Entries Tagged 'Church' ↓

In many churches this Sunday “preachers” will stand before an assembly and preach on a topic they gave their week, their blood and their sweat for. It’s what they were trained to do and in most cases it’s what they like to do. But sad for them—preaching isn’t what it used to be. All those homiletic techniques they slogged through while in school and practice Sunday after Sunday is slowly losing traction.

In the last five years we’ve seen the demise of the three point lecture. Who would have thought this time-tested gem would go the way of the cute acronym? Then there’s the bulleted list. People just don’t seem to like them anymore. Maybe it’s just other people’s list they object to. Now they want to make their own.

As if paid staffing issues aren’t enough, the “rules of cool” seemed to have morphed overnight. Just when you threw your overhead projector in the trash bin. Just when you shelled out what seemed like an obscene amount of money for that miniscule-lumens LCD projector the savvy pew sitter grew tired of bulleted outlines and PowerPoint notes. It’s not what they want—but they sure seem to like pictures. Just don’t expect to put up a nice blue sky, flowery stuff you can order in packages every six weeks. No, they want pictures of nature at its mysterious best. And anything mundane, missed, forgotten, even ugly. They also want to see all kinds of people. They want to hear stories they can relate to from the people they know and don’t know.

Normal. Messed up.
Extraordinary folks.

So hand over the microphone; the assembly wants a fresh retelling of the Grand Story in the context of real lives.

Yes, I commiserate with the modern day preacher. If it weren’t so downright refreshing, it’d be worth a cry.

Don’t leave this post until you watch this podcast. You’ve got to. Take the time; it’s an awesome conversation illustrating what it means to follow for Jesus. It runs for approximately 30 minutes. Grab a coffee, a Latte, or a Mocha and sit still for a few.

Do it. Now!

Get out of your own backyard. […link]

1. Why does the body of Christ follow rather than lead in social reform—and then dishonestly claim leadership in reforms after the fact?
   
2. Why do so many Christ-followers pilgrimage through life without ever considering the veracity of unbelief; never allowing it to challenge their faith?
   
3. Why does the church speak of absolute values without every pointing to the scriptural examples of situation ethics?
   

Last week at the New Baptist Covenant Celebration in Atlanta, Georgia; Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Jimmy Carter talked openly about the Southern Baptist Convention’s fault lines, including abortion, gay rights, the ordination of women, clashing accounts of creation, global warming, the death penalty and the separation of church and state. This unprecedented summit drew about 10,000 Anglo, African-American, Asian-American and Hispanic Baptists from 30 North American conventions and organizations linked to the Baptist World Alliance. A quote from former president Clinton’s speech is worth noting:

“Baptist (I would insert Christians) should focus on the verse in the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians in which he stresses that it’s impossible to understand everything about God’s will because, in this life, “we see through a glass, darkly.” Clinton stressed, “it almost doesn’t matter whether the Bible is literally true, because we know in part, we see through a glass darkly. Humility is the order of the day. The reason we have to love each other is because all of us might be wrong.”

Preach it Bill! 

Terry Mattingly on Religion

Innovators are gifted with an irresistible impulse that burns deep within. They are the fountainheads of originality. Challenging the status quo with a creative idea has the potential of carrying them across the endorphin threshold. It’s about the danger of crashing. It is immeasurable, magical, and unpredictable.

Uncertain of the outcome and fearful of a congregation’s reception, immeasurable (creative) ideas are rarely implemented.  Most often they are capped in favor of measureable results. There is little room for the imaginative in a layered institution. If the creative doesn’t know, he or she soon learns not to force the issue.

They operate independent of the crowd. They set aside any herd longing of sameness relying instead on their God-given faith and creative talents.  They side-step the disparaging remarks, ridicule, and disapproval—knowing they “must” if they are going to gain the briefest hearing.

I thank God for these persevering pioneers. We need the creativity of the maven.

Having trouble with the idea of your own genius? My guess is that there was a time—perhaps when you were very young—when you had at least a fleeting notion of your own genius and were just waiting for some authority figure to come along and validate it for you.

But none came.

Of course not. It’s not the business of authoritative figures to validate thinkers; creatives threaten conventional wisdom.

But there is hope. Choose to become your own authority figure. If you do you’ll soon find yourself in position to redeem the creative genius in you that was put to sleep when the Fool was being tamed.

Reviving the creative genius in you is the beginning of Orbit.

Global Church Advancement recently held a five-day conference in Orlando Florida. You can browse the conference information or visit the Global Church Advancement Blog and read the notes from the Missional Conference. I particularly liked Randy Pope’s distinction of people-based churches and programmed based churches.

A church is program-based when its primary method of making mature and equipped followers of Christ centers around the delivery of truth through the vehicles of church programs (i.e., seminars, preaching and classes, etc.). ~Randy Pope; Life on Life Missional Discipleship

Have you ever wondered what those little squiggly lines are that float across your line of sight? I call them eye floaters. Some view them as tiny flecks or “wormy” substances floating about their field of vision. If you try to stare at them for a better look, they float off to the side. Look the other way and they reappear.

Creativity is like that. It will not be looked at. As soon as you become conscious of it—it vanishes. Forget about it…stop focusing on it…and it returns. Simply put—you cannot measure the creative process.

