A Blog for the Church

We know a family who is trapped in church. They want to escape but they can’t. They are so “involved” in ministries and programs that to leave would be letting the pastor, their friends and the “church” down. So they stay.

Every time I see them they complain about the church. They want to leave. I suspect that there are many people like this out there.

I was reading a blog by social media guru Chris Brogan about escape velocity. His definition of “escape velocity” is “the ability to leave a situation that isn’t helpful or desired.”

Wow. That sounds like my friend’s situation. Chris was referring more to a job or career change. But I, of course, immediately thought of conventional “church.” If your “church” is not helpful or desired then why not leave the building?

Yes, I said, “Leave the building” not the church,” there’s a difference. Church is the body of Christ and we need the body for a number of reasons. (Heb. 10:23-25), but the body can meet anywhere.

Second, I am not saying that “helpful” means getting all of your needs met and having an enjoyable “experience.” What I mean by helpful is being involved with other believers who “help” you to be a better disciple of Jesus. Not more guilty or busy or overwhelmed.

So, what would a church escape plan look like? And once you escape, then what do you do?

Let’s explore that in the next blog post.

For now, if you are in a situation that you need to escape, I would encourage you to pray. It would be best if you made this move because of God’s prompting not mine.

Pray a lot. Pray with your spouse and your family. You might want to spend a time of prayer and fasting. Seriously. Achieving escape velocity will not be easy and re-entry is almost impossible. So make sure you are committed before trying it.

A few weeks ago our family visited a local church. A week earlier we had met their youth pastor who had invited our two teenage boys. We attend house church and presently we don’t have any other teens attending so we thought it would be nice to take our boys and see if they could connect with other kids.

On that Sunday they were advertising an evening Vacation Bible School. Our six-year-old boy was interested in going and we thought it might be fun and a good learning experience, so we signed him up.

On Monday evening my wife took our son and stayed with him for the whole time. She said that the staff did a really good job of keeping the kids interested and teaching them songs and bible stories. When they returned home I asked our son how he liked it. His answer was, “it was great! Can I take some friends tomorrow?”

Wow! I thought. He must have really liked it. Then he told me that whoever brings the most friends over the whole week would win an iPad. An Apple iPad?! Seriously? What would a six year old do with an iPad? Surely he was mistaken. They must have meant and iPod. Probably and iPod shuffle, I thought. Those are only around $50. I could see them giving one of those away.

The next night my wife took him back to VSB but didn’t stay the whole time. I returned later to pick him up. As we walked to the car I asked him what he had learned. I was excited that he told me all about a bible story that he learned. Then he followed up by asking, “Can I call my cousin and ask if he could come tomorrow? I really want to win that iPad.” They must be really pushing this iPad thing.

It was the same story for the next two days. “VBS was great! I need to win the iPad.”

Then came the final night night, Friday night, the grand finale. This was the night that family was invited. After VBS the pastor gave a short message. Then came the moment we all had been waiting for. Who would win the coveted iPad?

The pastor invited everyone who had brought friends to come to the front. Many kids went forward. Then he went down the row of children asking them how many people they had brought. The ones who had only brought one or two people seemed a little embarrassed. There was a courtesy round of applause for them.

Then, one young man announced that he had brought seventeen visitors. There was thunderous applause and hoots for him. All of his visitors stood. He was a shoe in to win.

After all of the visitors were recognized the pastor held up the iPad, still in it’s box. Yes, it was truly a brand new ipad. I must admit that I coveted it a bit myself. I have wanted an iPad since I had played with one at the Apple store.

Now was the time. The pastor held up the iPad box and made an amazing announcement. The winner would not be announced tonight. In fact there was still hope. You see, anyone who brought visitors on Sunday would receive DOUBLE POINTS!!! That’s right boys and girls. You still have a chance! The iPad could still be yours! I saw my son’s head turn around and his eyes fixed on mine. Could it still be true? Is there still a chance? Can I bring friends on Sunday Daddy?

My heart sunk. I understand inviting people to church. I understand that our mission is to pray for unbelievers and to invite people into the Kingdom. Maybe we are supposed to use any means at our disposal, even Apple iPads. But this did not feel good. “No, son. We will not be coming back on Sunday.”

