Archives for category: church

We Want the World and We Want It Now!

July 5, 2007 //

According to this article, the vending industry earns around $30 billion annually. While most of this money comes in fifty cent increments on items like Doritos and Diet Coke, there is a growing segment of hi-tech, upscale gadget vending machines. I ran across the iPod vending machine pictured above at DFW.

Stores like Bed Bath and Beyond often put impulse purchase items near the checkout so that consumers leave the store not only with the spatula or towel they originally intended to purchase, but also with a three pound jug of Swedish Fish and a four-pack of Stick Up Bulbs. Marketers have long-realized that by placing the Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs at eye-level for most seven year old children in the cereal aisle of grocery stores, they can initiate more emotional meltdowns (“But I neeeed it!”) and, thus, increase sales.

At first, I was strangely amused by the iPod vending machine. Does it come charged? Where would a person purchase songs for it, if the intent is to listen to it during an impending flight? Upon further reflection, there is something troubling about how easy it would be to drop $300 onto your credit card with one quick swipe. Of course, many travelers probably can afford to make such a large impulse purchase, and it is not the responsibility of vending machine companies to ensure that consumers spend their money in a responsible manner. But, still, do we need to feed our instant-gratification mindset anymore than we already do?

The process of spiritual formation is inherently, often frustratingly, slow. As much as we would like it to be true, we cannot simply swipe a couple of prayers through a spiritual card-reader and expect abundant life to be delivered via some mechanical arm into our outstretched hands. To paraphrase something I read once, we should not be surprised when people in our churches are self-centered and selfish when we advertise that we exist to meet all their needs. I certainly believe that people should find friendship, community, comfort, healing and love in church. But it is in that strange paradox of living by dying, gaining by giving, that we find what we truly need.

Categories church, environment, outreach, sigh, stewardship, tech

Some Thoughts on “Organic Community”

June 27, 2007 //

Having enjoyed and been challenged by The Search to Belong, I have been looking forward to reading Organic Community by Joseph Myers for awhile. While I was a little bit sore at DFW for not having free wi-fi access (do people really spend ten dollars to get online for an hour?), I was glad to have a couple of hours to finish up this book.

One of my favorite chapters is about coordination and the difference between cooperation and collaboration. I have been a part of many top-down, master-planned, vision-casted church communities where falling in line is spun as “cooperating.” I love this idea of people actually working together and contributing in meaningful ways in church communities. Recently, I have been asked to take on several additional ministry responsibilities, including developing a college ministry and preaching in our afternoon EM service from time to time. I have been doing my best to print, copy and fold the bulletins for our EM worship services — a task previously performed by a couple of EM members — to free them for the more important ministry of relationship building. Eventually, when we need to print more than forty or fifty Sunday bulletins, we might need volunteers to come in and take care of it. For now, though, I really want to see our people invested in the things that really count — not just plugging them into our church’s perceived “needs” (folding bulletins, parking lot attendants, etc.). Having a big vision for the church is great but, if we’re not careful, it can lead us to love the idea of church more than the reality of where we actually live.

Myers gives a couple of interesting analogies about forging a new way forward in building communities:

We can be as intentional with community as we are with going to sleep. It is almost impossible to make yourself go to sleep. In fact, the more intentional you are, the less likely it is that you will fall asleep.

A more helpful way forward is to create an environment in which there is a good chance you will fall asleep… The same is true for community. We can have some control over the environments in which community usually emerges, but we have little or no control over community actually emerging. We can intend for the process of community to begin, but we cannot create community intentionally.

Think about the last party you hosted at your home. Did you offer a guarantee to your guests that they would have a good time? That they would make new friends? Of course not. But I’m sure you did try to create an environment that would help your guests feel comfortable and relaxed…

You would put food on the table, imagining perhaps that people would linger there… You probably played some ambient music in the background, soften enough that people wouldn’t have to compete with it, but loud enough that it might alleviate awkward pauses in conversation. You might have grouped chairs together in such a way to facilitate conversation. And so on.

