August 2007 Archives
From The Gospel Driven Church:
The greatest threat to the gospel specific to today is the indirect challenge of pragmatism among evangelicals. --Mark Dever
Some random personal opinions (of mine) related to this issue of pragmatism in the Church...
2) ...somewhat ironically, the current equivalent of the 80's-90's seeker churches are not really bringing the lost into the life of discipleship so much as they are attracting Christians who have become bored with their previous church.
4) Worship time has become more entertainment driven not as a means to attract the lost but to ensure that a church's "show" is better than all the other churches' shows.
5) The embrace of pragmatism affects nearly all of a church's aims, so that even the largest churches with the most resources do not actually plant new churches so much as they are franchising themselves. We see this currently with the satellite church movement, in which large churches with popular teachers do not raise up pastors to plant missional churches elsewhere but set up "spin-offs" where the main church teacher is shown on video screen.
This means that either a) really big churches with lots of money and personnel are somehow unable to raise up and train quality teacher-pastors, or b) they are able to do so but prefer the attraction of the celebrity quotient of their pastor. Either of those options does not bode well for the state of the missional church.
In his new book A Second Resurrection, author and consultant Bill Easum says we may need to rethink our attempts to revitalize churches, because revitalization isn't enough:
Is it possible we have underestimated the seriousness of Western Protestantism's situation? What if the metaphors of reformation, renewal, and revitalization don't get to the heart of the problem? What if the situation is much worse than those words describe? What if the vast majority of congregations in the West are spiritually dead and God no longer considers them churches? What if God has one foot out the door of most of Western Protestantism? What if the vast majority of churches are like the church of Laodicea in the Book of Revelation? What if God is about to spit us out of his mouth?
Reformation, renewal, and revitalization assume some pre-existing foundation of faith from which to raise up a new church. But what if that assumption isn't correct? What if that assumption is part of the problem?...
Easum concludes that most institutions have "ceased being the church," and that except for a remnant, the people who make up the institution are spiritually dead.
Is Easum being too harsh, or is he right?
Some things can't be reduced to bumper stickers and slogans:
If the subtle message of Calvin and Hobbes doesn't fit on t-shirts, bumper stickers, and bedsheets, then it seems unlikely that the message of Christ does. That the almighty and entirely holy God would undertake the costly work of reconciling sinners to himself - that one of the Trinity died on the cross for us and our salvation - that the Spirit would be poured out and dwell in a created temple without consuming it - who is sufficient for these things? If we can easily rule out some media as being inadequate for containing this message, is it possible to identify any medium that could be adequate?
Keith Green concluded his rant with, "I think the world is completely sick to its stomach with our sayings and 'witnessing tools.' It's time for us to be expressing the truth with our lives, and then the whole truth of God with our lips!"
From Church Transformation:
The problem is not whether or not a church has a dynamic preacher, a worship band, or liturgy. The problem is that too many churches, consciously or not, have emphasized production of spiritual goods to satisfy individual appetites. As people who attend church, we may not have asked yet if we would like to add fries to the order of faith, but we have learned how to look for what we like. And if we don't find it or it mysteriously disappears, then, like the members of focus groups, the next step is obvious: Head down the road a mile or two to the next McChurch.
From The Gospel-Driven Church, 27 Theses including these:
10. If the entirety of your churchy desires consists of filling a seat to experience a good service, you are not a congregant in a church but a consumer at a concert.
11. What you win people with is what you win them to. Win people with flash, spectacle, presentation, etc., and that’s what you win them to. Don’t be surprised if, like all consumers and what attracts them, they eventually get tired and move on to the next attraction. Don’t be surprised if, provided they remain, they continually request more, better, higher . . .
16. You cannot program a church into success. Programs are great, but they are applications. They are the “how” of doing church. Give up the tyranny of results and start with the “what” and “why” questions first.
Maggi Dawn challenges us to rediscover community rather than abandoning church:
So what do we with the call of the gospel to become part of the Church, if our experience of Church thus far is just too bad to overcome? The answer to this dilemma, I believe, is not to abandon the idea of church, but to rediscover what it means for church to be fully a community. This applies equally to denominational churches that have lost their way, and to new groups that are afraid of being too committed for fear of getting hurt again. The answer in both cases is not to withdraw, but to create community. And this will not come to anyone without cost and some degree of hurt along the way, because it's in the nature of creating community that it is both challenging and expensive to the individual. A community that doesn't challenge your ego and upset your equilibrium from time to time is probably not getting to grips with the faith.
