Reflecting on the Idea of Culture Wars Part 2

March 11, 2010 // No Comments »

Posted in Culture, Reflective

I finished the previous post by offering a brief overview to my introduction to the idea of the “culture war”. This post I want to engage in how many of us as Christians have been fighting the culture war. As you saw in the last post, there was a connection between Christianity and political conservatism. While not all Christians have made that same connection, I did. It was a reflection of our Christian faith - to vote conservative. While I will not argue that the right evangelical expression is to vote more liberal/left (or moderate, or not vote at all, etc.), it is my aim that our faith must transcend our political ideologies. Said another way, our faith can be reflected in our political views but not defined. For me, “fighting” in the culture war did not allow me to see that and I suspect that many young evangelicals can relate.

It should be said that some do not actually see a culture war but instead see many expressions of beliefs and practices that some respond with varying degrees of tolerance/intolerance. For our purposes, I will simply use the idea of “culture war” to reference the fight that results between our conflicting ideologies, namely conservative versus liberal, Christian versus non-Christian. However, as the posts unfold, I am more interested in the Christian’s perspective and posture towards the idea of the culture war.

From where I sit, I see four typical responses to the way the culture war has been fought by Christians.

One is way of the “Conquistador”. They can be the trailblazing missionaries that jump off of boats, planes, and blogs ready to claim soul and land “in the name of Jesus!”  You could argue the missions movement of the 19th century was another example of this. You could also make the case the birth of America was rooted in this too but good luck explaining how the treatment of the Native Americans was moral, Christian, or in an sense, acceptable.  But those may be subjects for another day.

Easier examples might be the more modern versions of the “Conquistador”.  Sometimes the Conquistador is an innovator/builder/mogul like a Billy Graham.  At its laziest and lamest, the Conquistador is the “copycat” who sees You Tube and creates God Tube or sees MySpace and creates HisSpace or something like that. The purpose is to claim “space” in the name of God.

The second response I see is the “Guardian” mentality. The Guardian is the one who is scaring the life out of people on radio, television, internet, and from behind the pulpit. “The ACLU is coming to get you! And if they don’t succeed, the other secularists will! And so, if you send $50 to our organization, “Keep God Where He Belongs”, you will do your part in making sure the omni-presence of God stays where it belongs, right here in America!” Yes, that is a caricature.

Probably a better connection point is the common sentiment that the 1950’s were a very Christian and moral time in America and we need to get back to it. It’s the hope of Pleasantville and the personalities are the televangelists like Falwell, Robertson, Dobson, etc. You could say that the Guardian mentality is the generation (not 40 years of time but of mentality) after the Conquistador. They quote Paul and the Founding Fathers in the same breath. That’s a problem for the Christ-follower who claims to be seeking the Kingdom of Jesus.

Succeeding the Guardian is the Debater/Protester/Activisit. This person is a combination of the Conquistador and Guardian. They are (re)claiming something and guarding something else. In the political world, it could be Ann Coulter. In the subversive Christian world, it could be a Shane Claiborne. (By the way, this is the only time in the entire internet that those two names will be found in back to back sentences). This person is typically passionate and prophetic. To its extreme, this person is the assassin.

The final Christian response to the culture war is the “Private Apathetic”. This is the person who has more or less seen the gravity of the situation, has fired upon others in the culture war, has been fired upon and has been wounded. This person has regretted hurting others and being hurt and has consequently abandoned the fight.

Some have retreated deep within the Christian sub-culture and filled their days praying for the rapture while waving their finger of judgement at the decadent world. While others have abandoned any form of institution whatsoever and in some cases, forsaken Christian community as well, wishing only to worship God “privately”.

What’s interesting to me is that most of us have dabbled in all four mentalities at some point, some at the same time.

Now, I am not saying that there is no virtue in any of these. I am trying to draw broad strokes on a blog post here. Certainly there is a place for Innovators. Indeed, there is a time when we do need to guard important matters. There is a place for debate, protest (hello Protestant Reformation), and activism. There is also a time to retreat from the affairs of the world and find rest and renewal. I would contend that the work and the cross of Christ can be seen in these mentalities and more. I would also argue that the work and cross of Christ go much further and thus, so should we.

I’ll pick up here in the next post.

