So, we kicked off this series two weeks ago and the response has been unreal. So many of you had questions about marriage/relationships according to God & the Bible- that we decided to do an entire week of the series based on your questions. Carrie and I are going to spend all week looking at your questions and answering the rest we didn’t get to on Sunday. So, Round 1, here we go:

How do you tell your partner “that bothers me” and be very serious about it without ticking them off?

Answer: Matthew 18 is a great passage dealing with conflict resolution. Now, this passage specifically deals with when someone sins against you, but it sets up the precedent to go and talk with people when we are having struggles, disagreements, or need to address sin. I would couple this with Ephesians Chapter 4, which discusses the unity in the church and how each one of us play a role. We are to speak the truth in love, because we are no longer infants, getting tossed around by every type of teaching, we’re solid, and have a foundation. With that foundation we are to speak the truth in love. Truth and honesty in love never fails. It isn’t easy, but it never fails.

Do people who have been divorced before deserve forgiveness enough to be married again one day? In a truly happy marriage?

Answer: Listen to the whole answer before you flip out- because it’s something we need to address before we move forward. There are a few assumptions involved in this question we need to look at… Right off the bat, none of us deserve “forgiveness.” We’re told in the Bible (Romans 6:23) the wages of sin is death. Again, if we ended there, that would be a pretty crappy answer, luckily it isn’t the end- God gives us grace and forgiveness because he loves us, not because we deserve it.

In the question, “do people deserve forgiveness” implies we earn forgiveness by our own merit. If that were the case, we’d all be in a world of hurt. But, God gives us grace and forgiveness through Jesus when we submit to Him in Christian baptism. So, when it comes to divorce, God doesn’t desire it, but God forgives murders, liars, child offenders, drunkards, rapists, people with anger issues, big egos, pride driven, and ridden with addiction.

A truly happy marriage is based on what are the sum of four parts moving into it. The man, the woman, and God, and commitment. Are the man and woman moving towards Jesus daily? Is God the central point of their marriage foundation? And finally, are the two willing to day in and day out work toward a marriage that will last? So, God provides His grace and forgiveness, whether or not you end up in a “truly happy marriage” again… that relies a great deal on whether or not you follow God and at the same time marry a truly Godly man.

More to come…
Jason & Carrie *over and out*

Last time we visited this topic, we discussed why Forefront is changing their logo and taking steps to distance themselves from Forefront Records. But quite a few people have asked the question:

“Why wouldn’t you get a lawyer to fight this? Don’t you want to fight for the church’s logo and identity?”

The short answer is… No.
But there is more to it than that.
God continues to move through Forefront Church to provide resources. These resources pay staff, rent facilities, help for people to get counseling, aid people who have bills, fund outreach opportunities, local missions, global missions, help pay for students who cannot afford to go on trips/events/conferences, and the list goes on. As a church, we are not going to tell those people they cannot get help because we’re paying a lawyer to try and keep our logo. I cannot look into a couple’s eyes who are on the verge of divorce & cannot afford counseling and say they cannot get counseling because we care more about some ink/shapes/lines than we do about their marriage.

So, we’re not fighting it. Actually, we are trying to accommodate them as much as we feel we can- so we can get back to doing ministry. A logo is just a logo. God is bigger than a globe icon with rings around it. As followers of Jesus, we cannot get caught up in the drama of little things- we have to pick our battles. Forefront Church is not picking this one… because eternity is at stake.

In saying “no” to this battle; we’re saying “yes” to:

• Fighting for your marriage
• Helping you battle alcohol
• Aiding you to walk away from sexual temptation
• Providing counseling for people who need direction
• Reaching out to the broken people around us
• Ending homelessness in our community
• Partnering with your family to grow closer to Jesus
• Going abroad to share the love of God with the all people
• Opening people’s eyes to the joy of the Christian life

With this decision, we realize it means we are going to have to visually change our presence in the community, but this has no impact on our “identity” (Here is where branding, business, and boardroom types will completely disagree with me. But, we’re not a business, and I don’t care what you think, So ‘nanny, nanny boo boo’- you can quote me on that). Our identity is much less about our “logo” and much more about what people hear/see as we move in our community. They hear about us collecting 4,500 pairs of shoes for Haiti, bringing clean water to 600+ families in Vietnam, building homes in Mexico, aiding the homeless in Hampton Roads, reaching people who are far from God, building up strong families, and helping change lives. That is our identity. A logo is a tool, for better or worse, it’s just a tool. Our identity has not and will never change. We are the church.

