Sunday: October 20th, 2008

Here’s the audio from Sunday’s Discussion.  Hope this helps everyone keep up with where we are.

Andy

Sunday 10-20-2008

Consequences & Discipline

This past weekend was a great discussion for most of us at NETChurch.  We’ve been looking at a restructuring of sorts lately.  Not necessarily a structuring of the heirarchy of the church, but a re-imaging of what we are designed to be.  Now, if you are on the outside looking at this process it looks very strange, un-churchlike, and if you are engrained within the traditional thinking process of churches then it would seem to you that we are going off the deep end and away from God.  This could be further from the truth, though.  You see, we have been taking steps to get closer to God, to find His true purpose and reason for us as a spiritual community to exist.  Our group is launching (not just thinking, but really jumping) outside of the “box” and taking a new step in church life.  We are casting aside the ideas of “church” as we see it today, deconstructing our ideas, and purposely looking at Christ as Rabbi so that we can learn the lifestyle that He originally wanted us to pursue.  We are walking through these discussions right now and they are quite enlightening, almost invigorating in the way that they affect your everyday thinking.  That’s what I see as the most important thing.  I want to see what we do on Sunday’s truly become a catalyst for change the rest of our lives.

When you are in the middle of these discussion you never know what will happen or even what will be said.  NETChurch has resolved itself to the idea that God will work through those who speak once we get out of the way and let Him.  That seems to happen and I believe it to be true.  We were having a discussion this past week about Love and Discipline within the church.  Can the two coexist?  How far should a group go with discipline?  How much is our decision and how much is God’s?  On top of that, how do we know that we are doing the right thing?

As the conversation went on we were confronted with a series of statements made by one of our own, Brian Hampton, who had been thinking and struggling throughout the discussion.  I want you to hear the beauty in the words that he shared with us as he discovered some true insight into the scriptures in front of us.

Consequences  Click link or mouse over to listen

After listening to this I was really hit with the realities in front of us.  The idea that God has showed us all of this mercy/grace and that we are then called to share the same with those around us was one thing.  The idea that what I cultivate in my life is a direct correlation to how God responds or relates to us is another.  It takes things to a whole other level if you allow it to.

Here’s why:

Most of the time we think or have thought that God has done things simply because “God is God” and knows more or better than we do.  We’ve shunned the idea that how we act influences that relationship.  It’s always been that God loves us and will always do the best for us even if we are idiots, essentially seperating ourselves from any responsibility in the relationship.  If we do things good then God is proud.  If we don’t then He is hurt, but he still loves us so no prob.  With that thought we have found alot of different arguments come up from “once saved always saved” to “why should I worry about anything.  If God loves me that’s all that matters”.  Alot of us have then carried on our lives without thought to consequence simply because we knew that God loved us.  Done deal.  Don’t worry about it.

Then we start reading scripture in a new light and realize that the way we treat each other shows a direct relation to how we feel and respond to what God has done for us.  He has offered us such a tremendous outpouring of mercy, but then we ignore THAT gift and trash those around us because of our own need for power and security.  How then should God respond to us?  Am I saying that God will trash us if we trash each other?  No.  I’m not, but I’m not going completely the other way either.  I’m saying that we have a little more influence on what happens in our life than we give credit for.  God has given us this wonderful free will.  He’s allowed us to make choices.  What choices, then, affect our lives?

He has asked us to spread a message for Him.  A message of love.  But spreading it doesn’t actually happen in our words and sermons.  Those are cheap.  Anyone can buy them and throw them out.  Our actions, on the other hand, have weight.  They have strength.  They are tangible.  How do I know that?  If I speak loving but stab you in the back then my words mean nothing.  They meant nothing to me and they sure mean nothing to you.  What I do speaks volumes and I think we’ve lost that.  We talk more than we act.  Christ acted.  He loved.  He loved everyone.   Why is He worth following?  Because I don’t believe that you will ever find a more true and loving example of someone who actually DID what He was called to do.  He showed us, as we like to say, “The Way”.  Was he necessarily showing us how to get to a future place called Heaven or was he wanting us to start it here?  I’m thinking the latter was actually the most important to him.  Bringing a new heaven to earth begins with changing the way we live our lives WITH EACH OTHER.

