On Monday I’m joining Brian and a team of other pastors to head to Burkina Faso in Africa. West Ridge has been engaged in missions efforts in the country for the past couple of years. Burkina is located in West Africa just south of the Sahara Desert and north of Ghana. The country is 55% Muslim and 40% animist. Animists worship various items in nature as determined by a village witch doctor.

Here’s a snapshot of our itinerary. Among other things we will…

• Visit the Lycee Alliance Christienne (LAC). West Ridge partners with LAC, a high school started by the Christian and Missionary Alliance. It’s the highest ranked school in the country. Because of that, many government officials and other influential leaders send their children to this school. Among other things, we are traveling with a family from West Ridge who will be working at the LAC team center for the next couple of years.
• Visit Compassion International sites. Hundreds of children are sponsored by West Ridge. A couple of the guys on the trip will actually get to meet the children they are sponsoring.
• Meet with leaders in our church planting initiative. This will include visiting Pugli villages. The Pougouli people are an unreached people group. In addition to planting churches, West Ridge and its partners have initiated the digging of 26 wells in these villages.
• Spend a night in The Bush. Whether or not I actually sleep in The Bush is a completely different story.
• Participate in a Sunday morning worship service. No, I’m not going to be preaching. Something tells me my “killing cockroaches” story would not translate very well.
• Watch football. Are you kidding? We can’t miss the playoff games.
• Meet with government officials. We want to continue to express our desire to develop partnerships and offer encouragement and credibility for the church planters we are supporting.
• Go on a safari. If all goes as planned, we may have an opportunity on the final day we are in the country to do a safari. I’d like to see a lion roar…and live to tell about it.

Not sure how much, if any, Internet access I’m going to have during this trip. In the worst case scenario, I’ll try to recap when I get back.

Pray for our team, but more importantly pray for the people of Burkina.

Back in the 1992 elections, Bill Clinton’s political machine used the phrase, “It’s about the economy, stupid!” to remind themselves of their priority. If they were going to run a successful campaign, they had to keep the message focused on the economy.

In church world in the 90s, you may have heard leaders use the phrase, “It’s all about the weekend, stupid!” The philosophy was if the weekend services aren’t great, it impacts the growth of every area of the ministry.

Since we do ministry in America in the middle of a very consumer-driven culture, I still believe our weekend services are critical to sharing the Gospel. People who don’t know Christ are consumers before they are convicted and committed Christ-followers. If the weekend service experience isn’t intentional, people who are still consumers will not stay engaged. We can present the Gospel, but they won’t be there to hear it. We can challenge people to become fully-devoted followers of Christ, but they won’t be there to hear that challenge.

That said, there’s a danger if we assume the weekend service is the only component of a discipleship strategy. Primarily, that’s an issue because it’s not God’s design for spiritual growth. Corporate worship and teaching is one component, but it’s not the only component.

At West Ridge, our focus is instead on leading people on a journey of life change. In other words, it’s not about the weekend–it’s about the life change. With that in mind, we’re both intentional about what happens on Sunday, but we’re also very intentional and focused in how we offer next steps.

This current series is the perfect example. The services in “The Naked Truth” series have been very compelling. We’ve given great amounts of prayer and attention to every detail of the teaching, worship, graphics, media, stories, etc. But, we’ve also been very intentional about the next steps we are offering people to embrace the journey of life change.

For example, here are some of the specific next steps we’ve encouraged people to take:

• Online Assessments – We’re offering check-up assessments for couples who are dating, engaged or married. This assessment ultimately offers recommendations for further conversation and action steps. It may encourage couples to pursue counseling as needed. We’re also offering a separate assessment for single adults.
• Daily Devotionals – We’re writing and delivering daily devotionals through email to encourage couples to talk, pray and study the Bible together.
• Group Connections – We’ve challenged everyone to connect in a short-term group based on their life stage and location. These groups are engaging in further conversation and Bible study based on the topics of each week’s message.
• Life Care Support – Where folks need additional support beyond the assessments, devotionals and groups, we also have support groups and counseling available. We have over 100 volunteers helping people in support groups that provide care for folks wrestling with divorce, substance abuse, sexual addiction, financial challenges and more. We also work with local, professional counselors to refer people to counseling when it’s helpful.

