TILL HE COMES Blog

On Vince Antonucci’s blog, he posted the following scenario (which comes from Bob’s Robert’s book, The Multiplying Church).

Let’s start a thousand churches over the next ten years, each one running a minimum of two thousand members, and in just ten years we will turn America upside down with the gospel! That would work, right? Wrong – that scenario just happened over the past ten years, and there are fewer people in church today than ever before. How can that be? How could we have spent billions to start two thousand megachurches and yet have fewer people in church and a society that largely feels the church is antagonistic?

The answer which I and other commenters suggested is that most of the people who start to go to those new churches are not new Christians, but people who were already Christians and who transferred to the new and exciting church. Most of the church plants grew by transfer growth, not church growth. One of those who commented pointed out the supporting statistic that every year about 4,000 churches close their doors… forever (Does anybody know if this worldwide, or just in the States?).

Then today, I was reading an article called “Change-Seekers” in World Magazine, which summarized the major study of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (available here). The study revealed that currently only 51% of Americans are “Protestant,” down from 60-65% in the 1970s. The only “religious group” actually increasing in numbers are those who identify themselves as “non-religious.” They comprise 16% of America, and have nearly doubled in number since the 1980s. Then the author of the article says this:

Despite the church growth movement and the proliferation of megachurches, evangelical Christianity is losing ground. Growing churches often have high turnover. [Are they going to other new churches with a better show?] The issue is not how to gain new members but how to keep the ones churches already have.

After reading this, I decided to check how Bob Roberts answered his own question. I have The Multiplying Church and so picked it up, and found the quote Vince Antonucci referred to. Then I skimmed several key sections of the book, and it seems Bob Roberts is saying that the problem our churches face is that we are not seeing true life transformation in those who attend our churches.

I found this insightful, especially since on Friday, I read a book by Neil Cole called Cultivating a Life for God in which he reveals a way of discipling people which has resulted in amazing life transformation in the people that have done it worldwide. But the beauty of what he proposes is that this life transformation does not depend on the systems and structures that have come to be known as “church.” Instead, his proposal is simple, free, and easily reproducible. I just started reading his newest book, Search & Rescue, which appears to be an updated remix of Cultivating a Life for God.

It is my opinion that the way we do “church” today is more often than not a hindrance to the spread of the gospel and the making of disciples. The death of churchianity is coming, and while it saddens me when churches close, I am also excited because I believe that a new movement of God is coming upon His people whereby we throw off the things that hinder what He is doing in our lives, communities, and countries, and embrace a new (actually old) way of being the church.

This new/old way will not need millions of dollars to sustain itself. It will live out the gospel among the people of this world by serving, living, and loving them, rather than just teaching facts. It will transform lives and communities. It will not require advanced degrees of education, high-powered leadership structures, costly buildings, expensive advertising, salesmanship routines, light shows and Hollywood gimmicks. We won’t need experts to interpret Scripture for us, or to organize our discipleship programs and outreach events. It won’t be limited to a single day, or a particular event.

We’re just going to be the church, the body of Christ. Churchianity is dying, and we shouldn’t fight it. It’s on life support and is begging us to pull the plug. But as it fades away, I am beginning to see glimmers of light as the grime from centuries of tradition is scrubbed away, and the glory of God begins to manifest itself among groups of Christians who just want to live life like Jesus in their communities.

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A while back I read Dan Kimball’s They Like Jesus, but Not the Church. I highly recommend this book since it does reflect the thinking of a lot of people in our communities. However, I ran into a whole group of people today who don’t think much about Jesus either. They don’t like Jesus OR the church!

My family and I attended the Scarborough Renaissance Faire today in Waxahachie, TX. We went last year, and loved it so much, we bought a season pass this year. Today was opening day.

One of the things that amazed me last year, and was impressed upon me again today, is the amazing community of this place. I have never, in my entire life, witnessed such a close-knit and fun-loving community as I have seen at this Faire. I ache to find a group of believers that can even come close to such a sense of community as this. They are an odd bunch of people, with strange clothing, behaviours, and language, but they all love each other and welcome everybody, even those who are very different from them with wide open arms. The church has a lot to learn in this area.

Anyway, as we were strolling around, taking it all in, we came upon a certain vendor booth where they were selling those little twirling sticks (I don’t know what else to call them). I have always been amazed by this, so stood there watching. One of the stick twirlers (Lance), came over and offered to teach my whole family how to do it. As we learned, we talked.

He soon found out I was a pastor, and immediately began calling me “Pastor Jeremy.” As we talked, it turned out that he has a pretty pessimistic view of the future of humanity. I said, “I don’t know, I’m pretty hopeful.”

He said, “Why? What is your hope in?”

You can’t ask for a better opening than that, so I said, “My hope is in Jesus.”

He looked at me like I was crazy. “Jesus!? Yeshua the Carpenter? That Jesus? You hope in Him? How can a dead guy help us today?”

I decided to not get into the resurrection yet, and so said, “Well, as people believe in Him for eternal life, and live their lives according to His example and teachings, their lives are changed, and whole communities and even countries can be changed for the better.”

He said, “Who sold you that lie? I have never met a single person whose life was significantly changed for the better because they followed the teachings of Jesus. Jesus was a fraud, and so is the Bible, and so are his followers.”

