Christian “Rock”

Since I’m in a Third Day mood, I submit this to you as my perfect definition of Christian rock.

Interesting Quote – Your Thoughts?

James Nored, over on his blog, said this.

 “When you do mission, you get fellowship and community, but when you primarily concentrate on fellowship and community, you rarely get to mission.”

This is difficult for many people to accept.  Why?  Because, for the most part, it’s an indictment on us and the way we’ve done “church” over the years.  We haven’t gotten around to much mission.  Look at church growth statistics, call George Barna, look at your own church and see how many committed disciples of Jesus have been made in the last 10, 20, 30 and even 40 years.  The numbers are pitiful.  I think James Nored is correct.  We lost focus on mission being too busy doing church.  It was faulty reasoning that brought us here.  Build it and they will come.  Get the masses into our church buildings and then forge them into disciples from there.   A mega-church pastor once wrote, “give them what they think they want in order to give them what they really need.”  So we’ve done church up big to attract people to Christ.  It hasn’t worked.  It doesn’t work.  It won’t work. 

Another thought, Jesus didn’t have much to do with religious buildings.  In the few instances we find Him anywhere near one, one time He is driving people out of it with a whip (temple), and the other He is making people so angry they want to take Him out and throw Him off a cliff and kill Him (synagogue).  Not real attractional there, Jesus. 

No, Jesus did His disciple making in a different way – eating dinner with a Pharisee and a sinful woman, at the home of tax collectors, walking the streets of the cities and towns, placing Himself in the context of people’s lives on their terms, on their ground.  He offered Himself.  His love, His mercy and compassion, His grace, His healing, His touch.  Might we somehow learn to do the same.

Next post:  Then what do we do with worship and  our big events?

King of Glory from Third Day (awesome)

The Isolation Between God’s People And Their Leaders

The following comment was written by “Tim” in the comments of a blog I read on Leadership.  The blog was about George W. Bush’s speech writer, but the statement that got my attention was this near the end:  “In an age when pastors are becoming increasingly isolated from their flocks…”

Here was Tim’s comment on that idea….

“I certainly agree with this. The chief shepherd ALWAYS maintains a mutual, two-way relationship with His sheep. He is never a one-way communication God. The quality of relationship between the professional shepherd and “his sheep” has always been one with large amount of relational distance – ever since the beginning of the “clergy” notion. It’s a systemic flaw, not one merely of new beginnings with mega-churches. It is part of the system of the professionalized pastor.
1. It takes 100-150 attenders to pay one man. One man cannot maintain mutual personal relationships with that many people, even if 75 of them are children.
2. The system is set for one-way communication to dominate the notion of “teaching and preaching”, even though the scripture never defines it as such. The notion of “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom” is almost completely absent in the program of gathered believers.
3. The system requires such a high percentage of the giving to go to the one man. It brings on many bogus qualities among believers – pedestalizing, passivity, perpetual dependency, false expectations, etc. People are looking for a ROI on their money to benefit themselves, even though it is supposed to be “giving”. It’s not giving till the gift and it’s benefit go beyond yourself.”

“The solution is to better observe the scripture that calls us beyond the box of our institutionalized traditions. It’s all there. Our traditions are just trumping it so we swish it under the rug with rationalizations. There is much systemic reforation yet to occure to live out God’s design.”

I’m not sure what to do with all of this.  The diagnosis seems right.  Not only do I see it all around me, but I feel it as a “professional pastor” (preacher) in my own church, primarily in the expectations of those in the church who, for them, you are the hired man.   The expectations are for you to be close to everyone, minister personally to everyone, be liked by everyone, meet everyone’s needs, and speak on everyone’s level. 

Now how to take a church beyond that, that is the real question.  There is going to be a lot of kicking and screaming.  Is it worth it?

Almost Done

I have not died.  We are just about moved into our new (old) house, hence me not blogging for the past several weeks.  I shall return.  Don’t give up on me.

“Filler Goo”

This quote from MSNBC on repairing the damage to the space shuttle caused by a chunk of foam that fell off during take-off.

“Endeavour’s crew plans to conduct two more spacewalks on Wednesday and Friday, and they could add the gouge repairs to their to-do list. Depending on the extent of the damage, astronauts can apply protective paint, screw on a shielding panel, or squirt in filler goo.”

Now I don’t know about you, but with the space shuttle costing hundreds of millions of dollars to build, and each trip they take costing hundreds of millions of dollars to get them in space and back, don’t you think they could be a little more high tech in their repairs than “squirting in filler goo”?

“Defense wins championships, but….”

From Tim Spivey over on his blog, about what he’s learned in ministry:

“Churches need to play more offense, and get off of defense. Defense may win championships, but it’s awful ministry.”

Need A Good Laugh?

Protecting God

“As a general rule, I would say that human beings never behave more badly toward one another than when they believe they are protecting God.”

       -  Barbara Brown Taylor  Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith

The Pain of Leadership

Consider these powerful and true words that came off of Wade Hodges’ blog a couple of days ago, entitled “Tolerating Pain”. 

 ”There are many keys to being an effective leader.  Just ask John Maxwell.”

“One that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately is one that I don’t hear talked about much at leadership conferences.”

“In order to be an effective leader you have to be able to tolerate pain.  Your own pain as well as the pain of others. Sometimes others will inflict pain upon you. You must absorb and carry it forward in order to lead. Sometimes you will be called upon to inflict pain on others for their own good or for the good of the organization you lead. If you don’t think leaders inflict pain, then go a make decision and see if anyone yelps. Sometimes you will inflict pain upon yourself when you inflict pain on others because you care so much about those whom you are leading.”

“Without a doubt, one of the hardest things to do as a leader is to watch people we love squirm with emotional pain because of a position we’ve taken. Most of us end up caving sooner or later and we sheepishly reverse our position or change our direction in order to dull the pain and keep the peace.”

“The reason most churches within my sphere of awareness are struggling to move forward in any kind of discernible way is because their leadership is spending all their time and energy trying to avoid pain.  They think the absence of pain is a sign of good leadership.  Making sure no one gets hurt may be a win for a bank robber (Put your hands in the air and do what you’re told and no one gets hurt), but it’s a terrible way of judging how well we’re doing as leaders.”

“All pain avoidance does is delay the inevitable, which is . . .pain.”

“Leaders who try to avoid pain will someday will be confronted with the worst pain of all, the awareness that the end result of their perpetual pain avoidance is the collapse of the organization they were supposed to be leading.”

“Are you called to lead?  If so, and if you’re not ready to experience and tolerate some pain, then please say no to the call.  Whatever organization you’re being called to lead will be better off without you in leadership. If you’re ready to deal with some pain, then step up and buckle in, because it’s gonna hurt.”