The title is in reference to my friend Jon Reid‘s blog of the same title. In particular, it has to do with this post: “and” (Philippians 1:1 lectio) and Jon’s reply to my comment on that post. I’m sure my takeaway from Jon’s post was different than his thoughts that went into writing the content, but it struck me pretty hard in my own way. You see, I’ve been wandering around here in Portland, OR for the past six months feeling alone and like a stranger in a strange place. No matter what I do, I just feel unsettled here. During a tokbox video chat with my friend Josh Roberts, I found myself unexpectedly going off on a rant about pastoral leadership and how I felt there was a breakdown in pastors caring for and mentoring leaders within their churches. So many people are leaving the ministry and embracing life in roles as speakers, authors, coaches…you name it. They are abandoning the church. It saddens me. So many people are falling away from their roles as servant leaders because of feeling burned out or just going through the motions. They have lost their passion and have become unsupported for their callings. This saddens me as well.

During my rant I told Josh that it was just what was in my mind at the time of our conversation. He insists that it was more than that. He told me it was a burden on my heart. I never thought about it before as a burden, but from that moment on I’ve thought about what he said. Is it a burden? Must I respond?

Feeling lost and alone here in Portland, I too have removed myself from any formal ministry role. I’ve been working up to 12 hours a day, coming home around 9:30pm and even working Sunday mornings until 9:30pm sometimes. I’ve been okay with that up until that tokbox conversation with my friend Josh. I hadn’t really thought about acting on it much until I read the post from my friend Jon. Jon wrote in his blog post:

This crushed me. My heart went out to Jon. I know his pain and anguish. I hope for what he hopes for. We need people to have a burden on their hearts to help equip and encourage others. We need people like the Apostle Paul to pass along his encouragement and training to people like Timothy. It must be a continual cycle of renewal. Somehow we have lost this mentoring relationship. I feel I must get back into this, even at an informal level. I may not be the designated leader in a community at the moment, but I have a burden to give back to those who want to receive and encourage those that just need a little boost.

While I could always just go do this, I feel like there must be more to it than that. A community, a network, a fellowship… something bigger than myself must be the result.

I must admit that for the longest time I felt like a failure…not because our first church planting experience wasn’t a success, but because after all of my time in seminary and as an assistant pastor and lead pastor, I suddenly found myself working at a Kia dealership in Portland, Oregon. To me it was a job–the only job I could get after a two month job search–not a ministry. How foolish of me though! God has been unpacking a lot of things for me in just the 30 days I have been an internet sales manager at this Kia dealership. I have several stories I could share, but one is so poignant that it never seems to leave my mind.

Mr. H is a very successful businessman. He makes over $200,000 a year at a business he has owned for about 20 years. He grew up in the church and has been a pretty faithful Christian until a year ago. You see, Mr. H lost his brother at the age of 57. One night his brother went to sleep and never woke up. His heart stopped beating in the middle of the night and he passed away. A few months after the loss of his brother, Mr. H felt like God had left him. He blamed God for taking his brother away from him and his family. Mr. H was still hurting and still resentful towards God. He stopped going to Sunday services and didn’t want anything else to do with what he thought God wanted. Know that I did not force my faith upon Mr. H, nor did I manipulate the conversation to direct to this topic. Through some crazy, convoluted series of events we ended up on this subject and I never see it coming, until I’m immersed in the dialog.

Through just listening to Mr. H tell his story, I could see that there was some revelation and some healing happening right before my eyes. Mr. H asked me to share my story of how I went from being an atheist of 37 years to a seminary graduate and pastor. Mr. H told said to me that it was obviously God moving in my life. He said that it would just that kind of miraculous act of God coming upon him in his voice in order to resurrect his faith. However, I knew that Mr. H knew that deep down inside he knows God and that he knows God is there. He’s just stinging from the pain of losing his brother to a heart condition that could ultimately take his own life as well. It’s a hereditary condition that the doctors don’t know why it happens or when/if it will strike. That’s scary! Mr. H is in pain, but I know he is also scared. We talked some more and I shared how in Ecclesiastes and the final chapter of Jonah of examples God gave us of being angry or not being able to understand why things happen as they do. It’s a real emotion to be hurt and confused about God’s actions and that he understands that. It’s not a punishment and it’s not for us to feel sorry for ourselves over. As we come to realize that, we free our mind to begin to see some sense in the losses.

