Say a Prayer

I just read this sad note over at The Hungarian Luddite:

Thank you to all who have read my website and blog over the years. I am sorry I can no longer keep this up. The physical problems I face are such that I can no longer even type. It's been fun.
The Hungarian Luddite

Say a prayer for this man with a big heart and a broken body. We’ll miss you, my friend.

Rod

Pop Culture

I was doing some research for a post I’m writing about Christianity and culture when I discovered this article by Douglas Wilson. It deserves a post of its own.

Wilson bases his discussion of pop culture on the framework supplied by Ken Myers of

• high culture,
• folk culture and
• pop culture.

High culture and folk culture transmit “permanent things” from place to place and time to time. Pop culture, in contrast, focuses on the temporary. Warhol’s fifteen minutes of fame.

Rebellion against God can be expressed in each of these forms of culture. But pop culture presents the greatest threat to the average person.

High culture can express rebellion against God at a high level, but it is not the greatest threat to us, because when the avant-garde goes stupid virtually no one else pays any serious attention.

Rebellious high culture only presents a problem to really smart intellectualoids—the only ones in the world actually vulnerable to the really stupid idea, as modern architecture shows us.

Pop culture, however, it more closely connected to the desires and aspirations of the average person. For this reason, it is much more dangerous.

Wilson lists three principles:

1. Pop culture is not sinful in itself just because it is pop culture.
2. When sin is expressed in pop culture, the fault lies in the human heart not in the particular medium in which it is expressed.
3. All human actions have a moral component and a direction.

This third point requires some explanation. An action is either right or wrong. This is the moral component. But there is another factor that must be taken into account. Each action moves us toward greater or lesser maturity. Wilson argues that “cultural issues are always maturity issues.”

Often we ask, “Is this wrong?” If the answer is that it is not wrong, then we conclude that it is OK. But just because something is not morally wrong doesn’t mean that it is good. There must be a second question, “Does this lead to maturity?” I would ask the question like this: “Does this lead me toward becoming the person God created me to be?”

To this point Wilson and I are on the same page.

Then he gives an example of a young man with purple hair. He says that the issue is not the color of the hair but what the purple hair means. He asserts that purple hair means rebellion.

I would argue that purple hair often means rebellion but it can also mean something else entirely. It could mean “I don’t buy in to the cultural definition of beauty.” It might mean “I am one of you.” Or perhaps it could mean “I am a walking object lesson that obedience to God does not equal conformity with society.”

Wilson says, “A constant diet of pop culture is only legitimate if you don’t want to grow up.” Then he adds, “Pop culture represents a full-scale revolt against cultural maturity.”

He starts off with several insightful observations. But then he twists them to justify a traditionalist position that discounts all pop culture as worthless.

Pop culture, as a category, means things that are transitory. But the things that are now folk culture and high culture were once pop culture. Some of the things that are currently pop culture will eventually be promoted to folk culture and even high culture.

He says, “This critique is aimed at the direction of the whole enterprise.” Then he argues that the rock culture is “in high rebellion against the God of heaven.” Even if individual songs might have redeemable qualities, the overall meaning of rock music is antithetical to Christianity. Therefore, in his opinion, the whole enterprise should be avoided.

He maintains that there is nothing in pop culture that will be handed down to future generations.

High culture, he argues, places demands upon the consumer. It takes more “effort” to listen to Bach than the Beetles. He says, “More than one rock guitarist is an impressive virtuoso, but the fingerboard display makes no demands on the hearer, other than a willingness to be blown over. The listener to classical music is impressively engaged; the devotee of such rock music is left, with a ringing in his ears, right where he started.”

I suspect that Wilson has never learned to play the guitar.

Just because a guitar solo only sounds like so much noise to him does not mean that listeners cannot be engaged at a level similar to hearing Bach’s “Minuet in D minor.”

Wilson argues that the ultimate sin of pop culture is that it displaces true culture by catering to the undisciplined. “In a biblical culture, a man expects his great-grandchildren to read what he has read, sing what he has sung, listen to what he has listened to. In an evanescent culture, like the one that surrounds us, a man expects to have all his ‘cultural’ experiences buried with him.”

