...this one will.

The single most significant thing you can do with your one and only life is give it away...  I believe that, I've tried to live my life in response to that, and I'm passionate about making sure the people at Epic Church discover that.  We decided early on that Epic would be a church that makes a difference in the community.  To set the tone, one of the very first events we held was a BBQ for families that live at a shelter in the city.  We grilled up some hotdogs and burgers, had balloons, face-painting, and our own little version of the "olympics" for the kids, and just spent the afternoon loving on people.  No sermon, no "altar call", just the church being the church by showing a few people going through a rough patch that they matter and that someone cares about them.  Recently I received a letter from the shelter thanking us for coming and letting us know that because of a donation we left them the residence now have access to the internet for homework and job searches.  Loving others is part of what God intended for His church to do... this one will.   

Check out the video : (for those of you on facebook you can see the video at www.epicwired.blogspot.com)

"Best service we've ever had!"

This past weekend was HANDS DOWN THE BEST CHURCH SERVICE WE HAVE EVER HAD! Sure, we've only had TWO so far but don't let that fool you. Our first service in June went really really well, but as a leadership team I think we all left feeling and knowing that it could have been even better. Through the summer we are only having services monthly until the launch of weekly services in October. What was tough was waiting a whole month to see if we were right about the potential for the service to be better. Well, to put it short... We were! Everything just "clicked" and every part of the service went really really well. We used the movie Hancock as a bridge to discuss the idea that God has a plan for each of our lives...whether we like that idea or not! lol ( More on that topic in a future blog. ) Not only did people leave challenged and encouraged, but they had fun too! For the first time Epic is starting to feel like the community I've envisioned it being. Here are a couple of pictures from the service and one of our video announcements that will make you laugh.... we hope!

Gotta love that screen!


That's me underneath that ginormous Will Smith.

And now for your viewing pleasure and without any further adu... here's a funny video announcement we showed this weekend. ( we can't take credit for the idea. We stole it from another church which probably did the same. lol )

Changing tags...

Tonight we had our very first Launch Team meeting. We met in the upstairs part of the Manayunk Diner. It was so good to get together to discuss and pray about what God has called us to be a part of in the city. I shared a story with them that I wanted to share on the blog as well.

In the past during times of war medical personnel have found themselves overwhelmed by the number of wounded they were asked to care for. That forced them to come up with a system of prioritizing which wounded soldiers would receive medical attention first, second, an so on. This system is known today as advanced triage.

Advanced Triage is a process of prioritizing patients based on the severity of their condition so as to treat as many as possible when resources are insufficient for all to be treated immediately. The term comes from the French verb "trier", meaning to sort, sift or select.

Medical personnel would literally sort through or sift through the wounded as they came in, making assessments as to how quickly they needed to be attended to.
To do so they used a system of colored tags:

Soldiers were given WHITE tags if their injuries did not require the attention of a doctor.

Soldiers were given GREEN tags if care could be delayed for days without threat of the patient losing their life.

Soldiers were given YELLOW tags if they were seriously injured but care could be delayed for a few hours.

Soldiers were given RED tags if they were seriously injured and in need of immediate medical attention in order to save their life.

Soldiers were given BLACK tags if the patient was deceased OR if they were so severely wounded that it is very likely that they would die from their injuries regardless of treatment.

And so the story is told about a young man named Lou who was wounded and had a black tag placed on him. His leg had been so severely blown up and he had lost so much blood that it was determined that he would most likely die.

A nurse that was close by overheard the doctors, noticed the tag, and saw that the young man hadn’t loss consciousness. She couldn’t bare the thought of him dying without having someone there to talk to so she sat by he bed and spoke to him. One hour passed followed by another and another.... finally, the nurse did the unthinkable. She changed the color of his tag. She changed the Black tag to a Red one.

So of course you’re ahead of me in the story.
They air-lifted him out and amputated what was left of his leg.
Though he spent the rest of his days as an amputee, He did however live a full life. Interestingly enough the young woman that saved his life went on to marry him. (Awe)

For me, starting this church is really just about changing peoples tags. It's about looking at people that others consider too hard to reach and doing everything we can to change their forevers. In our case those people are the young adults/ young professionals/ and young families here in the city.

Who decided that these people are not important enough for there to be any churches for them? Who gave them a black tag? Who made that call? Not us…… not us.

I think that God is trying to change the tag on this city... and we're just trying to do our part.

Epic BBQ

This past Sunday we packed up a couple of grills, grabbed the volleyball net, and set out for a little BBQ action at Pretzel Park in Manayunk. It was the very first social event for the new church. The weather was great and the people we were able to meet couldn't have been nicer. One couple I really enjoyed meeting was Jake and Allison who have three kids. There desire to "do whatever it is God wants them to do." really impressed me. We need more people like that in this world. Dawn and J.R. were a lot of fun to talk to as well, but they were up-staged by the smile of their little boy Ben. I've never seen anything like it. It was absolutely captivating. Another person I met was a guy named Dan who cracked me up with stories about his Italian Greyhound named "Dolce". lol Anyways we ended the afternoon with a little volleyball. My performance was sub par but I vowed to redeem myself at our next event. Jordanna, you're going down. Just for fun, here's the video we used to announce the event.

Moments....

I'm so excited! At the end of March we ( my family and some close friends ) set out to start a new church in Philadelphia. On June 22nd Epic Church opened its doors for its very first service. It was a day I'll never forget. We had worked for what seemed to be around the clock for months in preparation for an event that would last for just an hour and 15 minutes. The biggest question we all had was, "Will anyone show up?". At 9:15 things weren't looking good...... Set up took a little longer than anticipated, tensions were high, and still no one (other than our team) had shown up! Then as if on cue people began to stream down the hallway toward the auditorium. I can't really put into words what that moment was like for me except to say that once again I found myself amazed at what God was doing. It's a moment I've had many times over but have never gotten used to nor tired of. It comes when you realize that despite all you are capable of there are some things that only God can do. As I take a look back at my journey I see a string of those moments and they stand out in my mind as the highlights of my life. The day in high school that I had a very real encounter with God that made me realize how much He had given for me and that my only appropriate response would be to give my life for Him. The night I looked over at my "new bride" as she slept and realized how perfect she was for me. The moment I had with my Father just before he passed and I learned what "Grace" really was. And more recently the moments we've seen God provide for us financially and emotionally as we've taken the step to start this new church. More and more I'm learning that God likes those moments... and for that, I'm thankful. In all 79 people attended the very first service held by Epic church. I'm humbled, excited, and looking forward to the moments that will make up the journey ahead.