Questionsº¿º

This is somewhat off-topic, but it is an offshoot from excitement I had regarding conversations I had with some youths/early 20 somethings in the last 72 hours.

Is there a place for questions and what questions should I be asking? Ironically, those are the questions I frequently find myself confronted with. This weekend, I spent some time at a beautiful Christian camp and got to experience, to an extent, what it would have been like to grow up in a Christian environment. There are some things I wish I would have known, and there are some other things that I did get a chance to know that I would not have if I had gone to such a camp. As far as the color spectrum went, let's just say there weren't many prisms around to break up the white light.

What was awesome and uplifting was the message preached on Sunday morning, titled "Four Questions."

The culture of asking questions, I think, is a healthy change from what I've always perceived as mainline church attitudes. This is addressed in a blog from the links section (Pontifications of the Sinister Minister) who speaks about home-schooling and discusses the perceived attitude in some church circles of not being exposed to things that may bring out questions. If there are no questions, then there are no struggles.

I contend that if there are no struggles, then there is no growth. In the KJV translation, when Acts (which I'm obsessed with right now) talks about Saul's converstion, Saul asks two questions: Who are you, Lord? What do you want me to do? I want to be the part of a movement in the body that urges every single human it comes in contact with to ask these questions, over and over again when necessary.

Where is the line? Is there are a line? I want to be available if people have questions, but I don't want to find myself in a debate that is going to lead to nothing but being emotionally and mentally drained.

Church leaders have to ask questions, too. Their title does not protect them/us from having to communicate with God, though the Acts 29 link on the right of this page shared alarming statistics that most pastors only read the Bible when preparing sermons. Are people growing? Am I helping people serve and love one another? Am I pastoring an inwardly-focused community or am I leading people to reach out? Am I making it so comfortable that people don't want to reach others? Am I making it so uncomfortable that people are distracted from the true purpose of church? Am I talking to Jesus? How is Jesus speaking to me, and what is He saying? (Note in the last question, that it is not "Is Jesus speaking to me?" I may not be able to hear an audible voice, but I think Jesus' movements in my life are there if I look for them.)

A crazy question that needs to be asked because of the financial focus of our culture: Am I trusting in the Holy Spirit in my church's pursuits/finances/seekers while still being responsible with what God has given me in light of our current culture?

Here's one last quote from the Hues in the Pews article:

The Culver Palms UMC, one of 300 "excellent" U.S. churches recently publicized by writer Paul Wilkes, celebrates its ethnic mix but doesn't target percentages. "What we are very serious about is spiritual growth and spiritual challenge" in the Methodist tradition, said pastor Terry Van Hook. "We feel that everyone whom God has brought here has a chance to strengthen their faith and their passion for a ministry that God has given them," he said.

I think this part is important: "What we are very serious about is spiritual growth and spiritual challenge." There is a challenge involved. There is an idea of openness about an ongoing and very personal struggle. There are questions involved that don't have easy solutions. It plays into the idea of having something worth fighting for, a concept that is universal. It is a concept that can spread like wild-fire, if it is shared with acts of love and servitude. It gets my heart beating and begs me to ask, "What do you want me to do, Lord?"

That ended up being about three times as long as I intended it to be.

tension

I tend to think that the best theology is that which is held in tension. That God is grace and justice. That God gives people freewill but somehow predestination works into the equation. How do we deal with the issue of making church “entertaining” and a “safe place” for those who don’t know God where they won’t be “weirded out”, but also allow those who know God to freely express their love for God? That Sunday morning will be a place where people can come to experience a real God who really can show up in ones life?

