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Living in the Kingdom

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Close Your Church for Good. Chap. 3, Part 4. We’re in a chapter called “The Church Must Die.” In it, I have written so far about how most churches tried to spread their message through Public Relations Campaigns which include flyers and advertising. Now we begin to look at a different way to spread the message of the Gospel.

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The message of the Gospel must guide the methods that are used to spread the Gospel. If we haven’t got our message clear, the methods we adopt will always lead us astray. And what is the message? It’s not about politics or power. It’s not about the economy or ecology. It is not about fame and glory. It is not even about how sinful the world is or how a person can get eternal life and go to heaven when they die.

The message of the church is the same as the message of Jesus: that God wants to be involved in their life. This is what Jesus was announcing when He talked so often about the Kingdom of God. He was telling the people that God wanted to set up His rule and reign right in their midst. That God wanted to dwell with them, and among them, to guide, provide, and protect them. This was the message of Jesus.

And the method of Jesus to spread this message is revealing. Though Jesus did teach about it, that method was at best, secondary to His primary method of actually showing through his actions what a life lived under the rule of God looks like. What was the message of Jesus? That the Kingdom of God has come. What was the method Jesus used to spread this message? He lived out the Kingdom of God in His own life.

All this may still be too academic. Let’s bring it down to earth even further. If one wants to characterize God, they could do no better than the way God described Himself to Moses: “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth” (Exod 34:6). This is what God says about Himself and who He is. It would follow then, that if a person is under the reign of God, that is, a part of the Kingdom of God, then their life will resemble these very same characteristics of mercy, grace, patience, goodness, and truth.

And how else could we describe Jesus? He was the embodiment of such traits, which is not surprising, since He was, in fact, God in the flesh. Theologians, with their fascination for big words, call this the “incarnation,” meaning “to be in the flesh.” It may not be the best way of describing Jesus, since Scripturally, the “flesh” if often identified with the “sinful side” of humanity, and Jesus had no sin. Nevertheless, the idea is sound, that God, who is rich in mercy and love, became human in Jesus Christ.

Why? Again, not just to preach or give us doctrine. He could have sent an angel to do that, or dropped a book out of heaven with the thunder booming in the clouds, “Read this book!” But He didn’t. He wanted to tangibly reveal to us what He is like by living among us, touching our pain, healing our heartache, being present in our loneliness, and delivering us from our chains.

Ultimately, of course, He died. This too, was a central part of the Kingdom message. Yet even here, we misunderstand what God was doing in Jesus. We tend to think that His death was only to provide forgiveness as the once-for-all sacrifice for the sins of the world. That certainly is part of what Jesus accomplished on the cross, and cannot be undermined. But it is by no means all that Jesus accomplished. His death on the cross is once again, a way of revealing the message of the Kingdom. And what is the message of Jesus on the cross? That the Kingdom of God is not about power and prominence, greatness and glory. It is about humility, suffering, pain, rejection, and ultimately, death.

Jesus came to show mankind what it looks like to live life under the rule of God. And in so doing, as the pinnacle of this expression, Jesus died. The suffering and rejection of Jesus on the cross is not a catastrophe, but a gateway to the ultimate manifestation of the Kingdom of God on earth. One of the core features of the Kingdom of God is the concept of self-sacrifice in the service of others. This is what Jesus embodied in the Incarnation.

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Are Big Lights Best?

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I read and review a lot of books, and under one of my reviews at Amazon.com, someone criticized my view of mega-churches, and basically told me that “big lights shine brightest.”

I suppose that’s true. After all, look at the sun. Actually, DON’T look at the sun. You’ll go blind.

But his argument was this:

I would say the light that shines farthest is the light that shines brightest at home. If you want to EXPAND the church’s outreach, the bigger you start with, the larger your impact radius can be.

There are so many problems with this way of thinking, it’s hard to know where to begin.

First, let’s agree with his point. Big lights do shine brightest. But does that mean they’re best? It all depends on proximity and purpose. A focused laser can do more damage in less time than the giant sun. Of course, being a few inches from a surgical laser might not kill you, but being that close to the sun sure will. In fact, you’ll never get within a few inches of the sun. You’ll fry long before you get that close. But if you get too far away from the sun, it becomes nothing more than a beautiful pinprick of light in the night sky. We call them stars. Stars are good for romantic nights and navigation, but not for too much else.   

And let’s talk about usefulness also. I’ve already talked about lasers. But let’s get less technological. Imagine a man freezing to death in the Antarctic. Are you going to tell him, “Thank God the sun is shining 23 hours a day!” Of course not. It’s a huge ball of flame, for sure, but so what? It’s not helping. What he needs is a nice little fire up close. Does he need it for the light? No. He needs it for the heat. He would trade all the light of the sun right then for a pile of wood and a tiny match.

Is there a place for big lights? Yes. I really do thank God for the sun and for mega-churches. But are big lights the only ones we need? No. Should all small lights want to be big lights? No. Are big lights best? No.

The issue is not how big the light is, but what the light is doing. And what does God say our light should do? Isaiah 58 is one suggestion: 

Loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, set the oppressed free and break every yoke. …Share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter– when you see the naked, clothe him.

In other words, be a small little match to a freezing man. Big lights may be bright, but that doesn’t mean they’re best.

