In 20 months as a church, it just so happens that we’ve done 20 series of sermons. Some have been short, two-week series. Some have been longer, as long as seven weeks. We’ve covered everything from Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n Roll to a study of Joseph from the Old Testament. All of them have had their own unique qualities.

But none – in my opinion – have been as life-changing as the most recent one we just finished. A series called “I am Unstoppable.”

The point of this series is that every person who calls themselves a follower of Christ has been put on a mission to change the world. And it’s a mission that Jesus promised would be unstoppable. It’s one that simply won’t fail. The main weapon he chose to use is the power of a story, a story of changed lives thanks to a Savior who paid a price we could never pay for ourselves. 11 guys were left on Earth with this story and the results 2,000 years later are nothing short of amazing. Now we play a part in writing the rest of that story.

Some of the highlights of this series over the past five weeks have been:

- More than 30 people gave their lives to Jesus! They now have an incredible story to tell. They are now unstoppable!
- More people than ever are getting plugged in to the local church. Dozens of new volunteers are in line to start making a difference at OneLife and nearly 20 new people just completed the Partnership process.
- Life-change isn’t just happening on Sundays. Literally every week we heard stories of people who were in conversations throughout the week that led to them giving up control of their life to Jesus.
- This series gave us the opportunity to study several different miracles and teachings of Jesus. I had more fun than ever studying for these sermons each week and learning all that Jesus has to teach us through His Word in so many ways.
- More than ever, this series reached men. Women seem to love everything we do. To be honest, they are the “easy” demographic to reach. Reaching men, on the other hand, is HARD! But one Sunday alone I had three grown men come to me and tell me of what Jesus is doing in their lives.
- We kicked off our online giving system called “Automate the Important,” and many new families signed up to make a difference with their generosity! Check it out here: www.onelifeknox.com/give
- For number crunchers out there, this was our highest attended series, too. Attendance is up nearly 40% from this time last year.
- OneLife is beginning to reach far beyond Powell and Knoxville. This past Sunday a young couple who had been watching our services online for several months in Atlanta drove up to Knoxville just to visit a service in person, then turned around and drove back to Atlanta. Oh yeah, the wife of this couple gave her heart to Jesus on Sunday, too!
- Speaking of online services, we average nearly 100 views of the service each week online. That blows my mind.
- This series spawned an idea to leverage summer to make a huge difference in our community. An Unstoppable Summer kicks off in June and WILL be INCREDIBLE! Stay tuned for more details…

OneLifers, I’ve never been more pumped up about our church and we’ve never had this much momentum. Let’s ride it through the summer and look forward to a huge fall! The best is yet to come!

Over the past four weeks I’ve been challenging OneLifers to tell their stories of how God has radically changed them through Jesus. It’s been incredible to hear the reports about how people have shared their stories on facebook, blogs, emails, face-to-face conversations, or phone calls. Most of these stories have been met with great responses and conversations.

However, some of these stories have been met with the exact opposite. I’ve heard from several OneLifers that their stories have stirred up pretty raw emotions and even anger. Long story short: their stories have shown that people are just down right mean. Some from friends, some from family, and some from complete strangers. But why? Why do people care so much? If someone is bold enough to put themselves out there and be transparent, why do people get so offended and turn mean?

I think I’ve noticed a commonality among all the examples I’ve heard this month.

People don’t like transparency. Our culture – especially Southern culture – loves to hide behind false pretenses. Things like “I’m a good person” or “Everybody makes mistakes” seem to be our scape goat. So when we get real, admit that our lives are a mess, and that ONLY Jesus can clean it all up, people who have yet to experience that don’t like it. They want to feel like their life is all together and don’t you dare tell them that it isn’t.

Wait…you didn’t tell them that, did you? That’s right. You didn’t. You simply said YOUR life wasn’t all together and that Jesus cleaned it up for you. But they relate to your past because they are living in the past, and they want to convince you and their own self that they have nothing to be ashamed of or nothing to repent. And they don’t want to know that they aren’t ok. So the real problem isn’t you or your story. The problem is them. That’s why they hide behind a computer screen or derogatory comments instead of seeking to understand more about what you say God is doing and has done in your life.

So what should your response be? Engage them and argue about what they disagree with? Try to reason with them and get them to understand? Nope. I don’t think any of that works. The only response is to keep telling your story! Keep showing the change that Jesus has made in your life and move on. Jesus told his disciples that if their stories weren’t heard in a certain place or town, to dust their feet off and move on! (Matthew 10:14) The same is true for us.

But most of all…don’t quit. Jesus wants his house to be FULL! That means while some people won’t hear our stories or accept our invitations, we can’t quit! Keep pressing. It’s a matter of heaven and hell, and YOU are the servant God chose to invite people to His party. Don’t stop! Because remember…you ARE unstoppable!

Watch Sunday’s message that adresses this very issue here (begins at 30:30):

The blog has been silent for a couple weeks because things at the OneLife office have been crazy! But crazy in an incredible way. There are so many stories of changed lives that I could fill an entire novel with them. On top of that, we are gearing up for a summer that will impact our community and get us ready for the fall (yeah, we’re already thinking about the fall!).

One thing we are doing for the summer is getting into the 21st Century with online giving. If conversations at your house are at all like mine, some of the most used words are “Where’s the debit card?!” because we never have cash and “Have we paid that bill yet?” because only one or two aren’t paid automatically each month. So when it comes to our generosity to the church, why should we expect things to be much different?

So we are making a push to encourage anyone who calls OneLife their home to Automate the Important. If generosity is important to you – and I sure hope it is since Jesus said our heart and treasure will be in the same place – then I encourage you to automate it! Our tech team has done an amazing job developing a system that is easy to use and will allow you to set recurring gifts weekly, monthly, or semi-monthly. Just like you do it for bills and mortgage payments – do it for church!

I encourage you to take just a minute (because that’s all it will take!) and set up your generosity to be automated. You won’t have to remember cash or checks on Sunday mornings or feel guilty if you forget (and trust me, it’s even happened to us!). Harrison and I have automated our giving to be automatically given each month, and it is a great feeling to know that our generosity will continue to impact many lives without me having to remember each week.

See for yourself how easy this is at www.onelifeknox.com/give and set up your online giving account today so you can Automate the Important!