As you may have learned from my profile, I am a minister. But what does that mean anyway? All of us who have accepted the lordship of Jesus on the throne of our hearts are ministers, right?! I guess, really, all that title means is that I get paid for the work I do in expanding God's kingdom. Which is funny, when you think about it. I mean, don't get me wrong, I am very grateful, proud of the calling, but it is the Lord that is doing all the work anyway. Praise Him that he allows me the opportunity to reap the financial benefits of making such a job my career.
Moving on...I recently read a book, The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church by Reggie McNeal. If you are in ministry, leadership, or you are just a layman interested in chewing on the miserable failings of institutionalized church and its struggle to survive, you should pick up a copy and read. Very challenging! Very pointed! Watch your toes!!!
What I would like to do over the next few days, weeks, maybe months is share thoughts from the book that have struck a chord with me and see what some of you may think. It will be interested to see what others of us have to think about the observations of Mr. McNeal. If you have read the book let me know; I am curious to see who all may have participated in this engaging material.
Let's get started...In the opening chapter, Reggie shares results from several different surveys and studies to show that church attendance, and members claims on their church attendacne, are not all they are cracked up to be. He makes the observation that all is not well with the North American church, in its institutionalized form. He says, "A growing number of people are leaving the institutional church for a new reason. They are not leaving because they have lost their faith. They are leaving the church to preserve their faith. They contend that the church no longer contributes to their spiritual development. In fact, they say, quite the opposite is true." (p.4)
So, here we go! What do you think? Do you agree, disagree, or does his comment just plain irritate you? Why, please explain. I'll wait to hear from some of you, then I will share some of my own thoughts.
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The Christian life is a journey. Some parts of the trip are more rough and slow than others. But along the way, we all need the "tidbits;" the snacks, the fuel, the directions that help us get from point A to point B. Those tidbits come from both our spiritual lives and our everyday lives. I just want to be able to share some tidbits with my friends, reap the benefits of theirs, and soak up the tidbits from others along the way. Come in, read, enjoy, and share!
About Me
- The Journeyman
- Striving each day to be a better husband, father, and disciple of Jesus Christ.
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"Quotations that interest me!"
“We have to embrace the Bible as the wild, uncensored, passionate account it is of people experiencing the living God.” - Rob Bell
"If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." - Alice in Wonderland
"Out of complexity, find simplicity." - Albert Einstein
"Faith does not guarantee that you will not have struggles, but faith does guarantee that you will rise above them." - unknown
"The currents that determine our dreams and shape our lives flow from the attitudes we nurture everyday!" - unknown
"If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." - Alice in Wonderland
"Out of complexity, find simplicity." - Albert Einstein
"Faith does not guarantee that you will not have struggles, but faith does guarantee that you will rise above them." - unknown
"The currents that determine our dreams and shape our lives flow from the attitudes we nurture everyday!" - unknown
6 comments:
First of all, as an aside, Reggie McNeal has a lot of Kaufman connections. He served as an associate pastor at the First Baptist Church in Kaufman several years ago and still has a lot of friends in the area. Dr. Bill Fortner, Kaufman's mayor, keeps in close contact with him, so if you ever wanted to pick his brain a little I'm sure Dr. Bill would help set up such a visit.
There are several places in the book where you'll be confronted with some cold, hard issues if you haven't already read the book. If you have, you already know what I'm talking about.
Those of us who have been "raised in the church" no doubt will be the ones who have the largest "deer in the headlights" expressions on our face as we read this book. If we're honest we've been fed a steady diet of teaching about church growth. On the surface church growth couldn't be a bad thing, if it builds up the body of Christ' church. But what we have to face up to is the fact that we represent a generation or two that has learned to sell the church in the same fashion the folks on Madison Ave. sell cars, toys and hair spray. And it's time to admit that is not what Christ called us to do.
Now we're trying to reverse course and not only lead folks to Jesus, but produce "spiritual growth" for those already inside the body of Christ. The transition is a battle in itself, but we're also facing a culture that is turning their back on the church as an institution.
The key question for all of us is do we really know what "spiritual growth" means? That's a topic in and of itself, but it's a question we have to answer.
So what is "spiritual growth" or "spiritual development?"
