Fred Uhl

Here at Church by the Glades, we are known for doing some interesting things to engage people. Recently, we have given away an iPhone, iTunes gift cards, Hannah Montana Tickets and Nintendo Wiis. All the of these give-a-ways had a specific purpose and related to the teaching series we were in some how (example: we gave away the iPhone and iTunes gift cards during our series “i: Living in a Self-Absorbed World”). As Pastor David always says, we practice controlled creativity around here.

Right now, we are doing something pretty creative for our Easter Weekend service. It is something that has probably already been done before I’m sure. We think it is something that is news worthy enough that we put out a news release about it. When we did, we knew not everyone would be excited about it. The story has been picked-up by a bunch of new agencies. We are excited about that.

All this to say, we have gotten mixed feedback about our current creative exploit. Some good, some not so good. We like both. It keeps up honest! I hope to have some interesting quotes from people who don’t agree with what we are doing soon. Some of them are classic. Until then, here is an email I received from a Catholic brother (the story was picked up by a Catholic blogger) of mine who probably doesn’t agree with what we are doing, but choose to “build up” instead of to “tear down” (1 Corinthians 8:1; Ephesians 4:15, 29).

Hi Fred… greetings from Maryland. I saw and appreciate your comment. I just want to say that Dawn Eden is a young lady who speaks on issues of chastity and she has a blog where she posts almost daily. She must have picked up on the press release. I am Catholic and I read these Catholic blogs on occasion.

In this holy week preceding our celebration of Jesus’ resurrection, know that there are many Catholics who have a great faith and who strive to have that relationship with Christ. Often times we are criticized for our liturgical practices…many cannot see the value in the Catholic liturgy. In a sense, we approach the liturgy with respect like the Jewish practice of temple sacrifice, but with our sacrifice being the remembering of Jesus’ death and resurrection for our salvation. So the idea of adding additional elements to our Sunday liturgy does meet with much reaction.

The common ground of our belief in the saving act of Jesus’ death and resurrection is one that I will celebrate and remember with all followers of Jesus.

I pray you and your community have a very blessed and holy week and Easter.

I think God was honored by this guys response. Although we don’t agree on the methods (and theologically I am guessing), this emailer wasn’t negative, critical or trying to tear us down. Instead, he found “common ground” to celebrate! Some people need to take a lesson from this guy!!!

My response:

Hi _____!

I appreciate the email. I agree wholeheartedly with what you have said. The focus of any church, in my opinion, should be Jesus and His Word. That is something we focus on here at Church by the Glades. However, we do have some methods of getting the Word out to people that some don’t agree with. We do value being creative, but we never allow our creativity to cloud the purpose behind it–to share Jesus with the world.

I also appreciate the way you responded. Too many people (specifically Christians) out there like to bash us for our approach. While we respect their opinions, traditions, methods, values, etc…we don’t believe there is only one way to approach church and sharing Jesus. Instead of encouraging us, they desire to speak negatively and tear us down. It is unfortunate in the sense that we are all trying to do the same thing–encourage people to place their faith in Jesus.

Until we are convinced that what we do does not honor God (as some have said), we will continue to use our creativity to reach people that other churches have been unable to in our area and around the world.

With that said, I will join you in celebrating our common ground–Jesus and His Resurrection. Have a Happy Easter!

I am interested to know what you think. Leave a comment if you would like!

Tags: Church by the Glades, Creativity

This entry was posted on March 20, 2008 at 11:05 am and is filed under Church by the Glades. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.