It’s Not You, It’s Me

31 10 2007

Boy, we church folks break up badly, don’t we? I have some friends who recently left their denomination to start a new church. They’ve been faithfully serving for 10+ years as church staff and giving it their all. The only reason they left to start something new was because their denominational structure would not allow them to start a new work in an area with a higher population of the demographic their ministry style is most likely to reach. Why? Because that’s somebody’s else’s turf. Yep. Another church of the same denomination, who, by the way, probably hasn’t had 5 people come to Christ in the last 10 years, is already in that area. So, because you have a decades-old church with less than 100 in attendance, they are not allowed by their denomination to go and exercise their call and talents to potentially reach thousands, which the existing church has clearly demonstrated aren’t worth their time.

Why do districts and “turf” defined by humans outweigh reaching people with the news of what God’s done through Christ? It’s so sad that it happens. It literally happens every day in church world. Someone called and equipped to introduce people to God isn’t allowed to because they won’t “play ball”, pay their dues (literally) and pander to the insider Christians. Even worse, is the venom that is churned up when the pioneer says, “I’m sorry. I have to go because God has called me to reach people.” Personal attacks, slander, lies and conjecture are stirred up. No mention of the dutiful service that’s been put in for years simply to help people meet God. Nope. Suddenly, this person is clearly not as “holy and God-fearing as we are”. Could it be that their very fear of ignoring His call to go compels them to? Do we, as the “professional Christians” really want to stand in the way of that?

I sure don’t. I don’t think there’s scarcity at all in God’s kingdom. New leaders, new works, new resources - I can’t imagine the joy God gets in providing those. I am so thankful for the early century church splits and plants that resulted in me getting to hear the Good News a hemisphere away from where it all began. Thanks to you church leaders who have that Kingdom-mindset and know that God is constantly re-inventing, birthing new visions, and calling people to go. If you’re in the other boat and resisting a new work, what are you afraid of?


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They put the “fun” in dysfunction

25 10 2007

Read today where the Phelps clan from Kansas is being sued for one of their disgusting military funeral protests.  I hate it when wackos hijack God’s name to justify their idiotic actions.  They are an extreme example for sure, but lots of us church folks have done tamer things that fall into the same category - “We’re right.  God’s on our side.  You’re wrong.”

Truth is God is on every human being’s side.  Even if you have rejected Him every day up to this point, you are still His prized creation and He’s given everything for the opportunity of a restored relationship with you.  For those who can’t accept that because of the offenses of the Church, please don’t confuse God with the Church.  The Church is imperfect.  Always will be.  Can’t help it.  It’s an organization composed of human beings, so we’re going to mess things up pretty routinely.

Just please don’t let our offenses, judgmental nature, abused power, weird lingo, inconsistency, etc. keep you from asking, “What if?”.   God doesn’t have our issues and problems.  I wish we could get our junk out of the way so you could see Him clearly, but considering Him doesn’t mean you have to adopt all the stuff that has kept you away.  You don’t.  You absolutely don’t.  And if you run into a church person who wants discuss your behavior before anything else, run, don’t walk, away.  Not a one of us deserved God’s grace.  We simply found it and that’s the story you need to hear.


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My favorite ESPN story

16 10 2007

There are some stories that every person breathing just needs to hear.  This is one of them:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=rayofhope

I’m a UNC Tarheel from grad school, so I’ll admit to an unnatural preoccupation with college basketball, but this story is so beyond that.   Jason Ray was the UNC mascot who was hit and killed by a driver during the Sweet Sixteen last year.  Do yourself a favor, read his story and appreciate his dad’s comment about the Architect behind it all.  Thank you Rays for inviting us into your story.


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We can’t legislate Jesus, only captivate

11 10 2007

Just dipping my toes into the new book UnChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, which is the result of their recent efforts to find out what unchurched 16-29 year olds think of Christianity. Dave is president of the Barna Group, sort of Christianity’s Gallup organization, which is significant because their findings are not the result of assumptions or the perceived feel of the author, but through verifiable research. What I read this morning, served to confirm a feeling I’ve had for a while - Outsiders perceive Christians as “too political”. Aside from their findings that 87% felt we were judgmental and 85% saw us as hypocritical, 75% viewed us as too political. There’s a whole list on p. 28 of their book, but the “too political” finding was up my alley.

