Jesus isn’t the Pinnacle and OneLife Church isn’t the only church in town. So many times through my blog I write about OneLife Church and what we are experiencing that sometimes I might take friends & readers’ focus off of why we go sharing where we go. We go to OneLife Church but we go there to discover God. Through my blog and my life, I hope to be completely transparent with you as well as to just encourage you to discover God in whatever theater, church, or faucet that you choose. If you don’t have a place that you call home, I will definitely extend the invite to you to join us at OneLife on Sunday. In fact, beginning Easter Sunday we will be going to two services (10:00am & 11:30am). But here is my flip side. If you have a church that you call home, do a few things for me. First, quit complaining “the church” as I did for over a year. If we consider ourselves christians then we are part of “the church”. Secondly, be selfish and get involved. So many times we go to church for our experience and what we can get out of it. If you want to be really selfish (in a good way) talk to your Pastor or Volunteer Coordinator about how you can get involved throughout the week or on Sundays. I promise you that assisting your church in reaching lost souls for Christ will be the most rewarding thing that you will do throughout the week.

It has been rumored or anticipated that he would discuss alcohol in the sermon. Now, for you that may not know, alcohol is one of the most debated and theological discussed issues in the south. It’s kind of like talking about politics or abortions at your office party. It’s just something that you don’t do. So as we opened up the service with “Whiskey for my men, Beer for my Horses,” the thought hit me… Pastor Rodney has to be drunk! There is no way he is going to go up there and tackle one of the hottest, most debated issues of “church”. I will tell you how serious this was… I know people that came and missed their home church to check out our new series: Sex, Drugs, Rock’n Roll when “Sex” was the topic of discussion and right after he gave a snippet of what this week’s sermon would be about they said, “I got to see where he goes with that!” So they came back. You understand, coming into this I just knew that the man that I call pastor would have sought God throughout the week and God would speak to him to tell him that he should just mention alcohol but focus on drugs. There are a lot of good sermons that would fit a “drug” theme and how we become addicted or dependent on something other than God. So surely, Rodney wouldn’t talk about alcohol… right! Wrong… You should definitely watch the sermon online here but I will say that you have to listen to all of it so you don’t take anything out of context.

I came into this service completely and utterly nervous about what was going to be taught. I mean, here I am coming in from some questionable “church experiences” and honestly from hating the whole idea of “church” as a whole just last year. So what if this sermon doesn’t line up with my beliefs? What if I disagree with most things that he says? Can I continue to keep my family and I at a church if we don’t agree on such a largely debated topic? I mean, this topic of alcohol, divides entire denominations and masses of people.

As you can see on my Facebook profile under my religion status it says: Relationship – Jesus Christ. That is because of what I truly believe. For so many years, I have been caught up in the legalistic ideas of religion and what the scripture says about this or about that and where I stood on this issue or that issue but is that what Jesus commanded us to do? I don’t think so, now. I use to find myself on the side of the Pharisees talking about what was wrong and what was right; what Christians should do; and most famously ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ When, in fact, I probably missed completely what Jesus would do in any situation just as the Pharisees did in their hay-day. So I went back to the basics in my walk with Christ and my relationship.

In Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus is questioned about the greatest commandment and he simply answers. The greatest and first commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, & strength. Secondly, love your neighbor as yourself. It’s really simple, right? Jesus goes on to say that his ministry hinges on these two commandments. Hinges… hinges… Do me a favor. If you’re home or when you get home, take your front door off the hinges. Just take them off. Don’t remove the door. Don’t unlock the door. Take the door off the hinges, leave it up, and go to bed. The next morning, just leave. How safe do you feel about your front door? How do you feel about your door being off the hinges? How effective is your door when you try to open or close it… be careful because if you do this and try to use the door it will completely fall and shatter when it hits the ground. So now that you understand how important the exact term “hinge” means, Jesus’ entire ministry hinges on two things: love God & love your neighbor. All of Jesus’ miracles, all the lives that He touched, and all the people that followed Him means absolutely nothing if He didn’t do these two things just as your front door is completely useless if it’s not on it’s hinges.

On Sunday not only did I realize that Rodney wasn’t drunk but I realized even more that God has placed me under an absolutely awesome leader and Pastor at OneLife. For a “pastor” to stand in front of 220+ people and say that he is struggling with everything he has always been taught but went to God’s Word and found the answers. He found and taught what God’s answers were and did not teach his own answers (as I have seen some “pastors” completely do). Rodney says many things that would number one, catch me completely off guard but number two, realize once again God is moving in our family’s life and has placed us in somewhere that would challenge us to get closer as a family and challenge us to get closer to Him. I am so thankful for OneLife Church. Skipping the complete message, he began to lay some groundwork for OneLife’s beliefs. Basically, it’s this… there are two kinds of issues that will come up in the church: Close-handed issues & Open-handed issues. Close-handed issues aren’t up for discussion or debate. Some of those issues are:

• We believe the bible is the perfect Word of God.
• We believe the only way to get to heaven is through Jesus Christ.

