Come, cause death and pain abound

Come, cause stress and worry surround

Come, cause the world has gone hard

Come, cause sin has left us scarred

Come, cause life can make us blind

Come, cause darkness clouds the mind

Come, cause what we fail to see

Is God, and love, and the world that was meant to be

So tonight…

Come, for the kingdom of God is near

Come, for love banishes all fear

Come, for peace runs like a river

Come, for even angels quiver

Come, for we gather to worship tonight

Come, for we gather to celebrate light

Come, for sin has lost the fight

Come, for God is making things right

Come, for death no longer stings

Come, for winter will give way to spring

Come, for the slain Lamb to whom we sing

Is risen, is here, is King.

CNN’s headline story on their website yesterday discussed religion in America.  I did not find the content all that profound or unexpected, but a few lines jumped out at me:

“The American religious economy is like a marketplace — very dynamic, very competitive,” said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum. “Everyone is losing, everyone is gaining. There are net winners and losers, but no one can stand still. Those groups that are losing significant numbers have to recoup them to stay vibrant.”

How do you feel about this perception of the church?  Is religion a “religious economy”?  Is it a competition (be honest)?  If your church is growing, does that make you a winner?  If other churches are declining, are they losers?

Although evangelical churches strive to win new Christian believers from the “unchurched,” the survey found most converts to evangelical churches were raised Protestant.

Do you find this to be true in your experience?  Are the majority of your “new members”  converts to Christ of from other churches?  Are we competing for existing Christians or truly ministering to the unchurched?

Here is the full article:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/02/25/religion.survey.ap/index.html

Let me know what you think.

Much has been said and written about “church shopping” and “consumer Christianity”. Still, I think MORE ought to be said.

Today, we are bombarded with advertisements, products, media, entertainment, and more. All of these things play on our emotions, needs, insecurities, desires, etc. And in the process, all these things add up to a culture that shapes and forms us into certain types of people – namely, consumers.

I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that most of what drives our lives today is consumerism. We consume products, clothes, entertainment, vacations, and more. In many ways, we have begun to consume even our relationships- using them for our advantage, when the benefit us, or for our pleasure. And this is where it begins to get scary!

This has become such and overwhelming part of our culture, I believe many churches have succumb to the pressures of consumerism without even realizing it. We unknowingly (sometime knowingly) have turned church into yet another product that is to be consumed by the masses (hopefully?!). In the process, we (leaders of the church) teach or permit or brothers and sisters to be consumers of spirituality. A few examples:

“How did you like church?”

“Our church has a great worship band.”

“What kind of (name the ministry) do you have?”

“I do not really like (so and so’s) youth group.”

“I didn’t get anything out of that (service, bible study, small group, etc)”

When peoples’ attendance or involvement is based upon how well a particular church does (or produces) music, sermons, programs, etc., we have strayed from what God intended the church to be. The church cannot continue to be a group of committed staff and volunteers producing spiritual goods for other Christians to consume. Rather, those of us who follow Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior need to repent of our consumeristic ways. Our faith ought not to be determined by how good the service was, if we liked the sermon, or how cool the worship music was. To continue in the language of business… we, who are in Christ, ought to be producers.

We must embrace the truth that in Jesus we have found life. Because of this, we ought to be able to go into the world and be producers of love, joy, and community. We should add to the world creativity, redemtpion, hope, and peace. Our community should produce justice, faith in God, and goodness. And by all this, I do not mean that a few staff memebers and dedicated volunteers produce these things for other Christians and an occassional new believer. Our energies are being wasted!!! If we could spend less time competing to put out the best church product and more time ministering together to a broken world, the world would be different!

*let our prayers be with those going through deep seasons of frigid nights

Waiting on Dawn

Darkness clouds and the world goes black

Prosperity fades to all we lack

Smiles seem sinful in a world that grieves

Cause night came early and didn’t leave

All we see is blinding night

We question the sun and its light

Cause our souls only warm when rays beat bright

And heat seems odd when it’s the cold we fight

Words don’t warm or help us see

But enter this frigid night, and be

And lets dream of this darkenss gone

As we wait together upon the dawn.

This winter I dusted off my old wrestling shoes and took a job coaching at a local high school. It has been a great experience and taught me a lot about myself, life, and faith. Coaching kids has proved rewarding and challenging. And I have been surprised at the relationships I have developed as well as the amount of influence I have in students’ lives. One of the more interesting and fun lessons of the season I just learned this past week.

My life has been rather hectic and stressful as of late. And as we enter the last week or so of the season, I have found myself very worn out and tired. During a normal practice, I would actively be leading drills, correcting wrestlers, inspiring them to work harder, and teaching moves. This past week, however, I did not always take the time to change into my wrestling gear. In addition to this, after roaming the room correcting and pushing my wrestlers, I often found myself sitting against the walls yelling directions. While I was doing this, I noticed that my wrestlers were goofing off more and not working as hard. Though I was still running practice and telling them what to do, their actions were noticeably different than other practices. More than that, when I would correct them or push them, they did not respond to my instructions as much.

Maybe the lesson is obvious, but it struck me anew. Though I was still running a good workout, wearing street clothes and sitting against the wall set a tone for the practice. It became clear to me that what I was communicating to the kids went far beyond my words. So much so, that my nonverbal communication seemed to overcome what I was trying to say teach the kids.

What I wonder is how is this also true in the way we organize church. What do our actions, structures, time commitments, buildings, etc. communicate to the world? Are our activities held in the community or church property? Does it make a difference? What do our buildings say to those who live in poverty? Is there a connection? How do we structure our community/relationships? Does it look like a family? a business? a club? What does our worship communicate? Is having crosses (or art reflecting God) in the sanctuary important? Is our place of worship called a sanctuary? Does having a worship leader in the center of a stage during worship communicate any sort of message? What? (I love you Alex). Does having one pastor center stage every week communicate any sort of message? What? (I love you Rodney).  How much of the medium is the message?  Just questions.

Maybe these things are not that big of a deal. Maybe church leadership has already thought them through and that is why we have the church structures we do. I do not think I am as interested in coming to one set of conclusions to these questions as I am making sure that we think through all the different ways we communicate. As I am learning, some of the most powerful messages we communicate about God and church do not come through our words.