Sunday, March 16, 2008
What this is
So, as I said in the sermon today, I would love for this to become a place where we at Grace (and other friends and family) can come and communicate together about serving our King Jesus and having our church best reflect the awesome, amazing, transforming, dynamic, transcendent.... (add your own adjective here) God.
Unfinished Part of the Sermon and other missing comments!
Here are some missing ideas from my sermon, and one addition from Susan Kalnins.
Via Susan: (In response to my open question "Can we do this at Grace?") We will not be able to do this without the Holy Spirit. If He is not empowering us to do this, it will never happen. The reason many movments and ideas fail is because it was people driven and not Spirit driven. May we all remember that, thank you Susan.
The quote I wanted us to think about: "It is more important to change what people care about than it is to change what they believe."
From the sermon:
I wanted to very briefly expand upon one of the ideas I actually covered. When I said that the people in the new community were "willing participants" I wanted to add an idea that was in my notes, but I forgot to say it. Our churches can be so focused on rules and regulations that we almost do what we do because we have to, not because we want to. Joy is replaced with Law. Freedom is replaced by bondage.
Churches can destroy the spirit with man-made rules and regulations. We are more concerned with obeying and following the rules of our ethos than willingly following for the greater good. What made the new community in Acts so different is that they were in community together with willing devotion (vs. 42), doing things totally different because their ethos was now motivated by the Cross, and baptism and their new metaphors were the teaching of the apostles, fellowship, breaking of bread, and the prayers.
How do we begin to change the ethos here at Grace? (the last part of the sermon, did not get to this. These are just some ideas, I would love to have some other ones posted here as well)
1) Understand the power of words
The number of descriptors we have to describe a sub-metaphor (in the church this would be things that are not "the cross", "communion", etc, but words like the ones below) shows how much that ethos is informing what we do and say.
How many words (and what are they) do we use here at Grace to describe community? What about worship, fellowship, and church? I was talking with one of our sisters at Grace the other day and she commented that while she understands that Christian's need to be in community together, she could not easily define what that word meant for us as a people.
Do we use words like “risk, sacrifice, catalyze/ist, innovative, creative, fail, challenge?” These seem to be words that are used often in the business world, but don't seem to "fit" the vocabulary of church.
I would maintain that if we are to begin to change the ethos of Grace, we need to have many words which will describe our ministry. The more words are a part of our vocabulary here, the more the ethos will change.
2) Understand the power of the arts
Art moves us emotionally, spiritually (think Passion of the Christ), psychologically, etc. Unfortunately, the church, while reflecting the values of capitalism and pragmatism, has neglected the importance of aesthetics (the arts, music, the "space" we gather in, etc). If you accept my premise in the sermon that our ethos shapes our gatherings (and the many nodding heads either indicated you did or you were all dozing off!), then one way to change our ethos to better follow the Acts 2 model is to realize that we are heavy on reason and weak on romance. The image of a “biblical congregation” has been one in which the teacher taught and the people were students in the Bible school of God, but the arts were absent. Often they are downplayed or scorned as being depraved, subjective, or whatever.
Why is it that we who worship the God of creativity see so little of it when we come together? To create a new ethos, the fingerprint of God’s creative hand should be all around us. I dream of a day when local churches around the world will be known for their wellspring of creativity and the Quentin Tarrantino’s, Martin Scorcese's, and the Coldplay’s of the world will look to us as reflectors of the Creator.
3) Understand the power of Metaphor
Our whole existence should be motivated by the cross (the need to die to ourselves), baptism (raised to new life in Him), Communion, and teaching the “way of Jesus”.
This is key. If the above truths were what was motivating our gatherings, we would truly see a radical change begin to happen. I firmly believe that this is a make-or-break point for all churches (and Grace in particular). If we are to break free of our capitalisic, self-driven lifestyles and really embrace the Kingdom, then the metaphors which shape our ethos must change.
Via Susan: (In response to my open question "Can we do this at Grace?") We will not be able to do this without the Holy Spirit. If He is not empowering us to do this, it will never happen. The reason many movments and ideas fail is because it was people driven and not Spirit driven. May we all remember that, thank you Susan.
The quote I wanted us to think about: "It is more important to change what people care about than it is to change what they believe."
From the sermon:
I wanted to very briefly expand upon one of the ideas I actually covered. When I said that the people in the new community were "willing participants" I wanted to add an idea that was in my notes, but I forgot to say it. Our churches can be so focused on rules and regulations that we almost do what we do because we have to, not because we want to. Joy is replaced with Law. Freedom is replaced by bondage.