I suspect that there were people making the same arguments about opera in the 18th and 19th centuries. I’m sure that at the premier of Roméo et Juliette in Paris on April 27th, 1867, someone was saying, “Why do we need a pop culture treatment of this classic by Shakespeare? In 150 years, no one will remember Gounod’s vapid tunes. The masses are seduced by this nonce art form called opera.”

As R. Wesley Hurd points out, “It is a difficult to see through one's own cultural habits and preferences; it is difficult to admit that one's own cultural comfort zone is irrelevant to the gospel's universal truth.”

He reminds us, “As believers, we must understand the gospel well enough to dis-enculturate it from our own religious culture in order to be able to offer it with clarity to our generation.”

Wilson seems to think that there is a “Christian culture” that encourages spiritual maturity and that is friendly to the gospel.

But, as Hurd points out, “We are often not aware of the ideas and beliefs that lie hidden from us under the cover of our own Christian culture.”

Leslie Pollard from Loma Linda University makes a powerful statement: “Those who in light of the Bible cannot articulate a biblical critique of their culture of origin’s cherished and transmitted values are not qualified to objectively evaluate another culture.”

In other words, if you cannot see how your own culture stands against the truth of the gospel, you have no business telling other cultures that they are unbiblical.

Pollard says, “Almost without exception, culturally incompetent persons assume that their culture of origin is superior to the culture under their microscope. Once the subject of culture is raised, many well-meaning believers immediately move to condemn what they view as culturally unacceptable in someone else’s cultural group.”

(Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek explains in this lecture how even the design of toilets reflects deep cultural assumptions.)

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”

Christendom Shift

We generally are unaware of our own culture as culture. It’s not that we are not conscious of our cultural norms. It’s just that we usually see them as elements of something else, such as common courtesy, moral behavior, or even the truth.

Culture generally changes with time and place. If I travel to Europe, I quickly can tell that I am in a different culture. When we watch a period movie, we consciously experience a culture from the past.

But there is a particular culture that has been so widespread and longstanding that it is often hard to see.

When Constantine legitimized Christianity in a.d. 313, culture began to be transformed into what has come to be known as Christendom. Alan Kreider writes in the April 2005 issue of International Bulletin of Missionary Research that this shift involved eight factors:

1. Christianity moved from the margins of society to its center.
2. Christianity originally attracted new people by its appealing community and spiritual power; after the shift, the attraction was access to prestige and power.
3. Christianity moved from a reliance on spiritual power to a reliance on human power.
4. The Christendom shift changed Christianity from a voluntary movement to a compulsory institution.
5. After the shift Christianity became at home in society so that it no longer was able to make a distinctive contribution to society.
6. The role of Jesus shifted from the Good Shepherd, who was the teacher for all Christians, to the exalted Lord, whose teaching applied only to elite Christians.
7. Worship changed from a humble gathering for the believers to grand assemblies intended to evangelize outsiders.
8. The focus of the church changed from mission to maintenance.

While some bemoan the passing of Christendom, others see it as a blessing.

Living at the end of Christendom, we have been given the opportunity to distinguish between Christianity and a particular cultural expression known as Christendom.

If we are serious about being missional (that is serious about following Christ and taking his words seriously), then we must become experts in culture. We must understand our own culture and the culture of those around us.

This skill is not just for the elite.

Pastor Rod

“Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be”

Jesus-Keller-Pink-Christensen Mashup

Some would argue that the truth of Scripture must remain pure, unadulterated by the taint of culture. Others would remind us that the truth of Scripture can only be understood and expressed in the context of some specific culture.

When people fight for the “pure gospel,” they are always fighting for an expression of the gospel in a culture that they “feel at home” in.

The question is not whether to comprehend the gospel in cultural terms. The question is whether we do this intelligently or unwittingly. If we are not aware of this process, we tend to selectively adapt culture and the gospel to each other, keeping the parts that we find most comforting and comfortable.

When the gospel is expressed appropriately in a particular cultural context, it speaks both prophetically and reassuringly.

When this is done badly, the result resembles neither the gospel nor the culture.

Inasmuch as all truth is God’s truth, I would like to pull together elements of truth expressed in several different contexts. So I suggest the following mashup of Jesus, Tim Keller, Daniel Pink & Clayton Christensen.

(A mashup is a song, video or web application that combines information from several sources and fashions it into a new article with added value.)

Some time ago I did a post about a book by Daniel Pink called A Whole New Mind.

