Things I've been thinking about lately

Inspired by some of the reading I've been doing and speakers I've heard, I've been thinking a lot lately about the nature of the Gospel, especially the personal/public nature of the Gospel. It's a complex subject to put into words, but I thought it might be a good mental exercise to blog about this.

One phrase that has stuck with me since Catalyst is "narcissistic gospel." I think that lines up with ideas I've had for a while. I think that "we" (meaning me, our church, evangelical Christians in the US, whatever) can, at times, preach a rather individual-centered gospel (which isn't all bad, I don't suppose, it is still a Gospel message after all!). But, I think it misses out on something.

In some settings, that individual-centeredness shows up in an attitude that evangelism is "selling fire insurance"; the point of the Gospel is an individual ticket out of hell, or (with a a positive slant) the point of the Gospel is for an individual "to go to be with Jesus when I die." How one lives between now & then may or may not be that important. This may be illustrated by death-bed conversions, perhaps, as well as by people who consider themselves to be Christians (in the "saved" sense) but who don't seem to live it out.

Thankfully, I think that attitude, alone, isn't found that much anymore (at least not in settings I'm too familiar with). I like that I hear about the Gospel meaning there's something different to life. I think it's great that people are realizing it's not just eternal "fire insurance" but has something to do with how we live here & now, since Christ came to give us full/abundant life (John 10:10).

Still, though, I wonder if we (again meaning me / the church in America at large / etc.) emphasize the individual too much. We preach with practical advice from the Scriptures about living a better life. This is definitely not a bad thing, and I know it brings people in the door who really matter to God, but we have to go beyond (which thankfully, every church I know does, but could probably do more or could probably explain better).

We invite people to have a personal relationship with Jesus. Again, this is absolutely not a bad thing. But, I wonder if that word "personal" puts them in a place where faith is a private matter only and getting them to realize they're part of a larger body and larger mission will be hard.

We talk about spiritual disciplines we can engage in personally. We give people time for quiet reflection. We market books that people can read on their own to better grasp Christian Living. Etc. None of these things are bad. But, I wonder if we sometimes go too far on that individual-centered side and miss something bigger, like how we live out our faith in community.

I think that this individual-centeredness affects a few things:

• Our resurrection-theology. Do I think that the resurrection is primarily about Jesus beating death so that I can be with Him in eternity? Or, do I think that the resurrection has something to do with God's way being done on earth as it is in heaven, and inviting me to be on His team for that Kingdom-mission?
• How we evangelize. Am I selling people on an individual redemption (the primarily go-to-be-with-Jesus-someday or fire-insurance mentality) , or am I helping them see that the Gospel as God's radically different way of redemption which anyone can accept (isn't grace beautiful?!?) and as an invitation into his Kingdom-work here & now?
• How outsiders listen to us. If you came into a church today looking for something bigger than yourself to be part of, how would you respond to a message about self-centered spiritual life? I remember talking to a woman who was a college student a few years ago. She was deeply interested in God, and wanted to practice spirituality in a way that had a larger purpose. She was turned off, however, by the typical youth-centered church options being presented to her as a midwestern college student. She was craving something supernatural, something really bigger than herself, but saw the Christian groups on her campus as irrelevant to that search. She thought they were just talking about little ways to live a better life (at best) or giving alternative ways to have fun (against typical collegiate drinking/etc.). Do we turn people off when they come looking for something God-sized and we lead with something smaller? How could we lead with something bigger without freaking people out?
  
• How new believers (especially) live out faith. If someone accepts the Gospel primarily as a ticket out of hell, will they make the transition to a changed life (2 Cor. 5:17 - old has gone / new has come)? If someone focused on the individual nature of redemption, does that lead to the attitude of "Yeah, I keep sinning the same ways, but I'm forgiven!" (Romans 6: "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?"/ referenced at Deepen this week)
• The ever-present shortage of workers and lack of understanding of the Body/Gifts/Etc. If I think about the gospel as mostly being about me, I may not be so inclined to discover & use my gifts to serve a larger mission.
• What we expect "church" to provide and what we think "church" is. If I think faith is about me, primarily, I may view "church" as an organization & an event: an organization that should give me what I ask for and an event that should cater to my desires.
• The "lone-ranger" approach to faith. If I think my faith is primarily personal, will I ever enter into true Christian community? Not just that I happen to know a few other people who are Christians who I can hang out with in a "positive" way, but the real life-impacting-life community?
  

