WHAT THE CHURCH?_Episode 1 | Siri’s Recommendation

In my lack of preparation, I turned to the most immediate solution to determine which church to attend on my What The Church? Tour.

“Siri what is the number one church in Omaha?”

“OK, here’s what I found:”

I would tell you the name, but where is the fun in that. However, if you do the search today the church has dropped in position, yet it still is in Siri’s top 5 churches.

Siri’s Recommendation met in a local high school near my home so to get there wasn’t too much of an inconvenience with my lack of planning. Showered. Dressed. Service at 10 am. Five minute drive. Service starts in 10 minutes. I can make it.

I arrive at Siri’s Recommendation 5 minutes before service begins, and was greeted by a man with the look of obligation. You know the look of “I drew the last straw so here I stand.” The lady walking before me was greeted with a welcoming “I know you” quickly followed by his formal greeting to me, “good morning”.

Entering into the school I knew the location of the auditorium, so I made my way to the dimly lit concert hall. Behind me was the rush of the congregation chasing me down to find their seats, with none giving any attention to the new guy in the room, ME!

Let me back up just a bit, Siri’s Recommendation is a non-denominational church of approximately 150 people in a theater that fits over 800 people. So the congregations small size was magnified by the magnitude of empty seats.

Ok back to my visit.

I thought church began at 10am however, coffee and donuts (spelled the Dunkin’ Donuts way because they are the best) started at 9:30 am which the whole church attended, except for the new guy showing up late…again ME!

The lights stayed dim in the auditorium and the four piece band began to play, which was slowly followed by announcements presented by a church member. Its not that the announcements were given slowly, though the room and stage were so dark the announcer had difficulty reading the announcements off his small cheat sheet, but there was a molasses like urgency to get on stage to deliver the announcements. And with the room filled with all the kids still, it was difficult to stay engaged with what he was saying due to the distraction of the kids talking, playing and overall running the attention of me.

Announcements wrapped up and we are back on our feet for more worship, with one quick tempo’d followed by one ballad, then a “thanks for singing, parents you have 5 minutes to check in your kids for Sunday school”, with a count down clock beginning.

The 5 minutes for those left behind in the auditorium turned into a meet and greet of those you know. I sat in the empty back row by myself with no one around, wondering if anyone would say hello to me besides the greeter at the door. After a few minutes, a young man made his way down my empty row. My excitement grew as he made his way down the row.

-PAUSE-

I was in the last row, so emptiness was behind me in the theater and the row in front of me was empty as well. So he must be coming to say hello to the visitor. Plus, many people had name tags on, you know the ones, “Hello, My Name is:”.

-PLAY-

As he got closure I began to stand, a smile began to form to give a greeting, and he said, “Excuse me”, as he passed. After he passed a few seats, he turned around saying, “Oh, Hi I’m Luke.” I returned the greeting and he continued on his way. He was the first and last to say Hi to me this day. *insert disappointed face.

The countdown video hits zeros, stage lights raise, pastor enters, and we are now into the message!

Not quite.

He states we should all have the memory verse memorized and the congregation recites the verse. After the verse, he shares his recent return from a missions trip to Nepal with his wife and another couple. Followed by we are all blessed to live in America, to have electricity, hamburgers and pizza.

It is on to sermon title: “Escaping Futility”, which is based off of Ephesians 4, beginning in verse 17. After the pastor announces the sermon title, he asks us all to bow our heads for 30 seconds of prayer for the service and the pastor. The room is silent, the pastor is saying nothing. 30 seconds pass in silence, with the pastor wrapping it all up. Back to the sermon. Ephesians 4:17.

“So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind…”

“If my life looks like the rest of the Americans can I be in the will of God?” asks the pastor, “If my life style is like the rest of America then something is probably wrong with me, right?”

“So how do you and I escape the futility of the world?” He has four points on how to accomplish this.

Point 1: Dig your fox hole big enough for a friend.

