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I had a good long talk with Lance again on Saturday, and he may be one of the most refreshing people I have ever met. I want to know more people like him. He is open, honest, and genuine. He says what he thinks, but in a way that is unoffensive.

And wow, does he know his stuff! I’m not sure exactly how he would classify himself religiously, but he knows the Bible better than most of us at Seminary, myself included. He told me that he learned under Col. R.B. Thieme in Houston (for those of you who are “Thiemers”). As I talked with Lance, he was using Greek, talking about the Bema, and quoting Scripture, all while performing amazing tricks with his devil sticks.

At one point, Wendy invited him and his family over for dinner. He declined, and the reason was one I have never heard before in my entire life, and probably will never hear again. He thought we would be offended, but Wendy and I both laughed out loud when he explained why he didn’t want to come to dinner. I’m not going to repeat what he said here on a public blog, but let me just say that it was genuine, honest, kind, and authentic.

The bottom line is that I like Lance. He is someone I would love to hang out with, and someone we Christians could learn a lot from. However, most of the time, when we interact with people like Lance, we either get offensive or defensive, and simply try to win arguments. That wasn’t my goal. Though Lance and I disagree on many things right now, I didn’t want to argue, let alone win an argument. I simply wanted to win the opportunity for another conversation.

The Largest Churches in the World and the Best “Church Planter”

By Jeremy Myers

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We’ve all heard of Joel Osteen and Lakewood Church which I hear averages over 40,000 people on a weekend. I think this is the largest church in the United States. His sermons are on television and his book, Your Best Life Now has sold 3 million copies.

But Joel does not have the largest church in the world. Most give this “honor” to David Cho and his Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul Korea with about 830,000 members.

Of course, when it comes to buildings, nobody can top the most expensive church, The Basilica of our Lady of Peace in Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast). It cost $300 million to build. It also is recognized as being the largest by floor area (30,000 sq. meters!). I hear that it has it’s own airport. Top that one Joel!

But has anybody heard about “Uncle L”? He has no formal seminary education and no advanced degrees. You won’t find his sermons online, on the radio. or on television. He hasn’t written any books. He doesn’t have a website, or even a blog. He didn’t raise funds to help plant his church, in fact, his church doesn’t even have a central building. There isn’t even a church budget. He doesn’t have dozens of staff members. He is is not a “Type A” personality, with great leadership abilitites. He would fail most “church planter assessments.” No big deal, right? That’s true of a lot of pastors around the world.

True, but Uncle L is the “lead pastor” of a church of 3 million people. Yes, 3,000,000. (See Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways, 150).

Uncle L is a soft-spoken, unassuming, older man, who has been to prison several times, and is quietly leading the greatest movement of Christians the world has ever seen.

So why haven’t you heard about him?

He’s a church planter in China, and is only one of scores upon scores of such “successful” planters in that country.

If they could read our “church planting books” and attend our “church planting conferences” and see that most of our planters want to spend several million dollars to have a church of 10,000, they would probably be amazed at how low we’ve set our sights, and how little we accomplish with so many resources and such amazing structures.

Maybe our resources and structures are part of the problem…

Zeitgeist the Movie

By Jeremy Myers

22 Comments

Recently I told you of my encounter with Lance, the juggling-stick expert, and Merril, his Mayan-guru babysitter. I met both at the Scarborough Renaissance Faire and we talked some about Jesus and hope for the future. To understand where he was coming from, he told me to watch Zeitgeist the Movie. (Zeitgeist is German for “Time Spirit” or “Spirit of the Age.”)

Having watched it, I am a bit perplexed. Zeitgeist the Movie is actually two movies (or documentaries).

As part of the introduction to Zeitgeist the movie, there was a quote which reveals the way a lot of people view Christianity. This quotes is both funny and so very sad. This quote comes from George Carlin (at around 11:30 of Part 1 of Zeitgeist the movie):

I gotta tell you the truth folks. I gotta tell you the truth. When it comes to bullsh*t, big time, major league bullsh*t, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims — religion.

Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man, living in the sky, who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire, and smoke, and burning, and torture, and anguish, where he will send you to live, and suffer, and burn, and choke, and scream, and cry forever and ever until the end of time.

But he loves you!

He loves you, and he needs money! He always needs money. He’s all powerful, all perfect, all knowing, and all wise, but somehow, just can’t handle money. Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more.

Now, you talk about a good bullsh*t story, holy sh*t!

This is, of course, a caricature, which is why it’s funny. However, it’s sad, because when you boil “religion” down, George Carlin isn’t too far from the truth. Frequently, religion uses God to scare people into giving away their money. Much of Christendom operates in the same way.

