Tag Archives: church

Becoming a Better Church: Building An Active Atmosphere

Posted on by
2

Beggar's Table Banner

Note to self: don’t start a new blog series right before a holiday. I will take forever to get around to continuing it….

Anyways, I started writing in my last post about how the church can become better at what we do.  Churches already do a pretty good job at what they do, but I also feel that there is room for more variety out there… or maybe, space to also do something completely different.

This, of course, is all a response to a post by Ryan about being better communicators. I responded that church leaders need to learn educational theory to be better communicators.  Ryan wanted me to expand on that, so naturally I posted about a new way to build church buildings.

Urrr… huh?  How do those two concepts fit together?  You see, in order to do something new with communication in church, you need an entirely different atmosphere. The current church atmosphere in most churches is of the “sit and soak” variety.  You sit and listen during the sermon.  That works for some.

However, I am going to go on a tangent about “active learning” and how we need it in church. Active learning won’t work in a passive church atmosphere. Note that I am not referring to worship style here. Some churches have a very lively, interactive worship time at church.  Once that is over, however, everything else is passive – everyone sits when the preaching starts, or Sunday School begins, or pretty much when anything else related to “discipleship” starts.  The result of this is that few people go out and do what they heard. Passive listening to preaching will lead to passive learning, which in turn equals a passive spiritual life.

What I am shooting for is an active spiritual life, which requires active learning.  Active learning requires active teaching.  Active teaching will require an active atmosphere – one where people are used to things happening all the time. Thus the need for a new church blueprint.

The ideas I explored in the last post are just one set of ideas for how to create an atmosphere that is active at church. People would become used to activity happening all around their building. They would also begin to realize that their church is different, and then they just might be ready for the different experience they are going to get during the sermon: an active learning experience.

Which I will go into more detail, Lord willing, next blog post.

Becoming a Better Church: Start With the Blueprint

Posted on by
3

Beggar's Table Banner

I’m reviving this blog because of a discussion on another blog.  I’ve always had ideas rattling around in my head about how the Christian Church of today could do a better job at… well… being a church.  My friend Ryan was blogging about being better communicators at church. I commented that if pastors want people to actually do what is preached on Sunday mornings, then they basically need a better grasp of educational theory – not just learn how to become better communicators.  There are many really excellent communicators out there in many churches, but we still see church attendance declining.  Ryan challenged me to share my thoughts on that. Basic summary, skipping some details, but you get the picture. You being Ryan, because I bet you are the only one that will read this post 🙂

Anyways, as I thought about it, I can’t really start with just how to do better preaching.  There is a bigger picture out there of how the Church needs to become a better Church. Not as in “toss everything out and start over,” or even as in “abandon the whole concept as obsolete,” but more as in “build on the strengths that are there and redo the things that aren’t working.”

The first thing that is not working, from what I see, is the church building itself. Why would I start a series on how to become better at preaching with a post on what we need to do differently with the Church building? Well, hang with me and find out.

Ever noticed how cold, uninviting, and abandoned church buildings look during the week? If you didn’t attend one – would you ever set foot in there? I even saw one Church building in Arlington that had a huge fence around it and a keypad-guarded iron gate. This “house of God” looked more like an exclusive country club than a place where people can find spiritual respite from the crazy world around us.

Let’s face it – no matter how “alive” your church is during your services and special events, the building itself looks dead 90% of the time.  And that makes the Church an intimidating place for new people that pass by it during the week.

When I first moved to Dallas, we lived in East Dallas and attended a church there. I noticed that many people who didn’t go to church were constantly in and out of the building all morning long… because we met in a community center. So that made me think: what if the church building itself were a community center?

I don’t mean “what if it met in a community center?” I mean, if you build a new church building and make that into a community center rather than a place that gets used a few hours a week, double bonus time if there is a wedding?

You would have a large meeting area, that could probably double as a gym or some other venue during the week. Then you would have your classrooms for Sunday morning. But then what if you opened up those rooms during the week for exercise classes, job skills classes, community meetings, family reunions, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, you name it? Get the community flowing in and out of the building all day long.