To our knowledge, we’ve seen a couple thousand “next steps” in recent weeks including almost 100 people who have accepted Christ and begun their life change journey. That’s what our ministry is all about. We celebrate the people who show up for services on Sunday because we know it leads to thousands of people taking next steps and experiencing life change.

It’s about the life change, stupid!

If you attend West Ridge Church, I wanted to share this update on how we’re responding to the earthquake in Haiti. Brian will be sharing more about this at tomorrow’s services. Here’s how you can help.

Pray

Please pray for the country of Haiti and for all the families impacted by this. Pray for order to be restored and that supplies would get to the people who need them. Pray for God’s peace to reign in every circumstance, and that He will comfort all those who are grieving. Pray, specifically, about how God may ask you to be involved in the days ahead.

Give

• Samaritan’s Purse – Ten percent of the Sunday offering on January 17 will be given to Samaritan’s Purse for earthquake relief. Samaritan’s Purse has already secured a facility with 200 beds to treat the sick and wounded. They are also delivering supplies and sending personnel.
• Gleaning For The World – This organization partnered with our church and Engage Atlanta by providing nine truckloads of supplies for Atlanta flood relief this past fall. Currently, they have already sent over 20 shipments of supplies to Haiti and over 550,000 meals.
• World Help – World Help has already successfully delivered $3.5 million worth of medical supplies and humanitarian aid to Haiti. They had a presence on the ground before this disaster, and are positioned to continue delivering aid.

At this point, please do not donate supplies to the church. We will continue to communicate with our ministry partners. As ongoing needs develop, we will ask for your help to gather necessary supplies.

We also anticipate the opportunity to send volunteer teams to assist in the recovery and restoration in the days ahead. Begin to prayerfully consider joining us on a relief trip, and check back here for more details.

We had an amazing day at West Ridge today. Great crowds in both services. The parking lot and auditorium were near capacity at our 11:00 a.m. service. Attendance was up 20% from the same weekend last year. That’s on top of our typical January bump in attendance. In fact, we broke an attendance record for a non-holiday Sunday. Guess that’s a sign that we’ve hit a topic that folks are wrestling with in their daily lives.

I’m pretty proud of the guys in the worship team for pulling together a great service. There were fun elements, worshipful moments and instances that caused you to pause and reflect on what really holds relationships together.

Brian taught one of the strongest messages I’ve heard him share. He didn’t pull any punches as he walked through the marriage myths and then revealed the “naked truth” about God’s design for the marriage covenant. If you missed it, you’ll be able to watch the message later this week. Whether you’re married or single, you need to hear this message.

Next week, “The Naked Truth” continues. Brian and Amy (Brian’s wife) will be talking about how to affair-proof your marriage. This is one of those series where you need to be engaged, but you also need to invite your friends. If you can, please consider coming to the 9:00 a.m. service to leave more room for first-time guests at our 11:00 a.m. service.

And, if you’re not in our region, pray for the marriages in our church and in our community. We really believe this is a pivotal moment for our marriages and families. Help us to be open to the heart change that God wants to see take place.

I’m really excited about the launch of our first series in 2010. On Sunday, we start “The Naked Truth: Uncovering the Realities of Relationships” at West Ridge.

Brian will start us off this weekend by debunking some of the myths of marriage. Many of these myths create false expectations and become the source of frustration and division for many couples. If you are single, I can’t think of anything better than to understand God’s expectations for a marriage before you make that covenant with someone else.

Here are the specific marriage myths that Brian will be hitting on Sunday:

1. If a couple truly loves one another they won’t ever argue or have problems.
2. A marriage makes a person a complete human being.
3. Sex is really not that important in a marriage.
4. The key to having a lasting marriage is finding Mr. or Mrs. Right.
5. The purpose of marriage is happiness.
6. Married couples should do everything together.
7. Having children will make two people in a marriage closer and increase happiness.
8. Once I get married he/she will change.
9. Spouses should be able to read one another’s minds.
10. A person’s family background has little effect on their marriage.
11. Bonus: A marriage can never survive an affair.

We will pull no punches in this series. We will be talking about affair-proofing your marriage and what to do if you’ve messed up. We’ll talk about divorce and brokenness and healing. We will address singles and those that are single again. And, yes, we will even be talking about sex.

