If people think God is like your church…

26 01 2008

…is that a good thing? Read recently where one of the most common perceptions of those who visit a church is that they perceive God’s character to be like the people and service they experienced. I don’t know about you, but that worries me. That means everything at the church is important - the look and feel, the music, the demeanor of those serving, the sermon, etc. If it’s boring, they think God’s boring. If it’s irrelevant and useless for their daily life, so is God. If it’s creepy and judgmental, guess what? Yep, they think God is too.

Why that worries me so much is because I think the vast majority of churches are just going through the motions. Everything that happens on Sunday and all the programming is simply a repeat of inherited tradition. It’s like there’s this big pattern book on “How to do Church” and we’re just mindlessly implementing it. It may have been decades since someone’s asked, “Is this effective anymore?”, “How do we know?”, “Is there a steady stream of people flowing into our church and meeting Jesus?” Complacency is probably the #1 crippler of every church. That’s not unique to churches. It’s just our human nature. But, we have to know what’s at stake and that every service, every program and environment has the possibility to be someone’s first experience and form their first impressions about God. I don’t know about you, but the God I know is dynamic, challenging, full of grace, loving discipline, and is more encouraging and uplifting the closer I get to Him. Is that the impression people get at your church and the closer they get to your people?

If the Church is His representative to the world, what are we presenting? If people think God is like your church, is that a good thing?


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Refreshingly Honest

20 01 2008

Been diving back into the book UnChristian (unchristian.com) after it gathered dust for a few weeks. Life’s gotten pretty busy with my wife and I expecting our first child in a few weeks. Anway, finally remembered to take it with me for my time on the bike at the gym. (Thanks to Jeff Henderson at Buckhead Church, blog.buckheadchurch.org, for reminding me of that great reading opportunity, when you can either watch your RPMs and the TV captioning or perhaps exercise your mind as well.) Chapter 3 addresses hypocrisy, which is probably the #1 criticism of people outside the Church. I would argue they’re totally justified in that, but that’s another point for another day.

There’s a letter in the chapter by Margaret Feinberg (margaretfeinberg.blogspot.com), where she shares one of her blog posts on the topic. I love how “real” it is. I can only imagine how many more people could clearly examine the message of Jesus if Christians carried this posture vs. the facade that we have it all together. Here it is (pp. 62-63):

I thought that becoming a follower of Jesus would help me kick the sin habit, providing the inoculation I needed, but in some ways the symptoms just grew worse. I realized how much I was infected and how it was affecting my attitude, my relationships, my life. So the truth is that I’m fighting. I’m fighting sin with everything I’ve got. Some days I fare better than others. Odds are that if you’re calling me a hypocrite, then you caught me on one of my worst days.

I am sorry. I’m sorry that I let you down and disappointed you. But the truth is that I’m not giving up or letting go. I’ve encountered a God who promises that the battle ends in victory- life instead of death. So call me crazy- but I’m holding on to that promise. I’m also trying to uphold the standards God has set. They’re pretty high, and some days I just find myself laying on the ground, staring at the ceiling. But then I feel an urge, an energy, to get up and fight once again.

(Here’s my favorite part) I could use your help. The next time you see me behaving like a hypocrite, pull me aside and gently let me know. I’d really appreciate it.

Man, I love that! I so want to represent Christ well, but I know me, and I know only God can finish the work of perfecting me and that time hasn’t come yet. I fail every day. I’m going to keep trying though. And, I know I’m way more approachable for someone in admitting my common struggles than by standing off with my polished exterior and telling them they need to get right with God.


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What makes you feel most alive in ministry?

13 01 2008

And most importantly, how long has it been since you last felt that way? Are you in a position to experience it frequently?

Too easily in the course of doing our jobs, we get consumed by the tasks or where we are in the process of moving the ball down the field. I think it’s important that we regularly bring to mind the situations and events that make us feel most alive, so that we can evaluate how long it’s been since we’ve been “in the zone” and whether we’re doing anything intentionally or unintentionally to keep us from that.

