let's not become a museum

Sent to me by a friend and co-leader in our church. Love it. What do you think?

I need to laugh more

On this Monday after Sunday, I'm sitting here reading Why We Love the Church by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck and I'm literally laughing out loud. . . . all by myself. Kluck, the non-pastor lay guy, especially, cracks me up with his brutal honesty and touch of sarcasm. . .

Just had to share. . . . .

In his book, "Wide Open Spaces, author Jim Palmer explains that he has left the church in favor of a Wednesday night meeting with a friend at Starbucks. He talks of spiritual discussions on a boat with a best friend. He says of these meetings, "If one of us starts into those religious modes of thinking, or drones on in God-talk that has little correlation to our daily reality, we quickly rein things back in.

And later, "There's no person or set of persons you can point to as the ones in charge of or responsible for what happens. All of us believe that we have an equal 'calling' to know God and make him known amid ordinary life and people. Everyone is a leader and a follower, everyone is a teacher and student."

Palmer's construct of "neo-church" certainly sounds exciting, what with regular trips to Starbucks, Panera, and excursions out on his friend's boat. But being involved in these sorts of organic house churches--or for that matter even real church--for any period of time, will reveal that not everyone is a "leader" or "teacher."

Never am I more of a fan of the traditional pastor/flock relationship at our church than when the church has what they call an "unstructured service." The unstructured service is a holdover from the church's freewheeling 1970s days and involves, as you might expect, an open mic where congregants share a story, pray, or suggest a song. On paper this seems like a great idea. What kind of coldhearted meanie wouldn't be a fan of people sharing encouragement of prayer requests from their heart?

During unstructured services I usually sit and stare at my bulletin, which I've folded into a tiny pile about the size of a square inch. This is nervous energy. Nervous because of the reality that many people weren't gifted with the ability to stand in front of a group and say something that is God-centered, relevant, and brief. Out of the three, I would take brief. Maybe you've been to services like this. You often hear the sweet older lady who talks for no less than seventeen minutes about her kidney ailment. There is the well-meaning, attractive guy who shares about how all the girls in our church's college group want to get physical with him, and how difficult this is. And, if you're lucky, you might get a bad poem, because, lets' face it, almost all poems are bad. I'm left with the idea that if this is what revolutionary house church would look like on a week-to-week basis, then I'm definitely out.

To be fair, there are always good things that come out of the unstructured service, but I'm usually left feeling really thankful for our pastor and his forty-five minute expositional sermons. Though its much sexier to appear to have come up with something off the top of one's head, I'm glad he spends twenty hours each week reading, praying, and preparing linear sermons.

As a guy who prepares his own 45 minute linear sermons and feels his own nervous energy during unstructured services, this definitely struck my funny bone.

Read the book. Easy read. In the church library.

FAQ #1: Growth Groups & Covenant Membership

In Sunday's message, we talked some more about "covenant community" and how we move toward it here at GraceSLO.

What is a "covenant"? In its broadest Biblical sense, a "covenant" is a committed and intimate relationship. Jesus makes possible a new "covenant" or committed intimate relationship with God by means of His shed blood. At the same time He calls us into a new "covenant community" called the church.

By "covenant community" I mean the kind of a committed, intimate, relational community which is implied in Acts 2:42, Romans 12:9-13 and numerous other passages which speak of the church's life together.

How do we move toward the kind of community God desires and the Bible describes for God's people in the church?

On Sunday, I highlighted two key commitments that our elders and pastors believe can move us forward in the days ahead. . . .

1. A commitment to Growth Groups.
   
   
   
2. A commitment to Covenant Membership.

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll say more about each of these, but for now, we've begun the dialogue.

If you haven't listened to the message, do that first.

If you have listened to the message, here's a first round of questions and my answers. That's important! These are my answers at present, and do not reflect the official position of the elders at this time. There is still much that needs to be discussed and decided. And yet, I still think it's helpful to open up the process and encourage the dialogue. On the membership front, very little is set in stone yet. The questions were great questions submitted by one individual in our church. Here goes. . .

• Do you and the leadership anticipate keeping the growth group model currently being utilized? Are those groups going to continue being sermon based?
  
  We are committed to a "main stream" of Growth Groups that will be sermon-based, but we've also acknowledged the need for a few short term "tributaries" (working on a better term!) off the "mean stream". These "tributaries" will address felt need topics like parenting and marriage stuff. These groups and their leaders will be approved and the aim will be to get folks back into the "main stream" of the sermon based model as soon as possible. Our focus will continue to be sermon-based groups for a whole host of reasons including quality control, unity, growth in the same direction, leader equipping and training, manageability, maximizing the church's limited resources, and scalability.
  
