What Love Is!

This is for Lynn.
Readers, If this song does not make you smile, what would?
Did you smile?

Second Hand Hopefulness!

"If the Gospel isn't transforming you, how do you know it will transform anything else?" N.T. Wright

At times I feel we invite people to church, making promises of how wonderful this will be fore THEM, all the while hoping they will receive what we do not necessarily experience ourselves!

Jesus can transform us, but do we let him?

You Must Learn What to Fear And What Not To Fear

"But I was frightened of everything that moved - every insect, every animal. My Grandmother would sometimes try to reason with me 'A wild horse that bolts at every moving thing stumbles and breaks its leg,' she told me. `As you run from your small insect you may fall onto this bush and die, because it is poisonous. You may fall onto this mound and die because it hides a snake. You must learn what to fear and what not to fear"

Ayaan Hirsi Ali about her Somali Grandmother,

(Infidel. Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Free press, 2007, Line 473-476 (kindle))

God Loves Me So I Am Paramount?

"Christianity's object is me.
Therefore, when I look for a church, I look for the music that best fits me and the programs that best cater to me and my family. When I make plans for my life and career, it is about what works best for me and my family. When I consider the house I will live in, the car I will drive, the clothes I will wear, the way I will live, I will choose according to what is best for me. This is the version of Christianity that largely prevails in our culture.
But it is not biblical Christianity.
The message of biblical Christianity is not "God loves me, period," as if we were the object of our own faith. The message of biblical Christianity is "God loves me so that I might make him--his ways, his salvation, his glory, and his greatness--known among all nations." Now God is the object of our faith, and Christianity centers around him. We are not the end of the gospel; God is."


(Radical, David Platt, kindle line 997)

Holed Up Church!

"Recently I walked by a 'church' that was holding services on a Sunday morning in an upscale community in Northern California. Organ music drifted out of the open doors, spilling onto the streets where passersby made their way to coffee shops, art galleries, and antique stores, oblivious to the goings-on of the band of worshipers ensconced behind stucco walls.

Is this situation worrisome to that congregation? Apparently not.

No one was outside to engage anyone on the street. Nametags were on prominent display in the entry plaza next to the 'sanctuary'. The clear message was 'members only'. If you wandered in on the activities absent a nametag, you'd stick out like a sore thumb.
Contrast this picture with what you see and experience as you read about the early days of the Christian movement in the Book of Acts. The kingdom was spreading like a virus, invading every aspect of society. There wasn't a possibility of containing it inside a building; it was unleashed onto the street.

If you are a church leader, you will self-select into your own future of spiritual expression. Either you will participate in some kind of religious activity that is increasingly disconnected from its surrounding culture, or you will join the ranks those who want to experience the life of a Jesus follower."

(Tangible Kingdom. Hugh Halter, pg xiii, 2008, Jossey-Bass. By Reggie McNeal in forward)

Digging In The Same Hole!

Fear to make change. Why do we keep digging in the same hole?

"One of the most subversive questions Alan asks you when he is doing church revitalization consultation with a local congregation is this: "If you could start again from scratch, would you do with the same way?"... and the usual answer was "no." If they could start over and begin doing church from scratch, they ususally said they would not do it the way they were currently doing it. For Alan then, it begs the response, "Then, why are you not changing it now?"
If you are digging a hole in one place and you realize you need to dig and elsewhere, you don't get there by digging in the same place, only deeper. And yet churches, when they realize that the old attractional model isn't working, seem to believe that if they just do what attrctional l church better, it will work. And, let's face it, so many of the church growth seminars and conferences or are simply repackaging the traditional attractional mode and promoting it to small, struggling, and dying churches as the only way to grow. There is a whole industry devoted to such conferences in the production of such materials that simply encourage struggling congregations to keep digging the same hole deeper.".

(The shaping of things to come innovation and Mission for the 21st century church by Allan Frost and Alan Hirsch 2003 page 62, 63)

Take the Exit from the Church Parking Lot!

This resonated with me, as it is how I feel church can be out side the walls of traditional brick. I like to see people living out Christian community from the opposite side of the church parking lot - the Exit side!

A friend of mine said that during worship one day their leadership was stressing to the congregation how important it was for members to invite people to church, after all "If we can't get them in the door, we can't minister to them."

This is a church starting a 4 million dollar church building expansion. Getting them in the door is what the whole methodology is about. And if the don't come in the door who's going to pay for it right?

That my friends is exactly why we must change what church means. We can minister to them, even if they don't come in the door. It's called the 'Priesthood of all Believers".

UK: In Every Community, a Church that Fits

Source: Joel News International 761, January 26, 2011 (http://www.joelnews.org)

Church on the beach, church in the skate park, churches that bake, and churches that get messy. Goths gathering to celebrate communion, and football fans worshiping together. The Fresh Expressions initiative, a missions partnership of various denominations in the United Kingdom, has seen hundreds of these new forms of church spring up around the nation and Europe in the last five years. These new churches are supported and encouraged with the aim of seeing the gospel planted into communities to which people actually belong.

This month Fresh Expressions started a partnership with youth prayer movement 24-7 Prayer. "The young people I know resonate with the idea of connecting their faith with the real world they live in and the world around them, and that's been an emphasis of 24-7," says Andy Freeman, spokesperson for the new partnership. "We're not shutting ourselves away in a prayer room. It's prayer to go out, it's prayer that connects."

"For some young people it's very difficult to find a home within church as it looks right now. Our culture is fragmenting and we can't expect to meet all the needs with one form and style of church. So I'm very much in support of a 'mixed economy' or 'mixed ecology' of church. My vision is a church that fits. Many people have a hunger for God. We want to provide a home for them."