This Christmas we’ve challenged Ekklesians to hand out 2000 personal invitations to our Christmas Eve service. Why? Because Christmas is a time of year when a whole lot of people who don’t normally go to church will go if they’re invited. We pray that many will come and have a personal encounter with Christ that will radically and dramatically change the course of their lives forever!

Overall, Ekklesians are doing well with this mission, but there are some who aren’t. Based on my conversations with a few of them, the most common reason they say is that “they don’t know how.” Well, I love them a whole lot, AND I don’t buy it!

The bottom line is that influencing people to follow Jesus is hard for ALL of us, but there are much deeper reasons than “we don’t know how.” Take a look at this drama which pretty much sums up the days of our lives.

All of us know how to influence, and we do it pretty much every day of our lives. Unfortunately, we spend little time influencing people to follow Jesus. So it’s not mainly because we “don’t know how.”

When you look at the four guys in Mark 2:1-12, we see what separated them from everyone else in the entire town. There were LOTS of sick people who didn’t make it in the house to see Jesus, but these four guys were the only ones who were willing to do whatever it took. WHY?

#1 They loved this paralyzed man.
#2 They saw how bad off he was.
#3 They believed that Jesus was the only one who could heal him.

In response to #1, the religious teachers weren’t happy that this man had his sins forgiven and was healed. Unfortunately, there are many churches like this today. We can say we want to “reach out”, but if we aren’t leading people to Christ, the problem is ours. Usually, it means we don’t really love “outsiders.”

About #2, the truth is, everyone is completely paralyzed without Christ. Without Christ, we are dead in our sins, living separate from God. Regardless how many “good” things we do, they are all in vain, because we are doing them without a fully-dependent relationship with our Creator.

In regards to #3, religion can’t get us to God. That’s vanity. Only God can forgive sins, and Jesus makes it clear here that He is God, and He is showing us that only He can solve our deepest dilemma, sin.

In conclusion, obviously if we don’t love others, we won’t bring them to Christ. But even if we do love, we must understand how bad off people really are, that Jesus is the only solution, and then and only then will we do whatever it takes to help others get to Him. This is what our lives are about. This is why we exist. There are thousands out there who won’t get to Him without our help. Will we step up to reality? We’re more ready than we realize…

At only 16 weeks of age, LEVI TALKS!!! Read on!!!

December 18th was Andrea’s 30th year of life on planet earth. We invited everyone from Ekklesia, local friends, and family to a huge surprise birthday party, and it was awesome!

Well, Levi wanted me to help him show his love and affection for her, but he needed my assistance. So, we decided to make a short video for Mommy. I told him to just say whatever he wanted to say, and I’d translate, so look for the subtitles.

To Whom it May Concern: “I, Christopher Lee Lambert, assume no legal responsibility for the accuracy, or lack there of, for the following translated message from Levi Christopher Lambert.”

Does anyone else feel like this year has flown by really, really fast? Man, December has already begun! Christmas is here…

I don’t know what you’re experiences have been like in the past, but for me, I always sense that a whole lot of people are unusually open to the idea of God around Christmas time. Here’s what I’ve seen: People that don’t go to church services, will often go in December, if they’re invited.

So, we should probably like, do somethin’ about that don’t ya think? Yea… I agree!

Here’s the plan: As a church, we’re expecting our people to personally hand out 2000 invitations to attend our Christmas Eve Service, located at John Glenn High School, at 6PM.

We want you to invite your friends, family, co-workers, and enemies… Yes, even your boss.

According to Jesus’ words and actions in Luke 15:1-31, here is a list of good potential candidates:

1. Hookers
2. Your “Christian” aunt who mistakenly thinks she is better than a prostitute
3. Crack dealers
4. Stay at home moms
5. Committed church-goers who love the cultural understanding of their religion more than a life-changing relationship with Jesus
6. The used car salesman who sold you a lemon
7. The Taco Bell girl who runs the cash register
8. That guy who hates God and is proud of it
9. The person you’ve been wanting to invite to Ekklesia, but you just haven’t worked up the courage yet
10. All openly lesbian, pro-abortion, Christian-hating, feminists, who figure that Ekklesia is just another self-righteous gathering of hypocritical morons