Reflecting on the idea of Culture Wars

March 9, 2010 // 7 Comments »

Posted in Culture, Reflective

It was back in college (Liberty University) that I learned about the “Culture War”. I remember having to be convinced that there was one. Prior to that, I do not remember having many enemies. In the 90’s, I think I disliked two groups of people, abortion doctors and Red Sox fans ;-). Around that time, I only had a few problems, bad luck with girls, Greek (the language, not any frat reference. Come on, the context is Liberty University! ;-), and rock n’roll sucked. As I recall, in 1997, there were two songs on the radio, Matchbox’s 20 “Push” and Sugar Ray’s “Fly”. Oh wait, there was Chumbawaba and boy bands were about to take over the world. In response, I started listening to John Coltrane, Miles Davis and other classic jazz musicians.

Anyway, I was informed that we were at war. I’m not talking about Ephesians 6 (Our battle is not flesh and blood …), but a war of competing ideologies, beliefs and values and the fate of the world rested on it. My real enemies were the ACLU, Bill Clinton and his Democrats, and Marilyn Manson. It was then that I started reading Chuck Colson’s Breakpoint, World Magazine and books by Cal Thomas and William Bennett. I was also very interested in apologetics and really believed that I could prove Christianity. So Ravi Zacharias, RC Sproul, and Phillip Johnson and on serious days, Gary Habermas and William Craig. I remember that summer reading Robert Bork’s Slouching Towards Gomorrah (which is an awesome book title) and thinking that I needed to be ready “to take a stand” and “hold the line” because a good Christian was a good soldier.

Like all good soldiers, I was headed down the road of not questioning my superiors. The orders I was given were more of disposition and rarely of action (after all, we were evangelicals But as influential as Bork’s book was, I remember coming across a report where the ACLU represented a student-led after-school Bible study in a public school. What??? I knew that Jesus said, “a house divided against itself cannot stand” but was this something even more diabolical? I started seeing that things were a bit more complicated. Later I began understanding things like why many people had abortions (turns out, the white, affluent, liberal, career women represented a very, very, tiny percentage. It was lower-income minorities that comprised much of the stats.) And while that didn’t change my position on the topic of abortion, I started seeing the complexity of life, this world and God, Himself (including His mercy and justice).

Later I stumbled across Addicted to Mediocrity by Franky Schaeffer which eventually led to the work of his father, Francis. Titles by C.S. Lewis and Peter Kreeft starting filling up my shelf and while I have always been and still remain conservative/moderate on most issues, the idea of objectivity (meaning that we as flawed, sinful people could actually be objective) was losing its grip on me. While I did not recognize it at the time, the idea of postmodernity was becoming a good thing and instead of seeing myself at war within my society, I started understanding the potential virtues of plurality and the power of relationships and conversation.
Part 2 later.

Doubt is Good … Reflecting on Our “Religulous” Winter Retreat - Part 2

February 25, 2010 // No Comments »

Posted in Christianity, Reflective, Student Ministry

Doubt is Good For the Soul
The first time I showed Religulous to our youth leaders, some confessed that they felt guilty for laughing. Being a product of sacrilege, I didn’t think too much of it. I was more concerned about the doubt that would be created and reinforced - which was part of the reason I was showing the movie. Everyone I know doubts. Not just Christians - I mean everyone I know doubts something that they were at one point certain about.

It’s my opinion that we don’t doubt enough! If we did, I think many of us would have a stronger faith. For many the first time they truly examine their doubts is in the proverbial ancient literature class where they discover the idea of “Genre”. The Bible is a narrative with various genres - Historical, Law, Poetic, Apocalyptic,

I think a solid youth ministry discusses that first. For Bible-believing Christians, we don’t teach our students enough Bible. There are various reasons for that which I can’t get into here but we don’t teach enough Bible. Even more importantly, as Bible-believing Christians, we don’t teach our students enough the importance of walking in the Spirit. When we explore our doubts as we are seeking the Holy Spirit, a lot of beauty, truth, and the presence of God is found.

“Umm, God, Do You Really Exist. Can I ask that without getting smited?”
God is not afraid of our questions. I used to think He was. I used to think that my submitting any question in the direction of God would grieve God and I’d either get cursed with a broken television or worse get called into pastoring at a King James Version only church (I can the blog reader say it right now, “If the King James was good enough for St. Paul - it’s good enough for me!”.

Doubt is Two-Edged Sword
All that said, doubt is a two-edged sword. People give up the Christian faith for various reasons, but among them is because of a giving into their doubts. Bill Maher would say something like, “No, they grew up out of these idiot fantasies about space gods and virgins and started thinking for themselves!” But whenever I think of some of his statements, the CK Chesterton line comes to mind, “When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing — they believe in anything.”

The Line Between Great Doubt and Great Faith is Very Thin
I used to also think that the less you doubted the more your faith grew. Though I’m not a good linear thinker, if you could picture a line and on the far left, it was labeled, “Great Doubt” and the far right “Great Faith”, i would have assumed that they were polar opposites from each other. But I think it’s a pretty thin line. It’s when we believe in spite of the doubt, in spite of the pain, that our faith is growing.

I see Matthew 7:7-8 as a promise to the seeker of faith (”Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened”) and reminded our students as I have been reminded many times, great people of faith doubted before they obeyed - Abraham, Moses, Jeremiah, Thomas and you could even make the case that Jesus was tempted to fall into doubt. When He’s prays in the garden for the cup to pass over him, that is not just poetry. Luke 22 describes that he prayed so earnestly that drops of blood fell to the ground. Wether this is figurative language or the A rare physiological phenomenon “hematohidrosi“, he was certainly stressed. I dislike the idea that Jesus skipped his way to His crucifixion and gave a “thumbs up” before being nailed to the cross. In fact, it’s this Jesus in Gesthemane that encourages my faith. Indeed, Jesus knows what it’s like to at least be tempted to doubt … and to believe.

I’m not sure where I found this now but have loved it:

The Skeptic’s Prayer
Dear God,
sometimes I’m not altogether sure what I believe or why I believe it. But I do want to know you. I want to find you. I thank you that you’re walking with me on this journey, even though it often doesn’t feel like it. I invite you to plan an even bigger role. Guide me, lead me, help me, God. I want to rest in you. I want to work with you. I want to believe in you.

Reflecting on the Beautiful Life Dawood Abdelmessih

February 10, 2010 // No Comments »

Posted in Reflective

Last week I had the privilege of sharing at my uncle’s funeral service. While I don’t literally remember exactly what I said, here’s my best attempt at a written eulogy and some thoughts on his life and ours.

Dawood (David) Boutros Abdelmessih - September 7, 1935 - February 1, 2010

We’ve come with such heavy hearts. In all the years and in all the funerals I’ve been to, I am always stunned by how much each service hurts.  Probably because among other reasons, the pain reminds us of love.
Each time we enter the season of grieving, our heavy hearts remind us of that the superficial things of life will fade. We are reminded of the things that we have organized and centered our lives around are so trivial. If we were feeling numb, it’s during grief that we feel again. We are awoken by the pain of it all.
But worst of all - Death reminds us that we are not in control.
But
the reason we have gathered in a church is not out of tradition. The reason for which we pray is not out of piety and the reason we sing is not due to preference.
I know we have have lost someone very special and dear to us - a husband, a father, a grandfather, a brother, an uncle and a dear friend to many but today
A son has returned home to his heavenly Father.
I Corinthians 15:50-58 tells us quite emphatically that death is not in control
For the Christian, this is also a day of celebration for today is a day of salvation.

Many things come to mind when I think of my uncle. The picture to the left of the casket was very appropriate as his smile shone through.
I remember him being a very tender and loving soul. I think of him and his music and how he loved songs. I’ve always wondered what is about a song that is so powerful? It is more than words and a tune. I think of how we play certain ones over and over. How we project ourselves into them and think of them as soundtracks for our lives. I think of how we reflect on them and how we are anxious to share them with each other. What is it about a song that makes it so beautiful?

I remember it was Christmas day and I was about 10 and everyone was staying over our home. I had gone to bed and had been awoken by the playing of a piano. I’m sure it sounded great, but when you’re 10 you have little appreciation for such talent. All I knew was that I was sleeping and someone was banging away at the piano. I got out of bed, wiped the sleep from my eyes, and sought out the man responsible for waking me from my slumber. I saw my uncle playing away and as a bratty 10 year old, I told him that it was late and he couldn’t play the piano at this time of night.

I remember realizing that he seemed quite oblivious to the time of night and I remember him cupping his hands around my face and saying he was sorry that he woke me up. I also remember thinking that his reaction made it difficult to remain angry with him. I returned to bed, got under my covers, adjusted my pillow, closed my eyes, took a deep breath and resolved to fall back asleep. It was at that moment, the piano resumed playing. I couldn’t believe it. I now know that a musician needs to finish the song.

I reflect on my favorite songs and my favorite melodies and my favorite words. Among them is Mark 12:29-31. In a lot of ways, Scripture is a lot like a brilliant song. You think about it, memorize it sometimes, imagine your life in it, etc. To love God and to love others is a song I hope to keep singing. Indeed, it’s one for all of us and frankly I believe it’s the song that makes all the difference. Who is it that I truly love with all of my heart? It is myself, is it my God, is it my wife, kids, family? Is it in loving God, I am able to love my family better? Understanding what we love reveals a great deal about us. It tells us who is the god/God of our lives.

The night before the funeral, I kept asking my cousin Ayman what his dad’s favorite song was. He kept saying that there were so many, it was impossible for his dad to pick one. As he is a talented piano player as well, he explained that there were just too many songs to pick from. However, my cousin remembered one of the last songs his dad played on the piano. The whole family had gathered and my uncle, frail and a bit weak made his way over to the piano. I imagine he felt that they were made for each other and the most natural thing to do was to play. He chose an old Arabic hymn that was about rejoicing about the day one accepts Jesus as their Savior.

My cousin kept saying that there are just too many amazing songs and it’s impossible to pick one. And that got me thinking - Our lives are like songs and God loves them all. Sadly, there are short songs, and there are longer ones. I wonder, if our lives are like songs, what kind of song are our lives playing today?

Have you ever heard a song that started appealing but as it played, it seemed to have lost its way?
Or have you ever heard a song that you weren’t sure about from the beginning but as it continued, as it went into the chorus, and the second verse, and as it built, it was just amazing!? I wonder if that’s the song of the repentant, the forgiven the song of the second chance.

Days of grief move differently. Time takes on a different type of pace. In the strangeness of it is an appropriate time for all of us to take inventory of our lives and reflect on the type of life or the type of song our lives are singing.

My uncle loved music, he loved singing songs. But because of death, his body can no longer sing.
But the beauty of death for the believer is that it cannot silence the soul.  For again, death is not in control, and this is the significance of the Resurrection of Jesus.  Psalm 40:3 says, that God “has put a new song in my mouth” and while my uncle could not choose a favorite song in this world, I like to imagine that this new song is his favorite.

Monday Morning Brief 2.8.09

February 8, 2010 // No Comments »

Posted in Reflective

It’s been a tough week in a quite a few ways. From my Macbook being stolen from out of my church office to an uncle passing away the next day. Still, there were moments within to be enjoyed:

1. Attending and sharing at my uncle’s funeral. Uncle Dawood (Arabic for David) was a good man who loved the Lord and his family. He loved leading worship, playing, composing, and teaching music, and as we all remembered, he smiled a lot. He leaves behind a beautiful family. My aunt Amal is a godly woman who is a solid example of what it means to live trusting the Lord. Their children (my cousins) are selfless and sacrificial people who practice so much of our Lord’s teaching. They too are musical and are generous in sharing what they have not only with family but with strangers too. My uncle leaves behind grandchildren and two sisters who adored him too. I was honored to share during the funeral service and hope to post something close to what I remember saying as a form of tribute.

2. While it was a difficult time for us, it was good to be with our family. Every time we gather, I am reminded of how fortunate I am to be a part of them.   My sister, Kim, flew out from AZ with my adorable niece Lina and it was great to hold her and make her smile again.

3. Recovering from my stolen Macbook has been quite the process. At the same time, I’ve been blessed by the kindness of my friends. Some have even offered to loan their personal macs. Unfortunately my time machine backup takes up about 120 GB’s so I am a bit limited in what I can do.
I was especially touched that one of our students offered his personal macbook. Very cool. In addition, I had a youth leader and a kind man in our church offer theirs. We’ll see what happens (and if I can manipulate my high GB usage in Time Machine but you know you are in a good community when you are surrounded by those that take up your problems as their own.

4. Loved the Saints winning the Super Bowl. While I am an admirer of Peyton Manning, it was good to see the Saints win. It will be another thing to discuss on this summer’s mission trip to NOLA too.  So much to do for that trip but I’m looking forward it.

What I’m Reading…
The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch
Spiritual Marketplace by Wade Clark Roof
And have been flipping through The Search for God & Guinness by Stephen Mansfield.

What I’m Listening To…
White Stripes, Bob Dylan, new Desperation Band and Matt Maher’s Alive Again. I really like Hold Us Together.
NT Wright lectures
Relevant Magazine podcast - thought it was classy that the other week they altered their normal format in light of the crisis in Haiti. They interviewed World Vision VP Steve Haas and are currently donating half of every dollar from new subscriptions to World Vision’s emergency relief efforts You can subscribe here.

Didn’t Understand …
The Lost premiere and I hate that it’s on Tuesdays. I don’t get home til after 1am from school. I had to stay up til after 3am to watch and by then, my own brain was in a parallel universe.
The Tim Tebow commercial. Leave it to Focus on the Family to ruin Tim Tebow

Looking Forward to …
Our Senior High Winter Retreat. Showing Bill Maher’s Religulous and tackling the monster subjects of doubt and faith. I’ve been looking forward to this for a while now. Praying for a meaningful time.
Our Invisible Children Benefit Concert at the Backdoor Cafe in the Nyack Community Center on February 26th.
Our next Second Mile gathering
The season of Lent.

Reflecting On My Stolen MacBook

February 1, 2010 // 3 Comments »

Posted in Reflective, Technology

Well, it’s been a frustrating day. I thought twice about posting this but what good is a blog if you only write when you’re feeling content and reflective? Part of this is for the sake of authenticity and another part is catharsis. So here we go.

During our Sunday worship service, my Macbook was stolen out of my church office. The power cord and case were taken as well. Even the case! I like to imagine the thief’s thought process, “Well, I better protect my hard-earned investment.  It would be a shame if something happened to it.”

Having been one who has lost data, I backup about twice a month. Initially, I thought I had only lost the last two weeks of data but after checking my external hard drive, it looks like it was an incomplete back up and the last complete one was Dec. 28^th. So it looks like part of digital life will be entering in 2010 again.

The data lost was not only the last month’s worth of work but also work that I’ve had been picking at, like most importantly our upcoming winter retreat. Pretty frustrated about that. Not because we won’t be ready, nor will it alter the retreat, I’ll get it done but I am  frustrated that I’ll have to redo my outlines from memory. But who knows, maybe they’ll turn out better.

That’s the attitude I want. But if I’m being honest, just as quickly as I write that, I’m consumed with anger that this person took from out of my church office. And while I’ve contacted my banks and credit cards and off shore money laundering services, I’m frustrated that I will live in a bit of paranoia as I monitor my financial accounts.

Jesus talks a bit about this like in Matthew 6, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven …” It’s an excellent big picture perspective to keep in mind. So much in life is temporary and trivial.  And so many other parts are essential and eternal.

I know this will pass and like December is to me, a month from now, the non-financial data will have less value to me and would have been part of the archive. We’ll see how things play out between insurance claims and other factors moving forward. There is a bit of potential awkwardness but I am hopeful that things will go well.  It’s been nice to feel the support of some friends.  It’s only a laptop and data but some people get it and that’s cool.

We keep saying that it’s a shame that it happened in a church and that carries a sense of violation with me, it also tells us that we do have at least one more sinner in our midst. So it’s me and this jerk and maybe a couple others. We’ve stolen more from God and others and I hope that keeps my anger and frustration in check.

Selling Out the Sell-Outs - Part 3 - Looking For Something Better

January 30, 2010 // No Comments »

Posted in Christianity, Missional, Reflective, The Church

This is Part 3 in this series. If this is your first time on this site, don’t start here

Part 2 finished off with the idea that while everything can be said is marketed, we must examine the motivations.

In looking at motivations, we ought to consider the ministry of John the Baptist. It is widely understood that he did not actually “invent” the idea of baptism but was used as a means to be identified with God. Later Jesus-followers would use it to publicly proclaim their identification with the second person of the trinity, the Savior Himself. As we proceed, it is necessary to understand the distinction between human interaction/communication and tactics of marketing.

Second, as K&S point out, “Jesus and the apostles did not have a ‘marketing’ or ‘consumer orientation’ which is what they insist the contemporary church must not have if it to be effective. The reason why Jesus and the early church did not have this orientation is quite simple: As we have shown, the management theory that underwrites such an approach to marketing was developed during the middle part of the twentieth century under very historically specific circumstances” (p. 45).

It has become fashionable to insist that one be relevant to their cultural surroundings. It is also a form of credibility to demonstrate to an audience/demographic/individual the attempt to posture themselves in a way that convinces them of their care. There are clichés, “People don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care” that capture this. But Barna’s call for “systematic study of needs, wants, perceptions, preferences and satisfaction of its members and others whom it is trying to reach” (p. 47) sounds like the institutional form of stalking as opposed to an invitation to encounter the Almighty God. It’s reminiscent of an apocalyptic science fiction movies where there is a secret meeting of aliens preparing to take over the earth. The last thing Christians need today is to appear even stranger.

