Seriously. Seriously? Seriously!
Religion , Personal , Take Action , Atlanta , Music , Personal Reflection Add comments
So I'm sitting here watching the 7|22 video from this past tuesday and honestly I've had to stop it. I can hear the Gasps's across the internet now. "Eric has stopped watching a 7|22 session, you know what that means? That session must have really stunk!" Well I'm afraid to burst your bubble but I'm pretty sure it didn't stink at all. Margaret Feinberg and her book Organic God are both amazing. She's a very personable person, a very real person and her book really does outline some basic and simple ideas which we should all try to follow or adapt into our own lives.
No the reason I had to stop the video is because I knew what was coming at the end. The whole time I'm sitting there watching it (I got just 1/3 of the way through Margaret talking) I can't help but think about the last 20 minutes of the night. Which, by the way, I was able to catch after leading my Oasis group.
!!! Tangent alert !!! Ok so I'm a big Grey's Anatomy fan. I missed most of last season and I'll probably do the same this season but when I did watch it, I love it. My favorite episode was the one where Izzy, Meredith and George are all lying in bed and just saying "Seriously" over and over again. The YouTube video imbedded in this post is a collection of the "Seriously's" said over the past seasons. Trust me this fits. !!! End Tangent Alert !!!
So what's deal with the last 20 min? Well Jarrett came back out on the stage as he will do from time to time and announced that the staff of 7|22 has decided to stop producing 7|22 when this series if completed. Which is August, as in next month August. Now they might still do "something" for September but at this point, after the August session, 7|22 will end after 12 years of service.
"Seriously. Seriously? Seriously!" <said in my best George voice>
Yes totally serious. No joke here. There won't be an 8|33 or a 9|44 or even an 22|7 to replace it. 7|22 will end and there will be nothing. I actually found out about this before tuesday night because a close friend knew how much 7|22 meant to me and he knew I wouldn't be able to attend to hear the news live. When he first told me this I was in total shock. A sadness hit me like an 18 wheeler dump truck who's just unloaded a packed trailer of bricks on me. Then this same truck proceeds to back up over the bricks (I'm under them at this point if you missed that) and then finally proceeds to drive back over the bricks but not before it's exhaust billows out a nice black cloud of smoke which settles over my only breathing hole. So needless to say I was a little upset.
This quickly led to anger and spite. How could they do this? Why would they do this? What reason could it be? Was it money? Was it logistic's? Was it the devil winning a battle against Christ's followers? All these and more questions started to pour out of me on to my friend and the explanation I got was simple. 7|22 didn't feel like it was accomplishing it's mission. It had become comfortable with it's "program" and wasn't reaching new people. It wasn't affecting the people outside the church or bringing in new people. It was just another option like the 9am, 11am and 6pm services.
WTF? Seriously?
For those of you with good christian hearts WTF = What The Fudge, for everyone else yea I actually said it, and I really hate that word. Everything my friend was telling me went against every reason why I, Eric Ryan Jones aka jonese, came to 7|22. 7|22 was the reason I kept going to Buckhead Church. It is was because of a talk given that i decided to start blogging. It is where I met my current circle of friends. It was where I made the decision to get baptized. It was where I discovered one of God's plans for me, to share my group of friend with others. It's where I've heard sermons and speakers who've talked TOO ME, not AT ME, or ABOUT ME. I know that Joel, and Jarrett and everyone else would sit in their offices or home and think "Ok what life issue is Eric struggling with and how can we talk about it?".
Don't get me wrong. I've gotten lots of great things from the Sunday Sermons by Andy, Clay etc but there was something more profound about the 7|22 talks. They were topics where afterwards when my friends and I would go to dinner, we'd continue to talk and add to it, twist it, mash it, and look at it from every angle we could imagine. Then, and this is the important part so please pay attention, we'd APPLY it to our lives. This happened after every single 7|22 session and I can honestly say that while I'm in line with Andy 99% of the time, I don't always walk away with something to apply to my life TODAY.
