"So, a Presbyterian walks into a bar..."

Interacting with the Culture (?)

It seems that I have been hearing, for most of my almost 54 years, about the need of the church to "win the culture" or "take back the culture" (which presumes, of course that Christians ever "had" it to begin with!)  Church leaders across the country and around the world have spoken endlessly about this topic, especially in this post-post-modern era.  There are large national and international efforts to seek to address and change the culture that is killing families and individuals faster than any type of genocide. 

There is a problem with all this; the picture being painted by these leaders is so big and bad that only their particular solution, usually highly programmatic in nature, can really do a job as big as the one before us.  This will never work for one simple reason; people cannot imagine how they can make a difference in such a large problem that requires such a large solution.  There is an old saying, "What's the best way to eat an elephant?"  The answer is, of course, "One bite at a time."  Contemplating eating a whole elephant is a guarantee of depression because it is just too big a job to consider.  To think about the first bite, and then after that, the next bite, makes it easier.  By the way, does anyone know what elephant tastes like?  Surely someone will say, "It tastes like chicken."  But I digress.

Jesus Himself did not teach people to save the world.  That was His job, to die for, and thereby save, all those who believed in Him throughout the ages, before and after His death.  Jesus taught us to be witnesses to what He has done, not the "doers" ourselves.  He taught us to love one another, to not strike back if struck, to judge not, to condemn not, and to give, even to everyone that asks of us.  His disciples taught us to be ambassadors of reconciliation, to care for widows and orphans and to always rejoice in Him.

Following those exhortations is not a nation- or world-wide campaign, that is taking the first bite of the elephant, then the next one and the one after that.  This our calling; to seek to affect those around us in and for the Name of Christ.  And that is a thought we can all handle.  Save an entire culture?  No freakin' way!  Act biblically  toward those around us?  Maybe uncomfortable at first, but eminently doable.  And THAT is the simple beauty of our call. 

Train yourself to affect only what you can where you are and in your particular circumstance.  Lead your church or plead with your church leaders to do this as well.  Engage in what in past times was called "parish ministry," caring for your people and your neighbors and your area, and the world will be changed.  It won't happen all at once.  It may not even happen to a substantial amount in your life.  But it is what Christ has called us to do, and that makes all the difference.

May God richly bless you as you seek to take one bite at a time.

Living life

I was reacquainted with an old friend last week as I visited Atlanta.  At one point in our conversation we began to talk about the "parish" ministry model with which I am involved.  Now, I am not always the clearest guy with definitions, but I opined that parish ministry is about coming together as a covenant community intent on not only serving one another within our covenant community, but also serving those in our immediate geographic community.  We, of course, are also determined to serve the world through missions, as that is an integral part of the Gospel call.  But the idea of parish is to minister the Gospel, by the ordinary means of grace, where one finds one's self, and to do it to the glory of God, not man.

The reaction from my friend was interesting in that he said, "I thought that was just biblical living!  We minister the Gospel and the Gospel moves us to serve those around us and around the world."  The  immediate thought I had was "Touche'!"  Right to the point!  I wondered, briefly, if I was guilty of trying to provide a catchy tag line on to a biblical idea to make it seem more...I don't know...desirable.  But then I realized something important; parish ministry is precisely biblical living, and we are having to "resurrect" that ideal because so many have lost it over the decades, centuries and millenia.

Why does parish ministry sound so foreign to so many?  Because it is entirely biblical and largely missing in some parts of the modern church in America.  Oh, there are many churches doing some parish ministry and doing it well, and they don't even call it that.  There are many churches faithful to their covenant community and to the community at large in their geographic area.  But it seems to me that there are many more that are engaged in something less than the ideal of parish ministry.  Many are still serving the idea of "program ministry," meaning that they put together elaborate systems to "educate" or "disciple" or whatever else, but what really happens is that more people are drawn to a central location to sit in a classroom or sanctuary for sometimes ill-defined purposes.  It seems that many programs serve as a justification for large buildings with many rooms that need to be used in the name of stewardship.

What was the model of the early church?  That model was a much more peripatetic ministry, modeled after the earthly ministry of Jesus, meeting people where they are and ministering the Gospel to them in all its fullness.  Yes, the later Epistles, sometimes known as the Catholic Epistles, began to lay the groundwork for the organization of the local church.  The word "Catholic" in this sense means something along the lines of "how the whole church should be organized."

The question is this, "How well have we learned the lessons of the early church and of Christ's earthly ministry?"  Isn't my friend right, that what we know call "parish ministry" is simply the biblical way of life?  Are we not called to minister the Gospel to our families, our covenant community (church) and our neighbors and acquaintances?  Of course we are.  Our orthodoxy (right belief) is to match our orthopraxy (right living.)  Anything else falls short of God's commands to us and His desires for us.