The craziest part of all of this, is that a successful businessman named Mr. H came in to buy a truck for his business, yet chose to reveal some painful experiences from the loss of his brother and his personal relationship with God to a stranger. You see, for some strange reason these are the stories and conversations I was never able to have with regular attenders of a church service. However, sitting across from me at my desk as I hold the title of internet sales manager, people seem free to discuss personal aspects of their life and faith and God with me in a very real and meaningful way. I’m at a Kia dealership worried about whether I’ll make enough money to pay my rent, yet God is bringing people to me that have impacted my life and given me opportunities to do what I always dreamed about doing as a lead pastor of a church plant–I’m reaching people outside of the church, speaking language they understand, and getting them to look at church, God, Christ, and people in a different way. What I call a job, God is using as a new ministry. I still find it a mystery, but am very grateful for the opportunity I have been entrusted with to be a small part of the process to (hopefully) seeing some people renew their faith in God and his church.

Currently having a great conversation via twitter that started with this initial question:

How would you answer? Before you do, here are some snippets of additional dialog that you may consider as well:

So, should one tithe to the church? Is a tithe 10%? Should giving be considered a tithe? Can one–in a biblical sense–give to those in need outside of the church and consider that their tithe…thereby not giving to the church as well? Your thoughts are appreciated.

I saw a video that my friend Jon Reid posted on his blog here. It is a parody of the contemporary, attractional church. However, when you watch it, if you didn’t know better, you’d have no idea it’s a parody. Take a look for yourself:

Sound familiar? It should! Seriously, this is the message I hear far too frequently in the contemporary, attractional church. In fact, this may be what you hear when you get together to worship on Sunday’s. Is there anything wrong with it? Well, yes…and no.

I don’t want to bash the attractional, megachurch, but in reality it does come across kinda cookie cutter to me. While in seminary we always went out on Sundays and visited 3 different church services to discuss as a group. I’ve seen a lot of various megachurch services and somehow they all seemed the same. Is that a negative? Well, if it works, then not really. However, in trying to reach people outside of the church, I find it can be a negative. It seems like culture is changing. What is relevant isn’t contemporary Christian songs that everyone already knows. Programming songs by length and keeping a sermon to a finite amount of time may not attract newer generations.

The oddest thing about all of this to me is that in the church we still use the terms contemporary and relevant (that’s where the name “Contemporvant” came about in the video) when in fact, this model of church was established back in the late 80′s and early 90′s. Is something 10-15 years really considered contemporary and relevant? For me, it just isn’t.

Personally, I don’t like the idea of mocking church as was displayed in this video from North Point Ministries. We do enough in the church already to build resentment and fueling that with a parody video just doesn’t seem sensible for me. If this were shown to a strictly Christian audience of regular church attenders there could be humor in it, but again, do we really need another thing to point to what the church isn’t doing right?

As all followers of this blog will know, I am not a cookie cutter model person when it comes to ministry or the church. If it works for you, great…doesn’t mean it should work for me. I care more about deeper relationships, encouragement, and acts of service in growing our relationships together in Christ over programs, great worship musicians and commanding speakers trying to be relevant. For me, engaging in conversations–which can be done in the context of preaching–is the way to reach people that are exploring their faith or seeking to grow. Letting them know they matter rather than letting them wander in and out unnoticed is what I want to see. However, some will still be drawn to that contemporary, relevant 90′s model of church as was represented in the North Point video. That’s why I don’t want to speak against that model. It does work and is great at drawing in crowds of people to hear God’s Word. I just think it comes down to connecting with people on a deeper, more-intimate level and have chosen to expend my energies in a different direction. With that said, I still cringe a bit when I watch this video as I sense the humor in it, but don’t look forward to the thoughts it may instill in those currently outside of the church, that will view it.

What are your thoughts? I’d certainly appreciate learning your impressions and feedback once you’ve watched the video.

Paralleling some thoughts I’m having as I begin another chapter in my journey, Dennis Bickers posted the following on his blog today:

I found the following paragraph in Kennon Callahan’s book Small Strong Congregations to be very powerful:

“Small, strong congregations are gift-driven, not getting-driven.  They are strength-driven, not weakness-driven.  They are spirit-driven, not size-driven.  Small, strong congregations are high-compassion congregations.  They are mission-driven congregations.  They do not ask, ‘What’s in it for us?”  They are not interested in church growth.  They are interested in people growth.”

