Ministry

Top 3 Needs of the Church Today

/ Dennis Griffith / 1 Comment
Threefold Chord

The late great John Stott was asked: “What are the top three needs of the church today?” 

Here is Stott’s prophetic three-fold response:

The church’s most basic need is to remember what kind of community it is, and in particular its double identity. For God calls his people out of the world to belong to him and sends them back into the world to serve and to witness. The first calling is to ‘holiness’ and the second to ‘worldliness,’ using the word as the opposite of ‘other worldliness,’ and meaning ‘involved in the life of the world.’ So the church is called to ‘holy worldliness’, for this is its double identity. It needs constantly to ensure that neither identity smothers the other.

The church’s second need is to be what it claims to be, and so to allow no dichotomy or conflict between its profession and its practice. Without this the church lacks authenticity and so credibility.

In response to the challenge of pluralism, the church needs to be faithful in defending and proclaiming the uniqueness and finality of Jesus Christ. If it does so, it will certainly suffer for its faithfulness. If we compromised less, we would undoubtedly suffer more.

Leading in the Construction of Christ’s Church

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Blue Construction

As one who has benefited from reading Jim Collins, John Kotter, Stephen Covey, and several other leadership gurus from the business world, I found this quote from Tony Morgan‘s Developing a Theology of Leadership  to be a very helpful reminder and convicting corrective:

It is true that we church leaders can learn from business leaders, but the corporate world should not set the foundation from which we lead. We can also learn from fellow church leaders, but they are also human and don’t provide a perfect model for Biblical leadership. When we look to other leaders, we are essentially holding on to our traditions rather than embracing the truth about leadership found in God’s Word. The Bible needs to become our filter for truth in every area of our life and ministry just because we see others doing it doesn’t mean that’s how God designed it.

Like Morgan, I still believe there is much to be learned from those who are effective in business, government, coaching, and other spheres. But as a pastor of a church – an under-Shepherd of part of the Church that Jesus is building – it is essential that I not fall for the notion that I will or can gain the most wisdom from these sources. I must never neglect or assume what the bible has to say about Leadership. Instead I must constantly submit all ideas of leadership, from whatever sources, to the scrutiny of the Scripture.

Matthew 16.18 reminds me that I am but a foreman, and that it is Jesus who is the architect, developer, and contractor. My job is to follow his design, and his lead.

5 Things Church Members Wish Pastors Knew

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Germoe Cathedral Impressionism (Slimm)

Anyone who has ever served on a ministry staff for any measurable amount of time knows the twin realities of the incredible joys and the exhausting difficulties.  Perhaps this tension is part of the reason why there is such large drop out rate among pastors and other ministry leaders in the American Evangleical Church.  Ministry is a tremendous privilege, to be allowed to be with people at both their best times and their worst, but it carries with it inevitable frustrations and hurt feelings, which frequently seems to lead to burnout, exhaustion, and isolation.

Part of the problem may be the disconnect between what those in pastoral ministry do, and what those in the congregation assume – and want – their ministers to do.   Just like some of the memes of various professions that one may see on Facebook or some other social medium suggests, there is often a difference.  Misconceptions easily become a source of tension.

Recently I re-read an article by Jason Boyett that I find helpful, reminding me to look at things from the other side: 5 Things Church Members Wish Pastors Knew.  it reminded me of one of Stephen Covey assertions from 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:”seek first to understand, then to be understood”. While I may desperately want to be “understood”, I have little to no control about what people may understand about me.  But I do have the ability to try to see things from the other side; to understand why people may not appreciate the same things I do, or agree with all that I may believe and say.

So, for my fellow ministry leaders, here are Boyett’s five assertions:

  1. Who you are reflects upon your membership. Churches reflect the character of its most visible pastors and ministers. “It’s not always fair,” one church member told me, “but people associate churches with the pastor.
  1. Churchgoers have lives (and ministries) outside of church. “I don’t eat and breathe this church,” a parishioner said.
  1. They value excellence but not showiness. Everyone makes mistakes. Every speaker, worship leader, or musician can have a bad day on-stage. Church members realize this, but at the same time appreciate good preparation.
  1. They want to be led…with honesty. Stories abound of churches that embarked on an exciting new vision only to backtrack a few weeks into it for a variety of reasons — too few volunteers, lack of funds, complaints from prominent church members, or some other kink.
  1. Sometimes, it looks like you have it easy. Anne Jackson, the author of Mad Church Disease and a former church staffer, once blogged about the perception — which she felt was well earned — that church staffers can be lazy. The post’s comment section should be required reading for pastors and ministers across the board.

To read more…

 

Is Bigger Really Better?

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Big Fish Small Pond, Small Fish Big Pond

No matter how much I have grown to despise the discussion, it seems I cannot avoid it entirely.  Almost any conversation about church, it seems, inevitably gravitates in some form toward the Bigger is Better or Great Things Come in Small Packages debate.

