Tag Archives: Church

Spam

18 Friday Aug 2017

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When I look at my e-mails I am sure to have some spam.  Every time.  I didn’t ask for any of it.  I don’t care which shampoos can supposedly cause cancer.  If these people actually knew me, they’d know I shave my head and that shampoo is just not that important to me.

I didn’t ask to receive spam e-mail for dating Russian women and other things unsuitable for this blog.  How in the world did they even get my e-mail.  If they knew me, they’d know I was happily married.

I didn’t ask to receive spam e-mails that is going to show me shocking footage of Hillary Clinton screaming at someone.  Seriously?  Isn’t she old news by now?  Who needs that when you can easily be distracted by the President’s tweets or speeches.  If they knew me, they’d know that I’m registered non-partisan and find both parties to be seriously lacking, stale, and flawed – and certainly not placing any hope of salvation in either party or any politician.  Certainly not the current crop of politicians that claim to be leaders.

I don’t ask for any of these e-mails, yet they show up.  And every day when I get them, I unsubscribe from every single one of them.  But they keep coming.  It never ends.

Often times, life is like spam e-mails.  Things just show up that we never asked for.  Often these are annoyances, sometimes they are worse.  And sometimes they are down right offensive (like the second set of spam I receive – Seriously, how did they get my e-mail and don’t they get the message that I don’t want anything they have to offer?).

Often we are bombarded with what I call spam messages – you could call them spam gospel messages.  These are message that tell you that if only believe this, you’ll be great.  If you buy our product, then you’ll be in much better shape.  If you do this, you’ll make a fortune.  Then then there are literal spam gospel messages – messages that are theological based, but are just as baseless as any ad that tries to separate you from your money.  These are the Rapture theologies, the Prosperity gospel, and the televangelist “send in your money to receive a reward or healing” – often they call it seed money.  Who’s seeds are you planting though?

We get inundated with lots of spam.  We don’t ask for it.  We don’t even want to hear it or see it.  Yet it shows up – in our e-mails, on our TV’s, in the ads we see, on social media, in conversations we overhear in the grocery store, in political campaigns, and in sporting events.

But then we also receive some actual good news too.  Sometimes the message of good news gets lost because we are so upset or distracted by the spam.  But the good news will never go away.  It’s there, just waiting to be celebrated.  That’s the role of the church – to share Good News with people.  Church, I’m speaking directly to you – people want to hear good news.  They welcome it.  Let’s stop apologizing for talking about the Good News.  The rest of the news is spam frankly.  There really is no comparison here.  We have the best news in the history of creation.  It’s time to proclaim Good News to people.

Purpose and Meaning

15 Tuesday Aug 2017

Posted by in Church, Humanity, Theology

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Have you ever driven through sections of town that raise questions?  When you look around, you can’t help but wonder what happened?  Have you driven through a city to a section where you can literally see a lack of hope and future in the faces of the people and the properties and the landscaping?  The entire area just looks and feels empty of life.  There is survival, but that’s about it.  And often it gets summed up as this – Why am I still here?

So often we look to government to provide for people who are poor – and government does to some degree.  But government is limited – it can only touch on people’s material needs.  It can’t touch the intangibles.

These are intangibles like community, spiritual needs, existential needs.  I don’t care who you are, we all have these needs and often these needs are going unmet.

This is an opportunity for the church.  This is one area that the church has a unique opportunity and role in the lives of people – to do something that no one else can do.  To help people answer the question of why they are still here.

There are many people who seek purpose and meaning.  It’s as if they are waiting for an answer to just show up.  They don’t know where to search for the answer to the age-old question – and so they just exist.  And after you have done that for a long time, you forget that you were searching.  And instead, you bide your time, you distract yourself, and you find ways to fill the void in life.  Too many turn to unhealthy distractions of drugs, alcohol, sex, and entertainment.  Others turn to work and materialism.

