What a great weekend. As I mentioned in the post preceding this one, my dad and I had the privilege of teaching at the Bay Area men’s retreat over the weekend. I was humbled and honored to share a few of the things I’ve learned in the past few years with good men, many of whom I’ve looked up to for a long time. It was also great getting to teach with my dad – I love he and my mom very much, and enjoy spending as much time with them as I can (unfortunately mom wasn’t on this trip, but I’ll be seeing her at the Pepperdine Lectures soon, Lord willing). Seeing my in-laws was a joy too – Airiel and I took a couple of vacation days just to hang out with them.
The men’s retreat was excellent. Several of the guys told me it was one of the best retreats they’d ever been to, and I must say, Jim Woodell’s lessons on grace and the gospel were very, very good. His was some of the clearest teaching on God’s grace I’ve heard. I was also pleased with the way my lessons turned out, but I’ll leave it to someone else to judge their quality.
Here’s all the material from the retreat – please take advantage of it. I encourage you to download the PowerPoint presentations to follow along with the lessons.
What’s the most important question one can ask, and how does its answer affect what’s really at the center of a person’s life? A guide to living a Christ-centered life. Explanation and personal evaluation tool (Life Map) included. Highly recommend following along with the PowerPoint presentation if you choose to listen to this lesson.
If you’re in a rut spiritually, it could be because you’ve lost touch with the cross. This lesson takes a hard look at the crucifixion of Jesus and what it means for us.* God won’t be compartmentalized in your life if the gospel stays in the forefront of your mind (if you believe it, that is).
*Major source: Mark Driscoll’s Vintage Jesus lesson 6 – one of my favorite preachers preaching one of my favorite sermons.
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Please share these lessons with anyone you believe would benefit from them.
I read a good article on sermoncentral.com this morning written by a seasoned pastor named Joe McKeever entitled 10 Reasons Small Churches Tend to Stay Small.
I really appreciate Mr. McKeever’s take on church growth. Here’s his explanation:
By using the word “grow,” I do not mean in numbers for numbers’ sake. I do not subscribe to the fallacy that bigness is good and small churches are failures. What I mean by “grow” is reaching people with the gospel of Jesus Christ … any church—large or small—that does not place a high value on evangelism and outreach to the unchurched can’t expect to grow…period.
Growth is not getting members of other congregations to switch to yours. Growth is reaching the lost, and to that I say Amen.
The article goes on to highlight the top ten reasons small churches tend to stay small. Here’s each point with a brief explanation:
1. Wanting to Stay Small
According to McKeever, no one ever verbally says, “We want to stay small,” but actions speak for themselves. If new ideas are constantly rejected and new people are frozen out of the inner fellowship, it could be because church members simply don’t want their church to get bigger. Growing larger would mean things would change, and familiarity is comfortable. Personal comfort is more important than mission in churches that want to stay small.
2. A Quick Turnover of Ministers
If a church is turning over ministers every couple of years, that’s a problem. It takes a while for a new minister to build trust with the church members. If trust isn’t built, ministers are ineffective.
3. Domination by a Few Strong Members
If a minister leaves a church and a leadership vacuum develops, a strong member or two will often step in to help out without the intent taking over the church. But Joe says “taking over” is often what inadvertently happens. This strong individual or small group “takes care of things” while the church searches for a new minister. If the newly hired minister leaves after a short time, the same people step in to “take care of things” again, and now there’s a veiled authority structure in the church every new minister coming in will have to deal with. Instead of being able to lead, McKeever says new ministers are told “that’s not the way we do things around here” by the behind-the-scenes authorities derailing plans.
4. Not Trusting the Leaders
McKeever says:
I’ve seen this phenomenon occur in small churches (and never in large ones) at the monthly business meetings. In the small-and-determined-to-stay-small church, discussion centers on why 35 cents was spent on call-forwarding and $2.00 on paper for the office. Leaders and pastors alike are always frustrated that the congregation doesn’t trust them with $20.00, let alone $200.00.
The determined-to-stay-small church is far more concerned about the dollars and cents in the offering plate than about the lost souls in the community. This church would never step out in faith and do something bold to reach the lost and unchurched, and if they did, unless their mindset changed, they would then harass their leaders into the grave demanding an accounting of every dime spent.
If money is more important than mission, that’s a problem.