After that Friday night VBS meeting I had a long talk with my son. I told him that we don’t go to church to win prizes. We go to learn about Jesus so that we can help others. I was surprised that he seemed to really understand and agree with me.

I don’t think we will be returning to that church anytime soon.

In our house church we have been trying to learn about loving and blessing each other. Of course that is a hard pill to swallow in this consumer driven culture that we live in. It’s about us, right? It’s about getting our needs met, right? It’s about enjoying the “experience” of church, right? Right?

Well…no. No it’s not.

The irony of the fact that I am typing this blog on my MacBook Pro doesn’t escape me. I am just as addicted to “stuff,” especially technology stuff, as the next person.

At the same time God is teaching me to take baby steps toward being more humble and generous. And if I attend a church meeting, if it is in a big building or in a house, I hope that my motivation is to love others, not to win an iPad.

I watched this video from TED and Jane McGonigal last week. She said that gamers are looking for an “epic win.” According to McGonigal we should all be encouraged to play online games more and to embrace fantasy, even going so far as to say that games and gamers can change the world and solve real world problems.

Of course, most of you reading this blog know that our real world epic win happened on the cross a couple of millennia ago. We also know that real world questions and answers need to be addressed in the real world. This is the responsibility of the Church.

So, do me a favor and watch this video and let me know what you think. Is there any hope for mankind in the gaming world? Are we inviting a generation to escape the truth and embrace lies? Or am I being too over dramatic?

I have been reading the book ‘Fierce Conversations” by Susan Scott. I have been thinking about the word “fierce”. I have been trying to have fierce, on purpose, relevant, even life-changing conversations with people instead of the normal yada-yada dribble.

I have also been thinking a lot, as you might have guessed, about planting house churches. In Luke 10:3b Jesus says that he is sending us out as lambs among wolves. Yikes! Not as wolves among wolves, but as lambs. As far as I know, lambs are not fierce. They are timid, humble creatures. I don’t believe that Jesus is calling us to be wimps, but to be extremely humble, not militant or combative.

In 1960 A. A. Hoehling wrote a book called The Fierce Lambs. It is the story of four American soldiers who were sent to France during the First World War. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to be sent overseas into war. However, the more I engage the enemy by following orders and going forward, the more fierce the battle becomes.

So, how can I be a fierce lamb, a person who is not afraid to be bold, aggressive, even reckless at times but still humble? The answer, of course is to follow the example of Jesus. Isn’t he a beautiful example of a fierce lamb? Note to self: obey Jesus, listen to the Holy Spirit, and be fierce.

In a little over a month the House 2 House Conference is taking place in Dallas. The conference has a special place in the heart of our house church network. It was after leaders from The Well attended this conference in 2004 that we felt a real sense of calling to leave the building. In the beginning of 2005 The Well left our rented facility, moved into three homes and never looked back.

Every year since then some leaders or members of The Well have attended the National House Church Conference. We have been able to lead workshops and be involved in many ways.

It is always worth going. We now have many friends from around the country and world that we have met at House2House. We are excited to return.

Here is a little bit of information about this year’s conference:

Infrastructure: The Necessity of Transformational Leadership

The past few years have seen Christians moving in unprecedented numbers from more traditional settings into what are known as simple, organic or house church movements. This year’s National House Church Conference will explore the role of transformational leadership teams to help provide infrastructure to fresh moves of the Holy Spirit.

All sessions and workshops are interactive and participatory, designed to help Christians explore biblically and through practical experience the dynamics of house church life.

For more information and to register for the event go to house2house.com

Hope to see you there.

Last week Ali and I went to Trafford, Pennsylvania to visit our friends and the house church community that they are a part of.

We arrived on Thursday and left the following Wednesday. Other than Sunday morning, I wasn’t really sure what we would be doing other than visiting with our friends. But the church embraced us and made sure they took care of us.

On Saturday and before church on Sunday some of them had commented to me that their church seemed to be a bit stagnant and at times chaotic.

When we started the meeting after the Lord’s Supper, prayer and singing, our host Matt indicated that I “was on.” I thanked them for inviting us but then did more asking questions and listening than talking.

As they talked they vented a little but were all convinced that house church was better than where most of them had come from. One couple had been Jehovah’s Witnesses for years. A few had grown up in very traditional churches and some had grown up Catholic, which is common for this area.