But why stop there? Why not have a wing of office spaces. Members of the church that are doctors, counselors, lawyers, restaurant owners, artists, etc could rent out office space there.  They would get subsidized rent there, passing those savings on to their customers. They could also hold free clinics and festivals and other events for the community.  Of course, you could also see outreach ministries setting up office here, as well as the pastor. Think of the impact that would have on people to just be able to run in to a pastor in the hall when they go to see the doctor or grab a scone at a coffee shop. They could see he is just a normal person.. and maybe his church isn’t half bad?

And don’t forget about the land around the center. There should be enough there for outdoor activities, games, soccer fields, basketball courts, a community farm, picnics, playgrounds, etc.

The point is to make the church building an active, alive hub of activity throughout the week… a place to build community like never before.

So that is where I would start: redo those church building blueprints out there.  But that is not all: I do still want to examine how we preach in church, and why that is failing us overall. A few points that I will hit on in the future:

  • No matter how good of a communicator a preacher is, the typical church sermon will never get people to actually do the things that are being preached on a significant scale.
  • The best tool that most people have on them to help them learn is the cellphone… and we tell people to turn it off during church.
  • The Internet is one of the best tools that we have to teach people how to live out their faith, but most people in the church that are even interested in the Internet are too caught up in figuring out what Church people want in a website that they never ask what people really need from website. A Church leader need to lead people to what they need online, not just follow his or her flock in to whatever they are interested in.

Diversity is the Spice of Life

Posted on by
Reply

Beggar's Table Banner

We had a birthday/Ph.D. graduation party for my wife last week, and decided to invite all of friends from all or our various spheres of life. Work, church, other random friends, etc. My wife and I know a diverse group of people. I was kind of glad that the anti-Obama guy didn’t ever get in to a conversation with the Obama lover, or the universal-health-care-hater didn’t find out that there were Canadians in the room that love the health care in Canada. Although, I would love to see those conversations happen – just not at a birthday party 🙂

Of course, looking at this group of people, and how racially diverse it was in addition to being idealogically and theologically diverse, made me glad to have such cool friends.

Of course, I don’t think many people in church realize how homogenous the church really is. When I read some blogs about cool, hip, “modern” churches, I get discouraged at how really clueless so many of them are. And they justify what they do in Church by what “non-Christians” tell them after the service… about how cool their service was. I call them the “non-Christian pastoral ego strokers” because, well – that is what they do: tell the pastor that everything they are doing is cool and perfect.

The problem is – if they are telling the pastor the truth – wouldn’t there be a lot more of them than a handful? I mean… if these “seeker-friendly” churches are getting it so right – wouldn’t there be thousands more people coming to church. Because it is so cool?

I don’t think they realize that these N.C.P.E.S.’s they often have at their services are not as un-churched as they claim to be. You see, they tend to say stuff that is radically different than my real-life non-Christian friends say about the same church services – the ones that go to these churches once and never return. I did some investigative journalism once, and found that many of these N.C.P.E.S.’s are actually professional church visitors. We’ve all heard of professional church hopers, right? We’ll, these N.C.P.E.S.’s are just a step down from that. They go around to all these different churches to feel “positive energy”, to encourage the churches that are not that spritiual or Godly (their words, not mine), and then to hit another church the next time. Usually not the next week – just the next month or whever they hear of another feel-good church to go to.

Personally, I really don’t have a problem with people that do any of that (at least they are going to a church service from time to time) – just the pastors that use these peoples’ comments as “proof” that they are doing the right thing in church.

That is why I like my church – they are not afraid to tell you what they have done wrong or to try something new even of it is followed by a deafening, uncomfortable silence during the service. They want to give people a chance to speak out scriptures that they feel led to share after worship. And sometimes – no one shares anything. Not very seeker-friendly, but they still try it and I love it.

Just rambling now, mainly because I haven’t posted in a while.

That’s Not In The Bible? Really?