It is not always an actual debate. In fact it is probably more often than not simply an expression of personal preference. But I have come to loathe the whole subject, having come to believe that the comparisons are largely irrelevant. There are some great large churches, and there are some great small churches; There are some horrendous large churches, and there are some pathetic small churches. And there are good and bad churches of all sizes in between.  The issue is not which size is best, but rather: Is your particular church – and my particular church – healthy, God-honoring, and fruitful?

That said, and with no desire to encourage debate, I found an observation by Neil Cole to be interesting:

There are millions of people in smaller congregations across the country who live with a feeling that they are failures because their church isn’t as big as the megaplex congregation down the street. This is sad and should not be the case.

A global survey conducted by Christian Schwartz found that smaller churches consistently scored higher than large churches in seven out of eight qualitative characteristics of a healthy church. A more recent study of churches in America, conducted by Ed Stetzer and Life Way Research, revealed that churches of two hundred or less are four times more likely to plant a daughter church than churches of one thousand or more. The research seems to even indicate that the pattern continues—the smaller the size of the church the more fertile they are in planting churches.

It pains me that so many churches and leaders suffer from an inferiority complex when in fact they could very well be more healthy and fruitful than the big-box church down the street.

I am not suggesting that the mega church is something we need to end, I am simply saying that we need other kinds of churches to truly transform our world. I also do not want people in huge churches to think that just because they have more people and more money that they are more blessed by God. The stats tell us that ten smaller churches of 100 people will accomplish much more than one church of 1000.

Read the rest of  Cole’s article: Is Bigger Really Better?

And again, while not wanting to prompt debate, I do welcome any comments about Cole’s observations.

Thoughts on Easter Giveaways

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Field of Eggs

I was stunned the first time I read about the plan of a church in the area where we then lived to give away prizes at an Easter gathering.  And they were not just going to give stuff away, they were planning to create a frenzy.  A helicopter was leased, piloted by some guy in an Easter Bunny costume (which alone raises questions).  With people gathered at a rented junior high school soccer field, the Easter Bunny would drop plastic Easter Eggs each filled with either candy, cash, or with redeemable certificates for such items as i-pods, cell phones, etc. And they did this on Easter Sunday right after their services.  It just seemed wrong, but I held my tongue.

For two weeks leading up to the “drop” the local newspaper contained a full page ad promoting this “celebration”. But it was not until I read an interview with the pastor the day after Easter that I could stand it no longer.  His statement that set me off?  He said:  “We’re just loving on our neighbors.”

While that statement may seem benign enough, I felt compelled to respond. So I shot him an e-mail.  I had met the guy before, though did not know him well.  But I hoped he would at least consider his actions, or the potential effects of them.  So I wrote him a note challenging his notion of “loving his neighbors”.

I told him that he was not so much loving his neighbors as he was buying them, or bribing them.  True, he had gathered a large group to an Easter event, but it was not because of the proclamation of Christ crucified and resurrected (- though I assume that was mentioned at the actual church service).  How many in attendance were actually members of other congregations who were enticed only by the promise of goodies? (No, no one from the church I served attended their event.)  I conceded that perhaps such a giveaway would have been an expression of love had they chosen to hold it at one of the local public housing projects, and limited the participation to those with minimal incomes.  After all, that would have given to those who are without, and given to those who can give no more to the church than their presence.  But they had been advertising for weeks to the whole city – wealthy, middle-class, and poor alike.  They were merely buying potential “customers” – just like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, or any other consumer-driven business does.

Perhaps not surprising, I did not get a response to my e-mail.  The next year the church added a giveaway at the worship service – a new car to some lucky person with the correct number on their Easter Sunday worship bulletin.  I did not bother to send another e-mail.  I just mused in disappointment about what seems to be replacing the gospel in too many churches.

Apparently I am not alone in my distaste for this practice.  I recently read a post by Jared Wilson, who also has some concerns about it.  In his post Wilson gives ten spot-on-right reasons why he thinks luring people in with cash and prizes is not a good idea:

1. It creates buzz about cash and prizes, not the Easter event. When the media takes notice, nobody wants to interview these pastors about the resurrection. They want them to talk about the loot.

2. It identifies the church not with the resurrection, but with giving toys away. It makes us look like entertainment centers or providers of goods and services, not people of the Way who are centered on Christ.

3. Contrary to some offered justifications, giving prizes away is not parallel to Jesus’ providing for the crowds. Jesus healed people and fed them. This is not the same as giving un-poor people an iPod.

4. It appeals to greed and consumerism. There is no biblical precedent for appealing to one’s sin before telling them to repent of it. This is a nonsensical appeal.

5. Yes, Jesus said he would make us fishers of men, but extrapolating from this to devise all means of bait is not only unwarranted, it’s exegetically ignorant. The metaphor Jesus is offering here is just of people moving from the business of fishing to the business of the kingdom. There is no methodology being demonstrated here. (But the most common one would have been throwing out nets anyway, not baiting a hook.)

