5 Ways to Make Your New Year Great!

new year

By: bayasaa
How can this new year be great?

Every year over the holidays a nagging feeling begins to grow.  We all start wondering how the new year will be our best year yet.  We think about what kinds of promises we could make to ourselves or our loved ones that might help us succeed.

But, you know the drill.  We make 12 resolutions to do this or that.  But by the time Valentine’s Day rolls around we’ve failed at almost all of them in one way or another.

Well, how can this year be different?  I haven’t the slightest!  But I do know that there are some basic things we could all do to help every year be great.

Five Ways to Have a Great New Year

  1. Make no more than five goals.  Don’t think of your resolutions as resolutions.  We all know how we do when we resolve to do something…  Instead, form goals.  Don’t make too many or too few.  Five seems about right.  Don’t shoot too high, but don’t make the goals too easy either.  I like to think of them as stretch goals.  Imagine what seems doable, then stretch it just a bit.  For example: your may have a goal to save 3000 dollars this year for a specific purpose.  Great!  That’s 250 bucks a month.  So to stretch this goal just a bit, up your saving amount to 275 bucks.  Then, each month, check in on your goal to see how you are doing.  If you are able it would be good to find a person or two to hold you accountable to your goals also.
  2. Read at least twelve books this year.  The average American apparently reads around 17 books a year.  That seems like a lot!  But it is encouraging to know that folks are still reading.  So, here’s a suggestion: read one book a month.  It doesn’t have to be huge.  It doesn’t have to be one genre or another.  And it doesn’t have to dovetail with your vocation, but it could.  In fact, it might be good to alternate “useful” books with “fun” books each month.  For me that would mean reading one biblical studies/theology book and then one fiction book.  The purpose of this idea is not to just crowd your house or e-reader with more books.  And the hope isn’t to make you look or feel smarter.  The purpose is for all of us to be involved in some continued development and some stress-reducing downtime.
  3. Make prayer a habit.  I’m not going to prescribe to you exactly how you should pray or exactly how often you should.  But I will say that it’s highly doubtful that in 12 months from now you’ll regret having spent time in prayer.  My wife and I have found praying together and as individuals each day to be helpful.  You may want to do what we do or you may want to do something totally different.  Either way, my encouragement to you is for you to pray and to do so often!
  4. Have fun!  Would it be crazy to plan something once a month or so for the sole purpose of having fun?  You may even want to do it more often than that!  These fun things could be anything at all: taking an architectural tour of the town your live in; playing touch football in the park; going hiking; picking up a new hobby; throwing a party; attending a party; etc.  You really could do anything.  The point, however, is that if you plan to do something fun each month, then you’ll always have that to look forward to when things get tough (and we all know they will!).  So, you have full permission to have a blast!
  5. Invest in your community with your time and talents.  During the upcoming new year it would be awesome if all of us spent more time giving back.  There are literally millions of ways that we could serve folks in our neighborhoods.  Here are a few ideas off the top of my head:
    • Contact the principal at your closest school and ask how you can help out.
    • Find a local foster-care agency and see how you can be a blessing to the kids who are served there.
    • Volunteer regularly at your church.
    • Help kick start or continue a “beautify your park/town” initiative.
    • Be a mentor or a tutor for kids in your neighborhood through local non-profits.

 

What do you think?  What are some other ways that you can make the new year great?  Let me know below!

Lessons from My Weight-Loss (Hard Work)

hard work

tpsdave / Pixabay
There really is no substitute for hard work, whether when losing weight or fulfilling the Great Commission.

Not long ago I was obese, at least according to my BMI number.  I spent a year full of hard work in which I lost 65 pounds.  I’ve kept almost all of that weight off, which has also been due to hard work.

In fact, when people have asked me what the secret to my weight loss was, I almost always answer one of two ways: “math” or “hard work.”  “Math” because it’s all about tracking calories relative to the total needed to maintain your weight; and “hard work” because losing weight and keeping it off is no walk in the park (minus that actual walks in the park!).

In fact, hard work might be the best advice for losing weight ever.  Keeping track of your food and exercise is hard work.  Eating more reasonably when you’ve spent your entire life doing otherwise is hard work.  Exercising is hard work.  Dealing with the emotional issues along the way is hard work.  Etc., etc.

