It is that time of year. 4th of July week and weekend. Flags come out from the woodworks and get placed everywhere, including all over churches. I want to know one thing:
Posts Tagged ‘church
03
Jul
God Bless America
On Day 2 of my trip to the Willow Creek Arts Conference I began the day with 2 sessions ran by Ross Parsley.I talked about the first one here, but I want to highlight the second session because it was phenomenal.
Ross began his talk by saying, “we aren’t good at declaring God’s works to other generations.” Yet God’s word (Psalm 145:4) tells us to do so. Examples of this: Saul never reached out to David and his kingdom began to fall, a dad never reaches out to his son and their relationship is strained after the son leaves the house. (Picture is of me, Ross Parsley, and Jay left to right)
His entire talk from here on centered around the model of the family dinner table. A positive image is when everyone from grandpa to baby are at the table, a negative image is when the parents and kids eat separately.
- Every dinner table has a battleground topic (dating, morality, etc) and that battleground topic at the church is worship.
- “It is easy to have dinner with people just like you.”
- “There is a family dynamic (to church) that we are missing.”
- “We need a church to match the wisdom/experience/resources of age with the energy/enthusiasm/innovation of youth.”
We Need 5 Things
- Churches must learn how to function as a family, embracing those different from them.
- We need cooperation and relationship between young and old.
- Milennials are blessing the church with innovation through technology. We need to embrace that.
- We need respect. Mutual respect.
- Humility. “You can’t use your armor for their battle.” 1st Peter 5:5-6.
My Thoughts: I know at my church and with my job, it is a CONSTANT STRUGGLE to find ways for young and old to not only be around each other, but to reach out to one another. So this topic totally hit home for me. At the same time I don’t know that I necessarily agree with everything he said. I’m still (even 2 weeks later) processing these things.
My question:
(sorry that is a lot of questions)
Creative Chaos @ the Soul.
02
May
Who Stole My Church? .4
Who Stole My Church? by Gordon MacDonald.
As I think back on the book, there are a couple of moments that stick out to me as huge turning points for the group. One was diving through the Scripture I talked about in part 3, and another is when the youth band joins the group for a discussion on music. Let me remind you that the youth band is full of high schoolers and they are going to meet with 50 and 60 year olds (not easy for either group to do).
A few weeks before this meeting Gordon had talked about Isaac Watts, a famous writer of a lot of hymns (Jesus Shall Reign, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, Joy to the World). Everyone in the older group proclaimed their love for a number of the songs written by him. Gordon told about how Watts was frustrated with the music in church during the early 1700s and how his father supported the vision he had for a new kind of music in the church. Watts introduced instruments to church music, they were previously considered worldly and many churches in New England would not sing his music and it tore many congregations a part. Most of the people in the group could not imagine it. The music they loved, was once the theme for a worship war. I think establishing this helped the discovery group to be open to what the youth band had to say.
As the meeting began with the youth team began, they shared some of the things they didn’t understand about the way the older generation does music in church.
- Why were they so serious and never happy?
- They are always too busy being frustrated with the music that they never worshiped.
- There is no excitement in the singing.
- A lot of the words in the songs don’t make sense.
- The style of music is nothing close to what people listen to during the week.
Both groups talked about these things for a while. It forced the older group to think about why their favorite music wouldn’t make sense to someone younger. It also forced the younger group to think about how they could incorporate some “traditional” songs in their sets in a fresh way (a week after the meeting, the youth band led Come Thou Fount with a more upbeat feel).
That meeting ended with an embrace between the generations. I have to doubt whether that is really realistic, but the fact that two totally different age groups were able to share their music frustrations with one another is a step that most churches don’t ever take. I wonder whose job it is to reach out…should older or younger people reach out to the other first? I struggle with this a lot.
I’ve been a part of music in church for a while at different churches. I have never, ever had someone older than 50 reach out to me to discuss worship and my thoughts on music in church. The older generation loves to complain about us young people and I love to complain about how stubborn older people are with music…BUT neither side ever reaches out to the other. Until this changes, the divide between the two groups will continue to grow.
01
May
Who Stole My Church? .3
Pastor Gordon is left with a sticky situation. He has upset long time members and somehow needs to reach out to them. I love how he does this. He could have argued about style or just told them they were wrong, but instead he goes to the Scriptures. No one can argue the Scriptures (unless you don’t hold them in high regard, Scot McKnight has an interesting post on this today).
He starts with Acts 20:28. The church was bought with Christ’s blood. To give up on the church, is to give up on part of the sacrifice Jesus made, and something that is highly valued by God. We are also called to be “shepherds” of the church.
The next Scripture he refers to is Matthew 23:37-24:1. Clearly Jesus is disgusted with His people who do not want to hear His voice. He wants to engage with His people in a mother-like love. Essentially, He is condemning the Temple because it is promoting dead religion.
So Jesus is walking out of the Temple with His disciples and the disciples bring His attention back to the buildings. Clearly they are confused. Jesus must be misunderstanding how important the Temple is. The Temple was everything to them, Jesus was going to cause a lot of problems with what He had said.
Jesus finishes this discussion with this emphatic statement in Matt. 24:2. He refers to the Temple buildings as things and stones and they will come down. The point Gordon is making is that the buildings meant nothing to Jesus, His church was built on His people and it was an organism he gave His life for.
I think this was the turning point for the group. Jesus is not interested in dead religion: Tradition without purpose, tradition without life, church as a building instead of a body. All of these things Jesus has no interest in.
From here Gordon keeps going through chapter 24:3-14. Jesus begins to tell them about when the Temple will fall (which is essentially the end of the world to them). Jesus talks about destruction, persecution, and wickedness all in the midst of trying to preach the gospel of the kingdom.
Here is the clincher: How would the disciples deal with this kind of change and challenge in the coming days? Gordon says they would need to reinvent themselves, something they did an incredible job doing through Acts and the Pastoral Letters.
In changing times, the church must reinvent itself to reach outside of itself.
30
Apr
Who Stole My Church? .2
The first meeting is almost a disaster with Gordon and the group. It begins with everyone just blurting out all their struggles with the church (a reminder here is that the group consists of mostly older people who are mostly against all the changes occurring in the church).
Here is a short list of the issues that this group names in the first meeting:
- Pastors should wear a suit and a tie. You honor God by dressing nice.
- Losing the prayer service on Wednesday night was the biggest blunder so far.
- Sunday school classes are important for spiritual growth.
- Young people don’t know the Bible.
- There must be a choir and hymns.
- Young people do not tithe well.
- The music is too loud.
I’m sure some of you can relate with any number of these things. Others of you don’t see any of these things as issues. Wherever you stand, these issues are real and real people struggle with them every time they go to church.
I think far too often my generation wants to go off and start their own church geared towards young people instead of trying to bridge a gap with this older generation. Instead of discussing these issues they take the easy road and join together with those who think like them. I’ve heard many people say that finding a good youth pastor is harder now because most youth pastors can just go off and start their own “emerging” church.
I read a blog a while back that said church cannot be all things to all people. I understand the point, it does make some sense. But really, that person was just advocating for churches being split up by tastes, style, and age, and the problem is that we lose the community aspect of it. Now some will say that community is a group of people. I say community is not a bunch of people who are all alike spending time together. We must learn to work together. Family isn’t one age group and it isn’t one style. Family takes a lot of work.
Before going on…I wonder: How would you reach out to the older generation here? They’ve stated their issues and struggles. Do you give up or do you try to bridge the gap? What do you say?
Tomorrow I’ll share a little about how Gordon tries to defuse the situation.
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29
Apr
Who Stole My Church? .1
Jay, Jill, and I have been going through the book Who Stole My Chuch? by Gordon MacDonald. First off, great book. I totally recommend it to anyone in ministry or anyone who is interested in the great debate of “contemporary versus traditional” and how to deal with change in church.
I read the book in a week. For those of you who know me…you know it usually takes me at least a month, maybe three to get through a book. So, this is record speed. I have never, ever read a book in a week.
That being said, I don’t think MacDonald says anything that hasn’t been said before, but it is written in narrative form, which attaches you to people within the stories and make it a breeze to read.
It is a fiction story with Gordon leading a church in New England in 2007. He has been at that fictional church for 3 years. There was a church vote about adding a new sound system, but before they could vote a number of older members of the church are noticeably outraged. Gordon ends the meeting and asks a number of that group to join him to talk about their frustrations with him as a group. That group meets and soon it becomes a weekly Tuesday night gathering called The Discovery Group. These group meetings are what make up the bulk of the content. It is through the conversations during these meetings that we see just about every issue come up in regards to how an older generation views church versus how a younger generation views church.
That is a good starting place. I’m going to do a few posts on this book. He covers far too many great topics to not delve into some.
I’ll start tomorrow.
07
Apr
Want to Join Our Band?
Check out this video by Steve Fee and company. Jay and I just watched this. This should be on SNL, simply hilarious.
You are welcome 
This is a short series on three different distinctives that separate how postmoderns view faith and church from their predecessors.
2. Interact vs. Watch
It is very common for churches to provide what many would call entertainment. This comes through the form of a video, a drama, a special song, and many other ways. All of these things were done with the hope that they would draw people to Jesus, but the reality is that everyone is simply watching these things.
I think a common mindset within postmoderns is that they would rather be involved with something at church, even during a service. This can be done any number of ways, but in generalities it means creating an environment for someone to be involved with their faith by doing something. This can mean singing more songs, taking communion, going to a prayer station, and many other ways.
The benefits to this:
- Overall it is easier for the average church to do. You don’t need extremely talented people in the various parts of a weekend service. Nor do you need as much money to put together videos and productions.
- It forces most people out of their comfort zones. They can’t just stay in their seat and watch.
- It allows the creative minds in a church to really think of efficient ways to use their space to allow intimate times to happen for each person.
- A personal spiritual walk isn’t something that is only talked about on Sunday by the pastor, it is lived out on Sunday in each service. Obviously it is still possible to grow in your faith and relationship with God by watching something, but interaction forces people to move in a direction. This, in most cases, can only be positive.
Have you seen these differences manifest themselves in your church?
Last week I posted about Perry Noble’s blog on things church staff members should never say. One of those things was they should never say is “all I need is more staff and more money to make this happen.”
I emailed Perry about this. Obviously I didn’t get an email back from Perry (I’m not that big time). But I did hear back from the Pastor of Care Ministry at Perry’s church, Jake Beaty. You can check out his blog here. Here are some of the things Jake had to say to clarify some of what Perry meant.
“For us, the issue is when the only solution someone is willing to consider for a problem is more staff or more money. Perry’s point was that there is a danger when those are the only 2 solutions considered by a staff member to solve the problem at hand. We have no problem giving either when they are necessary. Most problems we have found can be solved with a little creativity and/or recruiting volunteer involvement. When a problem can be resolved using those two things, it is best for everyone involved. Those times do come though where more staff/resources are needed, and obviously those should be considered and prayed through, but in my opinion only when it is absolutely necessary.”
You can check out my original post on this here.
07
Mar
Resources in Church
A common complaint I hear in many churches is the inability to do certain things because there is not enough resources. I’ve never given it much thought. It seems to make sense…you need resources to do things. Then I read a blog by Perry Noble (a great blog he has) talking about things you never want to hear from your staff members if you are a pastor.
#3 on that list is: “All I need is more staff and more money to make this happen.” His explanation for having this as one of the things you shouldn’t hear is that the people that say this are choosing to be stagnant instead of creative.
I don’t really have a lot to add to this, but clearly he makes a strong point and is convincing in doing so. Don’t we need less excuses and more servant’s hearts that are willing to go for it no matter what? Are resources really necessary? Can we, in the richest place in the world, really say we don’t have enough resources?
Should we be saying that we need more to do what we want to do in church?
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