From the Magazine
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)
The Process of Morphing
Today’s Church must “morph.” It must transition to a new identity as a missional presence in the West. Leaders committed to mission realize the challenges facing the Church will not be adequately met by adding new programs. These leaders are talking about a reimagining of the Church, resulting in a comprehensive change in its self-understanding and its configuration. The term “deconstruction” is frequently used by voices within the emergent church. But this technical term is often misunderstood, being perceived as too threatening and confrontational. It is heard to imply demolition and destruction, which is not what is intended.
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 Future of Church Conferences
Every year, pastors and church leaders from all over the country and the world choose one or two conferences to attend. Their goals and hopes for the conference are different, but all of them come with a certain desire to change, to be affected, to leave encouraged. We talked to Brad Lomenick and Gabe Lyons, the creators of Catalyst and Q, respectively—two popular church leadership conferences—about the future of conferences, the defining elements of a “successful” conference and what makes a conference worth it.
Isolationships
The text message came on a Monday afternoon. I’d spoken at our church the night before, so I figured it was a typical “can we meet sometime this week” text message to let me know I had said something either profound or heretical. I invited McKenzie over to my apartment to have a conversation a couple days later. At about two on Thursday afternoon, my cell phone vibrated. It was McKenzie letting me know she was downstairs waiting for me to come let her into the building. We walked up the seven flights to my apartment, and then sat on separate couches facing each other.
Shared Vision
Over the years, we've been a part of a few church ministry teams that have worked hard to define and articulate their vision and mission. Many times, we would slave over the wording of mission statements and vision documents, and then try to figure out the best way to communicate it to the rest of the church. There was one "vision night" in particular, when we were a part of student ministries staff where we emphasized, "We are a ministry of students, not to students." Through song, video and a lengthy message, we shared our vision for the next year, and tried to generate excitement around the various programs that would support it. We challenged the students that this was their ministry and called them to a deeper commitment to it. In the following months, though, students weren’t responding like we had hoped they would. It became clear to us the effectiveness of our approach was limited.
The Authentic Self
“Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” (John 21:15, TNIV). In recent days, I’ve been haunted by this penetrating question. Perhaps “these” referred to the boon of fish, symbolizing the joy of successful work. Or Jesus may have meant the other disciples, alluding to the pleasures of friendship with like-minded people. Our Lord could even have been asking Peter whether Peter’s love for Him exceeded the other disciples’ love for Him. Regardless of the referent, the piercing point of the question remains the same. As we substitute our names for “Simon son of John,” we sense the voice of Jesus as His eyes gaze into our souls, inviting us to a ruthless examination of what we may love more than Him. In the wellspring of the soul, we find the conflicted desires of our true and false selves. There is little doubt when Peter saw the charcoal fire on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias (John 21:9), the pain associated with his triple denial of the Lord before another...
