5 Ways:: The Church misses the point

Before I went on hiatus I started a new blog series called 5 Ways. Today I pick that series back up. I have had this entry sitting in the blog tank for awhile, but the truthfulness of it scares me. I feel this must be said but I fear it will hurt some people. I have been wanting to just delete this entry and go on but that's not right. This is what I think, I shouldn't fear expressing my opinion. This is the observances I have seen from my many years in the church. I hope enjoy it, if you do or even if you don't ad a comment and tell me why. Did I miss something, tell me what it is and maybe I will ad it next time.

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Today’s Five Ways are going to be little intense. Today I hope to have us begin thinking about how the current church operates and how this needs to change as our culture changes. Some of these 5 Ways may seem odd to some, but I have found all these issues need to be addressed. Some of these trends are already very popular, others I see growing more popular, so I want to address them now. So on the 5 Ways…

#1 The Cool Factor shouldn’t be a factor

I talk about this one all the time on this blog. There seems to be a mindset that if Christianity looks cool or claims the most people, then people will ‘choose’ it. During my ‘crazy Christian’ days I bought multiple posters that compared Christian artist to secular artist, comparing sounds and such, kind of like a Jesus focused Pandora but on paper. I would ask what secular bands my friends would listen too and then I would go buy the Christian counterpart. One day I began listening to that secular music and I soon realized that the Christian counterparts sounded nothing like the original artist. I was devastated because if these artists didn’t sound similar then how will I appeal to my friends music chose anymore?

One of my favorite scenes of Saved is when the Christians begin laughing because they want to appeal to the non-Christian across the room. The modern church is so focused on becoming cool that we forget about what our true duty is, that is the duty of being the church, showing the love of Christ. If we focused on what our calling was instead of focused on being cool we would actually be more appealing. Cool is always changing, what was cool ten years ago is not cool today. So why is the church so focused on being cool? Do we want to be un-cool in ten years?

The modern church is so focused on being appealing. Have pretty buildings that look nothing like churches. We want to meet cool places like bars, coffee shops, strip plazas and the like. I don’t go to church to sing Top 40 music but I could name off half a dozen local churches that sing Top 40 music at them. Churches spend thousands of dollars to paint their buildings appealing colors, to have their music top notch, to have the coolest websites and the best videos. But why, to be cool?

Last time I looked Paul sure wasn’t cool. Jesus wasn’t cool. The largest growth of the church had always been under times of persecution (First Century, China, even under the Nazi rule). Instead of trying to be cool, why don’t we try to focus on our calling? Nowhere in the Great Commission is there is statement of trying to be cool. Remember the cool kids in high school? Most of them missed out on so much because they were so focused on being cool. I don’t want to see the same with our churches, but I do see it. I see churches more focused on having the latest computers than feeding the homeless. Why is that pastors seem to be at the forefront of new technology? I know more pastors than business people that have technology driven lives and offices. When we focus on our goal, we will grow both spiritually and physically, we will do God’s mission, no matter if we are cool or not.

#2 Don’t be a community, be in the community

My whole life I have heard that we the church are a community. I have always been a part of churches that are focused on having their church community better united. Church business owner gatherings, church fitness clubs, church yoga, church line dancing, church hockey teams, all because we are a community. I even know of churches, a few right here in Central Florida, that are planning actual neighborhoods (most are gated strangely enough). I know of churches that have on-site nursing homes, one out west with an onsite water park even. All this under the banner of us being a community of believers.

But often we are so focused on our church community we miss our actual community. We are so focused on going to church events that we miss talking with our neighbors, hanging out at the local pub, being active in the actual community. We have created Christian ghettos. (I understand this has been said before many times)

We are not called to be just a community of believers, we are called to support each other, help each other, but ultimately we are called to be in our cities, in our towns, in our true communities! We need to let our towns and communities define us more than our churches. I am a tampaian (I prefer this term and have found it to be used more than the other commonly mistaken term for a person from Tampa). In the Bible we find communities defined by their towns, not by their beliefs or leaders. I am a Floridian.

Lately I have seen this church community trend even online. From the most recent surveys 1 in 4 churches now use online social networking, many of those with private networking sites. Why have these? If we want to be in our community why not be in our online communities also? Churches are pulling out of Facebook and MySpace to create their own version of them (most are hosted on a free social networking site that is an almost exact replica of MySpace). Should we not have our influence, our voice, our actions shown on public social networking sites. Shouldn’t we want our churches to have an impact and a voice on MySpace and Facebook.