What I hope to impress upon Lance is that Jesus is not this way at all. Jesus is just as upset and angry about this kind of religion as George Carlin is. Maybe angrier. When Jesus saw this sort of thing going on in the temple, He made a whip and nearly started a riot (Matt 21:12).

However, that was all just part of the introduction to Zeitgeist the movie. The real movie was divided into two parts, and I frankly am not sure how they fit together, so I will deal with them separately.

Part 1 of Zeitgeist the movie: Jesus is a Myth

The first forty minutes is designed to make you think that religion in general, and specifically the stories about Jesus, are all a myth based on Egyptian astrology. I found parts of this section very disturbing, especially since, in all my “religious training” I have never heard any mention of what this movie states. Here is a website which summarizes some of the things the movie reveals.

Has anyone done any research in these things? What solution/answer can you provide? All the parallels between Jesus and Horus are incredible, especially when you consider that the stories of Horus predate Jesus by thousands of years.

Note: After doing a lot of reading, research, and thinking on the topics in this post, I wrote a follow-up post about the pagan roots of Christianity here and some of my concluding thoughts about Zeitgeist the movie. Go check it out and let me know what you think.

Part 2 of Zeitgeist the movie: US Politicians and Bankers are Robbing the World Blind

Part 2 was a conspiracy-theory smorgasbord. It attributed both World Wars, plus Vietnam, 9/11 and the war we are in now, as well as the Great Depression upon dirty public officials and rich bankers. The ultimate goal, the narrator says, is a one world government with a one world bank.

He may be right about this…I don’t know. But I guess if it turns out to be true, I wouldn’t be too surprised. The funny thing is that some of the sections of this part of the movie fit very well into prophecy about the End Times, the Mark of the Beast, and the coming Antichrist, especially the parts at the end about the RFID chip and the National Identification Card (which he said will be required of all US citizens in May 2008). Various Christian “Prophecy Buffs” love this sort of thing.

Conclusion (My take on Zeitgeist the movie)

So watch Zeitgeist the movie at your own risk. I watched it so that I can continue to the conversation with Lance. He seems to be a very intelligent person, with a love for life and people. I think Jesus would hang out with Lance and learn how to use those juggling sticks. So maybe I will to.

Sobering up from Consumerism

By Jeremy Myers

6 Comments

I was reading the Gospel of Matthew today and came to the sobering realization that if I were alive at the time of Jesus Christ, I probably would not have been one of his disciples.

All Christians today like to think that if we were alive when Jesus walked the earth, we would be the thirteenth disciple.

I think most of us are delusional. I know I am.

In Matthew 8:19, a man comes to Jesus and says, “I’ll follow you!” It’s so easy to say. Isn’t it?

How does Jesus respond? He basically says, “If you follow me, you won’t have a home, an income, a bed to sleep in, or regular meals to eat. Still want to sign up?” (Matthew 8:20).

Take a real, good, hard, honest look at your life. Are you really willing to give up your house, your job, your bed, your income, and your meals to follow Jesus?

I know my own heart. I think I would have said, “Oh. Well… in that case… let me go home and ‘pray’ about it.” (Which is Christian lingo for “No.”)

And then I read this in Alan Hirsh’s book The Forgotten Ways:

I have come to the conclusion that for we who live in the Western world, the major challenge to the viability of Christianity is not Buddhism, with all its philosophical appeal to the Western mind, nor is it Islam, with all the challenge that it poses to Western culture. It is not the New Age that poses such a threat; in fact, because that is a genuine search going on in new religious movements, it can actually be an asset to we who are willing to share the faith amidst the search. All these are challenges to us, no doubt, but I have come to believe that the major threat to the viability of our faith is that of consumerism (p. 106).

Consumerism has actually become the driving idealogy of the church’s ministry (p. 110).

[Consumerism teaches us] that the thing that will complete us in a new kitchen or a house extension, whereas in fact these only add more stress to our mortgages and our families. … Offered “heaven now,” we give up the ultimate quest in pursuit of that which can be immediately consumed, be it a service, product, or pseudo-religious experience (p. 111).

What are your thoughts on all this?

I want to follow Jesus, but I also want to provide a nice home, good food, warm clothing, and a soft bed for my wife and three girls. How can that be incompatible with following Jesus? I don’t see how it can be, but maybe I’m just drunk on consumerism and am in denial. Any suggestions?

Give Presence

By Jeremy Myers

4 Comments

A while back I entered a blogging tournament. We were asked to answer this question:

“What is your best marketing and/or outreach idea for under $500?”

