1st Week at AGR—"Something New"

We’ve been going through the Gospel of Luke line by line since November of 2021. We’ve paused a few times along the way but not much. I told Donna I was going to take a break from it this Sunday to talk about what we’re doing here and she was disappointed. She was like, “Oh man! I’ll miss Luke—you’ll pick back up next week, right?” 

I kind of love that. Who knew people would be so excited about carefully walking through a book of the Bible bit by bit. We’ll come back to Luke next week but I want to talk about how we ended up here and what that means for us.

A couple months ago, Angel was heading back to Austin for school so we went out to dinner before he left. He told us he was going to play paintball with a bunch of his Katy friends before he hit the road, you know because that’s what you do. He said there was this new indoor paintball place. My daughter, Von, she was like, “Ooo, that sounds cool. I want to stop by and take a look—so we did.”

It was here, of course. We walk in this room and Angel and I are looking at each other like, “You thinking what I’m thinking? This would be an awesome location for NewChurch.” Cool atmosphere, a stage, the place just feels like fun, it’s huge, it’s got a restaurant and a bar—come on! It’s perfect. So, I took a card from the front counter and planned on giving them a call.

But I didn’t. 

I mean, you know, life is busy. Plus, I didn’t know anyone here and they’d probably want too much money, or they wouldn’t be into having a church associated with their business—same answer every other place I’ve called has given me. These are just the times we live in. I figured nothing would probably come of it.

So, we kept meeting at Kilpatrick elementary school. We’ve been growing, it’s been good. Why mess with it—it’s a big deal to move to a new location.

Then the school told us we couldn’t meet at Kilpatrick on October 8th because they were painting. They had already kicked us out for the entire summer, and we just got back—now we had to move again? I was so frustrated. 

I always pray while I walk to the gym in the morning—so, I was mad praying that day. People driving by probably thought I was arguing with someone on the phone. Or that I was a crazy person. But I was like, “God, come on! We just start to get a little momentum and now we have to kill it by moving back and forth and back and forth!” I was praying like King David in the Psalms when He really lets God have it—just whines up a storm. Which is fine, by the way—God wants us to be completely honest when we pray and I wasn’t holding anything back.

All of a sudden that AGR business card popped into my mind.

I’m still mad praying, “Okay, fine. I’ll try to contact them but I’ll never get a hold of the owner and nothing’s going to come of it!”

So, I call when I get back home, talk to someone at the front desk, they say the owner isn’t in and they’ll pass on the message. I’m like, “Okay, God. There. I called. No one’s going to call me back, so I’m done now, right?”

Half-hour later, I get a call from the owner. “Hello, this is Alex with AGR, I understand you want to do a paintball event with your church?”

I explain, “No, I want to propose something completely nuts. Something totally off-menu.” I tell him we’re a portable church and I’d like to meet every Sunday morning in his space and then stay after and have lunch every week.

He says, “What time is your service? Because we don’t open until 10 am.”

So, I just tell him what I want, which probably sounded bonkers. “What I’m asking is for us to get in at 6:30 am, setup so we can rehearse at 8 am, have a church service from 10 till 11:15, and then stay and eat and hang out for an hour or so. 

He’s like, “I don’t know about all that—send me something in writing and I’ll take a look at it,” then we hung up.

So… “Okay God. I called. I even talked to the owner. He thinks I’m nuts. I’ll send an email but this is clearly going nowhere.”

Fifteen minutes later Alex called me back, “Pastor Frank? I think I might be interested in doing this. Send over the proposal and can we meet in the morning to discuss it?”

I wrote a proposal, I asked for everything we need to keep doing NewChurch the way we’ve been doing it, only better. I offered to pay what we had budgeted to pay per week at Kilpatrick. I asked if we could move all the furniture around and set up chairs (if we put everything back). I asked if we could store our chairs here. I asked if we could use the other rooms for Sunday school classes. I asked if we could install permanent stage lights. I asked for Christmas Eve and Good Friday. I even asked for a ten percent kickback toward our rent on any food or drink purchases while we’re here. I asked for everything we needed.

A couple of the guys from the Leadership Team met me here at 10am the next day—Gary and Phil—but there wasn’t really any discussion. Alex was so kind and so generous. He just agreed to everything.

So here we are. October 8th. How cool is that?

Sure beats the heck out of an elementary school gym. This place is so much fun. It’ll take us a little while to figure out the best way to use the space but there’s so much possibility here. 

At Kilpatrick I know your kids dragged you to church for the donut holes and whatever Ms Holly had planned. Well, we still have donut holes and Ms Holly—but now there’s a whole lot more. YoungOnes will actually meet in the Laser tag room starting next month—right now it’s being used as a haunted house. Not exactly the perfect setting for most Bible stories. Haha. Jr High ministry, The Journey, they’re meeting right now in the post-apocalyptic paintball arena—what other church can say that? I think there’s something here for just about anyone to get excited about. Come for worship, stay for axe throwing, or paintball, or laser tag, or classic arcade games, or a cheeseburger and your favorite beverage.

I hope you’re as excited as I am. It’s going to be good.