As I’ve been thinking about being more a more missional follower of Jesus, I’ve started to realize that hard work is needed here too!  Here are a few examples:

  1. It’s hard work reaching out to people who do not know Jesus yet.  Whether you’re an extrovert or an introvert, connecting well with people who don’t know Jesus is difficult.  Why?  Mainly because many of us churchy people have almost exclusively surrounded ourselves with other churchy people.  So we’re left with the problem of finding “natural” ways to encounter those who don’t know Jesus.  Another issue is that in many cases those who don’t know Jesus yet have lives marked by different values and goals than that of a sold-out follower of Jesus.  It can be hard work to connect over this barrier.
  2. It’s hard work bucking the attractional church model.  Most churches in the United States use the attractional church model, which means that most Americans associate this model with church in general.  A key idea of the attractional church model is that if we build it, they will come.  This leads us to talk about “going to church,” as if church is a building that we enter.  When we start trying to move away from this idea to a more biblical understanding of church as God’s people wherever he sends them, things get hard.  It’s hard work not to talk about church as a location!  Beyond that, it’s hard work trying to be the church among the people!
  3. It’s hard work not getting immediate, measurable results.  I think most of us want Burger King Christianity, my way, right away.  So if we take this same attitude with us as we start to shift toward being missional, we’ll be disappointed really fast.  Being missional means building relationships that create safe and natural spaces for people to discover Jesus.  That process can be slow and it can take time.  In other words, it takes hard work and patience!

I’m sure there are a million other ways that being missional requires hard work.  Can you think of any more?  Share them below!

A Definition of Racism

I was listening to some Exponential Podcasts while I was driving in Texas the other day and I heard Efrem Smith share a very helpful definition of racism.  He also wrote about this same definition on page 76 of The Post-Black Post-White Church, which is an excellent book.  Here it is:

Racism is prejudice plus power.

I love this way of looking at things because it helps me – a white guy – understand why some prejudices I express are considered “racist” while those that someone with less perceived cultural power expresses aren’t.

racism

By: Emma Craig
Prejudice plus power equals a sword; prejudice minus power equals a pool noodle.

For instance, when a person like me uses a racial slur, especially one deeply connected with the history of racism in America (like the n-word, the ch-word, wet****, etc.), it is racist.  It stings the person it is aimed at deeply because it takes them back to their childhood when that word was used against them.  It causes them to recall the pain that they heard their grandparents talk about over dinner.  In other words, there’s power behind those prejudiced words.

But when someone who isn’t white like me calls me a cracker or white trash, there’s virtually no sting.  I don’t have memories from when I was a kid that involve those words being used as weapons.  My grandparents have a total of zero stories involving them.  There’s no power behind those words.

In other words, prejudice expressed by someone with perceived power is like cutting someone with a sword, while prejudice from someone without power is like slapping someone with a pool noodle.  The damage caused would certainly be different!

Maybe a definition like Efrem’s can help us think about recent examples of racist words differently too.

What do you think?  Does this definition help you think about racism in fresh ways?

The Ghost of Church Future: Part Three (On Mission)

My wife, parents, and I recently watched a stage production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.  As I watched it I couldn’t help but imagine what the ghosts of church past (Part OnePart Two, and Part Three), present (Part OnePart Two, and Part Three), and future (Part One and Part Two) might say to those of us who follow Jesus.  This week we’ll look at what the future holds.

On Mission

on mission

By: gwire

What would the future of the Church look like if we were a people on mission?  What does it even mean to be on mission?  And, most importantly, what kind of fruit would be born in the American mission field from the Church being on mission together?

What I’d like to do in this post is to present the six parts of the missional DNA, as proposed by Alan Hirsch in The Forgotten Ways, and to dream briefly about how they might be lived out in the future.

 Jesus is Lord

For the Church to be on mission together we must put at our center the faith claim that Jesus is Lord.  Doing this would mean that other things that attempt to be the authorities of our lives would be explicitly set aside.  Thus, individualism, materialism, and consumerism would not be chief characteristics of the Church who lives out the basic assertion that Jesus is Lord!  We would be centered on and focused upon Jesus and nothing else!

