As It Relates to New Things

I think if you asked us what the purpose of The Phoenix Project was, I hope we would respond with a two-fold answer.

1) That it is an environment where we can all come and be challenged, encouraged, and become more faithful to the way of Jesus. This is not to say that our current churches and small groups are not doing these things. However, it is to say that we all need to be a part of a community that seeks to provide answers to the questions we are asking (challenging environment). It is to say we all need to be a part of a community that inspires us, refreshes us, and leaves us better off than we were before (encouraging environment).

Again, it’s not saying our current churches and/or small groups are unable to do these things for us. However, many of us are small group leaders, or worship leaders, or volunteers. We spend so much time giving and pouring our lives into others, that we rarely have a chance in our current environments to be challenged, encouraged, and inspired to become more faithful to the way of Jesus.

2) That it is an environment where we can feel safe and comfortable bringing friends and family who have questions about God and Christianity. There is a large group of people who will never walk through the door of a church. No matter how nice the buildings are. No matter how great the music is. No matter how good the message is.

There are a growing number of people who simply do not see how the church can help them in their spiritual lives. The Phoenix Project will attempt to provide a safe space where people can “belong” to a faith community before they necessarily “believe” everything that we think they should. This is the opposite of the way most faith communities operate today, where you have to believe rightly before you belong.

So it’s a two-fold purpose. It’s for the sake of our own spiritual journey and it’s for the sake of our friends’ spiritual journey.

We are not against our local churches. We are not against the traditional types of small groups. We are not against our pastors. We are not against those who are immersed fully in church world, those who are still challenged and encouraged by their local church and small groups.

I’m pretty emphatic about that.

This is not an “us versus them” thing.

We will not be critical.

We will not be judgmental.

We will not be prideful.

We will not act like those who are not “with us” are “against us”.

And if we come to The Phoenix Project with this type of spirit, with that approach, I think we’re missing it. And missing it big.

Humility, learning, authentic community, exploring what it a new kind of Christian looks like . . . these are our goals.

We are not separating ourselves from our local churches . . . we are still active participants. We are a part of the local church. We are just creating an extension from it, another platform to challenge us, encourage us, and to help us become more faithful to the way of Jesus. And to create a context out of which we can “do life” with our friends and family who would never walk through the door of a church.