By Jeremy Myers Filed Under Close Your Church for Good Written on May 5, 2012

Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus

The Epilogue to my book, Close Your Church for Good, is subtitled “Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus.”

Though most of the book has been somewhat critical of church, and has deconstructed or torn away much of what people associate with church, I wanted to close with a section that provides some suggestions for how the church can move forward, and how the church can be transformed from a religious institution into a missional movement.

This closing section attempts to inspire you to accomplish the change that Jesus wants for His church.

Please note that due to some of the feedback I receive on these posts, this epilogue might be radically revised for the final edition of the book. These changes will only be available in the print or eBook version when it comes out.

Here are the blog posts that form the epilogue:

It Looks Like Jesus
More Coming Soon!

By Jeremy Myers Filed Under Blogging Written on May 4, 2012

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Five Tips for Christian Commenters

Angry Christian Blogger Are you a follower of Jesus?

Do you like to leave comments on other people’s blogs?

Let me provide a few suggestions on how to leave good comments on other people’s blogs:

Be Loving. If you can’t say it with love, don’t say it at all. If you want to condemn someone to hell, don’t leave a comment. If you have the urge to yell at someone, don’t leave a comment. If you leave a comment which you think is loving, and people suggest your comment wasn’t loving, you may want to rethink how you interact with people online.
Be willing to learn. You don’t know it all. Seriously. Recognize that no matter how smart you are, there are other smart people in the world too who view things differently. If there are others who view things differently, maybe you can learn from what they have to say. At the bare minimum, seek to understand their position before you disagree.
Use proper grammar and paragraph breaks. It looks terribly uneducated when your comment is full of grammar and spelling mistakes, and consists of 500 words of run-on sentences without any paragraph breaks. We all make a few spelling and grammar mistakes. I make one or two in every single blog post. But if you want people to read what you write, you need to make the attempt to write in a way that helps people read.
DON’T USE ALL CAPS AND LOTS OF EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!!!!!!!! In the online world, that comes across as screaming and yelling. Is that really how you want to be perceived?
Please, no name-calling. If there is one thing we all should have learned way back in Kindergarten, it is that name-calling never helps any situation. So no matter how much you disagree with someone, you don’t need to resort to calling them a heretic, a false teacher, a reprobate, or other such names. It just doesn’t help.

The reason I am writing about this is because I have recently decided to start banning people who comment on my blog who are unloving and hateful. I might issue a warning or two, but after that…

An Example of a Bad Comment

I don’t mind if people disagree with me. I welcome it. But if you are going to disagree, do so with the five suggestions above.

Below is one example of a person who has been leaving bad comments and who got banned.

By Jeremy Myers Filed Under Ecclesiology Written on May 3, 2012

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The Decline of Christianity

church and culture I got interviewed yesterday by Ken Briggs who is writing a book for Eerdman’s on the connection (or actually, the DISconnection) between the message of the church and the needs and issues of our culture.

He has noticed, as has many others, that although the church is trying harder than ever to get its message heard, fewer and fewer people are listening. Though in the past it has primarily been Mainline churches that were in decline, Southern Baptists are now in decline as well.

Ken Briggs wants to know what the church can do about this… if anything.

He and I met at a Starbucks in East Stroudsburg University and discussed these sorts of questions for about three hours. It was quite an honor to be interviewed by him, since he has also interviewed other writers and theologians around the country, including Stanley Hauerwas, the most widely read and oft-cited theologian of our day.

Ken is conducting research and interviews this year, and the book is scheduled to be out in 2013.

By Jeremy Myers Filed Under Close Your Church for Good Written on May 2, 2012

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Closing Church to Break Hell’s Gates

Shane Claiborne went to India to work with lepers. They are the rejects and outcasts of Indian society. Speaking of that experience, Shane said this:

I knew what Jesus meant when he told Peter that the ‘gates of hell would not prevail’ against the church, as I was finally seeing a church that was storming the gates of hell itself to save people from its horrors (The Irresistible Revolution).

Shane discovered what all other men and women of faith understand: that heaven is best found when we head toward hell, that Jesus is most active where death abounds, and grace and mercy shine brightest in the darkness of sin. That is why he and his community, The Simple Way, sought out the worst and most crime-filled area of Philadelphia, and then sought to redeem and transform it with acts of love, mercy, and kindness.

They are not the only ones taking the church to hell. Gabe Lyons, in his book The Next Christians, shares the stories of numerous individuals and groups which are looking for the darkest and dirtiest places on planet earth, and then going there intentionally to share the love of Jesus with the people they find.

He writes about Gary Haugen who founded the International Justice Mission to target sex trafficking.

He writes about Mike Foster who set up a booth at the adult entertainment expo in Las Vegas and handed out Bibles with hot pink and yellow covers with this message on the cover: “Jesus Loves Porn Stars.”

Gabe says that for Christians who want to bring the light of the gospel to a dark and dying world, “running away is not an option.”

By Jeremy Myers Filed Under Close Your Church for Good Written on May 1, 2012

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Dances with Harlots

If we decide to join Jesus in storming the gates of hell, we will find something surprising when we get there. We will find a ragtag band of prostitutes, alcoholics, drug-addicts, murderers, and thieves, dancing and singing and laughing with Jesus.

It is a strange sight there at the gates of hell, but it is the way of Jesus.

Joy and laughter in the face of darkness and despair is one of the best ways to turn back the night and light a candle in the dark.

Jesus dances with harlots, shares meals with tax-collectors, laughs at the jokes of murderers, and drinks with alcoholics.

Meanwhile, we look on with disapproval. We get offended. Doesn’t Jesus know what they’ve done? Doesn’t He know He is just encouraging them? Doesn’t He know how it looks to hang out with such people?