Thursday, January 30, 2014

Who is the church for?

This question is probably the trickiest one I've had to navigate as a pastor. Here's the deal: I'm called to feed both the members of my church and the people in our community who have yet to hear about the love of Christ. The problem is, they don't like the same food. It's like inviting a vegan and a person on the Atkins diet over for dinner.

Lots of times this issue is manifested in terms of music style. A lot of us grew up in the church and love the old hymns. they invoke a spiritual memory in us that unites us to God in a very powerful way. But if you never grew up in church, the tendency is to gravitate towards music that sounds at least a little closer to what you would listen to on the radio. Both are good, both are valid. To make it trickier, some life-long churchgoers like the contemporary music, and some folks new to the faith like the hymns.

So who is the church for? Which of these groups should I try to please?

Ok, yes I know, worship is about pleasing God, not us. But is it more pleasing to God to feed God's sheep, or to go after the one who is lost? Jesus suggests we should do both!

Who is the church for?

Ok, yes I know, the church is the people, not the building or the event that happens at 9:00 and 10:30am on Sunday mornings. But the church building is where the church gathers and the church service is what the church does. Wait..."service"...is that supposed to mean something? Who are we serving?

Who is the church for?

Ok, yes I know, Jesus calls us to seek and save the lost. Maybe I should put aside the feelings of the life-long churchgoers, push them out of their comfort zone, and focus solely on the totally unchurched. I mean, have you read the parable of the prodigal son? It's about the son who is totally lost and comes home to the Father after falling deep into the muck and mire of sin. It is beautiful, poetic, grace when the Father runs to embrace his son. He goes out to him. The church should go out to the lost of our community as well.

But then...the Father goes out the the older brother. The one who had been there all along. Who knew the Father...or did he?...and had never left him. This brother is lost, too, in a much different way. Somehow, both the righteous and the unrighteous are lost. They both need brought to the Father. The Father goes out to both of them and pleads with them to come home. And when the older brother sees that the Father wants to bring in the younger brother and that there is a cost to this restoration for the older brother...he refuses to come in.

So is God choosing the younger son over the older son? Is God choosing the 1 lost sheep over the 99 he already has? Is God choosing the sinners over the saints?

Or are the saints choosing their own sainthood over a God that would choose sinners?

Who is the church for?

There's a really popular saying among churchy people right now: "The church is meant to be a hospital for the sick, not a museum for the saints."

Can it be both? Does Jesus hate saint museums?

Have you noticed there were never such things as "seeker services" in the early church? The church gatherings were initially for the family, those who were "in," and the lost got saved on the weekdays.

Somehow we've gotten to the point where we're so bad at saving the lost on weekdays we have to do it on the weekends when the church family get together was supposed to be. So we have to ask a new question:

Who is the church for?


Monday, January 13, 2014

Everything You Need to be Doing

There are 168 hours in a week.

Doctors recommend 8 hours of sleep each night.

That leaves you with 112 hours.

You should work at least 40 hour work week.

That leaves you with 72 hours.

Everyone needs to eat, take another hour each day. Down to 65.

Now you need to work off what you just ate. Hit the gym! 30 minutes a day, 5 times a week.

62.5 hours to go.

Have a commute to and from work? The one-way average is 30 minutes. You're at 55.5 hours.

And you can't go out looking like that. On average it takes 30 minutes (both men and women) to get ready each morning. I'll even let you slum it on Saturday. 52.5 hours left.

Then there are other things that take our time. Vacuum, laundry, dishes, mowing, car maintenance, paying bills...let's say an hour each day. 45.5 hours to go.

Now follow me on this one: you're supposed to drink 8 glasses of water every day. This means you will also be making a run to the little boys or girls room a LOT. Plus 30 seconds of handwashing each time. 6 times a day at five minutes each time. We're averaging here. That's three and a half hours a week in the bathroom. 42 hours.

You need to keep dating your spouse! Take another 3 hours, down to 39.

Go to church! 37 left.

You should probably buy some groceries. 35.

Did you know that kids are spending on average 5 hours a week in extracurriculars? And guess who is driving, which adds another hour to each day?

Bam 25 hours to go.

How about volunteering? Are you on the PTA? School board? Church committee? Average for that is an hour every day.

Down to 18.

Hopefully your family is healthy. But if someone gets sick...plus checkups, dentist, optometrist... let's be generous and say just 1 hour a week.

17.

You're spending at least an hour a day with your kids...right? Reading, playing...or more likely being a referee. Then putting them to bed.

12 to go.

Everyone needs at least an hour of leisure time each day. The average is 2...let's say 1.5 in this case. Reading, tv, surfing the web, just unwinding. Minus 10.5 hours.

You have 1.5 hours left in your week.

Oh yeah, you should probably walk the dog.

Zero. Perfect, you did it!