  
• Do you anticipate groups which will be gender specific, as well as gender specific groups being led by women or men?
  
  We're open to gender specific groups. We have had some in college for the last three years. But we also believe it's valuable and preferable, whenever possible, to get couples in groups together. Our experience is that couples just don't know how to talk about spiritual things very well and we believe a healthy, vibrant Growth Group can help couples grow in this area. Similarly, we believe couples together in Growth Groups is family-supporting, rather than segmenting the family throughout the week. We're trying to be careful to not undermine the family and its precious time together.
  
  We're open to Growth Groups organized around ages and stages of people's lives. (singles, married without kids, divorced, etc) We're fine with gender specific groups being led by leaders of the same gender. We're open to husbands and wives co-leading mixed-gender groups.

• With the shift of focus at the church, who will be giving over site to this ministry?
  
  For now, Pastor Steve will continue to give over site to this ministry, though Ken, Steve, and I are working on a lot of this stuff together.

• I know you just touched on membership and will be flushing that out more in the next few weeks, what will that look like for those wanting to serve at the church? Will membership be required to do so?
  
  We will tie serving to membership for most serving positions/places, but not all. I don't see membership being required for "entry level" and occasional serving positions like greeting, refreshments or Fall Kick-Off helpers, I'm open when it comes to POW Small Group leaders. Membership will be required for Growth Group Leaders and those who teach Sunday School. Our goal will to encourage all to move toward membership as a way of committing to our covenant community. The staff and elders have got a long way to go in terms of fleshing all this out, but these are my thoughts today. We see membership as a way of building a relational community, being accountable to one another, caring for one another, and shepherding the flock. Those who have a conscience issue with church membership we would work with individually. Those who don't want to become members, will be welcome here and not second class citizens, but limited in the places they can serve.
  
  We're really aware the church membership will an "uphill swim", in our culture which is increasingly individualistic and non-committal, but our moving forward is driven by a desire to better "be the church" and to better "shepherd the flock." We believe the Lord calls us to commit to one another, even in, or especially in, an age of non-commitment.

• Are you anticipating a series of classes to instruct in this area?
  
  We do anticipate membership training classes. Pastor Ken has already begun teaching regular "Getting to Know Grace" classes, which we see morphing into Membership Classes. I expect for the great majority of the congregation, we will devise an initial way for them to become members.

• Will growth group participation be a requirement of church membership?
  
  Again, we've got to flesh this out, but I imagine something like this being a part of a membership covenant. . . . .
  
  "Since the Christian life is not a solo or individual journey, I commit to regularly being involved with others here at GraceSLO in a Growth Group (our preference) or some other type of small group (men's, women's or other)."
  
  I would define regular as at least one quarter a year.

Again this is a "first blush", but hopefully it's helpful in opening up our evolving thinking on these matters.

I'm throwing it out there and we're inviting your input.

Politics and the Church Revisited

Some of you will recall the blog storm surrounding the sharing of my views about politics and the church around Christmas time. I sure haven't forgotten the strong and varied reactions.

(I'll let you go back and find those posts, if you're so inclined!)

I shared, then, that my views were my own and didn't necessarily represent the views of all the elders or the official position of the elder board as whole. (Some of you didn't like that fact that I was sharing my "personal views" on this blog.) I also shared that the elders' discussions of these matters were ongoing.

Well. . . they're still ongoing. This is an issue we have talked much about over the last 4 months as this election year envelopes us. Just last Thursday we took the time to listen to a great seminar from the last month's Shepherd's Conference entitled "Politically Incorrect?" given by Phil Johnson.

Here were four Biblical insights that Johnson compellingly argued should guide our practice in these matters. They resonated with us all . . .

1. Preaching, not lobbying, is how the church makes Truth known. (1 Cor. 1:21-2:5)
   
   
2. Gospel, not law, is what changes sinful hearts. (Gal. 2:21)
   
   
3. Service, not dominion, is the most effective way to win people to Christ. (Mat. 20:40-48)
   
   
4. Christ, not moralism, should be the subject of our preaching. (1 Cor. 2:2)

(Audio is available online at http://www.shepherdsfellowship.org/ and is well worth the small $2 fee. We've also just put a CD copy down in our Grace Library for check out.)

Stay tuned for our upcoming Fall preaching series "The Gospel for Real Life" where I plan to spend a week addressing some of these issues from a Biblical perspective under the heading "The Gospel and Your Civic Duty." We're also discussing the possibility of "An Evening with the Elders" to coincide with this message. We'll see if it all comes together.

