TILL HE COMES Blog

I made it to round 2 in the Exponential Blogging Tournament over at ChurchPlanters.com. Thank you for voting for me!

Now, go vote for me again! Ha ha. But only if you think my post is best.  The issue we were supposed to address was ”What is your best marketing and/or outreach idea for under $500?” Here was the answer I submitted:

What is the best way for a church to spend $500? Give Presence. (No, not Presents… though that might be part of giving presence.)

People today are tired of commercials (TV and radio), door hangers, junk mail, email spam, surveys, and telemarketers. Most people only get annoyed by such things, and this is especially true when they come from the church. They think, “If that church has nothing better to do with its money then send me junk mail, I’m sure not going to attend there and give them my money!”

The best thing we can do with our “Marketing/Outreach” budget is to give presence. Just join the people in your town and city where they already are, and do what they are already doing. Typically, with such a strategy, a church planter doesn’t need to worry about how to gather a crowd or get the word out about a big event, because the city (or whoever is organizing the event) is already doing such things.

So go to your local Chamber of Commerce or city website and get a community calendar, as well as a list of civic organizations and community service events. Then be present at as many of these events and projects as possible. Be the most active, joyful, service-minded citizens your city has ever seen.

For the Fourth of July Festival, join whatever the city is doing.

Serve free hot chocolate at the New Year’s Parade.

Build homes with Habitat for Humanity.

Volunteer at the homeless shelter.

Give out free beads at Mardi Gras. (Ok, maybe not that one.)

To effectively reach our culture, we need to stop trying to do our own thing. Instead, go to where the crowds are already gathering. It’s easier, cheaper, and frequently, a lot more fun.

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I have a friend who wants to plant churches, only he’s nearly rabid about reaching those that most churches don’t (or won’t) reach. He figures that just as Christ came into this sin-sloshed world to save us, he needs to go into a sin-sloshed place to reach the unreached of our culture. I can’t disagree on that.

But guess where he wants to go? He wants to be a bi-vocational church planter, and for his job, he wants to tend bars. He figures that pastors and bar-tenders have a lot in common. He may be right about that, but does that make it right?

Oh, and by the way, his wife wants to have a ministry with strippers. She wants to go into strip clubs with a female friend of hers, and befriend the girls in there. If necessary, she says she will buy lap dances, but rather than get a lap dance, use the time to express the love of Jesus to them. She wants to have them over for dinner, and give them birthday parties, and teach them how to manage a budget, and cook meals, and care for babies.

Is this kind of outreach and evangelism “legal” for Christians? Or, maybe more Christians should be doing this kind of thing, and the only reason we aren’t is becuase we’re afraid of what ”legalistic” Christians will say.

What do you think?

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A critic paid me quite a compliment today when he accused me of befriending and conversing with atheists and people who use the “F-word.” If only he knew the truth…

…but I’ve got nothing to hide, so I’ll share it: My wife invited a lesbian couple over to dinner a while back. They haven’t accepted yet, but we are hoping they will. Wendy says that if I ever meet some prostitutes or strippers, I can invite them over too. I have not met any yet (and I’m not going to the places they tend to hang out), but maybe one day I will. I gave a $50 Burger King card to a drunk on the street a month ago. If I had the time, I would have gone and eaten with him. I keep looking for him at his corner but haven’t seen him yet. Before coming to seminary, we let an alleged murderer stay in our house for six weeks while he was on house-arrest. All of his friends and family members abandoned him when it looked like he was guilty, so we took him in. It was one of the best six weeks of my life.

So not only am I trying to make friends with Atheists, Agnostics, and people who use rough language, I am also trying to befriend homosexuals, prostitutes, strippers, drunks, and murderers.

And to tell you the truth, I’ve never felt closer to Jesus. I believe that if Jesus were walking the earth today, he would befriend and converse with these people too. Of course, the Pharisees and religious hypocrites would get upset at him today, just as they did 2000 years ago: “Gasp! Jesus is eating with tax collectors and sinners! Doesn’t he know what they’ve done?” (Read Matt 9:11; 11:19; Mark 2:15-16).

Yes, he does know. That’s why he eats with them. That’s why I eat with them too…. Not because I’m “holy like Jesus,” but because I’m one of those “sinners.” I hope that if Jesus were walking around today, he would come up to me and say, “Hey! I’m having a BBQ over at my place for sinners. Want to come?”

