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Would you believe me if I said I have never seen an episode of “The Simpsons”? It’s true. Not one. Nor Beavis and Butthead. Nor The Family Guy. Nor whatever “adult” cartoon is currently popular.

Anyway, I did find this funny though:

Obviously, Jesus did not die so that people could show up and sit in a pew on Sunday morning and snore during the sermon.

But here’s the real question: Did Jesus die so that people could show up and sit in a pew on Sunday morning and listen attentively to a sermon?

Of course not!

This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t sit in a pew on Sunday morning… I’m not saying that. All I am saying is that “attending church” on Sunday morning is not the final goal of Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection.

Yet if that’s true, why is Sunday church service attendance the one event that gets the most attention, the most glory, and the most energy poured into every week around the world?

I’m just askin’…

18 Questions for Re-Imagining the Church

By Jeremy Myers

18 Comments

I spent a few posts this week (Questioning the Church, Extreme Church Makeover, What if You Were God?) talking about how you and your church and figure out what God wants you to do in your community with your time, energy, and money.

Part of this process involves imagining different ways of being church, different ways of loving others, and different ways of serving our neighbors.

Some people calling this “casting vision” but in my opinion, the word “vision” is one of those overused churchy buzzwords which makes most people gag. So following the ideas presented in books by Walter Brueggemann and Greg Boyd, I invite you to imagine what the church can be and do.

Imagine new ways of being the church, living within the Kingdom of God, loving others, serving the needy, and revealing Jesus Christ to others.

Here are some great “What if” questions to move you in the right direction: (Note: So I don’t pull a Driscoll… These 18 questions for re-imagining the church originally came from a post by Kevin Bussey in 2008, but I can no longer find that post.)

What would happen if…

Followers of Jesus concentrated on sharing their faith with a lost and dying world?
Followers of Jesus prayed for the church across the street?
Churches didn’t see other churches as competition but as allies?
Churches rejoiced when another church is thriving?
We realized our view might be wrong?
Their church is just as important to God as yours?
We recognized God likes variety?
Followers of Jesus didn’t shoot their wounded?
We acted like Grace really is amazing?
We give Grace beyond the point of conversion?
We realized God likes worship–no matter what the style is?
Churches in a community partnered with each other to reach the lost and hurting people that God has given to them?
Churches didn’t criticize other churches?
Followers of Jesus didn’t nit-pick other believers, churches or ministries?
Followers of Jesus became part of the solution rather than being the problem?
We really prayed…?
Followers of Jesus could put aside differences in order to minister to a dying world?
Followers of Jesus really became one?

Do you have any questions to add to this list? Include them in the comments below? How do you and your church seek to find new ways to share the love of Jesus with others?

What if you were God? How Would you Set up Church?

By Jeremy Myers

14 Comments

As I try to dream and imagine what kind of “church” model best fits my personality and the cultural and historical context in which I find myself, I have slowly yet systematically stripped away everything I know and believe about how church has been traditionally done, and even how it is being done in the most innovative and progressive churches of our day.

In the process, I have found one question to be more helpful than anything else. It is a helpful question in developing a vision for church, but a dangerous question due to where it might lead. Do you want to ask it?

First, before you can ask the question, you have to clear your mind of everything you think you know about church. Start with as blank a slate as possible. Then, you have think about everything you know about God’s character: His mercy, love, grace, righteousness, and justice. You have to be willing to let people be people. You cannot coerce people, or force them to do what you want.

With “church” gone, and your mind filled with the character of God, ask yourself this question:

If I were God, how would I want church to look?

In other words, if you were God, and you were dreaming up how you wanted the church to be, and what you wanted the church to do in this world, how would it look? Since all power and knowledge are at my disposal, how would “church” look? What instructions would you provide?

What non-negotiables would you require? What would be the best way for God to expand His rule over the earth?

Once you have done this sort of brainstorming, look at your description.

That is the kind of church God wants you to be. You have just discovered what God might want to do in this world through you.

When Jesus came to this earth, He came to reveal God to us, and when He left, He told us to do the same thing. We need to reveal God to the world, and live like God to the world, to live the way we think God would live.

