{"id":1439,"date":"2010-10-08T05:30:03","date_gmt":"2010-10-08T12:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharefaithblog.wpengine.com\/?p=1439"},"modified":"2017-10-06T16:34:03","modified_gmt":"2017-10-06T23:34:03","slug":"interview-jud-wilhite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sharefaith.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/interview-jud-wilhite\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Jud Wilhite"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Last month at the NewSpring Leadership Conference<\/a>, Sharefaith was able to interview Jud Wilhite, lead pastor at Central Christian Church in Las Vegas. Jud pastors a huge church (over 16,000) in a tough context (a.k.a. “Sin City”) with amazing results (all from God). During his talk at NewSpring, he discussed the need to reach out to broken people. We met with Jud to find out a little bit more about his ministry.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

You\u2019re in Vegas, a city which most people know by the nickname, “Sin City.” But you call it “Grace City.” We\u2019re in the middle of the Bible Belt, which is cultural worlds away from Las Vegas. How do you achieve relevance within your culture?
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

The “Grace City” concept is rooted in what I think God can do, and how he sees a city. The world sees this place [Las Vegas] as Sin City, but if you step back from it, you see that God\u2019s grace is available. When it comes to connecting with our culture, this idea of telling the truth in love is the linchpin for us. We don\u2019t try to be relevant. We don\u2019t try to be cool. We\u2019re not making a big effort to “connect.” What we\u2019re trying to do is live the gospel in our culture\u2014honestly and truthfully.<\/p>\n

A women come up to me recently and said, “I work on the Strip all week long. Everything in my life I do is fake. This church is the only real place I come all week long.” She was just saying how thankful she was for an hour when she wasn\u2019t being liked to, she wasn\u2019t getting spinned. Nobody was out to get her. We weren\u2019t trying to get her money. People wanted nothing from her.<\/p>\n

It’s the idea of just being truthful. It may sound too simplistic, but that is what is important.<\/p>\n

Your church is one of the biggest churches in the country. Central Christian Church is listed as the 13th largest church, with an attendance of 16,582. What would you identify as some of the reasons for this kind of growth?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There’s so many different ways I could answer that question. Probably most the succinct way I can answer is that it\u2019s a mixture of two things.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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  1. First, radical grace. We cultivate a culture of radical grace that accepts people where they are, and lets them come and belong. Now, when I talk like that people, always want to say, “You must be kind of emergent in your theology.” But I\u2019m like, \u201cNo! We\u2019re not at all!” We\u2019re straight up. We’re a Bible church–a Bible-oriented evangelical church. So I don\u2019t mean \u2018belong\u2019 in the sense that it doesn\u2019t matter. I mean that they can come, be a human being, and hang out with us first. Then, these people will believe the gospel, and over time they will become what God wants them to become. This church is a safe place, no matter what\u2019s going on in your life.<\/li>\n
  2. That radical grace is coupled with radical alignment. From a church strategy side, radical alignment is really important. We\u2019ve embraced our own version of Viral Churches<\/a>\"\". We went from being McDonald’s, with a huge menu, to being In-N-Out Burger, which has like three options. We thought it was very important to carefully look at what we were doing, and find out what we should say no to, and what we should say \u201cyes\u201d to. We narrowed our focus.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So radical grace and radical alignment have helped us move people. And once you start moving people in a strategically-aligned approach, there is momentum. People are experiencing God. Thousands of people every year are going through this class we call First Step, They\u2019re growing in their faith. Many of the people in the class are already in small groups. Vegas is a town with no community, like none. So now they\u2019re already in a small group, and the evangelistic culture snowballs.<\/p>\n

    Jud, I\u2019ve seen you do some pretty attention-grabbing object lessons in your teaching. You’ve hung upside down on a gurney, smashed a pane of glass, etc. I want to ask you about the use of object lessons, visual media, and that whole package. What role does it play in your ministry, and what are some guidelines for using it? <\/strong><\/p>\n

    They must have a goal. Whether it’s object lessons, visual media, creativity, any of that, the goal is better communication of the gospel. The goal is better communicating the message of the text. The danger in it, is that you can allow the object lesson to be the message, rather than illuminating the message. I’ve learned that I\u2019m not the judge of that. The people are the judge of that. If people are walking out of the service, and all they\u2019re talking about is the object, that tells me right there, they don’t remember the point; they just remember the object. If that’s true, then I\u2019ve failed as a communicator.<\/p>\n

    I still use object lesson, visuals, and visual aids. I\u2019ve just become more strategic and more aware that the visual aid isn\u2019t the message. Instead, it helps to drive the message home. Vegas is not a churchy culture, so there are different challenges that you must overcome as a communicator. Now if I were in Anderson [South Carolina, the location of the conference], or if I was in the South, I would not do it the way we do it in Vegas. I would do it in a way that would contextualize with this<\/em> audience. The way I do it in Vegas is for that<\/em> audience. When people leave, I don\u2019t want them to leave thinking about the object lesson. In the past, I think that I crossed that line. There’s a real temptation there–to please people, to be liked. It can be unhealthy, and it can drive you out of bounds.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>What is one area in which the evangelical church in America could improve?<\/strong>
    \nThere\u2019s a lot of good that\u2019s happening, and I\u2019m thrilled about that. There are a lot of churches that nobody hears about–hundreds of thousands of them. They\u2019re making dents, in their neighborhood, and in their areas. They\u2019re doing great and they\u2019re serving God. But I feel like the church gets such a bad rap, because a few churches abuse things. Then we just look past the hundreds of churches that are doing things right\u2014churches that are really trying to be faithful with where God has put them.<\/p>\n

    There are a couple things that are dear to my heart. These are the culture of radical grace and radical truth. They are really important. Jesus was full of grace and truth. Today, it seems like it’s hard to find a church that values the Bible as the Word of God–that values it as the truth, that doesn\u2019t want to compromise or bend it, that doesn’t want to take it in a liberal direction. But it’s hard to find a church that does so in the context of a truly grace-filled culture\u2014a culture that lets you come in jacked out of your mind, and still be loved. I’m encouraged to be seeing this in church plants and church starts. I\u2019m seeing a love for grace and a culture of grace that loves people, but also a love and respect for God\u2019s Word and a willingness to take a stand on his Word.<\/p>\n