Churches can destroy the spirit with man-made rules and regulations. We are more concerned with obeying and following the rules of our ethos than willingly following for the greater good. What made the new community in Acts so different is that they were in community together with willing devotion (vs. 42), doing things totally different because their ethos was now motivated by the Cross, and baptism and their new metaphors were the teaching of the apostles, fellowship, breaking of bread, and the prayers.
How do we begin to change the ethos here at Grace? (the last part of the sermon, did not get to this. These are just some ideas, I would love to have some other ones posted here as well)
1) Understand the power of words
The number of descriptors we have to describe a sub-metaphor (in the church this would be things that are not "the cross", "communion", etc, but words like the ones below) shows how much that ethos is informing what we do and say.
How many words (and what are they) do we use here at Grace to describe community? What about worship, fellowship, and church? I was talking with one of our sisters at Grace the other day and she commented that while she understands that Christian's need to be in community together, she could not easily define what that word meant for us as a people.
Do we use words like “risk, sacrifice, catalyze/ist, innovative, creative, fail, challenge?” These seem to be words that are used often in the business world, but don't seem to "fit" the vocabulary of church.
I would maintain that if we are to begin to change the ethos of Grace, we need to have many words which will describe our ministry. The more words are a part of our vocabulary here, the more the ethos will change.
2) Understand the power of the arts
Art moves us emotionally, spiritually (think Passion of the Christ), psychologically, etc. Unfortunately, the church, while reflecting the values of capitalism and pragmatism, has neglected the importance of aesthetics (the arts, music, the "space" we gather in, etc). If you accept my premise in the sermon that our ethos shapes our gatherings (and the many nodding heads either indicated you did or you were all dozing off!), then one way to change our ethos to better follow the Acts 2 model is to realize that we are heavy on reason and weak on romance. The image of a “biblical congregation” has been one in which the teacher taught and the people were students in the Bible school of God, but the arts were absent. Often they are downplayed or scorned as being depraved, subjective, or whatever.
Why is it that we who worship the God of creativity see so little of it when we come together? To create a new ethos, the fingerprint of God’s creative hand should be all around us. I dream of a day when local churches around the world will be known for their wellspring of creativity and the Quentin Tarrantino’s, Martin Scorcese's, and the Coldplay’s of the world will look to us as reflectors of the Creator.
3) Understand the power of Metaphor
Our whole existence should be motivated by the cross (the need to die to ourselves), baptism (raised to new life in Him), Communion, and teaching the “way of Jesus”.
This is key. If the above truths were what was motivating our gatherings, we would truly see a radical change begin to happen. I firmly believe that this is a make-or-break point for all churches (and Grace in particular). If we are to break free of our capitalisic, self-driven lifestyles and really embrace the Kingdom, then the metaphors which shape our ethos must change.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Here is part 3
Problem #3: We have lost sight of the Mission
There is no need to re-invent the wheel when it comes to the Missio Dei. Jesus told us in Matt 28, right? All authority is His. Go and make disciples (win them to Christ), baptize them into the family, and teach them to obey everything he has commanded. That's it. We have our mission. But we have lost sight of that as a church. Here are some ways (not a comprehensive list):
The church is known for being a hang out for Right-wing Republicans who don't like gay people, don't respect a women's right to choose, and don't want people to have health care who can't afford it. How sad that the life changing, dynamic message of Jesus has been reduced to this. Do I think gay marrige is wrong and homosexuality a sin? Of course. Is abortion wrong? Yes, it is an abomination. However, are we known for social justice? Not really. How about as stewards of God's creation? No, we actually make fun of people who are (tree-huggers!). How about being loving or compassionate? Sadly this is also a NO.
I am a pastor. I have seen first hand what happens when a church loses sight of the mission. We focus on the little things. We nit-pick each other to death. We try and "out religious" the other person. We fight and split over tertiary issues. I was an operations manager in a company and my employees were more gracious than some brothers and sisters in the church. Maybe it was because I could fire them . Rest assured, I have learned that to be a pastor means to have a soft heart, a thick skin, and wear a good cup.
We need to understand 1) what the Kingdom is about, 2) have the Kingdom inform and direct our mission, and 3) gather together with like-minded Christ-followers and pursue that mission. The mission should be culture specific. Every activity that the church does should align with that mission. Whatever hinders the mission needs to be dropped outright or changed so that it can bring about the Kingdom mission that God wants accomplished. We need to drop our "sacred cows" of church praxis for the sake of the Gospel.