6. It is dishonest “bait and switch” methodology. Sure, the people coming for the goodies know they’re coming to church. But it’s still a disingenuous offer. The message of the gospel is not made for Trojan horses.

7. It demonstrates distrust in the compelling news that a man came back from the dead!! I mean, if nobody’s buying that amazing news, we can’t sell it to them with cheap gadgets.

8. It demonstrates distrust in the power of the gospel when we think we have to put it inside something more appealing to be effective. What the giveaways really communicate is that we think the gospel needs our help, and that our own community is not attractive enough in our living out of the implications of the gospel.

9. The emerging data from years of research into this kind of practice of marketing/evangelism attractional church stuff shows the kind of disciples it produces are not strong. I have no doubt these churches are going to see decisions Easter weekend. They’ll herald them on Twitter and on the blogs. As questionable a practice as that can be, I’d be extra interested in how discipled these folks are in a year or two years or three. Hype has always produced “decisions.” Would anyone argue that after 30 years or so of the attractional approach to evangelism the evangelical church is better off, more Christ-centered, more biblically mature?

10. What you win them with is what you win them to.

Numbering the Sheep on the Ranch

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Counting Sheep

Blogger Tim Challies is at the Together for the Gospel Conference, surrounded by other church leaders.  No surprise then that he is hearing this common question all around him: “How many people go to your church?”  And apparently Challies, whose primary vocation is writer not pastor, has some concerns about this question:

I’d like to make the same two-part proposal I made a few years back: Let’s stop asking, “How many people go to your church?” And when someone asks us that question, let’s not feel obliged to give a direct answer.

Challies understands the heart challenge for the pastor in those moments when that question is posed:

For the pastor this can be a moment of pride or humility, freedom or shame…

While not presently prone to the tugs toward embellishment, I am not sure whether it is because of personal growth or just that my external circumstances have changed.  I serve a good-sized congregation, with an excellent staff, in a desirable locale.  But I know those feelings well.  On occasions in the past I’ve felt the temptation to exaggerate, such as to cite Easter attendance as if that were the norm. (I know others who have also considered that one.)  The obvious reason for the temptation is embarrassment about the reality, as if the number in attendance is somehow a precise indicator of the abilities or worth of a pastor or congregation, or of God’s pleasure in either.

Challies writes:

We all pay lip service to the reality that we cannot necessarily measure the health of a church by its size. We all know that some of the biggest churches in the world are also some of the unhealthiest churches in the world. The history of Christianity has long-since shown that it is not all that difficult to fill a building with unbelievers by just tickling their ears with what they want to hear. We also know that the Lord is sovereign and that he determines how big each church should be and we know that in some areas even a very small church is an absolute triumph of light over darkness. And yet “How big is your church?” is one of the first questions we ask.

Why is this?

I don’t know all the reasons but I’d suggest at least two. First, I think our question betrays us and shows that in the back of our minds we equate size and health. Somewhere we make the connection between big and healthy, between big and blessing. We exacerbate the problem when we ask and answer this too-easy question. Second, we just haven’t taken the time and made the effort to form better questions. Instead, we gravitate to the easy one.

So what might be some better questions to ask?  I appreciate Challies’ suggestions:

  • How have you seen the Lord working in the lives of the people in your church?
  • What evidences of the Lord’s grace has your church experienced in the last few months?
  • What are you excited about in your church right now?
  • Who are you excited about in your church right now?
  • What has the Lord been teaching you?
  • Who have you been discipling recently?
  • Tell me about some of the future leaders at your church.

These are much better to get a sense of the story in any congregation.

And inevitably when asked: “How many people go to your church?” Challies suggests answering something like this:

  • As many as the Lord has determined we can care for at this time.
  • Enough that we are actively working toward planting a church.
  • I don’t know, but let me tell you about a few of them…

Interest in numbers is not wrong.  Numbers tell us things.  But just what numbers tell us is not always readily clear.  Numbers are not wrong, it is the fascination with numbers that is problematic.  Numbers just do not tell a story.  Much more valuable is the number of stories of how God is at work in any congregation.

To read Challies’ post, click: How Many People?

Ministering to Missing Millennials

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Long Road

Why are Millennials walking away from our churches? Why are a number of our own kids walking out the doors?  Why does the church seem impotent to change the direction of this rising tide?

While my wife and I are blessed to have all of our kids active in church, including our two college aged sons, who live six hours away, these are not unimportant questions to me.  I feel the blow every time I hear of the child of a friend, or church member, walking away.  They do not usually walk away angry.  Perhaps it might be better if they did.  All too often they walk away indifferent.  The faith of their fathers makes little difference to their lives – or so they feel.