But none of these can offer the answer to these deep questions about life.  And this is where the church can step in and help people with these questions.  It’s what makes the church unique.  But it requires a long-term commitment.  It requires an outward focus.  It requires trust and a willingness to ask difficult questions and sit with uncomfortable questions.  It takes time.

Purpose and meaning – even people who we think don’t care about these things really do.  Purpose and meaning are the difference between existing today and having direction.

Community defined

10 Thursday Aug 2017

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How do you define community?

I guess part of the way you answer the question has to do with the context.  How we define community in relation to a community park should be different to how we define community in relation to a church.

in relation to a church, how would you define community?

Here’s some things that I thing relate to what a community is in relation to church – trust, people, commonality, values, direction, respect, value, humanity.

Each of these, of course, has a definition too, but for the sake of not boring you all to death, I’ll stop with the downward spiral into definitions that only a true work nerd would care about.

Instead, here’s my stab at defining community.   A community is build on a foundation of trust.  Sitting on top of that foundation is a group of people who hold values, respect, and a vision in common.  Theses building blocks set guidelines for how the people in a community interact and recognize one another’s humanity.

A bit wordy, I know.

Maybe a simpler version would be – a community is a group of people who recognize others as having value because they care about similar things and also recognize that together, each person gains far more than going it alone.

So what is a church community?  A group of people who have a similar belief system, to band together to support one another in order to carry out the mission of the church – to make more disciples.

How would you define community in relation to church?

 

Headlines…or click bait?

02 Wednesday Aug 2017

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Don’t read this post if you like click bait headlines.  This isn’t one of those articles.

I read an article that talked about ways to catch people’s attention with a headline.  I hated the article.  You can read it yourself here:  https://medium.com/the-mission/this-new-data-will-make-you-rethink-how-you-write-headlines-751358f6639a.

I hated it because I can’t believe people click on headlines like this.  The “10 things that…”  Really?  That draws people’s attention.  I usually skip articles like that.  I have found that the 10 things are usually not that helpful.

“You’ll never guess what happened next…”  That’s a headline that screams click bait.  It usually causes me to scream also.  Sure I can guess what – not much, but you still got people to click on your article.

I guess that’s the whole point.  But what if there is more.  What if just getting people to pay attention is really just shallow?

Are people just looking for the shortest way to a specific answer without having to think about it?  Have we become lazy?  Why don’t we want to think?  Are we too busy?

Considering I am a pastor, I think about these things in relation to church.  Sure, I could use all sorts of click bait-like headlines and phrases to catch people’s attention.  But then what?  If there is no substance, people leave.  Easy come, easy go.  Easy in, easy out.

Church isn’t a business.  It’s more like a relationship.  Relationships aren’t built on quick catch phrases – one night stands are.

It’s my hope that churches don’t follow this trend of quick and easy solutions for life’s problems.  Mostly because most problems aren’t quick and easy – but long and difficult.  Most problems involve people and things that are intangible.  I have found that there aren’t 10 easy steps to salvation.  There aren’t 10 things that you need to do to get the most out of church.  There aren’t 10 things that churches can do to stop hunger in their community.  That’s because there are not simple steps when it comes to faith.

I’m not in a denomination that has the nice and neat sinners prayer that is supposed to change your life in a moment.  I’m not part of a denomination that believes that all the answers to life’s problems and questions are in the bible.  (Try asking the bible who won the 1942 World Series and see what you come up with.)

I am part of denomination that believes that life is messy, that mystery is normal, that we don’t have all the answers, and that questions are welcome.  I’m part of a denomination that doesn’t take the bible literally, but certainly tries to take it seriously.

We don’t have 10 easy things that you should do.  But we do have grace and forgiveness.  We don’t have all the answers, but we will listen to your story.  You don’t have to guess what will happen next, I can tell you – we’ll have a conversation, listen to each other, pray with each other, and then start to walk together on life’s journey.  It’s a long walk (I hope), but well worth it.

Leave the click bait behind – there’s just too many important things in life for that.

The mission of the church

25 Tuesday Jul 2017

Posted by in Church, Theology

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I’ve read many thoughts and ideas about what the mission of the church is.  I’ve heard lots of debates about it to.  And for all the debates, there still seems to be a whole lot of uncertainty.