My undergrad degree was in Political Science, so I studied all the mechanisms of our governing system, and I’m a Christian, so reading that this morning confirmed an uneasy feeling I’ve held for the last few years - I think the Church, while possibly setting out with good intentions, has probably become too cozy with our political system. Duh! That’s been going on since the beginning of time :-), but I say that simply to raise awareness of that for those out there who are striving so hard to help people see past Christianity, as simply a religion with a political platform and more as a movement with the message, “You’ve got to check out Jesus. There is truth, freedom and life in Him.”

Now, do I desire to elect and have as my representatives God-fearing, moral and common-sensical men and women? Absolutely! Do I thank God every day that I live in a country where I can worship Him freely and openly, and understand what a privilege that is? Absolutely! But, I wonder how many resources elements of the Church pour into gaining favor and influence with the powers-that-be to the detriment of other avenues that might better represent and introduce people to the ultimate and final Power-that-always-will-be. If 75% of the unchurched 16-29 year olds answer that we are way too political, and it therefore becomes a barrier to them investigating Christ, how do we modify our efforts in that arena?

I think recently there’s been some distancing from some of the more active conservative political organizations that we’ve learned have only polarized people against Christians because of their platforms that basically try to legislate morality. We should know by now large, impersonal organizations aren’t the influence needed to change someone’s spiritual trajectory, only a relationship with Christ can make someone want that. Perhaps, we as the Church can spend more time relationally and less time politically working towards that end. 75% seems to tell me the political ways aren’t working that well. What are your thoughts?


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The “Curse of Knowledge”

9 10 2007

Just finished reading Made to Stick by Chip & Dan Heath. One of my favorite takeaways was the “Curse of Knowledge”, defined this way - “Once we know something we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. Our knowledge has ‘cursed’ us. And it becomes difficult for us to share our knowledge with others, because we can’t readily re-create our listeners’ state of mind.”

Hello! Of course, we’re “blessed” with our knowledge of Christ, but does that scenario ever plague the Church. They’re speaking from a marketing perspective and the difficulty of getting your message across when you have expert knowledge of the product or subject matter, and you need to explain its importance and benefit to a market of novices that are unaware. Obviously, I’m not suggesting we change truth in order to “sell” Christ, but the principles of what they describe translate so well to a recurring struggle the Church has in getting the message of Christ across.

How does this happen? Why do we, with such personal experience of God’s amazing grace and mercy, do such a poor job of explaining it in an intriguing way to the world who needs to know it? Why does the “Curse of Knowlege” strike us so sharply? Well, as a church staffer for 6 years now, I’ll just go ahead and personally admit that my world of friends and contacts are overwhelmingly Christian. It wasn’t always that way, certainly not when I was still in the corporate world, but it’s just evidence of the natural tendency for us to surround ourselves with people who either “do” something similar to us or share similar views. I’m just acknowledging that as a natural human tendency, not singling out Christians for indictment, but it does have implications that the Church has to be aware of and fight against in order to keep from coming off as just another organization full of “experts” trying to sell their product, message, viewpoint, etc. Here are some implications off the top of my head:

  1. Find some non-church staff, marketing firm, or someone outside your organization to run your external communications by.
  2. If you have some new Christians in your midst, involve them (not to mention, honor and activate them) by asking them how the message might have landed with them before they took that recent step of faith or with some of the unchurched friends they still have.
  3. Use plain language and appeal to common experiences we all share vs. “church speak”.

I’m sure there are plenty more good suggestions. What would you say?


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Roadside Church Signs

3 10 2007

In the guise of doing no harm, could we do a little reality check on what’s posted on roadside church signs? Now, posting your service times or something uplifting/encouraging, not an issue - great, go for it. But, what in the world are some people thinking with some of the junk that’s posted? Is that really what they’ve chosen as a representation of God to those who don’t know him personally? How many “turn or burn” quips or verses of condemnation do you seriously think it takes before you’ve so “tenderized” someone’s heart, that they pull into your parking lot with tears streaming down their face asking you for forgiveness?