Posted on by
2

Beggar's Table Banner

Last night our local news interviewed a relative of one of those prosperity gospel preachers that are currently under investigation. This person works for the famous minister, and I think he was attempting to defend his ministry’s position on the whole issue. I have no love for the prosperity gospel at all, but I at least try to give people a fair shake at explaining themselves.

That is, if they actually use Biblical sense. You see, so many of these prosperity people like to go with this “having your finances scrutinized by a Senate sub-committee is not in the Bible” routine. I just get so tired of people that justify some modern activity with the reasoning that it is not “in the Bible.” “Sending out millions of spam e-mail comments is not prohibited in the Bible, so I don’t see what is wrong with it” and other such nonsense. Constitutionally-based democratic governments didn’t exist during Biblical times… so of course your aren’t going to find senate sub-committees in the Bible. Sheesh.

Here is basic “Following Religious Texts 101” for ya – because this would really apply to any religious text and not just the Bible. If you are going to use the Bible for guidance, you are going to have to apply principles that are taught in the Bible and apply them to modern situations – not look for modern situations by name in the ancient text. What does the Bible have to say about relating to the government – any government? Plenty, actually, but I think Jesus pretty much summed it up with this: “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesars.” A statement that actually directly deals with your financial records.

I hate to break this to prosperity people – but the IRS is not the only agency that can get financial information from an institution (the Department of Labor anyone?). Senate sub-committees can, by law from what I recall, request financial statements. Render unto Caesar, dudes…

One thing that really makes me sick is all of this “attack my personal religious beliefs” junk. In other words, the chair of the committee has a problem with the “prosperity gospel”, and is attacking them because of that. Grow up already. This one is worse than the “race card” in my book. Any time your religious beliefs have anything to do with accepting money or other donations from people, the government has the right to investigate. I fully believe in that – but I also realize there is no perfect way to do that. But we have to try and find a way to make sure that people are not being taken advantage of.

I just don’t get how these prosperity gospel people can just skip so many scriptures in the Bible – like go and sell everything you have and give it to the poor and all? Every time Jesus met with a rich person in the Bible, the rich person didn’t come away looking too good. You need that private jet to visit 19 countries to spread the Gospel? Really? Too good to actually mingle with real people in coach class? Because it takes a good 100 trips in coach class to even begin to justify the cost of a cheap personal plane.

I do need to point out a mis-step that interviewer took last night – one bad question he had. He asked if people would give money to the ministry thinking it would go towards a lavish personal jet instead of going to feed the poor. The problem is – people do give to these ministries knowing that they are supporting a prosperity gospel half the time, so they know full well it goes to pay for mansions and such. Its the other half that don’t know better than I am worried about.

Enough Armchair Quarterbacking Already!

Posted on by
1

Beggar's Table Banner

A pastor of mine used to make fun of football fans. He is a football fan, but he thought it was funny to see mid-aged, overweight men yelling at the screen when a young, strong, in shape player made a bad judgment call. Like they could have done any better in the same situation. Of course, who cares about all of the good plays they had also accomplished up until then.

I get pretty discouraged reading Christian blogs. All they seem to be able to focus on is something that some church somewhere is doing wrong. Usually, the blogger attended one service or listened to one sermon online and concluded that the whole church is not preaching the gospel, or preaching the “correct” style, or whatever – based on that one sermon.

The whole thought that there is only one correct preaching style (expository, topical, parables, etc) that is absolutely the one best way to preach in all situations is pretty ludicrous. Jesus himself used all types pretty equally, so to say that expository preaching is the best way to preach is pretty anti-Biblical to me.

Of course, how can we even tell how the preaching is at one church from just one or two sermons? If they are really following the example of Jesus, what if it is just that week that they decided to teach in parables and life application (like Jesus frequently did)?

And to clear the record, “Gospel” is not a category of message in the Bible. Gospel is just the way we translate a Biblical word that really means “good news,” not a category called “Good News.” If someone found a sheep that they had lost, that was “good news” also – the same word would be used. ANYTHING that could be considered “good” could be considered “Gospel” by the Biblical use of the word. Jesus told us to preach the good news of the Kingdom of God. Paul would later just use “good news” when writing letters to people that he knew would know what “good news” he was talking about.

