A theology of the church

This is a journaling in order to answer the question, “What constitutes church?” Aside from purposes, targets, and programs how would I explain to an alien what the church is and how God designed it to exist both in corporate gatherings and dispersed?

Most of what I post today are questions, and I hope to be disciplined enough to return and elaborate as I study and evaluate.

What sparks this essay is a lunch conversation that I had recently that included some evaluation of where our local congregation is headed, and although it wasn’t said directly I believe I can say that there was an uneasy dissatisfaction with how things are going and with where we are heading. Most of it seemed to hinge on the big gatherings on the weekends, but I have begun to wonder if we place too much stock in that and it has caused me to ask, “Why is the weekend worship service the focal point?” The success of a church is largely measured by the numbers of people who come on a weekend. The majority of the energy of a staff is primarily focused on the weekend. We define whether or not a church is right for us based upon the weekend service. A majority of our personal satisfaction is bound up in our experience on the weekend in corporate gatherings. Is our condemnation of how consumer driven weekend gatherings have become really a condemnation on how consumer driven we are?

Can we honor God in corporate worship by providing some sacred space, some Holy Ground, and still be relevant or at least communicate the truth with relevance? Have we erred on the side of removing barriers to the point that we also keep people from counting costs when it comes to following Jesus? In essence by ignoring or minimizing the sacred have we just made a person’s decision to follow Christ much like a risk free trial of a new Nabisco cracker?

We need to battle, on one hand, with the balance of being the church who relates a message of hope, love, compassion, justice, mercy, and righteousness to people in such a way that they understand, and on the other hand being the church that looks so completely different from the rest of the world that it sticks out like a sore thumb. I think we quit asking hard questions about why we do what we do because we’ve become entertainment. Instead we should be trying to find a way to cut through the entertainment expectation with life changing words.

Where is the tension between helping people feel at home, and yet also helping them feel like being with Christ is nothing like home on earth? Where is the tension between having reverence for the King of Kings and feeling the love of Abba, our heavenly Daddy? Where is the tension that, in my mind, has been sacrificed on the alter of experience?

Have we lost sight of the fact that we are not supposed to save the world, but just tell the world. I wonder what church might look like if we began to measure progress by how many people to whom we clearly presented the truth.

I wonder…

The Rock Star Apostle

How cool would it be to have as your calling to be the one sent by the Holy Spirit of God to hang out with Matt Damon, Fred Durst, Jessica Simpson, Jay-Z, Michael Jordan, and Mary J Blige?

I agree with the article in that if cultural impact is going to be made then we must have ongoing conversations with the leaders in the culture, but I think it will take a very special person to do it with a heart of humility and not out of selfish ambition. It’s hard to look at these people with all of their stuff and feel sorry for them, but in actuality that is where Jesus would be…weeping over their lives. However, as the church begins to refocus on caring about the social ills of the world and how we might fix extreme poverty, access to clean water and food, and the basic provision of opportunity to participate in society might we also be looking for some help from the culture?

The possibility excites me…taking Jay-Z to Uganda I think would be life changing not only for him but for every person we came into contact with.

So, Jay-Z if you read this…the invitation is open…

What do ya’ll think?

The neighborhood has become the world…

If technology has done anything it has made the world into our backyard. As a Christian this should not only be exciting, but should prove to be anxious because it marks that the return of Christ could be extremely immediate. So the forcefully advancing church needs to be more forceful in it’s advancement on evil in the world.

My journey with IJM started about seven years ago when, as a youth minister, I taught a curriculum called, “The Justice Mission” produced by Youth Specialties. It was by far the most powerful series I had ever led. It began series of life changing decisions and prompted me to continually ask the question, “What should I be doing?”

Today I am a supporter financially and prayerfully and participate in the IJM Institute where we try to help the local church spread the word about our responsibility to bring justice to the world, and to fight injustice at all costs. So, obviously Bethany’s piece is one I was invested in even before I read it. Now after reading it I wish every Christian would have the opportunity to be challenged by her words.

As I hear Kunthy and Chanda’s story and hear the countless other stories IJM has the privilege of telling I begin to ask the same questions:

“Why them?

Why not me, or even my children?

Is the major reason that these girls were subjected to this kind of abuse that they weren’t American?

How can I ignore the astonishing amount of grace involved in my being born into the situation I was born into?

Knowing what I know now, what should I do?

How much would providing clean water, adequate medical care, and physical nourishment stem the tide of oppression?

What would I do if it were Shelbi, or Baili, or Mallori in these stories?

As a born again believer and follower of Christ is it excusable to do nothing?”

I am ashamed of the fact that I have not done enough financially, prayerfully, or vocationally to fight injustice in the world. I am haunted by the fact that the majority of secure, wealthy, and church going people are able to ignore the plight of so many. I am encouraged that there are organizations like IJM who are not only rescuing the victims, but rehabilitating them and are not only freeing them from the abuse of the criminals but are helping to prosecute them and are not only investigating the claims of oppression but are educating the Church and the various law enforcement agencies on the impact of sexual trafficking of children and the oppression of widows and orphans.

One of the things we, as a family, are doing to try to help stem the tide of abuse is adopt. A second thing involves being active in going into the third world personally to bring the good news to people, because the more people that are born again the more light there is that will be shed on oppressive situations. Thirdly, we support IJM and Compassion International financially and prayerfully. Lastly, we try to spread the word locally that there is a problem and the Church has a responsibility to bring freedom from the bondage of sin both spiritually and physically.

My hope is that the few of you who will read this article will be moved with me to do similar, if not more significant things for people like Kunthy and Chanda. After all, it’s your responsibility as a born again person.