July 2003 Archives

I had read this interview with Robert Webber before, but it hit me with full force again today as Jordon quoted from it:

The pragmatic churches have become institutionalized - with some exceptions. They responded to the sixties and seventies, created a culture-driven church and don’t get that the world has changed again. Pragmatics, being fixed, have little room for those who are shaped by the postmodern revolution. A clash is emerging. The younger evangelicals will not have a voice in the pragmatic, fixed mentality. Stay there and your spirit will die (there are some exceptions, pray for discernment). Many pragmatic churches, like old shopping malls are dying. Very few people under 30 are in pragmatic churches. The handwriting is on the wall. Leave. Do a start up church. Be a tentmaker. Build communities. Small groups. Neighborhood churches. Be willing to let your life die for Jesus as you break with the market driven, culture shaped, numbers oriented, Wall-Mart-something-for-everyone church. Be an Abraham and take a risk. God will show up and lead the way.

Anybody else get both scared and really, really excited in reading this?

Is this the church that God intended? A church where ...

90% of pastors work more than 48 hours per week. 80% believe that pastoral ministry is affecting their families negatively. 33% say that being in ministry is clearly a hazard to my family. 75% have reported a significant crisis due to stress at least once in their ministry. 50% felt unable to meet the needs of the job. 90% felt they were not adequately trained to cope with the ministry demands placed upon them. 40% reported a serious conflict with a parishoner at least once a month. 70% of pastors do not have someone they would consider a close friend. 37% have been involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with someone in the church. 70% have a lower self-image after they've pastored than when they started.

- From Fuller Institute of Church Growth study in 2001 (No link available)

I'm often struck by how, within the modern church, the Kingdom doesn't look too different from worldly organizations. I bought into this for a long time too. Sure, we were different in some ways, but the methods, techniques, and standards of the business world seemed to apply so well in the North American church. That is, the North American church as exemplified by churches like Saddleback and Willow Creek.

The Kingdom of God isn't marked by its marketing success and organizational size, no matter how much we want to think it is. It's marked by ambiguity, weakness, surprise, humility - many of the qualities that some of us have tried to expunge from our churches.

This hit me today as I studied two snapshots of the Kingdom given by Jesus in Mark 4:26-32:

Since Jesus spends so much time in the Gospels explaining in parable what the kingdom of God is like, one may infer that he believed that his vision of God's reign was quite different from the usual one...He seeks to dispel the myths about how God's reign manifests itself and works in the world, which the majority accept with little question. Wright observes...'The Kingdom of God is here, he seemed to be saying, but it's not like you thought it was going to be'...

We too quickly identify the kingdom of God with our own human aspirations and institutions that "reach unto heaven" and "make us a name." We tend to be overly impressed with mass movements and high-powered organizations, and these parables that stress the ambiguity of the presence of the kingdom of God in the midst of this current evil age should caution us against this mistake...

Jesus' picture suggests that the kingdom of God may continue to look like a failure...The parable may be a rebuke to those expecting something grandiose from God...

Times have not changed, because people continue to fix their attention on all the wrong things in their search for God and meaning in their lives.(David Garland, NIV Application Commentary on Mark

The Kingdom, according to Jesus, always surprises because it doesn't look as significant and triumphant as you'd expect. Yet, in the end, it's more significant and triumphant than you could ever see with worldly eyes. God's Kingdom is best revealed in the hidden and seemingly insignificant places, rather than the places we normally look.

As long as the church is primarily committed to its own growth, well-being, and strength, it will find it difficult to see much beyond its own borders...Since Constantine we have been tempted to become fixated on the ultimacy of the church, even declaring that without it there is no salvation. We continue to plant local units in every community, which look much like the ones that are slowly fading. We act as if the church can still image itself as the institution God has ordained "to bring in the day of brotherhood and end the night of wrong". But the gates of the Constantinian world are slowly closing; not closing for repairs, just closing! The church increasingly finds itself not in the world of Christendom, but in a world more akin to the apostolic period, where it had little public power and exercised no social control.

