Archive for April, 2009
17
Apr
The Way Church Will Be
So I picked up this book a few weeks ago. It was written by a pollster, John Zogby, the book is called “The Way We’ll Be: The Transformation of The American Dream.” Although it’s a tough read, not because he doesn’t have good thoughts, just a lot of polling numbers to support what he’s saying. I guess it should be expected.
But I read it for the last chapter. It’s here that he briefly predicts the future of religion in America. I think he said it well and I feel everyone needs to hear it. If you’ve follow anything religion you already know people are looking for something authentic, but it’s how he predicts this value will shape the future of what church looks like that I want to convey. Because the book says it well, I will use a lot of quotes.
What he says is the future of Protestantism has mostly to been found in megachurches. With over 1200 churches, defined as congregations of 2000 or more, megachurches average “20 full-time paid ministerial staff persons, 22 full paid program staff persons, and nearly 300 volunteer workers who give five or more hours a week to the church.” That’s more people than the average Protestant church can get to come through their doors on Christmas and Easter combined.
He says he certainly doesn’t think “that megachurches are in any danger of disappearing in the immediate future.” But he sees a “powerful countervailing trend in the authenticity movement and its emphasis on content over package.” He sees the small but fast-growing house-church movement as “compelling evidence that the push back against megachurches is already well under way.”
Much like the early “Christians did when the Church still had to operate underground, house-churchers meet for worship not in soaring glass cathedrals or on sprawling religious campuses but in worshipers’ homes. Production values are nil. Hierarchy is flattened of necessity: These are not staff-rich environments. As one leader said of the house-church movement, ‘It is about authenticity. Church services have succeeded at being more characterized by excellence, but one of the consequences of that excellence is artificiality and the feeling that everything is produced and that it is a show.’ Or as another participant told the L.A. Daily News, ‘What is so exciting about doing small-group house church is just the chance to be real.’ In a culture filled with fake and overblown events, that’s a powerful force. Estimates are that the house-church movement have grown tenfold over the last decade, to about 20 million participants attending either full-time or occasionally. ”
The Barna Group (another pollster) estimates more than 70 million adults have at least experimented with house church participation. In a typical week roughly 20 million adults attend a house church gathering. Over the course of a typical month, that number doubles to about 43 million adults.
They both project the number to grow even more dramatically in the years ahead.
What is more annoying than weeds? Until last weekend I had a whole backyard full of them. But there is something staggering about them – their everywhere! They grow where there is little water (or shallow amounts), where the sun is rigid, and often where grass won’t grow. I’m using the word weed loosely as some are a nuisance, an unwanted plant in human-made settings or natural areas. But the strength of weeds is they are native (sometimes nonnative) plants that grow and reproduce aggressively.
During this recession I’ve seen a few car dealerships close along our main interstate. One in particular the entire lot is covered with hefty weeds. At first I responded by think they don’t belong there! A weed is a plant in an undesired place. Except as of late I’ve began to compare weeds to the church.
The message of the Kingdom of God, one in the opinion of the leaders of Jesus’ day, took root in undesired places. In Luke 13:18-19 Jesus actually compared the Kingdom of God to a tiny mustard seed. Some think he was talking about the Kingdom of God starting very small, but over time it would grow to grand proportions. However, the parable, as Jesus told it, carried a different message. The mustard was so aggressive, it was considered to be unclean. One mustard plant could corrupt an entire garden. There were many restrictions on when and where mustard could be planted, if at all. Simply put, there is a good chance that the man planting the seed was doing something illegal. The mustard plant, both now and then, was often considered to be nothing more than a pesky weed.
Jesus’ message actually got him killed because it showed up where people didn’t expect it, nor wished it. Like weeds the message of Jesus’ was unwanted for a number of reasons: it’s unattractive to the self righteous, crowded out or restricted religion, and survived in inadequate conditions but with adequate resources (the Father helped). Some weeds are hazardous, but so is the message of the Kingdom of God. Weeds cause irritation as does the message of the Cross (1 Cor 1.18) and normally spreads naturally (2 Thess 3:1-3).