Disciple Making

The engine that would move the Church on mission forward would be disciple making.  This activity is the basic call from Jesus (Matthew 28.19-20) and without it the Church stagnates and, eventually declines (in every way!).  Thus, the Church on mission in the future will be involved in making disciples.  In fact, everything that the Church on mission does will be seen in light of making disciples.  So, if something isn’t encouraging disciple making, then it will be abandoned or revisioned.  Nothing is sacrosanct, baring holding true to the gospel.

Missional-Incarnational Impulse

The Church on mission will be all about, well, being on mission!  What will this look like?  Small groups of followers of Jesus will band together in order to be the hands and feet of Jesus in a particular community.  They will do so for the sake of the gospel and for the benefit of those for whom they are on mission.  Then, these smaller groups will be networked together into larger entities through whom they will find support and inspiration.

Apostolic Environment

The Church, for a long, long time, has focused its ministries in such a way that those who are gifted as pastors and/or teachers could thrive.  The future Church on mission, however, will find a place for all of the Ephesians 4 categories of ministries, including the apostolic (pushing into new territories), the prophetic (telling the truth), and the evangelistic (relentless focus on making new disciples).  This will be difficult but, in the end, it will be much more biblical and effective!

Organic Systems

The Church on mission in the future will not find its organizational inspiration from machines, business models, or any other inorganic system.  Instead it will organize itself around principles found in nature, principles about which Jesus himself taught.  This will mean that top-down leadership models will be things of the past.  Instead leadership models that emphasize leading from among the people will be stressed, resulting in greater involvement and buy-in among everyone.

Communitas

Being on mission as the Church will mean that we will not be an inward-focused group.  Instead we will be a group of people who are always interested in living on the edges, pushing into the chaos of our world, taking risk when needed, and being the culture changers that we are called to become.  Church won’t be about getting fed, it will be about feeding the world the tasty gospel of Jesus Christ!

 

What do you think?  What will the church on mission look like in the future?  Let me know in the comments below!

Racism, Phil Robertson, and the Church

Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty

via IAmSecond.com

What are we supposed to do with the words Phil Robertson spoke during a GQ interview regarding race in Louisiana when he was growing up?  What’s a missional response?

Well, if you don’t want to read this whole post, here’s the quick version: In my opinion, Phil’s words about homosexuality were judgmental and hurt the missional cause of all Christians seeking to make the kingdom tangible among the LGBT community and his words about blacks during the days of Jim Crow seem to me to be uniformed and (perhaps unintentionally) racist.

If you want to read some more, cool beans!

Let’s Get It Started!

Last time I didn’t lead with Phil’s own words.  This time I’m going to:

Phil On Growing Up in Pre-Civil-Rights-Era Louisiana
“I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash. We’re going across the field…. They’re singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!… Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.” (SOURCE: GQ.com)

First of all, I need to admit that what Phil is explicitly talking about here is his own experience.  He claims that in his neck of the woods while growing up he didn’t see the mistreatment of black people and he didn’t hear them complain.  If he’s being honest, which I have no reason to deny, then I have to trust him since he is the expert in his own experience.

But even the briefest, most cursory look into the history of white-black drama in the United States would reveal to anyone that Phil’s experience is probably not all that widespread.  In fact, a few decades before Phil was born, in his own region of Louisiana, a black man was lynched.  Lynching in Louisiana was pretty common, with one source citing around 200 lynchings in the state and another source citing 339, most of which happened prior to Phil’s birth.  However, there have been at least two lynchings in Louisiana since Phil’s been around, one when he was a baby and one when he was 19 or so.

Here’s the point: Phil must have had his eyes closed or he and his family lived so far back in the woods so as not to be aware of the wider world.  Why?  Because racial violence that leads to lynching doesn’t just pop up one day.  It’s a long, slow build.  That kind of hatred is built on years of smaller abuses that, given the right fuel, will explode into the murder of an innocent person.  There’s also the possibility that Phil and his family just see the world through extremely-vivid, rose-colored glasses.

Whatever the case, the rest of the things that Phil said about blacks when he was growing up deserve some attention too.

Let’s Get to Parsing!

Now what I’m about to do is unfair and I know that.  I’m going to pick the words of Phil Robertson apart.  If he were here, he’d most likely be able to explain himself better (or at least I would hope so!).  But, given that intro, there are still some things to glean from the actual words he chose to use.

