A Church Is A Startup

When one thinks of a "Startup", especially in the Bay Area of Northern California (where I live), a company like "Twitter" or "Facebook" comes to mind -- an internet-based business that starts small but grows very rapidly.

These startups grow by attracting a lot of visitors.  In companies like "Twitter" or "Facebook" or even "Google", visitors don't usually pay anything for using the companies services, yet these companies have become very profitable, in part because they can sell advertising to a large captive audience.

I want to suggest the early church operated a lot like a "startup."

Why do these companies become so popular -- it's because they meet a very useful and powerful need-- in the case of "Google" -- the need to find information quickly.  In the case of "Twitter" or "Facebook", the desire to "broadcast" yourself to others rapidly.

Popular startups can meet real needs but sometimes fade away -- remember how popular MySpace was a few years ago?  

However a startup that remains and becomes an established business has meet a fundamental need (or desire) that wasn't met (or didn't know we had).  Can you imagine how useful Amazon and Google are for us today, can you imagine living without these services now?

In the same way the Church grew very rapidly after Pentecost because Christ's message meets a very deep need inherent in all of us -- the deep-seated (but oft-discounted) need for forgiveness, and a reconnection to the divine.  It's a need many of us don't realize we have, until we are transformed by the Gospel message and we cannot imagine a life now apart without Christ.

1 Timothy 1:15 "It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all."

And 

1 Phillipians 3: 7-8 "But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ." 

(Both references are from the New American Standard Bible translation)

There is nothing without Jesus Christ.

Why I Started This Blog

Welcome!  

I started this blog because although I have been a Christian for many years, I was content to just live and let live, minding my own business, not really proclaiming the hope I know to be true -- that Christ is the best and only real hope we have for this world, and the world to come.

I have always started a New Year off with a set of resolutions, not always written down; things I want to change.  "This year will be different",  I say to myself.  I will start to live my Christian walk more boldy, or "I will get out of debt", "travel more", etc..  but things don't change that dramatically from one year to the next.  I am a little older and perhaps a little wiser or richer.  

Yet the sense in me remains that my life hasn't fundamentally changed, and that at a very deep level, I know that I could be making more of an impact, spritually speaking.  

However,  I REALLY wanted this year to be different, and in this case it has turned out to be true.

This year for me and my wife started off with an unspeakable tragedy.  One of our neighbors in the building where we live committed suicide.  I am still reeling from the shock.  

Why did he do it?  Why did he take his life?  Part of me feels guilty -- if I had shared the hope that is in Christ with him, perhaps he would have something to live for, and I would still have the pleasure of his company.  

So, his death has spurred me to start this blog, a specifically Christian blog, one that I pray and hope will touch many lives.