Summer S.L.A.M. (Sharing Life And Mission)Starting
Sunday, August 3rd, Newsong North
Orange County
will be changing the location and times of our Sunday services. Our hope is to save our weekly facility costs
and to provide more options for our church family to build deeper relationships
with each other as well as the community.
Basically, we are asking in faith for the Lord to provide us
a facility for free for 9 weeks so we can use what we would have spent on
normal and usual facility expenses to expand the Kingdom. We believe that the Lord will provide and
show us exactly where we need to be and show us how to reach the goals that we
have set. Though there were some clear
options to us, those doors closed and we are now just trusting that God will
provide us the insight, creativity, and innovation to meet our faith step. We are looking at several options some of
which include meeting at a smaller location but provide multiple worship
experiences either Sunday morning or evening or both. We are also tapping into our networks to see
if there is a church/facility that would be willing to partner with us and
provide for our facility needs with no out of pocket expenses.
We will be continuing in our efforts to be a church FOR the
community and provide Hotspots for connection and service. We are hoping that things like play dates
with families, bbq’s with other small groups, organized sports activities and
service opportunities will emerge organically from within our community. Sunday morning will still be filled with
“church” but hopefully distributed around the North Orange
County area and
beyond.
This is an exciting adventure that we are on as a church
family, motivated by the needs of the Kingdom.
My prayer is that you and your family, friends, small group, neighbors,
co-workers will ultimately see the hand of God as He moves in and through the
dynamics of intentional relational investment.
Why are we doing this?
Currently we spend on average approximately 1800.00 a week
on facility costs which include the rental of the theater, trucks, and
storage. This is at an enormous savings
for a church our size where typically 3-5k is spent on weekly facility
costs. The staff team has done a
tremendous job negotiating our rates and cutting costs to provide an excellent,
warm, and engaging experience of celebration and worship.
Our goal for the next 9 weeks is to save our weekly facility
costs and use that money to fund a strategic partnership that we are building
with a group of people in Southeast Asia to fund a unique arts center in the
heart of an arts district as well as be a part of establishing an international
church in one of the most strategic and key cities in the world. One of the things that we have always
believed is that through the arts, business, and community development and
churches, Kingdom impact can be had on a local, regional, and global
level.
Can we find a host church during our regular meeting time on
Sunday mornings and ask them to give us prime meeting time and prime meeting
space for free?
This would be extremely difficult to find. Most churches around the Fullerton area would not be able to fit a
church of our size and would not want to change their services to accommodate
our needs-let alone do it for free. Even
If there were a church or facility that would allow us to do that, it would
cost us money which would then move us farther away from our goal. We did made several asks to Fullerton College
to see if they would accommodate us, but because of their operational costs and
needs, they declined our proposal.
Have we checked the park or some public place to meet during
Sunday Mornings?
Though a viable option and one that would probably be
minimal in terms of costs, the erratic availability of public space would make
us week to week in terms of where we met.
This would place undue stress on our staff team to try and find a place
every week. Most public parks do not allow amplified music ( and music is
important to us!) and charge for parking-we wanted to avoid any out of pocket
expenses for our family especially for logistics like parking. For food yes, but parking, not really!
Can’t we meet at the Ministry Center?
The main issue here is size of space and parking. In order to accommodate our church family, we
would need to add additional services on a Sunday since the Lounge area of the
ministry center fits 90 people at one time.
Even that is snug. In addition,
the children’s ministry space as is would also be snug. There may be some ways to tweak the configuration
of our offices so that we can have enough space to provide the same caliber
children’s programming that we are committed to providing. This is definitely an option we are looking
into.
Why is this so last minute?
2 weeks notice doesn’t seem to be enough time to make such a huge change
like this!
Yes, we definitely wish we had more time! One of the things that has been clear to me,
is the idea that spiritual maturity is not measured by what you know or even
sometimes by what you do, but rather by the speed of obedience. It was clear that we had the means to meet a
particular need and thus believed we needed to make some adjustments-even
though it was choosing the discomfort of change, to meet those needs. This discussion began the week after the Vibe
conference and has continued for the last several weeks with our staff, key
leaders, and some core volunteers/leaders.
On the other hand, in order to do our due diligence and hear
from the people in our community, we waited several weeks to make this
announcement and make the change. In
addition, we are having the mini-townhall after service today to hear from the
community to see if there are things that we haven’t thought of or to see what
God may be saying through our family. If
there is an overwhelming sense that God is not in this, then we will reconsider
what we are doing and wait on Him.
One of the hallmarks of our church has always been a certain
amount of flexibility. This was
especially true in the area of facilities.
In the beginning, there were many, many weeks where we wouldn’t know
where we were meeting the following Sunday and God would then provide. Communication was viral and people would be
proactive to find out where we were meeting or proactive to share accurate
information. It was and still is an
exciting part of our journey and tangibly reminds us that as a community of
faith, much like those that have gone before us, that following Jesus is at
times inconvenient, uncomfortable, and uncertain.
But wasn’t all of that moving around and uncertainty a
result of poor planning?