Christianity is not a solo experiment.  It is only seen in it’s entirety when we interact with each other.  How we do that reflects completely on our relationship with God. 

As Ol’ Bill (and the Beatles) said in the comments on my last post “And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make. (or give)”.  Truer words have never been spoken.

May the mercy and grace you have recieved become evident immediately through your love for each other.  May that love come back to you a thousand times over that you may know the mercy and grace you live under.

What’s Love Got To Do With It?

And with the rain the long drought is brought to a close……………..

It’s been a long time since I last blogged.  (April 14th to be exact.  I know someone is going to bring that up:)  Usually you don’t wait that long between posts because you lose readers.  I’m sure I have.  There are probably some that won’t see this one.  There is a reason, though, that I thought was extremely relevant.

I didn’t have anything to say.

I know that many of you have trouble believing that, but it’s true.  Over the last few months I have gone through a drought of motivation to write.  I don’t want to write something simply to fill space.  There’s enough of that dribble out there.  I want the things that I put down to have some meaning or to spark conversation.  We need more of that than we do discussion on whether Miley should leave Disney and the Hannah Montana show.  (Personally I think she should stick out her contract, but that’s just me…..)

So here I am after all of this time and I know you are wondering what wonderful tidbit of inspiration has hit me now, so here it is. 

Everything starts with love.

Wow.  Now that I’ve dropped that wonderful piece of literary genius on you I think we can get on with life!  It’s so simple.  Can’t do anything without love!  It makes so much sense!  In fact, all of the problems of the world can be solved with love and we’ve cornered the market on it.  Most of us great (in our own minds) church leaders (once again, in our own minds) have promoted love as the answer to everything and promoted our churches as the most loving place you could ever be.  In fact we’ve basically stated under our breath that you won’t find love in the world, but you will always find it inside the hallowed doors of our stately institutions.

There’s only one problem with all this.  We didn’t remember to really teach and practice it.  We just told everyone to love each other.  We’ve preached the Bible “at” our congregations instead of walking it “with” them.  We’ve told everyone what to do, but not how to do it.  We’ve turned a blind eye to the unloving behavior within our own walls so that the more powerful within our organizations wouldn’t leave and even participated in decisions devoid of love so that the organization could continue on the path that we considered important.  We have said one thing but often practiced another, most of the time rationalizing our actions as being the best thing for the church we shepard.  Consequently our congregations have taken that lead and followed us directly into the footsteps that we left behind.  In the wake of this type of leadership we have left many by the side of the road complaining of hypocrisy and false teaching.  We’ve caused people to question the words of Christ because we compromised them to fit our own agendas.  All of this while we have shut down anyone who had thoughts or teachings that went outside of the boxes that we had created.  If it did not agree with what we were teaching then it must not be “truth”.  Thousands upon thousands of churches all teaching “truth” and yet most of them don’t actually agree on what “truth” actually is.  We speak of unity within the church, but at the same time we tell people to beware of the false teachers who try to tell you something that doesn’t sound exactly like what we are teaching. 

So, what does love really have to do with all of this?

Love is the foundation of our faith, of our beliefs, but it has no strength if we don’t actually practice it.  We can talk about loving each others and even those we don’t know, but the reality is that love is an action and without bringing that action into every decision that we make we very easily find ourselves straying towards our own wants and needs instead of God’s.  There is a great difficulty in doing that.  It’s much easier to make our decisions based on what we believe is best for us and not on what is loving.  Love often gets in the way of what we call a “logical decision”.  Society teaches us that we need to look out for Number 1 to get anywhere and there’s alot of truth in that.  Being concerned about everyone else makes their needs and goals more important than ours and you simply can’t build anything when you are thinking about how they feel or what they need.  How can you “go big” and be explosive if you have to think about anything except your own goals?