Brain Seay, the brother Chris Seay (an emerging dude on the fringe of orthodoxy) made a good point about the mission of God in a book which recorded the converstaions of 3 generations of pastors about church. He said the when Kingdom people quibble and argue over little things like style of music, dress, layout of the building (ironically some of the issues here in the history of Grace) it reflects the fact that they have lost sight of the mission. When people are on mission together, and the fulfillment of that mission is clearly informing their actions, these secondary issues become more and more irrelevant in thre greater calling from God.
Problem #3: We have lost sight of the Mission
There is no need to re-invent the wheel when it comes to the Missio Dei. Jesus told us in Matt 28, right? All authority is His. Go and make disciples (win them to Christ), baptize them into the family, and teach them to obey everything he has commanded. That's it. We have our mission. But we have lost sight of that as a church. Here are some ways (not a comprehensive list):
The church is known for being a hang out for Right-wing Republicans who don't like gay people, don't respect a women's right to choose, and don't want people to have health care who can't afford it. How sad that the life changing, dynamic message of Jesus has been reduced to this. Do I think gay marrige is wrong and homosexuality a sin? Of course. Is abortion wrong? Yes, it is an abomination. However, are we known for social justice? Not really. How about as stewards of God's creation? No, we actually make fun of people who are (tree-huggers!). How about being loving or compassionate? Sadly this is also a NO.
I am a pastor. I have seen first hand what happens when a church loses sight of the mission. We focus on the little things. We nit-pick each other to death. We try and "out religious" the other person. We fight and split over tertiary issues. I was an operations manager in a company and my employees were more gracious than some brothers and sisters in the church. Maybe it was because I could fire them . Rest assured, I have learned that to be a pastor means to have a soft heart, a thick skin, and wear a good cup.
We need to understand 1) what the Kingdom is about, 2) have the Kingdom inform and direct our mission, and 3) gather together with like-minded Christ-followers and pursue that mission. The mission should be culture specific. Every activity that the church does should align with that mission. Whatever hinders the mission needs to be dropped outright or changed so that it can bring about the Kingdom mission that God wants accomplished. We need to drop our "sacred cows" of church praxis for the sake of the Gospel.
Brain Seay, the brother Chris Seay (an emerging dude on the fringe of orthodoxy) made a good point about the mission of God in a book which recorded the converstaions of 3 generations of pastors about church. He said the when Kingdom people quibble and argue over little things like style of music, dress, layout of the building (ironically some of the issues here in the history of Grace) it reflects the fact that they have lost sight of the mission. When people are on mission together, and the fulfillment of that mission is clearly informing their actions, these secondary issues become more and more irrelevant in thre greater calling from God.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
So here is part two of my rantings about the 3 biggest problems facing the church today.
Problem #2: The Church needs to stop thinking that our society is the same as it was a generation ago, hit the "reset" button, and become innovative with our mission.
Our world is changing so fast now, one can hardly keep up! This is one area where the church just does not seem to have a clue. But it (the church) should take heart because many people in the world today can't keep up as well.
We need to realize that most of our current church forms and praxis were cultural accomodations to a society that no longer exists. I am not overstating the issue when I say that many churches are lost in a time warp. We use our own language and terms (many of which have no meaning to people, even those who are in the church). We make people sit down in rows and listen to someone give a monologue (where else in society does anyone do this on a regular basis other than a comedy club, school, or something?) and sing some songs which sound nothing like music they listen to outside of church. We expect that people are still approaching truth from a propositional standpoint, still learn through abstract thought, and on and on it goes. Some churches still quibble over whether or not you should have drums and guitars or just organs, alcohol or "dry", dress, fill in the blanks. All the while our young people drift out the doors, society has long passed us by, and we are further on the fringe of society. It is very sad.
By innovative, I am not talking about the next church fad, ala Purpose Driven/Seeker models. Nor am I thinking that it should be a great showy, attractional event that is so cool people will want to bring their friends. I am saying that we need to critically examine every form we have adopted for our gatherings and determine whether or not they fit with the mission God has for us. If I were pastoring a retirement community in Florida, I would have a more traditional church service, more like the institutional models. But that would never work for a bunch of chain smoking indie rockers. So we need to innovate and change what we do for the sake of the Gospel. It's like a closed and open hand. In the closed hand we have the core elements of the faith, the truths worth contending for like Jude 3 says. Divinity and Lordship of Christ, Triune God, Jesus the only way to get to heaven, etc. But then in the open hand is everything else. Forms of church, tertiary doctrinal issues (tongues, rapture, millenium and the like), personal preferences, etc.