I saw this quote from Gary Vaynerchuk the other day talking about Apple and why Apple is so unique as a company –

“Apple focuses on building a relationship that will last by deploying all of their energy into branding and showcasing how your life will change once you switch to iphone.”

Read it again.  Let it sink in.

Now, substitute a few words.  Instead of Apple, insert your church’s name.  Instead of iPhone, insert Jesus.  Take out the word branding and slightly alter the ending.

Now read it.

Here’s a sample – I’ll throw in the name of the church I serve – St. Stephen Lutheran Church

St. Stephen Lutheran Church focuses on building a relationship that will last by deploying all of their energy in showcasing how your life is and will be changing once you have an encounter with Jesus.

This quote is about as good of a mission statement for a church as I have ever read.

And it is exactly what we as a church are called to be and do.

Are we showcasing how our lives are changed because of an encounter with Jesus?

If not, why not?  If not, what has to change?  Does Jesus change our life when Jesus encounters us, becomes incarnate and dwells among us?  If not, then are we really encountering Jesus?  And what’s the point of church anyway then?

If Jesus is changing our lives when we encounter him, yet we are afraid to share these stories, then I have to ask – why?  Why is it ok to talk openly about how the iPhone changed our life, but we become shy when it is Jesus?

What makes the church unique – different from any other social service, community group, club, or anything else is Jesus and how Jesus changes our lives when Jesus encounters us.

Tell that story – it’s our mission.

 

Generations and church

05 Wednesday Jul 2017

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One thing I don’t like to read is “analysis” about certain generations and what church must do in order to attract a specific generation.

It could be about the Millennials, or the Baby Boom generation, or the generation that comes after the Millennials (whatever they are calling that one).  No worries though, there won’t be articles about Gen X – the generation the experts would rather forget about.  No worries though, it frees up Gen X from ridiculous expectations and generalizations about us.

A friend posted an article about Millennials and church.  I forget if the author was saying very authoritatively that the way to attract Millennials is by having high church services. It’s a common refrain that has been repeated.  The problem with this specific author stating that “fact” is that they never pointed to any statistical information.  It was just stated as a fact without anything to back it up.  The “fact” has been repeated so many times now that it is assumed to be universally true.

This is similar to the “fact” that half of all marriages end in divorce.  That fact is pure BS.

The 50 percent statistic is very misleading, if not completely wrong. “The demographics of divorce are routinely reported wrong, calculated wrong or misinterpreted,” says Robert Hughes, a former professor in the Department of Human & Family Services, College of Human Environmental Science, University of Missouri-Columbia. Hughes says that for every two marriages that occurred in the 1990s there was one divorce. “This does not mean the divorce rate is 50 percent [because] the people getting married in a single year are not the same ones getting divorced,” he says.

No one is really certain about how the 50 percent number imbedded itself so deeply in popular imagination. “The assumption has been (by those who have not studied it carefully) is that the 50 percent number came from someone noticing that, in the U.S., we have about 2.4 million marriages a year and 1.2 million divorces a year. Hence, 50 percent of married couples divorce,” says Scott M. Stanley of the University of Denver.

Source – http://www.divorcesource.com/ds/main/u-s-divorce-rates-and-statistics-1037.shtml

If someone wants to make an argument for why they prefer high church or low church, great, be my guest.  You have all the right in the world to have a preference.  But don’t claim it as a fact for an entire generation.

How about this instead – regardless of high church or low church, how about church be an authentic expression of worship by the community gathered to God, regardless of the age/generation?

But that’s not nearly as sexy sounding is it?  That’s not nearly as controversial either.  Nor is it divisive, separating people into camps – high church vs. low church.

Do people have preferences when it comes to worship – you bet they do.  And you know what, that’s not a bad thing.  The “right” worship will be what fits the context of the community gathered.  Relying on oversimplifications to determine what kind of worship we should have is a bad idea.  It’s focused on the wrong thing.