Life is too busy, people aren’t as active in church because of it. So why should we want to now make their online life more complicated because we have a new networking site for them to join. Its just as easy to create Facebook or MySpace groups as it is to create on of these free networking sites. Verizon recently closed its private social networking site to have a Facebook page instead. Wal-mart has done the same. Both admit that its easier for users to use and they will more likely have a larger impact on a existing social networking site.

The church needs to follow suit, the church needs to pull the plug on these online ghettos and instead join already existing social networking sites. Just as we need to stop spending time in our fellowship halls and instead spend time in our actual communities, we need to stop just talking to each other and actual use social networking sites for what they were intended to be used for. It will only be then that the church will truly impact its community, both actual and online. And that should be all churches ultimate goal.

#3 Social Justice shouldn’t be the main issue

I am so excited that churches, both liberal and conservative, have embraced social justice within their role. I love seeing churches speak out and speaking about the Christians role in social issues. For too long the church has let issues of the social nature be left unmentioned. It is part of our duty as Christians, and ultimately as just fellow human beings, to make sure that our fellow creature, both human and animal, are taken care of. Churches that are carbon neutral amaze me. In the last few years I have seen so many churches that would before never think of such issues now support wells being built, supporting human rights campaigns that free women and children from sex slavery, supporting rainforest protection, and supporting local animal shelters. All this is part of the call of what it means to be global citizen and what it means to be a 21^st Century Christian.

The issue arises though in that I now see some churches that make these social issues the main issue. I know of churches, and have attended some myself, where each week its another social issue. Small groups are built around these issues. Money goes only towards these issues. This is when it gets to be wrong. The role the church first and foremost is providing a conversation and gathering of Christians and those interested in Christianity. When the social issues take center stage God is pushed back. We still need the Bible; we still need conversations on our faith. Without this the church is nothing more than a good organization, which is okay but it is called to be more than that. I support organizations that do good for goodness sakes. But a look in the Bible (especially Acts) finds a role of the church that does have this social awareness aspect but also has this role of presenting the truth of the Gospel, providing conversation and education on it. The apostles did not forget about the widows when the other duties became too much. They delegated and kept both roles. We are called to do the same. We must not forget we are called to preach the gospel but are also called to help those around us.

I would much rather see churches that have a quarterly issue. Each quarter take one issue and go deep into it. Have a few Sundays devoted to it, have information about it on the church website, have people involved in it come in for Q and A sessions. Instead having this 1 hour awareness imagine what can happen when a church devotes 3 months to it! Have a blurb about it each week in the info guide/bulletin.

Or you could have the issues voted on by the church. Have a poll on the church website and in the lobby of the church where members can go and get information on the issues, each week have a small 5 to 10 min video or presentation as part of the service (not take place of the sermon but in addition to it) that can also be viewed on the church website. Then after a few weeks have the church vote, both online and in the lobby, on what issue the church should cover for the next 6-12 months. Then each 6-12 months do it again.

Another idea of how to have social awareness without having overtaken the other role of the church is to have committed to an issue. Make it a requirement of church membership. To be a member you must commit to an issue for at least 12 months. Then you change your committed issue. Have these members be able to access information on the issue they committed to. Have gatherings where the issue of choice is discussed. Have specific parts of the church website devoted to the issue. Have items for sale that educate on the issue. Help make the members advocates of the issue without taking away the duties they have in the church.

#4 Advertising isn’t needed

I lived in Lakeland for four years. On an almost daily basis I would drive to the mall or target on the north side of town. I would pass quite a few billboards, bench advertisements and bus ads, some of which were for churches. After four years of passing these ads I still can’t tell you what churches these ads are for or where the churches are.

Advertising is losing its grip on our influence. As companies resorting to more creative advertising the once popular billboards and bench ads are now cheaper, causing those who could never afford them in the past now be able to afford them. One of those groups now able to afford them is the church. The problem is that people, especially the Gen X and Y, don’t see the ads we once saw. We have been trained to ignore ads, fast-forward through commercials, look past banner ads on websites. Advertising in its traditional sense has become a failing attempt to gain popularity of a product, companies now are resorting to placing ads in place or in ways we would suspect (gorilla advertising) for us just to be able to see the ads (God help when the church resorts to this, I can only imagine what that will look like).