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Breaking the Rurals

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Do you pastor a church in Rural America? One book you could read is Transforming Church in Rural America by Shannon O’Dell. I have always had a passion and a heart for rural churches and have previously pastored two rural churches. So when I received O’Dell’s book from Booksneeze to review, my first thought was, “Finally! A book for the rest of us!” It seems most books on church health focus on the big and popular churches, forgetting that about 90% of American churches have 100 people or less. Rural pastors and rural churches have to define “success” in a different way that metropolis mega-churches. I was hoping that O’Dell’s book would be a step in that direction.

And was it? Well…kind of. He still emphasized the importance of numerical growth. It didn’t take him long to point out that even rural churches can go from 50 people to over 2000 if they just follow a few simple steps like he did (pp. 17-18). Sigh. 

For the most part, Transforming Church in Rural America is just another book touting the mega-church mentality, but repackaged for a rural setting.  It was kind of confusing, however, because later in the book he stated that smaller churches tend to be healthier churches, and God loves to work in obscurity (p. 168). But two pages later, he goes back to talking about numbers, and a bit later, how his church reached over 24,000 people in 110 days. So…is smaller actually better or not?

Having said that, it’s still a good book to help rural pastors overcome some of the unique challenges they may face, such as bringing about change, the importance of family, and hiring staff from the inside.

The best part of the book is pages 80-84, where I believe he touches on the dire need of all churches worldwide, not just in the sticks, but also in cities. He says this:

Flat out, I want as many homosexuals, drug addicts, divorcees, and alcoholics as possible darkening the doors of Brand New Church, because those people want and need change. I want to associate with everything that is disassociated with the church in rural America, because I know that is when God shows up. I want to see the pregnant 17-year-old who was kicked out of her Christian school attend worship. I want the guys whose pickups rattle with the sound of empty beer cans to come one Sunday and decide to stay. I want the woman who has been going from bed to bed trying to find true love to attend and learn about the authentic love God has for her. Because when they show up, God shows up to impact their lives.

So true. Of course, even here, the numbers game has reared it’s ugly head. I would argue that it is not about getting people like this to show up at our church, but rather, getting the members of our church to show up in the lives of people like this. Who cares if they ever “come to church”? What I want is the church to go to them. O’Dell kind of says something along these lines on p. 84:

…Please understand: it is really not about the ten families that have been there forever. It is about the families that will never experience a relevant gospel and never meet the living God unless someone with vision shows up and starts preaching the gospel with their words and their life. Yeah, most rural churches say they want to grow, and they think they want to grow, but they really don’t. They don’t want a real pastor — a true and dedicated shepherd to lead them into new fields of harvest — they want somebody to pacify them, tell them what they already know, and keep things the way they are.

So over all, even though Shannon O’Dell has simply tweaked the mega-church mentality for a rural setting, the book contains many good things that will be helpful for any pastor in a rural church. I recommend this book.

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101010

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In the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” a computer answers the ultimate question about life, the universe, and everything. When the computer finally spits out the answer, it is “42.” Of course, it took so long for the computer to answer the question that the people had long since forgotten what the question was. But at least they knew the answer: 42.

Well, guess what? Today is 42.

Yes, that’s right. Today is 10-10-10, which in binary is 101010, or 42.

So I guess today is the day. Make it count!

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Church, Parenthood, and Baseball

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My wife and I love watching the NBC show Parenthood. We are, after all, parents. It’s a great show about life, love, and the struggles and challenges of parenting. We watch it through NBC.com, rather than on TV (less commercials that way).

Tonight we watched Episode 3 from Season 2. If you scroll through to about 29:30, there is a great little dialogue between Crosby, one of the fathers, and Renee, his mother-in-law. She thinks he should take his son, Jabar, to church on Sunday, and he wants to take Jabar to a baseball game. Here is the exchange:

Renee: You’ll forgive me if I don’t applaud when you want to take Jabar to a baseball game.

Crosby: Well now, hold on. You love your church and your church rocks, and I’m glad I got to go. But my family, we went to the baseball game every Sunday, and we sat together on the bleachers, and we cheered together, and my dad narrated the whole thing, and it was special. It was our ritual.

Renee: So baseball is your church? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?

Crosby: …Yeah.

Renee: That’s ridiculous.

Crosby: Hold on. That’s not ridiculous. I want my son Jabar to have the same experience with all the other people and the camaraderie. So I disagree.

As I heard this, I was reminded of something I read recently by Jacques Ellul in his book, The Presence of the Kingdom. He said, “In a civilization which has lost the meaning of life, the most useful thing a Christian can do is to live” (p. 77).

Crosby and Ellul are saying the same thing. In a culture like ours, as important as it might be for some people to enter a building where they sing songs and listen to a sermon, it is just as important to others to go to a baseball game and cheer on the home team…especially if it brings family together and strengthens bonds of love and care. Churches often talk about bringing families together, but if we’re honest, the simple act of “attending church” rips a lot of families apart. And along the same lines, if worship of God is to pervade everything in life, can’t attending a baseball game with your family and friends also be true worship?

I’m convinced Ellul is correct. One of the best things Christians can do in our time is just to live life. With each other. With family. With friends. With Jesus. That is the greatest witness we can have and the greatest worship we can give.

If you want to watch the video, here it is:

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