The only problem is (and I say this in reference to any decision that we make) Christ told us to be loving above everything else.  Love your neighbor as you love yourself.  Do all things in love.  It was his mantra, his main point.  Why do we take the one thing that Jesus was trying to get into our heads and push it aside when it doesn’t fit our agendas?

This is where we are today.  Are we going to love as Christ called us or are we just going to continue doing the same thing everyone else has been doing for hundreds of years?  Are we going to think only of our own goals or are we really concerned about what Christ called us to do?  It’s very difficult, this road that we have chosen.  It causes us conflict at every step simply because it is not natural after living in the world that we do.  We are to be in this world, not of it.  We are to live here, but love this world in a way that the world has no capability of doing.

THIS is our calling.  This is our direction.  This is the future of whatever our church is to become.

May the rain pour and refresh us all….

The Art of Being “Like”, Part 3

I’ve discovered, over the past couple of years, something consistant about the people who walk the road less traveled.  Most of us that do it are considered “different” or outsiders.  We are thinkers, creative people, the ones who always thought there was something different about this life than what we saw laid out in front of us.  We are optimists at heart.  We aren’t tired or frustrated with our faith.  Our faith is what leads us to this place.  We aren’t disenchanted with God.  We’re disenchanted with people who think God really cares about 3/4 of the stuff that is keeping organized religion so organized.  Alot of us (not all, but a good chunk) are the people who were problem children in church.  We don’t always play well with other kids.  Why?  Because we think.

These are the types of people that you find when you really choose to engage something new.  They are refreshing, challenging.  They make you think about what you believe and why you believe it.  I was always told to stay away from them because they might cause me to doubt my faith.  What I’ve realized is that any doubt would have been caused by my own insecurities, not because someone told me that they believed something new (or didn’t believe at all) about Jesus Christ.  I have encountered hardcore Christian believers who would die for thier faith.  I have met practitioners of metaphysical arts who challenge the very questions that I ask.  I have cohabitated with liars, cheaters, smokers, drinkers, strippers, prostitutes, athiests, buddhists, hindus, agnostics, gnostics, fundamentalists, liberals, hippies, freaks, and fools.  I’ve joined in prayer with a Mormon and spent nights of sitting in my living room letting them question me endlessly.  I have encountered a plethora of types who don’t walk the same road that I used too and I’ve realized that they are the same as me in so many ways.  We have similarities, but there is one thing that ties us all together.  I realize that we are all loved.

Why do I refer to this group of people in the way that I do?  Let me explain it with a quick story:

Back when I was a worship pastor in a more traditional church I was pulling double duty.  Sunday’s and Wednesday’s I was leading worship for the congregation, but in between I was working as the youth director.  It was a situation of taking two full time jobs and slapping them together, which is something that happens quite a bit.  The teenagers I was working with were really great kids.  They were inquisitive, talkative, loved to throw ideas around, and they actually accepted me.  (Not an easy thing to do being I was the age of most of their parents)  The group was growing numerically and that seemed to be the strategy that the church wanted.  “Grow the youth and the parents will follow” was the unwritten motto.

One day I was talking with one of the pastors about the group and he was expressing his concern about the youth group.  There had been some discussion from some of the older folks in the church that we were attracting some of the “wrong type of kids”.  They were noisy, even a bit unruly at times, but I figured that was just being a teenager.  It came with the territory.  Other folks didn’t share my optimistic eye.  They were concerned about the clothing that was being worn and the way the kids talked.  They even made some comments about the “type” of kids that were being attracted by our ministry.  The concern was that these kids had too many problems and weren’t representing the church very well.  As I sat there with this other church leader and listened to his concerns I heard him make a pivotal statement that would effect the rest of MY ministry.  In the midst of all the discussion he sat back in his chair, looked at me with his head tilted to the side, and said the words “Andy, we’re just starting to attract the weird kids to our youth group and I don’t want to see the normal ones stay away because they don’t feel comfortable.”  Wow.  That hit me like a ton of bricks.  The conversation went on to state that most of the kids were dressing in black or they had alot of problems and that we needed to try and reach out to some of the more mainline teenagers in the school to help balance this out.  In other words our kids and thier lives weren’t presenting the image that was consistant with our church.