For those of you who live in and around northwest Atlanta, we’d love for you to join us. But don’t come alone. Invite some friends to join you. This should be an easy ask. Just about everyone is interested in the realities of relationships.

The question is this… Can you handle the naked truth?

Brian included a number of stats in this morning’s message. He shared the summary from our 2009 ministry year at West Ridge Church. For those of you who weren’t here, I thought you might be interested in seeing some of these highlights.

2009 at West Ridge Church

• 540 people (who we know of) accepted Christ on our campus.
• 425 people were baptized.
• Attendance at our Christmas Eve services increased 70% from last Christmas…and 70 people accepted Christ.
• We finished the year with 55% of our students and adults involved in a small group.
• Sunday attendance is up 10.5% since the end of summer.
• Student ministry has increased 35% in that same period.
• Since 1997, West Ridge has helped start 42 churches with 4 more launching in January 2010. We also commissioned 5 more church planters today. The churches we helped plant in the United States are reaching over 10,000 people each weekend.
• 4,000 volunteers from 36 churches participated in the “Community Makeover” weekend this past summer completing more then 400 projects.
• We’ve helped to provide the funds to have 26 wells dug in Burkina Faso, Africa.
• This fall, we partnered with Samaritan’s Purse and several other agencies to provide flood relief to 425 homes. 1,100 volunteers gave over 20,000 hours in that effort.
• At Thanksgiving, we partnered with CAYA Ministries to provide turkeys and food boxes to 700 families.
• At Christmas, we provided toys and food boxes to 1,400 families including 3,400 kids.

Brian concluded the message by talking about what’s coming in 2010. Here are some of the specific goals he mentioned for the coming 12 months:

• Launch our second West Ridge campus in the West Paulding area this fall
• Grow our commitment to launching strong, reproducing churches in the United States (more details coming soon!)
• Increase small group involvement to 75% of students and adults
• Engage 50% of students and adults in a volunteer role serving others
• Take 600 students to summer camp at Myrtle Beach
• Partner with 75 churches in this year’s “Community Makeover” (Your church can join us.)
• Work with Samaritan’s Purse to rebuild homes in our region that were impacted by the 2009 flood
• Focus on an initiative to encourage healthy families beginning with “The Naked Truth” series starting next week
• Increase our engagement in prayer across the ministry

We have a great deal to be thankful for, and I’m really excited about what’s coming next. This is a God-sized plan! I’m praying we’ll be faithful and obedient to his call on our lives to see the full impact of the life change that results.

I can’t wait to dive in!

Here’s the Christmas story as you’ve probably never heard it before.

James Griffin, one of our staff leaders in the student ministry area, wrote and shared this prior Brian’s message at our Christmas Eve services. It was one of several highlights at West Ridge Church over the last couple of days.

We did something today at West Ridge that we’ve never done before, and the stories are already starting to flow in from people who were deeply impacted by the experience.

We’re in the middle of a brief three-week series on being “Fearless.” Basically, we’re teaching about how big our God is and that Christ-followers should be champions of hope and courage in today’s rough economic times.

After teaching a couple messages from 2 Corinthians 9:6-11, Brian challenged our church to immediately demonstrate generosity and faith. Following the example of something we heard about from Rob Bell…

• We took several thousand dollars from the church’s funds and put them in two big buckets at the front of the auditorium.
• At the end of the service, we asked folks to bring cash offerings to add to what was already in the buckets.
• It felt like just about everyone in each service came forward to make an offering. Literally thousands of people participated.
• Then we encouraged people who are hurting financially to come forward and take the money from the buckets. Some people grabbed one handful. Other people grabbed two handfuls depending on their needs.
• In one service, the buckets were emptied and people just started writing checks to other people.

Obviously, since we didn’t count the money between the offering and the giving, there’s no way to know exactly how much was given away today. All I know is that this was a great picture of the church in action. People who God has blessed gave an offering from what God have given them. Then God used that offering to bless people who needed help.

Wouldn’t it be something if the Church in America became known for its generosity?

This is a great story from West Ridge Church. Two people literally have new life because of the faith and generosity of two women from the church. Check out this news story: