Good article on evangelism from the blog Open-Source Theology.
shalom, matt
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9 years ago
Methods and Message
This way of thinking is why most youth pastors (including my-own-self) don't survive in evangelical churches. Whether we can articulate it or not we intuitively understand that the method you use to convey a message IS THE MESSAGE ITSELF. The methods we use to attract people to Jesus do matter because they are the message that people subconciously receive. I might write some more on this later on sometime.
This is genius stuff.
Why Church Bothers Me (Sometimes), or How Not to Suck -- Part Two
(Fourth): Speaking of conclusions—you can stop making them for me every Sunday. I need something to think about during the week, something to make my own. It’s okay to leave me with some questions. You don’t have to draw everything into a nice neat conclusion, like a Greek tragedy. In fact you under nourish me when you make conclusions for me. I have nothing to wrestle with during the week. I know you’re afraid to let go of that control, being able to determine what I take away from the message. Trust the Spirit to lead honest questioners to the Truth, to the conclusions and discovered implications that He desires me to see. They may be different than what you intended. Great teaching begins the discussion; it does not end it. Jesus was the master of leaving people scratching their heads at what he meant. What he said is instructive here: “He who has ears, let him hear.”
(Fifth): Your worship services are, um, shall we say, less than engaging. Stand. Sing. Sit. Repeat ad nauseum. That’s the extent of the engagement. I want every part of me to be involved in worship, not just my voice: mind, body, spirit, heart. I want my five senses involved. I want to see, touch, smell, taste and hear God. I want to connect with the saints and creeds of the early church I want to light candles in prayer, smell the incense of my praise as it rises to the nostrils of God. I want to meditate on words, images, and icons and hear God speak to me in them. God gave me my five senses, emotions and my mind—engage them.
(Sixth): We claim that nothing is more crucial than the Eucharist, the holy sacrament of communion, the actual presence of God in our hands. However, in our services communion commands the least amount of time and is treated like a ritualistic afterthought, something we mindlessly attend to with little thought as to its reality and depth of meaning. We need communion to be central to our worship. De-emphasize the spoken word (sorry Preacher, most people don’t pay attention much beyond 15 minutes or so anyway). Instead of word-centered services we need Body-and-Blood-centered services. How much more spiritual growth could be achieved by meditation upon the life of Christ as we partake of Him, bring His life into us in the elements?
Here’s the thing: ultimately, church isn’t about you and me. The first followers of Jesus existed for one another and for others. That was church for them. Their singing, praying and instruction were secondary to the life they lived in the world. Following Christ was “church” for them. It was a gathering of people from the known world, Jew and Gentile alike, with the common bond of Jesus Christ and the singular mission of the Kingdom Come.
May our churches be the exact same way.
shalom, matt
Why Church Bothers Me (Sometimes), or How Not to Suck -- Part One
I have no specific church in mind when writing this because, to some extent or another, every church I’ve been in is guilty of bothering me for some or all of the following reasons. Not every church is guilty of each and every one of the “violations,” nor are they committed every single Sunday. Furthermore, I’m not nearly as arrogant as this makes me sound, nor do I believe that churches exist for the sole purpose of not bothering me. What I’m offering here are some “improvements” that churches could make to better engage our current cultural sensitivities and tendencies. Basically, here’s how you can stop bothering me and/or keep from sucking.
(First): Focus on stuff that matters, theologically and is relevant to my life. Your “proofs” for the Virgin Birth, while of interest to you have zero relevance to my life. Whether God “overshadowed” Mary or Joseph—ahem—took care of it the “old-fashioned way” (and the gospel writers insert the Virgin Birth as a myth to “compete” with Roman mythology of the birth of the Caesars and the gods) is of no consequence to my 6-6 factory life and how I interact with the world. Focus on the resurrection, for instance, and why it still matters today. Don’t “prove” it; tell me that it didn’t just happen but that it still happens today. I want to know what a resurrected life looks like in a factory.
(Second): Stop dealing in nothing but certainties, as if everything in life and faith and Scripture is black and white. Few things are that neat and tidy, especially when it comes to the spiritual. Jesus told Nicodemus, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit" (John 3:8). This is not a God who is not neat, tidy, and so easily pinned down to definition. God is not “certain”; He is wild, untamable and unpredictable (except when it comes to love and grace). The Bible contains contradictions, gray areas, culturally based admonitions now made irrelevant, and parts that are downright confusing, disturbing and weird. My life is too gray and uncertain for you to deal in nothing but black and white. Show me the cloudy, disturbing, confusing gray areas. I need a faith that looks like my life so that my life can look more like my faith.
(Third): In your effort to make everything black and white and certain you inundate me with steps, lists of stuff to “keep in mind,” “take note of,” or “action steps” to undertake. It isn’t uncommon for you to have three points, 5 subpoints for each point, and, for the love of Jehovah, three points worth of conclusion and action steps. Alcoholics Anonymous doesn’t have as many steps and bullet points as your sermons. Stop. Give me one thing to hold on to, one key idea to meditate on throughout the week. If you want, give me options of steps I can take to live out the teaching: “Try one of the following this week…” I can’t remember if I washed my hair while standing naked and soaked in my shower, how can I remember a main idea buried underneath 12 points, sub-points and conclusions? The 1980’s and ‘90’s called and they want their sermon structure back.
...to be continued...
Good Intentions and Ministry
The old saying I believe is, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” I can tell you unequivocally that professional ministry is crammed with good intentions as well. And, having been a victim of these so-called good intentions, I can say that few things are more dangerous than a leadership that uses its good intentions as a sword of influence. Want to know how to enforce your “vision” upon the masses, upon the eldership, the board and the ministry staff? Invoke God’s name as a blessing for your good intentions. Here’s how you do it (pastors, take notes for future reference).
1. Start by going on a retreat, a conference, or, for added emphasis, go on a 3-month sabbatical (so everyone knows that you’ve been super in-tune with the Almighty).
2. On this retreat have a vision of what you believe God wants you to do.
3. Come back and declare that you have received from God a plan for the future (for added points call it a “vision” or “showing”).
shalom, matt
Systematic Theology
Seriously?
And the award for the most disturbing video game of the year is...Rapelay.
So who is the watchdog group that thinks this game is okay? And what would a game have to include in order to get banned by this Japanese watch group?
Disturbing, very disturbing.
shalom, matt
On Worship
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I’m sure that none of this will be profound (not that other stuff I say is profound and this discussion somehow differentiates itself), but having participated in a number of dialogues over the last couple weeks on the subject of worship, I feel obliged to jot some thoughts down for the sake of prosperity, if for no other reason.
1. Worship is too narrowly defined. We pray much lip service to the truth that “worship is more than singing,” but we don’t truly live out the maxim. For many it is entirely about Sunday morning song services. When they don’t hear the songs they like, or there are “too many new ones,” then they feel they can’t worship God fully. Without realizing it they turn the song service into their singular vehicle for worshiping God. Worship is more than songs. Deuteronomy 6 says to worship with our heart, soul, and strength; literally, the entirety of our being.
2. People lean to heavily upon the myth that worship is only meaningful if they “felt something.” Emotion is the dominant method of evaluating the authenticity of our time of worship. Not that emotion doesn’t play a role in our worship, because emotions are God-given and Scripture is clear that emotion is certainly involved in our relationship with God. I spent my teen years bouncing from one emotional worship service to another at camps and conferences, grading my worship by if I cried or “felt God” (what does God feel like? Is he leathery, like Jack Palance, or soft, like a babies skin?). I wonder what moments of worship I missed out on because of my narrow evaluation of worship. Ever wonder if the acts of worship that are least pleasing to God are the ones with the greatest emotion?
3. Modern worship is too focused on the individual’s relationship with God to the detriment of a communal emphasis. Now, while many worship artists are swinging the pendulum back toward a communal emphasis there is still an over-abundance of narcissistic worship songs. These songs are not bad in-and-of themselves except where they turn our focus solely on our interior well-being and away from God.
4. Far too often have I heard someone complain, “That worship service was boring,” or “I didn’t like those songs at all.” It usually takes every ounce of will power not to smart of to them “Who cares? Last I checked we weren’t singing them to you or for you” (side note: I’m a hypocrite, because I’ve done this). Would it change anything to realize that when we grade the services or songs, like Dick Clark on American Bandstand, we were stealing—yes, stealing!—from God the worship and attention that is rightfully His? It is a symptom of how much the culture of consumerism and an over-abundance and over-emphasis on personal rights, choices, and freedoms has infected the Church. Burger King let’s us have it our way, so why shouldn’t the worship? When we turn our Cadillac’s on, it’s supposed to turn us on, so why shouldn’t worship excite us. And, if the worship doesn’t suit us then we can go somewhere where it does. This is nothing less than theft of God’s worship.
5. Personally, I truly believe we place way more value on the songs than God does. We’re like the two-year-old who brings their mother a dandelion as a gift. The “flower” is a worthless weed. God has legions of saints and angels singing His praises at all times, for all eternity. What can our songs add to that? Nothing, really. But have you ever seen a mother turn down a dandelion form a beaming toddler? It’s the heart of the child, the intentions, which the mother loves.
With all of our wrong-headedness I still believe that God loves our dandelions.
Radiohead at the Grammy's
What Bill Gates is Doing in His Spare Time
Tell me that every minister in the country wouldn't want to use this as a sermon illustration.
shalom, matt
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