The next two items on the Gauge are “We are Laser Focused” and “We are Meticulous.”

A story this morning on Good Morning America talked about how the new, energy efficient windows do a great job reflecting the sun’s rays. In fact, too good of a job! They act like magnifying glasses, reflecting the sun in beams nearly as intense as lasers. The focused sun light is so strong that it is melting the vinyl siding on neighboring houses!

That’s some intense focus. And that’s what we strive for at OneLife.

When we got started, we only did Sunday mornings. No small groups, no youth ministry, no big missions push. Just worship and the Gospel. Many told me that was too simple, but man am I glad we were laser focused. Now we remain laser focused though our ability to do more has indeed expanded. But it has expanded as far as it probably ever will. Now we simply focus on Sunday mornings and OneLife Communities. That’s it. Everything we will ever do from this point forward (missions, community outreach, etc.) will be funneled through one of these two avenues.

Why do we stay so focused? Because of number 6 on The Gauge. We are meticulous.

Colosians 3:23 says “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” When it comes to doing things for God, we want to make sure the details matter. Everything we do will be intentional and excellent. It simply isn’t possible to do that when a church or organization isn’t laser focused. That means some won’t like what we do. They will say we should offer more. Others will say we are too nit-picky or too worried about “the show.” And hey, they might be right. Because when it comes to the God who puts on a show every night when the stars are shining and the God who knows every nit-picky detail about his creation – down to numbering the hairs on their head – the least we can do is our best to give that back to Him.

So we unapologetically remind our staff, volunteers, and partners that what makes OneLife unique is that we are laser focused and meticulous in all that we do. The same approach can make us dangerous in our personal lives, too. How are you laser focused and meticulous in what God has called YOU to do? Focus makes you powerful. Being meticulous makes you unstoppable.

Let’s go do it!

• “To Be Continued” jumped into week two full force talking about hell.
• We discovered that hell exists to deal righteously with Satan and unbelievers.
• However…God desires that NO ONE should perish! 2 Peter 3:9
• Because of that, our lives should reflect the reality that hell is real and people will go there without Jesus!
• But instead, most of us have misconceptions about hell.
• Like the song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” Which our band BLEW OUT OF THE WATER!
• Worship leader Zane Ellis played the part of Charlie Daniels and we stumbled on a fiddle player who was INCREDIBLE.
• All of our closet rednecks at OneLife LOVED it.
• Speaking of Worship Leaders, our boy Dillan Howell did an amazing job teaching a new song and leading some great worship.
• Momentum at OneLife is at an all-time high. One indicator of that is stories of life change.
• Kydon Bowen, our volunteer coordinator, got a first-time volunteer survey back that showed exactly why we value volunteerism.
• It was a story of a girl who gave church a try. Smiling greeters made her first day memorable at OneLife. Now she wants to be a smiling greeter to help more people find Jesus! AWESOME!
• Another indicator is good-ole fashioned attendance. Average attendance in September jumped by nearly 50 people a week (not counting the One Year Celebration spike). THAT IS NOT NORMAL ONELIFE!!!
• God is up to something HUGE and we are just along for the ride.
• Share your faith story! Invite someone to church this week! Because remember…hell is real and God desires for no one to go there!
• Let’s do our part to keep the people of Powell and Greater-Knoxville out of hell.
• And let’s see them bust the gates of heaven wide open. We’ll be talking about heaven this Sunday.
• DON’T MISS IT!!!

What a great day we had this morning…talking about hell! It was only great because of the hope we have in 2 Peter 3:9 that God is patient with us, desiring that no one should perish!

Discussions in OneLife Communities should be incredible this week. Lots to think through. If you would like some further reading before your group meets, it can be found here:

Rick Warren tweeted something interesting last week: “Anything that grows too fast never lasts.”

At first, that irritated me. Then I realized he was probably right.

God’s Word is full of analogies. Jesus taught with them in his parables. So looking to God’s creation it is clear that this is indeed a godly principle. Cancer grows too fast. Weeds grow too fast. Populations grow too fast and endanger other populations. On and on the list goes. Even businesses growing too fast is a problem. Just Google “grow too fast” and see all the examples.

The only problem is this…what is “too” fast? I don’t know. When it comes to the Church, the magnitude of lostness would seem to echo the country song “Too much fun, what’s that mean? It’s like too much money there’s no such thing! Like a girl too pretty, with too much class. Being too lucky, a car too fast…” Ok…you get the point. Can a church really grow “too” fast if it is reaching lost people?

I don’t know. I wouldn’t think so…

But here’s what I do know. We are running a marathon. If OneLife is going to put a dent in the lostness of our community, it’s going to take time. It means we must value rest and not be a bunch of sprinters. Our volunteers must rest. Our staff must rest. And our church must rest.

We are in it for the long haul. So that’s why I may be inclined to believe what Pastor Rick had to say in that tweet. 30 years after planting his church, they are tens-of-thousands strong and have sent tens-of-thousands of missionaries from their church to the four corners of the earth. They have made huge progress at battling the lostness in Saddleback Valley. But it didn’t happen overnight. It wasn’t a sprint. It was a marathon.

For OneLife, we must not let our foot off the gast. Ever. But we also need to remember – it’s not a sprint. Let’s allow God to grow us at HIS pace, not our own. Because our pace may be one that is too fast and one that – on our own – is guaranteed to never last.

The third thing on The Gauge – OneLife’s non-negotiables – is that we will not be anonymous.

Throughout Scripture, God calls many people by name. Whether it was the disciples to join his ministry, Lazarus to come out of the grave, or Mary when she didn’t recognize Jesus after his resurrection, it seems important to God that we be known. As a result, we want to ensure that people coming to OneLife aren’t just another number. But just as God desires to know them deeply and intimately, we want them to feel known and not be anonymous.

This plays out practically in a couple of different ways. First, it is incredibly important and valuable to us that people get involved! If you are just showing up on Sundays then you are missing a huge point. Join a volunteer team. Get plugged in to a Community. Do something so that you cannot be anonymous and so you can know others and be known. This is also how we care for people. Time and time again people are in need but we never know it because they are not plugged in to the church in a way that someone can notice their need. So they fall through the cracks, all because they remained anonymous. The flip side is that when tragedy has struck a OneLifer who is not anonymous, we’ve seen real ministry happen. Whether it was the death of a baby, a spouse had a heart attack, a family that is falling apart, a single mom who lost her job, and on and on the list goes, we’ve seen some unbelievable stuff in just our first year. But we were able to minister effectively and quickly when people were not anonymous.

The second way that plays out is we simply don’t allow anonymity when it comes to the “structure” of our church. In other words, anonymous notes in the offering – they get trashed by our counting team without ever making it to a staff member’s desk. The “someone told me” comments don’t get heard until “someone” is willing to own them. Why? Because the urgency of the Gospel does not allow us time to deal with people or situations that lack so much confidence they won’t put their name to it. And when they do, we remember number 5 on The Gauge: we are laser focused! Life-change is what we are all about and when that’s the main thing, we must be more concerned about reaching than we are about keeping. But more on that one is to come later this week

So up next…Number 4. We are running a marathon. Check back in Thursday for more!