Open House: Beyond One Man Revival, Life Together

Hey gang!

Over the last few days, I have received some questions about the new blog. The most common is "Why are you starting over and leaving One Man Revival behind?" It is a great question, seeing that I had somewhere between 200-250 views a day and somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 followers by the end of the almost two-year run from 2008-2010.

The answer is an easy one, though. There has been no new material on the page since 2010. A lot of the end of the end of the run was promoting other people's material (books, blogs, items, and the like). I did a lot of that to try to help bring in income to the page. I wasn't working with three kids at home and trying to help the family, took it upon myself to do something with the blog to bring in the bling. Not only did it fail, it didn't really improve the quality of material being produced. Actually, it hurt the material because I was spending the time I would normally have studied what God wanted me to talk about reading material from other people to promote their product. Some were great, some not so much. Regardless, it hurt my time and the message that I was being given to put out.

The bigger part of the answer is that One Man Revival served its purpose well. The catch line, "A One Man Revival begins with you" was excellent and true. To begin serving Jesus and serving Him well, the revival has to begin in your heart. You have to want to follow Jesus. It's always a choice. The free gift of eternal life is yours from the moment you decide to follow Jesus, but inevitably it is your will of how much following of Jesus you will actually do from that moment on.

There is one problem for me to continue to use One Man Revival going forward. I guess it is not so much of a problem as a realization. The realization is this: While it is true that a one man revival begins with you, it is not meant to stay that way. In most of what I was going through toward the back end of the OMR run, I felt alone, totally alone. Whether that was reality or not, it was how I felt. While I was growing in head knowledge of God, I wasn't growing in relationship with God, or most anyone else, for that matter.

In the mid 1990's, Promise Keepers began to soar as a great men's ministry. One of their core Bible verses was Proverbs 27:17, "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." While I have walked with many men over the 20 years that I have been a Christian, very seldom did I feel like I was sharpening men in Christian friendship and even less frequently that other Christian men were sharpening me. Many times, the guys I should have been sharing with and baring my soul with, would end up talking with me about sports and the weather, rather than the issues that would have made us better men or kept us from being weaker men.

The truth is that, as the church, we need each other. Next to being in relationship to God, being in relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ,  can encourage and strengthen us. Hebrews 10:24-25 tells us, "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day (Jesus' return) approaching."

While it is easy to say, "I don't need God, or others, while things are going good," it is often times when we are going through the worst times that we don't reach out to people. While that reach is a two-way street with people, a lot of friends ashamedly don't feel comfortable reaching into you during the hard times. It's not because they don't care. It is more often because we don't know what to say or equally important, what not to say. What we fail to miss is that just being in the room with someone going through tough times does the heart good like a merry medicine.

During the back of that run with OMR, I lost my father. I didn't just lose my dad. I found my three half-siblings. Finding them was the good news. Finding out a lot of what they went through with my father was disheartening and made me emotionally ill. While my father was a different man from the days that he was with them, the pain and trying to deal with all the new information was extremely difficult for me. I went through the "I'm the oldest brother, I am a protector" thought process. I couldn't protect them then and I didn't offer much in peace from it either. I was just there.

While my church failed miserably at being there for me in that time, I was grateful to find a grief support group through my local hospital, ran by an attender of the local Catholic church. Ann, the group leader, and a group of other people faced with the death of a loved one met weekly over a couple month period. Being able to have your voice being heard during the times of trials in your life can be refreshing and was so helpful in my case. It gives you someone to help sort out whatever mess you feel like has been created. The other voices also give you the perspective that you haven't gone through this alone and furthermore, weren't the first or last person that will ever do so.

On Friday, it will mark three weeks that I lost my half-brother, Kyle. I never met him in person. I talked to him a few times a year over these last four years. It wasn't enough. I will be honest with you that it may go down as one of my biggest regrets in life to not have met him. It makes my anxiousness to meet my remaining two half-sisters even higher. It probably won't be easy. One sister is in Alaska and the other is in Oregon. I am located in Illinois. Those aren't just day trips.

I know how badly I want relationship with them. To know them and their families. It is how Paul shares his longing to see Jesus with Timothy in his second letter, "Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day--and not only to me, but to all who have longed for his appearing (2 Timothy 4:8)." That's real longing for relationship.

Let's be honest, though. Maybe today, your longing for Jesus isn't quite like that. I know mine is not on some days. We just want to get through the day, curl up in bed or on the couch and go to sleep. We're not thinking about Jesus, Heaven or anything spiritually. We just want to say we made it. We don't even ask for a "I survived it (whatever it may be to you today)" T-shirt.

I will give you slightly better news that I have had a couple friends from my church do a little better in helping me deal with Kyle's passing. They gave me an ear. One also gave me a cool dinner. Hey, I will keep it real with you here. I'd like to be all spiritual and tell you, "Hey, we don't want your money or your food or any other nice things you want to do for us," however, I like meals I don't have to prepare or a little help now and then, regardless of the occasion. Honestly, you can give me money any time you like. I won't mind at all. But it's not that which is most important. It is you being there in the trials of life with us. We want YOU!

It's why I love the concept of what a lot of people call lifegroups today. It's people meeting daily, weekly or whenever to live life with you. You share what God is teaching you at church or in your own study time or a lesson that someone in the group prepares, it doesn't matter. What matters is that it gives everyone in the group an opportunity to say what they are going through in this world called life. You get God's Word and a chance to talk to your people (friends, hopefully). One other thing I really enjoy about most of the groups I am in is food. I won't lie, if you have chocolate or cake, I am 99.99% more likely to show up. Who doesn't love sweet stuff? I know this fat guy does.

The point I am wanting you to walk away with today is this: If you are walking with Christ alone, you don't have to do it. Find a church. None of them are perfect, so don't travel around the circuit trying to find one. Find one that you can handle. Then find a friend or two or twelve or a hundred. Begin talking to them. Don't share your life story immediately. Tom Zawacki, the leader of the first group I ever attended, told me something important. "Don't cast your pearls before swine!" That means don't share everything with everybody. Share when it is appropriate. But do share. Don't just sit there and eat the cake. Guilty! I've done it before.

So next time, I'll have something else to share. Nope, I haven't decided what yet. I know God will give me something good though.

I love you guys!
Frank