Culture
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How To Make Crack Cocaine, Bombs and Commit Suicide
BY THE BILLIONS, people are searching. They’re searching for love. They’re searching for answers. They’re searching for help. Across every demographic barrier imaginable, people are searching. They’re searching because they aren’t content with life and are desperate to find something that’s missing. They think they’ll know it when they find it, but in the meantime, they’ll keep on searching. This is actually very good news for those of us who want to reach new people with the life-giving Gospel of Jesus because we (should) feel like what we have to offer is such a transformational game-changer, we want everyone to find it. The problem is, though, we aren’t providing real answers or solutions where hundreds of millions (maybe billions) of people are looking for them: online.
Copycat Church
THERE’S NO PROMISE that if I use self-deprecating humor, tell personal stories, and talk about personal struggles with weight and women, I will write a book that sells as well as Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz. And there’s no promise that if I wear funky tennis shoes, slap on some low-slung jeans, spike my hair a bit, sport a goatee and wear an untucked T-shirt, I will be able to sing like Brenton Brown. Imitation has its place, but the one thing imitation doesn’t promise is results. Unfortunately, a lot of church leaders don’t get that fact.
The Irony of Christian Celebrity
For most Americans, idolatry is a foreign concept. Most of us don’t have bronze statues of a fat bald man sitting cross-legged on our mantles. Yet, idols are common to every culture. Idolatry often shows up in the way we take something that isn’t God and treat it like a god. Fame, success and power are gods we serve as if they are immortal and have the power to bestow that immortality on us. Our idols are “immortality symbols”—things that make us feel powerful, like we will live forever.
Mitch Albom
Mitch Albom is the best-selling author of Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven. We talked with him about his most recent book, Have a Little Faith, as well as what inspires the spiritual messages of his writing and where he goes to find hope.
Virtual Community
When technology and spirituality mix, it makes people uneasy. A relationship with God is an intimate thing, and people worry technology replacing personal touch makes religion “cold,” non-relational and even anti-biblical. Now, we have a new phenomenon where churches have formed in cyberspace, made up of people mostly in different locations around the globe. They don’t come to the church building and mix with people face to face as they’ve done traditionally. Instead, they opt to stay online—something many will say is “less” pointing to Hebrews 10:24-25: “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing ...” (TNIV)
Are You What You Sing?
Will we create and advocate for epic, melodic and popular musical composition with catchy hooks, or will we let the creative musical element subside and choose songs primarily based on the depth of lyrical content? Is it possible this generation could get fired up about theology as much as we do about crafty melodies? That tension within each of us cultivates and shapes our church communities musically.
The Numbers Game
For several years I attended, with eager zeal, a Protestant evangelical megachurch. I heard repeated periodically in these circles a maxim: “It’s not about numbers.” Leaders of this congregation would take this as a reminder that evangelical fervor must not be directed at the hype of an event or service, but at the individual friend to whom we are outreaching. I wonder if the above maxim-reminder can ever serve its purpose, as the entire ecclesial state of affairs necessitates a steady flow of persons and money to pay the bills.
The End of "I Don't Know"
Today, a song came on the radio that I didn’t know. I held my iPhone next to the car door speaker and used Shazam to identify the artist and title of the song. Just like that, I knew what I wanted to know and even had the opportunity to purchase the song from my phone. The length of time between not knowing certain information, and then having access to that information on my computer or iPhone screen can be less than two minutes. I find myself wondering if it's accurate to say I “don’t know” the info in the first place. How short does the distance of time between not knowing something, and then knowing it need to be before the phrase “I don’t know” becomes irrelevant?
When Does Relevance Become Irrelevant?
Unfortunately, I think our inability to shape culture—and, instead, play catch-up with culture—through philosophies of relevance is the result of having the wrong types of people leading key positions within the Church. I believe our hunger to become relevant exposes one of our weaknesses, which is that we have placed managers in roles that demand innovators ... gatekeepers instead of freedom fighters ... comfort keepers instead of risk takers. Though the Church needs multiple gifts represented in places of influential leadership, I think we must demand more creativity and innovation from one another. This comes through the combination of a team of people who have been wired to take countercultural approaches to ministry, listening to the Holy Spirit and acting with the rest of the gifts represented within the Church.