This is a giant step toward doing ministry the way we’ve always envisioned it. From the beginning, we wanted NewChurch to be a place where we come together to worship and invite people to eat and drink and hang out with us. Someday we want to have our own place but this is a great opportunity to do some of those things in the meantime—while we grow toward being able to afford a place of our own. It’s pretty great! I’m so glad you’re here to help make this happen.

Okay, so that’s how we got here, that’s all well and good—but why does any of this matter? What’s the point? There’s already a church on every corner, why start another one? Why even go to church at all? Why go to all this trouble?

I have to be honest with you—the most discouraging, depressing thing in the world, to me, is driving by all those random churches. I’m going to let you peek inside my darkness a little. All those churches. Each one thinking they have the corner on the truth, like they’re the only ones who really know Jesus. Can we not be like that, please?

One church says you have to do this, another church says you can’t do that, one church says you have to worship this way, another church says, “No, you can’t worship that way.” One church says, “You have to really feel it! It doesn’t count unless you really feel it.” Another church says, “No, it’s not about feelings, it’s about knowing things.” God likes His church to be miserably stuffy. Some churches are like a fireplace without a fire and other churches are like, “Who needs a fireplace—that’s so traditional, so boring—let’s set everything on fire!”

It’s so sad to me when someone says, “Nah, I already tried that Jesus thing and it didn’t work for me. I went to church for a while. Wasn’t my thing.”

Makes me wonder what kind of terrible church they went to. So hurt by awful religious people that they don’t ever want to go through that again. Also, the teaching was probably so shallow and pointless that they never actually heard the Gospel. They met some church people but they didn’t meet Jesus. I don’t want that to happen here. Can we make sure that doesn’t happen here? Can we do whatever we can to make sure anyone who shows up at NewChurch has met Jesus?

Is it not obvious to all of us that people need Him? They need the Gospel? They need the wisdom of God? Don’t we all know the world has gone crazy? We need a church that keeps us focused on the Gospel and wisdom of God. Christians who try to do it on their own are headed the same direction as the world—first they’ll lose their faith, then they’ll lose their mind.

Here’s what I know; no one follows Jesus alone. If we follow Jesus, then we follow Him with the billions of other Christians who are also following Him. When we read the Bible and pay any attention at all, we find that God deals with people in groups. Nations. The local church in this place or that place. 

He doesn’t only deal with individuals. It’s true that you are saved as an individual. You are a baptized child of God. He knows your name. It’s your name that’s written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

But it’s written with other names. It’s a list. You don’t get your own book. You’re part of a family tree—a member of the family of God. The assembly of the saints. The body of Christ. The citizens of the kingdom of heaven.

1st Corinthians 12:12 says,

“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”

In other words, if you’re a Christian, you’re a member of the body of Christ, the church. The one holy Christian and apostolic church. And you’re either a member of the church or you’re dismembered—cut off. If you’re not a member of the church then you’re not any of those other things either; family of God, assembly of the saints, citizen of heaven—if you’re not a member of the church, then your name is not on that list—the guestlist of heaven. And that’s a list you definitely want to be on.

I’m trying to undo all that goofy talk we’ve all heard about how going to church doesn’t matter. The truth is this: as the church goes, so goes our culture. And for many people, church has already gone. 

So, why did I start NewChurch? Doesn’t seem like a great career move to create something that seems to be going out of style. “Let’s open a Blockbuster Video, or a store that sells fax machines and dial up modems while we’re at it.”

But the church is actually needed more than ever because there are so many people who don’t know the love of God. They don’t know what Jesus did for them. They’re holding onto their sin like it’s who they are. They’re sinking in their guilt and shame—people have never been more clinically depressed. They don’t know the wisdom of God, or the commandments of Jesus. Life makes no sense. They do whatever seems right in their own eyes. They’re making a mess of their lives, their families—which means they’re making a mess of our culture, our city, our state, our nation, the world. 

There’s a way that seems right to a person but it leads to death. And that’s the only way most people know anything about these days.

And I’m not okay with that.

Since I was fourteen years old and started believing in Jesus, I’ve been obsessed with trying to find ways to tell people about the difference it made when I put my faith and trust in Him. Hope. Peace. Direction. I’ve been writing songs, writing books, writing blogs, making videos, teaching, preaching, staying awake at night replaying conversations I had with people during the day—how could I have said it better? How can I help them see Jesus?

Most people don’t grow up going to church anymore. I can relate to that. So they don’t know the Bible stories, they don’t know the wisdom of God, they don’t know about His love and mercy offered through His Son. How are they going to find out? Who’s going to tell them?

It has to be us. It has to be you. Are we up to it? Are you ready to have those conversations? What if they have questions? What if they want to argue? What if they have baggage with bad churches or bad Christians? 

