Message or Messenger?

I wonder if we have forgotten how to tell people what we seek to be as a church.  Over the years I’ve found myself defending the institution of the church, what we do, how we do it, why we do it… And lost.  Every time.  I lost even though I believe there is no more powerful organization in the world than the Holy Spirit working in God’s Church.   

People look at the world and say, “Why doesn’t God do something about it!”  God did, God did do something about it 2000 years ago.  God gave us the Church, and through God’s people working in the local church, this organization can be the most powerful force for good in the world. 

What government, university or corporation has the influence over people’s lives that the church has?  Sure governments can pass laws, companies can develop great products, universities can teach the knowledge of the ages, but neither the president, nor any corporation or university has the power to change a person’s life.  Only God has that power, only God can make a person come alive, can turn a neglecting father into a devoted one, bring a wayward son home, offer forgiveness, heal brokenness, or help people come alive for the first time in their life.   God does all this through the message of Jesus Christ in local church.   

But instead of telling that story, we talk about the architecture, or the music, or the people or pastors.  All fine but imagine trying to convince someone to join the Rec. Center for the design of the building, or the music they play, the people who work there, or the programs they broadcast?  All could be absolutely true, but still not convincing. 

Carl Medearis, in his book “Speaking of Jesus” says we have confused the messenger with the Message.  The Message is Jesus; and his messenger, the Church.  I think when people come to church and get the messenger, we hope it will lead them toward Jesus, but when they come to church and get The Message, they get Jesus, and see him in the people, the music, and maybe even the architecture. 

So I've quit defending the messenger, and am trying to stay on message, the message and stories of Jesus, then maybe then people will get the church.  Because I'm not sure it works the other way around.  

Mind the Gap

I’ve been driving by it for years, and while I’ve been driving by they expanded their building to appeal more to teenagers and seniors, two demographics I’m not.  My dad would go faithfully each week, and often several times during the week.  He went for about an hour and then would walk home.  My dad tells me about all the programs they have there, ones that sound fun and interesting, but not that interesting, besides, I’m not sure I have the time.  My daughter goes to the teen functions there at night to hang out.  But not me.  Each time he was going, dad would ask if I wanted to go, but I declined.  I didn’t think I needed to, after all I was doing just fine, and what could they offer me that I wasn’t already doing for myself? 

This morning, I was listening to an NPR report about religious practices in which it was reported that 79% of Americans identify with an organized faith group, which makes the United States a significant outlier when compared to other developed nations.  But this research is based on what people say they do. 

For example, when pollsters ask “Did do you attend church this week,” 45% of Americans will say yes, they attended their church. But researchers are beginning to understand that that 45% is in fact answering a different question, and that question is “Are you the kind of person who goes to church,” which brings me back to that place I’d been driving by for years.  It was the Rec. Center, a place where my dad worked out, and wanted me to go because it would be good to get some exercise.  A few weeks ago I actually joined, I walked the isle, confessed my sin, and wrote them out  a check. 

If you asked me did “Did you go to the Rec. Center this week?” I would have answered no until a few weeks ago, but if I understood the question as “are you the kind of person who goes to the Rec. Center,” I would have liked to say yes, even though I didn’t go to the Rec. Center.   

“Do you floss your teeth?” is different question than “Did you floss your teeth this morning?” The previous question seems to be really asking “are you the kind of person who takes care of their teeth by flossing them?”  And has some value judgment associated with it.

So there is a gap between how people see themselves, and what they practice.   No big surprise here.  I guess it is what we call our human potential, that space between what we do, and what we want to be known for doing.  As the Brits say “Mind the Gap!” If you don't you may fall into it, be it in your faith practice, exercise program, or dental hygiene.   

Taking a break to or from Worship

During last night’s discussion in the book and Bible study of Speaking of Jesus some one remarked that almost everyone in the room had taken a break from church at some point in their life and come back.  A break measured in years, and decades.  Call me odd (Suzanne does) but the kind of break I took from church, was a few month.

Later that night I got to thinking about a Catholic friend of mine, Mark Hinkl who never missed a Sunday in worship.  This came up because he was on his honeymoon, and they went to church, not only the next morning but a week later when they were still honeymooning. 

“Really?!” I asked.

“Never missed a Sunday.”

“On Vacations?”

“Always Went.”

“On travel?,” we both worked at a research lab and travel was a part of the job.

“Took time for it.”

“Sick?”

“Went on Saturday night.”

Though I’ve lost touch with Mark, I have not forgotten that conversation, and it has challenged me to made attending worship a priority.  I mean its not that difficult when you are a pastor and work in the church, but even when we’re traveling and nobody is watching.  I like to go to worship, even if I’m alone because the rest of the family wants to sleep in, I go to worship, and in those moments maybe experience something different or disconnect from this world to connect with the next.  I like to go to worship, its taking a break to worship instead of from it. 

Speaking of Jesus

This week is the introduction to a new book and Bible study at St. Philip's based on the book "Speaking of Jesus: the Art of Not-Evangelism," by Carl Medearis.   I first read this book in the spring after a friend of mine had recommended it to me, and then in an email wrote:

I found that it has really made me think about how I say things now.  And it was a really good thing when I met with an African American woman last week.  I had no idea about her beliefs and she asked me one of those loaded questions along the lines of “don’t you think you are ruining African traditional culture and beliefs by importing Christianity?”.  Fortunately, I was able to tell her (truthfully, of course, but I wouldn’t have known how to say it without having read the book) that I wasn’t really interested in importing Western church traditions.  I looked at it more as I had a best friend, Jesus, that I wanted to introduce my African friends to.  And that I thought they needed Him as much as I do.  Turns out, she is a Christian too, but she had been wrestling with this idea that somehow Christianity would destroy African culture.  Religion might – but not Jesus.

Over the summer I read it again, and then read two of Carl's other books.   Over the weeks and months between my first and second read of "Speaking of Jesus," I asked friends both at St. Philip's and other churches to tell me what they thought about Jesus.

I would ask about Jesus and they would tell me about the Church they went to.  I would ask what their (or our) church thought about Jesus, and they told me about the choir, or the praise band, or their pastor.

If someone asks me about my wife Suzanne, I don't tell them about the house we live in.  If someone asks me about that new restaurant we like so much, we don't tell them about the tablecloths.  If someone asks about that movie, or sports team, or musical artist, we don't tell them about the venue.  Why is Jesus different?

I am excited to read this book with others, and learn from them how we can really speak about Jesus.  Will you join me?

Read the first chapter [click here]
At Amazon [click here]
A Google eBook [click here] (but is missing chapters 8 & 10)

The Innkeeper of the Heart, part 1

It is now 12 days before Christmas and Suzanne and I are looking toward our kids coming home from college and we’re looking at our house, which is the smallest we had since they have become full sized, and we’re wondering how are we all going to fit? There is not so much room in the inn, so I might be coming to asking, Do you have a guest room in your house?

In the Christmas Lore that has evolved over the years, these would be the ones that are not in scripture, like the names of the Magi or Wise Men or even that there were three, there is another one, Innkeeper. He’s gotten a rather raw deal it seems to me. If you’re like me you have this image of a Bethlehem Hotel 6 and its one of those places that maybe would not be your first choice early in the night, but the later it gets…

Do you remember what it was like before Cell Phones, and Smart Phones, going from hotel to hotel late at night, looking for a room. Each hotel interaction would take about a half hour, to find it, and then go in to ask for a room, and anymore it seems like always have VACANCY signs even when there is no room in the inn. All the while you’re kicking yourself for not calling ahead, and it gets later and later, the kids are asleep in the back seat, the parents are tired and road weary and all you want it is place to rest for the night. As the night drags on your standards drop, it really doesn’t need cable or a swimming pool or even a comfortable bed. You’re so tired you’ll take anything.

You feel like you are in the wilderness that Isaiah spoke about in today’s reading, and yet, Isaiah says: “The arid desert shall be glad, the wilderness shall be rejoice” (Isa 35:1, Tanakh)

I got to tell you, that is not what Suzanne would say on those late night jaunts finding a hotel, there is no one glad, there is no rejoicing. We’ve finally come to the last hotel in town, our standards are zero. We drive up and the turn signal starts making that special sound that it only makes really late at night.

We turn in, I get out, Suzanne stays in the car, her face reveals anxiety and distress that late night travel brings on. I’m at the front desk, ringing the bell, waking the night attendant who says “No, I am very sorry, but we filled up the last suitable place just a few minutes ago. There is no room. However there is a place out back where you can rest for the night, its not much…”

But that’s not how it was. The City of Bethlehem wouldn’t have had a Motel-6, or really any Inns to speak of. Those were usually on the Greek Trading Routes, The Interstate, and Bethlehem was far off the beaten track. What some houses did have, is roughly equivalent to what some of us have today: guestrooms. Rooms that are not generally used, but stay ready for visitors. If you look at the Greek word that is translated as Inn in our Bibles, you’ll see that it most often means guest chamber or inn as a lodging place or an eating room or dining room.

It is interesting to search the New Testament and find that word is used only in only one other place, and in that other place it is translated to mean “The Upper Room.” On the night of his betrayal, when Jesus gathered with his disciples for the Passover meal, we know they gathered an Upper Room, but it’s the same word used for Inn in the text that tells the story from Luke 2, and it means a large guest room. Which if you think about it, gives some almost perfect symmetry to the life of Jesus, that His first family and last meal could have been in the guest room, except there was no room in that Inn.