Financially, this does raise some concerns. Our website, online giving, YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter, weekly program, etc. have all been changed. But, our road signs, outdoor office branding, and interior signs on Sundays will need to change. That costs money. A bunch of money. We’ve been approached by a couple of people who have offered their services to help the process. This is such a great thing. If you are interested in helping Forefront with this, we’d love it. Leave a comment or call 757.468.1188 and we will get with you in the next couple of weeks. We’re going to take our time in this. Mainly, because we are looking to raise $15,000 to bring clean water to 600+ families in Vietnam and build a home in Mexico for a needy family. On a serious note, what if we decided to do the logo stuff first? Because we’re not trying to get sued or taken to court. After paying for all the signs and things to be changed over, we would then need to figure out a way to raise 100% of the missions project resources. Hmmmm….

Now that I’m thinking about it, Mr. Records has given me a great idea!

Enough with this logo series. It’s done, finished, over (unless Mr. Records wants some great PR and wants to fully fund a water project in Vietnam and a house in Mexico?! Let’s give your friends TobyMac and Rebecca St. James a call? I bet they would love to fund this with some of the proceeds from their records, tour, and connections they have with people… just saying. We all need a tax write off right?).

Jason *over and out*

A logo is great.
While it helps brand the church and for people to have a visual to put with the work it’s doing- it’s just shapes, colors, and lines. We realized this recently when we first were contacted 6 months ago by Forefront Church NYC. They had been contacted by a law firm representing Forefront Records, a sub sector of EMI Music Group. Forefront Records has been contacting churches (through their law firm) to make sure there is no confusion between their label and the churches. They were concerned that Forefront NYC, Forefront VB and other churches named Forefront (all of which have no other connection accept by name), might lead people astray because they are named “Forefront” and have videos with music online. Up until two weeks ago, we were not contacted.

5 months ago we updated our logo (see middle example above) to the world logo in four boxes. When contacted two weeks ago, Forefront Records was concerned about a few things: our name, the fact we do amazing music videos (like this, this or this), and… their major dispute was with the logo we had as compared to theirs (see exhibit below):

Now, it’s important to note that Forefront Records and Forefront Church began using their logos within the same 41 day period in 1997. There is almost no possible way either party knew what the others looked like. Circle, sphere, lines flying around, forefront name, etc. It’s enough of a likeness to be suspect. The biggest issue is FF Records trademarked theirs the moment they began using it and FF Church did not. I find it amusing that the logos are as close as they are. For two organizations named “Forefront” to start using their logos in 1997, have the logos be so similar, both with a Christian emphasis (they are a Christian label), and neither one know about this until 2010, amazes me.

So, we have voluntarily agreed to not only change the logo, but do a couple of things to make sure their is no confusion and so we can get back to doing ministry:

• Forefront Church’s logo (see the last rendition on the top image) will be shifted to have no official likeness to the Forefront Records logo.
• In future videos, Forefront Church will place it’s new logo (see the last rendition on the top image) and Forefront Church’s website link (www.forefront.org) on the end of every video to make sure people are directed to our website and church and do not have any confusion about the identity of Forefront Church somehow being connected to Forefront Records.