There is no lack of suggestions. Most of those I hear involve, in one way or another, changing the church to meet the demands of the consumers the church desires to attract, or win back.  It works for McDonald’s, so why not the church?  But while there are things that the church can and should do better, the problem with suggestions toward such radical change is that it mistakes the mission of the church.  The church does not exist to cater to consumers.  The church should certainly not create consumers – though for the better part of the past couple generations that is exactly what we have done.  And now we are paying the price.  “Have it your way…” worked for Burger King. But the same message has left the church impotent to reach the present rising generation.

So how do we reach those who no longer see the value of the church?  That is a complex question.  But one thing we ought to do before deciding any course of action is to listen to some from this generation who have not left the church, and yet who love their peers.

A recent article I read titled Why the Church Isn’t Reaching My Un-churched Friends offers a refreshingly honest and thoughtful perspective.  Written by a twenty-something young lady from Louisville, Kentucky, she offers some candid critiques of both the cultural dilemma and the foolish things some – many – churches are trying in response.  Her criticisms are sharp, but not unnecessarily hurtful.  Her solutions: Authenticity. Christ.

While I do not propose to have the definitive answers, her suggestions are a great place to start.

Growing People for Service

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Every Acorn

by Daniel Radmacher

Have you ever wondered why we are not born as adults?  Probably not, I would wager.  Seriously, though, have you ever considered the fact that God could very easily birth us as grown-ups?  We could come out of the womb fully formed intellectually and spiritually, with only our physical dimensions to catch up.  Honestly, it would save quite a bit of hassle, particularly in the teen years.  Clearly there is something special about our growth, something in the process of development that is very important to our Creator.  I believe that God values the growth process as highly as He values the end result.

And yet, have you ever noticed how frustrated we can be with the need to grow?  From childhood, we are anxious to be better, stronger, faster, smarter, and don’t want to have to wait for it.  As humans, we resist the reality that we must move so slowly from a place of incompetence to effectiveness, from clumsiness to acumen and hate the fact that there is often so much pain along the way.  We long to be complete now, and not have to struggle through the process of becoming, whether that process is physical, intellectual or spiritual.

Unfortunately, this tendency can also inform many of our churches and their ministries, in that we are sometimes hesitant to bring people into ministry who are not fully developed in their skill sets.  This bias can greatly impact our worship and music ministries.  In all honesty, we are probably more interested in those singers, dramatists, speakers and players whose skills are already well-developed than in those we must train to reach their potential.  I understand, because I struggle with this issue as well.

Moreover, our worship services easily become a place in which we highlight those with the most extravagant development in their skills and abilities, and neglect the ones who are still growing and developing.  Of course, we will march out the occasional children’s choir and listen with gilded ears, but for the most part, we are not that excited about working with those who are further back on their growth curve.  I often wonder if maybe we have become more interested in collecting a group of ideal musicians than in growing all of those that we have been given.

We all understand why.  If we are offering a sacrifice of praise to the Lord, then we want to bring forward the very best in our presentations.  That makes good biblical sense.  Moreover, it takes a lot of time and work to grow people in their abilities, time that we rarely have to spare.  I know that I would rather have a guitarist who can nail something right out of the gate, then have to work with someone in his or her musicianship to help produce growth.

However, I think that there might be a deeper reason, and perhaps it is the result of the first.  I think that we are probably more interested in the quality of performance for the program than in the quality of growth for the individual.  Many in the church seem to have slipped into the belief that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.  I wonder if this philosophy is truly biblical.  I could be wrong, but it seems that the church is subtly becoming a culture in which we are more concerned with pleasing the whole than in deeply blessing the few—a kind of blessing that is truly life-changing.  Maybe we need to grow deeper before we grow wider.

I have been at both ends of this spectrum.  I have been the one who was weeded out of the worship team because I just didn’t seem to fit the sound of the group.  I have also been the one who became part of the inner circle, the one who performed at every big event, because I had the potential to bless the people without fail.

At the end of the day, I believe that the growth of people is more important to God than performance.  I believe that God is probably more blessed by the long-term shepherding of a few as tools for ministry than by a thousand of the most breathtaking productions that we could create upon our church platforms.  I believe that He is more interested in seeing us form well-rounded servants of the gospel than in music teams that could win a Grammy for their sheer prowess of musicality.  Otherwise, why wouldn’t I have come out of the womb singing like an angel?  God loves and blesses growth in people, and so should we.

24 Tips for Preachers

/ Dennis Griffith / 1 Comment

Walnut Street Bridge - Chattanooga

My friend and once-upon-a-time informal mentor, Randy Nabors,  has posted a score of tips for preachers on his blog, Randy’s Rag.   I learned a lot from Randy just by hanging out and watching when I was a young pastor living and serving in the Chattanooga area.  I post Randy’s Tips here because they are worthy of consideration by anyone who preaches.  If you are a pastor, enjoy.  If you are not, feel free to share them with your pastor – as long as you do it out of loving encouragement, and not just because you think you should try to improve him.  That motivation will tank almost every time.

