behind making it all work. He takes you behind the scenes in this video to see what it takes to get the band sounding like they do each Sunday.

Band Practice March 2010 – Video Blog from OneLife Church on Vimeo.

• Today wrapped up our “Sex, Drugs, Rock ‘n Roll” series with a look at what the Bible says about Rock ‘n Roll and, more specifically, culture.
• So fittingly the band opened with a rock ‘n roll medley including “I Love Rock ‘n Roll,” “Sweet Home Alabama,” and “You Give Love a Bad Name.”
• It was great! Can’t believe how good those guys are getting.
• It was even better during the worship set. OneLifers are getting more and more engaged at worshipping our God. The passion and energy during “Amazing Grace/My Chains are Gone” was especially amazing!
• I love it when the crowd is louder than the band. That happened several times.
• Speaking of crowd, it was another record. Why does that matter? Because most of these are NOT coming from other churches!
• OneLife Kidz continues to grow like crazy, too! For example…when we launched, our pre-school class had ZERO kids show up. Then it started to grow rapidly so we changed it from 3-5 to 4-5 years old to help. But it has just grown AGAIN. This week there were 16 kids in just that one class!
• The elementary group is growing like wildfire, too. They have more than doubled in size from 12 kiddos five weeks ago to 25 or more the past two weeks!
• The sermon focused on Acts 17 and how Paul didn’t ignore culture, didn’t fight culture, and didn’t become culture. Instead, he embraced and engaged culture to lead those far from God to a relationship with Christ.
• That is our goal! That’s what it’s all about as a Christian.
• Got lots of responses including several people who expressed that they want to be baptized!
• Also heard lots of stories of lives being changed and prayers being answered. God is good!
• I didn’t have a lot of energy during either the volunteer service or the “real” service at 11:00.
• Then I went to the doctor today and found out I have both strep throat AND the flu. It takes talent to get both of those at one time.
• AND…I now have ZERO sympathy for people who lay out of church every time they get a little sniffle or a headache
• Next week starts a 3-week series getting us ready for Easter.
• I can’t wait for Easter! OneLifers, don’t foget to bring in plastic eggs stuffed with candy for the Egg Drop!
• Also, next Sunday we are making a HUGE, ginormous, MONSTEROUS announcement!
• Spring your clocks forward, bring a friend, and DON’T MISS IT!!!