I was astonished. He has been living in the United States his entire life, and has never met anybody who he thought had been positively influenced by Jesus! So I asked him what his hope was in, and we talked for about another 20 minutes or so about his lifelong search for truth which culminated in discovering the Mayan seven-fold spirit agreement and how, like trees, we can dig our spirits deep into the earth, and throw the energy up into the atmosphere. I really didn’t understand most of what he was talking about. He said he learned all this from his spiritual advisor/babysitter named Merril. I also met Merril, who hasn’t cut his hair in 38 years, is missing most of his teeth, and talks a lot about Mayan calendars and spiritual auras.

Lance gave me the name of a free online movie to watch which he said would open my eyes. I have already watched the first 15 minutes and am excited to watch the rest. After I watch it, I’ll make a blog post about it and tell you what what movie it is. I hope that by respecting him and his beliefs, and by watching this movie, he might be open to talking more about Jesus next week when we go back to the Faire.

As I think over my conversation with him today, and after watching only 15 minutes of the movie, I have two questions I want to ask him. First, I want to ask him why he dislikes Jesus. I imagine that the Jesus he dislikes is the Jesus of religion, not Jesus of Scripture. There is a vast difference between the two.

If this turns out to be the case (that he has a skewed view of Jesus), then I want to ask him if, in his lifelong quest for truth, he has ever read about Jesus from Scripture, rather than just hearing about Jesus from others.

Anyway, I hope to build a friendship with him over the next six weeks, which I hope will last for many years, and maybe allow our family to become friends with others at the Faire. These people are some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met in my life! I wonder if they need a Faire Friar…

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I finished reading Vince Antonucci’s book I Became a Christian and all I got was this Lousy T-shirt with my wife tonight. We read through it out loud together. We laughed. We cried. We talked. It was great.

Vince’s book is unique in that he includes Greek word studies about as often as he uses the word “crap.”

Though Vince is already writing his next book (called Guerilla Lovers), I think the third book he should write should be called “Holy Crap.” It would be about how our lives are a mixture of holiness and crapiness, and sometimes, it’s hard to determine which is which. But if we focus on living for Jesus and loving Him, Jesus can take even the crap of our lives, and use it for good. Maybe as fertilizer to help others grow, or for use in the annual Alaskan Moose Poop Festival  (I have just put this on my Bucket List. …Do you think they really drink out of those Moose Poop Mugs?).

I don’t know what Jesus can do with the crap in your life, but if your life is like mine, He’s got a lot to work with.

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I think that one of the best ways to reach people for Jesus today is not to try to persuade or convince them through rational arguments and persuasive reasoning. Certainly, some will respond to this, and so there is a place for it, but the majority of people today are relational in their approach to truth. Most people are not asking, “Do I want to believe like you do?” but instead are asking, “Do I want to live like you do? Do I want to be like you?”

Whether you agree or not, most people today believe that beliefs result in behavior. So if your behavior stinks, they assume your beliefs stink too, without even knowing what it is you believe.  

If you want to convince people of the truths of Christianity, the best way to “argue” it today is not through reason and and rational propositions, but by becoming more and more like Jesus is everything we do. Since Truth is a person (John 14:6), truth is best learned through knowing that person, Jesus Christ, and truth is best shown by living like Him. (And be careful! I am convinced that most of us Christians and many of our churches have a very skewed idea of who Jesus was, so while we think we are living like Jesus, we are actually living like Judas.)

If you want to reach our culture for Jesus, the best (and most biblical) thing you can do is show people Jesus and invite them to follow Jesus with you.

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The first round of blogs are posted over at PlantingSpace.com. For this first blog, we were supposed to answer the question: “Does the Presidential Election Matter?” Please go vote for me!!! (Or someone you think has a better answer.) Here was my submission:

When Bill Clinton won the 1992 presidential election, I thought the Tribulation was upon us. Now, in 2008, I realize I tagged the wrong Clinton as the Antichrist…

No, I’m only joking. I like Hillary. I don’t believe I will vote for her if she wins the Democratic nomination, but I think she raises some good questions that must be answered. And so do Obama and McCain.

But who will be best for America and the world? Personally, I don’t think it really matters. Oh sure, it matters politically, economically, socially, militarily, and in a whole host of other ways. But in the one area that matters most, the presidential election doesn’t matter. And what area is that? The Kingdom of God.

All Christians want political leaders who uphold Christian values. But if history is any guide, countries with leaders who are antagonistic to Christianity are actually more fertile places for the advancement of the kingdom than countries with pro-Christian leadership.

While the Kingdom of God will advance no matter who wins, it may advance better under someone who is against Christian morals than under someone who is for them. Maybe I’ll vote for Hillary after all.

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I’ve joined a blogging tournament over at www.plantingspace.com. Some of the best of the best church planting bloggers are allowing some noobs like me to go head to head with them in a blogging blowout! There are sixteen of us, and you are allowed to vote on which post was the best. The top eight bloggers get to move on to the next round. I don’t stand a chance against someone like Vince Antonucci. However…my middle name is David, and his middle name is Goliath…

Well, half of that is true.

Anyway, the posts for this week are in answer to the question: “Does the Presidential Election Matter?” All sixteen posts will be published Thursday morning, and then the voting will commence. So PLEASE go vote for me…well, only if you think my post is best.

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I received a book in the mail yesterday, and when I opened it up, thought, “I don’t remember ordering this. I know it was on my Amazon Wish List but I didn’t think I had bought it.”

Then I checked the invoice, and it had a note from Carl, saying he had bought it for me and hoped I enjoyed it. So thanks Carl! Once I finish it, I will post a blog review about it.

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