Render to God

Today is Veteran's Day. Leading up to and following this weekend, three similar requests/inquiries have come my way. I have been interacting with several folks via email and have promised that I would commit my thoughts and share my views here at Life Together, so that others might understand my convictions in this area.

Here are the 3 requests/inquiries:

1. Why don't we sing patriotic "hymns" on Veteran's Day and other similar national holidays? Why don't we do more to honor our vets on these days?
   
   
2. Why don't we have an American Flag in our place of worship?
   
   
3. Why won't we mount in our foyer next to our missionary display, a companion display to honor our men and women currently serving in the military?

These are legitimate and important questions, and I think they all fall into a similar category. For those who ask them, these are passionate and deeply personal issues.

Let me share my views on this subject and in so doing attempt to answer these questions, from my own perspective . . .

• First off, I will come right out and share that I am a registered Republican and supportive of the current war in Iraq and the fight for freedom around the world. I give thanks to God for those who have given their lives and are giving their lives now for the freedoms we enjoy. As a citizen of our great country, I believe we should be doing everything we can to honor our vets at community celebrations and the like. I need you to hear that!
  

• However, as a Christian, I don't believe that patriotic celebrations and the singing of patriotic music belong in the church. My own view is that this leads to a common confusion between the world's kingdoms and God's kingdom, which is not of this world. Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall, but God's kingdom will never fall or fail. I believe that nationalism and Gospel ministry each have an important place in our lives, but belong in separate spheres. When we gather for worship, we are about other business, the business of the Gospel. It's important to me that the Gospel not be confused with republican values or, for that matter, any values of a particular political stripe. I believe in a clear distinction of the kingdoms. We have a foot in each, but they are separate spheres and we should work hard not to confuse them.
  

• I believe that Jesus taught us to distinguish the kingdoms when asked about the paying of taxes. He said "Render to Caesar what is Caesars and to God what is God's." As citizens in the community, we are called to render to Caesar (and to vets) their due. This is appropriate and this is good. When we gather for worship, I believe we enter into a different sphere where we are called to render to God what is God's.
  

• The early church was marked by a diversity of people united in Christ. There were Gentiles of every nationality and Jews, men and women, slaves and masters, who presumably differed widely in their views of politics and a variety of other subjects. Yet they came together to worship. They checked their baggage at the door and affirmed that there was One Lord, One Faith, One God and Father of all. I believe facilitating this kind of Gospel-centered, diverse, open community in the church is as important now as it was then. My own conviction is that singing patriotic songs and having an American flag in church jeopardizes this kind of Gospel-centered environment and blurs some important distinctions. As an American citizen, I believe in the flag and in the honoring of the flag as a patriotic symbol, but as a Christian, I believe our first allegiance is to God and the Gospel.
  

• In the 5th Century, when the barbarians were sacking the gates of Rome, Christians despaired and wondered what would happen to them if Rome fell. The church had become too attached to and equated with the Roman Empire after the conversion of Emperor Constantine in 325. In that dark and scary hour, God raised up Augustine, who took up his pen and wrote the classic "The City of God," where he illustrated that the God's work of salvation through the Gospel transcends all earthly kingdoms. I believe that Augustine was right . . . we should be very careful to not equate Gospel ministry with any earthly kingdom.

• Personally, I believe that patriotism and love of country are very important values that must be taught and instilled in our children. We are working double time to teach and instill these values in our own children by giving them a rich biblical and classical, history-based education. I just do not think the church is the appropriate place to teach and instill these values. Our role, in the church, is to instill Gospel values. I believe the Biblical distinction between the kingdoms that I am arguing for is also a value/belief that needs to be instilled in our children.

• Here's a great comparison issue: Our family is deeply involved in a school that my wife helped found. We are passionate about this school and its merits. We value it and believe in it, and yet, I have never once mentioned the school by name from the pulpit. Why? Because I believe the schooling of my children belongs in a different and separate sphere of my life. When I have my "parent hat" on, you will hear me quite passionate about our great school. Likewise, when I have my "citizen hat" on, you will hear my quite passionate about our great country. When I have my "pastor hat" on, you will hear me quite passionate about our great Gospel. I am determined, when we worship, to know nothing among the people of God, except Christ and Him crucified. I refuse to talk about schools or politics.
  

• This issue is a curious one, because I think if we did sing patriotic songs and had an American flag in church, I would be fielding just as many questions from folks on the other side of this issue. Its a "lightening rod" issue.