Youth in church

03 Wednesday May 2017

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I’ve been doing research about youth engagement in church for a history class.  Our group is looking at the 1940’s in America among the Lutheran churches.

What’s really amazing is that we think the challenges we face in the church today are new.  LOL.  Not even close.  Now remember, the 1940’s is the decade in which the church was on the rise and close to the height of what it would be in the 1950’s – at one with the culture.

Yet, there are articles in youth magazines lamenting why there is a lack of youth leadership in church.  Sound familiar?  It should.

Here’s a few reasons the author of an article on this challenge thought this was so:

“The first reason was that the lack of interest and indifference on the part of the young people is directly due either to the lack of interest or indifference of the pastor or adult leader or to his inadequate leadership.  There are a number of pastors and adults who are out of sympathy with the whole young people’s movement. They still hold the notion that young people should be seen and not heard, and they do not encourage such participation by the young people themselves in the program and work of the congregation.  There are others who never make any attempt to lead the young people and there are others who try to do it all.”

“Then there is another group of counselors who have interest but lack knowledge.”

“Thus an organization which should be training leader through experience in leading and responsibility becomes merely a young people’s organization, managed entirely by one or more adults.  Such a method may help the young people somewhat, but it does not make leaders of them.”

Source: Luther League Review – 1943, pg. 2.

Could have been written today, couldn’t it?

But we think our problems and challenges are so very different and unique.  When will we learn?

By the way, if you substitute in other words for youth, I argue that the same thing the author writes about applies.  Substitute in discipleship.  See what you think.

We don’t always have to come up with something completely new.  Sometimes it’s best to learn from the past and then go forward.  Sometimes the “solutions” are not all that complicated. Sometimes the solutions aren’t things at all – just a way of living and interacting.  You know, living out what Jesus calls us to be and do.  It’s not a new program.  It’s a new life, a new way of living.  One that’s not really all that new.  Just one that isn’t tried very often.

What is church? part 2

27 Thursday Apr 2017

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Yesterday I took a stab at the question of What is church?  I received some great comments from that post – both in person and online.  Thank you.

Today I saw a beer ad that I think pretty much sums up what church should be like.  It’s an ad for Heineken.  Instead of explaining it, click the link, and scroll down to the video, or you can watch the video directly here:

This is a powerful ad.  And I think very honest too – which makes it powerful.

I can attest to the fact that when you get people who would normally disagree with each other (or worse) to sit down and eat together or have a drink together, something happens.  Food and drinks have a way of leveling equalizing people.  They have a way to drawing people together.  They could have nothing else in common, but the mere fact that two people eat or drink together means that they do have something in common – basic humanity and the needs of living – food and drink.

Church should be like this.  I think there is precedent for this too.  Jesus ate his way through the Gospels.  He ate with Pharisees and with tax collectors and a whole host of other people.  One of most remembered moments is the Last Supper.  Jesus knew the power of bringing people together and sharing a meal with them.

I have pastor friends who have started dinner churches and speak about the amazing things that happen at these gatherings.

When I was in Finland, I used the analogy of going to a bar to describe what the liturgy was all about.  A friend at the University didn’t understand church and what went on, so I explained it this way – we came together looking forward to spending time together in this bar.  That’s the gathering section of the liturgy.  Then we’ve been talking about God and life.  That’s the Word section.  Now we are sharing some drinks and food together.  We don’t agree about everything, yet we’re able to be here together sharing food and enjoying each other’s company.  That’s the Meal portion.  From here we’ll leave looking forward to the next time we can gather.  That’s the Sending.

What we saw in the ad was the liturgy in a very practical form.  What they experienced was God’s grace and without the words being said – forgiveness.  They saw the humanity and the frailty and the guilt in the other person and chose to look past all of that without judgement.  It that’s not what church is all about ultimately, I don’t know what is.

 

What is church?

26 Wednesday Apr 2017

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Yesterday I was a presentation on Re-Formation in the church that is occurring during the Spring Academy at Gettysburg Seminary.  It was a great presentation that a friend gave.