I’m curious at what point church and religion became about demographics.  When did we all start thinking that we needed to pinpoint who we minister to instead of walking side by side with all types of people?  When did we need to stop “attracting the weird kids”?  It was about the time that we lost sight of Christ’s original message and ministry.  I really have trouble imagining Christ sitting there with His disciples and saying “We’re attracting too many weird people.  If we’re going to get anywhere we need to start focusing our efforts to reach the people with influence.  That’s how we’ll grow this thing!”

This is why I’ve encountered the people that I have on this journey.  They aren’t comfortable in “the church”.  Thjat organization has guidelines and a look that is relatively consistent.  When you become a part of it you either start to fit in or you become an outsider.  I’ve met alot of outsiders.  They are great people.  They think amazing thoughts.  They ask amazing questions.  On top of all that many of them breathe deep the glory of an amazing God and pursue Him with a beautiful irreverence that can’t be seen anywhere else.

They……….WE……….are beautiful.

Continued in Part 4

The Art of Being “Like”, Part 2

There’s this point in life that we all come to where status quo just isn’t enough.  It’s the day that you wake up and realize that you aren’t satisfied just fitting in and you start to question the life you are living.  It’s not about trying to find out if you are wrong as much as it is trying to find out why you follow what others do or expect you to do.  We all go through it to some extent.  For some of us it happens early in life when we purposely start to act differently than others, usually because it’s fun.  For others it hits in the teen years as we are questioning “Why should I follow the establishment” and the anarchist comes out in us.  For some of us, though, it happens after we’ve lived our lives pretty much following the crowd.  We go to work dressed like our peers, do our work, and go home.  We all listen to the same radio stations.  We watch the same tv shows so that we have something to talk about.  We drive certain cars because those are what successful people drive.  We share restaraunts, clothing stores, movies, coffee shops, sports teams, entertainment venues, hobbies, places to live, children’s names, and a thousand other aspects of our lives with the ideals that society gives us that have been catagorized as “acceptable”.  We even see it in the midst of our presidential elections that become popularity contests instead of actual concern for who would be our greatest leader.  Why, then, would we not follow the same pattern with our spirituality?

Now, if you’re the type of person who beats their own drum and then marches wherever their heart leads then this really doesn’t relate to you.  You probably find this writing quite confusing.  For the other 99% of the population. though, we’ve just hit a nerve.  For thousands of years there has been acceptable and unacceptable.  If you looked like the majority of society then you were accepted.  If you didn’t then you were ridiculed or someone tried to change your look to fit in.  (Wouldn’t want the to feel like an outcast, now would we?)  We praise individuality when it creates a new trend, but the oddball in the group is not seen as being “individualistic”.  They are simply weird.  In most areas of our lives the crowd rules.

 We’ve done the same thing with our churches and most religions.  There’s a look, a feel, an acceptable way of doing things.  It gives us comfort.  We try not to paint outside the lines too much because then we have to answer questions about why we want to change something that already works.  We start to use terms like “truth”, “absolute truth”, “inherent”, and “the way God intended it” so that we have a rock to stand on whenever someone comes along that thinks differently than we do.  You can’t argue with truth, now can you?  Our organizations take on a certain look where people start to dress and talk in ways that make them easily identifiable.  Our places of worship are creations cut from the same stone.  They might not look exactly the same, but they all take on the same format and basic design.  We’ve even created new designs to get away from that but have now developed a new standard of duplication.

Some of us find eventually that following this pied piper type of living doesn’t work for us.  It’s a rather liberating, but scary prospect.  The thought of walking away from the things you’ve held dear and forging into the unknown can strike fear in even the strongest of hearts.  It means leaving alot of the relationships that you knew before.  Well, that is, it means leaving the ones that just don’t (or don’t want to) understand.  It also means changing your way of thinking.  “Perhaps the things we did before weren’t as important as I thought they were.” But it also means opening yourself up to a whole new world of relationships and experiences that you would never have had before.

