The Position Driven Church

I was just told recently about a situation some friends of ours that really bothers me.  They have gone through a separation.  They live in separate places in order to figure out what needs to happen with their marriage.  Since I understand this type of situation all to well I know that there is alot of confusion going on for both sides and that for anything to work there has to be a meeting of common ground at some time or another.

This is not what bothers me, actually.

This couple goes to church as many of my friends do.  Since there is a separation there is that uncomfortable feeling concerning whether they should both go to the same church or not.  Understandably so.  It’s what happened with the church that bugs me.  One half of the couple holds a relatively important position in the church, not a pastor, but close enough within this denomination.  When the other half was talking to the pastor about coming to church they were told "Well, ********* has an important position here.  I don’t think it would be a good idea for you to go to church here" (paraphrased, I might add..)  Then he takes the time to say that he would like to hear that person’s side of the story sometime.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE CHURCH?!?!?!  It’s not right for one person to go to the same church as another because they are close and it might cause friction?  Why???  Because one of them holds a POSITION in the church???  This is one of the most unbelievable things I have ever heard!  It’s also a great example of what we’ve been talking about for some time.  "We don’t want to make the church uncomfortable." "We don’t want to cause conflict within the body."  "We can’t have this going on in front of the church with one of the higher ups."  What started out as a family issue where there were needs to be met has now become a political stance by a church that doesn’t want to get it’s hands dirty!

Yes, this bothers me!  Why can’t we just turn around to both parties and say "You both need God at this moment and I’d rather not have either of you out on your own.  We need to be your family right now".  There’s nothing wrong with a little conflict, folks!  It happens all the time.  But when we start trying to shove things under the carpet because it would sully the name of our church we have a serious problem.  And when the feelings of one person with a position in the church becomes more important than the restoration of a family then we have totally lost the reason that the church exists in the first place.  Where is the place of hope?  Where is the oasis that people need when everything falls apart?  Where are the open arms that are willing to accept even though we have sin in our lives?

Honestly, I’m appalled.  Where did we go wrong and start deciding that just because people make mistakes or bad decisions that we have the right to ostracize them?  Nothing in this world is more important than restoration.  Not position.  Not leadership.  Not the program of the church.  Not image.  And yet these things get in the way of proper, Godly decisions every day in churches all across this nation.

I just can’t imagine Jesus telling someone to go somewhere else and not to come to Him…………….

Understanding Outside The Walls

There’s been alot of talk over the years about the church getting "beyond the walls", so to speak.  It’s an intriguing thought.  I’m not totally sure that most of us that have go attended church over the past 50 years really know what that means.  It’s like we’ve talked about it our bible study.  Our whole goal for "getting beyond the walls" (which always seems to mean leaving the church building for a bit of a local mission trip or temporary outreach) is to bring people back to the church building that we just tried to get outside of.  It’s a fascinating concept.  We say we want to reach out to people who don’t know Christ, but what we ACTUALLY mean is that we want to get to people who don’t go to our church.  I say that because we constantly bring them back to the building because "That’s where you have church!".  At the same time all of the people we are trying to reach don’t go to church because of the environment that they don’t like:  hypocrisy, judgementalism, gossip, ego feeding, etc.

My mind wanders towards what it would be like if we really tried to understand people and what they really think (instead of labeling everyone a certain way because they’re not in church).  Would we change the way that we try to minister and even the concept of "church"?

I was reading an article in the local newspaper about blogs and "Finding God on the Internet".  The blog that was highlighted by this piece is written by a girl who has issues with church, but also holds onto some strong beliefs about God.  She is a very good example of what alot of people are like that don’t go to church on a regular basis (if, at all).  She wrote a list of 30 things she would like to say to Christians.  You can read it at  http://www.livejournal.com/users/katie_icc/2005/02/09/.  Check it out sometime.  You might not agree with everything that she says.  You might not like the way she says it.  You might even find that some of the things she says hit too close to home.  But you might just find a real understanding of what we look like to the world.

Doubt…..

I said that when I started this I would be real about the information going into it.  It’s 2:30 in the morning and there’s no one around so I suppose I can be real!

Have you ever had one of those nights when your mind wouldn’t stop no matter what you tried?  This is one of those nights.  I could lie in bed and toss and turn, eventually waking my wife, or I could try and get some of the thoughts out of my head and into another medium.