For me, it’s creating that “aha” or “light-bulb” moment where someone understands for the first time that God is “for” them or is actually on their side, and that trusting in Him brings freedom. Too often, those who don’t know Christ have a perception that believing in God means a lot of things they’re not interested in: 1. the end of all fun and laughter; 2. rote memorization of Bible verses; 3. a lot of dry cleaning to have their suits and dresses ready for Sunday; and, 4. adhering to a list of “dont’s” in order to be good at this religion. Bottom line: The God most people are rejecting is actually not who He is, as much as they’re rejecting the religion mannerisms mankind’s layered on top of Him. That’s okay. We can battle those misperceptions. That’s what makes me feel alive. I love it when I can play a part in helping people see God for who He really is.

What about you? What do you do in ministry where the Spirit within you is just screaming, “Isn’t this awesome? Look at what you’re a part of!” If you haven’t felt that in a long time or aren’t sure if you ever will in the role you’re in, fight for it! Pray for it! There’s too much at stake for this to just be a paycheck or simple career choice for you. Be alive!


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There is no scarcity with God

3 01 2008

Just a brief thought today, but in conversation recently with some guys who are interested in doing a new work in their community, it’s clear that they are dreading having to reveal to their current church employer that they might be leaving. I can understand this somewhat in the private sector, having started in it myself before going on a church staff, but it really saddens me that all too often the reception and repercussions of leaving a position in the church world evoke more ugliness than any other “industry”. Why is that? If you’re in charge at a church, what threatens you about people pursuing something else?

I know that for real leadership to flourish and for people to fully engage the gifts God gave them, there has to be a spirit of openness, mutual respect and a shared understanding that God only deserves our best. If someone can’t give you their best at your church, for whatever reason, by all means support them, give them a blessing and let them go pursue what they’re passionate about. If you’re afraid to lose them, you’ve probably forgotten the fact that God doesn’t need any of us. He’s allowing us to participate with Him. He owns all the resources and is free to move the pieces around as He sees fit.

I’ve seen some great instances where pastors recognized that and they’re only response to someone being called to something else was gratitude and “how can we help you in pursuing that?”. And fruit abounds.

Unfortunately, the inverse is way too prevalent. Come on Church! How big is your God?


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Big Church or Small Church - Irrelevant

4 12 2007

I work at a big church. A church that among 3 campuses, on the weekend, may have as many as 20,000 people attend. That’s fun, but it’s not really important. In fact, it’s dangerous when it wedges down in our flesh and creates an attitude of, “We’re winning because we have all these people showing up.”

It’s not a megachurch thing either. I think most pastors judge how they’re doing based upon the size of their congregations relative to other pastors, be it your 100-person congregation compared to someone else’s 80-person congregation, which is also irrelevant.

I had a great reminder of that this weekend because of something I forgot to communicate in one of my rare public-speaking instances. You see I usually work with the lead pastors of churches that are typically less than 200 people. I was visiting one of them this weekend and addressed their volunteers prior to their service. I thanked them for all they do and the hours they put into setup/teardown church. I mentioned how North Point started back in 1995 as a desire in the hearts of 6 people. Their first office space was the basement of someone’s home. For 2 and 1/2 years, they met every other Sunday, yes, every other Sunday. In three different venues over that period. I wanted to remind this local partner that what they’re doing now matters a lot, even when the numbers are small and that because of their efforts (changing diapers, unpacking and packing children’s toys, setting up chairs, audio/video, etc.) they would literally change eternity for some people. That’s a miracle. And God uses them to play a part in it!

My mistake was mentioning the numbers to which those early efforts at NP had grown into without re-emphasizing what’s really important. (Did I mention that I rarely do public-speaking? :-) ) Thankfully, I had one of their volunteers (thanks Chris!) come up to me while we were breaking down the environments and ask, “How do you measure success? What number do you have to get to to be considered successful?” I immediately smiled with appreciation and said, “I’m so glad you asked that question.” I told him that success was simply life change. 1 person discovering who God is and what He’s done through Christ to have a relationship with them. That’s it. That’s success. If that’s “all” that ever happens through our efforts, I can’t imagine any better measure than to know someone is in the Kingdom because God used your efforts to reach them.

For all of you out there leading and laboring in church world, for all of you drowning in droves of people checking your church out, or for all of you who haven’t seen a new face in years but you long for it, or for all of you that ever started something with passion and conviction only to see it wither in time, if 1 person gave God a chance because of your efforts, I can’t imagine Him being more pleased. Can you imagine Him tying up that loose end in heaven one day? “Come here. I want you to meet ‘John’ or ‘Susan’. He or she is here today because you trusted in me and sought to bring me glory by telling them about me.” Wow!