These are just some ideas I've been batting around lately. I'm not entirely sure what should be different because of it (at least not in terms of practically-speaking "do this" or "don't do that"). However, I do keep going back to the closing of Craig Groeschel's talk at Catalyst West, where he talked about 3 lines of people (though I think there are really 4).

Line 0: I don't believe in the Gospel at all. (I added that, which seems obvious.)
Line 1: I believe in the Gospel enough to benefit from it personally.
Line 2: I believe in the Gospel enough to contribute comfortably.
Line 3: I believe in the Gospel enough to give my life to it.

Clearly, we want people to be at line 3. How do we get them there?

A few ideas I'm batting around about how that might be done -- which are most definitely incomplete, and some may in fact wind up being really bad ideas...

• Evangelistic education. Equip people to talk about Christ, the Gospel, redemption, etc. in more effective ways.
  
• Strategies to appropriately challenge "line 2" people. Talk, as church staff & leaders, about appropriate ways to challenge these people, and get over our fears that challenging them to the next level might mean they quit entirely (essentially, choose between a) "Do nothing but guarantee this person still contributes $10/week into the offering or serves monthly in the nursery" or b) "Challenge somebody and risk losing their small contribution, but also risk gaining so much more by moving them to line 3")
  
• Talking about vision that is truly bigger than ourselves. I love our church's annual vision message, and love moments when we talk about what our church is trying to do in the city/world/etc. It's so obvious that our vision is something that can't be accomplished by the senior pastor, church staff, or anybody else on their own or as a really small group. We need everybody to be in this together. We need to find ways to articulate this kind of vision regularly and in other contexts.
• Talk about why we do what we do. Find ways to explain why Sunday mornings give practical advice. Find ways to explain that we really do want to welcome you just as you are, but why we don't want you to stay that way. Talk about why we want people to join small groups (not just tell them to do it - or under-sell it as just a way to make friends). Talk about why we think it's important for each of us to give time serving the community (and not just throw in $10 towards the mission fund or whatever).
  
• Educate people. Talk about the point of the gospel. Talk about what the resurrection did and means. Help people see their place in a larger Kingdom-sized story that God's working on. Talk about what "church" is (and it's not a building).
  
• We need "a new redemption song." (That line comes from an Over the Rhine song, though I can't begin to say what Linford Detweiler meant when he wrote it.) We need a new way of talking about what redemption means, for others to hear and for all of us to sing together. I need a new way of thinking about what it means that I've been redeemed.

So, that's just a bit (a long bit...) of what I've been thinking about lately. I imagine these ideas will continue to brew in my head in the days, weeks & months to come, ultimately being reshaped and reformed (hopefully tossing out the bad ideas and keeping the good ones).

And, with that filling of my head with ideas, I think it's time to fill my tummy with breakfast tacos from Rudy's. :)

Something I re-learned over the weekend

Over the weekend, I re-learned just how much I love standing up in front of a group and teaching (or attempting to teach...) them something.

I am so glad I didn't come up with any lame excuses to keep me from doing a break-out session (essentially Bible 101) at Gateway's women's retreat. I had a great time! I'm not sure how much the students learned, necessarily (the topic was advertised oddly, so I had to improvise to cover what was advertised), but I think we had fun and hopefully all left a little more inspired.

I think I need to make better use of this gift, and not let it go to waste. I wonder if I could ever get up in front of an even larger room. I wonder if I could find ways to do this more often and get better at it.

Anyhow, that's just one simple thing I'm thinking about today (as I'm also trying to clean thru piles that have been by my bed for months, as well as thinking about all we'll be doing in Maui).