Once I get beyond my tendency to jump right to the best-practices/takeaways (“Yes! At church we will now group our chairs in a certain way and play perfectly balanced ambient music in the background. And then we’ll grow our numbers. Thanks, Joe Myers!”) I am both challenged and relieved. Challenged, because I think most pastors have a certain amount of stubborn confidence in their leadership that is necessary at times (forging ahead in obedience to God’s will when it is difficult for others to see it) but can often lead to unnecessary conflict and hinder the leadership of others. But mostly I an encouraged, because this frees me from being solely responsible for the growth and health of our community (not that I ever had any control over these things).

I don’t know if I have ever really felt connected in a small group setting. I have had wonderful friends with whom I have grown, laughed, cried and prayed — but, somehow, when we formalize the relationship into an “official” small group it feels sterile and cold. Myers writes a little bit about this in his chapter on partnership and the difference between accountability and what he called edit-ability. The focus of many small groups is pretty bleak. As Myers writes,

There is such an underlying expectation of failure phrased in a language of absolutes and either/ors. If you truthfully answer any of these questions (e.g., “What one sin plagued your walk with God this week? Is your thought life pure? At any time did you compromise your integrity?”) with a less-than-perfect response, what happens?

We definitely need help in living for Christ, but all too often we interpret “iron sharpening iron” as, “You’ll be sharpened when I get all up in your grill and bust you for your long list of sin and failure.” This might work for some people, but the vast majority of people I have known cannot be coerced or shamed into loving God more deeply.

We can build a more positive ethos in our communities if we see accountability as a kind of author/editor relationship — thus, “edit-ability.” Here is the way Myers puts it,

This is how a good author-editor relationship works: The author submits a rough draft. The editor makes suggestions, even disagrees at times with the author. The author considers the editor’s suggestions, and will often make adjustments. The author and editor continue to go back and forth until the project is complete. The entire process is one of give-and-take collaboration.

The title of the book, “Organic Community,” calls to mind images of farming — not the pesticide-laden, hormone-added mass production kind, but the slow-food, small-scale local farmer. It is time to move away from the pastor as CEO concept (although this is still necessary for some large-scale operations), where one person stands before the entire group and hands down “the vision” to the masses. It might be a little too nostalgic, but I think there is some merit to the idea of pastor as farmer. We must cultivate the land; we must work with the conditions we are given (not as we would have them, or as our weather plug-in tells us); we must be willing to get our hands dirty as we attempt to steward new life; we must be aware of the overall balance of the farm — not pushing so hard that the fields become fallow, but not underutilizing our resources either.

We just received our first installment of our CSA membership. Though I missed the momentous occasion of picking up the produce, my wife called me to tell me all about it. The produce was fresh and tasty — and extremely natural. Upon shucking one of the ears of corn, my wife and daughter discovered some kind of corn bug in there. But instead of being grossed out, my wife was kind of happy to find the little critter in there because it showed that the food was not being bombarded with pesticides but was grown with care, naturally. When we lead an organic community, we might not get the slick production of excellence to which we’re accustomed but we just might find the friendships we’re looking for, corn bugs and all.

Categories books, church, community, emerging church, ministry, reviews

Oh, Church Marketing

June 25, 2007 //

I can just see the people who put together this billboard hi-fiving each other for thinking so far outside the box. I don’t know if all church marketing sucks (actually, it’s a pretty great site), but it is certainly responsible for more than its share of groaners like this one.

Sometimes I will watch the late-night music video shows on the Christian television stations — partly because I am mean and snarky, but partly out of sheer fascination. The hosts, who are tirelessly sincere, will often roll out a video with phrases like, “Check out these fresh tunes from hip-hopper John Reuben.” Sometimes I worry about coming across as an over-eager dorky poseur to my youth group students. Actually, I don’t worry that much about being dorky (it’s kind of a given), but there’s nothing creepier than some old dude trying to be “down,” usually using phrases that are at least five or ten years behind the times. Despite the fact that I am inordinately slangy, I purposely try not to come off in this way when I relate to members of my youth group. In the end, I think most students would rather have a reliable dork in their lives than some flaky hipster.