  • “Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers”

This seems innocuous enough, right?  Sure.  Phil is just reporting how things were when he was growing up.  He couldn’t do anything about the situation that black families found themselves in.  But Phil’s words point to a larger reality of the mistreatment of black people during the Jim Crow era.

Phil says that everyone was a farmer where he grew up and that blacks worked for them.  Alright, first this points to a great difference in land and business ownership between whites and blacks during that time, which continues on today by the way.  But Phil couldn’t do anything about that.  He was just one kid in one family in one community.

However, notice the language that Phil uses “Where we lived was all farmers.”  Then blacks worked for that category of “all,” meaning that blacks aren’t in that category.  Is this just semantics?  Probably.  I’m splitting hairs, but language like this – language that sets one ethnic group off to the side from the norm, the “all” – is difficult to swallow for people who don’t fit into the “all” category.

  •  I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash.

As a white guy I understand this line really well.  If it were me who said it, then I would be saying this in an effort to diffuse some white guilt and to make it seem like I have some relational connection to black people.  I’m not saying that is what Phil is doing, but that is kind of what this sounds like.

Beyond that we’ve got a more obvious issue: Phil associates being “trash” with being black.  Again, this could just be a sign of what growing up was like where he lived.  Maybe the only white people who associated with blacks were poor, what Phil calls “white trash.”  Even still, however, I can only imagine that a black person reading these words wouldn’t be so happy to be equated with “trash.”  I’m just sayin’.

  • They’re singing and happy.

There’s an excellent book by Charles Hersch called Subversive Sounds: Race and the Birth of Jazz in New Orleans.  In the book Hersch points out that the racial climate in the South, and in Louisiana in particular, helped give rise to what became known as jazz.  Hersch draws on oral histories, old newspapers, etc. in order to get a glimpse into how jazz was born.  And part of his conclusion is that the genesis of jazz is completely wrapped up in the suffering of blacks before and during the Jim Crow era.  He makes the convincing argument that music, for them, was a way to be subversive, a way to stand in solidarity with one another against the racial injustices they were facing.

So Phil’s experience of hearing black people sing while working in the fields is nothing new and it may well have been part of a subversive movement like the one Hersch writes about.

  • I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!

This one is a no-brainer.  Of course the black workers didn’t complain!  If they complained their white bosses would fire them!  Then what?  Move?  How would their kids eat?

In a classic book on oppression called Pedagogy of Oppression, Paulo Friere, identifies what others have called a “culture of silence” that occurs in situations of oppression, like the ones in the South during the Jim Crow era.  We human beings don’t tend to use our voices when we feel that doing so will be ignored, ineffective, or harmful to our own lives or of those whom we love.

  • Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.

In these loaded statements there’s much more to mine.  First, there’s an implication that blacks today aren’t godly or happy because they live post-entitlement and post-welfare.  Second, there’s a further implication that entitlements and welfare are somehow inherently wrong, even though white folks receive entitlements and welfare in droves too.  And, third, there’s just this funny statement about the blues.

The blues, as a musical genre, was birthed by blacks in the South during the Jim Crow period and beyond.  The power and authenticity and rawness of the blues come from the pain of oppression suffered by black people.  It was in 1912 that blues as a major musical genre exploded with the song “Memphis Blues” by W.C. Handy, right smack in the middle of the Jim Crow era.

If the black people with whom Phil worked were singing, my guess is that they were singing the blues, literally or figuratively!

Let’s Wrap This Up!

So, were the words of Phil Robertson racist?  Yes.  That word – racist – is hard for people to hear.  I know.  It’s hard for me too.  And when I’ve said things that were insensitive and my words were called racist, I cringed and got defensive.  But racism doesn’t have to do only with my intent, necessarily.  I can say the most well-meaning thing and it can be completely racist.  Stella Ting-Toomey says it best in Communicating Across Cultures: “Thus, we confirm and disconfirm others by the words we choose” (173).  So I’m not saying necessarily that Phil was trying to be racist; but his words, nonetheless, could very, very easily be seen as racist.