Our institutional weakness may provide the occasion for a new encounter with the Spirit of God and for a recovery of the ministry of reconciliation that the Spirit mandates and elicits. It may be that in our weakness we can discover the strength to be heralds of the redemptive and reconciling plan of God for the entire household, the world's oikoumene.(Charles H. Bayer, A Resurrected Church

I occasionally worry that I'm not taking enough risks in my life. I fear that I'll one day wish that I had lived more boldly, especially in some of the ministry choices that I've made.

I came across this quote by Calvin today that made me ask this question again. Calvin wrote in The Necessity of Reforming the Church:

The question is not, Whether the Church labors under diseases both numerous and grievous, (this is admitted even by all the moderate judges,) but whether the diseases are of a kind the cure of which admits not of longer delay, and as to which, therefore, it is neither useful nor becoming to await the result of slow remedies.

Good question.

“How can anyone," said Nicodemus, "be born who has already been born and grown up? You can't re-enter your mother's womb and be born again. What are you saying with this 'born-from-above' talk?” (The Message John 3:1-21)

As Will Willimon says, “We may come singing “Just as I Am,” but we will not stay by being our same old selves. The needs of the world are too great, the suffering and pain too extensive, the lures of the world too seductive for us to begin to change the world unless we are changed, unless conversion of life and morals becomes our pattern. The status quo is too alluring. It is the air we breathe, the food we eat, the six-thirty news, our institutions, theologies, and politics. The only way we shall break its hold on us is to be transferred to another dominion, to be cut loose from our old certainties, to be thrust under the flood and then pulled forth fresh and newborn. Baptism takes us there. ” (Bread & Wine)

Using the image of being 'born again' – being born out of this world - it begs the question about whether the church has stuck to the plan -- have we grown up - are we mature? When will the church choose to 'grow up again?'

The contemporary church lives in a 'Peter Pan paradigm of faith' -- born again - but not wanting to ever grow up. If the church is to change the world it first must be changed.

"Why, oh why, ohwhyohwhyohwhy, is being a Christian so freakin' hard? Why didn't he say 'Take up your big poofy pillow and follow me' instead of that heavy, painful cross? I WANT TO LIVE IN COMPLETE AND UTTER DEPRAVITY AND NOT THINK TWICE ABOUT IT! I want to hate and lust and kill and f*ck. But Christ is like that offer I can't refuse. I want to refuse. I want to refuse SO BAD. I'd like to say 'That sounds nice, Mr Jesus, but I'd rather choose this broad path to destruction. It's paved, and there are a lot more diversions along the way. I enjoy being mean as hell, living like a total recluse, and looking at boobs.' But of course, there's that small, nagging voice deep down that keeps saying 'You fool. Do you really want to be a slave again? Return to Sodom?' And that voice can be ignored, but never silenced. And the offer I can't refuse is the offer of freedom that only God gives. Ain't it a b*tch? --Strodtbeck J. fearsompirate.blogspot.com, July 19, 2003 (Link courtesy of The .Plan)

That voice speaks to the church as well as to individuals. But -- will we be willing to listen?

The conceptual part is where the old internal model returns time and time again to derail the process. It is impossible to describe how difficult it is to imagine all the permutations and possibilities of human relationships that arise when one truly accepts that organizations exist only in the mind; that they are no more than conceptual embodiments of the ancient rules of community. At this point it is so easy, so comfortable, so reassuring to avoid the difficulty by allowing old concepts to emerge camouflaged in new terminology. Breaking through the old eggshell to stand wet and shivering in a new world of possibilities is a frightful thing. Especially when crawling back is an option. (Dee Hock, Birth of the Chaordic Age)

Jordon Cooper doesn't think pastoring is dangerous to spiritual health. He believes pastors are dangerous to themselves and can't blame their vocation.

