developing lifestyle worshipers

Since my last post on Fusion, I’ve had some good feedback concerning future ministry plans. I’ve even had some people say they were sad that we weren’t doing college ministry anymore.

But that couldn’t be further than the truth. If anything, we are going to do more college ministry than ever before! We’ve just got to figure out what that looks like.

One of our dilemmas I didn’t mention last time is the difficult task of leading a Bible study/worship service for college students and 20-somethings all at the same time. Originally, we thought this was a great idea. I still think it worked for a while. When we started Fusion four years ago, we had a lot of 20-year olds in college and 22-year olds out of college. They were both going through relationship, career, and faith decisions that looked very similar.

But as four years goes by, your gap from 18-year olds to 28-year olds gets harder to bring together. We had seasons when we had more 20-somethings than college students coming. We had the opposite happen too. Sometimes I felt when I connected with college students the most is when I would use illustrations of my faith journey in college, but I would feel a disconnect with the 20-somethings. When I would talk about starting a family, 20-somethings would be engaged but the college students would want to run for cover.

Dilemmas, dilemmas, dilemmas.

Honestly, this shift from moving from a weekly Fusion (I might be incinuating something and I might not be) means that we are going to have a better college ministry and a better 20-somethings ministry. I still think the best thing we can offer them as a church is three environments: worship, community, missions. I want to give them places where they can become intimate with God, interact with others, and have an impact on the world.

Now, we just have to figure out what that looks like.

How your baby’s growing:

Congratulations — your baby is full term! This means that if your baby arrives now, his lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though your due date is still three weeks away.

Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don’t be surprised if your baby’s hair isn’t the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz.

How your life’s changing:

It may be harder than ever to get comfortable enough to sleep well at night. If you can, take it easy through the day — this may be your last chance to do so for quite a while. Keep monitoring your baby’s movements, too, and let your caregiver know immediately if you notice a decrease. Though his quarters are getting cozy, he should still be as active as before.

While you’re sleeping, you’re likely to have some intense dreams. Anxiety both about labor and about becoming a parent can fuel a lot of strange flights of unconscious fancy.

It’s true. It appears if Fusion is going on a sabbatical, restructuring, or altogether closing. Our college/20-something worship gathering and Bible study has reached a fork in the road, and we are going to have to take the next steps in faith. Before explaining why we are changing, let me tell you why Fusion started:

• Back in 2004, college students and 20-somethings were missing in action in religious services in Greenwood.
• Not many religious institutions were speaking the language or even attempting to reach out to this age bracket.
• A group of friends got together and felt united to do something to reach this group.
• We chose a neutral ground, a coffee shop, in the middle of town with the hope of getting people disillusioned or abandoned from the church.

In the last four years, we have seen:

• North Side’s worship change. If we were to create a worship service for this age bracket solely, it wouldn’t be too drastically different than what we do on Sunday mornings.
• North Side’s community changed. Trying to do Sunday School for a random group of people in this age from Sunday to Sunday never worked. There was no consistency, community, or even expectancy. Now, with the incorporation of C-Groups, this age group has a group of friends to connect with that is better than any large group Bible study.
• North Side’s mission efforts changed. There are more opportunities than ever to serve. This age group, if they choose to serve, has plenty of opportunities to serve.
• Many students have accepted the call to serve on the foreign mission field.
• Many people have developed godly relationships that have kept them during a pivotal time in their lives.
• The body of Christ in Greenwood has strengthened.
• People have been saved.
• Lives have been transformed – all glory to God.

So if it has done so much good, why change it? Because we can use our time, resources, and people to do a better job to reach this group.

• This age group doesn’t need another weekly worship service. They don’t need another weekly Bible study. They need to reach out to people far away from Jesus. And if we take up another hour of their time for an additional service or group, we may be taking them away from building intentional relationships with people who need God.
• The unchurched does not come to us. We are called to go to them. The great commission was never, “come and see,” and is and will always be, “go and tell.”
• Since we are living in a time when people just don’t drop in Bible studies when they need help, our attendance has seen more people that are already going to a worship service at a church. Most of them are involved in some type of small group discipleship. For the most part, these Fusioneers are living for Jesus.
• But there are many outside of our Fusion meetings who are not. And we must start thinking about them.

So, what does this mean? It means that North Side’s college ministry and its ministry to 20-somethings is about to be better than ever. We are more focused, and I feel we are being led by God.

I just don’t know where he is leading yet.

Please pray.

And stay posted.

The best is yet to come.