We also noted things we will hold firm to in our agreement:

• Forefront Church will continue to DBA “Forefront,” “Forefront Church,” and/or “Forefront Christian Church” as stated in our filing in 1997 as a 501c3 Non-Profit
• As needed, Forefront Church will continue to make videos (with background music) for Forefront Church to promote, advertise, and draw people’s attention to it’s website domain: http://www.forefront.org. These videos will be played on Sunday mornings and loaded to YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook to promote events, celebrate ministry wins, and provide entertainment. The “entertainment” videos are always comedic in nature and do not in any way, shape or form elude to the idea that Forefront Church is affiliated with Forefront Records.
• All of Forefront Church’s previous videos on YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook will not be altered or taken down. These are found solely on Forefront Church channels and have links directly to http://www.forefront.org. It is clear that these videos are not associated with Forefront Records, and Forefront Church sees no need to go back and change any previously released content.

Some people have asked us why we would not fight this or get a lawyer and try to keep the logo? We’ll talk about that next time.

Jason *over and out*

Loved seeing this come together. A huge thank you to:
Real Life Christian Church
New Beginnings Christian Church
West Park Church of Christ
Calvary Assembly
Forefront Church
West Road Episcopal Church
New Life Baptist Church
Hampton Roads Jeep Club
Navy Federal Credit Union
Hampton Roads Uhaul
Coast Guard Base (Portsmouth, VA)
UPS Store (Lynnhaven Pwky & Princess Anne Rd)

Also, thank you to everyone who came out to pack things up before the drive to Soles4Souls distribution center in Alabama. Thank you to everyone who gave, sacrificed, and took the time to think of others before themselves. You embody what it means to live like Jesus.

We’re looking at a new project to jump on soon, but not just Forefront Church- we want this to be a collaborative effort with churches & organizations in Hampton Roads. Dropping more information on that soon.

Jason *over and out*

Q: Are we having church this Sunday?
A: Absolutely.

Q: We heard it might snow again. Are you scared?
A: Scared?!? Other than the dark, boogie man, snakes, roaches, Barney, and the Globetrotters… I’m not scared of anything.

Q: Is there a new series starting?
A: Yep. It’s on Relationships & Marriage. It’s going to be great. Check out the promo below.

Q: What about the Super Bowl thing? U Got Game? Is it still happening?
A: Do the Buffalo Bills choke every time they play? Aww Yeah! We’re having the party. U bet!

Q: What time does it start and what are the details?
A: 5pm til the game ends and New Orleans wins! We’ll have free food, the game on three projectors and multiple flat screens, raffle for an iPod Touch, and it’s all going down at our warehouse space: 2697 International Parkway, Suite 3-132, Va Beach, VA 23452

Q: We heard you are using this as a fundraiser. Can you tell us more?
A: Yeah, it’s for the Vietnam “Give Water, Give Life” project. We are raising money for the project and flights so we can make a huge impact on the community there. 600+ people will have clean drinking water FOREVER. We just need to raise the $10,000 to make it happen. Your $10 a person donation makes that happen. Check out the video below to catch on to the vision of why we are doing this.

Q: We see you’re growing your beard back. Did you lose a bet?
A: Are you kidding me?! This beard is amazing. Plus my daughter really likes the way it feels. It tickles her face and makes her laugh, so… yeah, it’s back for awhile.

Q: The service online was off the hook! We loved it! But, someone made the comment on Facebook that it didn’t make you look any better in HD. Do you have any thoughts on this?
A: First off, the stream was not in HD, but we’re glad you thought the quality was that good. As far as me no looking any better, I was able to cry myself to sleep for the past few nights. But this morning I got up, looked in the mirror and repeated to myself, “I’m great, I’m wonderful, Everybody likes me” numerous times… until my wife came in and laughed at me. Ugh. Now I’m going to spend my days inventing a camera that doesn’t add ten pounds, but actually makes you look thinner (because let’s face it, Uncle Al’s Hot Dogs are the best!). I’ll keep you updated on my progress…

Jason *over and out*

For many of the people I meet, much of their happiness and/or negativity is birthed from how they look at life. Fortunately, I’m a glass is half-full kind of guy and cannot believe life is as amazing as God has allowed it to be. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been a part of some awesome things…

Chloe’s First Snow Day.
I was able to get out and play with my daughter Chloe in the snow for the first time. The joy she had was overwhelming. We built a snow fort and threw snow at each other. Total Kodak moments. I will cherish the time we had to spend together for years to come.