This way of visioning the church can also be applied to other theological and missional questions which are not necessarily about the church, but about God’s work in the world. For example, let’s say that you want to end global poverty. How would you do it if you were God? Rain down money from the sky? Is free money really the answer for the world’s poor? Maybe there is a better, wiser way to end global poverty. If so, what is that better way?

None of this, of course, means that your answers are the right answers, or that your solutions are the best way forward. But this process gets you thinking in a visionary way.

Here is a video where people ask this sort of question. Interestingly, God has actually done some of the things the people suggest… but the most beautiful thing about the video is to see their eyes light up and wonder about the possibility.

Guess what? By trying to do some of the things we imagine God should be doing, God is actually doing those things through us!

Extreme Church Makeover

By Jeremy Myers

20 Comments

You know those “Extreme Makeover” TV shows? They have the Extreme Home Makeover where they completely remodel a house, and the regular “Extreme Makeover” where they transform a person.

I watched one of the regular Makeover shows a few weeks ago where they took some “loser” dads and turned them into “cooler” dads. It was amazing to watch the outward transformation take place. One long-haired, bearded, overweight trucker ended up looking like a CEO of a Fortune 500 Company. They did the same thing with several other men on the show.

But I had to wonder if the changes in clothes and hair styles were going to make these men better husbands and better dads.

I kind of doubt it.

There is something similar going on in Christianity today.

There is an attempt in Christianity today to resurrect the church out of the dredges of irrelevance by making it “cooler” than the way church was a decade ago.

Churches have cooler names, like “The Summit” and “Mars Hill.” We install top of the line sound and video equipment to make the “church service” seem more like a concert. Every room is equipped with plasma large-screen TVs. The pastor wears jeans and a t-shirt and says “Dude” a lot. If you don’t make it to church, you can watch the sermon on your iPod instead.

However, in all of the effort to become cool and relevant, is the church becoming more effective? The answer depends on how you define “effective.”

For the church to become effective the way the Bible defines it, it’s going to take a lot more (or a lot less…) than blue jeans and plasma screens.

Questioning the Church

By Jeremy Myers

18 Comments

When it comes to church, the Bible teaches a lot more and a lot less than we think it does. The main things we think of as “church” may not be biblical at all, while the parts we disregard and neglect, may be the central truths to church.

To get at which is which, I suggest questioning the church. We must question everything. We must put the church up on the rack, and interrogate it. …Maybe that image goes too far, but you get the picture.

The three most simple questions are “Why? Where? What if?”

Ask “Why?” About Church

First, we have to ask why churches do what they do. Why do we meet on Sunday? Why do we have building? Why do we have sermons, and Sunday school, and music? Why?

A fun exercise is to take any one thing the church does, and ask “Why?” seven times. See what you come up with.

Ask “Where?” regarding Scriptures About the Church

If in asking “Why?” you ever answer, “Because the Bible says so” then you must bring out the second question, and ask “Where?”

Where does the Bible actually say what you think it says? Are you sure it says what you have always been taught?

If you do find a passage that seems to support the church practice in question, you need to do some serious Bible study to make sure it really says what you think it says, and you’re not just using it as a proof text.

I recently talked with a man who says that all churches must have big, expensive, luxurious buildings because the Temple was big, expensive, and luxurious. Well, he’s right about the temple, but is that really what God is saying to us today? Long hours of study are required to find out.

Another popular idea today is that “true” Christians must attend a church building on Sunday morning to truly be part of the church. Does the Bible really say this? Where? And don’t try to quote Hebrews 10:25… it doesn’t say what you think it does.

Ask “What if?” About Church

As we are asking the “Why?” and “Where?” questions, it is helpful to begin a list of “What if?” questions. Asking “What if?” helps us envision another way of being the church that will enable us to look, live, and love more like Jesus.

For example, if we asked “Why does the church meet on Sunday?” and found that there was really no good Biblical reason why, then we can ask, “What if the church met on another day of the week?” Of course, if you did find biblical justification for meeting on Sunday (as you might), you can still ask “What if we didn’t meet on Sunday?”