It would become extremely beneficial for a church to analyze if it has been consumed in the “exchange process” (48-49). K&S made an excellent use of Scripture by using Acts 17:24-25, whereby reminding the reader that God does not need an exchange from the believers but rather the worship is an expression of gratitude and love. Worshippers would enter sanctuaries differently if they adopted that understanding and pastors would preach differently if they did. It will be an interesting to see what needs to happen first for our churches to function this way.
This is precisely one of the failures of the contemporary church. Many ministries have been set up as service centers. “Give us an hour and we’ll give you the truth – God’s truth!”, “Give us your kids and we’ll convert him to well-behaved Christian toddlers”, “Give us your tithe and we’ll give you the soundtrack to sing to Jesus” and so forth. Such a mentality is so arrogant that it nears blasphemy for it implies we are able to place God “under obligation” (p. 53). This Barthian quote ought to appear in our church as often as the times of service, “It is impossible to lay hold of God. Men cannot bind Him, or put him under an obligation, or enter into some reciprocal relationship with Him” (p. 53).

The “user-friendly” church mocks the work of Christ. Such a church builds egos not hope, builds monuments of pride not a servant-like humility and leads to a spirit of competition between other churches rather than asking the Spirit to move and work throughout the Body. To be the bride of Christ, to be the body of Christ is to love Christ first, not one’s own self.

The church board dialogue that occurs in the opening pages of Chapter 5 is all too familiar scene. The church board must decide their “evangelism strategy” It gets ugly. We want certain people over other people. We need money to pay the bills. We don’t want anymore problems than wha twe already have. And it’s among the many reasons why everyone has a terrible church board story.

The moral to most of this particular caricature of meetings is that clearly the pursuit of the Kingdom of God is third priority at best following high attendance and paying the bills. It has always been my observation that despite how serious evangelicals take the Bible, we are extremely slow in taking care of the poor, fighting for the oppressed and comforting the suffering. It is almost as if Jesus said, “Hear O’ Israel, the greatest command is build as big of a church structure as you can. And the second is imitate the world.” Jesus would find no fault with us had He said that.

In fairness, our numerous denominations, endless evangelism schemes and involvement with church marketing has been due to a perverted exaltation of how we have interpreted the Great Commission. We have strived to pursue as an efficient means as possible to mass produce and export the gospel. Our inspirations have not been Paul and Peter and the stories contained in The Acts but rather McDonalds, Coca Cola and Microsoft. By doing so we have domesticated and have sold out the Gospel.

What does one do once they realized they have ruined the family farm? Protect what little self-interest is left, liquidate and quit or start over? As much as I enjoyed reading K&S, I was secretly hoping they would transition from the accurate, critical and prophetic words of demise and conclude with a series of bold exhortations to abandon the marketing mentality, teach our churches to resist the consumer mentality and to pursue the Church that God has called us to. After all it is a book about the Church. And so, I was glad they did in the final chapters 6-8 were joys to read for their calls to courage such as this quote taken from Robert Lupton:

The Church is the only institution which , without irresponsibility, can expend all its resources on great and lavish outbursts of compassion. It is ordained to give itself away, yet without loss. The Church, above all earthly symbols, bears the responsibility of declaring in the outpouring of resources, the utter dependability of God. To preserve its life to lose it (p. 118).

Amen and Amen to Selling Out the Church. While it seems appropriate for K&S to publish a follow up to evaluate the current evangelical landscape (since it was published over 10 years ago, this text offers much to consider and reinforces a great deal of suspicion of how “we do church”. Indeed it is time to sell out the selling out the church and the first to go are my books on church marketing. It is my confident prayer that the Gospel will be enough and May the Lord lead those that persevere against the consumerism, pride and the spiritual forces at war with the Kingdom of God.

“SELLING OUT THE SELL-OUTS” - PART 2 - Everything is Marketed but …

January 29, 2010 // No Comments »

Posted in Christianity, Missional, Reflective

Post 1 finished off with the “over-marketing” of some churches. By that I do not only mean that they market a lot but that they rely heavily on marketing. Perhaps you have seen a place that has relied more on its “techniques and schemes” than on God Himself. Terrible people. I know because I have been guilty of that as well.

But what does it mean to market something? Is George Barna right when he says, everything is “marketed”? Is he wrong when he argues that churches need to do a better job in marketing or “taking on a marketing orientation” (p. 23)? To be fair, everything is “marketed” to some extent, including K&S’ book! The book has a cover that conveys “modest but serious” with an excellent picture of a broken down billboard announcing the book’s title. The text is clean, efficient with sub-headings to help guide the reader and the chapter pages are styled suggesting the smart people at Cascade Books did not merely say, “We’re going to be as simple as possible.”
Further, the book is only 164 pages which attracts readers who do not want to be bogged down in an endless abyss of rhetoric like other books for sale next to it in the “Theology” section. The publishing industry refers to these types of books as an “airplane book” because they are just short enough to read and finish on a plane. Ironically, most of the books by church marketing guru, George Barna are about this length. And finally, the foreword was written by the highly esteemed theologian Stanely Hauerwas and advertises his name on the bottom of the cover. That recommendation alone is a fantastic piece of marketing and as a consumer, I readily confess that I would be most interested in reading a book like this.