And here’s where it gets REALLY interesting……

Continued in Part 3

The Art of Being “Like”, Part 1

I’ve recently realized a difficulty that exists within my own life.  I’m not talking about an affliction or a major handicap.  This is a difficulty.  It’s something that can be overcome, but it’s a stumbling block to getting where I want (or need) to go.  I actually believe that I’m not alone in having this “difficulty”.  I believe there are many of us living this daily drudge of a life that suffer from the same conundrum.  It has taken me a long time and alot of soul searching to really realize what the difficulty is and that it even exists.  I’ve gone for years believing that it was something for other people to struggle with, but not for me.  This wasn’t my problem.  I was fine.

Yet………………deep down there it was.  I see it.  I realize it.  I don’t exactly know what to do with it.  It’s there, though.  Believe me, it is there.  It’s a real struggle.  It has a name, too.  It’s called “Being Christlike”.

I don’t do it very well.  In fact, I suck at it.  (I’m not real sure that Christ would have ever said “suck” in the first place.  See?  There I go!)  I have this inate ability to take an idea that is pure, without any strings attached, and turn it into a self-serving mess of egotistical promotion that highlights my own need for reassurance.  Sometimes I actually do things that would make others believe that I think the world revolves around me!  It doesn’t actually, I’ve been told.  (I do believe that I have my own gravitational pull, though…)  Even though I see myself as the center of my own universe I have to admit that I am wrong.  I’m not.  Well, that is if I actually take the time to look at things through the eyes of someone better than myself.

You see, this is the problem with Christianity.  It’s a really cool club to be a part of up until the time that you realize that there’s more to it than just “being a member”.  It would be so great if we could just sign up for “Christ-classes”, learn the rules, say the oath, and then just “be a Christian” for the rest of our lives.  (Kind of like being a part of a “spiritual Fan Club”)  I’d even pay dues to do it, to tell the truth.  I think ,to an extent, I have alot of times.   My participation in Christianity really started that way.  I walked “the Gauntlet” to the front of the church, said the solemn oath, gave the secret handshake (if you don’t know it you can’t be a part of the club…), and then was welcomed in as a member with an honorary church membership, a copy of the rules and regulations manual, and a discount at the local store for buying “cool club paraphernalia”.  Then all the activities started (and this club knows you don’t want to be bored!).  There were classes to attend, extracurricular activity groups to be a part of, socials to go to, and even a leadership structure that you could work your way up through.  Everything that I could want to feel like I was included!

But what was I a part of?  What was “Being a Christian” all about?  What was all of this activity for?  I mean, it was great!  It pretty much took up all of my time.  I became a part of this exclusive group.  There were things that I needed to do (or not do) to really be respected in the group, but I was IN.  As a matter of fact, being a part of this group became more important than my other relationships.  Sure, I KNEW people that weren’t a part of the group, but it started to get a bit tough to really have conversations with them.  They didn’t understand.  They didn’t “get it”.  It actually got to the point that alot of those relationships started to fade away.  We didn’t really have anything in common anymore.  I guess, you could say, they were outsiders.

All of that could have been fixed, though.  The cool thing about the group was the recruiting process.  Once you became a member your whole goal from there became to make other people members, too.  The organization was great at helping you, too.  They had pamphlets, videos, posters, events to bring your friends to, all kinds of stuff.  All you had to do was get the people in the door and they would do the rest.  Easy!!  Then you would have something in common with your friends again.  As long as they abide by the rules in the rule book everything would be cool.  Now, I’m not saying that we kicked people out for breaking the rules, but………………..geez, you couldn’t have people that didn’t fit in, you know?

Yeah, it was a pretty cool club.  It made things easy.  It was all clear.  Cut and dried.  But what happens when you wake up one day and look around at things in a new way?  What if there’s more to all of this than being a part of the club?  What about that idea of “being Christlike”?  What do you do then?