From my mailbag yesterday:

Dear Senior Pastor:

As a pace-setting church leader we thought you'd want to be among the very first to know about a new thing we are seeing God doing, to raise the effectiveness of the church to a whole new level.

For some time now God has been bringing across our path some of the sharpest minds in Canada's business community: God-honoring men and women who use their strategic thinking skills every day to steer the course of significant corporations.

And this has planted a dream. Could the church rise to a new level of effectiveness if these leaders were envisioned, equipped and empowered to use their expertise and gifting at the local church level? Could that local church more fully reach its redemptive potential if the senior pastor and these business leaders worked together in a high level linkage building the church?

Nothing against these business leaders, but I think that we misunderstand God's Kingdom when we exalt the methods of the world and value those who are successful and strong.

Sure, we can learn from some of what business does (all truth is God's truth), but these days the Christian world seems so enamored with emulating the business world, so that our churches start to resemble well-run corporations with franchises - miniature versions of Motorola or IBM - rather than the broken and wounded Body of Christ.

I can't get over the fact that Christ came to us in weakness and eschewed the powerful and chose fishermen and tax collectors. He talked being poor in spirit and opposed every worldly structure of success. He washed feet and ultimately gave up his life in the greatest display of weakness this world has ever seen (God dying).

Every time God used somebody strong and powerful, their strength and power has been an obstacle to overcome rather than an asset that God was waiting to use. God used Moses, but not when he was connected to the most powerful people in the world and up-to-date in the most modern techniques of leadership. God used him after Moses had spent 40 years in obsurity keeping company with sheep. "I delight in weaknesses...for when I am weak, then I am strong"(2 Corinthians 12:10)

No offense to these business people, but I think all of us need to remember that God uses us not because we're strategic thinkers with great resumes and finely developed skills. God uses us in spite of these. God seems to like using our weakness and our complete dependence on him.

From John Stott's Issues Facing Christians Today - (Courtesy Signposts)

I was hungry ... and you formed a humanities group to discuss my hunger. I was imprisoned, ... and you crept off quietly to your chapel and prayed for my release. I was naked, ... and in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance. I was sick, ... and you knelt and thanked God for your health. I was homeless, ... and you preached to me of the spiritual shelter of the love of God. I was lonely ... and you left me alone to pray for me. You seem so holy, so close to God ... but I am still very hungry - and lonely - and cold.

We were looking for heroes - he came looking for the lost. We were searching for glory and He showed us a cross. (Rich Mullins)

Bill Bright, who died this week, left these words:

Yet, you and I have no rights. We are dead. Our lives are hidden with Christ in God. We’ve been purchased with a price, the precious blood of the Lord Jesus.

To surrender yourself totally, irrevocably, without reservations to the living Christ is the greatest privilege man can know in this life.

To live the self-centered life is to live in self-imposed spiritual poverty. I'm eighty-one years old, and even though I've preached for many years, I'm just now beginning to truly understand the importance of being dead to Bill Bright.

Bill Bright has no rights in my life. Christ has purchased me. I belong to Him. Now every morning you and I must get on our knees and acknowledge we belong to Jesus Christ. Only then can true revival begin.

From Jagged Mind:

Seems to me that what the early church offered and what the modern church offers is totally different. If we were in business, we'd say that someone changed the product! The early church offered a Person. The modern church offers principles and a prayer. The early church spoke out of a living and dynamic experience of Christ. The modern church speaks out of an empty tomb but has no memory of touching his hands and his side. The early church knew where Christ was. The modern church can't give us directions to where He is now.

Backyard Missionaries says, "Preaching Sux..." He explains why, and I have to admit, it's pretty compelling.

Somewhere, somehow, for most of us church has become Sunday-centered with the focus of attention being what's happening up on the platform. Rethinking preaching is definitely going to be necessary within the dying church.