5. Inferiority Complex
This is that attitude that says, “We can’t do anything because we’re small.” As a result, no dreaming takes place. A preacher I look up to once said, “You ought to set God-sized goals for your life. A God-sized goal is a goal that’s so big, so huge, so massive, that it will only be accomplished if God is involved! Set it, take action to achieve it, and pray for God to get involved!” The same principle applies to churches.
If a church group never dreams, if a church group never develops a desire to be part of something bigger than themselves, it could be because they’re suffering from an inferiority complex that says, “We’re not good enough, talented enough, wealthy enough, whatever enough,” and they never try. Or they compare themselves to other churches: “We’re not X church with Y resources, so we can’t do Z.” Not only does this attitude show the people making up the church group don’t believe in themselves, they’re also displaying a lack of faith in God. After all, He can do the impossible!
6. No Plan
Going along with #5, small churches that stay small usually have no solid plans for the future. If you ask church members what the vision for their church is, they’ll often give you blank stares in return. With no vision and plan for achieving it, there’s no forward momentum – only stagnation.
7. Bad Spiritual Health
As McKeever puts it, if a church group is more well-known for a list of things they do and don’t do instead of the characteristics and attributes of Christ, then that group is sick. Churches should mirror Jesus. Just because a church is small doesn’t mean it’s sick, but more often than not if a church is sick it’ll be small (and will tend to stay that way).
8. Lousy Fellowship (Inwardly Focused Instead of Outwardly Focused)
This describes a church group that may be friendly to outsiders, but they aren’t real friends to outsiders. In other words, they may say “hi,” but they won’t go out of their way to develop real relationships. It’s nearly impossible for a guest to plug in to the inner circle of a church where this type of fellowship exists no matter how hard they try, so instead of sticking around they leave.
9. A State of Neglect Permeates the Church Building
McKeever says a building in shabby shape is often a sign of something deeper: “a dying church that doesn’t tend to its business.” The attitude prevalent here is one of apathy. When you get down to it, the church members don’t really care that much, and it shows in the facilities. Believe it or not, environment communicates a whole lot to outsiders before anyone says a word to them.
10. No Prayer
McKeever says this is simply a choice – “pray or quit.” If a church is reaching the lost, God is involved. Want Him to get involved? Ask. Don’t want Him involved? Don’t ask. Simple, yet oft overlooked.
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There’s a lot more to McKeever’s article than the brief synopsis I’ve given you here. If you’re interested, I encourage you to read the whole thing for yourself. I’m adding it to my list of church revitalization resources.
I do, however, see a flaw in McKeever’s reasoning. Namely, his focus is almost solely on “the church members” – he doesn’t say much at all about church leaders other than his portrayal of us as victims. In my estimation churches tend to stay small more often because of bad leadership than because of “bad membership.” That being said, there’s still plenty of good stuff in this article that’s worth thinking about.
[NOTE: This review was later published on Youth Worker Journal’s website]
by Wes Woodell – westcoastwitness.com
“Why is the gospel of love dividing America?” This poignant question posed by Dan Merchant sets the framework for his latest film, Lord, Save Us From Your Followers.
Merchant, a long time producer and writer whose resume includes stints working for television’s VH1 and CBS, makes his directorial debut with Lord, Save Us, and his is a film you’ll likely remember. After all, who can forget a 6’3 man walking around in a white jump suit covered with Christian merchandise (i.e. “Jesus schwag”) containing sometimes offensive messages? Bumper stickers that say things like, “Get the he** out of my way, I’m late for church” or “Abortion: Big People Killing Little People.” Oh, and did I mention it’s ladled with atheist and agnostic propaganda as well? That’s right, The Jesus Fish is chillin’ right next to The Darwin Fish and The Flying Spaghetti Monster … how’s that for diversity? Merchant believes the two extremes represented by the conflicting messages found on his suit illustrate a great point: both sides have something to say, but neither are having a conversation – they’re simply yelling at one another without listening to the other point of view.
Merchant believes the yelling needs to stop and dialogue needs to start, and starting a conversation between the two extremes is exactly what Lord, Save Us aims to do. The tagline on the official movie poster, “The Conversation Starts Now,” articulates this. With that in mind, it’s safe to say this film accomplishes its purpose – you will feel the urge to converse.