 I had to find out for myself one day.

Continued in Part 2

Lumberjacks and the Awe of God

Irreverence.  I hold this banner pretty high, sometimes.  It’s almost as if I purposely try to shake up the most awe inspiring moments.  Actually, I’d say I probably do.  I don’t know what it is but I have a habit of breaking up the serious moments with a joke, quip, sarcastic comment, or total derailing of the conversation.  The funny thing is that if I look around at most of my friends they are exactly the same way.  (Just wait.  None of them will be able to pass up the opportunity to do exactly that on the comments section of this post:)

 When I was young I was often told to “be serious”.  Kind of tough when you’re 8 or 9 years old and you have an overactive imagination.  I liked to joke!  It was my escape, to some extent.  I was never the solemn, serious kid.  I had too much energy for that, plus there was no way to be heard in my family if you were serious.  I cracked jokes at the drop of a hat.  It got me out of work, out of fights, and especially out of anything uncomfortable.  It’s like a get out of jail free card.

So here I am as a wise cracking, unconventional anarchist and along comes the concept of God.  Hmmmmm.  Worship the great “I Am”.  Be reverent in the presence of God.  Honor and glorify the King of kings.  Something just doesn’t seem to jive with my personality.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  I am truly in awe of God and what He has done in my life.  As a matter of fact I am in SHOCK that He has had the concept of grace included in my mishaps and foibles.  I’ve never really considered myself to be someone worth the time of day for a diety!  In most of the stories of kings and kingdoms that I’ve ever seen the court jester was pretty much bottom of the list when it came to importance.  Still, I am here and owe everything that I am, have, and experience to someone so much greater than my imagination could ever fathom.

So, what does an irreverent jerk do in reference to worshipping a reverent God?  Am I supposed to be myself and let the wisecracks fall where they may?  Or, on the other hand, should I subdue my natural instincts “because of” the reverence of God?  Am I wrong to include this slapstick side of my personality in my relationship with God?

These are the questions of one who wants to know the presence of God.  I guess I’m asking “Does God really get my jokes or does He just roll His eyes at me?”

I’m a lumberjack and I’m OK.  I sleeps all night and I works all day……………………………………..

Where should christians go?

Don’t answer that question!!!

 (Just kidding….)

Here’s my question for the day:  As we are thinking about where we should go as a community, as in meeting in new places or taking our gathering somewhere besides the house, where is a suitable place for christians to go?  I ask it specifically that way because I want to look at where a group of “christ followers” should meet compared to where should a “church” meet.  Even though we don’t really admit it we have a much different concept of where a “church” should be than just a group of followers.  The whole “church” idea tends to make us think we need kid friendly, safe, clean facilities that are not only basically inviting to those who don’t go to church but are also acceptable in the eyes of “other church people”.  I think it is one of the reasons that you see so many churches meeting in the same locations:  Community centers, schools, movie theaters, etc.  We all gravitate towards the same locations.  Why?  I tend to think it’s because we know that they are safe.  Not only is our church safe, but we won’t take any real grief from other churches.  (I understand that this sounds a bit jaded, but if you step back and think about it there is alot of truth to it.)

I remember back when NETChurch started talking about new ways and places to minister.  We mentioned the fact that there was a place opening up next to an adult video store in this area.  It was funny to watch the reactions.  Some people didn’t think twice about it.  Others, though, were a bit appalled.  There was talk about protecting the kids and not being able to worship with that type of influence so close by.  I kept thinking throughout the conversation though “Where should we be then?”.  I mean, in the end where should christians be?  In a school or movie theater waiting for people to come?  That’s how we’ve designed things up to this point.  It’s a very small percentage of people who will start a ministry with the idea that they will honestly take it to places no one else goes.

I think it’s a question worth discussing.  We’re going to have to at some time or other anyway, might as well be now!  So………

“If a group of christians were to meet together to discover, worship, and follow God where would be an acceptable place to do it?  How clean does it have to be and how would you communicate in those areas?”