Some of the members in this house church had been together for over 3 years! I encouraged them and reminded them that many house churches don’t last nearly that long. They were also sure that it was only God that could have kept them together for this long. Just like any family, they have had their good times and times of near implosion.

It’s Not About Me

I tried my best to remind them that house church was not “about them.” And that when they came together it was to meet each other’s needs rather than seek to get their own needs met. This is not about being a consumer but about denying ourselves, picking up our crosses daily and following Jesus. Even though I was not telling them anything new, that seemed to be a bit of a collective “ah-ha” moment for the group.

Sunday was a great day. It was a God day. I think everyone was encouraged. I know I was. It is exciting to see a group with such incredible potential to do great things for God.

By Tuesday night we had been with this group each day for four days. We prayed sang, laughed, cried and ate a lot! They were so appreciative that we had come to spend time with them, but in reality we were the ones who were blessed.

Where have we been? The short answer is that we just checked out of social media for a while. The leaders of our little house church network have been feeling that we were becoming a little to outward focused and not spending enough time with the people in our churches.

So, we have spent the last few months reconnecting, rebuilding and getting back to our roots. We have learned a lot about listening to God and trusting each other. Now that we have decided on some things and are on the road to putting our “houses” in order, we are feeling better about getting back on the social media horse.

For those of you who had been following our web site, blog, Facebook and Twitter pages, we apologize. I’m sure it seemed as if we just forgot about you. We may have burned some bridges by just falling off the face of the earth, but now we are back. We will do our best to keep you posted. However, our postings will probably look a little different. We are not going to be just focusing on “the cause” of house church, but we will be a little more personal. We will be sharing more stories about our churches and hopefully, be a resource to people inside and outside of The Well network.

As always we welcome your comments and ideas. We are not and never have claimed to be experts in house church. But we are walking together daily in the hope that Jesus will use us. We invite you to journey with us and join us in the conversation.

Press on Church.

Hollywood has a plan to get Christians into theaters so they can make a lot of money.  Apparently there are a lot of us in the United States (and throughout the world, for that matter), and when a movie comes along that we really care about, ka-ching!.

Like The Passion of the Christ: it made over $600 million dollars and, last time I checked Wikipedia, was the 41^st highest grossing movie of all-time and the 2^nd highest grossing among R-rated movies.

So, they’re trying to get us back into theaters. Any guesses as to how they plan to do so?

It’s not sex.

It’s not violence.

It’s not a sappy love story.

It’s not action.

It’s the Bible! Specifically the Creation story.  But wait, there’s more! The real draw is that they’re going to make it in 3-D and load it up with all kinds of special effects.

As one guy who writes for New York Magazine put it, “With the success of Avatar, they believe they have a new, better game plan: make religious-themed movies, but make them big, effects-packed, 3-D blockbusters…”

I wonder how long it will take before “Avatar” becomes a verb which means “to make something visually stunning through the use of breakthrough technology.” Hollywood is going to avatar the Creation story and put it on the big screen to make money. (That’s how long, I guess!)

Whatever. If they don’t do more than just make it look awesome, it will fail. Remember Waterworld? If not, consider your life more rich and happy.

But my concern is not with Hollywood as much as it is with the church.

The Church is Trying to Play Hollywood’s Games

By that I mean churches are trying to get people to attend by putting on a big show and wow-ing them. This isn’t particularly new, but it’s very sad and becoming more prevalent.

That is exactly what the attractional model is about. Of course, there are reasons to justify it: if we can just get people to visit our church, we’ll be able to share the gospel with them. The ends, many folks believe, justify the means.

That’s why Rick Warren had the Jonas Brothers perform at his Easter service.

That’s why a Corpus Christi megachurch gave away sixteen cars, fifteen flat-screen televisions, furniture sets and other prizes at their Easter service.

That’s why a lot of other churches have a rocking worship team, state-of-the-art sound systems, big stages, HD videos, clever advertising and attention-getting sermon series.  We’re convinced that if we’re just cool enough, people will show up and we’ll be able to give them Jesus.

And the worst part is that it works. At least to a degree. People show up all the time for the wrong reasons, we preach a message and they leave. Every now and then someone sticks around and gets saved, but for the most part they are few and far between. Still, we tell ourselves, if even one person gets saved, it was all worth it.