Not only were the talks good but the music was fantastic. Yea we get a dose of it during the Sunday sermons but honestly it always leaves me wanting more. 2 or 3 songs on Sunday compared to the 6 to 8 or more songs during a 7|22 night is no comparison. For me music is really everything and it's how I feel God really communicates with me. He can put a song out there, on the radio, or during a night of church or 7|22, via a friends recommendation or just a random ipod shuffle where I suddenly get addicted to a song for weeks. I don't always get what he's saying but as I continue to listen I start to hear him.
7|22 filled that for me when I didn't get it at church etc. It was during a 7|22 performance of Eddie Kirkland's song Lift High when I felt the overwhelming conviction to investigate baptism. It was during other nights that I would discover newer songs, artists and start to get back into Christian music and of course to hear God talking to me again.
They say something like 90% of the people who attended 7|22 where already plugged-in. By this they meant they went to church and attended a small group, or Fusion or something somewhere else. Now I know a lot of people who choose 7|22 over Fusion because of the connotation Fusion has has in the past to be a "meat market". I say this knowing full well that the next cycle I could very well be leading my own Fusion group and battling those same MISCONCEPTIONS. Sure some groups might be like that, and it might have been the way it was in the past, but I can tell you not my past group and not in any groups i lead. It was and will be all about friendship and connecting with other like minded single adults, both male and female.
Seriously!
Fast forward a few hours and I'm over my depression, over my anger and I've moved on. I've pushed out the thoughts that this was the devils work. I've pushed out the thoughts that they just couldn't afford to put on 7|22 anymore so this was a financial move. I've pushed all those thoughts out of my mind. Left in it's place was one simple idea.
Do Something.
7|22 says it doesn't know what is next. Personally I see this as a challenge to all of us who went or ever attended a 7|22 night. The challenge is simple. Do Something. If that means sending your thoughts to the 7|22 staff in hope you'll persuade them to change their mind, then do it. Maybe you want to start your own little praise and worship night, then do it. Maybe for you it's all about finding stuff for your friends to do on the weekends which is fun and spiritual at the same time, then do it.
We have no one to blame but ourselves for 7|22 ending. Did you invite anyone to come? Did you send out these invites weekly? Did you walk up to a stranger at 7|22 who looked lost, or alone and extended a hand in friendship? Did you take the messages you learned into your workplace? Into your home? Into your group of friends who aren't "plugged-in"?
Yea I didn't always either.
This isn't the end of 7|22, it's the end of an idea, of a way we worshiped, grew, and congregated. We've spent the past few weeks, months, years however long you've been going, getting trained. We are God's children and we are commanded to spread His love to everyone we come in contact with. To share His word with your neighbor, your community and the world. Take the lessons you've learned and apply them outside of your circle. Figure out what fires you up and then make that a movement in His name.
The whole time I've been writing this I've had Graham Colton's Best Days on repeat. Check out the words here. The entire song fits for me and I know God is comforting me and motivating me with them. Especially these versus:
So don’t wait 'cause no one can tell you it’s too late
'Cause these are the best days
There's always something tomorrow
So I say let's make the best of tonight
Yeah, let's make the best of tonight
We'll make the best of tonight
Here comes the rest of our lives
Good luck 7|22 staff. You gave up your jobs for God's will and I hope WE the 7|22 followers don't let you down.
Jul 25, 2008 at 1:28 PM Here is the email I sent to 7|22 Staff after I read your blog buddy!
Wow.
This week was a shocker I must admit. I was pretty sad at first, mad for much longer, and overall have come to a conclusion about what I heard this week.
Let me take a moment to tell you why I was mad, not to dwell on the negative, or wallow in the anger... but to tell you why I felt a little left out, a little overlooked, maybe even a little disregarded. I've been going to 7|22 since I've been going to Buckhead church, only a short while, since January. I've had a few discussions with Jarrett specifically him calling me the poster boy for Buckhead after admitting I had joined Fusion, 7|22, a Small Group, and was a regular attendee of the 6pm singles service, all since January... failing to mention my application for a recently, and happily, accepted mission trip to Cambodia this December. Either way... he seemed interested and enthusiastic about what I was into.