 

A Lesson to Learn from Phil Robertson

So what’s the point?  Well, I think there’s a lesson to learn from all this.  We must learn to use our words carefully if we want to be missional where we live, work, and play.  If we want people from every tribe, tongue, and nation (Revelation 7.9) to come to know Jesus, then we need to speak more hospitably to all people and about all people.

But how can we do this?  What if we make mistakes?  “What if”?  More like WHEN we make mistakes!  And we will!  Here’s the best advice I have: apologize sincerely, make amends quickly, and move forward in solidarity with the offended ones.

 

What do you think?  Let me know below (but keep it civil)!

Francis Chan: How Not to Make Disciples

I just watched a great video in which Francis Chan explains part of the reason why more of us who follow Jesus aren’t making disciples:

SOURCE: The Verge Network

Duck Dynasty: A Missional Response

Duck Dynasty

via A and E

Here are my two cents regarding the Duck Dynasty situation.  Specifically, how can this whole fiasco be approached from a missional perspective?

Appetizer

First of all, there are some things I like about Phil Robertson, the patriarch of Duck Dynasty.  In no particular order:

  • He played football back in the day.  In fact, he was the starter in front of Terry Bradshaw in college!
  • The man loves his family!  This can be seen in the way that family forms a part of his life and his Duck Dynasty business.  Kudos!
  • Phil loves Jesus.  And his family does too.  Here’s proof: the Duck Dynasty appearance on I Am Second.
  • And, as pictured here, Phil has an amazing beard and so do all the other Duck Dynasty dudes!  Ever since my dad introduced me to ZZ Top, I’ve been obsessed with beards.  That’s why I love having one myself!

Main Dish

Despite all that I like about Phil, I wasn’t too keen on his comments in a recent interview with the magazine GQ.  Just to be clear, I believe that homosexual acts are not within the parameters set by God in the Bible.  The clearest place to see this, in my opinion, is Romans 1.18-31.  There Paul says that because of our rebelliousness, God gave us over to our lusts.  And we have pursued them like crazy!  But none of that was what God wanted; it was us giving into our own lusts.  So, don’t get anything twisted — I think the Bible states that homosexual acts are outside of God’s design for human behavior.

But the Bible is even clearer about something else.  Click here and read 1 Corinthians 5.9-13.  Actually click that link and read the text for yourself before continuing.  I can wait.

I want to present a few comments below.

v.9 — I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people–

  • Alright!  So right from the get-go Paul is giving me carte blanche to distance myself from people who engage in sex acts that are outside of God’s original design.  Got it.

v.10 — not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters.  In that case you would have to leave this world.

  • Hold on Paul!  So you are saying that you aren’t telling us not to associate with people who are sinners?  Why not?  You imply that if we want to associate only with “holy” people then we’d have to leave this world.  Well, isn’t that the goal anyway…”I’ll Fly Away”?

v.11 — But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler.  Do not even eat with such people.

  • Paul, I’m confused.  Why would you not want us associating with a follower of Jesus (i.e., a brother or sister) who persists in behavior that doesn’t bring God glory?  You go so far as to say that we should break fellowship with them!  Are you crazy?  They’re family.  Shouldn’t we break fellowship with all those unsaved sinners and eat with the saved ones instead?

vv.12-13 — What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?  Are you not to judge those inside?  God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”

  • I think I understand you now Paul.  You’re saying that we shouldn’t judge those on the outside by our standards of behavior because they have yet to submit to them, right?  Why would folks who don’t follow Jesus give a rip about how best to follow him?  I think I’m getting it now Paul.  We followers of Jesus are to hold one another accountable, always with grace and always in love, and we’re to leave all the judgment of those who don’t follow Jesus yet to God.  Cool!  You convinced me!

Back to reality now — I’m not sure how, but Christians, myself included, have missed this passage for centuries.  Paul really couldn’t be clearer here.  It’s not our duty as followers of Jesus to go around pointing out bad behavior everywhere we see it.  Let’s get real simple here: That’s not what Jesus did, that’s not what Paul wrote about, so why are we doing it?

To make matters worse, this judgmental attitude is killing our ability to be a witness in our world.  We must develop the habits of Jesus, you know, the guy who was known as “friend of sinners.”  Why is this important?

