According to a report from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, the concept of “denominations” is dying in America. The Pew survey suggests Americans don’t consider the denomination of the church they attend. And 16 percent of Americans aren’t part of any defined denomination.
Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College explained it as “What we’ve been witnessing is a shift from a fixed identity to a fluid identity.”*
How did we get here? In the 90s, we thought people would come back to church if we abandoned the denomination labels. Instead, the word “community” entered the landscape, along with non-descript names from idea marketers: Discovery, Water’s Edge, or LifeSource . Even if those churches were denominationally affiliated, we hid the denomination. I’d say we did it to ourselves.
So what can we learn from this? What do we do?
You could remove the denominational label from your name, but a better strategy is simply to be the kind of church non-denominational congregants are looking for: three quarters are evangelical, and serious about their faith. Many of the rest are in the emergent tradition, more concerned about Biblical authenticity than denominational label.
In short, return to the basics of faith.and preach more about what the Bible says and how it matters to daily life than what’s going on in whatever denomination or affiliate organization. (If you need help, see chapter 4 of Hope for Struggling Churches.)
Ernest Goodman, who calls himself an “unemployed former missionary, after more than six years in Western Europe,” has written about the need for what he calls “contextualization.”
According to Wikipedia, contextualization is “the process of assigning meaning, either linguistic or as a means of interpreting the environment within which an expression or action is executed.” (1)
Goodman says that contextualization is “the active work of translating the gospel into a culture that doesn’t have an indigenous expression of Christianity.” But, he says, “Slapping a new coat of paint on the same old conventions is not contextualization.”
“It won’t do to make your church look like someone else’s. You can’t just steal somebody else’s sermon. You can’t pipe in a great speaker who doesn’t know your context. You must be an expert in the people to whom you minister.” (2)
When I moved to Massachusetts, I joined a small congregation we called ‘a home for misplaced southerners.’ But as we sought to spread the Gospel to our neighbors, we adapted and adopted a Yankee mindset. We turned ourselves into leaven for the local loaf, instead of keeping our distance. (It is now 3 times the size as when I joined, and has a major impact on its town.)
You need to create a church that matches its context. That’s why there are Cowboy churches (often at the fairgrounds or rodeo), truckstop churches, and workplaces Bible studies.
There is nothing wrong with a hymn-singing church if that’s what your community expects; if we all became rock-n-roll, where would the senior saints go? If not for folk church, the mellow souls would just hang at the coffee house. Blessed be the man who hosts heavy metal Christian music on Saturday night. It’s all about wrapping the core gospel in the cloth of the culture and the language of those served.
Jeff Stewart blogs at “Different Cloth.” A former pastor within the traditional church, he is moving to a different paradigm of ministry. (He operates out of the Java Journey Coffee Shop in Hickory, NC.)
In his post on May 17, he quoted Frank Viola – from Viola’s latest book “From Eternity to Here” – as a reference to how he saw being “part of a small cluster of followers who share their gifts and have the freedom to lead and teach as God prompts without conventional barriers in the way.”
In the excerpt, Viola says that Christians are taught to from an individualistic perspective. While we know we must come to faith each one of us – and not rely on the faith of others to get to heaven – we are called to work out our salvation in community. The fullness of Christ comes in the church, the ekklasia. Spiritual gifts are given to individuals, for the work of the church.
Viola says some of the problem is that we have an unbiblical view of what church is.
“Church” has been redefined as the place you attend to be educated and motivated to go out and live a better individual Christian life. Sadly, the individual emphasis in contemporary Christianity has overwhelmed and eclipsed God’s central purpose, which is corporate. To compound the trouble, we have been handed individualistic lenses by which to read, study, and interpret everything in the Bible.
The problem it seems is that modern American Christians see themselves as either individual members of an organization that meets as church only in a specific building.
Stewart is right that the organizational structure often stifles the message of authentic faith. (see his discussion here) But the other extreme -every man/woman/child as a church unto themselves - is also clearly wrong. Those that see themselves as Christian without need of the others that meet in a particular spot lose the strengthening of the gifts given to others they should be meeting with.
I want you to think about how you ask for money for church events, and what you are teaching the people when you do ask.
Are you teaching giving to God out of gratitude for your salvation? Are you teaching a model of sharing what you have for the common benefit of all? Both of those come from a practice of regular tithing – a weekly or biweekly or monthly share of your income.
Or do you fund the church with bake sales and flea markets? Keep reading →
I want to be good at what I do, not like football, where the best are winners, but like a symphony, where the best work together to create something great.
In an earlier post, called “Complainers Care“, I dealt with the issue of a pastor ousting a member who won’t “fall in line” with their “spiritual authority.” I suggested the church should have a method for hearing the input of the members. Not that the church needs to follow everything suggested, but there needs to be a process that those with honest suggestions are listened to.
And you ask, why would I want skateboarders at my church? The answer is clear. Hardcore skateboarders – the ones who do tricks and flips – aren’t generally welcome in a lot of churches. But they are young men (usually) who need Jesus just as much as anyone else, and few people are reaching out to them.
What do you do to reach them?
In North Carolina, a skateboard church is reaching this segment of the population that might have never stepped inside a church under different circumstances.
“We have graffiti on the walls and ramps that go to the ceiling and different things, and we crank loud music when we are skating. But we present the word and we stick by the truth, and what God’s given us in the Bible, we hold to that. We’re given the opportunity to speak to individuals that otherwise don’t get to hear the Gospel.”
At West Seattle’s Skate Church, the approach was to open a skateboard shop, called TORN. Using their non-profit status, they’re able to sell name-brand skate decks at a discount. They also advertise TORN as the best place for candy and energy drinks because the shop is “cheaper than 7-11…closer than Safeway.
