What does it mean?

Abad Radical means “worshipper” in the context of working and service. Radical (a word often defined as being as an extremist) also means “root.” Put this together and you have a time or journey to (re)discover a new story of the church, by looking at the root (teachings of Christ) and what church really should mean, which will then give us a new purpose for our lives, and a joining together of God's quest for mankind.

How?

This is done by taking our worship (the greatest form of worship is obedience) from a building into the streets. Begin to stop expecting people to come, but go to them. No one needs to explain to the homeless man he needs God, but he needs to know that there is a God that cares and loves him and wants him. When we start talking to people as humans instead of number or statistics, we see that everyone is hurting or has something that has brought them great pain and they are not alone in a world of fragmentation. What we see then is people stop serving their needs and begin to think how they can serve as Christ served. From that, we wish to begin a movement or process of sanctification; of people being disciples. This is not a “baptism and you are done” method, but an on-going process of accountability and grace; of being holy, and being forgiven when you fall short. It is not come worship with us, but come walk, praise, and be with us as we move closer to the throne of God.

We seek not to divide but unite, not to compromise but uncompromised worship; we seek the Holy Spirit to lead us. Come as you are to be changed by the Spirit.

A little deeper...

Worship and service today are often thought of as a Sunday morning in the pews or donating to a good cause; of coming and listening to someone preach, sing a few songs, and go and do whatever you want. The call for Abad is more than what we know as worship. It is to bring back a radical and fervent desire for our LORD; aliveness and a passion to be more than what we have become. Therefore, we must reclaim what we cast off, what we have let go due to fear or childish anger. We seek to reignite the hearts, minds and souls of people in an era that the world extinguishes people's hearts, minds, creativity, and communion. If you were to ask what this is really about, I would simply say worship. But what does that word even mean? It's more than a sermon, a song sang, a prayer prayed. It's how we open our hearts, how we live, and how we rethink church.

Much ink has been put on paper talking about the decline in attitude, church and spirit. But seldom in these assessments do we hear a call for a radical rethinking about the actual mode of the church's ethos. Worship is our very lives if we claim to love Christ. This is the 21 century. The tools and techniques that fitted previous eras simply do not seem to work any longer. The era of Puritanism is over! The era of track evangelism is over! Seeker-friendly is a waste of time, “baiting people,” and church hoppers will not further the kingdom of God . Running church as a business will only bring worldly success. In the struggle of a new era, churches and church leaders have to become painfully aware that our inherited concepts, our language, and indeed our whole way of thinking are inadequate to describe what is going on both in and around us. It's not about traditional or contemporary, not about having “sexy” programs or preserving what you already have. It's about reconnecting God back to a generation that has changed as much as the Protestants from the Catholics 500 years before.

Have we mistaken religion as the way? Have we stripped Jesus of his Divinity and authority and treated him as a good ole boy? Have we let the world and its slogans shape God's people, with slogans such as “have it your way,” “Be comfortable and have convenience” into being truths the church should hold up? Should church have an underlying constant theme of “what about the money?” What about the number of people coming to church? We shouldn't step on any toes so that people will not leave or run someone out if they offended another. The world teaches to think for yourself, serve yourself and think only of yourself. We were called for a higher purpose not to simply wait as good boys and moral girls for death, for heaven. We were meant to be the armor bearers of God's love, the hands, feet - the body of Christ. In a world of darkness, the world doesn't need another doomsday prophet but a servant of love, preaching of God's Love. We must begin to stop trying to bring people into a building or belong to our school of thinking or dogma and begin to be authentic followers of Christ, people who are passionate about what they do, who truly have faith in doing God's work and have intimacy with the Holy Spirit. No longer exclude but begin to include the poor, the downtrodden, the needy.