I love people who go to Charismatic churches for a few reasons, but the main one is this: they worship a real God that really can show up in people’s lives. They also tend to be passionate about prayer and it seems that passion for prayer can be linked to their strong belief that God can speak to them. I love that. It seems the only issue with this is that people who hate going to church can be weirded out by this.
It seems to me that churches like Momentum lean in the other direction, whether intentionally or unintentionally, where logic and purposeful thought reign supreme. Decisions are made by management teams and by “the bottom line,” more than being “led by the Spirit.” It can be more of a “business model,” where decisions are logical and one believes that the Spirit moves by logic and that God primarily gives the minister the gift and freedom to make decisions.
Dan Kimball, in his book Emerging Churches notes how an Asian guy was coming to America to take a tour of American churches to see how they were doing. His comment was that the American pastor was more like a businessman than a holy man. I found that very interesting and challenging. I have been trying to think how to react to that? Maybe he needed to change his definition of holy. Maybe he’s on to something and many newer churches don’t make enough room for the role of “pastor” to maintain meaning as a “holy man.” In the end I feel it is an unfair assessment that is not taking into consideration of our culture. But, I do feel he is touching on something that should challenge us.
I want to be sensitive to those who don’t know or understand Jesus and I do believe that God has given us the faculty of reason to make decisions. But, I also want to be reminded to listen to God, believe that a real God can really show up in a real way in life, and believe that God wants to speak to me and show me where He’s working around me so I can join Him.
I don’t want to be a business, I want the church to always be a spiritual entity. We may look the same on the outside as all Mo-looking churches, but I do want to always remember that we are being led by the Spirit of God. I never want to forget the spiritual aspect of being a pastor that differentiate me from Bob CEO down the street.

Something Worth Being Part Of

I've found there is a simple truth in that when a spotlight is placed on a particular problem, it becomes easier and easier to see the smaller cracks that create the problem. In my experience, I've seen truth in the concept that a church looks like its leader, but my beliefs don't allow me to accept that that is the way it has to be.

I was reading an article called Hues in the Pews about a statistical study by one of the authors of "Divided by Faith." It has some great quotes in it, that I thought I would pass along.

First, "...In other words, few churches are going to grow because they have made integration for integration's sake a primary goal. 'Almost none of the multiracial churches that were successful had [integration] as their goal,' said co-investigator George Yancey of the University of North Texas. 'Something else was the goal that united them,' Yancey said. 'For evangelicals it was reaching the neighborhood and urban areas, and maybe for liberal mainline churches it would be the environment or social justice issues.'

My thoughts: All people want something to believe in. All people want something worth fighting for. All people want the chance to leave a legacy. I have never tied this to the cause of Diversity, but, due to my own circumstances of finding Christ and my own dispositions, this is one thing I am very passionate about: Focus. My church has vision. It has goals that every single person at that church understands and knows they can be a part of accomplishing. This is the first time I've ever experienced that, and the feeling of being part of something, being part of a movement is inspiring. Maybe fostering that feeling and getting behind something all types of people can understand (something like reaching the neighborhood and urban areas) is the first step.

That's all I have time for right now, but more shall come.

Niche Church or something else.

Over the past few decades or so we have experienced the "Burger King" ing of the church. What I mean is this: Your way right away. In some ways the church has lost the battle in America. The population at large doesn't care about church and has not desire to go. In response to this individuals developed this idea: Let's find specific, smaller populations within the larger population and create a church that caters to them. In this way we have witnessed the advent of the biker church, the middle-class white man's church, the bar church, the skeptic's church, the goth's church, etc. Each one caters to a specific niche population.
In planting a church, the church planter needs to ask two questions. First, are we going to be a niche church? Second, what niche is that? John Maxwell explains that, "Who you are is who you attract." This means that since Rick Warren dresses a certain way, thinks a certain way, and believes a certain way, his congregation is going to be and look a lot like him.
I am interested in the question of how does a church planter in the niche market of church planting today create a church that targets two niche populations for the purpose of diversity? For example, I am very interested in those who hate going to church, but are interested in spirituality. This kind of language seems to come from and cater to upper-middle class white Americans. But, I am also curious about the issues facing the African-American church. I am also interested in the 20 something African-American male who hate going to church. Honestly at first glance I wonder if creating a church that hopes to reach both the 20-something African American male and the 20-something white male is possible.
The difficulty is found in American culture. To cater to both cultures will require some level of discomfort in both groups. Americans hate discomfort and so are apt to find a place where they can be more comfortable. There is the biological idea that the human body is always fighting to stay in homeostasis. As soon as its temperature is up a few degrees, it fights to bring it back down. The same is true in church. We want to be comfortable. If we're not, we'll go to the church down the street where we are promised to be made comfortable.
This is my quandary. Maybe this isn't possible and so maybe the best we can do right now is to create a niche church that caters to people like me and the other leaders in the church and befriend a church that caters to a different population. I honestly don't know the answer. But, I do think that the church today is falling into the same traps of diversity that our parents fell into and unfortunately I believe that we're making them worse through creating homogeneous congregations where all are made to feel comfortable by being around people just like themselves.