But, really, you go to a church and claim that they don’t preach what you call “the Gospel” ever based on one sermon?

I find it funny that so many Christians today would probably go call Jesus a bad preacher that doesn’t preach correctly if they went to see one of His sermons.

I would love to just see a blog post about what some church did right somewhere, not the constant doom and gloom of every church every where is always getting it wrong drum beat that we see on so many blogs today. I’ve got a few ideas of what I could post on this area about my church, so I will get to posting that in the future.

The Hypocrisy Problem in Church Today

Posted on by
4

Beggar's Table Banner

Lifeway released some interesting survey results recently. They basically surveyed specific attitudes of people that don’t go to church. This was the stat that caught my attention:

  • 72% of the people surveyed said that they thought the church was full of hypocrites.

Well…. I never. While something like this can seem like an insult, I do have to admit that these people are correct. Churches are full of hypocrites. Before you think you can predict the rest of my thoughts here and think that I am going to decry the amount of hypocrisy in church today, I want to explore a slightly different path here.

What is hypocrisy, anyway? We throw it around a lot – but what does it mean to be a hypocrite? You can basically look at hypocrisy as a lie – you say one thing and do another. This ties in with something else I read today: a study that claims that the average person tells almost 88,000 lies in their life time (3-5 times per day). So, the sad fact is – we are all hypocrites. Churches are full of hypocrites because the world is full of hypocrites.

The real rub here is that one of the functions of a church is to reveal hypocrisy. And this is actually a good thing. Sure – you go to church to worship and pray. But you should also go to get your life examined from an outside perspective, so that your hypocrisy is exposed and you can actually change it. Not to have fingers pointed at you or to get judged, but to actually help you become a better person.

So what this all means is that people who don’t go to church don’t want to come, in part, because they see the hypocrisy in other people’s lives that has already been exposed.

Great. So…. what can you do about the fact that people don’t want to come to church because the church is doing one of the things that the church is supposed to do? Beats me. It’s this big lie that we all believe in America that hypocrisy is worse than any other mistake you can make, and that being a hypocrite means that what you believe in is wrong because of your hypocrisy and not because of any actual truth behind it. Or that you should avoid someone because they don’t actually do what they say they believe. If this were true, I guess we would all have to lock ourselves in our houses, get online jobs, and never interact with other human beings.

But such is the mindset that we have to work with in modern America. How to convince people that they actually need the very thing that is turning them off right now. Luckily, that’s not the real issue here. But it’s one that I’m sure will cause many discouraging conversations around the nation on a daily basis. Most churches will probably work to find a way to be less hypocritical. That’s always a good goal, but one we will have to work on for the rest of our lives. And probably not the quickest way to convince people to visit your church.

Come to think of it, realizing the truth about global hypocrisy, it kind of puts an interesting spin on all the churches that are trying to reach people by just “being real”? In “being real,” wouldn’t that mean they would be letting their hypocrisy hang out in the wind for everyone to see? Wouldn’t that mean that they are actually pushing more people away – since so many people don’t like the realness of hypocrisy? Just some things to ponder on, I guess.

Nothing New Under the Son

Posted on by
Reply

Beggar's Table Banner

I’ve been working on this post for a while. I want to make this point without hacking anyone off. I know many people, many good friends (who luckily don’t ever read any blogs) that do exactly what I am going to recommend not doing. But, I think this still warrants saying, so please realize that this is my two cents and you are free to disagree if you want.

Katie and I have been going through some transitions recently. Our former church home was just too far away. We were able to find a great church nearer to us that shares the same vision and goals as our former church, so we made the eventual transition to this church. We visited several churches (including a scary large prosperity Gospel mega-McChurch that I’ve blogged about before) before settling on our current church.

