It’s Messy
I just got done reading a blog by a guy named Gary Lamb. It was a very weird experience. It was weird because I know that three years ago, my emotions wouldn’t have been the same. As I read his words, my heart broke for the people that he was talking about. Even now I have this weird mixture of sorrow, compassion, passion, and shame.
It broke my heart to hear about about the person who joined his church for selfish reasons. How many people do I know that are like that. They just join a church because they want to be edgy. There is no desire for the lost. No desire to serve. It’s just about their own selfish desires. This breaks my heart because people are looking for the hope that we have, and we’re just filling our own personal pride. It’s depressing.
Then my heart starts to break for those that are involved in his church. As he told the stories about the people committing suicide and lives being destroyed by drugs, I couldn’t help but feel compassion. Over the past few years, my heart has been drawn to those who are outcasts of the church. My heart goes out to the guy who only lives for the next fix, the single mom who strips to make ends meet, the guy who tries to fill the void in his life by sleeping with every girl in sight, and the girl who sleeps with him because she has never really known the love of a true father. Gary’s stories hit me at my core.
More than ever this gives me a passion to plant a church. The church in America is dying. Over the last 100 years, “the number of churches increased just over 50 percent while the population of the country has almost quadrupled. This decline in church-to-population ratio helps to explain the decline of the North American church during the past century.”* Plus a lot of the new churches being planting aren’t reaching people who don’t know God. Like Gary said, they are reaching Christians who are just tired of their current church. We need churches who are showing the love and hope that is only available through Jesus. But they are few and far between.
This is why I felt shameful. I know that for some time my only hope was to plant a church that was “cool.” I wanted to be known as the edgy church. I wanted to plant a church that religious people wouldn’t come to, but that cool and edgy Christians came to. I didn’t want to get my hands dirty. I didn’t want reach out to the outcasts. But I know now that I need to repent of that mindset. I know where God has called me and it’s time to get my hands dirty. I don’t know if I have what it takes…but I do know I have the One who can take me through it all.
*Ed Stetzer – Planting Missional Churches pg. 9
Give it up.
It has always been interesting to me to look at the trends of cash flow in churches. I just heard a sermon about how a church was close to half-a-million in the hole (their a very large church). The pastor gave a state of the church address and the giving increased and they ended the year with a surplus (Where the heck was all that money before?).
Now a lot of people would think of this as a wonderful story in God’s provision. Which it is. But I also see it as a sad state of the people’s hearts. I’ve seen this in our own church. The church is having trouble making the budget (which is based off peoples giving from the previous year), the pastor gives a hint at the joy of giving (which it is), and the giving goes back up.
Why does it always take and emergency for the church to give? Why do we have to be reminded to give? Why does it always take a drastic event in our lives in order for us to be generous? Why are we so stingy with our money and possessions?
This is something that is always at the front of my mind. I know what it is like to be in ministry and to know that you could spread the cause of Jesus in great ways….but….you don’t have the finances. I would say that this is sometimes one of the biggest stumbling blocks in ministry. You know God is calling you to do something, but you can’t see how you would be able to finance it.
And you and me being the good Christians we are (or not) say, “If God is calling you to do something, don’t worry because He will provide.” But what we really mean behind those words are, “If God is calling you to do something, don’t worry because He will provide…through someone other than me.”
I had a moment of enlightenment when I was in college. I was a poor college student (which for some is a load of crap statement…but that is another blog), and I went out to eat with a group guys. At the end of the meal, an older gentleman in the group payed for the meal. I remember telling him how I wish I could do the same. And he responded in the kindest of words, “If you aren’t generous when you have nothing, then you won’t be generous when you have everything.”
It’s stuck with me to this day. That was a changing point in my life. Before then, I was only generous and giving when I had extra money (which was like never). From that point on, I have tried my best to give at every opportunity I had. My generosity comes before my excess.
