OK, so my oldest daughter turned eight on Saturday. It was fun and sad all at the same time. We had a good day, starting with the night before. I have trained her well. She wanted to go eat at my favorite restaurant in honor of her birthday, and who am I to tell her "No." We got her some High School Musical toys and a scooter. All good.
Sad news: We have decided to find our puppy a new home. He drives me absolutely crazy. Truth is, he is a good dog, but I am not in a dog state of mind right now. We are too busy to have a dog with our very active lives and 3 small children. The girls are not devastated. My little Liz thinks we should get a goldfish. I guess we will get over it. I will get over cleaning my brand new carpet every other day. So, if you are looking for a very cute puppy and have time to devote to him, give me a call.
Interesting news #1: I heard on Bill Maher Friday night that the most conservative of states actually lead the country in divorces, obesity, and other such issues. If Red state=Christian, then I wonder what this says about the church? Are we any different? Maybe this is the problem. The world sees us as just like them, only too full of ourselves to admit it.
Interesting news #2: Bob Jones III is supporting Mitt Romney for president. Wow.
In Churchy news: Willow Creek has done a significant study of churches and their success in connecting people to Jesus. I was glad to hear some of these things from people other than myself. Mainly the point was that churches try to take people who are far from God and make them into disciples. And we do this by giving them opportunities to participate in programs like worship services, classes, small groups, service projects, etc. But the study found that participation in programs does not produce disciples at all. We have a tendency to look at church as a one size fits all kind of experience, everyone should be involved in everything the church does. And this is great for folks who are exploring Christianity or who are growing in their new walk with Christ, but it is increasingly disappointing to people who are close to Christ or who are centered in Christ, those who would call their relationship with Christ the most important relationship they have. The church is not meeting the needs of those who are truly committed to Christ and who are close to Him. The study also found another group of people who were stalled in their walk with Christ, people who believe in Christ as their Savior, but who are not investing time with Him. Oddly enough, these folks are some very faithful church members.
The implications of the Willow Creek study are striking. Rather than asking the question: "How many people are we reaching?" we should be asking "How are the things we are doing in our church helping people to meaningfully connect with Christ?" We need to look beyond staff members and key volunteers and ask the people who are in the church what they really need and what works, and what does not work. We need to deeply listen to these folks. And, significantly, we cannot do this alone. We need to rethink all old assumptions and make changes as necessary that are informed by our research and grounded in the Scriptures.
Again, the question is: "Are we connecting people to Jesus?" Here is the link to the video from Willow Creek.
UPDATE & NDY GIG
12 years ago
5 comments:
Can you connect me with the Willow Creek study info?
I believe you can find the Willow Creek introductory video at http://revealnow.com. There is a book that is coming out or just did, but they are interested in getting other churches involved in their research. It sounds like a great thing, especially since they are willing to admit that they do not have everything right.
I am a UM pastor's wife who stumbled upon your blog tonight. My husband is now full time coaching/consulting with churches on some of the things that you mention in this post. Another thing that drew me to read your blog is your mention of "They Like Jesus but Not the Church". Our current pastor is really talking a lot about this book as we plan for reaching out differently in the world and connecting people with Christ.
I hope to stop by again sometime.
:-) Susan
Welcome, Susan. I would be pleased to hear your thoughts on the book and what your church is doing to put some of these things into practice. It is definitely hard work to rethink church as usual.
First, I’m with you on the dog. We tried to be dog people, but we just weren’t. Like you, our lifestyle was just way too crazy. It all culminated when we moved to downtown Pittsburgh and were attempting to live in a two bedroom flat with a dog that had to stay locked up in it all day. It was brutal. At the time that we moved to the UK, the restrictions on dogs made it almost impossible and very expensive to bring her with us. With that in mind, we were forced to leave her with my parents. Though there are times that we miss having a dog, it has mostly been a huge load off our backs. I dread that day that Olyvia starts begging for one.
As for your interesting point number one, can I suggest that most evangelicals recognize Jesus’ divinity, but really struggle to recognize his humanity. I put myself in that department as well. Though we all know what to say; that Jesus was equally divine and human, few of us truly embrace the fact that he was, 100% human. I know I don’t. Part of the problem with not embracing his humanity is that we only see salvation as a spiritual experience that mostly impacts eternity rather than the here and now. With that in mind, it is easy for us to cast aside things like the environment and even our own health (and a long, long list of other things) because, based on the theology that we actually embrace, none of those things really matter because they have no impact on eternity.
As somebody who has been rethinking church for some time now, and is also attempting to bridge the gap between a lost and un-churched community, and the church, I am very encouraged to hear about Willow Creek’s report. It’s this idea of helping people to connect with Christ that I’m now interested in, but finding that balance between not being a numbers collector and program principal, and not simply being a community service director, that I’ve found very difficult. People are suspicious. The BBC recently ran a story about Christians in the UK who are preying on Muslims. In response to that, I often find myself being far too careful and leaning far too heavily towards the service end of the spectrum, and never really getting around to actually sharing the gospel.
Incidentally, one of the other things my wife and I have been trying to discover is a more effective way of keeping stats. The traditional way doesn’t really make sense in a context such as ours, but there needs to be a way of being held accountable.
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