In it she asked the question – what is church?

In other words, how do we define it?

Is it just the bricks and mortar?  Is it the people? Is it a way of life?  A mission?

I had to think about this a bit.  I wonder if the answer will depend partly on the context.  In some cases the church is the building.  In others, it certainly is not.

In some cases it is the people, a way of life, and a mission.

But really, what is the essential essence of church?

I think it is based on relationship.  I think it is our relationship with God, with one another, with ourselves, and with the rest of creation.  But I think it starts with relationship with God and spreads out to the other three relationships.  This is what makes it unique and different.

Maybe this is too broad though.  Maybe we need more boundaries on the definition.

But I think church is also a living organism as well.  It is living in the sense that to be church means to be dynamic and open to change.  To be church means to honor traditions, but not be held hostage to past generations either.  To be church is to recognize that the core doesn’t change – just how we go about living out that core depending on the context.  Also, how we communicate that core will change with the context as well.

If I had to summarize church, I go back to what I learned from my research on the church in Finland (that I argue also applies to the church in the US) – the church is approachable, enjoyable, and relevant.

The church is approachable in that questions and doubt are welcome, where grace abounds and judgement is left at the door. So is shame.  Church lives out the idea that the curtain in the temple was torn – the separation between God and creation was ripped.  God is approachable.  That’s what being in relationship means.

The church is enjoyable.  I’m not talking about entertaining here.  In the presentation the presenter talked about worship being like a party.  It is something that people are enjoying and people want to come to.  We shouldn’t be bored out of our mind with church or worship.  Why go, why be a part of something that is boring?  Healthy relationships are enjoyable – you want to be around the person you are in a relationship with.

The church is relevant.  I’m not talking about being hip, changing things to fit the current trends, or adopting whatever slang is popular.  No, I’m talking about this – are we talking about what is going on in people’s lives?  Or are we too afraid to do that?  The church has the opportunity to talk about the struggles and challenges that people face and offer something that no one else can offer – grace, forgiveness, belonging, mercy, love.  There are plenty of people who struggle with addictions (drugs, sexual, porn, workaholism, alcohol, medical addictions, exercise, food, etc.) and yes, even people in the pews of churches around the world.  If we can’t talk about these struggles with the people who are living with them, and do it with grace and mercy (and no shame), then where are we going to talk about them?  The answer is no where.

So, what is church?  I say church is an approachable, enjoyable, and relevant relationship between people, creation, and God.

What are we ready for, church?

24 Monday Apr 2017

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It’s a simple question – what are we, as a church body, prepared for?  What are we perfectly positions for?  The past, present, the future?

Is the church, is your church, all set and ready to go for some past decade – as if the height of Christendom is going to return any time now?

Is the church, your church, ready for right now and all the challenges that it will face?  You really can’t answer yes honestly unless you had some foresight in the past.  Otherwise, you’re kidding yourself.

That leaves the future.  Is the church, your church, ready for 5, 10, 20, 50 years from now?  Pick a time frame.  Is the church, your church, prepared for the future?

You may be wondering, where is God in all of this?  I would say that God is standing at the end of time and pulling us toward where God is into a loving embrace.  How are we responding?

God calls our congregations to be different things at different times – we aren’t static as a community.  Just the mere fact that there are funerals and baptisms means the community will change over time – let alone people who come and go.

How is God calling your congregation to move into the future?  Are you looking at trends – who’s moving into the neighborhood? What developments are coming? What’s the demographics of the area? What kind of employment is there in the area?

When you start to look at the trends, your eyes open to new possibilities.  You start to see how God is calling the congregation to be Christ’s presence in the community.

We aren’t called to live in the past.  We are called to honor traditions though.  And then make new ones for the current generation.  Just as future generations will do.

We are called to live in the present, with an eye towards the future. And a rear view mirror to see the past.  The past shows us where we have been and how we got to where we are today.  The future gives us a direction we are heading.  And the present is where we always reside.