He shares, “Why? We are in war, hopefully all of us realize that there is a war going on in our world and country and for the heart and souls of men, so we are in a war. We are going to have to build a fox hole because we are not going to give up our ground. Don’t be lazy by digging a hole just for yourself, dig one big enough for a friend or two or three. Ephesians 4:25-27 says, ‘Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.’ So, one thing you can say about these verses is the first thing you will probably see in a transformed life is a transformed tongue. Anybody that says I met Jesus, I am born again, I know God and their life isn’t changed by especially what they say with their mouth and with their tongue, they are a liar. How do I tell if someones life is really changed, transformed by the power of God, Spirit of God? Is their lives should be changed, Pauls says; ‘therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully.’”

So, the way I can see if someone really has a transformed life is by how they talk? Umm…No! I believe 1 John brings clarity to this statement. Let me rapid fire through this…

• Believing in Jesus Christ: “ Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.” 1 John 5:1
• Doing Righteousness: “If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.” 1 John 2:29
• Loving Others: “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.” 1 John 3:14
• Overcoming the World: “For whatever is [a]born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” 1 John 5:4
• Not Practicing Sinning: “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” 1 John 3:9
• Keeping Yourself Pure: “We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.” 1 John 5:18

Ok back to Siri’s Recommendation!

Followed by, “My neighbor is important to God…especially those in the household of God. God intends to use us to together. God designed us to be in an army, and those around us today are our fellow soldiers.”

Wait, WHAT!?

I am at war, with who, with what? The “Hello, My Name is” people are soldiers? “Hello, My Name is Col Nathan Jessep, YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH! Oh, and welcome to church.”

Pastor of Siri’s Recommendation goes on to say “Everything about me, my strengths, my weaknesses are designed to be used alongside other people. and if i am not with others i am missing out completely. Isn’t that what it says? Yeah, thats what it says. So we must ask ourselves this question, is my life beneficial to others? Is my life style, what I do, beneficial to others? We should ask not how is God using me individually but how is he using us together. One is too small of a number to achieve greatness. when we try to accomplish great things for God by ourselves its not going to work. Cuz God designed you and I to work together with others.”

He revisited his time in Nepal with his wife and other couple. Out of the 18 days in Nepal, he had the least effectiveness in sharing the gospel only seeing two people commit their lives to Christ.“ He went on to justify this by asking himself, “Was I a benefit to the team?”

In his randomness, I apologize because it seem like I am being random but this is the way the visit went. Confused? So am I? Oh and don’t forget that Benjamin Franklin…you know the kite flying in a lightning storm, Freemason, author, one of the founding fathers of America, accomplished so much on such little education because of working with others. Pastor of Siri’s Recommendation mentions good ole Ben then goes on by saying, “Think as a team, breath team, then you are in closer alignment with the Lord.”

Point 2: Work never killed anyone so why chance it.

“Thats really not what I mean thats a joke…but a lot of people in the world has this attitude”, the pastor says.

Continuing on with his message, he reads from Ephesians 4:28, “He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.”

He quickly went on a tangent about one of his experiences in Nepal, how some of the people had never seen a white man, never heard of the ten commandments and were fascinated with him and his wife. They attended a wedding in Nepal, which the pastor recalls the experience, “We went to one wedding, and uh, I felt a little bad, not to bad, but a little bit, people were coming and wanting to take pictures of us. The whole group of people were standing there staring at us, cuz we were white, I guess, and uh, there is a whole crowd of people who were supposed to be paying attention to the wedding and they were looking at us. So, hopefully, I don’t think the bride saw, cause we were around the other side of the building, but they all wanted to take turns taking our picture so we were standing there, I didn’t mind so bad because some of the girls were cute, you know. I don’t think my wife liked it so much.” This was followed by the the church laughing.
Again, wait, WHAT!? Did he just say that? He didn’t mind because the girls were cute.

Jesus what do you think of this comment?

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Matthew 5:27-28

I don’t know if he was lusting after these Nepali girls, but to be a married man, enjoying his picture being taken by them BECAUSE they are cute is a very thin line.

Anyways back to Ephesians 4:28, remember it says, “He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.”