If he were to ask you that question, what would you say?

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I am convinced that we cannot adequately reach out to this world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ unless we understand how the unbeliever thinks, what they value, and why they make the decisions they do. Therefore, we must be students of people and culture just as much as students of the Word. Once we begin to understand some of this, it will change how we organize our churches, how we share the gospel, how we interact with our neighbors, how we do our jobs at work, what we do with our money, and a host of other things.

To learn about this world we live in, there are a variety of things we can do, but every Christian must be doing something to learn about people we are trying to reach. Though the best way to do this is with developing personal relationships with people, a quick way to learn is through blogs and websites. I have recently become aware of a blog that is written by people who were once Christians, but have now left it behind. They share their reasons for doing so, and what they think is wrong with Christianity. At times, their insights amaze me. At other times, I am brought to tears.

I am a bit hesitant to share this site, since I have a feeling that some who read my blog will want to go post comments on that blog which which will only bring greater damage to the name of Christ. But I think that most who read my blog are genuinely interested in understanding how unbelievers (and former believers) view Christ and Christianity. So here is the site: de-conversion.com. PLEASE, if you go read this site and decide to comment, be gracious, kind, gentle, loving and patient.

Are there any other blogs you are aware of which helps us understand the way unbelievers think?

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I have a friend who looks at all that is wrong with the world, and then looks at the average Christian and as a result, wants nothing to do with Christianity. He says that it appears Christians would rather spend their time arguing and debating theology than helping the poor and homeless, and would rather drive Hummers and build huge church buildings than drill wells in Africa or feed orphans. He doesn’t think that Jesus would be a “Christian” if Jesus were alive today.

The other day, he showed me a YouTube video where a secular rock artist posted his video about this very thing. The artist is very angry. The video and song lyrics show Christians going to church and pastors preaching sermons, all the while ignoring the hungry and needy that are all around them. The basic message of the song is ”Christians need to stop praying and preaching and building huge cathedrals for themselves, and start doing something that actually helps!”

After I watched the video, my friend turned to me and said, “I think there is a special place in hell for Christians.”

Whether you realize it or not, this is the prevalent attitude toward Christianity among those who are ages 18-35. (If you don’t believe this is true, you probably don’t know many non-Christian 18-35 year olds.) How have we as Christians come to this, and what (if anything) can we do about it?

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One question I have been mulling over recently is “Who is the church service for - believers or unbelievers?” Those who answer “believers” will often have church services that cater to the needs and desires of Christians. There will be an emphasis on programs and teaching that meet the needs of Christians. The sermons will often center on teaching Christians what they need to know to be better Christians. The songs will often use terms and ideas that Christians are familiar with. The programming will center around issues that Christians are dealing with. In the churches I have pastored, this is the approach I used. But we always did a poor job of reaching unbelievers, as do most churches who follow this model.

Unbelievers who visit a church that is focused on “making disciples of Christians” will often be confused and weirded out by what goes on: “What’s with all the teaching from Romans? What does ‘justification’ mean? You say Jesus is coming back? That sounds a bit like the legends that say King Arthur is returning. Why do I want to learn ‘Christian business principles’? I don’t really want to be ‘washed in the blood of the lamb’ or be the ‘bride of Jesus.’ ”

Some churches have understood that much of what the church does and says is a little strange to unbelievers, so they try to look at things from the perspective of an unbeliever, and make the church more “seeker sensitive.” They gear the church service not toward the Christian, but toward the non-Christian who knows next to nothing about the Bible or church traditions. This tends to attract lots of crowds, and even generates lots of new believers, which is great, but ends up allowing most of these new believers to remain in relative immaturity. Bill Hybels and Willow Creek have recently announced this fact for their own church. The “seeker sensitive” model, while it attracts large crowds, does a poor job of bringing those crowds to spiritual maturity.

Is there a balance or middle ground between the two? I think there is, which we will begin looking at tomorrow. We will see that the solution to the problem begins by reassessing who the church service is for.

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There are only three ways you can spend money. You can spend money on mission, on life, and on yourself. Churches only have two. The trick is determining which is which.

