Perry Noble Comment

"The church that doesn’t want to grow is saying to the world, “You go to hell…we’re doctrinally correct…you go to hell.” - Perry Noble

My response? I agree and disagree. Define growth? Are you talking numbers? Are you talking about making sure you have to build a bigger building because you had 1000 sign the dotted line? I agree that I want people come to Christ and his church to grow. However, if growth = large attendance to you, then you can tell the world (and those in your church) "You can think you're not going to hell (but you may not be saved at all)...we're concerned about your prayer and baptism number...you may go to heaven." Perry...growth is more than conversions...its actual spiritual growth, which I realize isn't as easy to monitor like numbers.

How do you respond to Jesus' multiple statements on "let the dead bury their own dead," "love me more than your father or mother," "deny yourself, take up your cross," etc. It seemed Jesus wasn't as concerned about a huge group following him as much as he was reducing the size of people following him by sifting the wheat and the chaff. The genuine followers remained. He constantly pruned his numbers by saying difficult and popularity killing statements. Those who were serious remained...he did nothing to coddle people to heaven.

Willow Creek's "Big Shift"

Well, just as I am going through a nasty aftertaste with seeker sensitive services, along comes an article (and a book) that only confirms what has been going on inside of me. Willow Creek is dropping seeker sensitive for deeper theological teaching. WOW! There's a concept! Instead of getting as close to being lost as we can to be "relevant," we actually start acting like Christians and studying our faith. We actually may be stepping away from feeding our churches nothing but milk and actually may start feeding them some meat!

I think the seeker sensitive service was a great idea, but sooner or later it was bound to catch up with a church when those who are being converted aren't being challenged to grow. I am really excited about this. I hope the wave will continue to get stronger. Maybe church will be church again? I have hope. Discipleship is gasping to life again. Now the only concern I have is...what kind of theology will be taught? Will it be watered down to not offend?

Men and the Kingdoms of Men - Part 3

What I speak about next is an area I have personally struggled with. I feel that every pastor at one time in their life had to struggle with this if they are honest. Sadly, victims may not even know they have fallen into this pit. This is simply called "kingdom building."

I believe that since we have an invisible God with an invisible kingdom, we often seek to fill the void of invisibility with visible things that show us the existence of God. In my own experience, this was seen in several things: the numbers, the property/material and the praise.

The numbers is by far the hardest war a pastor must battle with. We do desire to see the faith growing in our community. This is seen through changed lives. However, it can become an addiction. We move from letting God change hearts to "helping him out." We try to force God through big shows, fancy productions, amazing outreaches to get more and more and more. Soon we fall more in love with bigger numbers than genuine heart change. It seems the conversions at the beginning are very geniune whereas at the point of numbers addiction, they become watered down and uncertain. I don't blame those who believe they are converted. I blame those who tell them they are because they prayed, when the person may not be converted at all. Soon, the church becomes a factory pumping out bigger and bigger numbers that are (pardon my crassness) "cheaper faultier product." Small churches may not see the numbers, but at least there is deep and genuine discipleship involved.

The property and the material really are the same thing. We often prove the invisible work of God with the visible prosperity of the world. We build massive buildings, flaunt amazing multimedia equipment, show off our coffee shops and bookstores, have gymnasiums for our kids, and so much more. These are great tools, but again...we often and somehow translate these as signs of God's blessings on our ministries. Granted, God provides funds, but he can also provide funds for me to misuse on my own personal materialistic desires. Why is it that we flaunt off our equipment as the standard for all churches? Does this mean the small church can't possibly have an impact on others unless they have big buildings and enough lighting to light a Broadway show? Why are we proud? Is not the true sign of God's work changed lives, not 3 sets of Roland V-Drums and video production?

Finally, the praise. Again, I speak to this as one who has been guilty of this in the past. We often look for praise from people as a sign of our effectiveness. We somehow get tricked into thinking that success comes from us. Sometimes we will say, "It's all God," yet in our heart of hearts, we can't even imagine how he would have done it without us. I've seen so many new youth leaders who come out of Bible college thinking they are the next great youth pastor because of the accolades of their students. They believe they will change the world and that its about how great they are. They are soon humbled by God through any series of reality.

Being a leader is hard work especially in a ministry. We need encouragement and affirmation. However, when we begin to need encouragement from our people, it to can be an addiction. This is also seen when a leader will not take criticism or disloyalty from his staff or his people. It becomes a huge problem when the leader attempts to silence his critics. True leadership knows that they will be hated, but still serves those who hate him. Though he won't listen to every critic, he will understand there will always be dissenters. This is seen so clearly in the life of Moses as the children of Israel time after time complained and bickered. Moses stood firm and kept moving forward. He didn't cast off any who questioned him as leader.

