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.
You got that right, dude!
Thankis, Dude! Ha
Sounds cool, dude!
You too, dude! 😉
I won’t call you dude, but I will say I agree with you, churches need a lot more than just an external facelift to become relevant again. You know how I feel about this, but my biggest wish is that instead of spending all that money on making bigger better productions out of their meetings, they would instead invest that money in making a real difference in their communities. Love you, brother,
FedEx
If we want a production, we go to the theater. If we want church, we go to the street. The street may not be as pretty, but that’s where we find Jesus walking among his people.
Hey pastor, you are right on. A facelift has not changed Cher at all, for example. We are supposed to be acting like the family of God, not a corporation. That does not necessitate we only have home-churches, or gather in the parks, yet these were acceptable options even with the organized Synagogues and meetings at the Temple and discussions on Solomon’s porch. Economic study tells us for every dollar invested in a local community, it generates at least 5 dollars in spending – which is the biggest argument against the way Tribal casinos are set up where the most money leaves the local community permanently.
Your comment got my brain in gear, after reading the “dude’s” article. hahah My wife and I have been experiencing difficulty getting together with other believers because she goes into shock due to man-made chemical fragrances (from scented air polluters, laundry soaps, bath soaps, cleaning supplies, common colognes and such, etc.. Then there are all the other issues on top of that. But if we can’t get in the door, how do we fellowship and worship together? So even meeting on the streets can still be a problem for those like us who are disregarded by the majority in the pews and in the administration. I could go by myself, and have done so, but this implies its okay to separate my wife and I from being the “one-flesh” disciple we became by marrying.
If we act like family, and who doesn’t face difficulties with that on some scale, we might see through the fog we have generated. I have a lot of relatives, and we don’t all agree on everything. But we can still manage to function and relate with each namely due to most of us being born of God.
Peace to all who walk by the rule of the new creation, and on all who are “children of Abraham” in context of the New Testament teachings. Thanks be to God.
Edwin,
What you guys are doing there at your church is an inspiration to me. I LOVE it! May more church groups follow your example.
As always, you are right on point. When talking to the “cool” religious people of the day, didn’t He call them white-washed tombs?
that look clean on the outside, and are filthy on the inside. Yup.
Hmm. I never thought of the Pharisees as the “cool” religious people of Jesus’ day, but you are right. Everybody looked up to them, hung on their every word, and wanted to be as holy and righteous as they were.
Hey Jeremy,
I don’t seem to recieve your mails of new posts any more. I don’t recall me singing out of your mailings, so any idea what the problem could be?
Taco,
Not sure. Try resubscribing there on the sidebar? Or maybe check your spam folder?
LOL! My wife goes to a church named “The Summit”! And middle-aged pastors dressed like twenty-somethings always gave me the creeps in a pedophile kinda way.
As for rockin’ bands, lights, the whole Vegas Revue thing…I have to admit that it was just that type of church (along with the “pedo-pastor” described above) that I started going to and was eventually saved in. I left shortly after that, but their evangelistic techniques did reel me in.
Oops…sorry for the big pic. I thought I was setting my profile pic. Anyway, that’s me n’ my trusty Les Paul.
Yes, these groups do have their roles within the Kingdom of God. I probably shouldn’t pick on them too much! I just get tired of people holding up such groups as the WAY to do church. It isn’t the only way, or even the best way.
I can only think of Jesus’ statement to Peter ‘upon this rock I will build my church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it’. Of course the rock was Peter’s confession. But my point is/the church is effective when it gets people confessing that truth and of course, then hell ha no prevailing power there.
Yes, and hell will not prevail against the church when we take the light and love of Jesus out into the alleys and street corners of our cities and towns. Then hell will have no power there either.
The Church has always been redefining itself, if we take the long-view of history. The problem namely is that folks are not familiar with, and/or don’t care, about history because they think with a worldly-influenced mindset. And we must not forget there are tares in the field. We cannot build up the Body by acclimating the churches to the world. Jeremy, you are doing great in pointing these things out and I really appreciate coming to your blog and reading. I am glad there are disciples coming to comment here also.
We cannot facilitate God’s will for maturing and developing the Body of Christ if we simply try to make a new Tradition. And there is no legitimate form of “non-Tradition”… its oxymoronic as having an organized Anarchists weekly forum at a college, or trying to get meaning and purpose by studying Camus and Absurdism. Just recall, at one time the fashion and technology the strict Amish use was one time the latest and newest thing on the block. Now they are frozen in time. If Jesus is still the Lord of the Church, Head of the Body, we need to get out of His way and go out as servants doing what we are directed to. This has always been the stumbling block, even for the first disciples and even the Apostles.
Peace in Him. Out!
your fellow suffering-servant
PS. We do not live in a Post-Christian world, the Kingdom of God continues in our midst as we live as strangers and aliens. Jesus has not stopped pitching his tent with us.
Great points. Yes, the church has always been redefining itself. Some think this is bad and that we should go back to the way things were back “____” (fill in the blank).
But I think that it is okay for the church to change it’s form, so that it can be more effective in culture. We should not ever change our function, of course!