I'll wait until you're done.
Finished? Okay...good.
I mentioned that my life needed to change. I mentioned that being content is no longer good enough and I needed a heart transplant...take out my heart and give me God's heart. Not literally. That's creepy. But, you know what I mean.
Anywho, a few paragraphs into that post...I mentioned about joining a small church plant that originated from my home church. This itty bitty church is called Refuge Long Beach. It may be small...but it is POWERFUL...and it is RADICAL. Seriously, it is an odd group of affluent, old, young, poor, the lost, the rejected, the poor, the homeless & the forsaken. Basically...it's like Jesus gathered "the least of these" and threw them all into an auditorium and called it our church. It's AMAZING & in the short time I've been there I've seen lives changed. Men go from homeless to sheltered & employed. Families paving the way for children to grow up in a home filled with Christ....The point is, this isn't just a church like your average church. It's the church that God intended...it's the Scriptural church of Acts. It would make the apostle Paul proud. The pastor at our church, Peyton, he is to blame for all of this. He is the one who pioneered the church plant (along with a slew of other amazing men & women) and he is a radical, blunt, funny & a Jesus loving guy. Not to mention, he and his crazy cool wife have adopted & are adopting again. You may recognize them from this post...They are still waiting for their sweet boy, wherever he may be & I ask that you pray for them in this! But, Peyton wrote a book. It's called Church Zero & it's radical.
From the back cover:
It’s Time to punch delete and Hit ‘Reset.’
What
happened to the Western Church? When did we stop being radical,
dangerous, and impossible to ignore? Why are we losing the generation
under 30 and reaching so few nonbelievers?
In Church Zero,
Peyton Jones says one of our big problems is this: we squeeze our
leaders into a mold that cuts their hair and drains away their commando
strength.
Scripture lays out a leadership model
that worked explosively in the first century—but frankly, we’re scared
of it. We don’t have to be. When properly understood, Christ’s model can
help your church live the way the body was meant to live, truly making a
difference in your community. Church Zero gives the blueprints
for how the Western Church might start rebuilding from the ground up if
a pipe bomb were placed underneath all of our church structures
overnight. What would tomorrow look like if we had to restart from a
biblical ground zero?
Church Zero will help us once again become a radical, dangerous people who cannot be ignored. It’s time to break out of the matrix.
How does this matter to anything I've been talking about here about orphans? How is this at all relevant to my desire to change the world? It has everything to do with these things. The church needs to change. There are rolls that need to be filled in the church, like that of apostle & prophet & when we can do that we will change the world & expand the kingdom of God. For reals. Don't believe me? Read the book. Peyton will share his heart for a reformed church to be built from the ground up & he will do it with Scripture & way too many pop culture references! It's amazing! I per-ordered my copy for my Kindle & am about half way done...but I have a special gift for you, too. You can download & read this book for FREE! But for a limited time only. Go HERE, to Amazon & download your free digital copy. Promise you won't be disappointed.
And, if you miss the chance to download it for FREE, buy a copy! It's worth your $15 & not to mention, the publisher is a non-profit. So, any profit that they do make...it goes to third world country missions. You get an awesome book. Win. Those in need hear the gospel preached. Win.