  1. It’s not natural.  Apparently human nature dictates that we group ourselves together according to beliefs, external features, etc. and then judge those with different beliefs, different external features, etc.  This is the world of the flesh, to use biblical language.  However, if we’re to be people who are born of the Spirit, then we need to live counter to our flesh, since what the Spirit desires is almost always contrary to what the flesh desires (Galatians 5.17).  So we’ve got to stop judging those on the outside!
  2. It’s not fair.  Like I mentioned briefly already, it’s not fair to judge someone according to a standard that they haven’t submitted to.  Of course people who make movies are going to violate Christian morals.  Of course people are going to be dishonest with their money.  Of course people are going to fill their sexual dance card in the way that pleases them the most.  Now if these same people follow Jesus, then we can have a different conversation, in grace and love, of course.  But until then, we need to take Paul’s advice and leave their judgment to God alone!
  3. It’s not missional.  Here’s the real kicker: judging people who don’t follow Jesus yet is not helping us fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28.19-20) at all.  In fact, it’s doing just the opposite.  Want proof?  A 2007 survey found that 87% of young, non-Christians found followers of Jesus to be judgmental.  Wanna guess what their top descriptor of us was?  You got it — judgmental.  How are we going to reach the mission field called America if almost everyone out there thinks that we’re judgmental?  I’m not sure, but I know this: It’s going to be hard.  Friends, we must stop judging people who don’t follow Jesus if we want to see them come to the life-giving salvation that we’ve experienced.

Dessert

So I think that Phil Robertson was wrong for judging the behavior of those who do not follow Jesus yet.  Phil has every right to say what he wants, that’s free speech.  But A&E has every right to suspend him too, that’s their right as an employer.

I recently heard someone whom I greatly respect say the following: “I will flippantly refer to the sin of hatred and bigotry toward gay people; but I will never be flippant about the sin of homosexual acts.”  You can see in the way this man thinks that he has a missional heart.  He longs to see the love of Jesus invade everyone’s life and wants to remove unnecessary walls in order to do so.

The largest “unnecessary wall” that we must remove is our judgment on those who do not yet follow Jesus.  “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

What do you think?  Am I way off base?  Let me know in the comments below (but keep it civil)!

The Ghost of Church Future: Part Two (Consumerism)

My wife, parents, and I recently watched a stage production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.  As I watched it I couldn’t help but imagine what the ghosts of church past (Part OnePart Two, and Part Three), present (Part OnePart Two, and Part Three), and future (Part One) might say to those of us who follow Jesus.  This week we’ll look at what the future holds.

Consumerism

So, as we’ve seen in previous posts in this series, those who live lives authentically marked by faith in Jesus are a declining species.  One response could be to go all in with regard to American culture.  We, as the Church, could attempt to absolutely immerse ourselves into the consumerism around us, attempting to redeem it and use it for the kingdom of God.

I first encountered this idea in Alan Hirsch’s book The Forgotten Ways.  Here’s how he introduced it:

We try to redeem the rhythms and structures of consumerism as Pete Ward suggests in his excellent book on missional ecclesiology.  He advises that, rather than reject or denounce consumerism, we should see it as an oppportunity for the church to rediscover her missional and redemptive nature.  He maintains that in consumerism there is a massive search going on, and that the church cannot miss out on meaningfully communicating from within this context.  He suggests, therefore that the church must radically reorganize around consumerist principles but maintain its missional edge. (Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways, 111-112).

The book from Pete Ward that Hirsch is referring to is called Liquid Church.  While there is much to like about Ward’s ideas in this book, such as the church being a flexible network instead of a rigid structure, the idea of trying to redeem consumerism seems entirely too risky.  I love the way that Hirsch responds to Ward’s idea: “However, my warning is that if we are going to sup with the devil, we had better have a very long spoon, because we are dealing with a deeply entrenched alternative religious system to which Jesus’s disciples need to model an alternative reality” (The Forgotten Ways, 112).

In fact, some of the missional writers, thinkers, and practitioners argue that being a consumer runs counter to what it means to be a follower of Jesus in the first place.  For instance, Hugh Halter, in And: The Gathered and Scattered Church, says this: “A disciple is not a consumer and a consumer is not a disciple!” (emphasis original, 75).  Halter’s argument is that at its base consumerism is just selfishness in a different package; and Jesus explicitly calls people away from only looking out for number one.