Pink says that nowadays people are looking for

• Design as well as function
• Story as well as argument
• Synthesis as well as focus
• Empathy as well as logic
• Play as well as seriousness
• Meaning more than material accumulation

I also mentioned that Tim Keller identifies these characteristics of a missional church:

• They use vernacular language.
• They engage the culture and re-tell the culture’s stories in the context of the gospel.
• They train their people theologically for public life and vocation.
• They create a Christian culture that is both counter-cultural and counter-intuitive. (It cannot be neatly categorized as “liberal” or “conservative.”)
• They practice Christian unity as much as possible in the community.

My previous post about the three books written by Clayton Christensen included the following ideas:

• Look for people who are trying to solve the problem for which you have the solution.
• Strategy evolves. The first version of the strategy is rarely effective.
• Success kills off innovation.
• Focus on the “low end.”
• Keep things simple.

With this background, let’s look at some of Jesus’ statements and actions as they illustrate some of the same ideas.

Jesus used stories

Matthew 13:34 says, “Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable.”

Jesus was a storyteller. Narrative was at the center of Hebrew life. The very identity of the Israelites was rooted in the account of Abraham, Moses and David. Yet today, Christianity is often thought of as a system of doctrine and regulations.

People are searching for compelling stories. In 2004, Americans spent more than 33 billion on movie tickets and home movie rentals.

And so the church gives them Seven Steps to Live at Your Full Potential and Nine Secrets of Healthy Relationships.

Jesus provided a solution to those who knew they had a problem

Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17).

The religious establishment was expecting the Messiah to come with all the trappings of power and piety. But Jesus did not fulfill the cultural expectations of the insiders. He did not look for followers among the religious establishment. He sought out those who were at the margins of society, people who were not good enough, rich enough or connected enough to participate in the current system.

When Jesus encountered the lame man at the pool of Bethesda, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:6). The man answered, “I have no one to help me into the pool.”

The man thought he had a getting-into-the-pool-first problem. He was trying to solve that problem. Jesus provided a solution to his real problem. Notice the difference between the approach of Jesus and a market-driven approach.

Yet he doesn’t try to convince the satisfied to accept his solution.

In John 9, he encounters another man who is trying to solve his unable-to-work problem by begging. Jesus restores his sight even though his condition was congenital, once again solving the underlying the problem.

The Pharisees denied that they had an unable-to-see problem. Jesus replied that in that case he was could not help them.

Jesus emphasized meaning over material possessions

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.”

Then he tells his listeners not to worry about food, drink or clothes. He calls them to focus on the Kingdom instead.

Jesus enjoyed life

Jesus was accused of too much partying (Luke 7:34). His first miracle was providing wine for a wedding celebration. Jesus told Martha to relax and enjoy his company (Luke 10:40­–42).

Jesus simplified God’s expectations

The religious establishment had erected an elaborate system that required experts to understand and keep the Law. The people were told that they could not please God without the assistance of these experts.

On one occasion, one of these experts tried to trap Jesus while asserting his own superiority in handling the Law (Matthew 22). Jesus cut through the conundrum with two simple commands: Love God and love your neighbor.

I’m sure we could find other examples of how Jesus embodied more of these concepts. If you can think of any, feel free to add them in the comments.

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”

Christensen & Innovation

There are many who think that all innovation in Christianity is essentially heresy. They are like the proverbial man who gets married hoping that his wife will not change.

I am of the opinion, however, that innovation is not only a good thing, but it is inevitable. What appears to be “holding the line” is innovation in disguise.

I don’t want to take the time or the space to make a detailed argument. Besides, it would all be a waste of effort. Those who are opposed to all innovation will not be persuaded by anything I might say.

So I will address those who see innovation as good and even inevitable.

Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School, has written several books on innovation in business, The Innovator’s Dilemma, The Innovator's Solution & Seeing What’s Next. These are primarily focused on why some new products were successful and why others were not.

While I have been quite vocal that the church should not be operated like a business, I do believe that we can use insights from all fields of learning within the church.

All truth is God’s truth, after all.

Christensen is not concerned with the process of coming up with ideas. He wants to know how to develop ideas into successful products or services.

Template for shaping disruptive ideas:
Target nonconsumption. Look for a set of consumers who are trying to get a job done, but because they lack the money or skill, a simple, inexpensive solution has been beyond reach.