“The rectangular store has couches instead of pews, energy drinks and candy instead of coffee and doughnuts, and a drum set and several amps in its worship center. … a place where teens would choose to come and hang out, and not just once a week. He believes “just coming together on Sundays is not church, because church should be something that is happening all the time.”
The message is that you don’t have to be boring to be a Christian, and you don’t have to turn your back on the secular world, only the evil in it. Shiloh Mulkin, 17, gives the reason for using skating to reach people for Jesus: “A lot of the skating scene that I’ve witnessed is drugs and stuff, and we’re just trying to give kids a different alternative,” he says. “We don’t want people to see just smoking and doing drugs and skating, and see them as all together.”
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If you try a skate ministry, remember to spend some time doing real skateboarding, not just skateboarding references in regular sermons. West Seattle’s Boarders for Christ member Scott Yamamura says “When they throw a contest, it’s just a regular contest. It’s not really preaching; they are just supporting skateboarding.”
There is a movement called Simple Church, a neo-Reformationist removal of the structures of the modern Western church, in hopes of being relevant. But others, such as Rick Warren, say you don’t have to toss aside the form of church to be effective. Warren has said (here) that people always need to find meaning and purpose in life, to have the grand mysteries of the universe explained in terms they can understand, and to be part of something important. Simply that.
Simple church is a movement of community. Most are house churches. There is no altar, no baptistery, no pews. The nursery is one of the bedrooms, the fellowship hall is the kitchen. Services are usually conducted in the living room.
I call them “neo-Reformationist” based on practices in many Reformation churches, especially in Switzerland, where the statuary and stained glass were removed. Originally installed as teaching aids to illiterate parishioners, the people had come to revere the icons instead of the principles they stood for. The reformers chose plain white unornamented clapboard buildings with clear glass to keep the focus on the scripture and not the facility.
Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger describe Simple Church as an organizing principle to move people toward spiritual growth, saying that anything that gets in the way of that organizing principle should be discarded. Church becomes decluttered from the programs and ministries that take away from that core function. As Collins (Good to Great) would say, the good things are removed so the right things can be done. (see their notes here.)
But what Rick Warren was saying in his 18-minute “Q-Talk” is that the only organizing principle, the only purpose of a church is to be effective at sharing the Gospel and leading people to maturity in their faith. It doesn’t so much matter what strategy or program you use so long as it matches the people you are trying to reach and it gets results for the Kingdom of God. What matters is if you can connect with people.
Warren quotes Einstein as saying, “You can be brilliant but if you can’t say it in simple ways, it doesn’t, its not worth anything.” You have to speak the language of the people. Not that you can’t describe theology. Not that you have to use all their words. But you do need to address their needs.
If you want a vibrant church, don’t worry about this program or that improvement. Worry about what you say and how you’re involved in the lives of the people of the congregation. Help them deal with the core issues of life. That’s enough.
Although baby boomers and GenX often rejected church, today’s teens want more of it. According to a survey by the Gallup Institute and reported by D. Michael Lindsay, today’s teens are lonely and spiritually hungry, and two thirds are involved in some kind of faith-based youth group.
The Gallup survey showed that 92 percent of teens consider their religious beliefs important to them. A third say faith is the most important influence in their lives. That number goes up to 52 percent for African-American teens. Close to four in ten say they pray alone frequently (42 percent) and read the Bible at least weekly (36 percent).
Teens report a higher or comparable degree of Christian orthodoxy and confidence in the church when compared to their parents or other adults. Ninety-five percent express belief in God, and 67 percent have confidence in organized religion. Over half (55 percent) call themselves “religious,” with an additional 39 percent referring to themselves as “spiritual but not religious.”
If you want a vibrant church, find a way to get the teens involved. A young man in one of my study groups came to faith because our church sponsored a “tough man” demonstration – breaking bricks and boards, bending bars of rebar and living large weights while they shared their faith in Jesus.
That church is now seeking permits to build a skate part as part of a new youth center, in an area where there are no skate parks.
You don’t have to copy those ideas exactly, but you should give accomodation to those who live near your building but don’t yet attend your fellowship. Some have great passion waiting to be channeled. You just have to make room.
In choir tonite we continued learning “Let the Church Rise”. It has such a powerful message to the struggling church and the church in transition that I wanted to share it with you.
Music is a large part of my life. I’ve done just about every kind of job there is in the local evangelical church, and in most of the churches I’ve been part of I sang in the choir. I have also been choir director, children’s choir worker and congregational worship leader several times. When my children were young, I would rock them to sleep singing my favorite hymns. Music – especially worship music – speaks to me.
The words of Israel Houghton & Jonathan Stockstill’s Let The Church Rise are instructive:
We are alive filled with Your glorious life
Out of the dark into Your marvelous life
We are waiting with expectations
Spirit raise us up with You
Let the Church rise from the ashes
Let the Church fall to her knees
Let us be light in the darkness
Let the Church rise
We are moving with His compassion
Spirit fill our hearts with You
Let Your wind blow, Revive us again Lord
And Let the Church rise from the ashes
Let the Church fall to her knees
Let us be light in the darkness
Let the Church rise
It’s a great song, with an easy 6/8 melody. So I went looking for a youtube of the song to share with you. What I found was an unusual mashup – an Anime video to the song.
Anime is the Japanese animation art form that is beginning to take hold around the world (in part due to Pokemon and similar shows). It has roots in ancient Japanese myths (often from Shinto religion), but the themes are universal, generally featuring someone of low status bringing light and power to overcome an evil force.
And so we blend old Christian themes into modern youth animation to let the message “rise from the ashes” as we are “light in the world.”