Oh, one cool update on Maui: my brother Steve and his wife Sara will be able to join us! We'd invited them at the very beginning, but they couldn't come because of work schedules. Things changed suddenly, so they're able to come now! YAY!!

Catalyst Conference Notes: Interview w/ Rick Warren

Andy Stanley interviewed Rick Warren on Friday at Catalyst. Rick talked a lot about healthy churches & healthy pastors. Lots here that sounded interesting to me (but then again, I am on sabbatical! haha!)

• With multi-services, it becomes even more important for pastors to think about pacing & schedule.
• "I am addicted to changed lives!"
• "I have zero interest in politics."
• Look at example of Joshua, pushing the giants out little by little.
• You don't want explosive church growth, that's cancer.
• Explosive church growth is usually also transfer growth, not new conversion growth.
• Warren will not do away with talking about numbers when needed, because "Every number represents a person Jesus died for!"
• "Don't ever apologize for counting people!"

Warren's rhythm of life:

• Divert Daily: What re-energizes you? If you work with your hands, relax with your mind. If you work with your mind, relax with your hands.
  
• Withdraw Weekly: Take a day off. If not, you are breaking the commandments! Call it a "Sabbath" and not a "day off" else you'll be tempted to cheat. And, this isn't a day for your honey-do list. (May tie this to weekly family night where each family member chooses an activity one week at a time.)
  
• Abandon Annually: Go away without your laptop or cell phone! Learn that the world really can get along without me.
  

• You can't build a healthy church fast. That's a crowd, not a church.
• Wants Saddleback to be a church of disciples, not a "happy church."
• He doesn't take worry home to his family.
• You don't want people to be dependent on you. You don't want a personality-driven church.
• Energy management matters more than time management.
• Do things Jesus' way, not your way, to last in ministry.
• Neither Rick, nor any other pastor, is the model.
• People heard Jesus and were glad? Do they respond with gladness to your teaching?
• Never compare yourself. You always see someone "better" and get discouraged or someone "worse" and get pride.
• You must be willing to learn from everybody.
• {As an aside, at this point, Andy Stanley spoke what needed to be said to the crowd... He talked about how some in the crowd needed to repent, having tuned Rick out the moment he came on stage, but they needed to listen with humility.}
• Build your library and read old books (nothing new has been written, just repackaged)
• Preach simple. Saddleback is in an area with a huge % of PhD's, yet he sees more outcome when he preaches simply.
• Hates the term "purpose-driven" now. Every church is.
• If you don't have a process for seeing people grow, you're a social club not a church.
• Need process to move people from unbeliever to missionary (from coming in the front door to being sent out the back door).
• This must be an incremental plan of discipleship. There's a huge range between Jesus saying "come and see" and eventually in effect saying "come and die" (take up your cross/etc.)
• Most churches are one or the other - "come and see" or "come and die." Jesus wants both. We need a process to move people from one to the other.
• You should judge a church not by seating capacity but by sending capacity.
• God wants faithfulness and fruitfulness (success).
  

Catalyst Conference Notes: A Conversation on Justice

Disclaimer: This post will go into some harder-to-think-about topics. Yet, they're very important topics.

(I haven't been typing these notes in the order the sessions were presented - this was the opening session on Friday, I think.)

This session brought MC Jud Wilhite together with three women who work with organizations who fight for justice (specifically justice about international sex trafficking) or who have experience seeing this kind of work:

• Naomi Zacharias of Wellspring International (daughter of Ravi Zacharias)
• Bethany Hoang of International Justice Mission
• Jeannie Mai, a television host who took a trip with Night Light

The session started with a hip-hop artist, J. Medeiros, performing live to his video. The video is an emotional introduction to the topic. You can watch it here.

The notes below are some remarks & suggestions made during the panel discussion.