Anyway, here are Randy’s Tips for Preachers, gleaned during decades of transformational pastoral ministry and active mission engagement:

  1. Your aim is to have people see more of Christ and less of you.
  2. Make sure you love Christ more than you love preaching.  You should love to preach, but it is only a means to talk about the One worth loving.
  3. Try to make sure your life is at all times qualified to represent God, your character worthy to stand at the holy desk at a sudden moment.  It is better to give the responsibility to someone else, even for the moment, than to hurt your conscience by pretending to be something you are not.
  4. Don’t wait for perfection before you preach. The only perfect man who preached was also God.  Holiness is a covering we have of the righteousness of Christ as well as the faith to pursue it, along with an honest and broken heart.
  5. Prepare to preach by marinating in the Word of God.  Beware the pale substitute of commentaries.
  6. Read the text, translate the text, think through the text, dream the text, read the text.
  7. Pray for the text to minister to your own heart, hear the sermon for yourself, but remember your task is more important than waiting for your own blessing before you preach.
  8. While you are preaching, if you feel you are failing, pray in your heart for God to uphold you.  If you feel you are doing well, pray that you will not preach in your own strength.  Pray even as you speak.
  9. Beware of ruts, hobby horses, and anything that seems to regularly appear in your preaching that is in competition with the Gospel of grace and the glory of God.  Anything, especially good things, can be a poor substitute for preaching Jesus.  We are not called to preach theology but Christ, and all good theology leads to Him.
  10. If you preach the Old Testament without seeing Jesus or grace in it you don’t yet understand it.
  11. You have not been called to be intellectually esoteric, erudite, funny, or even comprehensive in your explanation of the text.  All of those things have their place, but if people can’t see Christ you have failed.
  12. Illustrations should lead to something, don’t presume on abstract reasoning from the congregation, connect the dots.
  13. Be careful with your introduction.  Don’t let it be too long, raise the issue (the main direction, question, or argument of your sermon) fairly soon.  Don’t wander too far from your text, or simply read it at the beginning and fail to preach it.  To not preach the text which you yourself have chosen is like telling the people that your ideas are more important than the Bible.
  14. Application is essential, simply reading and even explaining the text is not preaching.
  15. Self-disclose, confess your own faults, and use your life as an illustration with wisdom and a measure of restraint.  Too little and you are hiding, too much and you are an exhibitionist.
  16. If you make a mistake in preaching (misinterpret, forgot the balance, were too flippant, too angry, insulted someone(s)), apologize publicly the next time you are up.  Humility will win you favor.
  17. Never belittle, ridicule, or embarrass your wife and children as illustrations in your sermons. The congregation will take their side and miss the spiritual point you were trying to make. Once your daughter(s) reach middle school avoid mentioning them like the plague.
  18. Listen to your wife’s reactions, watch her face, she is probably the most loyal critic you will have.
  19. Sermon criticism is a good thing if you seek it from those who want to help you but don’t indulge in it immediately after you preach; let your ego heal from its vulnerability.
  20. Avoid arguments or being defensive right after a sermon, give yourself and others time to think things over.
  21. Don’t believe all the compliments nor all the complaints, though it is impossible to ignore them.  So, try to learn from them in order to do better and not simply use them for your pride or your self-pity.  Preaching is and ought to be a spiritual event, but it is also a craft that can be improved with skill.
  22. Get over it quickly, both euphoria and despair.  Fire and forget, leave the results to God, and remount the horse to ride again.
  23. Attribute, cite, and give credit where you can or at least admit it is not original with you if it isn’t.  Borrow and steal ideas ruthlessly, just admit it.
  24. As to the length of sermons, as my friend John Perkins said, (and he was quoting from someone else); “when you are done preaching, stop talking!”

Here AND There

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Church Scattered

We don’t just go to church, we ARE the church …sent out by the power of the Spirit to BE the church.

This illustration above represents two aspects of being a faithful church:

Attractional – those elements of a particular congregation that draw people into the church community. Among these would be the quality of music, the substance and winsomeness  of the teaching, the variety and sufficiency of programs offered, and the friendliness of the members.

Missional – this is the sending of the church members into the community, and to the Nations, in order to make a positive and kingdom impact.  While this is often neglected, missional is not optional.

  • The mission of the church, and her members, is rooted in the nature of God who seeks and sends. (Isaiah 55.5; Isaiah 60.3; John 4.23; John 20.21)
  • Intentionally serving the community is faithfulness to the Covenant God cut with Abraham.  (i.e. Genesis 12.2)  If you look carefully at the Covenants of Scripture you will notice that there are always two dimensions, what I call a Top Line and Bottom Line.  the top line is God’s promise to bless those with whom he has entered into Covenant, evidenced by such promises as “I will be your God and you will be my people”.   The Bottom Line is is consistent with such expectant promises as “You will be a blessing”.   Both dimensions are reflected in every covenant.  Therefore, intentional mission to our community and world is not optional, or part of some deluxe package of being a Christian. If one follows Jesus, he or she does not have the option to choose the arrangement that does not require mission.
  • Mission is a is a clear mandate.  (Matthew 28.18-20; Luke 24.46-49; John 20.21; Acts 1.8; Jeremiah 29.7)

BOTH Attractional and Missional are necessary to be a healthy church. If we are not going, we are not faithful. And if no one is coming, well… the implications are pretty obvious.

