JON ALLEN

Wow. God is so good. There is certainly no one who deserves more credit for what is happening at High Rock and beyond. God has blessed us with many different talents and passions which are being used faithfully. It is only through His blessing that we have been able to do what has been done.

This morning we really didn’t know what to expect. Statistics tell us that on the second week of a new church/campus the attendance will drop by 50% on average. This makes sense because people come out for the first week out of curiosity or because they are family and they come to support the launch but don’t intend on attending regularly. First weeks are great, but second weeks are really the test of what foundation you will have to build on. We went into this morning fully expecting to drop in attendance. We would have been fine with that considering the fact that both services were full last week. I was actually thinking it would be okay if we dropped because it would give us some space to grow over the next few weeks/months.

Man, was I disappointed when we didn’t have any seats at all at the 11:00! It was insane. We had people standing because we were out of chairs! So much for the second week slump… Last week we had 358 people in attendace and this week we grew to 389. That’s a 9.2% increase (thanks Stephen for doing the math). God has blessed us so greatly and has given us an opportunity to minister to a growing number of people. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but it is worth it because EVERYONE NEEDS JESUS!

I am having one of those moments where I am feeling something… I just can’t describe it. With the West Campus starting tomorrow I am filled with a lot of different emotions… excitement, exhaustion, fear, anticipation, joy, peace, amazement, appreciation, peace, honor, gratefulness, love… is it possible to feel all of those at the same time? I have had a lot of people ask me how I feel, I really have no answer right now.

Man this is an exciting time! We’re in the home stretch, just two weeks to launch. Scary and exciting all at the same time…

I have hardly slept at all the last two nights, thinking constantly about all of the little details that need to be done. It is like my brain is working overtime, and I’m not used to that. HA!

As I write Bobbie and her crew are over at the West Campus painting the entire building. Drywall was finished today and by Sunday night the building will have ceilings and painted walls! It is weird, but it will definitely feel like we are almost done. Unfortunately we still have a ways to go… floors, cabinets, lights, doors, A/V, bathroom fixtures, tile, welcome center, signs, banners, water fountains, fire extinguishers, furniture, and the list goes on…

Hang on, it’s going to be wild.

Well, at long last… we passed inspection on our framing! This is awesome! We also failed our plumbing, but it is only a small thing that we will fix today and it will be passed tomorrow. That means we can move on to electrical and soon to insulation. Things are really coming along. God answered prayer today!

In my ministry and life experience I have found that there are people who seem to exist to be contentious. You will run into them in all areas of life, but lately I have been noticing them online especially. Although I believe the internet is an amazing tool for us to use, it definitely has it’s shortfalls as well. On Saturday we had an article run in the Salisbury Post about the new Salisbury West Campus. On the Salisbury Post website people have the ability to comment. As I read the comments, my heart sank because there were several people who made negative comments about the church and even wished us harm! It is unbelievable what some people will say in a public forum, and I got the impression these were Christians writing! Amazing. Someone also made a critical comment on a skit video we posted on YouTube. (don’t lose heart though, there were good comments too)

My first reaction when I read something like that is to respond… bad idea. The response rarely comes out right and is often looked at as combative. I made the right decision and didn’t respond to the Post comments, but I did respond to the video comment. I should have known better. People like that don’t want to have a reasonable discussion, they just want to be contentious. If you respond to their comment, they will simply try to find something else to complain about. Their whole goal is to inform the world of their uninformed opinion and get a rise out of someone.

So lesson learned. Given the opportunity, there will always be someone who is negative no matter how positive the topic is. We can’t let it bother us and cause a knee-jerk response. Just rise above it and move on.

God has really been hammering me hard this week (in a good way). I have spent a lot of time reading the Bible and there has been a theme in everything I have read. It was obvious that God wanted me to get something and maybe to communicate it as well. I was already feeling it, and then when Ronnie preached this weekend and asked “Are you real?”… it slammed home.

1 John 3:9-10 (NIV) No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

That can be difficult stuff to read because we all know that each of us sins. On the surface we could read that scripture and think it is telling us that in order to be a Christian you must be perfect, but of course that is not what it is saying, because that is impossible. In fact, John is very hard on people elsewhere in this book who claim to be perfect, calling them liars. So what does it mean? If I can sum it up simply… We can’t be perfect, but we should try! When we sin we should be repulsed by it, disgusted by it. When that sunk in with me, it was a hard pill to swallow. I know that it is true, but am I actually living it? Honestly, I take a look at my life and I can’t say that I always am. That hurts. If you are anything like me, you can probably look at your life and realize that there are areas of your life that you have slacked. There are areas in my life where I have been sinning and have justified it, thinking “it’s okay”, “it’s not a big deal.” But it’s not okay and it is a big deal. I’ve got a long way to go and I need to commit to fixing the areas where I have faultered.

Ask yourself the same question I am asking myself… Am I really trying to be sinless or am I just doing things my own way?

Jesus himself asked us, how can you call me Lord but you don’t do what I say? Good question.