While the authors offer that they “are not trying to paint marketing as an evil enterprise …” or (accuse those that do) “are somehow sub-Christian” (p. 34), they do believe it is a serious mistake to place at the center of the church’s self-understanding what the church marketers so innocuously call a marketing orientation (ibid).”

For the sake of clarification, Barna defines further that marketing is “the process by which you seek to apply your product to the desires of the target population” (Barna. p. 23). An initial thought is that at some basic level, everything is “marketed”. If we practiced the same form of deconstruction as a collegiate lunch table after a Philosophy 101 class, George Barna and his marketing friends would have a case. Church signage, service bulletins, the worship experience, the pastor’s attire, websites, the Powerpoint background of the worship songs all apply a value (or desire) targeting a particular audience at some basic level.

Further, I concede that it can be interpreted that Jesus, Paul, and the writers of Scripture exercised some basic form of “marketing”. Evidence would be the decision to write in Greek as opposed to Aramaic or Hebrew. However, the value of K&S’ argument is in how much of a factor should marketing play in the role of the Church? This changes everything. In this light, certain questions are begged like, “What language would you have preferred the New Testament be written in?” The issue is that any language creates a targeted audience. At this basic, almost trivial level, there is no such thing as a language that is not “marketable”.

On a practical level, a naïve application of Barna’s definition would drive one mad. How does one dress? Can one imagine the sheer existential magnitude of determining which outfit to wear in the morning in order to avoid the accusation that “one is marketing him/herself”? How does one decorate their home? The logical answer is that at some point we are not continually marketing ourselves but are wearing clothes and outfitting our living spaces based on our preferences and expressions that the thought of pleasing a target audience is dismissed as “It’s no one’s business but we hope you accept our dinner invitation.”

Thus marketing becomes then an issue of motive. How much will the idea of marketing influence the church? Returning to the examples of Jesus, Paul and the N.T. writers, it would serve us well to question their motivation. When Jesus proclaimed the words that He knew would create enough enemies that would lead to his execution, it’s hard to take seriously He did so because this was the “soteriological product” he needed to promote and sell. It seems more likely that He proclaimed these words out of mission, calling, and a genuine love for people. The vehicles He employs (sermons, miracles, rhetoric, disciple-making) are not rooted in marketing but rather human interaction.

So I conclude this part by dismissing that while everything can be accused of marketed to a targeted audience on some basic level, I am more concerned with the our motivations for why we do what we do, especially as it pertains to the church.

Selling Out the Sell-Outs” - Part 1 - An Enthusiastic Response to “Selling Out the Church”

January 28, 2010 // No Comments »

Posted in Reflective

“Selling Out the Sell-Outs” - An Enthusiastic Response to Selling Out the Church

Like my friend Evan Curry, I too wrote a paper about this book. We loved it.
I’ve adapted it and broken it to a few parts.  It takes a while to get there but my main point is that too many of our churches have become consumer-oriented instead of worship-oriented Kenneson and Street offer an excellent explanation of how and why.

Selling Out the Church is an excellent warning that pastors and church leaders (and anyone interested in the Church) should consider reading. Not only do Phillip D. Kenneson and James L. Street (K&S) reveal the many pitfalls of church consumerism, many of them hidden, but also calls on the reader to examine his/her theology. They offer an essential call to the kingdom and invite each church to evaluate which “strategy” they ought to pursue. To be sure, this is an important topic for much is at stake. Pastors and church leaders cannot afford to take these warnings lightly as not only are souls at stake, but our faithfulness before the Lord as well. This response seeks to respond to K&S’s arguments and reflect if and how they can be applied in today’s American church. It is my conviction, that if churches were willing to do the work of the Kingdom and be the faithful witnesses of the Risen Jesus while abandoning the temptation to build “the best church in town”, our ecclesiological landscape would appear drastically different and our communities would be better.

Indeed there was a certain irony as I read K&S in my church office while surrounded by church marketing titles like Barna’s Revolution, Boiling Point, and the classic, Marketing the Church (which is quoted from excessively by K&S). I surveyed other titles like John Maxwell, Bill Hybels, and newer innovators like Andy Stanley and Craig Goeshel. There are shelves dedicated to youth ministry as well. Titles like, Getting Kids to Show Up, 30 Awesome Lessons For Impacting Teens and the Doug Fields masterpiece, Purpose Driven Youth Ministry. After reading Selling Out the Church, I wondered if the idea of a good old-fashioned “book burning” was in order. Unfortunately these types of fires are illegal in my county and this left some additional time for further consideration.