Two points here:

  1. People slinging condemnation at others does nothing but polarize. If you think it’s going to draw them closer to the God they need to know, please explain how you react to unsolicited criticism from people with whom you have no relationship? Seriously, how does it make you feel? It ticks you off, doesn’t it? Usually, it turns you against whomever is making the statement. Well, the same thing happens with some of the thoughtless things posted on church signs, and the whole Church suffers as a result. Everyone Jesus met was condemned without Him, but that’s not what He smacked them in the face with. He always met them where they where and revealed the hope offered in following Him.
  2. It wasn’t a typo above when I wrote “people ask you for forgiveness”. We know God is actually the one from whom people need to receive forgiveness, but there are some freaky control issues that lurk among “religious” people. Religious people primarily believe you get to God through the conduct of your personal behavior, i.e. you conduct yourself well enough that God accepts you. Now, at first glance, that seems rational. But, reality tells us that it’s all too human. We are the performance-based ones. We are the ones who only extend acceptance if someone acts “right”. Thankfully, God’s ways are higher than ours. He can look at the most hardened, distasteful heart and see what can happen if it were only exposed to pure grace and mercy - the kind He offers, not the performance-based kind we extend. He’s looking for “the turn” of a heart toward Him and is perfectly capable of completing the rest of the work.

Religious people are looking first for good behavior, for which they then might extend acceptance. You see the difference? One is inviting. One is excluding. Religious people putting pithy, excluding statements on signs are in effect saying, “If you act ‘good enough’ for me first, then we’ll see about your standing with God next.” Ouch! If you’re making these signs, do you really want to be in that boat? Stop and think, “Do these words invite or exclude?” Let’s be inviting and help begin a good work that God can finish.


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Tone of this blog

3 10 2007

I’m sure every blogger ever starting out had some sort of idea how they hoped the ensuing conversations would go. I just wanted to take a second to state it publicly because I’m sure I’ll need you to hold me and this site accountable, and I want to make sure you’re invited to.

Discussing church gets emotional and passionate at times. Thankfully so. My goodness it’s about our faith, we should care a lot. But, as you know, things can quickly get sideways and the discussion stops being anything near “constructive” very early on. We’re human. We get tired and short-tempered. Life beats us up. And we may be saved, but there’s still a lot of “flesh” in us yet to be worked out. So, with all that said, here are a few principles that can hopefully guide us all:

  1. Critique generally. Praise specifically. If the name “HippoChurch” plays off of the Hippocratic Oath and seeks to exhort the Church to “first, do no harm”, that implies that there are some practices that are doing harm. Most of the time these occurrences are wholly unintentional or simply poorly thought out. A public blog is not the place to sling mud about “first name, last name” at “church name” is doing such and such and we need to humiliate/criticize them into stopping it. If you keep the critique principle-based, rational people will self-identify whether they fit that mold or not. Also, when it comes to praise, be as specific and tell the story as best as possible. We all need to hear and learn from the “wins” going on out there.
  2. Discussion and respectfully disagreeing can co-habitate. Unfortunately, I think media talk shows and cable news have had their greatest effect by devaluing what we call “discussion” today. What we see on those shows is not discussion at all. It’s a production! We have to remember that the media’s job is to grab attention. And nothing does that better than tension. So they get the most polarizing, entrenched views at the opposite ends of the spectrum on an issue and bring them together for a “discussion”. You know the rest of the story. Well, in our media-saturated culture, one of the unintentional after-effects has been the gradual eroding of people’s ability to have healthy, respectful discussion. Thankfully, Patrick Lencioni in The Five Discussions of a Team reminded us, “Rational people don’t always have to get their way. They just need to know that they’ve been heard.” Wouldn’t it be great if the Church could become universally recognized for its people having healthy discussion and still end up loving and pulling for one another at the end of the day. I think you’d agree we could make a lot of progress in that area. Let’s start with you and me and develop a culture where anything less than that is just not acceptable.

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