Numbers can be great, and it’s certainly a worthy goal to be attractional because the Jesus I see in the Bible certainly is, but always remember there’s no sum greater than 1 in all that we do.


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Willow-bashing “Reveals” in its own right

20 11 2007

First off, let me say I’ve never attended a Willow Creek service in my life. I have attended a leadership conference there and watched a few via simulcast.

Recently, under the Reveal project, Willow has been sharing some of their research into what their ministry model has produced over the years. They’ve admitted some mistakes they’ve made along the way. I say all of this simply to establish that I’m not some rabid, Willow-can-do-wrong fan.

Okay, with that out of the way, I am so saddened and disappointed to see the condemnation, the “I told you so” attitude, and pure gloating among some in the Christian community over the courage a church and its leadership had to undertake some self-examination, admit their mistakes and publicly share what they’ve found. It’s out there. Just do a Google search for “willow creek” and “reveal”. Lots of prideful revelry in the links and postings that follow.

I think what disgusts me the most is all the “mature” believers and clergy spouting their judgment on Willow’s efforts over the decades - to a point where it almost seems like they desire to see its leaders publicly repent to them, before God. I can’t believe the pride in that and the repeated damage that does to the Church’s mission.

Anyway, though I have no allegiance to Willow, I would like to publicly thank them for the lives they’ve changed through their ministry efforts over the years. There are thousands of people in the Kingdom today because of all you’ve done, and thank you for the beautiful, healthy and refreshing practice of self-examination before God and the transparency you’ve demonstrated with this Reveal effort.

The mistakes you feel you’ve made are common to all of us in the church world: You seek God’s heart and try your best to minister to people. You experience some success with some of your methods, so you seize upon them and develop programs to support it. The challenge in that is not to systemize it to the point that you end up making the program “sacred” when God has clearly continued to move on.

That’s not unique to Willow. It’s common to man. We frequently run to Him when we need answers or relief, only to drift away once those are provided. For all the mud-slingers out there, try some of that self-examination medicine first and thank God for this very public reminder that’s been provided through Willow to constantly examine what we do in His light. Sincere thanks, Willow, for your humility and transparency.


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Our Preoccupation with Titles

11 11 2007

“Hi, Brother Smith.” “Hello, Sister Jones.” “Pastor Williams left you a note.” “Bishop Taylor will see you now.”

Yuck! Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t talk that way anywhere in life. Sure, I’ll call a doctor, a doctor or a military, police or fire officer, their hard-earned rank, but I’ve just never gotten how weird we are in the church with our insistence on titles. Other than “Lord”, which is only reserved for One, the rest of us are simply children of God.

I guess I became more acutely aware of this when I became a pastor myself. Before being called into ministry, I had already received a master’s degree while preparing in my former field. Sure, a few more years of applying myself and I could have gone on for that doctorate and a lifetime of being addressed as “Doctor”. An achievement? Okay, but I’m still Scott or Tank to those who know me best, and the best honor anyone could recognize me with verbally is calling me friend. I don’t need any more than that.

With all my conversation in church world today, I still recoil a bit whenever I get a message or email from “Pastor so-and-so” or I get called that myself. I am, but why does my title matter, especially to the outside world? Generally, one of the inherent functions of titles is to distinguish, or you might even say, exclude the title-holder from the general population. It’s always been most prevalent in fields and occupations where instantaneous clarification of one’s education and knowledge is important. If you’ve got the title, it means you’ve gotten exposure to the knowledge and advanced training.

Okay, before I rile up too many, I’m not at all suggesting that Christian education and personal study are not important for the Christian faith. I’m just arguing that the bestowing of titles for doing so simply does the job titles are intended to do: elevates and, in a way, excludes the title-holder from the general population. Don’t believe me? If it hasn’t happened to you personally, how familiar is the characterization of people “straightening up” or “acting right” when they know a pastor is in their midst. Usually, it’s an absolute conversation killer or at the very least, when the pastor leaves it’s a relief because everyone can go back to acting “normal”.

Do we need recognition this badly? Is it at all necessary or just emblematic of low self-esteem? The real question: Did Jesus throw his accolades around or just engage the general population? What can we learn from that? What’s more important, getting your title out there so people will salve your ego or just being your plain ol’ first name and meeting people in the middle of life?


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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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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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