Christian – Page 2

February 2, 2009

Are ‘fringe’ building churches such a bad thing? Maybe not…

The problem is not so much with what churches are doing; it’s with what they are not doing.

Many churches are so focused on growth that the majority of their resources (money, materials and people) are focused on growth initiatives; i.e. building campaigns, community events, etc. This leaves little left for internal growth initiatives. In other churches, particularly those overseas, there is precious little resource to invest in either external or internal growth. Either way, churches are struggling to help people to grow. We are adding to our numbers, but we’re adding ‘fringe’ and we’re not helping ‘fringe’ move to the core.

BUT, what if there existed a community of ‘core’ believers whose sole purpose was to birth new believers from the ‘world’ and develop baby believers in the ‘fringe’?

If this community was effective, it would complement churches of all sizes, shapes and styles while filling this all important gap of internal spiritual growth. It would have to be orthodox and yet inter-denominational. It would have to be united on the essentials of the Christian faith, but mature enough to give and receive the freedom granted by grace. It would have to be seemlessly global, not bound to a region or local church body. It would have to be large in number, but it would have to be more concerned about the maturity of the community than it’s size. It would have to be simple for community members to communicate with one another; it would have to be accessible, transparent, authentic, and helpful to those outside of the comunity.

If such a community existed, ‘fringe’ building churches could leverage the community to supplement their existing internal growth initiatives, practically free. If such a community existed, a small town church in west Texas, an isolated body of believers in Zambia or an underground small group in a communist or muslim country would have equal access to the same global support structure as a mega-church in the USA.

Does this sound exciting? Do you want to engage? Let me know…

January 29, 2009

Zero Church Aptly Named?

A few posts ago, I alluded to a mailer I received that provided a pretty good example of a “fringe building” church rather than a “core building” church.

Note that I have never attended this church nor do I know anything about it or their leadership…I’ve only received the mailer. Therefore, the only comments I intend to make are about the mailer and the audience it is obviously designed to reach.

Here are some observations:

About Zero Church

“Most churches are okay, but we think…”. In other words, if you are unhappy with the church you are currently attending, then come to zero church. Is this church reaching out to unbelievers or to people who already have a church home but are hoping to find a church that is more entertaining?
“We have a talk, but no preaching.” Can you imagine the apostle Paul or any hero of the faith telling it’s audience, “hey, i’m not here to preach…let’s just have a talk.” God calls us to teach His Word…why are we ashamed of that?
“We have an offering, but not for us…” Does this mean that 100% of what people give to zero church goes to the poor and oppressed? If that’s true, wonderful! But, I wonder where the money comes from to pay salaries, rent space, buy office supplies, etc?
“We have a band, but not much worship music”. If it’s not worship music, then what is the purpose of the music? Entertainment is all I can think of.

“Talk” Series

The good thing about how this series is described is that at least the word “biblical” is included. These topics are wonderful for a Christian counseling session. And, believe me, I’m all for Christians helping other Christians “learn how to say no”. But, the mission of the church is to make disciples, right? How do these topics help us make disciples? How do they call people to Christ? Again, my point is not about style of worship/preaching…it’s about what the style is producing. Series like this educate people on how to live their lives in a western materialistic culture, but they do not educate people as to their sin condition, God’s grace, genuine faith in Christ, and the ultimate importance of obedience. People become better parents, spouses, friends, and co-workers not primarily by studying how to become a better parent, spouse, friend or co-worker…they do it primarily by learning God’s word, believing is, and obeying it.

At the end of the day, I just don’t understand why churches feel like they cannot be proud of the God we serve and that somehow God is pleased when we hide Him for the sake of “building His kingdom”. My belief is that God does indeed save people in churches like these, but he does it despite faithless methods and not because of them. The natural fruit of churches like these is ‘fringe’ which, as I have argued, is actually hurting the Church not building it.

We ought to be going out into the world, sharing the good news of Christ, and serving them in His name; we should not be not pulling the lost into our communities and calling them part of the Church when God has not made them part of the Church.

I understand my stance is probably not very popular. My intent is not to be unpopular…just aligned with the God we serve as best I can be. I’d love to hear your thoughts and observations.

January 27, 2009

Fringe to Core; World to Core

So far, we have presented our fundamental mission as moving people from the ‘fringe’ to the ‘core’ and from the ‘world’ to the core. In this post, we’ll begin to explore how we might do that. Before we begin, let me say that while many of these terms may sound familiar, you will see in the next few posts that we’re going to land on an approach is that quite unique. The drive toward a unique approach is not simply to be different but because I believe that if the current techniques were working, we would not be getting worse instead of better.

Let’s begin with a reminder that while God sees the black and white lines between “believer” and “non-believer”, we cannot. To other people, it is a continuum of people who range from the obvious “non-believer” (world) to the obvious “believer” (core), with a wide variation between the two. An obvious “believer” might be the apostle Paul or Billy Graham; and obvious “non-believer” would be anyone who does not profess belief in Jesus Christ (regardless of how good their behavior is). The rest of us fall somewhere in between…we profess Jesus as Lord, but we either have not actually been spiritual born (i.e. we profess Jesus as Lord for social reasons and not because we actually want to follow him) or we have not “grown” spiritually to the point of, say, an apostle Paul. More accurately, we have not grown to the point of being just like Christ (the perfect human and standard for all of us), in a spiritual sense.

And so, our charter is to a) challenge people in the ‘world’ end of the spectrum to profess Jesus as Lord (spiritual birth); b) ensure that the ‘fringe’ understands what it really means to follow Christ as a genuine believer (maybe spiritual birth; maybe first steps of growth); and c) challenge, encourage, and support all those who profess genuine faith in Christ to move toward the ‘core’ end of the spectrum (spirit growth).

What is the technique that we use to accomplish these goals? This is where we’ll spend most of our time in the next several posts. Right now, I’ll set it up by simply saying that the technique varies per person. Where the person is squarely within the ‘world’, pure evangelistic (or apologetic) techniques are appropriate. Where the person is squarley within the ‘core’, pure discipleship techniques are appropriate. Where the person is somewhere in between, a personalized mix of evangelistic and discipleship techniques are appropriate.

If you are interested to hear further on a unique approach, specifically targetted at discipleship and enabled by community and technology, keep checking back!