Thousands of people who do not know Jesus Christ attend church each week. Most of these people never received the christianese Sunday school training that began with large felt boards. As preachers deliver their messages and the members back-slap each other with approval, many of these visitors walk away without any clearer understanding of Jesus Christ. Further, many preachers deliver sermons where once Christians concepts have morphed into meaninglessness. (more…)

This book has me thinking about how Jesus ministered to the margins. Somehow, somewhere the evangelical North American church veered left of the road Christ called us to. We need to return to a place where sinners (read all of us, not the ‘unchurched’) can walk into a church and instead of saying, “I can’t relate to anybody here. There are so perfect, proper and sin-free”, they would say, “wow. I am so glad I came. These people have shown me such love. They are real people, warts and all. They aren’t in denial of all of these problems but show me hope that Jesus brought to people like us.” Just some thoughts.

I’ve been thinking about how the church raises generations of cultural christians. I saw a definition describing them as:

Most Christians would probably fit within the category cultural Christians. Their self-identification as “Christian” is more cultural and social than religious. These are people who might say that they were “born Christian.” They are often born into ethnically conscious families and are therefore baptized, married, and buried in a particular church — but have little or no interest or concern about its teachings or the meanings of its practices. A relationship with God through Christ may be either non-existent or as a Refuge/Provider/Magician on an as-needed basis. Perhaps a code of etiquette is linked to their notion of Christianity. Cultural Christians serve on church councils, vestries, boards, and the like in the same spirit as they would perform any other volunteer service to a charitable organization.

(more…)

An interesting conversation on 2005 being a watershed ‘year of the emerging church. Here’s a quote from one site:

“2005 will be the year the shit hits the fan. emergent has been around long enough for people to figure out what’s up, or at least the parts they were never going to like in the first place. prepare to be excommunicated by some and misunderstood by others. it’s excruciatingly painful, but it’s the way it’s going to be.” - http://www.jenlemen.com/

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I just spoke with a local Pastor in Pacific Beach. For those of you who don’t know about PB, it is a beach community in San Diego filled with surfers, lots of drugs and partying. Anyway this pastor spoke about how PB is a difficult mission field trying to reach these people who are “rebelling from their parents, the government and the church.”

Here’s what made me sad. I asked him how they were trying to reach this lost community. He answered, “We have a book store, we’re building a seniors community center and we have an event called Music Mosaics.” I asked him what ‘Music Mosaics’ was and he explained it was “high class music, choirs, organists, etc.”

Now I’m pretty curious. How many drug addict, street kids, surfers and abandoned post-college youth are they really reaching with these things? There’s got to be a time when many traditional mainline churches decide, let’s stop trying to reach more of us. Atheists debates don’t bring in non-christians, organists don’t get the homeless youth excited, X days of purpose programs will be rejected by a spiritually bancrupt, yet spiritually open community in this next generation. Am I wrong?

Each week I have the opportunity to visit a new church and listen to the preaching. This week I preached at my church, Kaleo. Based on where our church is at (a new plant that is 2-years old) and my experience with the Sheep & Goats, I decided to preach on Preaching & Equipping for Ministry.

Each month I edit the monthly culture newsletter from the Kaleo Institute of Culture Studies (Kaleo Church). It is a collection of essays, reviews and commentary. You can check out past culture newsletters here (scroll down 1/2 page). Tom Moller, a scientist working in neurological science, writes a monthly Science article. Next months already has a few articles submitted. The Gospel of Ikea by David Fairchild. Duane Smets wrote a commentary on Adbusters and a review of the band Bright Eyes. A few more are coming down the pipeline….sign up to get the newsletter at Kaleo Church.

Pastor David Fairchild delivered a sermon in response to the Tsunami. As many Christians and non-Christians wrestle with the loss of life and severe devastation, it is easy to ask, Where is God in All of This? Quote:

The reason a question like “Where is God in all this suffering” is difficult, is not because we have no answer to give. It is difficult to answer in a time like this because our answers must carry with them the compassion, gentleness, and reverence, that is due. We need to feel the question before we can give any type of intellectual response. We can’t be void of “speaking truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15), lest we represent God as an unfeeling, uncaring, glob of energy that has no real connection to the pains of this world and has no real interest in the affairs of men and horrors of their life. Many of us may want to speak truth, and many may want to be loving, but the challenge of speaking truthfully in a loving way during such a tragic time is not easy for you and I.

This message caused a mixed reaction from tears to anger. As David said in this message, “Here we are. Faced with a choice this morning, our choice is a simple one; curse or worship. That is only two conclusions I believe we are left with when we undertake what we are talking about- will we curse God, or will we worship Him in calamity?”