Most people who would talk to me right now would tell me that I’m "worrying way too much and I just need to release everything to God." and that I’m "caught in the midst of sin" because something is bothering me.  Maybe.  I couldn’t argue one point or the other right now.  It’s like I’m to tired to stay awake but too wound up to go to sleep.

We have so many things going on right now in our lives and the life of this church.  For those of you that don’t know I have a beautiful wife and 3 lovely girls that are in this quest with me (along with a band of unusually bizarre believers that know in their hearts that we can change the world!).  The challenge of starting a journey like we have is huge.  You can’t work full time and do everything needed to start the ministry.  You can’t do everything that needs to be done because you need to work to feed your family.  There are decisions to be made and half the time you are just trying the best that you can to make a solid one that seems to point in the direction we are going.  On top of all that you have the insurmountable task of ministry itself while trying to be there for your own family.  Though there is great comfort in Christ during these times (yes, I do remember who we rest in.  I haven’t lost it!) there is still that human bent towards relying on the things that you can see in front of you.  It’s tough.

Why would any pastor/leader/teacher/whatever tell you all this?  Because it’s been too long since I heard a pastor admit this stuff.  I’m not sure that I remember a church leader saying that they were human and really meaning it, not just using it as a way to make the sermon seem "relevant".  If we’re going to change the world then we need to start changing the way the leaders operate and even lead.  The true servant is willing to show the weaknesses even when everything inside screams to clam up.  Hopefully I can get past all that screaming.

Tonight I am dealing with the thought that MY daughter (who lives out of town most of the time with her mom) will probably be moving out of state soon to a little town in the middle of nowhere.  Her mom is getting remarried (which is a very good thing).  The thought of being so far away from her is killing me.  I want to keep her here and at the same time I just want her to be happy.  No father should have to make the decisions that I am right now.  You can understand why I do not believe that divorce is an answer to people’s problems.  It just starts a whole new set of them.

If you read this I would ask you to do one thing:  Pray for my family and I.  This will be tough for all of us.  God will give us strength to do what needs to be done and I absolutely believe that we are never allowed to go through anything that we cannot handle with Him.  There’s just a time for everyone, even the pastor’s, when the prayers of many definitely overpower the size of the Goliath standing in front of us.  That’s what this church is all about.  Being there for each other when we’re needed most.

It’s 3:15 in the morning.  Guess I better get some sleep.

Andy

DIRECTION!

Relational church.  That’s what we are becoming.  We’re headed towards a whole new type of church that we weren’t expecting.  Throw away the old ideas of promoting a "new and different church service" because that usually only reaches people who already go to church.  Start building small communities of like minded people who meet to hang out, ask questions, and discuss God.  Cool!

We’re deciding right now how often we will have our public worship gatherings.  Maybe once a month, twice a month.  We don’t know yet.  If we can get the focus away from the "big service" and onto missional service then I think we will truly be pursuing the heart of God.

A new ministry that consists of house churches and groups of people meeting together because of common threads of relationship.  That’s where we’re headed.   Are we going to be the next Mega-Church?  Most likely not.  Or maybe we are about to redefine what a big church looks like.  A big church is just a bunch of little ones.

Hmmmmm……..

Attraction Church

I’ve been doing alot of study lately on the concept of "the church".  I’ve really poured myself into alot of reading and looking around at what we have been doing with "the church" up to this point. (When I say "the church" I mean the institution everyone thinks of as church, not NETChurch specifically)  Some of the realizations I’ve had are a little scary.

If you ever get the chance to read the book "The Shaping Of Things To Come" jump into it with both feet.  Don’t expect to just check it out and not be changed.  Of course,  you have to be open minded enough to accept some change in your life!  One of the things that the book talks about is how "church" has been designed over the last few hundred years to be attractional instead of missional.  In other words, we advertise our church to get more people to "church" instead of reaching out to people to get them to "Christ".  We promote in a way that reaches people who have been to church before and not to the ones that don’t go to church.  We also expect everyone to come to "our big church" to worship instead of meeting people where they are and helping them realize a lifestyle of Christianity right where they are.  We want to isolate them from the world in our little "christian community".

The other night we took some of the youth out to RAK people. (random acts of kindness)  We were handing out gas cards to people just to help them out.  We paid for them.  No strings attached.  We weren’t asking people to come to church or even expecting them to turn their life over to Christ just because we were nice to them. 