Spending money on mission is spending money that accomplishes our God-given mission on earth. Ultimately, our mission is to make disciples (Matt 28:19-20) which includes everything from serving unbelievers so they are drawn to Christ and saving Christians so they become more like Christ. It involves both developing relationships with unbelievers, and maintaining relationships with believers.

In your life, this may take the form of having families over for dinner, helping out financially with your neighbor’s medical bills, adopting children, buying and reading books that help you understand Scripture or culture, supporting evangelistic ministries, or sending money to support well drillers in Africa. Churches can do these things as well. But a church might also spend money on programs, buildings, or Audio-Visual equiment if it will help them accomplish their mission better.

The second way to spend money is on life. One of the reasons God has given us life is simply to enjoy life. This is our “secondary” mission. The book of Ecclesiastes shows this. Life is a blessing from God and is to be enjoyed and lived to the full. If this means going on vacations with your family, and buying a coffee at Starbucks, and going to see 3:10 to Yuma, then enjoy! I am not sure that churches can spend their money this way, since when a church spends money on “life” they are spending it on “church life” which is actually discipleship. If a church buys and runs a coffee shop, the purpose might be that they can develop relationships with the community, and have a place for small groups. This is mission. So a church doesn’t really have this category.

The third category we can spend money on is self. This is the tricky one, becuase if we are not careful, we can think that we are spending money on mission or life, when in reality, we are spending it selfishly on ourselves. Some people’s houses, for example, are not really for “mission” (despite the good intentions to have people over), and are way too big and expensive for life (Does someone really need 5000 sq. ft. and marble counters to have a safe and enjoyable home for your kids?). It’s the same with cars. Is a Hummer really what is needed to help cart the neighbor kids to soccer practice, or would a caravan do fine? I’m not judging anybody who has these things…maybe they really do need them for their mission to reach out to the “upper crust” but if so, my question is “How’s that mission going?”

It’s the same for churches. Do we really need a $30 million building that sits empty most of the week? If the culture you are in won’t listen to you unless you have the giant building, then maybe it is money well spent. But on the other hand, maybe big buildings and expensive programs and high-power technology are the result of other motives. I’m not saying that buildings and high tech sound systmes are sinful. It may be just as sinful to not have such things, if our mission demands it. Buildings or a lack of buildings must help us accomplish our mission.

Of course, we must watch out for self-deception. Benny Hinn spends $112,000 per month on a personal jet, owns a $10 million, 7,000 sqft. home, and when traveling, gets hotel rooms for $10,800 per night. Why? Hinn said something to the effect that ministry is stressful, and such things help him accomplish his mission more effectively. Even Hinn is convinced that he needs to spend money on these things so he can accomplish what God has called him to do.

Every person and every church needs to take a long, hard look at how they spend money, and ask themselves: Is this for mission, for life, or for self? Anything that is for self could be used better elsewhere.

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In a previous post, I presented a theoretical plan for solving the world’s water crisis. Todd Phillips said that $10 billion could solve the world’s water crisis. I proposed a way for churches to come up with that money by “taxing” themselves 1/3 of what their property taxes would be if they were paying property taxes. We could get the $10 Billion in one year.

Now, Todd Rhoades, over at Monday Morning Insight has got me thinking about another way churches can do this. He writes that according to a recent study, churches in America spent $8.1 Billion on sound and video equipment last year.

So we can either give a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name to every thirsty person on planet earth, or we can have state-of-the-art sound and video projection equipment in our chuches. It’s an easy choice. After all, to really be in touch with Jesus, we’ve got to “feel” the music and have our eyes massaged by the swirling lights on the screen.

Of course, I’m in the same sinking ship, but on a smaller scale. I bought an mp3 player (a cheapo $30 job) last month, and purchased a few songs off iTunes. Jesus might be asking what I did with the $40 He gave me, but if He is, I can’t hear Him, becuase somehow, I got water in my ears.

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I attended a LeadNow Conference here in Irving this weekend inwhich Todd Phillips shared that, according to current studies and using modern water purifying technology, $10 Billion could solve the world’s water crisis. This got me thinking about my earlier post related to Money, Missions, and Ministry.