Then there are open-handed issues. Open-handed issues are going to, not be necessarily up “for debate” but more discussion. This is how I feel and why and this is how you feel. The open-handed issues will push us to be more open-minded and not so close-minded to our “neighbors” who we are called to love as ourselves. Which, by the way, would only push people out of the church that truly want to be there, like myself. One of the open-handed issues, like alcohol, could be tattoo(s). Tattoos are frowned upon among many churches or “religious people” because of the stereotype that had tattoos in our parents’ generations and beyond. I sat with ink wrapped on one arm in a church with a Pastor that I respected very much as he said to a congregation of about 40% of tattooed members, “Tattoos are a sign of low self-esteem.” I got another tattoo after that sermon and had good self esteem when doing so. I will also just let you in on an apparent secret to many churches or “religious people”, Jesus had “Hebrew ink markings” on his body.

To conclude, I just want to say how amazed I am by God once again and how excited I am that He has placed us in this intentional church plant in Powell, TN that gets it. That gets it’s not about the religious by-laws, dos and don’ts, but it is only about discovering God and how our one life can make a difference. That is simply by doing the greatest commandment that Jesus called us to do. To love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and love our neighbor as ourselves. But most of all, I found out that OneLife Church is okay if I don’t believe exactly they way they do about the “open-handed” issues so I don’t feel like just another outcast at church. In this case, I agree with what the bible CLEARLY says about drinking and getting drunk but if it was another widely debated topic that has split denominations such as interracial marriages (see King David which had a interracial marriage and God said he was a man after his own heart, just sayin’) then it’s okay if I believe a certain way and I can even explain why I feel this way! How awesome is that? I can bring my beliefs and understanding of the bible to my friends and fellow believers (brothers and sisters in Christ) and compare notes. I have a feeling that this is the way that Jesus intended us to walk and what he meant for Church!

After sitting with some good friends during lunch today, I will be blogging about the 27 books in the New Testament. I hope to share a tangible side of the bible that you can grasp. Maybe shine a light on the who, what, when, and why of the books that we will dive into. I will entitle them such as, New Thru 30:: Matthew, Mark, Luke…etc. Hopefully so that you can understand who wrote the book and maybe understand the perspectives from their writings. For instance, Matthew was like a historian. His perspective was to tie the Old Testament in with what they experienced with Jesus, basically letting everyone know that the prophecies of the Old Testament were true and that Jesus Christ was in fact, the Messiah. Then on the other hand, there was John, the fourth book. John was Jesus’ best friend. John wants you to know Jesus as he did and he wants you to fall in love with Him just as John did. I have shared the book of John and John’s perspective before like John is trying to set you up on a blind date with his best friend and wants you to know all the great things about his friend, but this instance it will go a lot better than any of my blind dates because it’s with Jesus. If you make it through John with us, there won’t be any turning back. I hope that you at least make it there so that you can fall in love for the first time or completely all over again with Jesus. Again, I am praying hard for many of you to begin this journey with me and OneLife Church.

Pastor Rodney Arnold is the founding and lead pastor of OneLife Church. He grew up in North Carolina before moving to Abingdon, Virginia for high school. Rodney had quite the list of life-changing events at his young age, but none more spectacular than achieving 1st Runner-up in the Little Mr. Burley Tobacco Festival in 1983. From there, one could only imagine what great things were in store!

After high school, Rodney moved to Knoxville for college where he received his Bachelor of Science in Communications from the University of Tennessee. From there, Rodney went to work at his dream – NASCAR public relations at Bristol Motor Speedway – until God changed that dream to pastoring a church. He moved back to Knoxville and worked as Associate Pastor at Friendship Church in Karns for 5 years where he led worship and taught alongside Lead Pastor Tim Addis.

In 2007, several Knoxville churches partnered with Rodney to begin the process of planting OneLife Church. A year later he and the love of his life, Harrison, were married and moved to the Knoxville community of Powell, where OneLife now meets. Most recently Rodney graduated from Liberty Theological Seminary with a Master’s Degree in 2009. Pastor Rodney loves spending time with his wife, playing with their redbone coonhound “Ellie” and their cat “Andy Stanley,” and cheering on the Vols and local high schools during football and basketball seasons.

God has planted a big vision into Rodney and he wants nothing more than to see our community and our world discover God and how their one life can make a difference.