I don’t know if it is. Jesus once asked a rhetorical question about gaining the world and losing one’s soul. I wonder if we haven’t done just that on a communal level. Sure, we’ve won souls (and praise God for that), but the church seems to be losing its soul in the process. Even though 12 guys turned the world upside down two millennia ago by sharing their faith, there are 233 million “Christians” in the United States alone, but it doesn’t seem like much is happening here spiritually.

I don’t mean to undermine the good things that many of us are doing in Jesus’ name, but are we experiencing the limit of how God’s Spirit wants to use us?  Has the local church reached its potential today?

Not by a long shot. I adamantly believe He wants to use the local church in ways that would literally blow our minds. But hear me on this: it isn’t going to look like Hollywood. It isn’t going to be some big extravaganza with smoke, lights, fireworks and red carpet.

Because God usually uses things that the world considers weak and foolish things (like the Gospel and average people who follow Jesus) to accomplish his ends. Let’s start acting like we actually believe that, Church.

Participate: Take a look at your own church – do you sense, even if it is not overt, that it has bought into Hollywood’s games? If so, how might God use you to speak into or change that?

Engage: Examine your own life – are you dressing Christianity up with anything to make it more appealing? Are you trying to attract others to your faith using methods that Jesus and the early church never did? How might the Spirit be working in you to alter that?

Own: Bring others into the conversation – talk about this with your small group, family or friends. Do they see how the Church has bought into Hollywood’s games? Explore as a community what the Church would look like de-Hollywood-ized. What would be the gains? What challenges would we face?

If you watch Fox News or get your news from either FoxNews.com or MSNBC.com, you may have noticed a somewhat surprising advertisement that is pro-Bible. In the commercials, folks from various backgrounds, cultures, ages, etc. are filmed saying “I Am Not Ashamed” – the campaign’s primary tagline. USA today is also running print ads (and individual churches can sponsor billboards) with Bible verses that address some of today’s hot-button issues: abortion, homosexual marriage, etc.

Additionally, they’ve set up a website where users can proclaim their unashamedness either by writing a little something (like you would on someone’s Facebook wall) or by recording a video of themselves reading from the Bible and then uploading this to the site.  This is great…except for one thing.

Talking About Being Unashamed Isn’t Enough

You’ve probably heard about all the statistics indicating that about 80% of Americans claim to be Christians. But is that really true? Take 10 of your co-workers or neighbors or the people you see at the grocery store, gym, or restaurant…would you consider 8 of them to be authentic Christians?

Some might be able to answer “Yes,” but most of us respond with an immediate, “No way!”

It seems that there’s still a wide gap between who some people say they are and who they really are.

Let’s be honest, it’s pretty easy to forward on that forward-this-if-you-love-Jesus email, or check that box on the survey, or agree with this or that statement, or read a blog like this and comment with an “Amen” or “Right on,” or slap that Jesus fish on your bumper, or listen to Christian music, or go to Christian movies, or wear the Christian T-shirt.

It’s easy to look Christian.  It’s not so easy to be Christian.

I’ve come to the conclusion that there actually is something about the Gospel that many of us are ashamed of, an aspect of it that we try to soften, get around, or otherwise avoid.

The Gospel Is Offensive

That’s the case for several reasons, not least of which because of the exclusive claims of Jesus. In today’s world, exclusive claims are about as appealing as the plague, so we try to avoid them like we would a plague. Sometimes we do this passively, just by leaving that part out and focusing on the love of God and how Christianity is a much better way to live. Other times we do it actively, by reinterpreting passages or excusing exclusive claims as metaphors.

For example: God’s love is much more appealing than God’s wrath, to be sure.  But God is still wrathful and that’s still part of the Gospel.

Are you ashamed of that?  Are you uneasy about Jesus saying that the gate leading to life is narrow, and only a few will enter through it? Are you ashamed of the part of the Gospel where Jesus demands that we repent? Are you ashamed of the Gospel that has Jesus claiming to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no one can get to the Father except through Him?

My guess is that most of us, in one way or another, find ourselves ashamed at times of the Gospel. It’s hard not to be when our culture rejects Jesus’ claims to be exclusive, and even harder when people we love and respect are unable to accept the Gospel’s terms.

But notice what Paul says after declaring that he is not ashamed in Romans 1:16:

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes… (Emphasis mine.)