Before going further, there are a couple things and a couple types of churches that I want to clarify here. There are churches that probably think they practice parts of this book. “We don’t market - Look at our church sign. Simple.” Meanwhile, many who drove by think it’s ugly and outdated. “Look at our church bulletins - flowers with Bible verses - traditional.” People who grab them on Sundays, “I think this is the same dandelion picture with Psalm 8:9 (How majestic is…) that I have seen since I was a kid. These Christians are obsessed with a nature photography from the 60’s; why aren’t we meeting in a greenhouse by now? Don’t be offended, I’m just having fun here - besides everyone knows I’m not a fan of bulletin covers.

Then there is the church that is heavily marketed. An enormous amount of energy and money are allocated towards this and in some ways, their ministry is their marketing. They have cool outdoor signs. You know you have too cool of a church logo if you actually want to make a shirt and wear it. Their websites and bulletin handouts have beautiful models from all ethnicities. And the biggest lie of all is that they’re smiling because they are just so happy to be in church! That’s right, there’s a picture of Heidi Klum, Seal and their kids running into the front doors of the church … smiling!

When we start selling the church like we sell teeth whitening kits, we have a problem.
Part 2 tomorrow. If you want to read more, check out Evan’s excellent posts here and here.

Monday Morning Brief - Jan. 25. 2010

January 25, 2010 // 1 Comment »

Posted in Reflective

What I Enjoyed This Week

1. We took Dylan to church for the first time. Like the old guy in 8th row, he slept most of the service
2. My adorable niece, Lina rolled over for the first time!
3. We had a great seminary class on Tuesday as we discussed racism and the multi-cultural hope for our church. I think I speak for most in our cohort that it was one of the best classes we’ve had.
4. Followed by spending some long overdue time with the illustrious Todd Hiestand and the brilliant Evan Curry.  Todd is currently tied for third as my all time favorite bi-vocational pastor.
5. Saturday night’s Second Mile Service went well. So much to say about it really, but this may not be the space. That said, I really believe in the potential of this community.

Those wonderful things are not to be taken for granted but I carried a heavy heart this week.
Sunday was “Sanctity of LIfe” Sunday and while we can discuss the number of aspects connected to this enormous debate, between 40-50 million children have been aborted. It’s just profoundly unacceptable.
Further, the situation in Haiti is so tragic. While I am moved by the number of stories of people being found in the rubble, I am disheartened by the evil people who kidnapped children out of the triage tents and have likely trafficked them. Anger swells up inside of me when I think about that.  I do not question God’s divine presence at work among all the suffering and I understand that we are in an evil, tragedy-stricken, fallen world.  But these days I ache for the day of ultimate redemption for all creation.  Thus, it’s in these days, that Christianity makes the most sense and not the least.
Speaking of human trafficking, it is estimated that there are 27 million people in our world being trafficked. I’ve shared other statistics with our Senor High students and at the Second Mile service and as a community, we are looking to get involved.
In the words of Dr. King, “Our lives end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

What I’ve Been Reading
Divided by Faith - Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America by Michael Emerson and Christian Smith. I feel like I’ve been reading some incredible books lately. Though the font is extremely small and the publisher got their money’s worth by stretching out the margins (yeah I learned all that in undergrad too Oxford Press ;-), the content of the book is brilliant.
I’ve been sharing this repeatedly but I am still not over how the white American church refused to preach the gospel to their African slaves because believing they were “sub-human”, they did not have souls. Then when they decided to proselytize, it was out of fear of rebellion and revolt so the clergy taught the slaves to be obedient to their masters.

The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch (love this guy) and Not For Sale - The Return of the Global Slave Trade and How We Can Fight It by David Batstone.

More to say on those books but will have to wait for another time.

What made me laugh this week:

There we were talking about Lost at our local diner when a few friends said they didn’t watch Lost. What? You love Jesus but don’t watch LOST?
That’s ok. Just like 5 point Calvinists, God will still love you too and I don’t judge you. But then I got this email from a dear friend.

Final Season Of ‘Lost’ Promises To Make Fans More Annoying Than Ever

Well, whatever, I can’t wait til February 2. I have school that night but I’m thinking about calling in sick/tired/unrepentant/whatever/;-)