If we asked, “Why do churches have buildings?” and realized there was not good Biblical requirement for church buildings, we can ask, “What if the church did not have a building?”

It is this final stage that you can begin to dream, and plan, and create a vision for what the church could be. This is where we plan, pray, and stay up until 3 am talking about how great things could be.

After asking all these questions, what will church look like in the end? Truthfully, there is no end. This process is never ending. We will always be reinventing, refining, recasting, revising. That’s the fun of it.

What aspect of church have you questioned recently?

Is it loving to say, “You’re Going to Hell”?

By Jeremy Myers

41 Comments

I have been studying the doctrine of hell recently, and by coincidence, ran across the following video.

The quality is pretty bad, but you don’t really need the images to get the… horror of it… Not the horror of hell, but the horror that Christians would use such tactics to try to scare people into heaven.

What makes it worse is that this video is obviously geared toward High School Students. The video is called “A Letter from Hell.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFZ1pt0WX5c

Yikes!

I recently heard of a church that at a Youth Rally had 100% conversion. The speaker passed out little pieces of paper and had everyone write their name on their paper. Then he brought up two garbage cans, and in one, put some paper and lighter fluid and lit the thing on fire. Then he told the kids that the flaming trashcan represented hell, and the other represented heaven. He had the kids line up, and pass by the cans putting their piece of paper in the can where they wanted to go when they died…

Amazingly, not a single kid put his name in the flaming can! Instead, everyone wanted to go to heaven. The church reported that 100% of the kids at the rally were converted.

Now that’s evangelism success.

…Or is it?

Last week, Mark Driscoll tweeted that all unbelievers are going to hell.

https://twitter.com/PastorMark/status/421674123132416000

Thanks for clearing that up, Mark. We wondered where you stood on this issue and am glad you gave the watching world yet another reason to realize how kind and loving we Christians are…

But seriously, Mark’s point was that it is loving to tell people they are going to hell.

I know, I have heard the arguments:

If a man was about to drive his car off a cliff, the loving thing to do is to warn him. So also with hell. If a person is headed for hell, the loving thing to do is warn them.

If that’s true, then why did Jesus talk about hell so little? Why is it rarely (if ever) mentioned by Paul or Peter? The New Testament authors do not try to scare people into heaven with threats of hell.

OK, some of you Bible scholars are thinking to yourself, “Jeremy doesn’t read his Bible. Doesn’t he know that Jesus talks about hell more than He talks about heaven?”

Yes, I know that this is what some people claim. But it simply isn’t true. The passages where Jesus mentions “weeping and gnashing of teeth” are not talking about hell, but about profound regret for a life poorly lived that some Christians will experience at the Judgment Seat of Christ (cf. Matt 8:12; 22:11-13). Most of the references to “fire” in Jesus’ teaching are not about hell, but about some sort of temporal divine discipline; not eternal conscious torment.

I think maybe the only place Jesus talks about hell is with the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (which is likely a parable), and when Jesus says that hell was made for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41), and sadly, some people end up there as well.

…Speaking of which…. if hell was made for the devil and his angels, why are they on the earth now? Hmmm…. simmer on that one for a while.

Look, when Jesus, Paul, Peter, John and everyone else in the New Testament sought to invite people into the family of God, they did it winsomely. They didn’t threaten or coerce. God does not force people to love Him. God does not rape.

Even in the early church, people became Christians because they saw how loving and generous the Christians were (see Acts 2-3).

Look, people are never going to truly respond to the Gospel if you tell them that unless they accept Jesus they will be going to hell. Many people are already living in hell, and they think God has done this to them, and another such threat from God only reinforces there idea of this angry God up in the clouds who is out to kill and hurt them. Do we seriously want people to “come to Jesus” with this sort of picture of God in their minds?

No!

Not only because it doesn’t “work” but more importantly, because it isn’t true!

God looks like Jesus, and Jesus always loves people into the Kingdom.

You know what is really loving? Not warning people that if they don’t believe in Jesus they will go to hell. That’s not loving, nor does it draw anyone to God or into His Kingdom.

