here is an article I read from Sam's friend/mentor, Wade Hodges.
This article is an interesting look at a "come and see" (numerically driven) church moving into the role of a "go and do" (gospel driven) church, and I felt is a glimmer of hope for the direction of church and the gospel.
peace,
ron
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
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5 comments:
You make an interesting distinction in your post. Is a numbers-driven (attractional) church less gospel-oriented than another?
We've seen a trend where the numbers-driven church throughout the 90's up to the present eay telling people how to live a better life, but we've come to find that this better life is self centered. The numbers driven church has told us how to make our lives better, but not what to do with our faith - what it looks like, how to share it with others, etc. Though they give the mission, the people in the church are never really given the means, because the attraction to the attractional church is usually that it's not "too churchy" and it "relates to my life".
The wonderful thing is that the some attractional churches are waking up and seeing that now people are more interested in what the church is doing for others rather than themselves. We can see this with churches such as Mars Hill (Grand Rapids), Mosaic (California), and even Saddleback Church.
Here's my question, is the "go and do" church yet another fad in the church? Just as people look to the famous churches mentioned above for the latest thing that they are doing, will we just follow what they are doing in the future? Will the go and do church go away, or is this really the beginning of an awakening in the church that will lead outside of the walls of the building?
My take is that the "emergent" movement will be just like all of the other movements we've seen.
A few steps in recent history...
In the 1950's, it was all about facility. if you had a well-manicured lawn, a pristine building, and well-kept furnishings inside of that building, it was a conversation piece that could give you a great place to invite your friends to.
In the 1960's, it wwas all about preaching. Dynamic preaching started to interweave stories and humor, and the preacher was a point of interest to those being invited.
In the 1970's, it was all about "Bus Ministry". A thriving church would buy a bunch of school buses, paint them to look really sharp, and then drive them to neighborhoods where people who could not drive themselves to church lived. The more buses you had, the more effective you were.
In the 1980's, it was about kid's ministry. VBS took of in enormous porptions as churches all over North America tried to get kids into their buidling during the summer to learn about Christ.
In the 1990's size made the difference. If you had a big or growing church, it was the point you "sold" your friends on.
In the late 90's and early part of this decade, one of two things became big. First, there was the "Holy cow, look what we can do with music, lights, and little theatre". Secondly, there was "What you really need is candles, ancient readings, and old hymns no one has ever heard of".
Lately, it's all about being "emergent". We're trying to "go and do". It's not unlike anything else the Church has been doing, it's just a little different for surbubian America.
I'm sure that in 10 years, something new will be taught in the seminaries, which means that the students and graduates of those seminaries will come away with the latest and greatest way to do ministry, and we'll all try to get on that bandwagon.
The only trend that I've seen so far (and I'll happily admit to being this way at times) is that whoever has the newer style thinks that theirs is superior, and they become arrogant.
I've seen Bus minstry churches belittle non-Bus ministry churches.
I've seen kid-focused churches belittle non-kid-focused churches.
I've seen big churches belittle little churches.
I've seen performance-oriented chuch belittle those who put little emphasis on it.
Lately, I'm seeing and hearing "emergent" people trash the very church that taught them their faith because it's not emergent enough, and that, quite frankly, pisses me off.
I'm not sayng that you're doing this, I guess I'm just hoping that we won't forge off on our emergent campaign thinking that we somehow have it figured it out, and that the heroes sitting in our church services who taught us who Christ are somehow wrong.
My hunch is that in twenty or thiry years, we'll all be trying Bus ministry, grounds maintenence, or kid-driven ministry because all it boils down to is us trying to package ourselves to the world...
And there's nothing we can do to make us look good.
I couldn't agree with you more. Monkey and I speak about how we criticize the mega church, but it's the very church that brought us to the point we are at now. We see that even the big churches serve a purpose.
I also agree that the trends will come and go. We see it in everything from fashion to music to movies. Culture dictates the direction of our thoughts. I guess what I am hoping that will last in this latest addition to the line of trends is the thought of peace and loving your neighbor as yourself.
I'm with you on all of that.
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