So why will going all in with consumerism not work as a model moving forward?

  1. At its core, consumerism is selfish. — Consumerism has been defined as the attempt to acquire as many goods and services as possible at the lowest prices possible.  Vance Packard’s pioneering work on consumerism called Waste Makers highlights the truth that all this selfishness and consumption is ultimately harmful in many ways.  I think it’s pretty clear that we as followers of Jesus should avoid such things!  We’re already tempted to view God like a cosmic vending machine, and going all in with consumerism would make that tendency even worse!
  2. Consumerism will push the church to maintain the professionalization of ministry. — In 2 Corinthians 5 Paul says that we’re all ambassadors of the ministry of reconciliation.  But if we really want to imbibe consumerism then folks are going to demand that those who have the most training and skill at ministry be the ones to do it, ignoring the fact that God has given gifts to all of the church for the common good, not just some of it (1 Corinthians 11-13)!  Again, we’re already having issues in the church with folks sitting on the sidelines; why would we want to make that problem more prominent?
  3. It will simply be too expensive. — In the end, how could the church afford to be an entity totally defined by consumerism?  We’d be competing against Bud Light, the NFL, reality TV, and Hollywood.  We don’t have the resources to compete in that market!  We barely have the resources to maintain our paltry budgets now!  The cost of competing against the big boys of consumerism is simply too high, which makes this idea for addressing America as a mission field completely untenable.

What do you think?  Is it possible for the church to redeem consumerism?  If so, why?  If not, why?  Let me know below.

The Ghost of Church Future: Part One (Continued Decline)

My wife, parents, and I recently watched a stage production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.  As I watched it I couldn’t help but imagine what the ghosts of church past (Part One, Part Two, and Part Three), present (Part One, Part Two, and Part Three), and future might say to those of us who follow Jesus.  This week we’ll look at what the future holds.

decline

geralt / Pixabay

A Continued Decline

For quite some time now the church, as we know it, has been in decline.  Numerous studies and surveys support this statement (David Olson’s book The American Church in Crisis and John Dickerson’s book The Great Evangelical Recession provide a ton of evidence).

What do we do?  I think there are three primary options: 1) keep doing what we’ve always done; 2) try to baptize American individualism, consumerism, and materialism; or 3) go down the missional-incarnational path.

This post will focus on the first option — more of the same.

If we keep doing what we’ve always done, what will be the results?

Famously, it has been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again but always expecting different results (attributed to Albert Einstein).  And while this may be “the most overused cliche of all time,” it does help us think about why following the same strategies in the church won’t work going forward.

So, what have we been doing that we could keep doing (even though it most likely wouldn’t work)?

  1. Follow the Attractional Model — “If you build it, he will come.”  This is probably the most-often quoted line from the movie Field of Dreams and it serves to illustrate the attractional model like no other string of words can!  The thought is that if we have slick weekend services, engaging sermons, awesome music, fun programs for kids, thought-provoking adult classes, and great small groups, then people will just show up at the campuses of our churches to partake of all these things.  The research, however, is showing that this model isn’t working.  People simply are not coming to churches anymore, at least not like they once did.  Our buildings, programs, and services just aren’t all that attractive to the wider American culture these days.  So, if we continue with this model, then we will have shrinking congregations, which will lead to church buildings being abandoned (and possibly being transformed into homes, libraries, or nightclubs).
  2.  Limit Discipleship to the Classroom — Almost always when talking to Christians about discipleship they seem to think that it is a program, a ministry, or an event that the church should host and facilitate.  In my experience this has been true of folks everywhere throughout America, from Los Angeles to Atlanta.  There are some shining examples of leaders and churches who don’t view discipleship this way, but my educated guess would be that most American Christians think of it as a cognitive-based learning experience.  The simple truth is that this method of discipleship doesn’t work.  It has helped lead to 66% of Americans being what George Barna calls “casual Christians.”  That’s an astonishing number!  And if we continue doing discipleship this way, that number isn’t going to change in the positive direction.
  3. Protect the Christian Bubble — I was thinking the other day about how many friends I have who do not know Jesus yet.  The number is really pretty low.  Why?  Because I’m pretty consistently encouraged to completely inundate myself into the Christian subculture.  When I do so all my friends are Christians, my closest family members are all Christians, and all my neighbors are Christians.  Then I start reading Christians books, listening to Christian music, going to Christian websites, and even freshening my breath with Christian mints!  This cloistering-off of American Christians into our own little bubble has created a ton of unintentional problems.  If you’ve ever tried to share your faith with someone you know what I’m talking about.  Folks say that Christians are hypocrites, that we’re judgmental, and that we’re by and large detached from reality.  Our Christian bubble helped create space for these descriptions to come to fruition.  So if we protect our bubble going forward, then we’ll continue to erode our potential impact with folks who do not yet know Jesus.