Something has to give!

In churches, something has to give for diversity to be successful. I do believe it is possible and must be possible. But, it's an uphill battle like the Cavaliers beating the Spurs in the finals. (Go Cleveland!)

Here's the issue, new churches that attempt to seek those who hate going to church are often "niche" churches. This means that one church seeks those over 40 men who ride motorcycles. Another caters to the upper- to middle-class white working man who hates church. (Actually most probably lean in this direction) Another caters to the artist or musician. We have niche churches. There is often a base assumption in these churches that flies in the face of diversity.

Churches that cater to those who don't know Jesus want to draw in their target audience. So one big way they do this is by giving the impression, "You'll fit right in, you'll be comfortable here." We want to make you feel comfortable and loosen you up to hear the truth. But, that first assumption, "You'll be comfortable here," is going to be very difficult for diversity. To be around someone who is different than you will cause some discomfort. So, it puts to values at odds with each other. If you want to have a church where diversity is a high priority then there will be some discomfort. But, if you also want to have a church where those who don't know Jesus will come then you promise that they'll feel "comfortable" here. How do those two work together.

Now, you could be good on the diversity side, and say on paper that you are catering to those who don't know God, and then think that you're doing a great job with the two. But, in reality, you could be catering to churched people who are comfortable with that culture. I"m a part of a church for people who hate going to church. We are very serious about that. I see other churches who say that they're serious about that, but on their website they use words like, "Contemporary" and "relevant preaching," and advertise on our local Christian radio station. There are many things wrong with that. Is "Mr. Non-Christian" who hates church and listens to the local top 40 radio station going to have any idea what in the heck "contemporary music" is? No! that's a Christian Culture paradigm- you'll only get that if you're already immersed in the culture. So, I think there are numerous churches who might say they're walking this line well, but their actions might speak differently.

How do you do this successfully?

There's a term called cognitive dissonance. It says that when your beliefs are in opposition to your actions you will be uncomfortable and so will either have to change your beliefs or actions to get back into equilibrium again. So, it might be that one side must give. Maybe this newest generation of churches needs to give up on reaching the "niche" population. Maybe they have to change the way they look at church in order to make room with diversity.

Two Worlds

You are sitting across from two people, one African-American, on White. Both don't really go to church. Both don't like church and think it is not applicable to their daily life? Here's the question: If you were to create a church that they would both go to together, what would that church look like?
I want to be honest. I get what the white version of this church would look like. I've seen the development of this kind of church. First was traditional church. Organs with hymns. Then pianos made their way into traditional church and maybe some newer hymns were added to the books. Then white Christian culture reacted to this and created the term "contemporary". This meant you could come to church in casual clothing (more like business casual), the music would include a band, and these churches will often highlight their, "relevant preaching." Then came churches for those who hate going to church. These added skits, multi-media, shorter sermons, harder rock songs, songs sung by non-Christian artists, and sermons that have titles or themes directly from pop-culture. There is a newer offshoot called the "emerging church" that I"m not sure where they fit in. But, I do believe that all of these developments have been primarily in the "White church." What has been developing the the African-American church during this same time.
I could say that it's the same and that you shouldn't call what I just listed as "white", but if you've ever read any magazine, book, article, or tried to google churches that believe the things I just mentioned- the churches of color are very very very sparse. They do exist, but not by much.
O African-American, middle-class man who wants to know God but hates church, what do you look for in a church? What church would you go to?

Diverse Jobs

Here's the deal. I'm looking for a job. Now, I've just finished reading Reconciliation Blues and want to be a part of the solution, not passively part of the problem. I want to be a part of a diverse church that is "outward" focused. So I get online and type my way to all the Christian Job websites. I begin looking for just such a church and run into a big problem. 90% of the churches on the websites are 100% white. The web page banners include all white people, the staff are made up of all white people, the photos of congregates are all white people. What am I supposed to do? How can I be a part of the solution when I can't find- even and all African-American church to apply to? I just find it frustrating.
This is an honest question: where are all the African-American churches, and where do they post jobs? Is there a network for predominantly African-American churches that I don't know about?

Thoughts?