Tag Archive - Emergent church

The cult of Christian celebrity

February 6, 2012 in clergy with 1 Comment

I must admit, as a pastor it is very easy to raise up followers of your ministry.  That might not sound bad, but it is.  Your purpose as a pastoral leader to raise up disciples of Christ. There are a lot of pastors out there that just make mini-disciples of themselves. Pastors who make people pledge their authority to a leader fail to see how hurtful it is, such is the case if you join Mark Driscoll’s Mars Hill Church.

As we have seen the rise of mega-churches, we have also seen the rise of mega-egos.  Churches who center a cult of celebrity around their pastors often feature the pastor’s image alongside the church. If a church presents itself as, “Pastor Joe Smith and Christ Community Church” (not intended to be a real church) then, Houston, we have a problem.

Case in point, Bishop Eddie Long, who recently was tainted by a sex scandal, was recently crowned “King” with a kingdom as a Torah scroll was wrapped around Long. Worshipers bowed before him.

Check out the video:  Continue Reading…

Steve Jobs, the Modern Prophet?

October 17, 2011 in steve jobs with 0 Comments

This past Sunday a private memorial service was held at Stanford University’s chapel for Steve Jobs, the juggernaut of the personal computing world.  Jobs’ passing has many of us reflecting on the work of one man’s life. His leadership provided for many visionary changes that have affected the world. Like the prophets from old, one man, albeit with blue jeans and a turtleneck, could prophesy the future. Unlike a prophet foretelling of doom, Jobs showed the world that the future was encased in a neat, clean, and powerful package.

He gave people something to hope for… even if it was just a product.

Connecting Steve Jobs to the concept of a “prophet” may cause some consternation in the Evangelical Christian community, but it is there.  Much like prophetic leadership guiding people to an unknown place and time, Jobs was able to motivate people into action and embrace the future. The iPhone, iPad, and other “i” products enabled people to take their relationships with them and put their interests, music, pictures, and friends in their pockets and backpacks.

Like a Moses or Joshua, Jobs was able to lead people to a promised hope. Steve Jobs had the ability to encourage people to change, and that’s a hard thing to do.  People followed Apple and Jobs into a new era of computing and personal electronics. That’s great and all, but what makes Jobs so prophetic?

His speech in 2005 to graduates at Stanford illustrates his prophetic ability:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but some day not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

What profound cryptic philosophical and religious language. Death the single best invention of life? Jobs is preaching a gospel that so many know, but few want to admit.  American Christianity has a lot to learn from Job’s words.  We Christians believe in a faith of death and resurrection, but we cannot let churches die. In biology, the death of one organism means life for another.  We are afraid to close churches for fear people will lose their faith. Yet, letting one church die can mean life for a new church. Resources, ideas, and property can be given for a new faith community to form.

Steve Jobs may have not been a believer or even religious, but he sure acted like a prophet. What more can we glean from such secular individuals in order to better Christianity?

One definition of a “prophet” in Christianity is someone who speaks the truth about God. Steve Jobs spoke the truth about death and its ability to change, but can we embrace this message?

Why 9 in 10 Believe in God but not Church

June 9, 2011 in change, Churches with 3 Comments

Many in the religious right have been running for the hills because this “godless” nation is become too secular.  The rhetoric of our nation’s direction is flawed by the growth of atheists and secularists is over played.  It seems a recent Gallup study confirmed what has simply is unknown to many: We are still a religious nation.  More than 9 in 10 Americans still say “yes” when asked the basic question “Do you believe in God?” Perhaps even more encouraging is that 84% of 18-29 year-old segment and 94% of 30-49 year-old segment answered in the affirmative.

An this is not a statistical bump, but historically, since 1943, the vast majority of Americans believe in “God”.

It would seem that we are still a religious nation, but obviously church leaders want to know how many of those 90 plus percent are Christian. Logically, many ask the question, “If we are such a God-believing country, then why is church attendance so low?”

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Lewis Fellows: Kansas City or Bust

October 26, 2010 in Lewis Fellows with 0 Comments

This past week was crazy.  I didn’t have any time to blog or tweet. I traveled to Kansas City, MO with the Lewis Fellows and spent some time with pastors of dynamic churches.  When I returned to New York, I went back to the airport to welcome Gary Long, our retreat speaker.  Saturday the church held our fall retreat on vision – an excellent time.  Sunday was worship.  As you can see, it was a pretty full couple of days.