Leverage the low performance hurdle. Since these new customers compare the disruptive product to having nothing at all, they are delighted to buy it even though it may not be as good as other products available.

Make it “foolproof.” Deploy technology not to make the product more sophisticated, but rather to make it as “foolproof” as possible so that customers with less money and little training on the product can begin using it.

Lock in and take over. As a new value network forms around the new consumer market, certain channel partners will come to depend on your product to fuel their own need for disruptive growth. In addition, consumers will begin to use the product in new venues. Over time, the disruptive product will improve in quality, attract more customers, and take over the leadership position in that category.

Here are a few other quotations from his books:

“When searching for ideas with disruptive potential, look for ways to help customers get done more conveniently and inexpensively what they are already trying to do. Don’t invent new problems for customers to solve—they won’t reprioritize what’s important in their lives just because your product is available.”

“The resources, processes, and values that allow your core business to thrive may well prevent great new ideas from succeeding.”

“Don’t assume that your initial strategy is the 'right' strategy for a potential disruption.”

“Be impatient for profits, but patient for growth. Demanding early profitability will save years of losses that come from pursuing the wrong strategy for a long time—and help your team hit upon a truly viable strategy more quickly.”

Those of you with a missional mindset will see applications right away. In fact, there are so many different ways to use these findings in pursuit of a missional agenda that I cannot even begin to list them all. Let me make just a few observations.

“Target nonconsumption.” Too many churches are trying to compete with other churches. They are trying to produce better and more diverse programs. In this situation the mega churches will always “win.” But our real competition is not other churches but the activities that people do instead of “church.” (I know this is over simplified. But those of you who "get it" understand my point. I don't have the space to explain it precisely to those who don't.)

“Don’t invent new problems for customers to solve.” People are already trying to get “jobs” done. The strategy for the church is to show people that Jesus is the solution for “problems” they are already trying to solve. Traditionally, churches have tried to convince people that they needed “church.” Most people do not think that they have a “lack of church” problem.

“Leverage the low performance hurdle.” If we truly target nonconsumption, then people will be comparing our “product” to nothing at all. The typical seeker-church strategy is to try to convince people that we are “just as good.” But what if the church becomes the channel through which people receive something they were unable to get before? What if the church becomes the agent through which God transforms their lives?

“Make it foolproof.” This has an obvious application to church planting. Neil Cole advocates planting churches with as little structural, financial and leadership overhead as possible. Most attempts to start new churches require enormous investments of money and other resources. But that doesn’t seem to be the strategy that was used in the early church.

“Lock in and take over.” This is essentially what the early church did. It was very much a new market disruption. It was composed of the marginalized and ostracized. These people often became respectable. Then church became legalized in the Roman Empire. And before long we have Christendom. Now “the church” is the establishment.

Success kills off innovation. The very things that make an established church attractive to its members will prevent it from taking the risks that a start-up church is forced to take.

Strategy evolves. One of the important findings of Christensen’s research is that new businesses almost never get their strategy right in the beginning. But because they don’t have unlimited resources, the successful innovators are forced to test and refine their strategy. In the church we often confuse theology and methodology. Because our message is timeless, we assume that our methods will be as well.

“Be impatient for profits, but patient for growth.” This again applies to church planting. Most strategies try to build a big church right away. Instead we should seek to quickly establish a vital, self-sustaining church. Because the investment is low, we can afford to make more attempts. Because the resources are limited, the church planting team is forced to test all their assumptions quickly.

Christensen points out that established companies try to force innovations into their existing markets. In other words, they try to fashion the new idea to make it attractive to their existing customers. Ditto for the church. Pastors are pressured to “serve” their existing members. New ideas are evaluated on how well they will meet the needs of current members.

I hope that your brain is starting to spin with the implications of these ideas. I don’t have the luxury of spelling them all out in detail. I suspect it would require a full-length book to pull that off.

Maybe we can develop this further in the comments. Let me know what you think.

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”

Update: Comparison of some of these ideas with the words and actions of Jesus.

Don’t Try This at Home

I have been trying to develop a missional mindset and, more importantly, a missional lifestyle. I’m trying to lead my church into a missional approach to ministry.

As I mentioned previously, this is a huge gamble. And it should be.