The Destruction of the Temple? Hmmmm….

As much as I don’t want to be a geek, I have to admit that I have tendencies and behaviors that would make you believe that it could be in my nature.  One of those wonderfully geeky pleasures of mine is watching The History Channel (The title has to be said in a deep basso voice as if it’s a fanfare.  Kind of James Earl Jones-ish…).  Now, before you stop reading and write me off as your basic no life, AV nerd, balding 40 year give me a few seconds of your valuable time.

The other night I was watching this show that was talking about the use of chemistry and mechanics in ancient temples.  They were talking about many different religions and how the priests would captivate their congregants by creating the impression of religious “miracles” by using different chemicals to create smoke, imitate diseases, or using mechanics to make people believe that the gods were talking to them. (Things like thunder boxes or equipment to make statues cry on cue)  It was all very Criss Angel/David Coperfield.  It’s amazing the things that have been discovered about what the religious leaders were doing to be able to retain thier power and control.  What I found really interesting, though, was what they said happened when this new sect called “Christianity” came along.  There were all of these different religions worshipping multiple gods: Some worshipping Zeus, some worshipping element gods, some with fertility gods, etc.  This new religion comes up and all of a sudden people are starting to join IT and are not coming to the temples anymore.  Now this was a problem for the priests of the temples.  Without congregants/followers there was really no temple and no religion.  The priests would lose all respect and control.  It really seemed that they needed to protect their jobs because, for the most part, they couldn’t really do anything else.  They were supposed to be priests, right?

So, what do you do when the believers are leaving and won’t come to give their respect and worship to the mighty Zeus?  Simple!  Up the ante!  The temple priests decided that they needed to start offering things that would cause the people to have a reason to come back.  Worship of this god wasn’t enough.  You had to keep the people coming back.  With that line of thinking they started making the statues of the gods HUGE (and that is actually an understatement.  One statue of Zues was over 60 feet tall.  It also had sound holes in it to make it “moan”.)  They started building bath houses and offering opportunities to eat and even carry on other normal social activities at the temple instead of in the market square. The only way to keep people was to offer them more and more and more.

I listened to all of this, thinking of the fact that they were talking about people 2000 years ago, and then looked at what we’re doing today.  It’s amazing, isn’t it?  In all of this time we’re still visiting the same concepts that they did back then, except now it seems that the Christians are needing to do it to keep the church running.  I’m not necessarily coming down on big churches.  Size is not the issue.  Motivation and purpose is.  Why do we do the things that we do?  Why are churches turning into spiritual versions of your local mall or Wal-Mart?  Is this a trend that helps or hurts?

Before you pass judgement on my statements (because past history tells me that there will be a few folks who don’t look at this as a cry to return to a more God filled Christianity and will instead see it as me judging big churches and being catty) take a look around us at the trends alot of our churches have taken on in the past 15 years.  Congregations are not growing unless they are eclipsing the 1000 mark.  Bookstores and coffee shops (along with other things like movie theaters, bowling alleys, ice rinks, waterfalls, children’s playlands, arena seating, and weight rooms) are now some of the first things that churches are considering in new building projects.  Auditoriums are being built to seat thousands, most of whom are completely unknown by the pastoral staff.  Most church outreaches are some sort of event with large inflatables for the kids, a fantastic production with concert style flair, and slick presentation that would make Steve Jobs of Apple stand up and cheer.

Why?

Why have we gone to this extent?  For the most part we write it off as saying we need to communicate to a new generation.  People are consumer oriented, so we need to cater to this idea.  It’s not just in megachurches, though.  Most of the smaller churches I’ve been involved with used the same concepts, just on a smaller scale.  Every level of ministry at some point or another is confronted with the reality that to grow you must “draw”.  It’s a catch-22 though.  You can go so far that the production and “Christ-mall” becomes the focus and not God.  How do you keep from this?  How do you keep focused when the vision becomes so much bigger than you, your congregants, and in some ways the very God you are pursuing? 

