It’s been exactly seven months today since we first opened the doors of Quest Frankfort…isn’t that incredible?? Over 100 of you have come to Christ and hundreds more are exploring faith in Christ. You are a highlight of my year! Billy Fray, our Frankfort Campus Pastor, talks about you all the time…and he loves serving you and leading you in Frankfort each weekend. But this week I asked him to do something a little different. I tossed him the ball to launch our brand new series, My Generation, trusting that those of you in Frankfort would be willing to share him with all of our campuses this weekend. Springboarding this series off of the 90′s, thousands in Lexington, Frankfort and around the world got to hear Billy’s story and consider a new perspective on God, religion and relationships. Thanks for helping us throw off religion for the real thing, Billy (flannel & all)! And thanks to all of you artists and musicians who set the stage and rocked tunes from ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” to Bee Gee’s “Stayin’ Alive” to ‘N Sync’s “Bye Bye Bye”…you all killed it!

Here are Billy’s observations from this weekend:

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This was my first time speaking at a weekend service since we launched the Frankfort Campus! What a blast! I loved launching My Generation and getting to lead both campuses into what it means to lean into Relationship vs. Religion. Here’s what I saw…

1. The medley of music opening the brand new My Generation series was unbelievable!!! I invited all of my friends through Facebook and it was posted under “concert event”–I didn’t realize how true that would be! Seeing Amber as Dancing Queen and Natalie as a zombie from Thriller was unforgettable-and Anyerin on Mandolin-is there anything he can’t play? What better way to set up the morning than with an extravaganza of musical awesomeness?!

2. The Time Warp video was hilarious. Mike in that wig as groovy 70′s guy was killin’ me! The valley girl 80′s chick… the mellow, introspective 90′s guy with great compassion for Mike tryin’ to play a CD on the record player:)…and the 00′s guy who “talks into a calculator” (cell phone). Nice!

3. Mosh pit…Nirvana…Flannel…and Dave Griffith–need I say more?!

4. I essentially got to give an extended version of my faith story. I didn’t realize how many “new” people both in Lex and Frankfort didn’t know any of it! (Not to mention a few of my high school buddies who showed up…) They got to hear how a disillusioned jaded guy from the nineties could be rescued by a perfect, loving God. It was great to look around and lock eyes with some of my international friends in the room as they acknowledged the same hunger I felt to find the meaning to life. What a privilege to share that a relationship with the One who made me is what I was after all along.

5. I loved unpacking Religion vs. Relationship: Religion says earn…Relationship says rest. Religion says do…Relationship says be. Religion says try harder…Relationship says “I love you right now.”

6. Some ringing lines: “Religion is a killer” | “The reason we all want to lose our religion is because religion is a losing battle…it’s a lost cause.” | “Religion is striving, trying, earning, measuring up and it leaves us cold and distant from God.” | These lines may have been shocking to hear– but as they were sinking in, they were exposing something that has kept every culture and generation in chains.  What we suspected all along…religion is something we want to lose!

7. Lord Save Us From Your Followers–was a painful yet truthful look at our culture.  In the wake of the 90′s, we are in the middle of “culture wars” where the religious groups clash with the secular ones.  We watch it on the news and hear it from talk shows and we feel its undercurrent all the time.

8. So many people related to the Gandhi bumper sticker: “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.” What a wake up call to Christ followers to be aware of how they reflect Christ to a watching world. Are you sliding toward grace vs. or sliding toward religion?

9. All of us have put “bumper stickers” on our hearts at some point along the way.  We have drawn conclusions based on misconceptions, judgment or past experiences.  When these get removed, God will move in astonishing ways!  I loved getting to use the visual of the car bumper to show how I had a “Whatever helps you sleep at night” sticker on my heart that needed to be ripped off. I get to do life with people at Quest who are intentionally removing bumper stickers from their hearts. In your life groups or on your own ask yourself the question, “What would a bumper sticker on my heart actually say and where did it come from?”  Then do the work of losing it. (btw…Sweet Van with bumper stickers prop team–woot woot)

10. “Dead Squid!” It was so fun to give a picture of how we love imperfectly as illustrated by my response to Lorelei (now my wife) when she first said “I love you.” (In my defense–What man wouldn’t be enthralled by a beach filled with dead squid?!)  It was amazing to share the truth that God loves us perfectly all the time (unlike us!) and He is the One seeking a relationship with you!

p.s. I met a young girl named Isabella who had just given her life to Christ! She said she had been thinking about this for the last couple of years since her dad died…in her words this was her “someday.” This was not like any other day-she entered into a relationship with the lover of her soul…Jesus-and He will never let her go!

I am away on a much awaited vacation right now. I have been hanging with family & relaxing with friends, but one of the things I could not wait to do was begin to encourage hundreds & hundreds of folks who have just become followers of Christ. I recently had the privilege of speaking at Ichthus…an event where organizers asked if I would give the closing talk, clearly present the Gospel & invite the crowd of thousands to respond. I gladly agreed to do so.

I could sense that the Lord was going to reach many people that particular Saturday night (just 3 weeks ago!)…but I was amazed at what actually happened. At the conclusion of my talk I said, “Now if you want to give your life to Christ I want you to stand to your feet on the count of 3…” At three…thousands stood…in fact roughly 4,500 stood. So to help be clear I then said, “If you are standing because you want to give your life to Jesus Christ then raise your hand toward heaven & pray out loud with me to make that decision.” Again, approximately 4,000 people raised their hands and prayed out loud with me.  It was one of the most beautiful sights of my entire life. Purely breathtaking. The Bible says that heaven rejoices when one sinner comes home. Well, what does heaven do when thousands of ones repent of their sin and surrender their lives to Jesus…I bet they have to re-wallpaper after that party!

Well, since most of those approximately 4,000 people who made the most important decision of their life live all across the US & I will never get a chance to encourage them in person, I came up with this cool idea. I decided I would lead them on a 30 Day Journey in their new life in Christ. And I decided to do it through my Twitter. So I invited them, along with all kinds of new believers from my church (Quest Community Church), to sign on for this daily encouragement from the Word.

Tomorrow will be Day 6 & I am digging this more & more each day. It’s really an awesome thing to be going through your day & all-of-a-sudden a tweet comes to your phone or computer & it’s a pastor offering a thought & a verse prayed up just for you…to spur you on in your walk with Christ. So cool. I would have killed to get this when I first came to Jesus.

If anyone out there reading this wants to join in the journey you can…it is simple & free. Go to twitter.com/petehise & sign up…so easy and encouraging. I may be on vacation…but I am loving “spurring others on in love and good deeds” as the writer of Hebrews exhorts us to do.

Feel free to join in the journey. I’ll be looking for you.