Here was my answer:

Give Presence

What is the best way for a church to spend $500? Give Presence. (No, not Presents… though that might be part of giving presence.)

People today are tired of commercials (TV and radio), door hangers, junk mail, email spam, surveys, and telemarketers. Most people only get annoyed by such things, and this is especially true when such marketing stuff comes from the church. They think, “If that church has nothing better to do with its money then send me junk mail, I’m sure not going to attend there and give them my money!”

The best thing we can do with our “Marketing/Outreach” budget is to give presence by joining the community in what they are already doing.

We can join the people in our town and city where they already are, and do what they are already doing.

Typically, with such a strategy, a church planter doesn’t need to worry about how to gather a crowd or get the word out about a big event, because the city (or whoever is organizing the event) is already doing such things.

So go to your local Chamber of Commerce or city website and get a community calendar, as well as a list of civic organizations and community service events. Then be present at as many of these events and projects as possible. Be the most active, joyful, service-minded citizens your city has ever seen.

For the Fourth of July Festival, join whatever the city is doing.

Serve free hot chocolate at the New Year’s Parade.

Build homes with Habitat for Humanity.

Volunteer at the homeless shelter.

Give out free beads at Mardi Gras. (Ok, maybe not that one.)

To effectively reach our culture, we need to stop trying to do our own thing. Instead, go to where the crowds are already gathering. It’s easier, cheaper, and frequently, a lot more fun.

Far too often, churches feel the need to “do our own thing” and we often end up competing with the community we are trying to serve. But if we decide instead to come along side the community, and be present with them in whatever they are doing, then we will build relationship with them and be a true blessing to the community in the way God wants us to be.

In the comment section below, share some ways that you have joined with your community to give presence and bless the community in which you live.

Is our Culture Becoming Post-Christian?

By Jeremy Myers

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I recently read John Burke’s book No Perfect People Allowed. This is another book that every Christian should read.

In the book, he makes the statement that we no longer live in a postmodern era, we now live in a post-Christian era (p. 15).

Is our Society Post-Christian?

Apparently, Christianity has already lost the war against postmodernism.

(I personally don’t think it was a war that ever should have been waged in the first place. Christians are to engage, embrace, and redeem culture, not fight against it.)

In his book, John Burke explains how the church can operate and function in a culture that is “post-Christian.”

Atheists think Christianity is Growing

Ironically, as I was reading this book about how to live as Christians in a post-Christian era, I ran across an exchange between atheist Christopher Hitchens (author of the best-selling book God is Not Great) and Suchin Pak (correspondent for MTV news). She announced to him that our culture was becoming increasingly Christian. She said, “Our audience is more religious and conservative than we assume.”

When he heard this, Hitchens replied, “I really hate to hear that the young are becoming more Christian. If that’s true, that’s the worst news of the night!”

So here we have two leaders both coming to different conclusions about our culture. The Christian says we are becoming post-Christian, while the atheist is alarmed that we are becoming increasingly Christian.

I guess it’s like the debate over global warming. Some say the polar ice caps are melting while others, who note that this it the coldest year in a century, are predicting a new ice age.

So what do you think? What have you observed in your community and with your friends? Is our society and culture “Post-Christian”?

The Great “Post-Christian” Opportunity

If you want to know what I think, the following picture sums it up nicely.

While institutional Christianity is quickly dying, there is rapid expansion in the number of people who are seeking to follow Jesus in organic, missional, relational ways. While the number of people who “go to church” might be decreasing, the number of people who seek to “be the church” is increasing.

In my opinion, this is a good and healthy thing, and provides a great opportunity for a post-Christian church to truly live and love others like Jesus in the world.

The Death of Churchianity is Near!

By Jeremy Myers

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In his book, The Multiplying Church, Bob Roberts writes this:

Let’s start a thousand churches over the next ten years, each one running a minimum of two thousand members, and in just ten years we will turn America upside down with the gospel! That would work, right?

Wrong – that scenario just happened over the past ten years, and there are fewer people in church today than ever before.

How can that be?

How could we have spent billions to start two thousand megachurches and yet have fewer people in church and a society that largely feels the church is antagonistic?

The answer (in my opinion) is that most of the people who start to go to those new churches are not new Christians, but people who were already Christians and who transferred to the new and exciting church. Most of the church plants grew by transfer growth, not church growth. Others have pointed out the supporting statistic that every year about 4,000 churches close their doors … forever.