I worry when we start looking at material things and numbers as a sign of God's hand. True...he does bring both of those, but if it becomes our obsession it becomes about us and the establishment of our kingdom instead of God doing what God will through willing men. We are representatives of an invisible kingdom. Our buildings will fall apart and be sold. Our lights and cameras are temporary. But the invisible...the souls of men...stand. If we put our drive into the invisible with the tenacity that we put into the visible, we will see change. One thing is for sure. I've seen many lives changed by God in my ministry with no technology, no fancy buildings, no flat screen TV's, no coffee shops, no satellite campus, and very little giving. I didn't need to bribe God to bring souls to him. He does what he does through rocks, donkeys, children...whoever he desires.

McChurch...the ongoing saga

I'm glad to see that I am not the inventor of this term, but its what I thought of as I've been rethinking church.

McChurch...what does it mean? It's what happens when the church becomes a consumer industry and not a place of spiritual growth. When a church works hard on producing a product and markets those products, then it has created an entertainment business. It is no different than the Christian theater I worked for that was a for-profit institution that considered itself blessed if lives were changed. Making money was its main purpose as an entertainment business. Now the church, with its fancy lighting, movie quality videos, Hollywood acting, Madison Avenue marketing, American Idol music, and high quality motivational speaking has been the template for the modern church. It is believed that If you do these, you will attract hundreds of the lost and that will equal hundreds of converts and thousands of members. SOME churches also interpret this as X-amount of dollars.

How else has the church begun to look like McDonalds?

Franchising. The hot effort for churches is to satellite feed video of services all around the country or the region so people can experience your church miles away. The pastor gets to expand his teaching opportunities to other areas. He himself, becomes a franchise. It's as if he is the only competent teacher. He needs to be promoted in other areas rather than disciple and train another pastor to go in person to serve the area.

Consumer Mindset: A person is trained to go to church to receive not to give. You consume music, video, excitement, and coffee at the cafe in the lobby. It is easy for a person to show up, consume and then go home uneffected. Soon, the person can move into the office of critic when a guest speaker or worship leader "isn't like the other one." I've fallen guilty of criticizing a worship leader for not being as good as another rather than trust the persons heart for worship.

Marketing: considerable time and effort has been placed into marketing church logos, sermon series, and events. There is nothing wrong with advertising things. However, when it become important to make sure your sermons will be favorably accepted or will appeal to a market of people, you have other problems. You are listening to opinion rather than the Spirit who may have you teach something that may very well be offensive. A church seems to be working hard to produce an image of what there church is...cool, culturally relevant, technologically savvy.

Happy Meals: They come with a toy. They are simple food for children. Our sermons are more and more this way. Our "seeker sensitive" churches are nothing more than childcare. We keep feeding the congregation milk, milk and more milk. We keep it simple and run from anything somewhat complex. We wouldn't want to scare off the lost person by talking about something offensive or complex. Our churches are filled with spiritual infants. They don't know where to find books of the Bible, have rarely memorized a verse, don't know where to find scripture to back their beliefs, couldn't tell you what the hyperstatic union is.

Convenience: Church is now measured on convenience. I am a fan of convenience, but it must never be an idol. When I have small attendance because people have chosen football over coming to serve, then I have people with skewed priorities. I know this: Christ isn't convenient. When does he ever ask us to do anything convenient? It almost seems that God aims for the INconvenient. Why? It shows just how committed or dedicated we truly are.

Take Out or Eat In: A restaurant would love for customers to stay in the building. The longer you stay there, the more you buy. Churches are becoming more and more about centralizing their ministry in the building. They encourage you to get your food by eating in. Its just not the same if you "eat" at home on your own. Show up on Sundays and don't eat at home. Not just that, but it seems that the church is doing more to make sure people come to Christ IN the church rather than equipping its people to GO OUT and lead others to Christ outside of church.

Expand! Expand! Expand!: As a church grows and the income grows, the norm is for the money to be put into expanding the building, getting better equipment, etc. What ISN'T being though for the money is how it can be used to reach the community and meet its needs, how it can be used in world missions, how it can be used for the needs inside the church (like the Acts 2 church), or scads of other ideas other than buildings. To quote my dad...invest in men not buildings.

How did Jesus ever minister without powerpoint, videos or a fancy logo? Why do we interpret Acts 2:42 to mean that if we are spending time together and worshipping, that unsaved people will be included in that number and they will convert? Is it possible that the people worshipped together and were so charged about it that they WENT OUT and won others? The big question is: what is church for? Edification of the believers or leading the lost to Christ? Can both paths be balanced and followed? Why are we depending on the church to lead our unsaved friends to Christ? Why are pastors not teaching their people to know God's word?