Going All In With Commitment-phobes
So the other day I had to change my cell phone carrier. Before I could gain the nerve to sign a two-year AT&T contract, I found myself explaining to the sales assistant how I opt for reoccurring six-month leases on my apartment, and how I gave away my cat because I felt trapped in the relationship. I needed him to know that this contract-signing exercise was a very big deal.
The Ancient/Future Dilemma
In an old gothic church in south London, images of the city are projected on white sheets that surround a worship space. The images are gritty and urban—towerblocks and street scenes. On the floor is a huge map of the city made out of pages of a London A-Z map. Bread and wine rest on a holy table—in this case a concrete slab on the floor. Encircling the concrete are words of Scripture in a circle projected from above. An urban crowd, age range 20 to 40ish gradually drifts in. A DJ is quietly spinning tunes that evoke an atmosphere. There are no pews, just a hard floor to sit on. It is a fantastic space. This is part of a series called concrete liturgies by a Christian community, Vaux, where they are exploring what it means to express faith and worship in the language of the city.
The Truth of the Kingdom
In the last decade, a rising generation was begun using a new language for its faith. Instead of using terms like “getting saved” or “being justified,” this generation finds itself attracted to Jesus’ favorite expression, the “kingdom of God.”
A Way to Draw More Christians Back to Church?
When my husband, Jim, and I went to Zimbabwe, we had fellowship on the spot with a man named Bekele who explained to us painful details of his personal testimony, even though we had all just met. We were so riveted by his account of God’s forgiveness that we repented in his backyard of holding grudges against each other in our marriage. Apart from Christ, Bekele would have been to us a stranger. But in Christ he was our brother from the start.
Crazy Muhammad
My dad’s name is Sead because his family is Muslim. My mom’s name is Marta because her family is Christian. My family lived in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which meant we were all supposed to be “dialectical materialists.” And we were all three—Muslim, Christian and materialists—but we didn’t believe any of it. We just lived.
The Necessity of Boredom
For those of us who plan worship experiences, one of our biggest fears is that people will walk away unmoved, unchanged or unimpressed. We all wish that we were secure enough to believe that simply gathering the people of God together in worship is enough—but the reality is we want to believe that our efforts are effective.
The What Now
More than two and a half years have gone by since I wrote “I Stand for You,” and I’m beginning to reevaluate what I wrote. On that early April morning up on my roof in Durban, South Africa, it all made perfect sense: I’ve been through some stuff, I’m still a believer on the other side, I’m standing firm, I need to sing that to Jesus, and other people can maybe sing it along with me. We can all together tell Jesus how committed we are to Him and how grateful we are that He helps us persevere.
Praying Precariously
What do you want? Suppose at this moment, God asked you that question. What would you ask for? I’ve heard this question posed rhetorically to many a congregation and oftentimes the answers are far too simplistic. The pastor will generally say, “Would you ask for money and fame? Or would you ask for peace, an end to world hunger, or (like Solomon) wisdom?” I always hate it when the pastor presumes to know what I’d say and then makes me feel guilty for wanting something I didn’t even ask for—suggesting that if I were really spiritual, I’d ask for one of the other things.
Giving People What They Need
What do you hope to see happen in the men and women in your young adult group? Freedom? Healing? Transformation? What is it you want for them? A second chance? A new life? Fresh hope? Of course you do. But here’s the kicker: You can’t make it happen. You don’t have the power to transform. You don’t have the ability to create life. You aren’t what these folks need.
Right-Brain Preaching
Let me come right out and say it: The future belongs to right-brain leaders and right-brain communicators. I’m neither a brain surgeon nor the son of a brain surgeon, but my bookshelves are filled with books on neurology. Nothing in the universe is more fascinating to me than the three pounds of gray matter housed within the human cranium. I think the human mind is the magnum opus of God’s creative genius.