Most “Religious” Groups are Dying

Then today, I was reading an article called “Change-Seekers” in World Magazine, which summarized the major study of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (available here). The study revealed that currently only 51% of Americans are “Protestant,” down from 60-65% in the 1970s. The only “religious group” actually increasing in numbers are those who identify themselves as “non-religious.” They comprise 16% of America, and have nearly doubled in number since the 1980s. Then the author of the article says this:

Despite the church growth movement and the proliferation of megachurches, evangelical Christianity is losing ground. Growing churches often have high turnover. [Are they going to other new churches with a better show?] The issue is not how to gain new members but how to keep the ones churches already have.

Christians are Anemic

In The Multiplying Church Bob Roberts says that problem our churches face is that we are not seeing true life transformation in those who attend our churches.

I found this insightful, especially since on Friday, I read a book by Neil Cole called Cultivating a Life for God in which he reveals a way of discipling people which has resulted in amazing life transformation in the people that have done it worldwide. But the beauty of what he proposes is that this life transformation does not depend on the systems and structures that have come to be known as “church.” Instead, his proposal is simple, free, and easily reproducible. I just started reading his newest book, Search & Rescue, which appears to be an updated remix of Cultivating a Life for God.

It is my opinion that the way we do “church” today is more often than not a hindrance to the spread of the gospel and the making of disciples.

The Death of Churchianity

The death of churchianity is coming, and while it saddens me when churches close, I am also excited because I believe that a new movement of God is coming upon His people whereby we throw off the things that hinder what He is doing in our lives, communities, and countries, and embrace a new (actually old) way of being the church.

This new/old way will not need millions of dollars to sustain itself the way churchianity does.

It will live out the gospel among the people of this world by serving, living, and loving them, rather than just teaching facts.

Unlike churchianity, this new way of following Jesus will transform lives and communities. It will not require advanced degrees of education, high-powered leadership structures, costly buildings, expensive advertising, salesmanship routines, light shows and Hollywood gimmicks.

Those who leave churchianity won’t need experts to interpret Scripture for us, or to organize our discipleship programs and outreach events. Following Jesus outside churchianity won’t be limited to a single day, or a particular event.

When churchianity dies, we will stop going to church and simply be the church, the body of Christ. The death of churchianity precedes the resurrection of the church.

Therefore, since churchianity is dying, and we shouldn’t fight it. Churchianity is on life support and is begging us to pull the plug (which is why I wrote my book, Close Your Church for Good.

And as Churchianity fades away, I am beginning to see glimmers of light as the grime from centuries of tradition is scrubbed away, and the glory of God begins to manifest itself among groups of Christians who just want to live life like Jesus in their communities.

(Note: After writing this post, I learned that before he died, Michael Spencer wrote a book called Mere Churchianity. I haven’t read it, but it looks good.)

They Don’t Like Jesus or the Church

By Jeremy Myers

6 Comments

A while back I read Dan Kimball’s They Like Jesus, but Not the Church. I highly recommend this book since it does reflect the thinking of a lot of people in our communities. However, I ran into a whole group of people today who don’t think much about Jesus either. They don’t like Jesus OR the church!

My family and I attended the Scarborough Renaissance Faire today in Waxahachie, TX. We went last year, and loved it so much, we bought a season pass this year. Today was opening day.

One of the things that amazed me last year, and was impressed upon me again today, is the amazing community of this place. I have never, in my entire life, witnessed such a close-knit and fun-loving community as I have seen at this Faire. I ache to find a group of believers that can even come close to such a sense of community as this. They are an odd bunch of people, with strange clothing, behaviors, and language, but they all love each other and welcome everybody, even those who are very different from them with wide open arms. The church has a lot to learn in this area.

Anyway, as we were strolling around, taking it all in, we came upon a certain vendor booth where they were selling juggling sticks. I have always been amazed by this, so stood there watching. One of the stick twirlers (Lance), came over and offered to teach my whole family how to do it. As we learned, we talked.

He soon found out I was a pastor, and immediately began calling me “Pastor Jeremy.” As we talked, it turned out that he has a pretty pessimistic view of the future of humanity. I said, “I don’t know… I’m pretty hopeful.”

He said, “Why? What is your hope in?”

You can’t ask for a better opening than that, so I said, “My hope is in Jesus.”

He looked at me like I was crazy. “Jesus!? Yeshua the Carpenter? That Jesus? You hope in him? How can a dead guy help us today?”

I decided to not get into the resurrection yet, and so said, “Well, as people believe in Him for eternal life, and live their lives according to His example and teachings, their lives are changed, and whole communities and even countries can be changed for the better.”

He said, “Who sold you that lie? I have never met a single person whose life was significantly changed for the better because they followed the teachings of Jesus. Jesus was a fraud, and so is the Bible, and so are his followers.”