We can always plan better and improve our
infrastructure. In fact, we would love
for those who have that gift to join us in creating better and more progressive
systems for us to improve as an organization and as a family. However, in the beginning and even now,
finding space that accommodates us in terms of size, children’s facility,
parking etc. is a challenge that is not easy to overcome. We could easily spend 3-6k and meet at Hotels
every week, but that’s nearly 40-60 percent of our weekly giving. I just can’t see us doing that even if it is
consistent. As a result, we are
constantly dealing with vendors/locations/people that are also juggling
schedules, facility needs, etc. Because
of or size and needs, there are not many venues that can accommodate us.
Who makes decisions like this? Why don’t I get to have a say?
Great question. At Newsong North Orange
County, we are a staff
led, member/volunteer driven church.
This means that the staff lead the church in terms of vision, and the
members/volunteers drive the ministry of the church. Officially, we need congregational approval
for 3 issues:
Ø
Indebtedness (purchasing property)
Ø
Hiring of a new lead pastor
Ø
Approving annual church budget.
These parameters are all in compliance with the standards
and by-laws set by our denomination (Evangelical Covenant) as well as all the
other Newsong churches. Since we are not
going into indebtedness or dealing with other votable issues, congregational
approval is not necessary. In addition,
we have never had or needed congregational approval to change service times in
the past. They were done to adjustment
to our circumstances and facility challenges.
The only difference now, is that we are being intentional about our
service time change and NOT reacting to circumstances.
I firmly believe that God does speak through community,
which is why we are bringing it to the attention of the church family (members)
and asking for your input, thoughts and insights for deeper understanding of
God’s heart in this matter. A public
forum for public discussion. This seems to be so much better than the side bar
conversations that tend to happen in private much of which is based on
innuendos and false assumptions.
What makes YOU believe that God is in this?
So much of life is clearly in the arena of the gray. Though there are many things in Scriptures
that are black and white, much of life is lived within the margins of
discernment, wisdom, and prayerful courage.
I don’t think that I was certain that God was in the initial idea as it
formed in my heart during the Vibe conference.
However, as I prayed and shared it with our staff team, leaders, and
other people, the overwhelming sense was that this is something that God wants
us to do.
Since changing service times and locations is not a moral
issue, there really is no black and white when it comes to decisions like
this. There is however conventional
church planting/church culture wisdom.
The decision to set up our Extreme Giving fund and carve out 25% of our
avg. weekly giving to the poor was something that went totally AGAINST
conventional church culture wisdom. This
idea to move from prime time Sunday mornings to a facility that would be
provided for free is nuts. Yes… it doesn’t make sense and is probably to some a
foolish decision. This is especially apparent since we seemed to have gained
traction, are growing in numbers on Sunday mornings, and are comfortable and
familiar with our set up at Campus Theater.
But the nagging question in my heart is what’s really most important?
Are you SURE this is what God wants us to do?
To be totally honest, I wish I could say that I don’t have
any doubts about this whole thing. I do
have doubts. I am sure that there may be
people who don’t quite understand what we are doing and will criticize us and
perhaps even leave the church because of the change in location/service
times. I am sure there are people who
find any changes to our Sunday experience to be inconvenient and too different
and perhaps don’t want to reach out to their neighbors and community. I am sure there are plenty of people who will
think that funding an arts center and starting an international church is irrelevant
and unnecessary and not worth adjusting our lifestyle.
I am convinced that courageous faith is NOT without
doubt. Radical obedience does NOT come
without uncertainty and discomfort and without criticism. But as our prophet, Tony Campolo said at
Vibe-when did we start thinking that following Jesus WASN’T radical? The Bible says that God took the foolish
things of this world to shame the wise.
He took foolish people and seemingly made foolish decisions to create a
redemptive plan that is filled with hope, love, and life. In our small corner of the universe, my
prayer is that as a family, we will get to experience all of that and more as
we continue to seek God and listen to Him and follow His way.
Is this really only going to be for 9 weeks?
I don’t know what’s going to happen after 9 weeks. Our plan
for now is to go back to Sunday mornings at Fullerton College
in October. But in the next 9 weeks, we
will be asking God and asking you to be in prayer to see what He would have us
do. Should we go back to renting a
weekly meeting space or trust that God will provide and commit those rental
funds to other things beside ourselves?
Having a facility is certainly not wrong. In fact, one day, Lord willing, my prayer is
that we will be able to secure a 10-15,000 sq. ft. facility to be our catalytic
launching pad for leadership development, church planting, and missional
training. But in the meanwhile, what
would God have us do? In the end it what is most important is that we stay
committed to each other humbly listening to God and following Him no matter
what the cost is to our everyday comfort.
We would love to hear from you as you talk to God about
this. What do you sense God saying? Try and move past your preferences,
personality, and even personal situation/circumstances and ask God to speak to
you, individually, family and as a community.
How does God want YOU to make changes in your lifestyle in order to live
more for the Kingdom
of God and less for the
kingdom of me?
Email us at nocstaff@newsong.net
to share with us what you are sensing or email me directly at Brian.kim@newsong.net
Talk to any of our staff team if you have any questions,
concerns, insights.
More than anything, care passionately about the things of
God and the family that you have committed to.
With GREAT hope,
Brian | 