To put it simply, the future of the church is pretty bleak if we keep going like we’ve been going!

Do you agree?  Let me know in the comments below.

Creating Missional Alignment

Creating Alignment

Hans / Pixabay

I read an interesting post on Fast Company’s website today called “Popularity Means Nothing–The Missing Step to Startup Success.”  In the article Bhavin Parikh and Aaron Schwartz make a convincing claim that alignemnt is a key factor for success.  They share five ways of creating alignment.  In this post I’d like to apply these ideas to creating missional alignment in a Christian community.

  1. Set Your Vision — Parikh and Schwartz begin by saying that a company should be able to say why it exists in one sentence.  I believe that a Christian community should be able to as well.  Why does your community meet?  What are y’all about?  Here’s an example: “Together, we want to connect with God, foster authentic community, and serve our neighbors.”  Pretty simple to write…but the challenge would be aligning all you do around that one statement.  Doing so would necessitate saying “no” to things that fall outside of the vision!
  2. Define Your Values — In order for a company to succeed, the people working there need to be able to make decisions.  How do they do that?  One way is by having clearly-defined values that help folks choose what might be best.  The same thing holds true for a missional community.  The community needs some core values or it will begin to drift from its vision.  Those values might look something like this: Inclusivity, diversity, honesty, sharing, incarnation, and proclamation.  Thus, when push comes to shove, any member of your community can call to mind your core values and make a decision in support of them!
  3. Identify your BHAG (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal) — Parikh and Schwartz label the BHAG as a goal 1-3 years out on the horizon that should be a stretch.  It’s important to have a BHAG because it lets everyone know what is the company is driving toward.  This can absolutely apply to a missional community.  But a word of warning: many of us followers of Jesus will make a way-too out of reach BHAG.  For instance, we might make it a goal that within the next three years we’ll eradicate homelessness in our neighborhood.  This is just ludicrous!  A better goal is more specific, measurable, and do-able (though a stretch).  So perhaps something like this: We will multiply our missional community three times in the next three years.  That’s a big goal that will help create alignment!
  4. Set Department Goals — Having a clear and inspiring BHAG is good but by setting department goals actual progress toward the BHAG can be tracked.  So, for a missional community that might look like this: We’ll have more people at our communal worship times, we’ll have 85% involvement in intentional communities, and we’ll average 2 hours of community service a person a month.  If those goals are met, alignment will be forged and progress toward the BHAG (multiplying) will come!
  5. Track Key Metrics — Measuring stuff is important.  Duh.  But what we measure might be even more important than the measuring itself.  Parikh and Schwartz write: “At the end, though, you need to make sure that the metrics you track and the targets you pursue on a daily basis will help you hit your BHAG and thus fulfill your greater vision.”  Thus, for a business to succeed it needs to track the right things well.  How does this apply to a missional community?  We need to track some stuff.  Traditionally Christians in the West have tracked butts, buildings, and budgets (AKA attendance, physical space, and money).  And while each of these things is important, so are intentional community involvement and community service.  It’s been said that what you measure tends to grow and this is, for the most part, true.  Why?  Because the things we measure are things that we pay attention to and celebrate publically.  Thus, we could possibly see significant positive change if we paid attention to and celebrated publicly intentional community and service!

Doing these five things can certainly build alignment into a missional community.  If we did each of them better, then  it would create a greater buy-in from everyone, thus helping us fulfill the Greatest Commandment and the Great Commission!

What do you think?  What other sorts of things might create missioanl alingment?