• The church needs to acknowledge sex trafficking as a dark reality, that the light of Christ was meant to overcome. (Bethany)
  
• If you are talking about this subject with your church, lead with hope not with numbers. (Bethany)
  
• Jeannie travelled to the Phillippines with Night Light and sex trafficking was everywhere. One place was almost like a shoping mall of 13 year old girls.
• The church has traditionally been initimidated by sexuality. In recent years, though, we've been able to talk about HIV/AIDS and abuse. Those are easier to talk about. (Naomi)
• Sex trafficking is an uncomfortable subject. We want to place blame, but it's really hard.
• We must remember to be with people who are suffering; Christ looked towards their hearts. (Naomi)
• How we engage this topic is vital to the Gospel (Naomi). {She was talking here about meeting a woman at Amserdam's red-light district and how this woman perceived she would never be welcome in church/etc.}
• You can't just buy a girl's freedom. The "dealer" would use the money to buy other girls and the trade would just go on.
• Size of this is as large as slave trade from Africa would have been centuries ago.
• Talk about it and find ways to pray. "Prayer is more mysteriously beautiful than cash."
• Look to see if there is an anti-trafficking organization in your city. (Jud Wilhite points out that there is a huge network filtering from California on to New York, running right thru his town, and there are local organizations who try to fight it) Talk to that org and see if your church can help. A huge question is "where do you send the girls when you find them?" (i.e. when they leave that life, where next?)
• None of us can solve this whole problem, but little thigns add up.
  

Catalyst Conference Notes: Craig Groschel

"I was taught, and I thought..."

Craig Groeschel used that line as his theme for this presentation. He used an example from childhood. Haven taken some sort of classes (martial arts, I think) he was taught that he was pretty good, and when he would spar with his friends he won, so he thought he was good. But, after a good-natured fight one day with a bigger kid, he realized that maybe he wasn't.

You can also think about this in terms of things we maybe learned in school. We were taught one thing and thought one thing, but now that we're living it out, we're realizing something else. What we're realizing may not completely alter the course, but it may revise those old ideas.

Jesus talked this way sometimes, too. "You have heard it said... but I say unto you..."

Romans 12:2: "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

Maybe we should read that as "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of the American church."

Groeschel presented three main points on this he had been taught, and had thought - and then revised them a bit with things he is now learning.

1. I was taught and I thought that church should be a safe place.
2. I was taught and I thought that to Build Your Church should be your highest calling
3. I was taught and I thought that success is only found in the big numbers

The notes below have some near-quotes from Groschel, but mostly this is my take on the ideas. I think this was one of the best talks of the conference.

1. I was taught and I thought that church should be a safe place.


The "seeker sensitive" movement was a good era to correct wrongs of the church. It was not wrong to be taught and think that the church should be a safe place. But, unintentionally, we were "inviting people to a safe God." We told them to come to God for a better life. That does have value, but is that's the most we do, we fall utterly short.

Groeschel is learning that church needs to become dangerous again.

He encouraged people (in my take, those involved with Sunday mornings) to not rely on the package or series, but trust in the power of the Gospel. Preach Christ! Even non-Christians in our world are "spiritual" in some way (some of them even more so than church people!), and when they come to church, they want something spiritual. They don't want purely practical messages.

Are we producing people who are merely "cultural Christians" which Groeschel equates with "Practical Atheists?"

Groeschel talked about realizing one day that "Lukewarm pastors produce lukewarm churches?" Will God want to spit us out because we are lukewarm?

The overall point here is this: We shouldn't invite people to a "safe" Gospel. Church should be a safe place to hear a dangerous message.

That's the kind of thing that gets me excited. I think too many churches grasped on to "seeker sensitive" without fully thinking about the mission of the church, so while making one good change, threw out quite a few other good things. I think that the Church really needs to think thru the Gospel itself and the mission of the Church (the "big C" church) and reconsider how church can be both a welcoming/safe place for those who are just getting their feet wet, while also not unintentionally calling people to follow a "safe" God or a narcissistic Gospel (as Erwin McManus said in his talk).


2. I was taught and I thought that to Build Your Church should be your highest calling


Groschel said he is now learning that "Build his kingdom" should be the highest calling.

