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Thursday, October 30, 2008

Growing churches

The Gospel is like a seed, and you have to sow it. When you sow the seed of the Gospel in Israel, a plant that can be called Jewish Christianity grows. When you sow it in Rome, a plant of Roman Christianity grows. You sow the Gospel in Great Britain and you get British Christianity. The seed of the Gospel is later brought to America, and a plant grows of American Christianity. Now, when missionaries come to our lands they brought not only the seed of the Gospel, but their own plant of Christianity, flower pot included! So, what we have to do is to break the flowerpot, take out the seed of the Gospel, sow it in our own cultural soil, and let our own version of Christianity grow.
–Dr. D.T. Niles of Sri Lanka


Imitation is the bane of modern Christianity.
- Reggie Britt


Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost make the point in The Shaping of Things to Come that in their native Australia, the form of Christianity that is prevalent relates to at most 35% of the population, and about 45% in the United States. And both numbers are shrinking. The typical method of church planting is too much like trying to plant cuttings from previous plants. A plant may take in that situation, or it may not. Studying church history, this method seems to have been pretty much used since the 4th century.

While Niles speaks in terms of national churches, his final comment on culture is right. And wrong in some ways too. Rather than culture, the individuals who join into a church need to shape that church. If the body consists of its parts as Paul writes, shouldn't the arrival or departure of an individual impact that church? Shouldn't the growth of an individual impact it? Too often, people come and go from a church and it just goes on as before -- short of the coming and going of the clergy class.

If the church is to be the body, the individual has to matter. Corporate and individual must intertwine tightly. If the church is to have impact in a culture, then the shape and form of church must grow from seed within that culture -- holding to truth -- but letting form and to an extent function be shaped by its environment.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Why Men Hate Going to Church

David Murrow wrote a book by the name Why Men Hate Going to Church a few years back. There was a short burst of interest in Christiandom, but like so many fads, the interest faded and the problem continues: men don't go to church. Statistically, only 40% of those in churches on a given weekend are men. Some denominations the numbers are worse, some better, but in no case do men outnumber women in any denomination.

As a former men's ministries director of a church, as a member of the leadership team of another, and as a member of a men's ministry leadership team at a third church, I'd like to offer some perspectives on the issue.

First of all: wrong issue. The concern shouldn't be if men are or aren't going to church. It should be about a relationship with Jesus Christ. Are men becoming disciples of Jesus? If the women's numbers are padded by "social" Christians, the problem is quite different -- like who do you move those "social" Christians to a truer faith? Let's consider the right issue. Sadly, there are no clear statistics, just anecdotes, about the devotion of the individuals.

Is it even an issue at all? Some statistics say 40 to 45% of Americans are in church on a Sunday. Those numbers of held since 1960. But there's a problem with those numbers -- the number of churches has grown by only 25% of what is needed to hold those numbers. Moreover, if you multiple the average reported attendance (reported by churches) by the number of churches, the percentage in church on a given Sunday would be about 17% of the population.

Bottom line: people lie about their faith. Are women more likely to lie? Is that why there is "more" faith statistically among women?

Is it an issue at all?

My conclusion: I think it is, but don't trust the statistics. I think the result of looking to the statistics will end up treating the symptoms, not the cause.

Second of all: what is the cause?

I think it is multiple reasons ... one is the feminization of Christianity. That is a solvable one -- get back to the roots.

Another is related: churches aren't men-friendly -- you have "Jesus is my boyfriend" music for one. But this is a trap. Many have seen this, and their solution -- shorter sermons, shorter services and the like. My thoughts on short services -- that's garbage. Men will sit through 3 hour football games, sit in deer stands in the cold for 6 hours, go to 2.5 hour movies. Length is not the issue.

But the bottom line: the system is designed for the results you are getting. Men aren't going to church because the system is designed to repel them. Some of the system elements:

1) The system is designed to create dependence on itself
-- you sit staring at the back of the heads in front of you pretty much the whole time. You are dependent on someone to tell you what to sing, tell you what to believe (thus the sermon), to control everything.
Men aren't designed to be dependent on anything but God and the church ain't God. Men are designed to be mutually dependent in community, I believe, but that's not a dependency on a pastor who is dependent pretty much on our accolades and "tithes". Much more mutual than that.
2) The system is designed to control
-- the head is to be Christ, but we've managed to put a layer there. We delegate listening to God's direction to professionals. It's a system that belittles men's abilities. It limits them.
3) The system is designed to limit
-- men want to make a difference. Yes, you can make a difference in the kid's program, but those roles are oft designed to be interchangeable. You don't make the difference uniquely with who you are. Men don't want to simply make a difference, they want to be the hero, the difference maker.

What's needed is a new system. Or maybe it is an old system, that dates back to the time of Jesus. A system that eliminates bureaucracy, where if there are professionals they are not controllers or leaders, but enablers (positively speaking) and coaches. Where men listen to the Spirit themselves, not to the pastor, for direction. Where the relationship with Jesus is not filtered through priests, pastors and/or elders. Where Jesus is the head, unfiltered by a clergy/laity hierarchical divide.

The army of God is ready to move. Not sit in the warehouses at major intersections in our cities.

See also The 800 lb Gorilla

Friday, October 17, 2008

Real Church

Well, life happens so so much for extra posts this week ...

Last Saturday was our first meeting of a new church, one trying to be "organic" as it is labeled. Being our first meeting, we shared a meal, talked about what brought us to Colorado, which one story had God so much in it it just prompted other stories of God acting. A couple of people had stories on how Satan tried to block their participation, either in the conference that we initially met at or that week's meeting.

