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Published on: 5/5/2007
Last Visited: 5/5/2007
"He began a crack addiction that basically led him to smoke up $600,000 worth of savings, his house, his Harley, his new boat," Jud continues.
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"That was over 3 years ago," Jud says.
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"We have people coming to Christ every single day," Jud says."I got an email yesterday and a letter today.It's happening all the time."Jud clearly loves to tell the stories.During a recent series, Central gave people the opportunity to symbolically lay down their sins.They passed out rocks to represent sin, and people piled them outside the door as they left."They were laying their sin down and moving on in their life," Jud explains."A guy calls a week later, and says, "You know, that rock thing was really good, but my rock wasn't big enough.' So at 3 in the morning he goes out, gets the biggest boulder he can lift, and puts it in the back of his truck.Then he gets a spray paint can and paints all of his sins on this rock, and he drives it out to Hoover Dam.He told me, "I hurled it over the dam.It felt so good to be free!' I think that was such a picture of redemption in what I believe is America's most broken city."
Jud and journalist Bill Taaffe have compiled story after story like this in a book called "Stripped: Uncensored Grace on the Streets of Vegas". (See sidebar.) One of Jud's goals for the book is to encourage people in ministry, but he's aware it may have the opposite effect.Jud says, "If you're not in a scenario where this is happening, it can be very discouraging to hear."Jud can imagine how a pastor might react."'Oh, great, that's wonderful for you guys.Just great.Our baptistery hasn't even been filled up in 2 years,'" he says.
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Jud came to Central in the middle of a process that began with his predecessor, Gene Appel.
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At the time, Jud was serving as a teaching pastor at Crossroads Christian Church under Pastor Barry McMurtrie (Vision Vol.
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3, Issue 3, Fall 2005) "Jud is one of the most gifted preachers I have ever known," Pastor Barry says.
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Pastor Barry was working on his succession plan when a friend told him about Jud.
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Jud followed one of the finest pastors I know.Gene had built a great church, and Jud has taken it further," he says.
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Some might have thought it too big a risk to put such a large church in the hands of someone as young as Jud, who is in his early 30s.
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"They hired Gene when he was 25," Jud explains.
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"I want to give tremendous credit to Gene Appel," Jud says.
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Soon after Jud came to Central, he called a retreat for 30 core leaders in November, 2003.
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"Many times, you have the scapegoat guy who comes in after him and gets kind of crucified," Jud acknowledges."I was aware that that could happen, but I also just had a tremendous sense that God was calling us here."He told his wife not to unpack all the boxes for the first year, particularly as he made some mistakes along the way."I stepped in somewhat fearlessly and naïvely, put my head down, and hit a few walls."Central was patient, and their patience has proven faithful.The church has nearly doubled again in the 3+ years since Jud arrived.
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Still, Jud doesn't let the medium become the message.He has a very clear vision of what media can and cannot do."The overarching mission of the church as I understand it is to take the message of Christ and contextualize it in such a way that they can hear it, see it, understand it, and be changed by it," Jud says."When I think of media, what it is and what it can do, I don't think of just putting something on the screen.I don't think, "Can we be the cool church?' We're not really interested in being the cool church.We're interested in contextualizing the story of Jesus in a way that people hear it and experience it."
Yet, it's not hard to imagine that people coming here would use the word "cool" to describe Central Christian Church, inside and out.The unusual architecture, hallway décor, worship music, videos, graphics, bulletins, even Jud himself are all pretty cool Perhaps the key is that they're trying to connect, not trying to be cool, which is pretty cool.
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Yet, during the November 2003 leadership retreat when Jud first came, the leadership began to look at other models.
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"The reproduction of our Henderson campus is only successful - and it's only been successful for 3 weeks - because Mike Bodine and Jud Wilhite really declared war on making this church a reproducible church," Kurt says.
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Jud is on a life-size HD image in the center with screens on each side for close-ups and graphics.
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"I just want to see people come to know God and love Him more," Jud says."I don't want them to leave and say, "Man, Central was a cool church.' I really want them to leave and say, "God is a great God.' That's victory.
Pursuit - Switch On"Some of the most effective things we have done have been when we have aligned our entire church family around a specific series," says Jud Wilhite, Senior Pastor at Central Christian Church.
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"There's just something about that, all doing it together and getting on the same page," Jud says.
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"We did a weekend series around it that was loaded with creativity," Jud says."Lots of video.We also produced a magazine that had life stories of people like Stephen Baldwin and Bono and some unresolved stories like Billy Bob Thorton's thoughts on the spiritual life."They gave 10,000 copies out to people in the church to give to friends and family."All of a sudden this magazine is being seen in dentists' offices and doctors' offices," Jud says.
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Jud and Mike led out on that for years, making us a reproducible church.
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"We have a sense that God is doing something in Las Vegas, and it's bigger than Las Vegas," Jud explains.
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"UncensoredGrace.com has a lot of the life stories on video," Jud says."Our prayer is that God would use the book as a catalyst in people's lives to take the next step.And if they will take the next step to a website, they'll have an opportunity for an anonymous online confessional.We're hoping that God would use all of this together to reach many people for Him."
Jud is the author of 5 other books, and you can find them all in the Vision bookstore.
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