One more time, let me add this disclaimer...there are many large churches doing a great job of ministry in the "micro" sense that some call parish.  It is my prayer that more and more of those large churches, as well as  innumerable small churches, rediscover the biblical way of living known as parish.  May we be given the grace to see many churches follow this biblical model and may we be given the grace to see hundreds, if not thousands of these churches planted in our nation.  Oh, what a wonderful sight that would be!

Why? What do we do now?

So why are some believers abandoning megachurches?  Why are younger generations, generally 40 and under, not attracted to megachurches?

Here is my theory, and as I have mentioned, it is probably WAY oversimplified, but then again, so am I, soooo...here goes.  As our information transfer technology has gotten better, and as transportation has gotten more uncomfortable and expensive (thank you OPEC!), workers and businesses have once again embraced a "work where you are" ethic.  Millions of people "commute" digitally these days, and they are thus able to once again live in AND GET TO KNOW the community in which they live.  No more leaving at "Oh dark thirty" and hoping to get home before the kids fall asleep so they remember their good night kiss. 

Once again people are choosing where they live and, more importantly WHO they live with in community, based on values and not distance to work.  This is creating more community in general, and more importantly, a greater desire for community, period.  This is a death knell for most megachurches, because the one thing that is sadly missing at many of those churches is authentic community.  Indeed, as a former church planter, I have had people leave our smaller community specifically because they wanted to "sit on the back row and not have anyone know when they didn't come to church."  Another elderly saint said to me one time, "I just don't think I could go to a small church of 200 people.  Everyone has to WORK at it all the time just to have church."  To which my response was, silently (yes, I completely chickened out!), RIGHT!

And that is what more people are looking for, a contributing, cooperative, collegial community!  Something in which they have ownership, a say in what happens, and a place to share life with like-minded, and maybe completely different, people.  People genuinely Gospel driven, saints called by God and filled by the Holy Spirit, realize that receiving propositional truth in sermons and classes is, at best, only half of the equation.  Incarnational truth, that truth learned and shared in the give and take of biblical community, is as important in living the Christian life.  And it is the VERY special megachurch that has structured itself so that its people learn and live in close knit community.

Younger generations want to invest in relationships based in Christ's love, not in bricks and mortar that will fall down some day.  Many of them drive by a large church and not even think about stopping, because they instinctively know that they will get lost there.  This is a shame because many large churches offer wonderful teaching and community, but their efforts are obscured by the bias against large buildings.  Many megachurches, however, richly deserve the bad name they have.  I am familiar with one megachurch in which the pastor has no officers supporting him and ministering to the church.  Everything the church does is staff-directed or run by ad hoc committees.  The people are asked to simply sit and give.  Is this a biblical picture of the church?  I think not.  And many people are finally waking up to that realization.

Next...the importance of covenant community and the "way back" for the church.

What do you think?   

I'm baaaaack

Well, after going skiing (no injuries!) and getting a good case of the flu, I am still trying to figure out this whole blogging thing.  The news remains the news on a daily basis, and with our 24 hour news cycle, which I think is deteriorating into a 1 hour cycle, I increasingly believe that my 13 year-old daughter is right when she says, "Dad, it's just the SAME THING over and over again."

I recently read a book which helped me thoroughly escape our post-post-modern culture, and made me wonder/realize what we are missing as Christians.  The book was by George MacDonald and is entitled "Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood."  MacDonald was a 19th century pastor and author, mostly author, with incredible insight into the human condition.  The "quiet neighborhood" of which he wrote was a small, out of the way, English parish where the lead character was the vicar.  The insights shown in loving and pastoring sometimes difficult people were amazing to me, particularly when one considers that MacDonald was still a young man when he wrote the book.  The book was written when "parish" was the way in which Christians instinctively understood daily living.  That presupposition alone was enough to set this book apart as a treasure when read by someone in today's church.

What happened to parishes?  What happened to the idea that people don't just "go to church" together, but they live life together?  "Going to church" is just a phrase that shows the deep misunderstanding that most people have about what the church is, in any case.

What has happened to the church?  Why did megachurches come into existence and why are they no longer effective, if they ever were, at doing what they set out to do? 

Now that I am asking questions, what makes a church a "megachurch?"  Is it size alone, or is it a set of attitudes?  I think it is the latter, meaning that we could have a series of very small "megachurches" out there, leaving us with an oxymoron much like "jumbo shrimp," only in reverse.  What do you think?

Finally, back to parishes...don't we need them back, or at least the attitudes and understandings they were/are based upon?  Don't we need to get back to living our lives in covenantal community, and not just "going to church" (ugh!) together?  And what does it mean to live in "covenantal community?"

More tomorrow on how this happened and what to do about it.