I was astonished. He has been living in the United States his entire life, and has never met anybody who he thought had been positively influenced by Jesus! So I asked him what his hope was in, and we talked for about another 20 minutes or so about his lifelong search for truth which culminated in discovering the Mayan seven-fold spirit agreement and how, like trees, we can dig our spirits deep into the earth, and throw the energy up into the atmosphere.

I really didn’t understand most of what he was talking about.

He said he learned all this from his spiritual adviser/babysitter named Merril. I also met Merril, who hasn’t cut his hair in 38 years, is missing most of his teeth, and talks a lot about Mayan calendars and spiritual auras.

Lance gave me the name of a free online movie to watch which he said would open my eyes. I have already watched the first 15 minutes and am excited to watch the rest. After I watch it, I’ll make a blog post about it and tell you what what movie it is. I hope that by respecting him and his beliefs, and by watching this movie, he might be open to talking more about Jesus next week when we go back to the Faire.

As I think over my conversation with him today, and after watching only 15 minutes of the movie, I have two questions I want to ask him. First, I want to ask him why he dislikes Jesus. I imagine that the Jesus he dislikes is the Jesus of religion, not Jesus of Scripture. There is a vast difference between the two.

If this turns out to be the case (that he has a skewed view of Jesus), then I want to ask him if, in his lifelong quest for truth, he has ever read about Jesus from Scripture, rather than just hearing about Jesus from others.

Anyway, I hope to build a friendship with him over the next six weeks, which I hope will last for many years, and maybe allow our family to become friends with others at the Faire. These people are some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met in my life! I wonder if they need a Faire Friar…

Holy Crap

By Jeremy Myers

8 Comments

I finished reading Vince Antonucci’s book I Became a Christian and all I got was this Lousy T-shirt with my wife tonight. We read through it out loud together. We laughed. We cried. We talked. It was great.

Vince’s book is unique in that he includes Greek word studies about as often as he uses the word “crap.”

Though Vince is already writing his next book (called Guerilla Lovers), I think the third book he should write should be called “Holy Crap.” It would be about how our lives are a mixture of holiness and crapiness, and sometimes, it’s hard to determine which is which. But if we focus on living for Jesus and loving Him, Jesus can take even the crap of our lives, and use it for good. Maybe as fertilizer to help others grow, or for use in the annual Alaskan Moose Poop Festival (I have just put this on my Bucket List. …Do you think they really drink out of those Moose Poop Mugs?).

I don’t know what Jesus can do with the crap in your life, but if your life is like mine, He’s got a lot to work with.

The Truth about Truth

By Jeremy Myers

7 Comments

One of the best ways to reach people for Jesus today is not to try to persuade or convince them through rational arguments and persuasive reasoning.

Certainly, some will respond to this, and so there is a place for it, but the majority of people today are relational in their approach to truth.

Most people are not asking, “Do I want to believe like you do?” but instead are asking, “Do I want to live like you do? Do I want to be like you?”

Whether you agree or not, most people today believe that beliefs result in behavior.

If your behavior stinks, people assume your beliefs stink too, without even knowing what it is you believe.

If you want to convince people of the truth of Christianity, the best way to “argue” it today is not through reason and and rational propositions, but by becoming more and more like Jesus in everything we do.

Since Truth is a person (John 14:6), truth is best learned through knowing that person, Jesus Christ, and truth is best shown by living like Him.

Of course, it is not as easy at it sounds. I am convinced that most of us Christians and many of our churches have a very skewed idea of who Jesus was, so while we think we are living like Jesus, we may actually be living like Judas.

If you want to reach our culture for Jesus, the best (and most biblical) thing you can do is show people Jesus and invite them to follow Jesus with you.

I Like Lance a Lot

The Largest Churches in the World and the Best “Church Planter”

Zeitgeist the Movie

Part 1 of Zeitgeist the movie: Jesus is a Myth

Part 2 of Zeitgeist the movie: US Politicians and Bankers are Robbing the World Blind

Conclusion (My take on Zeitgeist the movie)

Sobering up from Consumerism

Give Presence

“What is your best marketing and/or outreach idea for under $500?”

Give Presence

Is our Culture Becoming Post-Christian?

Is our Society Post-Christian?

Atheists think Christianity is Growing

The Great “Post-Christian” Opportunity

The Death of Churchianity is Near!

Most “Religious” Groups are Dying

Christians are Anemic

The Death of Churchianity

They Don’t Like Jesus or the Church

Holy Crap

The Truth about Truth

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