I want to briefly share with you my Lewis Fellows experience.  Tuesday, October 19 we visited Saint Andrew Christian Church (www.sacchome.org) and had a conversation with Senior Pastor Rev. Holly McKissick.  Saint Andrew Christian Church is a Disciples of Christ church.  Check out the church below:

As you can see, it looks more like a market than a church.  Such a welcoming property and building.  The church is only 20 years old and Holly is the founding pastor.  Below, Holly is standing and we are meeting in the sanctuary.  I loved this sanctuary.  The building is only about 12 years old.

Holly comes out of the Southern Baptist tradition, but was ordained in the Disciples of Christ church.  The sanctuary is welcoming and seating is structured in a “U”.  Holly’s take on leadership was interesting.  She talked about making mistakes, as all pastors do, but learning from them.  She was honest and candid about her leadership and ministry.

Below is a pic of the cross that hangs in the sanctuary:

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Age Segregation in Church

September 23, 2010 in worship with 3 Comments

In the last 30 years, age-segmented worship was an unforeseen effect of the contemporary worship movement within Christianity.  What has developed in many (not all) churches are two worship services.  A traditional service with older adults and a commentary service with younger adults.  This results into a type of age segregation in congregations. Several blogs and Christian news organizations have slowly noticed this trend. Recently, Tullian Tchividjian the pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, TN (a very large church) ended years of age-segmented worship in his church.

Tchividjian comments on merging the two worship styles into one:

The primary reason, though, that stylistic segregation in worship shrinks our souls is because it prevents us from knowing God deeply. The only way to know him deeply is to have many different types of Christian people in your life, since each person will help to reveal a part of God that you can’t see by yourself. This means the great tragedy of segregation isn’t so much that we see less of each other but that in separating from each other we see less of God. All of us need other lights than our own to see more of his myriad facets.

Will we see a reversal of age segregation in  worship services in churches in the United States?

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Guest Blogger: Tripp Hudgins the AngloBaptist

July 14, 2010 in sacrament with 0 Comments

Part III: Sacrament vs. Ordinance: Guest Blogger, Tripp Hudgins (AngloBaptist).  Check out Part I & Part II.

Alan generously asked me to participate in this blog series on Baptist sacramentality and immediately I said yes. I wanted to chime in. But it took me a while to figure out how I could share my thoughts. As a baptist, I think the testimony might be the best mode of communication in this instance. I hope you will all bear with me.

I was in seminary listening to a lecture on the Eucharistic Prayer, that traditional prayer that many denominations use when celebrating the Lord’s Supper. We were walking through some of the history, form, and theological function of the prayer and when we got to the epiclesis I had an epiphany. Really, one hopes for an epiphany at the epiclesis, but how often does that happen? And yet, there it was. Whammo!

The epiclesis is the part of the longer Eucharistic Prayer (aka anaphora) where the presider (priest or pastor, typically) prays for the Holy Spirit to be present in the elements at the table. I was listening with Baptist ears on as my Episcopal professor explained the historical use of this prayer. I was on the lookout for magical thinking, or mechanistic ballyhoo. None. Zilch. Nada. Then…Then it hit me.

Hold on! What are all the elements present at the table for communion? Bread, wine (or juice), a presider of some sort, and, well…the people. The gathered faithful, The Body of Christ, are present at the table of the Lord! Don’t baptists believe that the Holy Spirit transforms us? Don’t we believe that we are somehow renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit? Don’t we pray that God would be present in our hearts? Isn’t this the same thing? Is this baptist sacramentality?

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Why No One Likes Evangelism

June 25, 2010 in Evangelism with 2 Comments

Over the years, I have encountered many Christians who do not feel comfortable with evangelism.  Loosely, evangelism is the process in which Christians seek to convert or share the Gospel of Christ to others.  When you say the word “evangelism” at a church meeting, thoughts of door knocking, Bible tracks, and street preaching come to mind.

Guy Kent at the Good Preacher/Homiletical Hot Tub blog, posted a funny telling of a Charlie Brown cartoon:

A Charlie Brown cartoon once had Lucy proclaiming to Charlie Brown, “I would make a good evangelist.”

Charlie Brown responds, “And why do you think that?”

“Well, I convinced the boy who sits behind me in school that my religion is better than his religion.”

Now Charlie Brown is intrigued. “How did you do that?”

Lucy tells him, “I hit him over the head with my lunch box!”

The “hit’em over the head” approach is often seen as the worst example of evangelism.   These days, post modernity has made us shy about sharing our faith.  Anyone who holds to an absolute truth is a nut or is too rigid.  Isn’t there a better way?