Yes it IRRITATES me to no end--- because unfortunately it is too true. Within the "institution" of churches, we are not keeping pace with even the natural population growth. In rapid fashion, we are losing ground growth wise. I suppose there are three reactions we can have with that realization. Firstly, we could do the old "bury our heads in the sand" trick and deny that it is even happening. That option seems neither effective nor Christ-like. We HAVE to face the problem and realize that it will be the death of us as a church if we don't react somehow with a new game plan. Secondly, we could choose to expect the world to somehow just "come into compliance" with our preconceived expectations and traditions. We then will paint ourselves into an ever diminishing circle of constituents until the circle is to small to make a decent ripple. Thirdly, we could choose to accept the challenge of transforming ourselves into a new institution that is attractive to people of this age. I'm not talking about bring in every manner of attraction and turn us into a Megalomart or a three ring circus. However you HAVE to admit that we have in the past been more about the business of excluding rather than including those around us. For instance, I challenge you to take a good look at the people in your church this Sunday. Does your membership look like a good cross sectional representation of the people in your community? I would be willing to say absolutely not. The truth of the matter is that we naturally attract only those people who we really want to be around. Is that what Jesus did--- No. He consorted, healed and comforted all manner of men and women of different races, cultures, political ideations, and socioeconomic backgrounds. He sat and ate and consorted with prostitutes, lepers, the lowly as well as the rich and influential people. He reached out to anyone and everyone who NEEDED the message of grace and mercy and salvation. Don't WE need to do whatever it takes to do the same. I think it is time for us to quit painting ourselves into a corner of ever decreasing size and dimension and see the bigger picture-- the same picture that He painted 200 years ago-- SEEK and SAVE the LOST-- nothing more and nothing less. If that means figuring out a way to provide spiritual development and faith building among our members, then let's get a game plan and put it into action. Why would we even WANT to sit idly by and allow us to not be the epicenter of spiritual growth in our communities and in our society. Are we waiting patiently by and expecting people to develop their own spirituality and "come into compliance" with the rest of us? I hope that is not our current game plan. But I fear that it is!
Cory - I would love to post a more detailed comment, but I haven't read the book. Can I borrow it - PLEASE! I agree with the sentiment though.
Thanks to those of you who repsonded to the questions. I am afraid it is true that our church memberships are suffering because many are leaving to pursue various other forms of faith development. A working definition that I have adopted over the last couple of years for "Spiritual Formation" is...the process of being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others. If that is the case, it is no wonder many are leaving to preserve their faith and pursue spiritual development. The fact is, many of our churches are not offering much in the way of service to the people. More and more of our churches are working hard to discover ways to bring people into the church, rather than take the church to the people. Jesus was always on the move, serving people and touching/healing people.
One of the growing movements among college students, witnessed in undeniable numbers following Hurrican Katrina, are student mission trips. There is actually a whole session this year at the ACU Lecturships in September where students are going to share how these trips are contributing to their faith development. Another reality is the growing popularity of church planting. Interestingly, many families are even venturing out on their own, without support from any particular organization or church, and beginning "neighborhood" churches. Some are even beginning meetings in apartment complexes.
How are we as a church going to meet this increasing desire in our young people to serve; to be the hands and feet of Jesus? What are we going to do to help our members be "conformed to the image of Christ?"
My fear is that, from past experience, trying to change our churches "philosophy" of ministry will only create controversy, arise suspicion, and foster doubt in its leadership and direction. Even if the leaders and staff are well-intenioned, many will be curious and question their "motives." When, in all honesty, there only motive is to help the members become more and more like Christ. They want nothing more than to inspire hope in the lost of their communities by showing the people that Jesus is still alive and active. They want nothing more than to become a "missional" church! No more are they going to talk about serving the needs of those in their community, they are going to begin actively meeting those needs.
Why does such a passion for people create such suspicion and doubt among some believers?
There are a lot of different answers to the question being asked about why people, members, believers have a hard time with a change to "missional focus."
One thing we have to accept is that we are not very good at directing "change" of any type. No, make that we are very BAD at directing change.
I'm not saying as leaders our motivation is bad. I'm saying we simply don't know how to manage the process. In most cases we feel like if our motivation is good, then the change will be accepted and all things will go well as the direction or focus is turned to another area or in another direction.
However, we are too often blind to the perception others have of the change or changes. And perception is the real REALITY.
Reggie McNeal touches on this some in his book, but he doesn't do as good of a job with the subject as Lynn Anderson has done in his, Managing The Winds of Change.
If you haven't read that book, I'd suggest you get a copy and dig in. It opens your eyes to many of the things being questioned here, and it will give you hope that congregations can turn corners and change directions if leaders give the process of "change" more thought.
Thanks for the suggestion on the book, Bill. I will begin looking for a copy. Sounds like an interesting read!
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