There was one person who stopped the kids to quiz them on what they know about Christ and push them towards witnessing to everyone they talk to.  He was telling them that they need to be bold and know their bible inside and out before they do something like this because they aren’t being effective unless they are jumping at people with the gospel as soon as they get out of their cars.  He wanted them to know what to say to a Muslim, a Jewish believer, a Hindu.  He kept pressing them and making them feel rather small because they weren’t "on the same level he was as a Christian".  I know that he meant well (He goes to a church already and this is what he is taught to do, I suppose), but he missed out on a major point:  We were just being nice to people.

At some point in history it became more important to have an agenda and only do nice things because then you got to shove the gospel down people’s throats and feel good about yourself later because you were "growing the kingdom".  That is so sad.  If we can only learn to relate to people where they are, start actual relationships with them, actually care about their lives without an underlying meaning to everything that we do then, and only then, will we see the world change!  How can you tell someone about something so great and expect them to "get it" if you don’t actually personally care about them in the first place??  We’re not salesmen.  We are missionaries.

Welcome to the new mission field!

Church Update

Just thought we ought to give an update on where NETChurch is.

As of this week:

• 2 nights of bible study and building going on (Sunday night and Wednesday night)
• About 20 people (including children) are meeting at the Sunday night study.
• Between 20 – 25 students have been attending the Wednesday night bible study.
• Outreach is happening in the Portland area and will soon be happening in Corpus Christi.
• We are scheduled to branch off a new home church in June in Corpus Christi and we are planning a block party to kick it off.
• Preview Worship Gatherings are planned for July 31st and August 28th at one of two movie theaters in Corpus.
• We have another Vision Casting and Ministry Building dinner happening on May 19th in Sinton. (If you would like to know more about this and how you can become involved with NETChurch, please drop us a note at info@netchurch.tv and we’ll send contact you immediately with information.)

There’s alot more happening, but these are the highlights.  It’s amazing how things take off and start growing before you even know what’s happening.  One minute there’s a thought of a new ministry and the next thing you know there are 50 or so people involved.  People’s lives are being changed and a whole new understanding of church is happening.  The beginnings of a more non-judgemental, truly understanding and caring group has formed and is starting a revolution.

Maybe you’d like to be a part of it.  There’s always room for more.

Andy

Runaway Bride

All of the exposure for this story about the "Runaway Bride" this past week is fascinating.  The student ministry met last night and the teaching time started off talking about what happened to her and how people were praying that she come back and be OK.  I found it interesting how everyone’s thoughts about her changed when it was found out that she wasn’t kidnapped but disappeared on purpose.  The family became more somber.  The television coverage went from concern to an outcry for justice.  All because she ran away.

It’s funny to me how an answer to prayer can become the skeleton in the closet sometimes.  Here everyone wanted her safe.  She is.  Now we want her crucified for being stupid and scared.

It’s just a thought, but how many times have we asked in prayer for an answer and then not liked the one we got?  Why is it that it has to be on OUR terms and not HIS?

I see the same thing as we start this church.  We ask God to bless this ministry, but it’s sometimes that we want HIM to bless it OUR way.  "Give us the funding we need".  "Bring people so that we can grow".  He always answers our prayers.  The question is:  Are we willing to accept the answers??

Inside Out Church

I’ve been thinking about the process that we have established over the years in conventional churches.  To start a church we:

1. Get a group together.
2. Start a worship service.
3. Get funding to build a building ASAP

Essentially most churches have been built this way (with some exceptions, but this is the norm) and the focus of these churches revolves around one main thing.  The worship service.  Sunday morning, big meeting, lots of people, everyone gets together to hear music and listen to a message before lunch.  We start it as a time of worshiping God and turn it eventually into a promotional tool that is only effective if the numbers are sustained.  That is, except for summer time when we build in the normal "dip in attendance" because of vacations!

Imagine a community of believers that come together saying that worship must be worship.  Our worship time is our time to unite and honor God, not focus on the number of seats being filled.

Imagine a church that builds small groups of hope and caring first before they ever have a huge Sunday Worship Extravaganza.  Where the lifeblood of community is present in teaching, praying, caring and ministering to each other,  and spending time together.  Where we are not expecting people to come meet us in our "church building" but we are willing to bypass the doors (or the building, for what it’s worth) and meet people where they are.

Where would it grow to?  How far would this church go?  It would only be limited by our hearts and imaginations, willing to challenge the conventional to be able to reach those that need God most.  We have to be willing to break down some HUGE walls and face new realities to be able to effectively minister in today’s world.  I guess we’re about to find out how effective it can really be.