He was a guest in our world, but the guest room was full, and so he Mary and Joseph had to make do in the stable. There was no room in the Inn.

Like Liquid Paper on a CRT - Adaptation is not Change

First the lot emptied, then one day a crane appeared and lowered the huge sign. Next day it was being boxed up and day following, gone. All that remains in the large capital H that is built into the building and now I’m guessing will stand from Hewlett. I remember when they built that Hummer dealership and all those years of driving by when its lot was filled with the different models and colors, and especially the ones parked at precarious angles in the drainage ditch. "Over at Don Hewlett Hummer," writes Autoblog.com, "customers can test-drive the full-sized SUVs on an obstacle course." The obstacle they didn't test drive was the changing world.

It’s a contrast to the abandoned Movies Plus store over in Taylor. This store joins Blockbuster, that announced Chapter 11 today and may soon go the way of VHS, Circuit City, Linens 'n Things, and Sharper Image.

Five years ago, who could imagine that any of these great companies would be history? For some it was a change in the marketplace or economy; factors outside their control. For others, it was an unfortunate decision or series of that either bet the company and lost, or failed to adapt when the world changed. Their marketplace and competitors still exists—people still need cool gadgets, appliances, electronics, DVDs, kitchen and bathroom soft items, only their company ability to sell them doesn't.

Each morning I dry by that big H, I think about God’s Church. According to the Wall Street Journal,

“Recent statistics have shown an increasing exodus of young people from churches, especially after they leave home and live on their own. In a 2007 study, Lifeway Research determined that 70% of young Protestant adults between 18-22 stop attending church regularly.” [WSJ]

I wonder if these now empty storefronts are just the first wave, a wave that will eventually empty our pews, reduce our once great churches. Years from now, we in the local church may realize the signs we missed or ignored. The larger governing bodies of the United Methodist Church understand problem, and are doing their best to educate the rest of us through studies, briefings, webinars, and called sessions of the Annual Conference.

But faith is an intensely personal experience and despite evidence to the contrary, most of us still think the way we experienced Christ need not change, even though most everything else about our Western world has. We act like all we have to do is rebrand it, or ReThink it, or jump on the latest technology or social network. I believe that unless we change from the inside seeking an almost fanatical dedication to our core purpose, these efforts will fail.

I mean consider the difference between Amazon.com and Cokesbury.com. Amazon and later adapter BN.com changed the whole way we buy, research, and experience books. Cokesbury also has an online presence, but it is an online catalog. No rethinking of the way they do business.

Because the denomination has asked that we support our Methodist Publishing House, I go to cokesbury.com. Twenty minutes later and still trying to login (first trying to find my account number, and password, finally giving up and trying to create for a new account). Click [Next], nothing happens. Finally I give up and call Cokesbury’s 800 number.

They find my account information immediately:

“Now what is the ISDN?” I tell her the title of the book.

“What I need is the item number?” I don’t know it, I say.

“Can you look it up on-line?” Sure, I say, and I go back to my laptop, go to cokesbury.com, find the item, and read off the numbers. Like I said its an online catalog, but a prime example of how we have embraced technology without adapting to it, how we use it. Its just an electronic form of a paper catalog.

Its like the old blond joke, of seeing Liquid Paper on the CRT. (if you don’t know what either are, here are the wikis Liquid Paper, CRT).

I guess my point is that I believe the church has more in common with Circuit City than with HUMMER. With HUMMER, the economy changed and suddenly people realized that they didn’t or never needed these huge SUVs, they still need personal transportation, just not this kind. Where as with Circuit City, the market still exists, people are still buying exactly what Circuit City used to sell.

I believe the “market” still exists for the Church too. It is not the case that the world will wake up one day and realize they don’t need what the Church has to offer. However if we don’t wake up and change the way we offer it, the world may decide it just doesn't need it way we like to offer it.

Adapting to change is only change when we allow it to go both ways; that is allow the adaption to change us and how we use it.

PS: For an interesting read on the demise of Circuit City, read How the Mighty Fall by Jim Collins, available at Cokesbury: http://www.cokesbury.com/forms/ProductDetail.aspx?pid=819624 1-800-409-5346

Links to how Penn and Teller did it (9:30-FLC)

On Sunday in the 9:30-FLC service, we showed a clip from The West Wing in which the illusionists Penn and Teller appeared to burn an American Flag in the White House, as part of Zoey Bartlett’s birthday party. We showed the clip as a way to begin a discussion of the threatened Qur’an burning this week by the pastor in Florida.

Our Media Team had found this The West Wing clip, as one it was based on from, I’m guessing, Penn and Teller’s Las Vegas show, which goes on beyond the one we showed, and explains how they did it. Its a really interesting clip, and quite profound for not only what it says, but how.

Here is the clip we showed on Sunday: [The West Wing]

Here is the Las Vegas show: [Penn and Teller in Las Vegas]