Sad State of Evangelicalism

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Broken Cross

An excellent, “must read”, article by Mark Galli for Christianity Today:  The Troubled State of Christian Preaching.  This is a great example of a “I Wish I’d Said That”.  All of Galli’s insight resonate …

Here is the gist of Galli’s tought, set within the context of the Presidential Inauguration and Louie Giglio being put on the un-invite list:

Even when we try to make Jesus first, we end up inadvertently making ourselves first.   …Unfortunately, in a desire to reach the world for Christ, some inadvertently …make much about our ultimate significance. Jesus becomes merely the means by which we feel better about our place in the universe. Need purpose and meaning? Follow Jesus, that will do the trick. In this subtle shift, we become the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega.

10 Contemporary Sacred Cows That Need Tipping

/ Dennis Griffith / 1 Comment

My grammar school days were lived out in a plush Philadelphia suburb.  My first taste of culture shock came just before I entered high school, when my family made a cross country move and settled into a cul-de-sac home in a nice new development in a then-more-rural area outside Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.  It was in Oklahoma that I had my first exposure to the game of cow tipping.

Now, I confess, while I have gone cow tipping I have never actually seen a cow tipped.   I know several who claim to have tipped their share of beef, but I myself have never accomplished this feat, nor have I ever actually seen it done.  It is because of this that I come to accept the prevailing notion that you cannot actually tip a cow – sleeping or otherwise.  (See Snopes.com: here and here.)   But the fact that one cannot actually tip a cow does not diminish my enthusiasm for joining Jared Moore in the cow tipping venture he wants to get up.

Jared is a Baptist pastor in Kentucky.  A few weeks ago on his blog, ExaltChrist,  Jared declared that there are a few cows he wants to tip – Sacred Cows.

What is somewhat unusual about the cows Jared wants to tip is their age.  They are not old. Usually sacred cows are  marked by traditions that have no Biblical warrant but have yet been around for a long time.  No doubt there are many such old bovines in the church that need to be toppled.   But the sacred cows Jared wants to tip are not old but young – new practices that are embraced by folks who seem to want to be on the cutting edge of church growth.  And like Jared, I’d like to see these young heifers upended.

Here are the names of the 10 Contemporary Sacred Cows Jared wants to tip, and his his explanations:

1. Entertainment-based Sermons
 
Pastors/elders/teachers want to be liked. Some want to be liked so much that they’re willing to entertain their hearers while preaching the Bible. They wrongly assume that because people enjoy their sermons, they enjoy Jesus as well. The problem is that if we’re seeking to entertain our hearers, then we don’t believe God or Scripture can hold the attention of God’s people. In other words, you may say “the Bible is worthy of your attention,” but if you’re using entertainment to communicate this, then you’re undercutting your message with your methods. If the Bible is worthy to be heard because God is its Author, then you shouldn’t have to use entertainment to get Christians to listen to it. You just might be entertaining your hearers to death.
 
 
2. Bribing People to Attend Church
 
Easter Sunday was just a few weeks ago. With the heightened cultural interest in the resurrection of Christ, churches pulled out all the stops to persuade attendees. Churches gave away cars, money, ipads, food, etc. Should churches bribe sinners to attend worship services? Here are four realities about bribing sinners: 1) Bribing people to hear the gospel is absent from Scripture. 2) Bribing people to attend a worship service encourages them to attend worship for sinful reasons. 3) Bribing people to attend a worship service communicates the opposite of the gospel. 4) Bribing people to attend worship does not make disciples.
 
Due to these reasons, I think Christians bribe sinners to hear the gospel because they’ve reversed the order of the two greatest commandments: First, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and second, to love your neighbor as yourself. Bribing people exalts loving one’s neighbor above loving God, because the purpose of evangelism is to glorify God, not to glorify sinners or Christians.
 
 
3. Revivalistic Quotas
 
Numbers, numbers, numbers, that’s what’s emphasized throughout evangelicalism. Is there anywhere in Scripture where Israel’s strength or the church’s strength were in numbers? No. Is there anywhere in Scripture where God evaluated His church or their ministry based on numbers? No. So, why is there a huge emphasis on numbers today? The answer is because in the Western part of the world, bigger is better. Some also argue that numbers are important because souls are important, but if you really care about souls, you’ll labor to make disciples, not to merely baptize unrepentant, salvation-ignorant people who do not understand the lifelong commitment they’re making.
 