Tags church signage

Categories boo!, church, just grinning, outreach, sigh

“I Have Some Real Good Black Friends”

June 22, 2007 //

I am deeply saddened, frustrated and outraged at the very idea that these kinds of things still happen in our day and age. I came across this story via Edward Gilbreath’s blog about a church in South Carolina where white members of the church performed in blackface — in blackface — for a Mother’s Day presentation.

Is it really necessary to explain to people why this kind of egregious conduct is so offensive? While it is vital that we educate people on the damaging effects of systemic racism, the fact remains that blatant, overt, hostile racism still exists. This story only spirals further and further downward as we begin to delve deeper into it.

This kind of behavior is unacceptable in any forum, but the fact that these people consider themselves Christians and presented this in church is absolutely dumbfounding. Seriously, what could such a horrible, offensive performance possibly have to do with Mother’s Day? Worse, the pastor of the church tried to pass it off as some kind of tribute to African American people and gospel music. Right, because our natural response to those we admire is to denigrate and dehumanize them. Worse still, the defensiveness, hostility and sarcasm of the pastor’s wife reveals the depth of their ignorance. In her own words,

“A little tiny blonde woman sang Randy Travis. So I guess Randy Travis should be offended,” Teresa Holbrooks said. “My husband pantomimed playing the piano. So I guess the piano should be offended.”

It is difficult for me even to gather a response to such overwhelming ignorance, but let’s go ahead and state what should be obvious to any human being — particularly someone who claims allegiance to Christ. I suppose if Randy Travis had been enslaved, attacked, degraded and oppressed by little blonde women for hundreds of years then, yes, he should be offended by such a performance. And pianos, if they were human beings created in the image of God, intimately known and loved, for whom Christ died then, sure, they should be offended as well.

Even worse than all of this was their “apology.” From their pastor:

Holbrooks gave a two-sentence statement: “Pilgrim Baptist Church and I meant no harm in the blackface skit. However there are those who have been offended and for that I am sorry.”

Anyone who has ever been in a relationship with another human being should realize that a conditional apology is not, in reality, a genuine apology. I don’t mean to parse out these sentences too much, but there is a serious problem with this pastor’s words — apparently, he is not sorry that they performed this routine; he is only sorry that they offended people. Or, to put it more cynically, he is only sorry they were caught red-handed.

Ed Gilbreath mentions a very troubling idea in his initial post on this topic that is well worth considering:

I can only speak anecdotally on this, but there seems to be a growing movement of white people—including Christians—who feel so victimized by political correctness (and how it’s robbing them of their rights) that they’ve hardened their hearts to any suggestion that racial injustice is a factor in our society today. And they’ve become cold to how their privileged words and actions might affect others. That defensive mindset and callousness could be the biggest obstacles to true reconciliation in our churches and nation.

It is deeply troubling that many white people seem to consider it their God-given right to use inflammatory, degrading, racist language and then become enraged when someone else calls them out on this. Certainly, there are racial prejudices and sinful attitudes among any and all racial/ethnic groups, but this attitude is uniquely troubling to me in white people. There is a kind of willful ignorance to the past, a bewildering sense of entitlement. People of other racial/ethnic backgrounds are told to “lighten up” because “it’s only a joke” and “I have some real good black friends.”

I know political correctness has almost exclusively negative connotations, and has failed in many ways. I experienced this during my first year in college during our university’s infamous “water buffalo” incident.

I am not advocating PC, but is it really such a terrible thing to have people engage one another in civil, polite discourse? Shouldn’t it be second nature, common sense, for God’s people to treat others with dignity and respect? I refuse to give into the shrill talking heads and shrieking pundits who equate “being real” with rudeness. I am fully aware that altering a person’s vocabulary does almost nothing to change their hearts — genuine transformation can only happen through the guidance and leadership of the Holy Spirit — but, again, would it really kill people that much to treat others with respect? In particular, followers of Christ who claim to believe what the Bible says cannot simply edit out the parts where God creates all people in His own image, replete with dignity, worth and honor.