He talked about driving by a little church building each week and genuinely praying for them, and genuinely being excited when there were a few more cars in their parking lot. But, he talks about being convicted, essentially, that he was nearly praying "Bless them, Lord... (but not as much as you bless us)." Some of his efforts to unite the church (local and beyond) seem to stem from that conviction.

"Your church will never affect your community by yourself."

One of the way that lifechurch does this is by giving away resources for free. (I love that, by the way and wish I could do more of that with my church.) Giving away resources is letting people tap into a "kingdom well."

"Don't do mission alone." Invite other churches whenever you do mission projects. Think about what you have to share.

You may even promote other churches in your community. I think this is really wise - help people find the church that's right for them (if that's location, style of worship, style of teaching, programs for certain demographics, etc.)

Build your church on what you're about, not what you're not about (i.e. don't build it on "we're not your grandma's church"). Don't put others down. Oh, that's so crucial, and an error I know has been made before...

The big things that got me in this point were to unite churches. I'm not really in a position to do a ton of that in my actual role, but I hope that even I can find ways to unite with other churches for a larger kingdom purpose.


3. I was taught and I thought that success is only found in the big numbers

He's learning that the scorecard is changing.

Numbers, unquestionably, do matter. They represent people Jesus died for. But, "You can offer free beer and draw a crowd."

Groeschel said he went from thinking about a crowd to thinking about effectiveness. He had been driven by numbers.

"Don't blame yourself for the declines, or you might be tempted to take credit for the increases."

Our identity is in Christ, not in numbers! We need to preach to bring Glory! We need to not preach in order to get people to stay (oh, that offended you... well, we'll do something else). We need to not preach in order to serve the people's vision. We need to not preach just to get people in, etc.

This means we must redefine what a win is - redefine success.

If you compare lifechurch to other churches, yes, they're probably mega. But, when you compare them to the size of the mission, "we haven't done anything!" Billions of people need Christ! "We're a small church with a mega vision."

Pull people in to a vision that is not just numbers. Pull them in to a mission that is HUGE. Groeschel has told his church "pick a country." Imagine a day when people from all their campuses showed up in that country and things changed - clean water, good schools, good healthcare, enough food to eat, etc.

Yeah, there are a certain # inside. But, there are many more outside, and that's the number to look at.

Groeschel closed with what was, I think, the best moment of the conference. He said that lately he's been challenging his staff to be "line 3 believers" (though admits another term might work better). Here's basically what he means:

• Line 1 believers: "I believe in the Gospel enough to benefit from it myself."
• Line 2 believers: "I believe in the Gospel enough to contribute comfortably."
• Line 3 believers: "I believe in the Gospel enough to give my life to it."

Line 1 is an attractive show. Ok, so they come and benefit from services (joked about 30 days of sex campaign here, which most in the audience were apparently not familiar with). So you go enough to get a free donut, enjoy the music, wear shorts, think it's funny, and come away happy that it didn't make you deal with your addiction or porn habit.

Line 2 is a soft gospel. So, they'll read the bulletin, or lead a small group with a DVD lesson (easy), work in the nursery, go on a mission project in town as long as it doesn't cost more than $20.

Line 3 is a dangerous kingdom message. This is New Testament style radical generosity. This is dying to ourselves.

I spent a lot of time thinking about which line I'm on, and which line our church is on. What would you say?

Catalyst Conference Notes: Erwin McManus

I don't think it's really possible to capture Erwin McManus speaking in written words. If a picture is worth ten thousand words, one of Erwin's talks is worth about ten million. :) Even if you watch the videos he used or saw footage of the dance troupe who came with him, you wouldn't get the whole idea. So these notes are really just vague ideas from his talk at Catalyst.

• Mosaic (his church in LA) was never about being cool or edgy, but about the mission inside each human being.
• The world needs us to live our most heroic lives. You can hear more about that in his book Wide Awake.
  
• The early church was a movement of visions and dreamers. What happened to that?
• We tend to call people, instead, to a narcissistic gospel. Our gospel narratives are all about us.
• Church is more of a prison than a portal. (This was told in the context of Erwin being put into a "prison" on stage, while he was speaking.)
  