From the Archbishop of Canterbury's Address to the General Synod (found through Jordon Cooper, who found it through Jonny Baker):

Some time ago, in the course of a conversation with the Archbishop of Sydney, we found we agreed wholeheartedly - pause for effect - we agreed wholeheartedly that the life of the church should be a matter of verbs before it's a matter of nouns - and that those verbs have God as their subject. God calls, God makes a difference of such a kind that a community appears, bound to and in his Son by the Spirit's power. For the moment, never mind the structures and the precise assurances as to what we agree about. What matters at first is that we are at one in recognising that we are called and who has called us...

Mission, it's been said, is finding out what God is doing and joining in. And at present there is actually an extraordinary amount going on in terms of the creation of new styles of church life. We can call it church planting, 'new ways of being church' or various other things; but the point is that more and more patterns of worship and shared life are appearing on the edge of our mainstream life that cry out for our support, understanding and nurture if they are not to get isolated and unaccountable. These may vary from the classic church plant model - a new congregation generated by an older one - to the Thursday night meeting for young people once a fortnight, the Sunday evening Songs of Praise in the pub, the irregular but persistent networking with the people you met at Greenbelt or Spring Harvest, the mums and toddlers event on Tuesday morning or the big school Eucharist once a term which is the only contact many parents and friends will have with real worshipping life. All of these are church in the sense that they are what happens when the invitation of Jesus is received and people recognise it in each other.

Can we live with this and make it work? This is where the unexpected growth happens, where the unlikely contacts are often made; where the Church is renewed (as it so often is) from the edges, not the centre. We need a positive willingness to see and understand all this - and to find the patterns and rhythms and means of communication that will let everyone share the benefits.

Sometimes I wonder how this dying church thing will work out in my own life. It's one thing to write about it. On the other hand, I am a pastor. There will naturally be some consequences in my life if I try to kill a church that wants to stay alive. (By killing, I mean helping it die to itself, so it's less concerned with its own agenda and success than in losing its life for Christ, giving itself away, etc.)

I'm okay with that. In fact, it might even be exciting.

But here's another thought. What about pastoring subversively? I really believe the problem isn't the structure. It's just as easy to make the same mistakes outside of the church, because the real problem is the heart. It's that part of us that refuses to die to itself no matter how many times we try.

Maybe within the church it would mean continuing within the same structures, challenging them when appropriate, and taking every opportunity to walk with Christ wherever he happens to be going. If that gets me fired, so be it. But maybe, on the other hand, I'll discover that others are interested in walking along too, and just maybe we'll find that life that's on the other side of death together.

A pipe dream? I guess we'll find out.

John Campea writes about some of the challenges of working in vocational ministry, or whatever you want to call it. John's bang on. It's another sign that the church may have less to do with the Kingdom than we sometimes think.

From TheHeresy.com:

If Paul talked to us today might he say this?

“Except for a few small places in the world where there is great persecution or difficulties now, we can hardly recognize either the ministry or the message that is being preached today. Therefore, the church is now but a phantom of what it was even in our time, and we were far from all it was called to be. When we served, being in ministry was the greatest sacrifice that one could make, and this reflected the message of the greatest sacrifice that was made—the cross. The cross is the power of God, and it is the center of all that we are called to live by. You have so little power to transform the minds and hearts of the disciples because you do not live, and do not preach, the cross. Therefore, we have difficulty seeing much difference between the disciples and the heathen. That is not the gospel or the salvation with which we were entrusted. You must return to the cross.” Pg 136, The Final Quest by Rick Joyner

From JordonCooper.com:

Has anyone else noticed that so much of the discussion going on about the reformation of the church is about style and not substance. Has the church and its theologians gone in totally different directions? There seems to be much more discussion about engaging the church rather than engaging Christ of late, in books and in blogs. Are we taking the substence and our theology for granted? Personally I think it is a both/and but I think we default to style because it is easier to talk about then the theology of our church.