I think to the passages that talk about the purpose of gathering -- to encourage one another, to edify one another. These stories and time with people ... this was great. Never went to a "service" like this. And for those who insist that meetings are for "worship" (find a scripture that says that that applies to the New Covenant): Real honest stories that I think glorified God more than a song, a prayer, three more songs,a sermon, another song, song, and closing prayer.

The weekend before I was at a Ransomed Heart Wild At Heart Boot Camp. I was on the work crew. We went out on Wednesday, and met as a group daily in our time there, twice on Saturday. Our Friday-Sunday morning meetings were practical matters, prayer, and talking about how we felt the Spirit moving, while Thursday's meeting did the same with some more stuff since we had more time. We had an extra meeting Saturday to talk about how we saw God move that weekend. Smaller groups met at other times spontaneously, and we had our work together too. Again, for a weekend we were a "church" that met daily. And again, I think was more glorified than a month of Sundays in a typical traditional church.

That's not to say a group gathered for traditional church couldn't experience the same -- there just has to be as much time if not more looking into the faces of your brothers and sisters than staring at the back of their heads while the professionals and semi-pros "perform", time spent talking about God and what he is doing in lives today and what he has done this year (not what he did in the first century and before), in a way that encourages and edifies.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Wound thoughts

With a recent Boot Camp, that organic conference, a meeting with a man named Bart, and beginning a new church with others, a lot of thoughts float through my head. After being off-schedule for two weeks, I think this week will be off in another way -- extra posts to catch up.

This thought came during a meeting with Bart on Friday at CPK. Readers of John Eldredge's Wild At Heart and especially those who've been to a Wild At Heart Boot Camp know of what is called a wound. These are more or less psychological wounds that change who we are and keep us from the glory God intended for us. Typically these come in our youth from our dads or a father figure. As I heard my Psych 101 professor said one day "we all spend our entire lives recovering from our childhood".

One such wound with me was what was essentially a poor example of a friend my dad was to other men. That combined with other "wounds" kind of resulted in a "vow" that friends and friendship had to be earned. One way that came was being the guy with answers and provoking ideas. Talking with Bart on Friday about what I liked to do, I came to realize that despite about four years of awareness of that, I still practiced a behavior that resulted from such beliefs -- reading almost exclusively non-fiction.

So I'm weighing a strategy of breaking that -- right now I'm thinking I might give up reading any non-fiction book (other than the Bible and referencing commentaries and the like and possibly work-related books) for a year. I'm leaning toward making it simple -- doing it for a calendar year starting Jan 1, 2009.

Let you know the final call on that and how it goes.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Erwin McManus' Wide Awake

A bit off schedule this week, with posts a little later. Forgive me on that.

I've digested just about everything Erwin Raphael McManus writes. He is one writer (along with some like John Eldredge and Brennan Manning and a couple of others) that I buy the books of without checking reviews. When his Wide Awake came out as his first book in some time, and given the topic being one near and dear to my heart, I eagerly anticipated reading it.

And I must say, I was disappointed in this book. It does have a strong start -- making a inspired case that we are to be creative and we are to impact our world. But when it moves to giving direction on discovering what that is for yourself, what impact you should have and how to get there, it reads like so many good sounding sermons -- sounds good, but how do you live that? Or as one of my favorite characters in Braveheart, Stephen, says "Fine speech, now what do we do?". In the end, when it comes to this book, I think William Wallace's response is more useful than anything this book offers "Just be yourself".

But God is an amazing God. An author I've grown more and more to appreciate, Bill Johnson, put out a book awhile back called Dreaming With God that covers similar subject matter. I'm about midway through it, and so far I've found it more useful. We'll see if Johnson's writing keeps it up through the rest of the book, and either way, I'll post a review when I've finished it.

As for McManus, I'll likely pick up his next without recommendations or checking reviews. No author can score a home run every time, call this one a single from an author I'd say has previously never hit anything less than a triple.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

New post

Got back Sunday from my fourth Wild At Heart Boot Camp. You think, why four? Well, of course there is the first, and way back there once was a requirement to make two boot camps to go to the Advanced Camp. That's two. The last two I've volunteered at, first in Oct '06 and then last weekend on the work crew.

Great time hanging out with the work crew members in down time, what little we had. Some great guys. There's talk of a reunion next month for those of us along the front range. I assume the guys from Oregon, NY and Arizona are welcome to fly in if they wish.

I think there were three great "wows" from the weekend. Fourth if you count John Eldredge's great quote "Rescue sex is almost as good as makeup sex". Now how many "men's retreats" can you go on and hear that kind of advice?

Great "wow" number one: the fall foliage was peaking. Such beauty. I'll probably edit this post later or add one to embed some photos I took of it.

Great "wow" number two: God speaks. Actually I hear his voice regularly, but usually something extra comes through at these boot camps. I don't know why God doesn't speak these kinds of things elsewhere -- is it something with me that I'm only willing to listen at a Ransomed Heart event? Or is there something about the situation that God just can speak clearer -- is the lines of communication clearer? Really need to figure that one out, because I can't wait between events like this to hear like that.

Great "wow" number three: Such men on the work crew. There were two men on this crew I knew before -- Bill from Castle Rock who I met at a previous event and had lunch with a few weeks back, and one of the leads Scott who was a "wingman" on my previous volunteering with Ransomed Heart. In no time we bonded. Why can't the church be more like this? Well, in part, we were the church of course. But why can't the "church" as most think of it be like this? I cling to the belief it can ... and continue to suspect the "institutional systems" about her interfere with her full functioning. But I love how she often performs despite those handcuffs.