To our new ROOV blog viewers, welcome! Up to this point, the blog has been mainly for updates on the site… but blogs are so much more useful than that. So, from here on out, the blog is for both updates AND our candid thoughts on life, God, culture, community, the church, funny stories about Chris or just cool things we found on the Internet. So keep checking in.

Personally, I’m a huge fan of blogs. However, I have never actually written one (don’t judge) so I’m very excited right now.

The other day I read something that got me thinking…

It was an article talking about the importance of excellence in everything a church does… The author mentioned music, videos, communication style, etc. He said that, “each thing, if botched up, could be the thing that turned someone off to your church.” I know everyone probably has an opinion of how church should be done. Some will say that all of that is trivial and the service is simply a tool. Others are devoted proponents of the high end production style church service. I’m not taking sides. However, I want to reference this idea—that a random person just checking out this whole God and church idea might be turned off by a poorly orchestrated and disorganized presentation. Whether it’s a very simple or elaborate production, if it is done poorly it can really have a negative effect.

The idea got me thinking a little deeper on the subject. Personally, I don’t work for a church, so, the way I show the Gospel message is my life. Hence, some questions: What if I understood that every part of my life was representing the transforming message of the Gospel? What if it was more than a nice thought I considered once in a while? What if it was actually a conviction I held? Would I live certain parts differently? My bet would be yes. Right now I’d probably be graded with a D if I’m lucky.

A very simple example—imagine if I’m sitting in a restaurant and am a complete tool to the waiter, and they then overhear me talking about God or the church. That’s some bad publicity right there. What if I lived constantly understanding that I may be the only Jesus many people I meet ever come in contact with. I would hate to botch that up. I know we have tremendous freedom from legalism and from doing things to justify ourselves before God. I’m not talking about that. I’m saying what if my typical MO was driven constantly by this understanding that I represent Christ on earth to some people. I’d probably be doing things differently. Ok that’s all for now. I would love to hear your thoughts.