[lcf] brought in JR Woodward (a good friend, and a board member of Ecclesia) back in April to do a formal assessment on our community. We learned a lot about our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to our community. In this assessment one of the most powerful things mentioned was during the interview process. JR met with almost twenty students/staff in this intense four day assessment and during this process he asked students to articulate what the mission of [lcf] is as well as what we believe “church” is. We define our mission by our three “e’s” as we call them: engage the culture, embrace everyone, and endure the cross. Almost all of the students he met with got this one right, however the next question produced quite a different result.

At [lcf] we say that we “express church in four different ways”. Each expression has a purpose behind it as well as obvious differences in both size and function. Our four expressions are: Sunday gathering (everyone coming together), [home groups] (20-50 students that form a mid-size communities that meet weekly to for food, fellowship, and discussion. These students also serve once a month together in our local community), [journey groups] (4-8 students that form gender specific groups that meet directly after [home groups] for prayer and accountability), and personal rhythms (scripture, prayer, and rest are the valued rhythms needed to maintain a healthy spiritual life). The average student that was asked about these expressions responded by knowing only half of the expressions. Ironically, we were planning on doing the final teaching series on our four expressions which began the week after JR left.

[lcf] is only two years old as a church community, and we are still learning to talk in many ways. There are a lot of words out there being used by authors, bloggers, and leaders of churches, such as missional, emerging, and relevant, as well as words that are old in many ways but are carrying a new meaning such as liturgy, community, and rhythm. My wife thought it would be funny one day to compile all these together so she began to write an [lcf] dictionary for all the words/phrases we use. All joking aside, we must learn to use the same language in order to be one. Every nationality, every culture, and even every family has its own language that has formed over time. In order to truly be intertwined with the culture around you, you must learn the language. Learning a language may be the first step in this process, but it is, in fact, a two-step process. The true test arises when we move from learning a language to adapting our lives around the language. I can speak about community and doing life with those around me. I can even be quite persuasive as to why we should have rhythms in our lives. However, it takes on an entirely new perspective once I began to actually live it out. When people begin to see the result of such a life ooze out of me it carries a whole different meaning to those around me.

Several of our students and student leaders joke about how we use phrases or words, and even though they tease myself and Jonah about our language, they understand. They not only understand…but they use it as well. If you ask a student in our community what a rhythm is most will give an answer that has nothing to do with music or sounds. Words are powerful and need to be used in uniformity. A community cannot move forward and truly be healthy unless they understand and live out the language around them.

After two years of working with students and heading into year three of our church plant I have to say that language is a vital component to the health and unity of our community. The language is never meant to be divisive and push people away, but rather communicate clearly in ways that we all understand.

The language should become contagious.

The language should become transforming.

The language should become unifying.

The language should be inspiring.

The language should be yours.

- Philip Watkins

The problem with most American church-goers is that from the numbers I stated above, they would automatically think that it was a healthy high school group. What is it with the Church in the Western world that we are so obsessed with numbers and then turning around and assuming the quality of the group? When did quality become a result out of quantity?

The current statistics out there by the Barna Research Team is that 86% of high school students involved in a church will have walked away from their faith completely before graduating college. Now the youth group I grew up in produced some pretty awesome students. One is getting ready to go out on the mission field to Somalia where you can count the amount of missionaries on one hand. Another student just graduated from Virginia Tech after being highly in the campus church there, and is now headed to an engineering job in Virginia Beach. He led small groups, led a worship band, and even considered full time ministry before feeling called by God to serve in the workplace. On and on I could go, but I honestly don’t think I could go to 14. Fourteen percent represents the ones who are still faithful after college. Now I believe I had one of the best youth pastors in the world, Dave Simiele, who is now serving at Christ Fellowship in West Palm, Florida. But even with Dave, or the countless other great youth pastors out there why only 14 out of a 100?

[lcf] recently flew out a member of the board for Ecclesia (see our partnership page under about) at the end of April to do an assessment of our church community here at LC. One of the things we learned in this process is how [lcf] is reaching these de-churched students. Even though we knew that these students were our target audience I didn’t realize how much. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this term “de-churched” let me define it this way: anyone who has had some level of christian or church exposure in their childhood and adolescence experience but now wants nothing to do with either.

My experience with almost all of the students that are at Lynchburg College is as I described above. How do we reach these students? What pushed them away from the church to begin with?

I am very proud of our community for a lot of reasons, but one of the most important reasons is because they live what they say. One of our mission statements is to “embrace everyone” and our community lives this out better than any I have ever had the chance to see. With all kinds of agendas, t-shirts, and beliefs being thrown in your face from the moment you walk onto a college campus until you leave, it is hard to embrace and accept everyone you come across. We believe that you don’t have to believe everything someone says or stands for or even be accepting of their way of life in order to embrace them and accept them as image-bearers of Christ. This profound approach to people is what allows us to have an impact on the students at Lynchburg College. It is nothing new. Jesus lived this way. How often does the church walk out judgement prior to offering a hand? Is there a reason why Jesus saved some of his harshest words for the Pharisees and the disciples?

My prayer is that our community will continue to love everyone it comes across. My prayer is that the Church will love people and embrace them as image-bearers of God.

Join with me today in prayer for both the Church and those who have walked away because of the Church.

God, Savior, Master, and Daddy,
We pray today for the Church around the world.
We ask that you teach us all how to imitate Your Son in all that we say and do.
May we be a Church that embraces everyone we come in contact with.
May we be a body of believers that are seeking to bring Your kingdom to earth.
Cause us to see people the way that you see them, and for our hearts to beat the way Yours does.
Cause us to be a missional community of people wherever we are that are more interested in people than our buildings.

God today we pray for those who have chosen to walk away.
May You place us in their paths to share with them your true gospel.
May we live in such a way that our actions and language reflect Your Son.
We ask today for those friends and family members in our lives that have walked away from the church.
We ask for forgiveness for those times we have not lived or responded according to Your Scriptures.
We ask for forgiveness for the times we have hurt those that has walked away.
Cause us to be the Church you want us to be.
Amen.

- Philip Watkins

After a great deal of work by my friend John Chandler (@johnchandler), [lcf] finally has a website.  This website will be a great asset to our community in many ways, both in Lynchburg as well as around the world.

We decided that our community needed a website for several reasons.  Whether it is for graphics and videos created by students, looking for the latest updates to our calendar for upcoming events, or for our ministry partners to have better access to giving, this site is going to be a huge resource.

Look around and let us know what you think.  Over the next several weeks we will be working hard to update and fill in all the holes.