So, that’s why we started NewChurch; to be a place where we can learn the things we need to know to help the people God sends to us. A place where we can grow in our faith and faithfulness. Grow in our knowledge of the Bible, of God’s wisdom, the things Jesus told us to do and not do. Also grow in our understanding of what He did for us—His death and resurrection, the Gospel, how He promises us not only to forgive our sin but also give us eternal life after death. We started NewChurch to be a place where we can learn about all those things so we’ll be ready to have conversations with anyone God sends our way. Everything I just said is about growing in the knowledge of our faith. But we also need to grow in our faithfulness—which is walking the walk. How we actually live. Controlling our emotions and words so we don’t just go around hurting people. We need to be people who not only know what God tells us to do and believe, but also people who are faithful to do it now and then—not perfectly, but taking those baby steps, walking toward our Heavenly Father instead of away from Him.

This is why we need a church. These are not things we can do alone. We don’t live out our faith in a vacuum—it has to be in a context with other people. 

People are weird about church these days. They’re like, “I don’t have to go to church to be a Christian.” Says who? You won’t find that idea in the Bible.

The book in the New Testament that was written to tell Jews how to worship now that they were Christians, the Book of Hebrews, puts it like this,

“Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together (meet together—meaning go to church, not neglecting it) as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.” (Hebrews 10”24-25)

So, let me encourage you, “Hey Christians! Go to church.” How else are you going to do what God told you to do? Encourage other Christians in their faith and faithfulness? It says to not neglect—don’t be negligent. Don’t fail to do what you’re supposed to do. Don’t be careless and lame. Neglectful has so many implications: Don’t be irresponsible. Sloppy. Disrespectful. Delinquent. So many people have gotten in the habit of being lazy and blowing off church—that’s a violation of the 1st commandment, “You shall worship God and put nothing before Him,” especially when it comes to worship. That’s the first commandment, remember the fourth, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.” For Christians this has always meant going to church on Sunday.

I’m still answering the question, “what’s the point of this NewChurch thing? Why does it matter?”

The early church set the example for us for how we would encourage each other in our faith and faithfulness, Acts 2:42 says,

“And they devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and the fellowship, and the breaking of bread and prayers.”

Which is what we’re doing here. We listen to God’s Word, explain it, apply it, sing about it, and stick around to talk about it and let it really sink in. We celebrate the Lord’s Supper. We baptize. We build each other up so we can grow in unity and our common understanding together. These are the marks of the church. That’s why it’s so important to be part of a local church that does all these things—this is how we grow in our faith together.

You are here for a reason. You were put here to help the other people who are here grow in their faith and faithfulness. You’re either going to help people grow because you have things to teach them, or you’re going to help them grow because they have things to teach you—our faith doesn’t really become our own until we share it with someone else. You have to share your faith. And you have to let people share their faith with you.

Too many Christians walk around with so much pride, like they’re afraid to admit they don’t know everything. They’re afraid to have meaningful spiritual conversations because someone might find out they have the spiritual IQ of a preschooler. They don’t want to look dumb. How about, instead of entering every conversation like you have to be a know-it-all, enter with some curiosity—with some humility—like you might actually learn something.

There are people here that you are perfectly created to help. That’s why it takes all of us.

Have you ever been commissioned to do something important? The Lord commissioned us to do a very urgent assignment for Him. He even gave us His authority to do it—it’s a big deal. He told us to disciple each other, teach each other, baptize each other—you’re supposed to make sure the people He sends your way are doing what He told them to do, that they know what He wants them to know. It’s called the Great Commission. Jesus was talking to His followers after the resurrection, just before He flew back to heaven, and He said,

"As you go, wherever you go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." [Matthew 28:18]

And you’re the only one who can do your part.

Because God chose you. Christians are chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation—you are His people, citizens of His kingdom. And Christ, your King, has commanded you to tell the people He sends your way about what He did for you—because He wants to do it for them, too. [1st Peter 2:9]

This is the vision of NewChurch. A way to worship God and love people. I hope you’re starting to see it.

It would be such a wonderful and glorious thing if we created a culture at NewChurch where we can’t wait until HangTime so we can sit with our friends, old friends, new friends, and really dig into what God said to us in the worship service. What did you hear in the message? In the songs? How were you challenged? How were you comforted? What questions did it inspire? Or maybe it made you think of this entirely different thing that you can’t wait to tell so and so about. Even with the people in your family, your wife, your kids, your parents—it’s especially important to have these conversations with your family. Imagine it. HangTime just buzzing with those conversations. Iron sharpening iron. Encouraging each other. Building each other up. Talking about the message; What was the Law? What was the Gospel? What was funny? What classic rock reference did I make in the sermon?

And of course, we can also have fun, laugh, joke around, talk about sportsball and the news—but don’t completely leave Jesus out of it. 

The Son of God left the comfort and glory of heaven to come to earth—He did something unexpected and new, something to make everything new. To give you a new life with new hope. To make you a new creation, a new person with a new beginning and a bright new future.

When I called Alex, the owner of AGR, I told him I wanted to do something—completely off the menu. I’m saying the same thing to you. I’m asking you to do something different, maybe something new—something that might stretch you a little. When the service is over, don’t just make a bee line for the exit. Stick around, order some food, get something to drink, sit with someone and have a real conversation about what God is doing in your life—and what He’s doing in their life. Make this part of your weekly routine whenever possible. This is a new thing God is doing here in NewChurch, let’s all be part of it. AMEN