Hampton Roads Churches Respond To Haiti.
The earthquake and devastation will takes years to rebound from. As a church we not only decided to take action, but partnered with 7 other churches, the local Jeep Club, and military outlets to get this thing together. 4,500 pairs of shoes and tons of supplies later, we were overwhelmed. The shipping would have been in the thousands of dollars- so we rented a Uhaul and drove it to Soles4Souls headqurters in Alabama. 26 hours round trip. Amazing to watch the love people have for others through Forefront and local churches. Just awesome.

Snowed In Sunday.
At first, I almost took a turn for the negative, but our leaders came together and made a pretty solid decision and it went well. With the most snow the 757 has seen in almost 20 years, we opted to keep people home safe and attend service online. While we believe that a constant diet of online church is not healthy and online is no substitute for the church family to gather together on Sundays- it went extremely well thanks to our great team of volunteers who made it happen (in my living room of all places).

All in all, God has allowed me to be a part of an amazing family, a wonderful church, and a community of people who I want to share life with. How about you…

“How is God moving in ways that you are extremely thankful for?”

Jason *over and out*

We’ve batted around the how, why, pros, cons, and even a little glimpse into the process of what it takes to do a streaming service online. But, now to the real question at hand:

“Is the ‘online church’ experience- church?”

It depends. But in most cases- No.
Weighing the pros and cons against scripture leads me to believe a few things about solely attending an online service:

1. The Definition Of Church: The definition/picture of the “church” according to scripture points to live, face to face, living life together, rubbing elbows in service, worshiping the Creator together, kind of interaction. This does not happen with “online church.” Though some will debate this fact. There is no substitute for the local church. Now whether it takes form in the idea of “house church” or “congregational gathering style church,” this local gathering paints a clearer Biblical picture of how God’s church should move and breathe in the community.
2. The Accountability Of The Live Interaction: Accountability is almost vacant if not totally unavailable. Too many people we encounter through the ministry God’s called us to do here are introverted by nature and would attend online without ever saying a word, chatting a phrase, or interacting with the people involved. The argument could be made that these same people wouldn’t walk through the doors of your church. We have TONS of introverts and new people who attended every week. It’s all about the environment/culture you create. They won’t stay anonymous for long in a building with friendly people prompting them to move to another level with God.
3. The Practice Of Spiritual Disciplines: The practicing of spiritual disciplines is difficult even within the local church being together weekly and seeing one another face to face- with online church this grows exponentially. This new embodiment of the “online church” can restrain many  people from freely expressing and flourishing in their spiritual disciplines. Loving, giving, serving, worshiping, community, communion, and the list goes on. These are things done with others. Now granted being online, you have “other people” in the experience, but you are not interacting with them in the same way face to face discussion happens. For instance, I love my wife. We talk every day. We also use Twitter, Facebook, and texts to communicate. If I cut ties to all face to face interaction with my wife and just use technology- our relationship will fade (and I will fade). She is built for physical interaction and I cannot fulfill my duty as a husband if we’re cut off face to face. I cannot practice it. Likewise, I am built for acts of service and I cannot serve her the way God built me if we do not see one another. Our disciplines as a couple work better and we grow in them when we are interacting in real life. Online church does not afford people the opportunity to  flex their spiritual muscles and do what God built them to do.
4. The Idolatry Of The New & Improved: I love technology, but even in my own life I have to weigh the amount of time, energy, and resources that are being placed on computers, cell, mp3 players, TV, DVD’s, etc. It could go on forever. As we grow as a culture and advance ever so quickly into new and exciting technologies, my fear is that we could be whisked away by the shiny new toys of a culture heading away from the Creator. Now, I’m not saying any of these “things” are bad in and of themselves, but when we begin to rely on power, bandwidth, site analytics, user patches & updates, and tools that are supposed to make our lives “easier” instead of relying on the one and only God of the Universe… we are walking on dangerous ground. As a church we flirt with this technology line on a constant basis and have really had hard talks about what it looks like to scale back things so we can always know we’re relying more on God than the almighty Apple Computer. It’s a tough place to be in a “show” and “special effects” culture. People are waiting to see the glitz and glamor of something amazing, and as leaders many are trying to feed them what they “want.” but what if we stepped back and focused more on what they “need?”