Indeed, the film itself is a collection of conversations. Merchant travels the continent speaking with people from all walks of life. In addition to people on the street taken aback by his odd jumpsuit, Merchant also speaks with celebrities like Al Franken, evangelical leaders like Tony Campolo, plus many other famous talking heads and politicians. Merchant’s adventures take him to places like San Francisco, where he encounters Ron Luce’s brainchild BattleCry – a rally organized by Luce that involves teenage Christians protesting the immorality that permeates contemporary culture. He travels to Portland where, taking a cue from Donald Miller’s popular book Blue Like Jazz, he sets up a confession booth for people to listen to his apology for Christianity’s sins, only he’s not apologizing to reveling college students – he’s apologizing to attendees of Pride Northwest – Portland’s gay pride festival. In addition, Merchant participates in Night Strike – another event in Portland where Christians serve the city’s homeless population in an all night service project. He also makes a trek to an adult film convention to hang out with the guys from xxxchurch.com – a Christian ministry aiming to reach porn stars with the love of Christ – to hurricane ravaged Mississippi to speak with Christian relief workers in the aftermath of Katrina, plus much more.
If that weren’t enough, Merchant organizes a gameshow styled after Family Feud called “Culture War” that pits teams made up of “heathens” that is, non-Christian media personnel labeled “secular progressives” or “agnostic scholars” against teams made up of conservative evangelical Christians labeled “religious conservatives” and “young believers.” In perhaps the most telling portion of the film, cultural questions are posed to both sides with the “heathen” teams winning out overwhelmingly each time. A very insightful moment came when it was noted that non-Christians could easily predict the cultural answers of the Christians, but not vice-versa. Indeed, it appeared the Christians in this game were very much out of touch with contemporary culture, and this led to their having trouble relating to the other side. Also interesting is that, after the gameshow ended, each team retreated to the green room where they hung out conversing with one another for over an hour. Both groups came to realize that, even though they strongly disagreed with the other, they could still have a civil conversation and even enjoy it. One of the Christian participants commented with surprise: “I actually liked talking to them!”
Lord, Save Us is a direct assault against the “us verses them” mentality that’s become characteristic of American Evangelical Christianity. Quotes like “outrage and being more right than them doesn’t remind me of Jesus,” and “fight fire with fire and you get a bigger fire” are prevalent in the film. Merchant’s call to “get out from behind the microphones and megaphones and have civil conversations” with people will no doubt resonate with many church leaders tired of evangelicalism’s bullhorn tactics and mass protests being touted as viable forms of cultural transformation.
Lord, Save Us does, however, have a glaring weakness in this critic’s opinion: for all of Merchant’s talk about “The Gospel of Love,” he never gets around to actually sharing what that gospel is. In fact, if one ignorant of the core doctrines of Christianity were to watch this movie, they would likely walk away thinking the gospel is equivalent to doing nice things for people like donating to charity (since Merchant spends much time highlighting the good works of Rick Warren, U2’s Bono, and several other philanthropists). The wrath of God against sin, justification by faith, substitutionary atonement, the reality of hell – none are touched on or hinted at in this film.
Also, the final line of the movie could leave some believing Merchant is a universalist. Merchant says at the close of the film, “Sometimes I feel like a river trying to make its way back to the sea. And though the journey is long, I know the sea refuses no river because I belong to the sea, and I believe you do too.” It almost sounds like he’s saying, “You’re okay no matter what, you’ll find God no matter what, all religions lead to heaven, blah blah blah truth is relative.” I’m fairly sure Merchant doesn’t believe this, so why he would choose to end his movie with this vague quote is baffling.
Christian theology does teach all people belong to God, and all will eventually make their way back to Him, but Merchant’s final line leaves out a key biblical truth: we’ll initially make our way back to God to be judged by Him. According to Scripture, polluted “rivers” uncleansed by Jesus will be in trouble of eternal proportions.
The strengths of this film do, however, outweigh the weaknesses, and, as mentioned earlier in this review, Merchant’s aim for this movie is to spur on discussion – not to provide an in-depth theological education to viewers (perhaps this is what the ensuing conversations could lead to). This movie will be enjoyed by anyone interested in religious discussion, Christian or not, but will especially be healthy for evangelicals who value argumentation over dialogue.
Lord, Save Us From Your Followers is slated for theatrical release starting February 28, 2010*, and for DVD release on April 20, 2010 (retail $24.99). If you simply can’t stand to wait, church groups willing to pony up $199 can immediately buy a package including the official DVD, site license, small group discussion guide, 250 tickets and bulletin inserts, and four movie posters. For more information, visit the official website at lordsaveusthemovie.com.
My thanks to Seth Simmons for loaning me his screener of this film.
* A limited theatrical release took place in September ’09. The latest will land this film in more theaters than before.
The Overflow 