Connect and Follow Pastor Rodney:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/rodneyarnold
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/rodneyarnold

On Sunday, I would run into a friend that I knew that I wasn’t close to anymore but I couldn’t have imagined how much I missed them. This was no ordinary friend. This was truly my best friend. My friend and I had stayed up all night talking with on many occasions through the years. You see, my friend and I were closer than I had every imagined. When I would ask a favor or when I was in desperate need of something, my friend would always be there. He would always know just the right thing to say or show me. There have been times that I couldn’t talk to anyone. There had been experiences in my life that I could not share even with my family but I always called on him and he would always answer. You have to understand what I mean by a best friend. He was truly my best friend. I would call him up right after an exciting time or special event and tell him all about it. And on the other hand, I would call him up on the darkest hour of my life when I felt completely ashamed and he didn’t judge me. He never told me what others would typically say like “It’ll be okay” or “What’s in the past is in the past.” He was my best friend. He told me, “we will make it through this…” and for that he will always remain my best friend.

Then during Crissy and I’s first year of marriage, my friend and I remained close. As Crissy and I began to plan for our family we would grow closer to my friend with his experiences and advice. I would talk to him several times a day as Crissy and I struggled through the heartaches of trying to have a baby. We tried month to month for almost a year to plan a pregnancy only to be more upset the next month when we found out that we were not pregnant. We even met with our Pastor at the time, while he prayed for us and he said, “I truly believe that you guys will be pregnant before you expect it.” The following month Crissy was about 3 weeks late and we thought that our miracle had finally happened, only to be shattered once again. Our hearts were completely broken. I was lost. I called my friend. I called the one that had always been there for me when I needed him the most.

I want you to understand that this wasn’t just “a normal let’s go out and eat every now and then” friend. I guess over the years, I had just let “life” distance us. After we received the news that we were expecting a little boy we began to grow apart. We shared that excited time together and completely rejoiced for our miracle but then we began to drift away. I basically knew what he was doing. I knew what was going on and heard about him. I heard how things were going for him and somethings that he was involved in. I guess you could say that I kept up with him as much as I do with my friends on Facebook or follow on Twitter but we were no longer “best” friends or that’s what I thought.

Crissy and I had basically been out of church for almost a year after the birth of our little boy, Keagan Eyre Hensley. We had attempted to visit a few churches to find the right church for our new family but during the frustration of “church shopping” had felt that it was easier to sleep in on Sunday and just term it as “family day”. About five weeks ago, we began attending OneLife Church which has service on Sunday Mornings at Powell High School in Knoxville, TN. With being out of church for almost a year and with a few previous bad experiences with “church”, our expectations were at the bottom. We just felt the need to go but didn’t really expect a whole lot. Honestly, I was a complete and total skeptic. I have taken ministry classes. I have been in “church” since I could ever remember. I have even performed a wedding for some good friends of ours as a “licensed minister” but still skeptical.

This would be our fifth visit. The skepticism has basically left completely. We have began to build some relationships through OneLife and starting to like a lot about church. We were actually thinking about what we could do to help. What? Volunteer? We’ll get to that later. I wasn’t that skeptic free yet or was I? I knew going in that day the series was called “Do You Hear?” With the awesome graphics and contemporary music… I had no idea that the question was completely posed to me. During the last praise and worship song my friend grabbed me. As I began to sing the words, “take my life and let it be, all for you and all for your glory.” As I sang those words, my friend completely wrapped his arms around me. I was shocked somewhat and even opened my eyes to see what was going on, only to close my eyes and completely embrace my long lost friend. My friend said to me, “It’s been a while, I have missed you so much…” What I haven’t intentionally told you to this point is my friends name. My best friend and that relationship that I had let slip away due to “life” and a complete lack of effort on my part was with Jesus Christ.

You see, I didn’t want to sit here and blog about something that wasn’t tangible. Many of times I have sat reading or listening to someone give a testimony that is so super spiritual that I couldn’t even understand what they were talking about and I was completely lost. This day was a spiritual experience not a physical one but it was an experience that I will never forget or overlook. For the first time that I can remember I felt like I was dancing with God as I sang. I understand that some people that read this blog, I may have lost you in this past paragraph. I completely understand because I have been there. As a matter of fact, I was there last week. I can only say to you to keep pushing. Surround yourself with people that care about you and that will only encourage your relationship with Christ. Surround yourself with the people that will push you closer to Christ instead of further away.

As I close, I want to leave you with one last thing. I hated church. I hated what church was and became disgusted with many of the people in church for over a year. If you are there and you are sick of church, again, I understand but when you think you are ready to do something different and decide that you are the only one standing in the way of your relationship with Christ, please visit OneLife Church. I can truly say that I have had a life changing experience in my short five weeks as a visitor. I truly am excited about what God is doing inside the walls of Powell High School on Sunday mornings. If you don’t want to go alone, all you have to do is email me at brad@carsetc.com and I will be your contact because honestly, its extremely weird to go somewhere where you don’t know anyone. Again, we tried this several times.

Connect with me on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/bradhensley