I maintain that following Christ should feel like a gamble. If it doesn’t feel like a gamble then we’re probably not really following him. We are probably just trying to get him to bless us as we pursue our own way.

It is important, however, that people in a congregation know what they are getting themselves in for when they become “missional.”

David Fitch, author of The Great Giveaway, has compiled a list of warnings about the cost of doing missional ministry. I have included it here along with some of my comments (and a few minor edits):

Ten Things Anyone Who Joins In a Twenty First Century Missional Church Plant Should Not Expect

David participated in starting a missional congregation “from scratch.” These are his observances from what he experienced. I suspect, however, that any congregation that seeks to operate missionally will have similar experiences.

1.) Should not expect to regularly come to church for just one hour, get what you need for your own personal growth and development, and your kid’s needs, and then leave till next Sunday. Expect mission to change your life. Expect however a richer life than you could have ever imagined.

Missional life is demanding but also deeply fulfilling.

2.) Should not expect that Jesus will fit in with every consumerist capitalist assumption, lifestyle, schedule or accoutrement you may have adopted before coming here. Expect to be freed from a lot of crap you will find out you never needed.

Some times we will feel like the rich young ruler who was told to sell all his possessions.

3.) Should not expect to be anonymous, unknown or be able to disappear in this church Body. Expect to be known and loved, supported in a glorious journey.

4.) Should not expect production style excellence all the time on Sunday worship gatherings. Expect organic, simple and authentic beauty.

Some times the “commitment to excellence” gets in the way of true excellence.

5.) Should not expect a raucous “lights out” youth program that entertains the teenagers, puts on a show that gets the kids “pumped up,” all without parental involvement. Instead as the years go by, with our children as part of our life, worship and mission (and when the light shows dim and the cool youth pastor with the spiked hair burns out) expect our youth to have an authentic relationship with God thru Christ that carries them through a lifetime of journey with God.

This seems like a landmine to me. Parents really need to think this through.

6.) Should not expect to always “feel good,” or ecstatic on Sunday mornings. Expect that there will ALSO be times of confession, lament, self-examination and just plain silence.

7.) Should not expect a lot of sermons that promise you God will prosper you with “the life you’ve always wanted” if you’ll just believe Him and step out on faith and give some more money for a bigger sanctuary. Expect sustenance for the journey.

8.) Should not expect rapid growth whereby we grow this church from 10 to a thousand in three years. Expect slower organic inefficient growth that engages people’s lives where they are at and sees troubled people who would have nothing to do with the gospel marvelously saved.

9.) Should not expect all the meetings to happen in a church building. Expect a lot of the gatherings will be in homes, or sites of mission.

10.) Should not expect arguments over style of music, color of carpet, or even doctrinal outlier issues like dispensationalism. Expect mission to drive the conversation.

This doesn’t mean that there will be no arguments or disagreements.

O AND BY THE WAY Should not expect that community comes to you. I am sorry but true community in Christ will take some “effort” and a reshuffling of priorities for both you and your kids. Yes I know you want people to come to you and reach out to you and that you’re hurting and busy. But assuming you are a follower of Christ (this message is not for strangers to the gospel) you must learn that the answer to all those things is to enter into the practices of “being the Body” in Christ, including sitting, eating, sharing and praying together.

Jesus said that potential disciples should count the cost of following him. (Do most of us experience any “cost” of following Jesus?) Those who seek to live missionally need to take a similar inventory.

As for me, I’m all in.

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”

Missional Gamble

Texas Hold-’em has grown in popularity over the past few years. Most people today know what the phrase, “All in,” means. I have to admit that I’m intrigued by the game. The mathematical aspect reinvigorates a part of my brain that got a lot of use in high school but little since. I am also drawn in by the psychological aspect.

Fortunately, I never play this game for money, or I’d probably be addicted. When I play with pretend money online, I can usually guess what cards the other players have. I can usually build my virtual chip stack without much difficulty. But sometimes aggressive players force me to make calculated gambles.

I am forced all-in with cards that most of the time will result in a winning hand. When I’m all-in and the cards don’t fall right, my play money is wiped out. But when the cards do fall or when I guess correctly that my opponent is bluffing, I feel a rush as the virtual chips pile up.

I can see how people get addicted to this stuff.