The Great Commission has been redefined today as baptizing those who confess Christ as Lord, with the Great Omission being the command to “teach these Christians everything that Christ has commanded” (Matt. 28:18-20). Repentance and faith in Christ is the beginning of Christianity. When a believer is baptized, he or she has just begun his or her public identification with Christ. In order to truly fulfill the Great Commission, the local church must take these baptized believers and teach them everything Christ has commanded.
 
 
4. Selfish Motives in Worship
 
Have you ever heard another believer say about worship, “I didn’t get anything out of that.” Next time you hear this, say, “It’s not about you.” God alone deserves to be glorified in worship. The only time we shouldn’t get anything out of worship is when God isn’t glorified. If the word of God was sung, prayed, and preached faithfully, and you didn’t get anything out of worship, then repent and worship because God is worthy of worship. Worship is not about us. God is the center of worship, not us.
 
 
5. Atmosphere-induced Nostalgia
 
The goal of worship is to glorify God, not to feel good. Have you ever read the Psalms, the hymnal of God’s people for thousands of years? They’re not always happy or joyful. In other words, they’re not nostalgia-inducing. Today’s worship in the local church is largely about an atmosphere that encourages worship. The test of “true” worship is often how good one feels when he or she leaves the worship service. Specific lighting, styles of music, sentimentality, singing phrases over and over, etc. serve to create a euphoric feeling that hearers will long for for the rest of their lives. The problem is that the feeling, the nostalgia, becomes the god the believer longs for instead of the true God who is worthy of worship when believers feel like it and when they don’t.
 
 
6. Relevant Sermons
 
There is such a large emphasis on preaching “relevant” sermons today, which often translates to sermons that “meet people’s needs,” regardless how selfish, narcissistic, and godless these needs may be. The preacher’s goal is not to make the Bible relevant, but to help his hearers see how relevant the Bible is! The Bible is the Word of God and is timelessly relevant! The Bible transcends all societies, cultures, fads, etc. If you’re “making the Bible relevant,” then change your name to “the Holy Spirit.”
 
 
7. Relativistic Interpretation
 
There’s an emphasis in our culture on being tolerant of other individuals and their ideas. This mentality has infiltrated the church as well. Various interpretations of Scripture are tolerated, often based on the perceived sincerity of an individual instead of the intrinsic social, historical, and grammatical properties of the text itself. The text does not have multiple meanings, but one meaning that has multiple applications. We cannot act like interpreters have more authority than the author who originally penned the words. It doesn’t matter what we “think” or “feel” about the text. What matters is what the author meant, what his recipients understood, what the Holy Spirit intended, and how all these truths apply to our daily lives. Don’t jump authorial intent to make yourself the “new author” by applying the text beyond the meaning of the text.
 
 
8. Parenting and Ministering for Man’s Applause instead of God’s Glory
 
Something that’s interesting about much of children’s ministry and youth ministry is that ministers are terribly concerned with being liked by these immature Christians or unbelievers. They’re desperately concerned with their hearers enjoying their songs, prayers, and sermons. Furthermore, parents are very concerned with whether or not their children enjoy going to worship at a local church. What happened to truth? What about God? What happened to “he who has ears to hear, let him hear”? Ministers and parents everywhere, for sake of hearing the applause of children and youth, are compromising the truth on the altar of being liked or possessing an easy life.
 
I realize if a child hates church that every worhsip service you attend will be a battle, but that doesn’t free you to give your child another reason other than God to attend worship. Furthermore, if you’re a minister, don’t believe children and youth love Jesus because they love entertainment, and you’re trying to communicate the gospel through entertainment. How can you get a selfish person to see the value of Jesus and their need for Him by appealing to their selfishness? If children and teenagers are saying, “I don’t care if God has spoken or not, I won’t listen to Him unless you entertain me,” then they neither love God, Jesus, His Word, or the local church.
 
 
9. Unchristian Love
 
Love has been radically redefined in the local church as being “accepting of all, while holding no one accountable to Biblical faithfulness.” How many churches consistently practice Biblical discipline? Very few. Even though God has always held His people accountable to His Word, and even though Biblical discipline is commanded in Scripture, local churches have redefined Christian love to include “tolerance of unrepentant sin,” while excluding “loving accountability to God’s Word.”
 
 
10. Demigod Evaluations
 
If you and I evaluate our ministries, defining them as “successful” or “unsuccessful” based on our own arbitrary observations, then we’re making demigod evaluations. A demigod is a deified mortal. In order to truly evaluate our ministries as successful or unsuccessful, we must have God’s all-knowing evaluating ability. In most conferences and denominations, those who are held up as examples are those who have large churches. They’re often held up as examples because of demigod evaluations carried out by those in various leadership positions. These ministers may be more successful or they may not be.
 
