In marketing, they say you should always have ready your elevator speech.

That’s the short compelling description of what your vision is so when asked, you’re ready to give a credible answer. Even though (or maybe because) my first career was in marketing, I don’t love feeling like making

a sales pitch about something like church.

And the truth is, if I found myself on an elevator with you, I’d probably be trying to get to know you FOR REAL, way more than trying to sell you on our church. But as we got to know each other, I’d assume to like to be friends and the way my best relationships operate is from within our church.

Restoration is a church that values authentic relationships/friendship that are set in God’s Story of restoration; all things coming together in Christ.

We talk a lot about relationships around here. Why? Because there’s one thing about the Bible; open it up to any page you’ll find relationships; God to us, us to God and us with each other. This is something that none of us are good at and, if we’re honest with ourselves, our relational style is something we don’t want to work on. But the Word calls is to “love God and love others as ourselves.” To love is to be in relationship. So how we love—how we relate—is vitally important.

And we talk about from God’s Story. The Story of God is His Word. The whole encompassing narrative of the universe told through scripture. God’s Story is alive and breathing; It’s more than relevant… it’s essential. Like trying to drive across country without a map would be to try living out the Christian life without being lead by God’s Word. Yet, more and more Christians leave the Bible reading to the experts—the preachers, pastors and leaders. I did.

As a new believer, I thought I’d never come to understand, appreciate or value the scriptures. Now, as I’ve learned to approach the Bible narratively, I see real life played out in every page. Restoration values the Bible and it’s central to everything we do. A bulk of our teaching calendar is set working through whole books of the Bible, but we do so in sweeps (not always verse-by-verse).

By the time, we’ve worked through a book of the Bible, my hope is that you have come to understand it better and that it’s absorbed into your life. I hope that over time, you could go back to say a book like Hebrews or Judges and it feels familiar and exciting.

Oops. That’s my floor. I’d better get off here. Let’s chat again.

In my next postings, I’ll share about our 3 understandings. That we are Biblical, Transformational and Missional.