I hear that the theology is out of touch but I think that is an oversimplification. It may be out of touch but maybe because we have atrophied the muscles needed to reach for it. Just some thoughts.

Last week John Campea wrote about "Whether working in a church is a hindrance to your spiritual development?"

But I would say -- "Is working in a church a hindrance to your relational life -- especially with fellow staff?" One of the reasons churches are dying is because of traditional program staff's difficulties in having team based, servant hearted relationships. In the friends I know in large church ministry the term 'collegial relationship' is a dying term.

Obviously - on this weblog we are speaking of a church which is willing to take up its cross and die - so as to live a life of grace.

How might power dynamics, core values, and accountable relationships play into churches that have staff driven ministries. Are they dying churches as referred to above - or just dying churches.

Who was it that said -- when I meet a Buddist monk - I meet a holy man. When I meet an American Protetstant pastor - I meet a manager.

Thoughts?

Anita Van Ingen of Moving Godward has a parable on her site regarding poor churches and prosperity churches.

PONDERINGS: A Man and A Woman

The stage is dark.

As two columns of light emerge from the darkness, a man stands in the light on the right side and a woman appears in the other column of light on the left.

The man looks at the woman and notices her tattered clothing. To save her from embarrassment over her appearance, he quickly turns his back to her. He gracefully moves aside his suit jacket, and then hides his hands in his trouser pockets. He appears to have an internal debate. Then, he turns forward and glances over his right shoulder at the woman.

He says, "Hello. How are you? My name is the Church of Prosperity. What is your name?"

She pulls a ragged shawl over her shoulders to ward off the cold, and turns to face him. "I am the Poor Church," she answers calmly.

His eyes concentrate on the floor in front of him as he begins his accusation, "I know of you. I have been called "Greed Christianity" by the Poor Church."

"I also know of you." she replies. Her soft voice is steady. "I have been called a failure by the Church of Prosperity."

"Well, just look around you. The townspeople point to me as evidence of God's power," the man shifts his feet a little toward her to speak. "They come to my door with television cameras to get my opinion."

"The townspeople use me as a servant. I suffer much, and they repay me little." Her eyes dart as if images are appearing in the dark. For a short minute, she hides her eyes behind a hand, and then wipes them dry.

A droplet of water collects in his eye as his face softens with compassion; he offers his method as a suggestion. "The Church of Prosperity makes bold statements of faith, and names those things we want as we stand before God. See where we are now!"

"The Poor Church is seeking to know God's will rather than our own desires." She looks away. Her eyes cast down, until a smile begins to form on her lips as she whispers, "And we have witnessed miracles."

He straightens his lapels. They are on equal footing until he thinks of something she does not have. "I am pleased to spend my days managing the wealth of Jabez. I wear his crown with glory and receive his honor."

She shakes her head in the negative. "I have earned a crown of thorns. I have received nothing more than Jesus was given. Oh, I have just enough to get by, just barely enough to get by. Sometimes my pastor works without pay. Sometimes I have to walk through the wheat fields and glean what Prosperity left behind for my family’s sake. Sometimes." Her voice becomes a mumble and is no longer distinguishable.

He turns his feet to face her and interrupts. "Well, look! I have the spirit of gain. I have both expanded my territories and I have honored my God."

She straightens her shoulders and smiles softly. "My kingdom is not of this world."

In anger, he extends an arm and grasps a pole. The viewer becomes aware that he has taken hold of his own spotlight. As he wheels the light stand off stage, his column of light moves where he wants to go.

She leaves, making no effort, and the light over her follows.

I hate to admit it but sometimes I am a pastor who wants to lead a "name it and claim it church." Thi isn't because I think that the philosophy is appropriate. Rather it is because the churches I have served have been humiliated by their size -- weakened by their lack of resources - and dominated by a view of the world that is consumed by a feeling of scarcity.