 
The truth of the matter is that we cannot accurately evaluate our ministries or other people’s ministries beyond the Word of God, as if we know the hearts of everyone who attends these churches. In other words, faithfulness to Scripture should govern and motivate your ministry, not a demigod evaluation made by you or others. Pursue faithfulness to Scripture in light of Christ’s redeeming work, not arbitrary ego-boosting or “calling of God” destroying submission to demigod evaluations.
 
Jared, I’m in!  I agree. These cows need tippin’.

4 Possible Paradigm Shifts for the 21st Century Church

/ Dennis Griffith / 1 Comment

I am not sure in what context or venue he said this, but billionaire financier Warren Buffett is credited with having noted:

“In a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.”

Whatever the initial context, there is much wisdom in this insight that can be applied to any endeavor that is no longer functioning.  This includes the Church – especially the mission of the church.

To deny that the Church as a whole has a declining influence would be naive.  While this lack of potency is not the case overall, as Christianity is exploding in many parts of the world, especially in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, it is almost unarguably true of the Church in the West, including the USA.  The declining percentage of those attending weekly worship, and empty rooms that used to be filled with people gathered for prayer meetings, reflect Buffet’s imagery of “leaking boats”.   No question change is needed.

Yet what is subject to change?  Should everything be up for grabs?  There is no lack of suggestions and examples of what people are changing in the name of reigniting the church. And many have increased the attendance of their respective congregational gatherings using a variety of techniques. But is mere pragmatism really the answer? If it “works” is it of God? Is having more butts in the pew (or whatever kind of seat) equal to making more disciples? After all, some of the techniques employed by “cutting edge” congregations are raising some eyebrows – not to mention raising some ire.

I do not recall which of his writings I read it in, (I think it was Building a Bridge to the 18th Century,) but Neil Postman pointed out that not all inventions are actually to our advancement.  Postman says that for something to be an advancement it must meet an actual need.  While Postman was speaking of technology, the same principle applies to institutions, including the Church.  (I know some will object to identifying the Church as an institution, insisting that the Church is “organic”. But in one sense it is. It was “instituted” by God…  Marriage is also an institution “instituted” by God.  But that does not mean my marriage is stoic and stodgy and inorganic.  Marriage and Church are both “organic” and “institutions” at the same time – or, when at their best, organic institutions.)

OK. Back on track…

While some novel ideas are showing clear evidence of drawing crowds, one question must be asked: “At what expense?”  In other words, what might we be sacrificing, what would we forfeit, for the sake of increasing numbers?

It is vital that we remember Psalm 127.1:

Unless the Lord builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.

When I consider Postman’s concern along with this truth, I cannot help but thinking that while some innovations unquestionably advance attendance, those not in accord with God’s blue-print do so at the expense of not actually being the Church.  I do not know what such a congregation is, but God says all their creative efforts are in vain. To be church we MUST be built by God, and upon God’s design.

Now, I do not want to be suspect of being an ecclesiastical Luddite.  I am not against creativity, innovation, or change.  I agree with Buffett that energy expended constantly patching leaks would be better spent on changing to a new vessel.  But Buffett’s illustration does not imply changing modes entirely. He does not say, for instance, that if your boat leaks then buy a car.  He suggests we renew our mode.

For the Church this means that we reaffirm what it means to be a Church. We must do this in every detail: doctrine, church government, misson. We do not just employ trendy organizational practices, and then teach the Bible, and call it a church. We embody everything God says a church is – and has always been.  And then we take a look at where the leaks are coming from, and what is causing them.  Then, and only then, do we consider possible innovations in our methods.

In short, I believe we must consider innovations, but that we must only employ those that are consistent with all that it means to be Christ’s Church, of which Jesus is the Head.

In line with this premise, Felipe Assis has made a few paradigm shift suggestions for the future of the church that I find intriguing and promising, and worthy of consideration:

1. Incarnation over innovation

2. Environments over processes

3. Movement over expansion

4. Flat over hierarchical

Assis develops these premises at Redeemer City to City.  To read his assessments and explanations click: Part 1, Part 2

Christian Leaders Learn to Think Theologically

/ Dennis Griffith / Leave a comment

Here is an important thought for my fellow pastors, and other ministry leaders. It is also important for shaping what church members should value in and expect of their pastors and Elders:

Few ministers and priests think theologically. Most of them have been educated in a climate in which the behavioral sciences, such as psychology and sociology, so dominated the educational milieu that little true theology was learned. Most Christian leaders today raise psychological and sociological questions even though they frame them in scriptural terms. Real theological thinking, which is thinking with the mind of Christ, is hard to find in the practice of ministry. Without solid theological reflection, future leaders will be little more than pseudo-psychologists… They will think of themselves as enablers, facilitators, role models, father or mother figures, big brothers or big sisters, and so on, and thus join the countless men and women who make a living by trying to help their fellow human beings to cope with the stresses and strains of everyday living.  But that has little to do with Christian leadership.

~ Henri Nouwen, from In the Name of Jesus