What is really loving is living in such a way that people notice a difference in your life. They see your joy, your grace, your generosity, and your patience in trials. They never sense judgment coming from you, but only acceptance and love. If given the opportunity, you can use words to invite people to follow Jesus with you, and experience the true contentment, peace, and joy that comes from living in such a way.

That is loving, and best of all, it’s true.

Why God Doesn’t Attend Church

By Jeremy Myers

18 Comments

One blog I read is really more of a comic strip. It’s ASBO Jesus.

Sometimes the comic is not really even a comic. Here is a post from a few years ago that I thought was insightful. It assumes that God does not attend church, and records the reasons He gives…

What do you think? Anybody in agreement with God here? Do you think God “attends church”?

Listen to the Drew Marshall Show Today

By Jeremy Myers

4 Comments

I’m on the Drew Marshall show today. Around 11:00 Pacific. You can listen live!

Philip Yancey is the special guest, along with recording artist Jon Brooks, and you don’t want to miss all the other Drew Marshall “autodidact iconoclast” antics. I will be interviewed in the “God blogger” segment of the show. Should be fun!

And hey, the Drew Marshall show is great! It is Canada’s most listened to spiritual talk show, but I wouldn’t be too surprised if it was North America’s most listened to spiritual talk show. I mean, do you know of another spiritual talk show? I don’t.

If you cannot make it, the shows are recorded and are posted later. I will provide the link then.

UPDATE: The Drew Marshall interview went well. There was even a joke about masturbation… Yeah, that’s the Drew Marshall Show… gotta love it! You can listen the interview here.

Here are the links we discussed on the show:

Today is the LAST DAY to download my newest eBook!

By Jeremy Myers

4 Comments

I know I have talked about my newest eBook A LOT this week. Sorry about that.

Actually, no, I am not sorry.

I try not to push my books too much on my blog. I figure that if you like what I write in my blog posts, you are smart enough to buy some of my books if you want to.

I don’t like to pressure anyone into buying my books.

But this week I have put on a lot of pressure. Why? Not because I want you to buy my book, but because I DON’T want you to buy it. I want you to get it for free!

I Don’t Want You to Buy My Book

Seriously, the reason I have written five blog posts this week about my newest eBook is because I don’t want you to have to pay for it.

It has been available on Amazon all week as a free download, but after today, it will never again be free, and I want you to get a free copy before the offer is gone for good.

Even if you don’t think you would ever read this book, or don’t think you ever want to publish a book of your own, go download it anyway. That way, if you ever decide to publish a book, you will have one to read.

Or if you ever have a family member who wants to get published, or if your pastor at church decides to pursue publishing, you will have a book to let them borrow.

I would hate it if next week your neighbor came over to you and said, “I want to get my book published. Do you know of any good books that can give me some suggestions on how to proceed?” and you had to tell them to go buy my book because you neglected to download it when it was free.

Look, I am not going to lie… I like it when people buy my books. I do. It helps pay the bills and cover all the costs of publishing a book like this.

But I also love to give my books away for free when they first come out. Most authors try to rack up as many book sales as possible during that first week of publication, but I try to give away as many books as possible. I can’t apologize for trying to give my books away.

So go download my book on Amazon right now
Also, invite others to do the same using the Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ buttons below. Thanks!

Don’t wait until tomorrow because this free giveaway on Amazon ends tonight, January 3, 2014!

If you want to get future eBooks for free, make sure you sign up for the email newsletter!

10 Reasons You Should Download My Book Publishing Instructions TODAY

By Jeremy Myers

Jesus Died for This?

18 Questions for Re-Imagining the Church

What would happen if…

What if you were God? How Would you Set up Church?

Extreme Church Makeover

Questioning the Church

Ask “Why?” About Church

Ask “Where?” regarding Scriptures About the Church

Ask “What if?” About Church

Is it loving to say, “You’re Going to Hell”?

Why God Doesn’t Attend Church

Listen to the Drew Marshall Show Today

Today is the LAST DAY to download my newest eBook!

I Don’t Want You to Buy My Book

10 Reasons You Should Download My Book Publishing Instructions TODAY

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