I think most of us would like to find something that we could go all-in over. That’s essentially what Jesus said was required to be his disciple. He said, “If you want to be my apprentice, you must go all-in. You must give up all your potential plan-Bs and follow me wherever I take you” (Luke 9:23, Pickett Loose Paraphrase Version).

But we’ve reduced following Christ to entering into a contract for an eternal retirement plan and showing up at club meetings once a week.

It’s time we went all-in for Jesus and for his kingdom.

Faith, in biblical perspective, is not the acceptance of conventional standards of behavior, and it is not primarily an effort to safe our own puny souls: it is the exciting venture of faith in which we bet that God really is, that this is his world, and that he is like Jesus Christ.
Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come.

Following Christ should be scary, risky and exciting. We should be pouring all we have into his kingdom. We should be looking for new opportunities and ways to participate in the work that God is doing in this world.

Every church should have a Research and Development department; that is, a forum for dreaming, where nothing is impossible and no thought too outrageous. And every authentic missional church will experiment like mad in order to find new and accessible ways of being the people of God.
Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come.

Now that’s something to get excited about.

What if we turned our churches into “skunk works”? What if our church buildings resembled the offices of an advertising agency more than a museum? What if we acted as if we really believed that God is all-powerful and everywhere-present? What if we took Jesus’ words seriously? What if we took Jesus seriously?

Let’s pray the prayer of the early Christians: “Sovereign Lord, you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. . . . Now, Lord, … enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:24, 29–30).

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”

Two Restaurants

Imagine that you are a patron of a restaurant where you get poor service and inferior food. Frequently, the waitress ignores you and procrastinates in taking your order. She is rarely friendly. And you often get food that you didn’t order.

While the food is always edible, it often looks as if it’s just been thrown on the plate. The chef has a tendency to overcook everything. He couldn’t prepare al dente pasta to save his life.

And the prices are higher than anywhere else in town.

How long do you think you would continue to eat at this restaurant?

Before long you’d start asking your friends where they eat. You’d ask them how the food is there. You’d enquire about the quality of the service. You’d compare prices with “your” restaurant.

You might even shop around and try different places. But you would be foolish to stay at a restaurant that wasn’t satisfying when there were several good alternatives.

Imagine a different scenario.
You’ve been eating at a particular establishment for several years. This place doesn’t even have a menu. You rarely get any input into what is served. What’s more, you are expected to eat whatever is served, whether you like it or not.

And the service is poor. When you need something that doesn’t happen to be on the table, you have to go into the kitchen and get it yourself. You are required to bus your own table.

So one day you tell the waitress, “It’s nothing personal, but I’m looking for a different place to eat. I know you’ve tried your best. But, Mom, I just don’t feel that I’m getting the nourishment that I need. Tommy says that his mother makes an outstanding meatloaf. I owe it to myself to try it out.”

So why don’t we shop around for different families? Because a family is more than a dispenser of domestic goods and services. We belong to families. We don’t enter into service contracts with our parents.

Of course in extreme cases, some do have to leave their families. When there is neglect or abuse, this becomes necessary. But this is the exception.

Churches are more like families than they are like restaurants.

Imagine having this conversation with your father:

“Dad, I know you are a good parent. But I’ve found a better deal down at the Johnson family. They don’t require any chores. And their curfew is not until 1:00 a.m. I really appreciate all the things you’ve done for me, especially the time you stayed in the hospital with me when I had that terrible fever. But it’s time for me to move on. I have to think about what’s best for me. I hope that I’ll be able to stop in from time to time. I really wish the best for you and Mom. I’ll be back later to pick up my stuff.”

Yet parishioners have this conversation with their pastors all the time.

We’ve turned the church into a dispenser of religious goods and services. We evaluate churches by what they can do for us and for our families. We look at the programs and services they offer, and we weigh that against what they require of us. Then we enter a loose contract with the winner, binding only until we find a better deal.

We think that the purpose of a church “worship service” is to meet the private, individual spiritual needs of the members of the “club.” We pay performers to entertain us and make us feel better. We hire a leader to listen to God for us and to tell us what God’s wonderful plan is for our “club.” We make our own special rules for membership so that our “club” can maintain its “distinctives.”

If the church is going to be the church, then the leaders and the “members” need to stop thinking about it as a dispenser of religious goods and services. We need to start thinking of it as the Body of Christ, the family of God, the Kingdom of God.

Pastor Rod

“Helping you become the person God created you to be”