jakerasmussen.com

As I sit at a new coffee house, Coffee Pointe, on Speedway and Tucson Blvd I am making my rounds on the blogs that be.  I came across this one below from Ed Stetzer’s Blog.  I don’t find it all that shocking that Americans don’t find a lot of confidence in organized religion.  But, I can’t help but to ask myself, why is it so low?

What can we as a church do to bolster confidence in the American people and the people around the world?  It has taken a long time to get where we are today and I don’t think it would take that long for the confidence to rise.  If those who say they have been transformed because of Jesus start living like it then confidence would HAVE to go up.

From the Foster Letter (see www.garydfoster.com)

The 2008 Harris Poll of American leadership confidence has measured the confidence finds 15 of the 16 items listed show a fall in confidence from ’07. They are leadership in medicine down from 35% to 28%, the White House down 22% to 15% and small business leaders from 54% to 47%,. Wall Street, major educational institutions, the courts and the justice systems also saw significant declines.

The 6 institutions enjoying the highest confidence of Americans are:

The military (51%); Small business (47%); Major educational institutions (32%); Medicine (28%); Organized religion (25%): The Supreme Court (25%).

The lowest levels of confidence are in:

The Congress (8%);
The press (10%);
Organized labor (11%);
Wall Street (11%);
Major companies (14%).

(Pastors Weekly Briefing 3/7/08, cited in the Foster Letter).

I am sitting at the Starbucks on Speedway and Wilmot working on stuff for the 1st ever Sunday Gathering for Epic Church and I am listening to some songs on iTunes and most of the time I just have it in the background to help me focus but for some reason I paused in my work and the lyrics caught my attention and I thought I would share them with all 2 of you who read this silly blog project of mine.  Enjoy and if it strikes a chord with you please feel to share your thoughts:

“Cause what we got is what we need and everything else is only greed. It’s greener on the other side.  Oh why can’t we be satisfied. ” - Shawn McDonald Greed on his Roots CD.

It is our first Sunday gathering. Please come and journey with us as we being this church. Epic Church. Please REPOST this!

By epic_church at 2008-03-21

More information email: jake@epicchurchonline.org

No joke.

What a cool experience to have a project you are working on being highlighted in the regional newspaper.

Read the article here and let me know what you think.

http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/229881

-Jake

This is estimated to be around 35,000 people a WEEK. Our goal is that they would see the add and feel a connection then feel compelled to check it out. Or that when they think of attending a church they might think, Epic Church.

Take a look at the ad and then leave a comment and let me know what you think.

“The originating idea, light from God’s Word, and relevant materials should live in the mind and possess the life of a preacher until they represent the deepest conviction of the soul.” - Brown, Clinard, Northcutt & Fasol

This struck a chord with me tonight as I was reading it.  Does it make you go hummm?

-Jake

As I was waking up getting dressed and driving to the Starbucks this morning to get a few things done before I am with the kiddo’s all day I was thinking about what brings me the greatest joy in my life.

Without a doubt it is being married to Jennifer. She brings me so much joy and happiness. When I think about the way we interact and we knock out goals together we are an awesome team when we are hitting on all cylinders. My wife totally completes me.

-Jake

I may get in trouble for saying this but…

Man our preview Sunday was like making love for the first time on my wedding night…

There was great anticipation! It was awesome! And I couldn’t wait for more.

Yesterday at the movie theater Epic Church had our preview gathering.  It was a lot of hard work but it was fun and I think people enjoyed themselves and were challenged to impact our community.

I am extremely thankful for a wonderful team of adults who helped create our Sunday morning gathering.  Without them there is no way it would have been a success.  I am in debt to them for sacrificing sleep and a leisurely morning in order set up and take down all the “stuff” for Epic’s gathering.

Next Gathering = Easter Sunday.

-Jake

I am up late. Yes, 10pm is late for me as I worked at Starbucks early this morning with a wonderful crew. I wish I could write a story about each person at the Starbucks I work at because they are all wonderful and have an awesome story to tell!

The reason for my post tonight it about the topic of breast cancer. No, I don’t have it. But, I know someone who does / did.

This woman is a beautiful, elegant, strong woman. She sacrificed for her child and her husband year after year. She made a tough decision for a better life for herself and her son. She made some wise choices along the way and is a great person. But about a year ago she found out she had breast cancer. She had an operation and now after a hard road to recovery she is whole once again. This is my mother, Jan!

Which leads me to this post. As many of you know I am in the process of starting a church in Tucson, Az. It is a church were people can find their way close to Jesus. A church that makes a difference in the community and exists for the pleasures of Jesus and for the betterment of Tucson.

My wrestle is this tonight…

You see we are “launching” our church Epic Church on Easter Sunday at the Park Place Mall movie theaters. Well, our advertising on the big screen didn’t happen on the date we wanted but rather is happening on the 28th.

As the first among equals I have the power to dictate the schedule of events in our young church. I want to hold church at the Tucson breast cancer walk. This is the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure . I desire to see Epic not at the movie theater meeting for our gathering but being in the community walking for the benefit of men and women all over our city which are infected with this type of cancer. Get it, the church wouldn’t be having church… but…. being the church by “having church”. Impacting the community.

Think about this… what if every church were to NOT meet on this Sunday and encourage the “church” to walk to find a cure. For one I think it would raise a lot of money for the cure. But, what a beautiful picture for the church to actually be the church in the community. Don’t get me wrong I KNOW churches all over Southern Arizona are making wonderful impacts in our community. Some are better noticed than others but it IS happening all over. But what if….

So, do I not hold Epic at the movie theater and be the church in the community that Sunday? What if people show up because our advertising would be in full swing and people might show up at the theater and be ticked that they wanted to experience Epic and got up early and we weren’t there.

Ok, I am tired…..

-Jake

I have hit my first real road block and it is a silly one….

Here is the short story….

At Epic Church I have made the decision to “market” our Sunday gatherings on the big screen.

1. We are meeting in the very theaters we want to advertise in.
2. It is a captive audience.
3. It is like having a sign at your church location. Even though the church is not a building but the people.

But to be honest with you this process has been so HARD. I am stressed about it and ticked.

Our sales rep didn’t take us serious enough to get things rolling in time for our Easter Launch so our ad won’t start until the 28th of March. Oh well…. we are in it for the “long haul” as they keep telling me.

Then all these little things (restrictions) that can’t be used. For example, video. We were told that it could be used in an animated ad, but really it can’t. You have to have a live action ad and that costs more money to produce.

You can’t have a “call to action” for text messaging. For example, we wanted to have people text the word, X to some short code to interact with them. Oh well…

Ok enough venting. Because this morning at the “office” AKA Starbucks, I had a wonderful conversation with a fellow partner and he shared a verse with me. Romans 15:13. Good stuff.

Lesson for the day. People matter much more than stuff!

-Jake