It’s so difficult because of one factor: man.  WE are the ones who want more.  WE are the ones who guage success by size.  WE are the ones who are drawn to spectacle.  We love a great show.  We love convenience.  It’s so easy to do one stop shopping, worship, tithing, and fellowship.  Now we can go home and feel fulfilled.  Eventually, though, there has to be a realization that it’s way too easy.  There’s no “struggle”, as we like to say, in giving everyone what they want so they will come.  It becomes all about the size of the empire instead of the size of the God. 

I don’t know.  I struggle with this thing.  Growth is inevitable.  Your church will grow up or it will grow down.  It’s the motive, though.  I don’t really believe that churches are usually started by people who just want an empire/entertainment district.  I think that most are started by amazing men and women who are really trying to find what God wants of them.  Where does that start to blur, though?

This is not a blog of answers.  There are alot of questions here.  I pray that the questions I am asking, though, will lead us towards a true understanding of what God needs out of us all.  If we can pursue that instead of our own wants I really believe that the church as we see it today will change dramatically.

Jesus Loves You

I was standing in the hall at work today talking to one of my friends from the Human Resource department.  Nothing special in the conversation.  General chit chat and catching up since we had not spoken for a while.  She was talking about going to see “August Rush” this evening and asking what I thought about it.  Somewhere in our discussion about movies she asked me if I had heard all of the conflict about “The Golden Compass” and it’s self-proclaimed agnostic/athiest author. (Say that five times real fast!)  She had heard that there would probably be groups in Corpus picketing outside the movie theater.  She wondered what I thought about all that.

I explained to her that I really don’t get into all that hype.  I’m planning on going to see the movie.  I want to see if the hype is true or not.  The only thing is that I really won’t know unless I see it.  I tend to be that way about things.  I would hate to pass judgement on something if I haven’t even experienced it for myself.

As I was explaining this there was a mother and young girl that came walking down the hall and were about to pass by us.  About that time I was telling my friend about NETChurch.  I made the statement “I’m a bit different about Christian concepts.  I mean, I a part of a ministry that looks at Christ in alot of new light.  That doesn’t always set well with some folks.”  Right at that moment the woman and girl passed by.  As I made this statement in our casual conversation the woman turns her head towards me and says “JESUS LOVES YOU”. (She wasn’t yelling, but definitely putting emphasis on it towards me.)  I didn’t actually acknowledge her as I was still speaking.  After a moment I asked my friend if I heard what I thought I heard.  The woman never stopped.  She didn’t say anything else.  I guess she just felt that I specifically needed to know that Jesus had love for me.

Why?

What did I say that prompted the thought in her that I was a prospect for this type of evangelism?  Did it sound like I wasn’t a Christian?  She had absolutely no idea who I was, what my background was, or even what the conversation was about.  It seems that she just thought that Jesus needed to be defended because I “obviously” was taking a shot at him.  Weird.

I really realized that this is the type of thing that turns me and many other people off to the whole “Christian culture way of thinking”.  She had nothing to go on except the way I looked and the two lines of conversation that she heard.  With that much info she made a snap decision.  I wonder how she would have reacted if she had known I was a pastor?

People tend to give the whole “relational ministry” thing a rough time because they say that it is “touchy, feely Christianity”.  Supposedly the idea of happening upon a stranger and trying to convince them that Christ is the only way instead of finding out about the person and then communicating to them in their own language has a much higher success rate for God.  It’s a selfish type of evangelism, though, I think.  It makes it easy because we don’t really have to involve our lives in much.  We can strategically hit the “un-churched” as we pass by and celebrate if they change, then disappear into the night.  If we cause some people to think we are to pushy then they just need Christ that much more.

What would her reaction have been if she had gotten to know me. What if she actually found out about my faith?  Would she have reacted differently?  Maybe, maybe not.  I might be too “out there” for her Christian morals to handle.  Just the same………………she doesn’t know.  I’m sure she feels good.  She affected someone’s life today.

I wonder if it would bother her to know that it wasn’t a positive experience.