I am not aware what the value of church property in America is currently, but I know that in 1931, the estimated value of church property in America was $4 billion. When you realize that the average home price in 1930 was $7,000, imagine how much churches are sitting on today? The average home value today is around $230,000, an increase of 3300%. So $4 billion in 1930 would be $1.3 trillion today. I have no clue how accurate this number is, but let’s say it’s less than half of that and call it $500 billion.

If only 2% of the churches in America sold their buildings, and put the money toward solving the world’s water crisis, we would have enough money.

But churches don’t want to sell their buildings. After all, where would they meet?

Okay, then, here is another option. In 1930, it was estimated that since churches were tax-exempt organizations, they were being “subsidized” by the government at $250 million annually. In other words, if churches were being taxed, the government would receive $250 million from them annually (which is 6%). Again, I don’t know how tax rates have changed since 1930, but let’s say they haven’t changed at all.

If, in 1930, the government could have gotten $250 million by taxing church property (valued at $4 billion), then today, if our property value is only $500 billion, our taxes today would be over $31 billion!

So if churches in America decided that for ONE year, we would put aside only 1/3 of what we would owe the government in property taxes for that one year, we could solve the world’s water crisis in one year! Should churches do this (or something similar)? Absolutely. Will churches do this if made aware of the opportunity? Call me pessimistic, but probably not.

So the question then becomes, “What am I doing personally to help solve the world’s water crisis (and similar needs) around the globe?” Rather than pointing the accusatory finger at the churches and their vast wealth, I need to take a hard look at my budget, and my possessions, and where my money is going. I may not have $50 million to put toward a building, but if I have $50 which I am going to spend on coffee this year (it’s probably more than that), maybe I should consider giving up my coffee so someone else can simply have water…

But that’s too convicting.

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A pet peeve of mine has been how much churches are willing to spend on buildings, all in the name of “ministry.” I currently live in Dallas, the mega-church capital of the world. There are more mega-churches here per capita, than anywhere else in the world.  One street I was driving down recently contained four mega-churches in a one mile stretch. 

I don’t mind the number of churches so much. What gets me going is how much these buildings cost. One mega-church in downtown Dallas recently spent close to $50 million to construct a new “ministry” building! They say this will help them better reach the residents and people of downtown Dallas. Truly, I hope it is money well spent, and I wish them well.

But I often wonder what that $50 million could have bought in Africa or Papua New Guinea. If they answer by saying they were trying to reach the people in Dallas, then I wonder how many meals for homeless people in Dallas that $50 million could have bought? If they answer that they were trying to build a place for people to come for education and instruction so they could better their lives and get a good meal, then I have to ask why the building has “clever accessories” (that’s their term) along with 9000 square feet of exterior glass, state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment, wi-fi hotspots, beautiful stain-glass windows, comfy couches and lounge chairs, etc., etc.

Don’t misunderstand. I am not condemning mega-churches. I attend a mega-church. Many mega-churches are doing a lot of good in their communities and around the world with spreading the gospel. I just wonder if all of us (big churches and small churches alike) could be a little wiser with our money.

I wonder if this church in Dallas could have built their building for about $10 million less, and sent the extra $10 million overseas to plant about 2000 churches (It costs around $6000 to build a church in Africa). OR, what if they said to their donors, “This building will cost $50 million, but we need to raise $100 million so we can build churches overseas as well.”? What would happen if a church plant, from day one, decided to give at least 50% of it’s budget to missions?

The issue, of course, is “How do you define ‘missions’? By “missions” I mean anything that is helping you accomplish the mission of the church, which is to make disciples of all nations. If you can really, honestly say that you need a $50 million building to accomplish the mission God has given you in Dallas, then I say “build away!” It’s not what I would do with $50 mil, but if it is truly what you believe God has called you to do, go for it.

But here’s what really gets me angry. I read today about a church that has alerted its missionaries that after this year, the church will not be able to support them any longer. Why? Because the church needs a new auditorium and can’t do both. You can find our more about this here. Certainly, I don’t have the whole story, and this church definitely does not answer to me for how they use their money.

But one thing I know. American churches are the richest churches in the world. If our primary use of the funds God has given us is to construct bigger and nicer buildings for ourselves and our “ministry,” Jesus will not be pleased with us when we stand before him at the Judgment Seat. So what does your church budget look like? What does your church raise funds for? Whose kingdom are you building?

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