• Specifically regarding the issue of a display to honor our currently serving military men and women: Our ministry staff reached a unanimous decision after an extensive discussion of the idea. Our shared conviction coming out that discussion was that it would be more appropriate and valuable to remember our soldiers by asking someone to collect and coordinate prayer requests for inclusion in our weekly prayer email bulletin. In this way, the needs of our soldiers in harm's way would be kept in front of us in a weekly and ongoing manner. We also agreed that our Missionaries fall into a unique category as those financially supported by Grace in their Gospel ministries around the world. Our financial support and their Gospel callings together set them apart. We asked together, "What about our Christian teachers, those involved in the vital education of our own and the community's children? And what about our police and fire men and women, who protect and serve? And what about our Christian business owners and managers, who provide jobs for people in our church? Should these other groups not also have Honor Boards? Where should we draw the line and how?" God calls and sends us to all these professions, just as he calls and sends some to the battlefield.
  

• I suspect that my views may be a bit different and out of alignment with some of the historical happenings here at Grace. I don't know what has happened in the past, because I was not here. I am doing, as the lead pastor of Grace today, the best I can before God to make our worship services as Biblical as I possibly can.

• I know that my views are not necessarily popular or even understood, by vets or by others here at Grace. I truly mean no offense. But I do think these are important theological and Biblical distinctions for our world today. I will look for an opportunity to address these issues from the pulpit down the road, if that would be helpful.

• I want to be clear that these views are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of all our staff or elders. Nor do these views, in any way, represent an official position of Grace Church at this time. Our elders have discussed these issues, usually around the time of each election, when some have asked why we do not provide voting guides for our people. I will raise this issue again for discussion. I am open to correction and am committed to submitting to the other God-appointed leaders around me.
  

• At the risk of sounding redundant, I don't want my views to be construed as being unsupportive or ungrateful to our veterans for their sacrifice and service to our country. Nor do I desire for you or anyone to think that I am not patriotic or proud of the great country we live in. Nothing could be further from the truth. As a citizen, I am deeply grateful for the sacrificial service of our vets and for the freedoms we enjoy. I am proud to be an American.

Hope that makes sense and is in someway helpful. I want you to know my mind and heart on these matters that so directly impact our life together. I'd love to hear your thoughts and would be quite surprised if I don't see at least a few comments.

entertaining ourselves at church

One of the most influential books I read in seminary was "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman. Have you ever read it? Please do.

Pastor Al again sent me a great article from Christianity Today entitled "Amusing Ourselves on Sunday." The article talks about the dangers and pressures of entertainment culture on the church. A good reminder and relevant to our recent discussion of media uses.

Here's a great quote:

"When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience and their public business a comedy show, then a nation finds itself at risk."

Are we an audience when we gather for worship or a congregation? What's the difference?

Just as consumerism is radically affecting the way we experience church, so is entertainment . . . and we don't even realize it. How do we start?

A People of the Book

In Sunday's message entitled "A People of the Book" from 1 Peter 1:23-2:3, I talked about the centrality of the Word of God in the life of the People of God.

(If you missed the message, I think you'll find it helpful and explanatory. In it, I explain our worship service, the historical symbolism of the pulpit and the place of the Bible in the process of salvation . . . among other things.

I got this great email from Steve Potratz. He gave me permission to post it in our shared hope that it would stir up some dialogue. So let it roll . . .

Tim,

Many times Jesus would say: “You have heard that it was said… but I tell you…” One of Jesus greatest teaching challenges was helping people unlearn.


Over the years our church has taught people to bring their bibles to church. Deane Keller consistently encouraged people to mark their bibles. One of his trademarked phrases was “circle the word…” I remember him joking about it when he preached at the anniversary.


I so appreciated your message Sunday and your emphasis on the Word. You were right on. I appreciate too your explanation of the service structure. In that explanation you invited comments on the Keynote slides. I would like to add my two cents: We visit a lot of church throughout the country. When pastors put the scripture in their presentation we consistently observe very few bibles being carried by the people. I know you have purposely not included the main scripture text. However, by including all of the reference text (I know you do it to save time – and I honor that) I have noticed fewer people using or bringing their bibles to Grace. Two weeks ago Sunday only 6 people in 20 sitting around me had a bible open during the message. I would like to suggest you not display any scripture in your Keynote slides. Encourage people to use their bibles by turning to the text – even if it’s just for one verse. I would also like to encourage you to encourage the people to mark their bibles. The more people use their bibles the more they will use their bibles.


I use my computer for my morning devotions. I use my handheld many times in church. I have noticed that this is detrimental to my retention of scripture – I need to carry and mark up a physical bible and do except on choir Sundays.


While I’m writing, I would like to suggest one other thing: I like your emphasis on the pulpit and the delivery of the Word. How about keeping the pulpit for ONLY this purpose? Have the scripture read from the pulpit and delivered from there. Maybe the pastoral prayer too – but keep all other uses to a side or other locations. In other words, I don’t know why we read scripture from a side mike?