• What if we were sent to be the liberators of people?
• Good leadership should awaken the dreams of the people around us.
• Our mandate is not to build buildings nor convince people we are right.
• What if, when someone had a great vision or dream to accomplish, they first thought of going to the church? What if the church were known as a community to unlock your biggest dream?
• Our dreams are trapped under rubble. Is there a dream somewhere inside you, maybe even since birth?
• Leadership as the detonator to help others live the dreams they're meant to live. (This was told in the context of Erwin talking about being a stunt man for a video and having to jump thru a window -- an explosive detonator was needed to actually break the glass so he could jump thru.)
  

Ok, those one-liners don't begin to capture this talk. I hardly know why I bothered to type them. :) For a little taste of the real inspiration from Erwin McManus's talk, just watch this 5-minute video (shown as the opening to his talk).

The video inspired me. What is it that I (and those around me) dream of and how can I live that out (or help them live it out)? How can my leadership inspire the vision of others?

I was also intrigued and motivated by McManus' statement of a narcissistic gospel. I'd been thinking something much like that as I read Surprised by Hope recently -- and it's a theme that will come up in Craig Groschel's talk, as well (so come back later for my notes on that). Do we present the kingdom-news of the gospel in a soft way that's too much about the hearer and not enough about the kingdom? And, when we present the gospel that way, are we doing any harm? And, who may we be harming? I think there are honest seekers out there who would be turned off by a narcissistic telling of the gospel - they're not looking for something that's primarily about them, but something that's more redemptive.

Catalyst Conference Notes: Ravi Zacharias

Ravi Zacharaias was another name that I had heard of prior to Catalyst but didn't really know much about. He is one of the leading apologists in the world today, and presented a talk about the foundations we have for apologetics, basically.

He started with a story about being at Ohio State University (you can read a bit of the same story here, search for Wexner and read that paragraph). Basically, he drove my a building and was told that it was the "first postmodern building in the United States." It had staircases that led to nowhere, columns that served no purpose, etc. Zacharias' question was "Did the architect do that with the foundation, as well?" His point being, of course, that even with postmodern thought, we do base things on some foundation.

He cited another example, that of the Zimbabwean 100 million dollar bill. This money has an expiration date on it, and inflation is insane. Their currency did not have a stable foundation.

He them moved on to explain some pillars we can base conversations on.

1. The Dimension of Eternity. We all lean to the eternal. Used examples including the first orbit of the moon (when the astronauts quoted "In the beginning..."), quotation from C.S. Lewis about fish/land animals:

We are so little reconciled to time that we are even astonished at it. "How he's grown!" we exclaim, "How time flies!" as though the universal form of our experience were again and again a novelty. It is as strange as if a fish were repeatedly surprised at the wetness of water. And that would be strange indeed; unless of course the fish were destined to become, one day, a land animal.



2. The Dimension of Morality. Naturalism can't rationally explain morality. Yes, atheists can be good, but how do you explain it? Greek morality was like ideals seen in the shadowlands. Hebrew morality was rooted in the character of God. Quoted this line "what you applaud you encourage, but beware of what you celebrate."
3. Accountability. (Didn't make notes on this)
4. Charity. "The greatest of these is love." Why is it that you are doing what you are doing? Talked about Father Damien who worked with the lepers on Molokai (and, unfortunately, was among a small percentage of the population susceptible to leprosy, and succumbed to the disease). Father Damien was buried there, but only in part (since another group wanted to bury him, as well, back in Europe). All that was left in Molokai was his hand - "the hand that touched us."
   

He closed with a story about an actor who was in the Bombay, India attacks. He was thrust under a table, and all around him died. He said that he could only assume that the attackers saw him, covered in blood, and he was taken for dead, and therefore left to live. (Which sounds a lot like the rest of us)

His talk was quite interesting - the audience was so quiet and attentive to what he was saying. I was most moved by point 4. It's vital when we think about apologetics to think about love. I was encouraged to see RZIM working with so many service-oriented projects. It's not just arguing with people, it's also serving them with love.