No, don’t take offense with me…we would never do or say that. That is disgusting. I am just reporting that there are thugs out here that do just that.

Twice a year the LDS Church holds their General Conference where they hear the words of their Prophet and chart the course of the church and their personal lives. It is the highlight of the year for them.

Some nice Christian fellows [WATCH THIS SHORT VIDEO] yell, scream, spit, and cause a scene, even with many of the people who attend being young children. The words, prostitute, whores, etc. are thrown around. Sometimes people actually drag the Book of Mormon on the ground in front of the attendees as you see above. And it’s not just 1 group, they are on most of the corners doing their deeds in the name of Jesus. Read all the way to the end to see what our response will be this weekend.

The reaction of these people who are going to the conference is so disheartening, especially the children. I took my son Christian down last year to see this in action. Best discipleship lesson he could ever learn.

The LDS Church would disagree big time with our doctrine and beliefs and we the same with them, may I be clear on that. But Jesus did not say: “Win them with scare tactics and by acting like thugs when you disagree with someone.” He said, “They will know you by your LOVE.” Jesus said: “LOVE your neighbor as yourself.” He also said, “By this will everyone know you are my disciples when you have LOVE one for another.” All of the law and the prophets hang on the 2 commands to LOVE! Can I get a witness?

And there is no asterisk to just love those who agree and live the same holy lifestyle that you do…by the way, on your best day, your BEST RIGHTEOUSNESS is still like FILTHY DOG POO to God. That’s in the Bible too.

Jesus didn’t scream and hold signs at the Samaritan well. Read the Bible, thugs. [In love I say that].

So…Dear Thugs: stop driving the wedge between our relationships that we seek to build that much deeper. I bet most of you aren’t even from this city. If you really knew someone who was LDS and loved them, you would never be doing this. And for those that are in our cities here…there is a reason your church is “50 soldiers in the Army of the Lord” strong every Sunday morning and has been for years.

Great…how’s that working for you to reach the whole world and to love the whole world? You know, the Great Commission AND the Great Commandment?

So because many of my friends, neighbors, my kids teachers, maybe the kids doctors, dentists and softball coaches will be going down to get yelled at by these thugs, we are doing something so much different. I love my neighbors, almost all are whom LDS. I love them deeply. I really do. You are my friend, not a conversion project. We are called to love each other. I choose to let the Spirit of God guide us into all truth as we earnestly seek Him with all our hearts. I’m all about the truth, but the foundation has to be built on a platform of love, trust and respect. That’s where real dialogue can begin.

So…our brand new church is going to go down this Saturday [want to come join us? hit me up on my e-mail] and give out some love, Jesus style. “HUGS not THUGS” will be our marching orders. We will be handing out free hugs to those who need a boost after walking past our brothers and sisters in Jesus who just gave them an ear full.  We will give them an arm full. If you have never witnessed this sort of outreach before [WATCH IT HERE AND GO DO THE SAME].

Pray for our 9 week-old church as we go down to a very volatile area and show the real love of Jesus. This is a big step in our mission here to “Reach, Teach & Love the World Like Jesus.”

What can YOU do to show real love in your community in a truly RADICAL way? For you it’s not the same as my context…Is there a GLBT Parade, Porn Convention, Atheist Convention, or something else coming to town soon where followers of Jesus like to spread the message of whatever they are spreading in the above ways?

Why not…why not? Why not YOU? Why not YOUR CHURCH? Maybe we can start a revolution that shows what we are FOR [love and the gospel] rather than just the press we get on what we are AGAINST. I dare you to re-post this and start a revolution in your church, your state, your country and this world.

Anyway…back to safe living for Jesus now. Thanks for stopping by.

The first GIANT missing from most churches is a LACK OF LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT.

The 2nd thing I notice prevalent in today’s church is a lack of looking at mission the way that Jesus did. Jesus did ministry on 4 levels:

1. HE DREW A CROWD! [for all the crowd haters.] He wanted a crowd so large that not even 1 person was missing!

2. He took 12 from the crowd! This is most churches small groups level or recovery ministry or whatever form it takes.

3. He took 3 from the 12! This is the leadership development level that we talked about.

4. He took time for the 1! We find encounters with Jesus 1 on 1 all the time.

It’s this 4th level that the church is missing on a huge level today. We have learned to draw crowd and to do great small groups. The Leadership Development level [that we talked about earlier] and this 1 on 1 discipleship level is missing as I poll the audiences I am with. These levels are KILLING the church as we know it when it is missing!

All levels are IMPORTANT, NEEDED and MODELED by Jesus! Hear me on that.

But the phrase: “Life change happens best in small groups,” is not something that I subscribe to.

Life change happens best in the 1 on 1 encounters in life. This is the curriculum we use. We ask people to not only have life-conversations about what people are going through, but to make sure that they get the discipleship material finished within a reasonable time period.

Helping someone through a marriage issue is 1 thing, teaching them the foundations of the faith will help them help someone else Biblically, not just socially. We ask that our disciplers not just talk about the curriculum, but talk about life, and not just about life, but about the foundations of the faith.

What do you think is most missing in the church today? I fly all over the country sharing the model above and also “HOW TO BUILD A LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PIPELINE FROM SCRATCH,” that I talked about in the previous post. Yes, with 0 resources and 0 leaders. You can overcome this barrier and I am passionate about sharing this #1 need with churches. If you want to talk about how to bring this to your church…hit me up: [charles@onecommunity.tv]