Our church has spent time developing a website and placing a lot of content on the site for visitors and regulars. Most of the visitors that come to our church say they first researched our church online. Frequently guests have already listened to mp3 sermons, read teachings/articles and our statement of beliefs, etc. This is how many people find their church in San Diego. Here are some interesting stats I read this weekend in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

“America Online this week ranked San Diego County as the No. 3 metropolitan area in the United States for online holiday shopping, behind San Francisco and Los Angeles”.

“In San Diego County, seven out of 10 home Internet users have broadband connections, such as a cable modem or digital subscriber line, making it the top region in the United States for high-speed Internet access.”

Part of our church’s mission is to bring the message of the gospel and communicate it to the community we live in. For many that communication begins through visiting our website.

“Each year 3,500 churches die. Most of these churches are liberal churches or from traditional denominations,” remarked Pastor Mark Driscoll. Mark Driscoll is the Pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington, where the congregation consists primarily of people in their twenties and thirties. As many churches across the country die, Mars Hill has grown from 12 people to over 3,000 in the last six years in “one of the least churched cities,” comments Pastor Driscoll. “Many of the dying churches don’t know how to reach out to non-Christians in ways that reflect the lives of people today. If changes aren’t made, a church will lose future generations.” Driscoll’s call is for churches to speak to the culture without losing the hard truths of the Bible. Full Article >

(This is an article I wrote published in the San Diego Reader November 18, 2004 Volume 33 / Number 47)

It’s been interesting visiting so many San Diego churches. I’m learning a lot from this experience as far as all the diff’t denominations and beliefs. Of course I’m still sold on my favorite San Diego Church (thanks Mr. Berroth for your review).

by Dick Keyes

We are living in a time of crisis of moral authority, with culture wars raging all around. Although the Christian church’s message speaks to the deepest issues in contention, it often seems ill-equipped to act fruitfully in our society. Instead it can easily become part of the problem, not its solution - especially if we give in to the polar tendencies to turn into either chameleons or a tribe.
When Christians accommodate and compromise before the pressures of being a dissonant minority, we become chameleons. And when we turn inward as a Christian ghetto, using self-protecting measures out of fear, we become a tribe.

But as Dick Keyes explains, we can avoid the perils of polarization through biblical ways forward. One is apologetics - reaching outside of the enclave or sharpening ones argument for truth. Another is overcoming individualism to reclaim a real Christian community. However, no recommendation will be successful without true dependence on God and a return to foundations.

Chameleon Christianity calls Christians to righteously engage the surrounding culture. It provides tools for expressing the gospel and offers a fresh look at Christian community that crosses barriers of age, race, and gender.

Here is a great book that I’d recommend…it is by our old Pastor while we attended Mars Hill Church in Seattle…

Today’s mission field starts
just outside your door

“Reformission” is the continual reforming of the mission of the church to enhance God’s command to reach out to others in a way that acknowledges the unique times and locations of daily life. This engaging book blends the integrity of respected theoreticians with the witty and practical insights of a pastor. It calls for a movement of missionaries to seek the lost across the street as well as across the globe.

This basic primer on the interface between gospel and culture highlights the contrast between presentation evangelism and participation evangelism. It helps Christians navigate between the twin pitfalls of syncretism (being so culturally relevant that you lose your message) and sectarianism (being so culturally irrelevant that you lose your mission). Included are interviews with those who have crossed cultural barriers, such as a television producer, exotic dancer, tattoo studio owner, and band manager. The appendix presents eight portals into the future: population, family, health/medicine, creation, learning, sexuality, and religion.

Every Christian fellowship in the USA needs to make “radical reformission” their #1 priority in the decades to come. Are you in a place of leadership? Drop whatever you are reading and get this excellent primer from Mark Driscoll. ” The Discerning Reader

Buy:
The Radical Reformission: Reaching Out without Selling Out

Beginning in October I will be writing a weeky column for the San Diego Reader called Sheep & Goats. This column involves attending churches in the San Diego area and writing a review. The San Diego Reader is one of the nations largest weekly alternative magazines with nearly 200,000 circulation. Please be praying for me that I would have wisdom in reviewing and communicating about the churches I attend.

Next-Wave: What, in your eyes, are key-essentials for churches that desire to reach postmodern people?

Dr. Grenz: The ultimate key is “community.” The best apologetic we have in the postmodern context is the vibrant, local community of disciples who are loyal to Christ, that is, a community in which the power of the Spirit is transforming relationships. As many of my friends in IVCF tell me, postmodern persons are converted to the community before they are converted to Christ.