In my opinion, unless the church pulls its head out of the sand and embraces the reality of change, we will be no different that Europe, we are just a generation behind.
Problem #2: The Church needs to stop thinking that our society is the same as it was a generation ago, hit the "reset" button, and become innovative with our mission.
Our world is changing so fast now, one can hardly keep up! This is one area where the church just does not seem to have a clue. But it (the church) should take heart because many people in the world today can't keep up as well.
We need to realize that most of our current church forms and praxis were cultural accomodations to a society that no longer exists. I am not overstating the issue when I say that many churches are lost in a time warp. We use our own language and terms (many of which have no meaning to people, even those who are in the church). We make people sit down in rows and listen to someone give a monologue (where else in society does anyone do this on a regular basis other than a comedy club, school, or something?) and sing some songs which sound nothing like music they listen to outside of church. We expect that people are still approaching truth from a propositional standpoint, still learn through abstract thought, and on and on it goes. Some churches still quibble over whether or not you should have drums and guitars or just organs, alcohol or "dry", dress, fill in the blanks. All the while our young people drift out the doors, society has long passed us by, and we are further on the fringe of society. It is very sad.
By innovative, I am not talking about the next church fad, ala Purpose Driven/Seeker models. Nor am I thinking that it should be a great showy, attractional event that is so cool people will want to bring their friends. I am saying that we need to critically examine every form we have adopted for our gatherings and determine whether or not they fit with the mission God has for us. If I were pastoring a retirement community in Florida, I would have a more traditional church service, more like the institutional models. But that would never work for a bunch of chain smoking indie rockers. So we need to innovate and change what we do for the sake of the Gospel. It's like a closed and open hand. In the closed hand we have the core elements of the faith, the truths worth contending for like Jude 3 says. Divinity and Lordship of Christ, Triune God, Jesus the only way to get to heaven, etc. But then in the open hand is everything else. Forms of church, tertiary doctrinal issues (tongues, rapture, millenium and the like), personal preferences, etc.
In my opinion, unless the church pulls its head out of the sand and embraces the reality of change, we will be no different that Europe, we are just a generation behind.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
So I thought I would post this as my first post on this blog. It was on my school's forum and the question was "What are the 3 biggest challenges facing the church today?" These are my thoughts on the issue, part 1. Feel free to comment if you want to add something or just want to give a shout out.
Problem #1: The church has forgetten what it means to Incarnate the Gospel
It is helpful for me to think about the Incarnation in this whole process. Jesus came to 1st C Palestine. He came in a culturally specific way. Male, working class, Jewish, itinerant, etc. This was a crucial example to us. He chose to Incarnate the Good News in such a way that the message would be heard by the most people. Would he have had the same audience if he came to the same scenario as a woman? No. How about as one in a Pharasiaical family? No. What about as a cultural elite (like the Sadducees)? NO. He incarnated the Gospel in such a way that he would have no cultural barrier to the ones he was called to. At the end of John's gospel, Jesus prays for His people and says "as the Father has sent me, so I send you".
His mandate with the message is not to "market it", as if we can apply business priciples to grow churches. His mandate was for his people in every culture, place, time, etc to incarnate the Good News in such a way that our message won't get "Lost in Translation".
I live in the greater Seattle area. Less than 8% of our 5 million people attend any kind of church on Sunday. Throw out the liberal wacko churches and the number is alot less. Not only that, but we are now into our second generation of people (high school and new college) who are removed from any concept of Church attendence and even being formed within a Christian worldview. Now, I am a Reformed Theologian and a pastor. But, God has called me to be a missionary to this time and place. NOT to the 14th or 15th C. NOT to the 1st C. NOT to a society where the predominant world view was shaped by Christendom. NOT to a society where the church is considered the central place for spiritual answers. Therefore, as a good missionary, I need to do my "market research". I need to know the people whom God has called me to, what their hopes, dreams, and passions are, how they communicate, where they play, what their idols are, what is sacred to them, etc. Then, I need to engage them in their culture with the transformative truth of the Gospel. I need to constantly see how God would have me "Incarnate" His Good News, to re-tell their cultural narrative through the lens of the Gospel.