Just once I wanted them to stand in their faith claim what they thought the spirit was nudging them towards and be successful.

But wanting all of what is out there - wanting more than what we have is forsaking the blessing of creation. Churches are servants, part of the kingdom - gifted with the most wonderful resource of all - The Holy Spirit. No media setup, praise band, light show, or streaming video can replace the presence of the Holy Spirit.

To think that God created the world with only a certain number of 'good things' and to think that the name of the game is to get those things before others get them - whether it is members, money, buildings, technology, or other staff people - is to forget that the language that God uses is blessing.

So maybe it is better to be in a church that has the Spirit - but is weak, dying, and on life-support - than to be in a church burdened by so many things - but lacking in the one thing that will make a difference in this world - the Spirit.

Thoughts?

With Darryl gone for one more week -- I am wondering what he will think when he comes back. What did he actually want me and mute to talk about? I imagine he would want us to sharewhat we think is the heart of the matter for believers.

Well, Richard @ Connexions.net takes up the cause and shares with us about the great Karl Barth - one of the most profound twentieth century Christian theologians. Richard tells us a story that reminds us of what is most important.

Once, he [Barth] was giving an interview on an American radio station and was asked to summarise his faith. The interviewer expected a long and complicated answer, worthy of such a well-respected academic theologian. Instead, Barth answered simply, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so”. After all the millions of words that he had written, all the thousands of lectures he had given, he chose to summarise his faith in the words of a hymn that many today would sneer at.

Nice reminder. I hope Darryl is doing well. I hope mute and I are doing well, too.

A 'packaged personality' for today's churches?

I am reading Behind the Masks: Personality Disorders in Religious Behavior by Wayne Oates. He takes the diagnostics of psychology and shows what different disorders should look like in the church, what the spiritual life of a person with said disorder might look like, and ways churches can give care to said persons.

But Wayne goes from preaching to meddling in his chapter about histrionic personalities -- which he calls 'packaged personalities.' The histrionic is showy, manipulative, and likes to be the center of attention. They act like a chameleon to get what they want. They have an impaired capacity to make and keep steadfast, durable, long lasting relationships.

Wayne rightly compares Erich Fromm's assessment of the current American Culture as one that is 'packaged' and 'histrionic.'

Erich Fromm assesses our culture as an American people. He considers the histrionic personality of our times as a "marketing character":

For the marketing character everything is transformed into a commodity -- not only things, but the person himself, his physical energy, his skills, his knowledge, his opinions, his feelings, even his smiles. (Fromm 1973)

In another work (1947), Fromm is more specific:

Success depends largely upon how well a person sells himself on the market, how well he gets his personality across, how nice a package he is; whether he is cheerful, sound, aggressive, reliable, ambitious ... The premise of the marketing orientation is emptiness, the lack of any specific quality which should not be subject to change.

Within the religious community we have the end result of theis endemic way of life of a nation. In the churches we are aided and abetted in religious histrionics through our emulation of television's political and social demand for "cosmetic leadership," flashy first impressions of people who have a "marketable image." With preachers and pastors as well as lawyers, politicians, and salespersons we are left to wonder who that person is behind that mask! We pray for release from cynicism. Yet we wonder if this person will not also simply have been putting on an act for our temporary approval in order to get where he or she wants to go, or get what he or she wants to get out of us. All the while, within the person there is an emptiness, a craving for new conquests, new stimulation, additional applauding audiences. In a poignant way they are, as T.S. Eliot describes them, "hollow" persons. Boredom is their constant, sad motivator. Only occasionally are they aware that this is their sad plight.

Our churches with so many ministries - our families with too much activity - our members who are putting on a show to convince us - and God - that they are Christians. All empty.. all hollow. God calls us to something else.

God calls to us, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23)

This is about leading dying churches. Churches that die to the hollow, pre-packaged self and live to the full, unique, and reviving spirit of God.