Sometimes I get to talking to people about why we didn’t choose another newer church near us that has some great ideas and does some new, different things. It is a great church that I would be glad to go to. We go where we felt called. But here is my main issue with so many new churches: they try really hard to not be like existing churches. For me, I just can’t get fully behind a church that is trying to not be like others. I believe that a church should just be what they are called to be, and that’s it. Don’t worry if you do or don’t look like someone else and just go for it with all of your heart.

I believe that we need new churches. We need new styles of churches to reach different people. We need churches to stay at manageable sizes so that everyone gets plugged in and covered. I’m all for that. I just feel that new churches need to watch their attitudes about existing churches.

I’ve seen many churches through the years try to be current and modern by avoiding “churchy” stuff. Slogans, structures, dress codes, songs, and anything else that smacks of traditional churchiness are all thrown out in favor of reaching people around them.

Then, some kind of problem happens. You see this historically with every new church ever started. Some just fall apart when this happens. But most come up with some ideas of how to deal with problems, and implement these ideas. Once these ideas are implemented, the new church usually ends up looking just like some other established church somewhere else. Sure, they may look different than the church that they originally came from, but they still really haven’t created anything new.

And, hence my thought for the day – there really isn’t anything new under the sun. It seems like for every church that tried something new, I eventually find someone else that was doing it before them. Things change, but most new stuff is really just a new combination of existing older stuff. And, like I said – I am all for that. I love that kind of stuff. As long as you are doing that because it is what you are led to do, not just because you are trying to not be something else.

Take for example, Vineyard churches. No one will deny that they really pushed “modern” worship into it’s current level of popularity. But, if you look around hard enough, you will find churches that were doing “modern” style worship before Vineyard (or the churches that became Vineyard even) was even an idea. And the first churches that because Vineyard were not even aware of these other churches.

Or another practical example I have seen: some Baptist members get tired of not being able to raise hands in their church, or maybe the fact that they don’t reach people of other cultures, or whatever. So, with the blessing of their pastor, they start a new church to explore these things and reach the culture around them. They do some things that are great and ground breaking (to them), but then some problems arise. They come up with something that solves these problems, and a few years after they have started, they end up working just like a Vineyard church.

Not that they is bad. It’s just what I have noticed, and an example to make my point: follow God by actively doing what he calls you to, not by avoiding becoming someone else.

Following God Even When It Is Tough

Posted on by
1

Beggar's Table Banner

This was part of a sermon I preached recently, but the podcast guy is really behind in getting the mp3 up. I was talking about following God even when He asks us to do something hard, or we don’t see an obvious positive outcome, or things just look bad. I used a clip from Joan of Arcadia to illustrate the point. Joan of Arcadia was a television show where “god” appears to a teenage girl named Joan and asks her to do some tough things. Christians sometimes had a hard time with the show because “god” appeared as some weird people some times, and spoke in new-agey terms frequently. But if you got past the Yoda-isms of “god” in the series, they actually had some solid theology. Not always, but better than most shows in Hollywood do.

Anyway, here is the background to the clip I played:

“Joan is asked (by “god”) to take a reclusive bully (Ramsey) to the school dance instead of her boyfriend (Adam). While both her mother and the assistant principal object, Joan follows through with God’s task. At the dance, it is revealed the bully has a bottle of alcohol with him but Joan convinces him not to open it. Despite this the assistant principal later reaches into his jacket and, finding the alcohol, expels him. He runs away and Joan joins him. The bully goes to a secluded area and begins playing with a gun. Joan’s father, a police officer, is able to find the two and talk the bully away from the gun in a very dangerous and tense situation.”

The next day, Joan sees “god” (as a lady handing out cupcakes) in the halls in school and decides to confront her about ruining Joan’s life:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g3m3Vvc6Qo

Our problem is, we don’t get the nice TV wrap-up at the end. If we do the hard stuff that God asks us to, we may never know this side of heaven the impact that those choices had. We might only get to deal with the problems that come with the choice on our end. We may never know that our simple act of befriending the violent bully might have stopped the school shoot out. We might not ever know how taking a different exit on the way to work might stop an accident from happening. We might never know how sticking with church, even when it gets hard, or superficial, or confusing, might make the difference in someone else’s life. Or even our own.