“Gods will for your life is work, ISN’T THAT WONDERFUL. It seems like the attitude of a lot of Americans are, today, the Politicians take advantage of it, maybe us in our greed. They, a lot of them will say something like, ‘the wealthy they have all these resources and all this money, vote for me and we are going to take the money’ this is what they say, ‘we are going to take the money from these guys and we are going to give to, distribute it to whoever we want.’ Isn’t that the definition of greed? To take what someone else has and give it to me? Yeah, thats what it is, its called greed. And because we don’t want to work. We think that some how life, that God owes me living. Here it clearly says, ‘must work.’ Six days you shall labor. The definition of work, basically it means we sweat, we go to bed tired and exhausted and we are going to do it with a smile. Why? Because it is God’s Will for our lives. If you do not work hard, then may God forgive you for disobeying your Heavenly Father. Yeah work here it is, ‘to exhibit great effort and exertion to the point of sweat and exhaustion.’ Hopefully we mature, we grow up and we learn to enj…well, I don’t know about enjoy, so you might say, Pastor do you enjoy your work, well sometimes. sometimes not so much but does it matter? I mean does everything have to be wonderful? Is it Gods will for me to be floating on a cloud through life? I don’t think so, thats not the example when I read about Jesus’ life and all the great men of faith, I don’t see that. I see them working, and thats great.”

I am so confused! What is he saying to me? I should work, not enjoy my work, and my work should produce sweat and exhaustion six days out of the week.

*Sigh

I had to double check his reference, and did so in two places. Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com.

Merriam-Webster defines work as “activity in which one exerts strength or faculties to do or perform something: sustained physical or mental effort to overcome obstacles and achieve an objective or result, the labor, task, or duty that is one’s accustomed means of livelihood, a specific task, duty, function, or assignment often being a part or phase of some larger activity.” Dictionary.com defines work as “exertion or effort directed to produce or accomplish something; labor; toil or something on which exertion or labor is expended; a task or undertaking or the result of exertion, labor, or activity; a deed or performance.” I am not seeing sweat or exhaustion in any of these definitions.

And continue the saga of the pastor…“Why do we work? So most people would say if we ask, hopefully, still some Americans would still say some reasons, and a lot of them would say ‘is to provide for my family’ but that is not what these verses say but that is a good motivation. Another thing people would probably answer, and would say, ‘for character’, and thats good, its good for the soul to work. ‘To keep me out of trouble’, not to be like David when there was a time to work and he wasn’t working and he sinned with Bathsheba and ‘to be like God’ thats all good. Yes, but what do these verses say, why should you and I work? Lets read the last part of it, ‘that he might have something to share with those in need.’ (Ephesians 4:28)”

Ok this is getting long… he goes on so let me bullet point some of these things:

• We should work to have something to share with those in need, to be generous.
• God’s Will for my life is to be a hard worker and to be generous.
• In his secular job, he has been at for 18- 19 years, which has supplied his needs, a major reason for this job is to share with others.
• What if you would like to share but you have debt? It is God’s Will for you to get out of debt, God’s word implies that.
• What about those who can’t do physical work like a physical ailment? It is “something you should think about, pray about, maybe I can’t do a physical job but I can do something. The bible doesn’t say how much you should do it just says do something useful, do something useful for others. I can pray for others…I can say something encouraging…I can say something useful for my fellow man. I know clearly thats God’s will for my life.”
• He reads Malachi 3:8 ““Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings.”
• He thinks the bible is clear, we choose a lifestyle so we can be generous, you will have less stress, you will be happier.

He closes in prayer, only reaching two of his points out of the four. And thanks people for his time. The worship team came back up and the worship pastor gave another scripture to follow up the pastors message.

At this point, I was ready to be dismissed, more like bolt for the door. But I stuck around as the worship team led the church in “How He Loves Us”, probably to soften the blow from this attempt at a guilt stricken message.

As I left the High School, I took notice, the pastors last point was about giving, and if you do not give tithes and offerings you are robbing God. Yet no tithes or offerings, no instructions on how to give to the church were ever explained.

Huh? *with a shoulder shrug. Oh well.

Thanks Siri for the recommendation, definitely not the number one church in Omaha.

And on to the next!