So before I share my theory I want you to know I realize that weeds are not favored in scripture (Genesis 3:17-19). What I am convinced the phrase, Kingdom of God, conveys the center of Jesus’ life and message. But just like gardening or lawn care, participation is voluntary; the Kingdom of God, like weeds, is present, whether or not people recognize and accept it.
The main thrust of the kingdom is the spiritual transformation of individuals who make up the body of Christ. This ministry of Jesus continues through the Church. However, the Kingdom of God in not the Church, yet the two have an inseparable relationship. The true Kingdom of God includes all who have believed, or will believe, in Christ as Savior from the Church’s inception until the end.
But I digress, what I believe is the Church should be as simple as the common weed. The “weed” is not a weed when growing where it belongs or is wanted. Jesus said he came to the sick. He said that sin begins death. If you’re dead, you’re not reproducing.
Professor Richard C. Lewontin of Harvard University defines weeds as plants that create environmental conditions in which it cannot reproduce. He takes the example of pine trees that crowd out sunlight such that its own offspring cannot grow. So imagine the church as the weed thriving in environments that normally suffocate itself to spiritual death.
I believe the church shares similar adaptations as weeds, allowing them to proliferate in disturbed environments whose soil or natural vegetation has been damaged. Weeds evolve, adapt, and grow in human-disturbed areas. Should not the local church do the same in the areas of our city and community? Going where sinful man have disturbed life, adapting and growing in order to bring true life?
See the church, like a weed, have a nature that often give them an advantage of quickly growing and reproducing. This is why I’m convinced of the house church method, because it allows the church to be sustainable for many years or have short lifespans with multiple generations in the same area; however, contently spreading to where life is absent.
”Weed seeds are often collected and transported with crops after harvesting of grains, and so many weed species have moved out of their natural geographic locations and have spread around the world with humans.” Okay, Bible thumpers don’t remind me that Jesus often spoke of separating the weeds from the harvest, I get it. What I’m getting at is that weeds, like the church, move out of their areas and spread around the world through humans.
Weeds thrive where human conversion has occurred. Church thrives where human conversion (change, transformation, movement, exchange) will occur. Humans are the vector (force or influence) of transport and the producer of disturbed environments, so weeds have an ideal association with humans (so does the church).
07
Apr
Human Filters
What’s your filter? Everyone has a filter, it’s whatever worldview, orthodoxy, or understanding you use to strain, sort, and categorize what goes through your senses (hear, see, smell, touch, taste). These filters can be good and they can be harmful. The definition of the verb filter is the act of slowly or partially obstructing the passage (you could insert message). This isn’t all bad. Our filters cause every message that we encounter to pass or slip through slowly, as through an obstruction. This allows us to decide if the information is worthy.
Now you may be thinking, “This is not news!” Except what if our filters are congested?
When we bought our house, we also bought a new refrigerator. If worked wonderfully. Except after two years, when friends came over, the water pressure slowly decreased in the door. I would just tell them to push the button to reset the filter. But they still complained. Then two years ago my father was visiting and asked when the last time I change the filter? I responded that I didn’t know we needed to change the filter. After reading the owners manual we learned it should be changed every six months. Our filter was two and half years old – gross. I actually need to change our filter now.
So how do we change our human filters? That is much harder and there is no expiration date. But it’s important to assess and sometimes reset our filters. Here are some ways I continually assess and reset my filter to make sure I’m responding to my world candidly.
- Read books. Find books about subjects your comfortable with and read a different point of view. A Christian should read a Atheist’s argument.
- Listen to different people talk about their view of world issues and dialog. The secret here is to listen, not convert them. Listening is much more powerful.
- Try new things. I remember in middle school going to a Bat Mitzvah. I’m not Jewish but the experience left a lasting impression of the origins of my own faith.
- Visit other countries and get involved. The world is much smaller due to the internet and you have no excuse for never leaving home. I know a woman who was born, educated, and raised her children in Texas — until recently she had never left the state. At age 50 she left Texas for the first time to visit her daughter in LA.
- Open your life to people not like you. I think about Jesus often when it comes to this action. He was completely God and Man – no one was like him – but he opened himself to everyone who would have him. It’s sort of living life on purpose.
The real message here is be aware of your filters. We need to reset these filters to allow us to interact with the world more truthfully. The best way to do this is to leave your box, bubble, or whatever is keeping your from growing.
