The Relevant Church

a re-review of "The Relevant Church: A New Vision For Communities Of Faith" by various authors.

I've had this book for a while, but I just recently picked it up again and read from a few selections. Essentially, each chapter is written by people in the trenches doing ministry in unique ways. It is not so much the methodology that is unique as it is the philosophical underpinnings (which drive methodlogy) that makes this book and the approaches in it a challenging, refreshing, essential tool in the transitioning society we find ourselves in.

I'd like to interact in this post with a paragraph in the chapter written by Dustin Bagby, a pastor at Mosaic in Manhattan, NY. He writes:

Unfortunately, many people who have grown up in church were taught to avoid culture at all costs. They were taught that we need to form an enviornment
in which to live and then invite other people to join. the problem is that the people who we are inviting to join are not coming. Now it is time to go 'out there' and meet them. I find that most of Jesus; teachings are about going and harvesting. I hear very little about sitting back at an event and hoping people who are not followers will attend. Jesus always went to where the people in need were.

Week after week, we pray for God to bring visitors to our church and that rarely happens. The time is over for churches to expect the unchurched to pop in to find God. They are finding what they think is meaning elsewhere. Certainly, what they are finding will not satisfy long because only Jesus can fill their deepest longings. But too many generations have separated the lost from churches. It was subtle in the beginning... devoted Christians would take kids to church, but those kids didn't find it relevant so they bowed out until those kids had kids of their own. Then when they had kids, they took their kids to Sunday School and maybe morning worship. Then that new crop of kids bowed out with mom and dad when they were too old for Sunday School to hold their affections. By the time those kids had kids of their own, maybe they'd drop off the new generation of kids at Sunday school or maybe grandparents would take the grandkids. What we face now is that twenty-somethings and thirtysomethings are having kids but never consider church as any kind of option because the fact is, they never went themselves as kids. Higher and higher percentages of the younger two generations have little or no church experience.

And so when we today within the church pray for people to come and wonder why our prayers go unanswered, God is conversely wondering (Antrhopomorphism... God can't wonder, He is omniscient) how long it will take for us to figure out that the lost are just that: LOST. They can't find us, they don't know that they need us, it isn't they reject Jesus but rather that they've never heard there was a Jesus.

What Bothers You in God's Word?

Intro

In Morning Worship this Sunday (4/13/2008), we talked about things in the Word that we don't get, things that are hard to accept. The central character trait that God wants us to build in life is that of faith. Often, Jesus’ followers exhibit faith and still have doubts, confusions, misgivings. We see this in the Gospels when the man with a sick daughter cries “Jesus, I believe, help my unbelief.” We see this after Jesus was raised from the dead and shows Himself to the Eleven when we read “when they saw Him, they worshipped Him, but some were doubtful.” We see this in our lives when we read some difficult saying and ask the question “does He really mean that?” or say to ourselves “no, He must mean something else, it can’t mean that!” I know of a dear faithful woman that had read about God’s choice of some to be saved from sin and not others. She read in Romans 9:13 “Jacob have I loved, but Esau I have hated.” Her response was to accept the truth of God’s election. However, she also reacted to that verse by saying “I hate that!” Granted, that verse doesn’t beat around the bush on the matter, nor is it very sensitive. But it is what it is and we need to come to grips with our misgivings and doubts and begin to believe and do what God has revealed to mankind in His holy Word, the Bible. So buckle up, it’s going to be a fun, honest, open, frank discussion of specific concepts that bother us in God’s Word.


Things We Couldn't Get To

You write "Hosea – his life was tragic for an object lesson!"
Very interesting observation. Hosea was directed by God to do some very hard things. I don't want to brush over that. Yes, God wanted to teach a lesson to His people thru this one man's experiences. Yes, Hosea had a very difficult life for the purpose of an object lesson. Why would God USE someone like that? Writing about the years of wandering in the wilderness, Paul tells us that "these things were written for our instruction" and later "these things happened for our instruction" (1 Corinthians 10). That later phrase is very interesting. It is useful to see all of human history as redemptive history and instructive to our generation's struggles. It was true of Hosea, it was true of the exodus Jews, it is true for all history. The saying goes "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it" and this saying is shown in the 1 Cor 10 passage. Is it fair or nice of God to do this to poor Hosea? Remember the notion we did present in the morning message, God is the conductor of the orchestra, He ordains it all to happen the way He wants. We do not answer back to the potter. Read Isaiah 45 and Romans 9 on this idea.


You wrote "Violence in Jerusalem"
I think that this respondent was referring to modern violence in the city of Jerusalem... the nation of Israel in its struggle with Palestinian terrorists. Yet this is a historic struggle between God's chosen people (Israel) and the enemies of God. All throughout the Old Testament, there were wars between these groups. Why can't people get over it? Why when the New Testament, in particular, invites us into a worldview of peace can't the world be at peace? How can the angels announce on the first Christmas "hosanna to God in the highest and peace on earth, good will to men with whom God is pleased" when Jesus didn't bring peace to this world? That is to say, Jesus incarnated Himself yet there are still wars. There isn't a good answer to this. All I can say is that Jesus has brought peace to the souls of His people. While war and aggression seem to be ever-abiding and while Christians debate over their level of participation in the affairs of civil government, the Christian is invited to be at peace with God. We were once rebels against Him, in enmity with Him, yet Christ made the peace between us when He killed our rebel spirit on the cross. That is some pretty Good News, as I see it.


...more to come...

A New Kind of Church

All of this got started when the truth hit me like a ton of bricks: we really don't have a coffee shop in Dover. Yeah there's a Coffee Beanery at the food court in the mall, but that isnt a cafe. Yes there are Starbucks at at least two grocery stores in town, but those aren't cafes. There is a place at lawyer central but I haven't been there yet... I think its a deli, but I'll give it a try.

And then the self-pity kicked in... Smyrna has two on Main Street. Milford has two on Main Street. Our town is like double the size of those two towns... what is up? Matt B tells me there used to be one in Dover, so what is our problem?!? We don't drink coffee? Where can I sit with a laptop or a book or some paper and just read... write... talk with people?

So I started to dream. I came full circle to the realization that a coffee shop is not really economically viable. I read a guy on Slate that says to break even you'd have to sell $500 a day in coffee AND work it yourself full time along with your parttime help. He couldn't do it in Manhattan, I don't think I could do it in Dover. That is a mess of coffee to unload per day.

But it got me thinking about church. The first church met in the upper room of someone's house. Acts 1 tells us that 120 of Jesus' followers met continually awaiting the gift of the Spirit. They hadn't bought their own building. They probably weren't even renting, the owner just let them hang out up there. No, I'm not advocating house church, but I think it is worth having a discussion of rethinking church methodology.

I'm just throwing this idea out there: how would you do church on Loockerman Street? What would it feel like? Think upper room. Convert the apartments on the second floor of a storefront into one large room for congregational gatherings. You'd plug it as "the Upper Room." The main floor storefront would be a coffeeshop, bookstore, whatever. Obviously the symbiotic relationship would defray the expenses related to being in that district. Additionally, you'd have the name recognition of the store when telling people about worship gatherings. Most importantly of all to ask: What kind of people would come to that kind of church? Why would that kind of person NOT come to a "normal" church?

I'm not suggesting that we stop doing "normal" church, I'm floating the idea of doing this new kind of church in addition.

Tomorrow? No way! Down the road? Why not. Really, I'm just asking the question...