I know some people who are doing streaming services and people’s lives are being changed. I think that is great. Any time people can encounter God- that’s a good thing. But, my fear is that we might be chasing the trends too closely and it could backfire on us as we try  to do the work God has called us to do. We should weigh everything against the Bible and see where it stacks up. As for Forefront Church, we won’t be going the live online route. In times of a crunch we will use technology as a way to keep the message from not being heard at all, but nothing can imitate or replace the local church.

Jason *over and out*

*I’ll take questions via Twitter, Facebook, & the blog and do a wrap up post from things you have interest in talking about

We’ll get to the conclusion in a bit, but we received a few emails asking what videos we played besides the live feed- and how did we do it? Well, Livestream allows you to insert your own videos (1gb or under) as well as YouTube video content. You insert those into a playlist and bounce between those and your live feed(s) you have coming in.

Oh and here are the videos we used during the online service:

We played this video after talking about people being home in their PJ’s, enjoying breakfast, eating bacon… MMmmmm, bacon!

We played this video right before taking our online offering (http://giving.forefront.org) and afterwards talked about our small groups, we call the “Gel Groups.” The promos like these are always fun and create a buzz about small groups that more often than not leads someone to check out a group for the first time. It can be pretty intimidating going into someone’s home you don’t know and sharing things about your life you’ve never shared before. Our prayer is that things like this take the edge off of their worries (we know people will say evil things [and have] about our church for showing/making commercials like this- luckily, God knows our hearts and intentions, so enjoy).

We’ve rattled off some of the pros of streaming church online, but what about the cons? We had overwhelmingly strong/positive feedback from our experience with it, but it still begs to answer the question:

“Is the ‘online church’ experience- church?”

Let’s look at some of the cons many people have debated for a moment:

• Gives people the opportunity to be completely anonymous. This allows the individual no accountability for things going on in their life. I’ve met one too many people (within the church who attend regularly and are engaged in ministry) who have a hard time with accountability. Amplify that exponentially when someone is sitting alone in their living room with no one to talk to except a chat client, Facebook, or Twitter.
• Lack of true community/gathering of the saints. This is where it gets a little tricky. The definition of “community” is being debated quite a bit in the Christians circles with the birth of social media. In my study of the Bible, where two or more are gathered, God is in their midst. That being said, online interaction is not the same as physical handshakes, face to face convos over coffee, discussions in a living room about faith, or worship service/gatherings where a collective body engages the living God. There aren’t many trying to argue that online services are “more engaging and impacting” than a live physical interaction with a church. It’s like the birth of “E-Readers.” I love the idea. Carrying around my entire library with a small device and read them whenever I want? Awesome! But, there is something about a physical book. The feel, pages, smell, turning to a new slice of information, the cover art, etc. It just gets me. The reading experience is more engaging to me with a physical book. In many ways, I lose the story & lifeblood when I turn to the “techno version.” In the same way, we lose a great deal of the engagement factor when we attend “online services” as opposed to a physical campus. We also turn away (to what extent is up the person) from the early church’s example for us to gather together weekly for communion (breaking of bread remembering Jesus’ death) and the Apostle’s teaching (Biblical doctrines for the church body, taught in the Bible). See here and here.
• Temptation to give in to your ADHD. You know it’s true. You watch some, pay a bill online. Watch some, check a few emails, update Twitter status, view friends statuses on Facebook. Watch some… you get the idea. One of the comments we got back was that the chat client to the right of the video was pretty distracting. Through the music portion we aimed at asking people questions about the songs and how God was moving in their lives. During the message we stepped back to we could… engage with the message. That is when the chat client went a bit out of control. People would hop in and it was like a scene from Cheers, “Norm!” the chatters would rave as people jumped in. Part of it was cool because it was a Forefront love-fest, with all kinds of comments about how “cool” “rad” or “awesome” the church is. I enjoyed that, but that is not why we are the church. Church moves, lives, and breathes to be about God and about others. And with the temptation to go to ESPN.com, check your online banking, or order a pizza to be there by the time service is over- it can be a bit too much to handle for many people. The focus can get lost. That is never good. God tells us our worship should be orderly (1 Corinthians 14), because everyone there might have something to say, a song to sing, a word to preach, etc. Let’s do this in a way that isn’t distracting the others around us. “Online services” have the capability (not always, but they can) to do just that, distract us from the true message.
• Confines people from truly practicing spiritual disciplines. I  might get blasted for this one. We were built to love, serve, give, and worship. A computer screen does not provide the same environment and place to express those. Want to serve in an area of ministry? A computer screen makes it difficult to serve. Want to love someone else who is having a hard time across town? It’s hard to know about it when physical proximity is only through a LAN connection. Want to worship God through song? Many find it awkward to sing to their screen, turning what is supposed to be our engaging with the Creator into a “spectator sport” much like the Super Bowl or the next show at the Norva (venue here in the 7-5-7). This was not meant to be. Want to give to the work of God’s church? Well, statically speaking- online services don’t produce much/if any giving by their weekly attenders (via LifeChurch.tv seminar with 4 leading churches doing web-based services on a weekly basis). We saw this to be true when we did our online service. Our weekly average giving is $9-10k a week to rent facilities, pay staff, rent office space, reach our community. When we looked at the final numbers, we received roughly 1/4 of that number. OUCH. How do we reach our community? Pay staff? Rent offices, etc? The trend with online services is that it deprives people from experiencing the full potential of practicing the spiritual disciplines God calls them to. We were built to love,worship, & experience God and spiritual disciplines allow us to move closer to God. They are not what save us, that’s God’s grace alone, but these practices help us draw near to Him.
• Stretches the definition of church to a place that is fairly uncomfortable… for many. With the things mentioned above, it begins to paint a picture of what the church is supposed to be (according the the Bible). With video venues, online services, and new technology birthing every day- we are going to see the definition of church discussed, debated, tampered with, and trampled on.

So, we still haven’t said one way or the other… “Is the ‘online church’ experience- church?”
You’ll get my conclusion in the next post.

Jason *over and out*

We’ve covered the why and how we ended up streaming our Sunday service online, but we’re still trying to get to the answer to this question:

“Is the ‘online church’ experience- church?”

Let’s look at some of the pro’s for a minute:

• Easily accessible to anyone with an internet connection
• Saves money on building/facilities (assuming you are in a mobile environment like we are), because some of your audience will opt for viewing online instead of attending a physical campus
• Allows you to capture the live feel without having to drive or go to a physical building- and save it for future viewing with many of the online services available
• The amount of volunteers for Sunday mornings (or whenever you do this) greatly decreases with minimal set-up, no classes, no greeters, no ushers, etc.
• People can share their worship, thoughts, feelings with others during the service via chat, Facebook, Twitter
• With being home (or in your selected environment) you feel more comfortable and possibly more open to what is being said/communicated during the service
• People who are far from God are more apt to tune in and check out the service if they don’t feel threatened or pushed into attending (they can be anonymous for a time if they choose, which helps some people ease in to experiencing God)
• If you decide to do both (live site and stream online) people can check out the church (preview it) before they actually come and check it out on a Sunday morning at a building
• Technology advancements have moved so far, so fast- that almost anyone can do this at next to nothing when it comes to cost. We used a free service (livestream.com), some gear we had for band practices, and computers we use for Sunday mornings
• Engaging people using this medium has become the new norm. From Netflix streaming, YouTube, Hulu, Vimeo, Ustream, etc.- people are getting their information via video and much of that is by using the internet
• Fill in the blank: “One of the pros of having church streamed online is _______ ?”

Those are just some, but let’s hear what you have to say and next time will jump in with the “cons of online church.”
Until next time-

Jason *over and out*