So We Visited One of Those Prosperity Mega Churches This Weekend

Posted on by
2

Beggar's Table Banner

I’ve never heard the words ‘blessing’ and ‘hallelujah’ used so much in one sermon. To be fair, someone who used to go to this church said that it was just like an Antioch church (were we used to go to church when we lived in Waco), and Antioch is pretty big, so we were hopeful that it wasn’t a typical mega-church. That person was wrong about this church being like an Antioch church. Way off.

I’m no expert on prosperity Gospel stuff. I’ve always known that I generally disagree with it. And the the whole mega-church mentality.

As we enter into this massive building, we are pretty shocked by the amount of money that went into decorating the main hall. Neon signs, fancy stuff everywhere, tiled Baptismal pit (complete with free robes, towels, hair dryer, and heated water – we were told), and the stereo-typical coffee shop were all there. I took a quick glance at the prices in the coffee shop and decided to save some money and go to Starbucks later.

Anyway, to be honest – they did preach the Gospel, repentance of sins, and the need to die to self. But that seemed to be the sub-points in the main point of God blessing you with finances and happiness if you are faithful. It was the message given right before the offering that made us squirm.

Is there a new type of prosperity Gospel coming out now-a-days? There was a lot of true scripture being presented in there, but it was all sandwiched in with all kinds of “God is going to give you a lot of money and happiness” stuff in there. Like, A LOT of it. Should I really worry about the fact that they were all quoting scriptures correctly, but just over quoting ones about blessing, and kind of missing the whole point of what blessing means in the Bible?

I think many people would say not to judge and not to worry as long as the Gospel was presented. And to be honest, all churches are imperfect. Just having something wrong with your theology does not mean that the spirit of God will not be present and move in your midst. if that was true, He would never visit any churches.

But I gotta say – Katie and I couldn’t find the exit door fast enough. Which is durn hard when you’ve got to fight past a thousand people making a B-line for the coffee shop.

I make light of the coffee shop a lot – but am I the only one that gets uncomfortable about the whole “den of thieves” thing? And when the pastor and his wife are wearing outfits that probably cost more than my entire wardrobe…. weird.

I gotta also ask about this whole “baptized in the Holy Spirit as evidenced by the speaking in tongues as seen in Acts 2:2-4.” Acts 2:2-4 describes tongues of fire coming to rest on the believers – visible tongues of fire. Shouldn’t it be “baptized in the Holy Spirit as evidenced by a visible tongue of fire and the speaking in tongues as seen in Acts 2:2-4”? Of course, I guess that means that most people wouldn’t be baptized in the Holy Spirit. And that corrected statement doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily….

Tired of Close-Minded Christians?

Posted on by
1

Beggar's Table Banner

A common argument/excuse that I hear about why people don’t want to go to church is that they don’t want to be around close-minded or hypocritical people. They want to interact with open-minded people, but not Christians, because they are close-minded. Isn’t that a close-minded statement though? It’s like saying “I am open to anything that anyone has to say, except for this rather large group over here.” That, in itself, seems like a close-minded contradictory statement. Kind of like the statement “there are NO absolutes.”

More often than that, I frequently hear the hypocritical tag thrown around. Christians don’t live what they believe, so we shouldn’t listen to them – right? Well, right? Not quite. If your doctor smoked, would you ignore his advice about what is good for you? You could – but that would be dangerous for your health. We can gripe about hypocrisy all we want, but even though our doctor may not follow their own advice – it doesn’t mean that they are clueless. They are probably telling us the right stuff. Somewhere along the line, the American culture has bought in to the lie that hypocrites are automatically wrong in everything they say, just because they are hypocritical. Of course, I could also go into how we are all hypocritical in some way, but that is another subject….

When people throw around the hypocrisy tag, what they are really saying is “I want to ignore what God is saying and blame it on his followers, even though by calling them hypocrites I am acknowledging that they are not doing what God would want them to, anyway.”