I heard a great analogy today that has kind of messed me up a little bit! Check it out…

When a Chess Master has a student who needs to learn the game of Chess, the best way for the student to learn the game is to remove the Queen. The Queen is the most effective and dangerous piece on the board. It can move any direction as far as it wants. Inexperienced Chess players overuse the Queen and by relying on it too much, they lose. So Chess Masters teach their students how to play the game without the Queen, so that when the Queen is added back in they are prepared to use it as a dangerous tool rather than the only piece they can think of moving. Then they will be an unstoppable Chess player.

In the Church, we have a Queen – Sunday mornings. In many cases we have made Sunday mornings our only tool that we know how to use. It is on Sunday mornings that all repentance, discipleship, evangelism, worship, fellowship, service, stewardship, and anything else should be done. Sure, we may throw in a small group here or a missions project there. But let’s be honest – it’s all about Sunday.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a HUGE fan of Sundays. We invest a lot of time and resources into making Sundays the easiest and best opportunity for someone far from God to find Him, or for those who know Him to worship and grow closer to Him. But here’s the what if: what if we learned how to do all of that without our Queen? What if we pretended we didn’t have Sunday mornings and had to reach our world for Jesus?

If we learned how to do that, and THEN added in our Queen of Sunday mornings, we would truly be unstoppable. So OneLifers, I have a challenge for you. Do you wait for Sundays to be your only opportunity to serve, worship, give, evangelize, disciple, or fellowship? Or are you using all the other pieces on the board – Monday through Saturday – to do that, too? The answer is obvious!

I hope you’ll join me in removing the Queen from your mindset for just a moment to evaluate. Then add it back in, and let’s take this city for Jesus using all the tools that we can!

It’s been quiet around here on my blog, twitter, and facebook for the past week. That’s because our church has been dealing with a pretty tough tragedy that – on top of a staff retreat this week – has had my mind and emotions pretty much occupied.

My wife’s most recent blog post sums it all up better than I could, so as I break my week-long silence I’ll just defer to her.

InsideMyFishbowl.com – Cloudy with a Chance of Yuckiness

A few years ago I heard a quote at a leadership conference that changed me. It was something like this…

“If you were to die or retire and someone came into your organization to take over as the head leader, what would be the first things they would change?”

Wow. What a question! I’ve been part of a lot of organizations that roasted the key leader. Everyone had their opinion about what the guy or girl at the top did wrong. And if they would just do a few things differently, we’d be much better off!

In that conference I realized that the person who would be roasted at OneLife if I didn’t continually ask this question would be – *gulp* – me!

So routinely we look at where we are and ask a similar question. Currently, I’ve posed this question to our staff guys and key leaders:

“If we could start all over again, what would we do differently?”

And guess what. Whatever the answers to that question may be, that’s exactly what we’re going to do! Because if we find ourselves talking more about how great it USED to be back in the past rather than how great it WILL be going forward, we have lost our vision and will soon perish (Proverbs 29:18).

Then it hit me. The same is true in everyday life. If I died and my wife got a better husband, what would he be like? If my daughter got a better dad, what would change? If my employees had a better boss, how would he treat them? If our church got a better pastor, what would he do differently? If someone could come in and be a more devout Christ follower, what would they give to Jesus?

That thought process is a game changer, because reality about Jesus is this: HE is our chance to start all over! It’s not about what we do or how hard we try to be better or do more. So give it up to him. And ask HIM, if I could start all over, what would be different? Then don’t just sit there. Go do it. Go start all over.

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):

Easter Sunday is our Super Bowl, and we’ve been treating it like that, too! It’s a HUGE deal to us. So here’s our game plan to make Easter 2011 the best we’ve ever had! (yeah, yeah…we’ve only had one other Easter service, but you get my point! )

First, it’s a big deal because without Easter, we wouldn’t have Christianity. So we have a celebration scheduled for this Sunday that will blow your mind! More importantly, it will serve up an incredible opportunity for you to give thanks to Jesus for what he did for you. Videos, songs, a new series, and an announcement about this summer (which is just a month away!) are just highlights of what we’ve got. Our teams have worked hard to make this our best offering of worship to Jesus yet. I can’t wait!

Second, we’ve pulled out all the stops to fill the place up. Why do we want it full? Because Jesus said HE wants it full! (check out this parable to read more) But this year, our approach to filling up His house was not to host a big community event. Instead, we want to equip OneLifers to be the chief inviters. So this past Sunday we equipped everyone with some Peeps to invite their “peeps” (thanks to Elevation Church for the idea and video), we have a Facebook Event that has invited nearly 2,000 people and counting, our OneLife Communities hand-wrote personal invitations to every family that has ever visited our church, and we have challenged EVERY OneLifer to invite someone to come with them.

I can’t wait to see it pay off! On top of that, we are going to our community this weekend to make connections and invite them face-to-face. On Friday and Saturday, we’ll be providing free photos with the Easter Bunny from 11-2 at the Clinton Highway Chick-fil-a (save your email about the Easter Bunny being pagan because it won’t get read First of all, if you truly believe that, you better not take your kids to Disney World to see Mickey or to a UT football game to see Smokey. Second, God redeems ALL things and through this event with the Easter Bunny, we will see people come to church who wouldn’t do so otherwise!) This event is COMPLETELY volunteer-driven so sign up here! There are only a handful of openings left so you better act fast!

All of this to say, OneLifers we’ve given you every opportunity to make a huge difference for eternity this weekend. Now the ball is in your court! Don’t let us down. More than that, don’t let Jesus down! He wants to use YOU to make a difference. The people you invite might say no or not show up, but don’t let that stop you. Invite them, pray for them, and watch God work! You’ll be amazed. I promise.

Let’s do this! It’s game-time!