During the conversation with Jarrett I didn't mention what I had been doing outside of 7|22 and while I don't think you need to be praised for doing what you intended nor do you seek that as staff of 7|22, in retrospect maybe I should have shared what I was into outside of the church walls. I didn't want to brag and I want to be humble and unseeking of praise for doing what God intended me to do anyway. I'm not seeking the praise now, I just want to share the ideas and creativity that I feel God placed in my heart.
Jonathan Goode approached me about helping him make a website, which is what I do as a profession, for free a few months ago. His organization, The Unthinkable Project (unthinkableproject.org), started as a mission to raise awareness about the homeless. He's received tons of input from Andy Stanley and Jeff Henderson and I'm sure countless other extremely talented people about how to run that thing. He's doing great! I heard messages at 7|22 to challenge me to DO things... so I offered what I am good at, outside of the church to push God's will into overdrive the best way I can. I got involved as I was asked to do, as I felt God push me to do. I also persuaded Eric Jones into working on the website as well and he's gone fullspeed ahead into pushing a cause that is God's will outside of the walls of the church and onto the streets of a city that NEEDS God.
I also challenged my friends outside of the church. I created a Facebook event recently and invited tons of people to have coffee at Starbucks across the street, I also invited Jarrett to the event and asked him to send folks our way. When people showed up the hour before the 6 pm singles service, we asked them to take their coffee money and give it up for donation. Eric Jones, again amazing, suggested it might fail because of the use of credit cards. I made a website with a PayPal option for those folks. We didn't want to offer an avenue for excuses... the whole deal was about giving people options. You have an option to do two things at Starbucks... buy coffee or not, we wanted to share a third, possible more attractive, option to GIVE. It was a huge success, we raised almost $200 in a single hour with just a handful of young folks. We gave the money to clubmocha.org to fight issues that are troubling Africa. These are not the lawyers and doctors of Atlanta's elite, these are recently graduated students or still in school, people that GAVE. How amazing is God?
I am not alone, or a special and unique snowflake in this. There are tons of other 7|22 goers that are making waves in the community outside of the walls of Buckhead. I am certainly not in a position to tell you what to do, or even make huge suggestions, because you know your organization and you know how it works and how much it costs, but SOMETHING has to be done with all of these influential young singles. Something.
What if you got people together for a short (20 mins ish) gathering each week and deployed creative and innovative volunteers into smaller groups and encouraged them to do things like I've done or like others have done (and I know you guys have heard some awesome stories from clever people). The night we left and went and did something... the best 7|22 I'd been to. Make it about serving the least so that we might follow Jesus fully. God is so creative and we in His image. It would please Him to make an impact in a new, creative, and innovative way.
Hearing messages each week and longer worship song time is really amazing, I don't want to discount that (in fact I will miss it), but you are all right... it's not DOING anything. Doing something people haven't done or are scared to do, talking and praying for people out at East Andrews who are stuck in a rut of alcohol and poor decision making in a non-confrontational way... talking with strippers or prostitutes about how God loves them, sharing stories of Jesus walking with people like that. We need to be motivated to do stuff like THAT. Tons of people in those situations might not even know about those stories and that kind of infinite love. We need mission trips down the street as bad as we need them in Africa sometimes.
Thank you for motivating me to write this with the messages at our gathering this week. Also seriously... thank you for providing a place for people to park (and i know its so expensive), free coffee, music, fellowship opportunities, and just another way to stay accountable in the middle of the week when it is all too easy to stray into the world that hates us because we are not of it. Thank you. God bless!
Aubrey
Jul 29, 2008 at 10:56 AM I gotta say I felt the same. I found out a week earlier at a worship night for volunteers and leadership specifically met before hand to hear the news. I was disgusted.
Later, almost a day before 722, God made it clear to me. Birth can only come after death, its a theme that runs through the bible. The disciples were disappointed, some were angry, some LEFT when Jesus explained that he had to go. What they didn't see, and what we can't see, is what's next, or how much better that NEXT will be than 7|22.
Coupled with the fact that Louie had wanted to end 7|22 when he left, and leadership decided to keep it going is another thing. So while I will look back in fondness for the many years of my life that I have given to this ministry, I'll strain ahead for what's next.
Also, check out the blog rethinkchristianity.com, the idea of rethinking how we do church is a growing movement.