For the few people that see that ads fewer will actually read them, then fewer will actually think about them, and even fewer will do something based on the ad. So advertising in hopes of gaining popularity or attendees at a church is not a very good use of money.

The church has always grown best under persecution (look at the current church growth in China, or at church growth the first few centuries). If the church grows best under what makes us think that advertising and placing it everywhere will help it grow? The best advertising campaigns are word of mouth campaigns. Look at the recent social networking site Twitter, few if any ads, but by word of mouth it has grown huge just a number of months.

When people truly believe in a church, truly take ownership of it, they will tell others, they will spread the word. I have that two types of churches do most the advertising. The first type is the large church, these are churches with over 1,500 people. The problem here is if the church has 1,500 people who do they need to advertise? They didn’t need to advertise to get those first 1,500 people, so why now. The advertising in these churches usually (not always, but I have found usually) goes along with a plauto in church attendance. A church will grow rapidly, then plauto, then the church will launch an advertising campaign. The problem here is I know of few churches where this worked to help the church grow.

The second type of church I have found is the tiny church, these are churches with less than 75 people. They advertise to get word out about the church. The problem here is by advertising people expect something more than a tiny church. Also usually if a church has 75 people there is a reason for it so advertising won’t help.

Ultimately even if advertising works a person comes to the church alone, based on an ad. This creates an impersonal experience for the very get go. By being invited the visitor already has a connection to the church and is more likely to stay (this is a basic concept in advertising, by showing that a persons friends are using something the person themselves are more likely to also use it).

There is also a level of lying in advertising that most churches do. I personally know of one church that I used to attend. They hired African Americans to come to the church and be filmed for an ad that ran on local TV and at the movie theater. They did this to attract African Americans to the historically white church. The problem was that when an African American came to the church they noticed no other African Americans were at the church, even the churches ad had many in it. They would then not return the following week.

Another church in California hired models to its ads. Is this church trying to attract good looking people, are not the average church attendees good enough for its ads?

Overall advertising results in few visitors to a church, with cost being more than what these visitors will likely give to the church, so its rarely cost affective. The cost of a good advertising campaign can be very expensive. Churches grow by word of mouth more than they do by advertising. And there are plenty of issues of what should be advertised. With all this in mind it is very unwise, in my opinion, for churches to advertise. This money could rather go to other church ministries where it would be better appreciated.

Many companies now take part of their budget and give towards community programs. Church could follow suit by giving what was once the advertising budget towards community programs, in return many of these programs will place a thank you mentioning the church on their website, television show or at their facility. This would be a much better way for a church to advertise if they must advertise. I would be more interested in a church I saw mentioned on the local art museum donors wall than one mentioned on a bus shelter or billboard.

#5 True understanding leads to a life thats more than intentional/purposeful.

The past few years there has been an unusually high usage of the words purposeful and intentional. I have heard over and over we need to live intentional, we need to live purposeful. I think that’s getting it wrong, that’s missing the point. When we truly get the gospel message it will permeate from all we do. Instead of focusing on being a good example if we just focused on living like Jesus a good example will be created. Many people try to live intentional or purposeful yet instead all they do is live a fake guilt filled life. And THAT IS MISSING THE WHOLE POINT!!! We don’t need to focus on how to present the gospel to the waitress or how to tell our coworkers we go to church because a God focused life will tell them for us. The disciples were so filled with God that their very shadow healed people (well God through them that is), imagine if we could even get a glimpse of that.

I think our culture is overwhelmed with hidden agendas, advertising, and pyramid schemes. The church is so much more than that. It doesn’t take a supper party or a plastic sign in the middle of the intersection for people to find Jesus. It doesn’t take a guy with a megaphone or a business card. All it takes is Jesus shining through us. Not us scripting moments for him too, not us stressing over how we should have, or us seeking specific people to share with them. All it takes is us applying the Gospel in our own lives, us living the best we can always becoming more like Jesus. All it takes is a personal commitment, a personal life change, God will do the rest. No special prayers, no intentional living, just true real life living.

No tracts, no billboards, no business cards, no secret myspace profiles, no street evangelism, no Christian t-shirts, no bracelets, no special TV channels or radio programs, no supper parties, nothing but Jesus and your life will become the greatest tool for evangelism