Do you see how Paul chose to phrase it? Instead of going the negative/ashamed route, he chose the positive/unashamed route. We can either be ashamed because the Gospel doesn’t offer salvation to those who refuse it, or we can be unashamed because the Gospel offers salvation to everyone who believes it.

The former makes the Gospel bad news and the latter makes it good news.

What, then, is there to be ashamed of?

Early last month, Glenn Beck made some comments on his radio and television programs that has, quite literally, outraged Christians pretty much across the board. He said that the term “social justice” is really just a code word for communism and Nazism, and that Christians should leave their churches if social justice is held in high esteem there.

As a respected political analyst for conservatives, these comments have not been well received by a good portion of his audience.

Allow me to make something clear before I write the rest of this blog: the Bible is clear on how Christians should act towards the marginalized and disenfranchised. We are to love them, help them, and care for them to the best of our ability because in doing so we are actually, in some mysterious way, loving Jesus Christ himself.

Now, with that said, we need to make sure we get things straight.

Social Justice is Not the Gospel

Depending on your experience and what you’ve been learning, reading that may have been a source of minor (or perhaps major) outrage for you.

I get it.

For too long, Christianity was characterized by a sort of laziness when it came to actually helping people.  The problems were too large and the needs too many to make much of a difference.  So many Christians kind of gave up and said, “We may not be able to help them with _______________, but we can at least share the Gospel with them.  That’s what is most important, anyways.”

In response, many of us have swung to the either side and, depending on who we’re spending time with, come to the conclusion that social justice is not only important to the Gospel – it actually is the Gospel.  After all, Jesus was clear that one of the two greatest commandments was to love our neighbors as ourselves, and that in helping others we are serving him.

As a result, there are many Christians, and particularly within the younger crowd, who believe that as long as we are helping, serving and loving people to the best of our ability, God will either reveal himself to them or will prompt them to ask us why we love them so much. When that happens, we can talk about Jesus.  But doing so earlier than that is offensive or presumptuous, so it’s best not to.

In that sense, we’ve adopted as our banner the quote often attributed to St. Francis of Assissi:

Preach the Gospel Always, If Necessary Use Words

Our social justice efforts have become our way of preaching to the world today.  We all know that actions can speak louder than words, so if we just love the way we should and really help people, we are preaching the Gospel to them.

I get it.  I really do.  I see the appeal of living life that way.  We would be making the world a better place and actively living out the love of God.

But social justice is not the Gospel.

Jesus did not die on the cross so you and I can serve at a homeless shelter or sponsor a kid for $30 a month to release them from poverty.  Those things are wonderful…hear me on that. Christians should be doing those things.  But they are not the Gospel.

The Gospel, the good news, is a message with content. It tells us that even though we are separated from God by sin and unable to do anything to earn His forgiveness, Jesus Christ lived the perfect life that we could not. He then died on a cross as our substitute so that, through him and only him, we can be forgiven and accepted back into God’s family.  There is nothing we need to do to in order to get right with God apart from relying on what He has done for us in Jesus. His forgiveness and favor are completely free, so none of us can boast about what we’ve done to earn eternal life.

Because that message is true and we have responded to it in faith, we are now free to do all kinds of good works, especially those that fit under the social justice category.  And by “free” I don’t just mean we finally get to do them.  Anyone can do a good work.  I mean we are liberated from trying to earn God’s approval by doing them.  We do not get closer to God by our good works and we do not please him more by our good works.  We are already close to God, pleasing to God, and loved by God as much as we will ever be because, and only because, of our relationship with Jesus Christ.

That is the Gospel.

And if we are not actually sharing that message with people, even if we are freeing them from poverty or whatever other hardship they face, we are not really helping them as completely as God intends us to.  Because sooner or later they will die, and if they have not accepted God’s gracious offer of forgiveness before then, the rest of their existence will be exponentially worse than it was while on this earth.

Glenn Beck is wrong.  But unless we put social justice in it’s proper place, there’s a good chance he won’t be for long.

Participate: Think back over the social justice projects you’ve been a part of, did you share the message of redemption offered through Jesus Christ as a part of it?  Why or why not?

Engage:  What would it look like for social justice to be put in its proper place in your life?  Would you have to share the gospel more?  Would you have to serve more?

Own:  This is an important conversation for Christians to have.  How can you begin to engage your fellow believers on this topic?