September 2006 Archives
bible.org: What Must Change Now:
We know what the target is not, it is not the conditions and results that we now have. Another philosopher, a former Baptist from Missouri, Dallas Willard has said that our current system is perfectly designed to give us the results we are now getting. Some of that current system is;
- Worship as performance,
- Leadership as celebrity,
- Greatness measured by numbers,
- Salvation by agreement with religious facts,
- Evangelism without incarnation,
- Discipleship as optional,
- Catering to consumer mentality,
and I could go on. All this could be the result of the Gospel we advance. I am not adverse to Brian McLaren’s muse; “ It will serve the church if we spend the next 15-20 years asking the question, ‘ what is the gospel?’ So what is a different system that would give us different results? That would give us
- Worship as a heartfelt answer to God,
- Leadership as humble service,
- Greatness measured by character,
- Salvation by a decision to follow Jesus,
- Evangelism as love,
- Discipleship as normative,
- Catering to the committed.
From Next-Wave Ezine > church & culture:
What if the church doesn't need anything now. Maybe that's part of the problem. We are always looking for solutions to fix the church's problems right now. We go through a period of disillusionment with the status quo, leave and begin looking for greener pastures, and almost immediately reorganize into something with basically the same values and culture as the place we left. The model might be tweaked a bit, but the fundamental patterns of church life remain....What the church needs are leaders willing to be retrained in the way of Jesus. This training will not come from a seminar or book or by copying some famous Christian celebrity. The first step, bluntly, is to die to the American way of getting things done. This transition will not happen efficiently or autonomously...
...a new kind of leader is required. That is the challenge being offered to all of us.
From an interview with Eugene Peterson:
We can't say Jesus is the way - "I'm going to follow Jesus" - and then use all the devil's ways. All the "I like to do" or "have a talent for" or "have an aptitude for" or "have a spiritual gift" language is popular in our churches, but we have to do it Jesus's way. The way Jesus did it is as important as the way Jesus is. I'm just trying to connect ways and means. The means by which we do something can destroy what we're doing if they're not appropriate. And I think the American Church is very conspicuous for destroying the way of Jesus in the ways we do church...
We are at a crisis in the American Church. I don't know enough about the rest of the world to speak about it, but our rhetoric is louder and more abrasive. Our relationships are shallower, more superficial. We have an enormous amount of energy in churches in this country, and I would like to do with my readership what I've tried to do as a pastor: get them to take their lives seriously in the wholeness of Christ, not for what they can get out of Christ. I would like to make a dent in the debilitating consumer mentality that has beguiled religion and faith in this country.
From Jim Hamilton:
Many churches style their worship services like a rock concert followed by a stand up comedian.
From Bill Hull:
"Come die with us." What a thing to put on a big digital church sign by the freeway. Not exactly what church consultants would recommend to entice the seeker. Most followers of Jesus would have an idea of what the statement means, but they would dare not make it part of their public persona. It sounds out of touch, too frontal, too costly, too everything. Wouldn't it be better to say, "Come live with us?" or "Come have an adventure with us?" People don't like to think morbid thoughts, especially when it's about them. But then again it would depend on what one thinks is at the heart of the Christian experience.
Brennan Manning writes that Christians who do not walk the talk can is a primary reason why there are atheists among us...
"The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable" (Free at Last: The Movie)
(via Pastor Bryan Galloway)
Quitting church to follow Jesus: A friend of mine (in the interest of self-disclosure), Ian Morgan Cron has just written a book called Chasing Francis (published by NavPres, 2006). I'd call the book rather edgy. In fact, I applaud NavPress for having the courage to publish it.
A young megachurch pastor (who reminds me of a younger version of me) discovers that he can no longer keep up the pretenses of a deep faith and passionate church leadership, and he interrupts his sermon one day to tell this to his congregation. And then he walks out.
And, in effect, he doesn't stop walking until he retraces the steps of St. Francis and discovers a whole new way of following Jesus. I read this book marking something on almost every other page. I would say my friend, Cron, has done just about the best job I've seen of explaining the usefulness of a so-called postmodern view of Christian faith. I'd like to be part of a church that his hero ends up proposing.