In the eye of most church leaders, anything that cannot be measured is of doubtful value. For some, the immeasurable likens doubtful existence.

No surprise that conventional church leaders are loath to commit resources or moral support to the amorphous concept of creativity. It’s all about the bottom line. Yet I find it both curious and peculiar that church leaders lust for the fruits of creativity, but mistrust the act of creativity.

Renegades who orbit the conventional church, removed from the compulsive preoccupation with results and bottom lines, are the ones free to reap the unpredictable amplitude of the creative process.

I discovered an interesting post at Church of the Masses, a blog authored by a script writer/consultant named Barbara Nicolosi. In her post called Somebody Gets It, she references an article by a gentleman John Steel, (never heard of him). What I find interesting is the insightful advice Mr. Steel gives for influencing culture. This is important for the Christian community since culture has insipidly, over the last 50 years, shaped the Christian community. No longer does Christianity influence culture, conversely culture has become the engine that drives Christianity. Need some examples? Ask me.

Here’s an excerpt from the post.

Culture is shaped by a small number of gatekeepers. Majority perspectives have little bearing on culture formation. Instead, elites dominate. Neuhaus notes: “Even though [these elites] may be a minority of the population, they succeed in presenting themselves as ‘mainstream’ through their control of powerful institutions in the media, in entertainment, in the arbitrations of literary taste, in the great research universities and professional associations, and in the worlds of business and advertisement that seek the approval of those who control the commanding heights of culture.”

Mr. Steel attempts to provide a Christian sociology that would help Christians with money see their way through to investment in culture.

If John Steel is correct in his analysis then many faith leaders are now viewing “the culture” as a new, laudable strategic goal. But such recognition needs a deep theological perspective and appropriate cultural discernment to have any renewing effect.

John Steel gives Luke 16: 1-9 (specifically verse 9) a new twist.

I am still searching for the complete article in Provocations at The Trinity Forum

A friend at Starbucks on Saturday. Four or five couples at Bob Evans on Sunday. This is as close as it gets to “church.” The idea is most representative of what the early Christians did two millennium ago. They spent time together, ate together and shared together, Hence they knew each other well.

This is what our little group of Jesus followers prefers; meaningful relationships outside the rigid structures of America’s skewed understanding of church. Before I go on, I need to tell you that we all still attend the Sunday assemble. We just no longer do “church work” as defined by the institution. We’re not willing to fall into the trappings of traditional church. And how do we keep from being sucked back in? As Gordon MacKenzie, says, “You go into orbit.”

Have you got a minute? Good. Because I want introduce you to the concept of orbiting. Orbiting is responsible creativity that energetically explores and operates beyond the gravity of church models, patterns, accepted norms, and contemporary standards while remaining connected to the spirit of what western culture has come to define as church.

To enter orbit around the “contemporary-traditional-church” is to find a place of balance where you benefit from the resources of the organization without becoming entombed in the institution. How do you enter orbit? By seizing the best course of action for turning one’s vision into a reality while avoiding the pallid path of “church appropriateness.” You’re ready for all this, right? Good. I’ll go then.

To be of optimum value to the “appropriate church” endeavor, you have to invest enough individuality to counteract the drag of the “appropriate church,” but not so much that you escape the pull altogether. I want to hover just beyond the gravitational pull of the “appropriate church’s” programs, ministries and premeditated Sunday morning worship. Through the measured assertion of my own uniqueness I’m reestablishing a dynamic relationship with the appropriate church. I find its gravitational drag an asset that keeps me from floating out into the overwhelming nothingness of what is embryonic, emerging and still evolving. Yet I must be carefully not to allow that same gravity to suck me into the church trichobezoar, or I’ll find myself in a different kind of nothingness. The nothingness of normalcy made stagnant by the contemporary consumer’s “appropriate church.” Orbiting the appropriate and normal is the only place where you can tap your one-of-a-kind magic, your limitless creativity.

There’s a subculture within mainstream society today that is extremely antagonistic toward communities of faith because they perceive them as oppressive, homophobic institutions. I’m part of that Christian community and I love God’s people, but I’m also brave enough to stand up and admit that at times the church has been homophobic, unjust, and downright mean.

Do we extend grace to the people who have tasted the pain of divorce? Do we show grace to people who are divorced and remarried, an area Jesus specifically called sin? If so, then how do we not show grace to people in a sexual relationship that Jesus never mentions?

If we’re going to stamp out the lingering antagonism and have any legitimacy to speak out on the issue of marriage, it will have to come out of the reality of our lives, not simply our doctrine.

Here’s a thought.

Is the church brave enough to step out of the box and champion the call for justice on behalf of gay and lesbian people? If we stand on the other side of the aisle and allow discrimination against homosexuals and lesbians to continue without a hand raised or a voice uttered, we’ll find it’s difficult to say convincingly, “But we love you in the name of Jesus.”

To show the love of God we must stand up for the civil rights of those whose orientation is homosexual on the basis of discrimination. When we stand with them they’ll see us as their friend. It’s not compromise, neither is it a statement that says we have bought into homosexual eroticism. We simply recognize that discrimination is wrong and stand with them on the matter.

When we minister to this growing population of God’s creation, in that setting, and on their turf, we’re going to be surrounded by people not living the biblical ideal. I don’t affirm that, but neither do I condemn them.