Just some thoughts – I would love to see people learn to use their bibles more and understand the use of the tools built into their bibles. It is amazing to me to see how few people understand how to use the reference system in their bible or even why it’s there. As you said Sunday, the bible literacy is very low.


No need to respond. I really appreciate your leadership, your teaching and your love for the people. To God be the Glory.


Standing firm,

Steve

Steve obviously gets what we're trying to do and shares these values. What do you think of Steve's suggestions?

Do you think flipping around in our bibles instead of projecting complementary texts would be helpful? I know it would definitely slow us down, but maybe that's not a bad thing.

Do you think people are bringing their bibles less these days? Is that because of something we're doing or not doing or is that just the cultural trend? I sure feel like I say just about every week, "You've got to have a Bible open in front of you" and a whole bunch of other things to reinforce the use of bibles. Do you think we can/should do more?

While we're at it. . . how about some thoughts/feedback on my recent use of slides and fill in the blank outlines?

Here are some of my own thoughts at this point in time:

• I am in a season where I am definitely rethinking some of this stuff. I am in a total experimental mode.
  
  
• I still have a strong conviction that preaching is, by and large, an oral medium. Jesus used visual language and illustrations. He painted pictures, but with words. Romans 10 makes it clear that people must hear. God gives his Word, not a picture. Though Jesus was the "image" of the invisible God, both before and after the incarnation the emphasis was on the proclamation of God's truth. After Christ, God's truth then centered on the person and work of Christ. Paul most strongly commanded Timothy to "preach the Word." This was his dying charge near the end of the apostolic age.
  
  
• I don't preach because preaching is the most effective means of communication in today's world, but because I believe that preaching is the God-ordained means of communication for all time.
  
  
• My aim is to help people engage with the text and message. This is my driving ambition: to get God's Word into the lives of God's people. I am willing to use slides and fill in the blanks if they engage visual learners and don't compromise the message.
  
  
• I try and create slides that complement and support, rather than drive the message. I want the slides to be "invisible" in the sense that I am not verbally calling attention to them. If you listen over the radio or web, I don't want you to even be aware that there were slides.
  
  
• I am hypervigilant for unintended consequences in the use of these tools. Fill in the blank outlines can dumb down content. Slides can create less engaged and lazy learners. The medium does impact the message. I think this is potentially dangerous stuff. We need to be continually thinking through these issues. Like in the area of bioethics, just because we can, doesn't mean we should.
  
  
• I don't want to do things because our culture and the audience demands them, but because they might be helpful for some.
  
  
• I don't want to compromise the Gospel, my own theological convictions, or the centrality of the God's Word in the life of God's people. I do want to connect with people and connect people with God's Word.
  
  
• I don't know what I am doing! There is no script and I don't think the Bible says much about these things. I am doing what I am doing in a vacuum to a large extent. I reserve the right to stop creating slides and offering fill in the blank outlines.
  

Wow. I guess I have a few thoughts about these issues. What are yours?

encouraging email of the week

Here is part of an email I received this week from a recent college grad. The reason it was so encouraging to me is not because he enjoyed Sunday's message, but because he's "getting" the church. . . . .

Yesterday as I was driving home after dinner with some friends, I thought a lot about the passage that you taught about in the morning. After rethinking through all of the ideas you expressed about the idea of “What in the world is the Church?”, I felt inclined to email you. I think I got the idea to email you for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted to let you know how much I agreed with the sermon, specifically about the relationship between college student’s involvement with on campus ministries and the local church, and also to offer a little encouragement, if possible.

I started attending Grace this February, and have come to fall in love with it, joining a growth group, going to Mexico with the high schoolers, playing basketball on Thursday nights, and being apart of the church family in other ways. I graduated from Cal Poly in June of 2006 and never really had a church home throughout college. I was heavily involved with Campus Crusade for Christ all five years and although I owe a lot of my spiritual growth and maturity to that movement, I have come to realize how much I missed out by not getting involved with a local church those five years. I found myself looking around during yesterday’s service and couldn’t have agreed more with your urge for college students to get involved with the church. We all do need each other, young and old, men and women, mature and still learning, rich and poor, etc., and I can tell that Grace Church is on the right track to be a church described in the Bible. The church isn’t about what I can get out of it, but how we can grow together to glorify and worship the Lord. Grace Church has become a place where I experience peace, belonging, the Story, and His presence.

I'm excited about where our Fall series, "What in the World is the Church?" is going to take us . . . Come along!