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Reports of the Demise of Mainline Churches Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

December 7, 2009 in Churches with 3 Comments

A fresh report from the Barna Group has yielded some surprising results: Mainline churches are not dying! I should be honest with you, nation wide, mainline churches are not growing either.  In the past decade, the six mainline church denominations (American Baptist Churches in the USA, Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America;  Presbyterian Church (USA);  United Church of Christ; and United Methodist Church) have experienced some stability.  The Barna Group concluded:

Over the course of the past decade, the number of adults who attend a mainline church on any given weekend has remained relatively stable, ranging from 89 to 100.

In addition, some other encouraging news was reported:

One reason why that average has remained steady has been the population growth of the United States, with the mainline churches attracting just enough newcomers to maintain attendance levels that are similar to the years when the nation’s population was considerably smaller.

Even though these have been tough economical times, signs of finical growth occurred:

… during the past decade the median church budget of mainline congregations has risen substantially – up 51%, to about $165,000 annually.

This is fantastic!  Although I am an American Baptist clergyman, I whole-heartily support and have great affection  for “mainline churches” (I served in 3 different mainline denominations: ABC, UMC, & PC USA).  For years, the mega-church moment has told Christians, “Come here!  We are young, happening, and different.  Your old corner church is weak and feeble.“  Not really. I’m joking, but you get the picture.  I have been very clear in past posts that I believe megachurches are not evil and are worshiping, faithful, and Godly communities – but they are not the end-all-be-all of “church.”

What does this Barna report mean for the mainline church? (There is also some bad news)

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Q&A with Author Russell Rathbun

October 14, 2009 in nuChristian with 0 Comments

Author Russell Rathbun spoke with On the Bema about his new book, nuChristian: finding faith in a new generation (Judson Press).  Russell is a founding minister with Debbie Blue of House of Mercy, a pioneering emergent church in St. Paul, Minnesota. Rathbun is also the author of Midrash on the Juanitos (Cathedral Hill Press,2009) and the critically-acclaimed Post-Rapture Radio (Jossey-Bass, 2008). He lives with his wife, two kids, and dog KoKo in St. Paul.

OnTheBema: You begin your book with examining the postmodern framework. Christians need to understand it. Where do you draw the line between understanding postmodernism and using postmodernism to a church’s advantage without compromising the Gospel message?

Russell: The way I understand it, Postmodernism, is not a “thing” we can use or not use, it is just the way the world operates. It is the underlying ethos of our time. It is important to understand that the Post-Baby Boomer generations came of age and are informed by this ethos (whether they realize it or not). There has been a radical shift in how truth claims can be made. We can not assume that dominate Western Christian ideas (which may or may not be the same as the Gospel–often they are not) hold sway in the way they once did. This is why it is important to be in relationship with people instead of being in a debate with people. In the end the debate doesn’t matter, loving your neighbor as a response to the love of God through Jesus Christ is what matters.

OnTheBema: You make a good point about how Christians need to make disciples rather than just converts. You say, “We are not called to save people, we are called to love people.” (pg. 43) This is a radical departure from Evangelical Christianity’s emphasis on “saving souls.” Why do you think evangelism ends at the altar call?

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Book Review: NuChristian

October 12, 2009 in Book Review with 1 Comment

As part of Judson Press’ blog tour for Russell Rathbun’s new book, nuChristian: finding faith in a new generation, I have had the wonderful opportunity to preview and review this insightful book.  In addition, Wednesday of this week, I will feature a Q & A with Russell about his new book.  On Friday, Russell will be featured as a guest blogger.

nuChristian begins with a very brief forward by author and activist Shane Claiborne (fellow Eastern University alum), of the Simple Way.  Claiborne, known for being a radical voice and champion for the poor, harmonizes with Rathbun’s message of how Christianity must shape “nuChristians”.  That is, Christians who are no longer identified by hypocritical actions, scandal, and hot button issues.

In the preface, Rathbun lays out that the purpose of this book is to join the conversation of David Kinnamen’s book UnChristian.  Back in 1996, Kinnamen’s Barna Group, found that 83% of Americans identified themselves as Christians, and that fewer than 20% of non-Christians held an unfavorable view of Christianity.  Between 2004 and 2007, nine out of ten non-Christians between the ages of 16-29 found Christians to be too anti-homosexual.  In addition, almost as many saw Christianity as it as “hypocritical” and “judgmental.” Seventy-five percent of non-Christians thought Christians were too involved in politics. UnChristian used these statistics and made the case that non-Christian resentment is focused on perceived Christian attitudes. Kinnaman used these statistics to form a bleak picture of Western Christianity.

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