I think this is what Jesus is calling us to do as Christians. He tells us in Matthew that He will take care of us. Therefore, we should invest in the things that are of His heart. As we invest in Him, we grow closer to Jesus, “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
We shouldn’t be generous only when we have money or see a need. We should be generous all the time. Churches should never have to worry about money. It should be the only non-profit organization in the world that should never have to worry about their cash flow. The word Christian should be synonymous with generous.
The funny thing is that once I started being more generous…the more I enjoyed it. I just hope that you would give it a chance.
Lose your reputation – Give away a shot glass
I came across this article today about a church that is handing out shot glasses (with the phrase “give us a shot” on it) in a local bar to invite people to their church. I love to hear stories about churches doing things like this. I’m personally up for just starting a church service in the bar, but this is a step in the right direction.
You see this past Sunday our pastor spoke about the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19. One of the things that he pointed out that really struck a chord with me was in verse 7. Jesus enters Jericho this famous rabbi who everyone loves. Then he decides to go against the grain of what all the religious people have been doing (separating themselves from sinners), and he tells the greatest sinner in town that he is going to go eat at his house (the den of iniquity….dum, dum, dum).
Then you see in verse 7, “And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”" I love that verse. With one act of love and compassion for a man that was the least to deserve it, Jesus looses his entire reputation. You constantly see him loosing his reputation because he would go where “righteous people” wouldn’t go and hang out with people that “righteous people” wouldn’t hang out with.
We need to do the same. Our churches need to the same.
Do you Medicate?
A few weeks ago my wife was talking with an older gentleman about stress and life in general. The older gentleman who is very big on Thai Chi asked my wife, “Do you meditate?” But my wife heard him ask, “Do you medicate?”
Now I know that both of these can help reduce stress… but the means are very different. Let’s just say there was a little confusion until they cleared that up.
It’s amazing how the words we use convey so much meaning. By a simple change of words what we are trying to express is completely changed. If you don’t agree with me, try responding to the phrase, “I love you,” with “I like you.” The difference is worlds apart (and could mean the end to a wonderful relationship).
In the past few years, there has been a growing trend among churches to change some of the words that are used. I know of one church in California that has weekly meetings to go over the language that is used in their church each week. The trend is to move away from using words that have lost their meaning over the years.
One word that I think has lost is meaning over the years is the word service when we talk about our church services. We go to the church service. We have church services. The service was really long this morning. What did you think about the service?
The words role off our tongues without any thought to what they actually mean. It’s just another word in our vocabulary. I think the original meaning might have been the idea that we come together to serve each other. But I don’t think that we even give it any thought any more. If anything the meaning has changed. The word no longer has the meaning of serving each other, but I would say now has the connotation of serving ourselves.
How well was I served this morning at church? The word has the intrinsic focus on self. The reality is that hardly anyone in today’s Christian subculture thinks of church as a time to serve each other. The focus is all inward. “I didn’t like the worship today.” “That sermon was really boring.” “I wish they would have…” “I don’t like it when we sing hymns.” “I don’t like how they’re always asking us to do things.”
The reality is that church is not about the individual. When you look at Acts you constantly see that the church is about community and not about self. You see at the end of chapter two that people are sharing all their possessions. They, “were together and had all things in common.” It wasn’t about them individually. It was about the community.When you read through Acts, you see that the church never had services. Instead you see that they gathered (assembled) together. The church wasn’t about the individual coming to the church, but instead about the church gathering together.
Therefore we have changed the language at our church (like many others) to reflect this concept. We no longer use the words church service, but instead we talk about our gatherings. We don’t have services, but instead we gather. We want to constantly put the focus of our church on the community and not on the individual. Some might just say that this is just semantics or legalism, but we see it as essential to who we are. We want to always be putting the truth forward in every word we use.
So I pose the questions to you:What words have lost meaning for you? What words no longer mean the same for you? Do you ever think about the words that you use and the meanings you are portraying?Do you medicate?
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