So how was your prayer life this week? Get much Bible reading done? Spend much time meditating or just listening for God's voice?

It sure is easy to feel guilty when we don't get to these things. We promise ourselves every Sunday morning we'll do better next week. But look back at the list...what are you going to cut out? It's easy to say "leisure," but that's probably why the majority of us are on antidepressants.

It's a hard thing to order your life in a way that allows you to grow closer to God. So I'm curious...how do you do it?







Monday, January 6, 2014

The Death of Facebook?

The great Yankee's catcher Yogi Berra once said: "No one goes there anymore; it's too crowded."

At last check, Facebook has 1.26 billion active users, and every social media junkie you talk to says that Facebook is dying and no one is using it anymore.

So what gives?

Two types of social media have developed: broad-based, and narrow-based. Broad-based intends to reach as big an audience as possible, while narrow-based is for a smaller circle of friends or around a shared interest or a specific kind of media like pictures or videos. The narrow-based are growing in number and popularity (i.e. - SnapChat, Kik, Vine, Instagram), but do not have the influence or saturation of a broad-based like Facebook or Twitter.

While many are saying that the growth of these smaller social networks is signaling the impending death of Facebook, that seems really unlikely. Instead, think about other big corporations.

I like really good food. There's a burger joint in Cincinnati that still makes what I believe to be the best burger on the planet. There's a restaurant close to where I live now that has an incredible baked potato the size of your head. Lots of places specialize in some really good food. But mostly, I wind up in the drive thru of McDonalds. It's quick, easy, everywhere, and sometimes you just want McDonalds fries.

I love mom and pop specialty stores. They know their stuff, they have fantastic customer service, and they sometimes have specialty items you just can't find anywhere else. But mostly, I shop at Walmart. It's cheap and convenient and they have most everything.

What McDonalds, Walmart, and Facebook have figured out is that by not specializing and offering a very generic and convenient experience, they can dominate the field.

What does that mean for your church if you are using social media? Unless you are looking to reach a certain niche audience, stick with Facebook as your primary tool. That's where the people are.

Don't believe me? Try finding a parking space at Walmart on black Friday.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

A Re-Launch! My New Year's Resolution. Also, why do bad things happen to good people?

Welp, I've decided to re-launch my blog. Probably because I'm just so bored and need more to do.

January is a great time to re-evaluate your life and what you spend your time doing. I want to make sure I'm doing more things that matter and fewer things that don't.

Truthfully, I just enjoy putting my thoughts down in writing, sharing them with others, and hoping that you might find them worthwhile to read.

In the past, this blog was mostly about churches and using social media, though I wavered from that some. For now, I'm going to keep an focus on social media in churches, but sprinkle in a lot of my own thoughts about what I'm thinking about or dealing with in my own walk with Christ and struggle to be a good husband and father. There might be an occasional rant about how bad Cleveland sports are. But yeah, mostly social media and church stuff.

OK, that stuff aside, I'm feeling very small today.

I had the "brilliant" idea a few months ago that I would begin this year with a sermon series on the BIG questions. I would call the series "Why?" You know, why do bad things happen to good people, why aren't my prayers answered, stuff like that. He's a video trailer for the series:



Here's the issue: I'm still wrestling with these questions myself. (Disclaimer: if you're hoping that pastors know all of these answers and never have doubts or problems or faith issues, you should probably stop reading this blog. Permanently.)

More than that, I realize I'm about to stand up in front of a bunch of people this Sunday and give them my very inadequate answers to really important questions. When I was making the video above and put in the words "the answers will change your life," that was maybe more of a prayer for myself than a declaration.

God, give me the answers to these questions so you can change someone's life.

It's a small feeling, to feel as if you are charged with explaining the workings of Almighty to God's people. It's like being an interpreter who only kind of speaks the other language. All the while, the church is clamouring, "Tell us what He is saying! We know its important, we want to understand!"

So do I.

But here is where my job gets really fun. I get to dive in to exploring these questions and answers. I get to seek God in prayer. I get to examine my own life and how I've answered the questions at different times in my life. And I know, on Sunday morning, I'm not making an argument for how well I understand a certain topic. Instead, I'm making an argument for the Gospel: that God loves us, that Jesus came for us, and that through Him, we can have the Life that has been promised to us from the beginning of time. And when it's all over and the last hymn has been sung and I'm walking out the back of the sanctuary, I will feel even more inadequate than ever, thinking I've not even come close to explaining the fulness of the goodness of God. Because it's impossible to do in 25 minutes.

And yet...somehow...God will take a little sliver of something I say...and use it to change someone's heart.

I still don't know why bad things happen to good people...but I'm starting to understand why some bad things have happened to me. And this Sunday, I'm going to make the strongest case I can that in the midst of the suffering of the innocent, there is a God who loves you more than you ever thought possible.

And that God has allowed me to have the best job in the world.