And our words do matter. Jesus Himself said it this way in Luke 6:45, “Good people bring good things out of the good stored up in their heart, and evil people bring evil things out of the evil stored up in their heart. For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” Hateful, racist words do not pop up out of nowhere, and they certainly do not flow from a pure, genuine heart for God.

Is there hope for our nation, for the body of Christ? Talking to people who willfully dwell in such ignorance is like beating your head against a wall. And yet, somehow, we are called to be messengers of reconciliation — with God and with one another. Although it is a small step for me personally, I am raising my voice as an Asian American follower of Christ to name this racist offense against the African American community as sin. May God have mercy on us.

Categories asian american, boo!, church, controversy, race, reconciliation

Are Short-Term Mission Trips Obsolete?

June 19, 2007 //

Twelve of our church members left this morning for a week-long outreach to a village in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. There is a coalition of Korean American churches who have developed relationships with several villages throughout the Yucatan, and our church is one of them. Apparently, there are Korean descendants scattered throughout the peninsula — this connection creates a natural kinship between many first-gen church members and the villages to which they are reaching out.

Instead of flying out from San Diego International Airport, our team decided to take a domestic flight from Tijuana — a relatively quick jaunt (less than thirty miles) across the border. I agreed to drive the church van to TJ and bring it back to church. The only problem was that no one was quite sure how to get there (or back to the church if we did find the airport). One of the KM pastors who was going with the team decided to drive there, having been to the TJ airport a number of years ago. I sat shotgun, furiously writing down notes (which consisted mainly of scratches like “turn left at the roundabout near Costco, with the big LG flatscreen billboard” because of distinct lack of street signage) while one of the elders joked from the back, “Daniel, I hope you don’t get lost.” My reply: “Well, if I end up in a Mexican jail, I can count on you, right?”

After crossing the border and driving about a mile into TJ, we were pulled over by the Mexican police. The KM pastor, who speaks a bit of Spanish, began trying to convince them to let us go. Surrounding the car were a couple of angry looking Federalis, and the associate pastor basically kept on saying, “Come on, fellas… iglesia… Just let us go.” The federalis escorted us back to the inspection station at the border.

Fortunately (providentially?), our senior pastor — who was also going with the team — and another deacon met us at the inspection station. Not only are both fluent in Spanish (our senior pastor grew up in Brazil, the deacon spent many years in Argentina) but both are really great with people. It only took about fifteen minutes before we were on our way again.

Last week, I spoke to a pastor who had recently returned from reaching out to college students in Russia for three years. We had some really great conversations about short-term mission work. I know these kind of one/two-week trips have kind of fallen out of fashion in some circles. There are some legitimate critiques — maybe the money spent on airfare, food & lodging would be better spent if we sent it directly to local churches; these trips are often treated as a spiritual quick-fix; we always hear the “same old” testimony from people when they return — “I didn’t realize people there were so poor. We have so much here, we should be more grateful, etc.”… However, my conversation with this pastor confirmed in my mind that there is an important place for these short-term mission trips.

One caveat: I believe short-term outreaches work best in conjunction with the local body of Christ, whether that means connecting with a local church or long-term missionary. The “shock and awe” approach to evangelism — where a completely independent, outside team storms into town with a big production, gospel tracts and salvation prayers, and then storms out just as quickly — falls far short of our calling to help people become lovers of God and followers of Christ.

But, in the context of working together with the local body of believers, there can be really amazing results. This pastor described how vital short-term teams were in his ministry to local students. For example, his family had begun organizing a camp for students. While it was great news that 200 Russian students had signed up, they simply did not have the resources available to pull off such a massive event. Cue the team of twenty college students from South Carolina. They spent two weeks registering students, organizing schedules, building friendships with individual students and basically generating a lot of goodwill within the local community. When they left, their enthusiasm and joy reinvigorated this pastor’s family and made a lasting impact on the community.

For now, I’m just glad I made it out of TJ in one piece. Although it took well over an hour to get back across the border into the States, I did make it back in time for a very happy belated Father’s Day. Let’s see about next Monday, though, when I have to try to find the TJ airport on my own.

Categories church, evangelism, ministry, outreach