What generally happens in many churches is that we err in two ways. We have a tendency to over contextualize and ultimately compromise the Gospel or we withdraw from our culture, hunkering down in our bunkers with our rapture charts out, waiting for Jesus to come back .
A good balance with all of this is to approach the idols that our culture holds sacred. We need to decide what elements can be recieved. There are many aspects to our society which point to Jesus, Film, arts, music, etc all have elements that point us to God. These need to be recieved by Christians and affirmed as reflecting truth about God. We also need to decide what elements can be redeemed. These can be good things that have been turned into "God things". I think of the environmentalists. If anyone should be in the forefront of this it should be us Christians. Instead, we have neglected our responsibility to be stewards of the earth and have let others do it who are worshiping the creation instead of the Creator. Christians need to redeem this element of society back to Jesus, to show people what it means to steward the Creators world, not to worship it. Finally, we need to see what needs to be rejected. There are aspects of our society that are truly evil and must never be accepted. However, as a pastor I have found that when we are humbly engaging in the culture, recieving and redeeming elements back to Jesus, people are more open to hear why things need to be rejected.
Really, me and some fellow pastors in our network have concluded that you are right on in your ministry when you are shot at by both sides. The conservatives think you are too worldly and the liberals think you are too conservative!
Problem #1: The church has forgetten what it means to Incarnate the Gospel
It is helpful for me to think about the Incarnation in this whole process. Jesus came to 1st C Palestine. He came in a culturally specific way. Male, working class, Jewish, itinerant, etc. This was a crucial example to us. He chose to Incarnate the Good News in such a way that the message would be heard by the most people. Would he have had the same audience if he came to the same scenario as a woman? No. How about as one in a Pharasiaical family? No. What about as a cultural elite (like the Sadducees)? NO. He incarnated the Gospel in such a way that he would have no cultural barrier to the ones he was called to. At the end of John's gospel, Jesus prays for His people and says "as the Father has sent me, so I send you".
His mandate with the message is not to "market it", as if we can apply business priciples to grow churches. His mandate was for his people in every culture, place, time, etc to incarnate the Good News in such a way that our message won't get "Lost in Translation".
I live in the greater Seattle area. Less than 8% of our 5 million people attend any kind of church on Sunday. Throw out the liberal wacko churches and the number is alot less. Not only that, but we are now into our second generation of people (high school and new college) who are removed from any concept of Church attendence and even being formed within a Christian worldview. Now, I am a Reformed Theologian and a pastor. But, God has called me to be a missionary to this time and place. NOT to the 14th or 15th C. NOT to the 1st C. NOT to a society where the predominant world view was shaped by Christendom. NOT to a society where the church is considered the central place for spiritual answers. Therefore, as a good missionary, I need to do my "market research". I need to know the people whom God has called me to, what their hopes, dreams, and passions are, how they communicate, where they play, what their idols are, what is sacred to them, etc. Then, I need to engage them in their culture with the transformative truth of the Gospel. I need to constantly see how God would have me "Incarnate" His Good News, to re-tell their cultural narrative through the lens of the Gospel.
What generally happens in many churches is that we err in two ways. We have a tendency to over contextualize and ultimately compromise the Gospel or we withdraw from our culture, hunkering down in our bunkers with our rapture charts out, waiting for Jesus to come back .
A good balance with all of this is to approach the idols that our culture holds sacred. We need to decide what elements can be recieved. There are many aspects to our society which point to Jesus, Film, arts, music, etc all have elements that point us to God. These need to be recieved by Christians and affirmed as reflecting truth about God. We also need to decide what elements can be redeemed. These can be good things that have been turned into "God things". I think of the environmentalists. If anyone should be in the forefront of this it should be us Christians. Instead, we have neglected our responsibility to be stewards of the earth and have let others do it who are worshiping the creation instead of the Creator. Christians need to redeem this element of society back to Jesus, to show people what it means to steward the Creators world, not to worship it. Finally, we need to see what needs to be rejected. There are aspects of our society that are truly evil and must never be accepted. However, as a pastor I have found that when we are humbly engaging in the culture, recieving and redeeming elements back to Jesus, people are more open to hear why things need to be rejected.
Really, me and some fellow pastors in our network have concluded that you are right on in your ministry when you are shot at by both sides. The conservatives think you are too worldly and the liberals think you are too conservative!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