The question each of us must ask is what drives our church?  It’s essential that we answer this question honestly and not answer it as we think others would think we should answer it.  The back-up question then for those of us in leadership is what drives us.  Ministry is, or should be, about people.  One of the strengths of smaller churches is that people are more important than performances or programs, but I have seen some smaller churches that were so intense about growing larger that it forgot the people while it focused on finding the elusive program that would lead to dynamic growth.  Usually, such churches never find that program, and having abandoned the people, they only grow smaller until they finally die.

I’ll ask the question again.  What drives your church?  What drives your own personal ministry?

I learned this lesson the hard way. As a church planter I spoke about loving people where they were at and building a relational community, yet in reality every action was in the context of building a church. It was a constant struggle: I truly loved people and made myself available to them, but at the same time I was always evaluating them as to how they would be a part of our ministry.

For me, a lot of the initial difficulty is rooted in my being naturally introverted. In a public setting or after being in several meetings in a day, I get wiped out. So, I try to make the most of my time with people and extract all that I can–or give all that I can–so that I don’t need to duplicate the experience later. I’m a people person, but only through a lot of intentionality and work. The strange thing to me is that so many other pastors I meet are introverts as well.

So, while loving others and encouraging them really drives me, it isn’t easy and my natural tendency is to revert back to working the system and operating in the fringes rather than being where the people are or receiving attention from my efforts.

Seeing others be successful at what they want to do and then being able to watch them help others do the same is what I would deem being successful in my ministry. I feel as if I was created to help empower others and foster an environment of collaboration. Only in such a setting can we truly have people see Christ rather than our own hard work.

What drives my ministry? Seeing people come together in community with a heart to give back to others selflessly; What drives my church? The same thing! This is why I feel called to serve the community through the church, rather than next to the church or in lieu of the church.

How about you? What drives your personal ministry? Your church?

The first century Christian church was comprised of people gathering together in homes, learning from the teachings of apostles, sharing in a meal together, and selling what they had to give to others with need. As we learn from Acts 2, not only did they do this, but we know that they did this daily.

Can you imagine if I came to your Sunday worship service and told your church that they had to gather together corporately every single day? We have such a difficult time just getting people to commit to one day a week to gather together, that just asking them to help form community by meeting in a home during the week or serving those in need for a day seems ridiculous to many. In essence, we love Jesus, but we love him on our terms when it is convenient for us to do so.

When we have a reference such as Acts 2 that describes a lifestyle of worship and community, why do we then have to go and mess that up by making it about ourselves? What motivates us to believe that the church today needs to change in order to be relevant to modern society? In the first century church, do we really believe that people went around to various homes looking to see who offered the most uplifting music, the most innovative youth ministry, the most up-to-date furnishings, the best tasting food, or had the most engaging preacher? In a time when professing a faith in Christ could lead to someone’s death by crucifixion or being boiled alive in hot oil, it was just a blessing to be amongst other people of faith living out their lives together for the sake of sharing the gospel with others.

When did the gospel become about modern sanctuaries, how far we’re willing to walk in the rain to get from our car to our seat, how the worship music is performed, funny sermon illustrations, or the talent of the preacher to speak you off the edge of your seat? I seriously contend that we have individualized the gospel and therefore diffused its transformational power when we make it about us and our comforts and desires.

In the first century church it was evident that lives were radically transformed in the name of the gospel. The Apostle Paul is a perfect example. If Paul, who was probably the last person any of us would have chosen to be the minister to the Gentiles, can be used by God for the beauty of the gospel, what is our excuse? What are we waiting for? Do we honestly believe that if we keep trying, we will find that one perfect church where our description sounds less like a church and more like our living room? When we gather together in the name of Christ, that is the church. When we love God and love others as ourselves, that is the church. Just like a car does not need a garage in order to function, we as Christians don’t need a building in order to be a church. Funny how we can look back in history and see how we’ve gotten things all wrong.

We in ministry try to cater to our consumers to attract and retain them, yet in Acts 2:47 we learn that it is not our ideas that grow the church–If we gather together and study the Word, share in fellowship, live life together, and give sacrificially God tells us that he will honor that by adding to our numbers daily. When we make the gospel about us, it becomes less about God. Are we really smarter than God? Do we really believe in the transformative power of the gospel as described in Romans 1:16 or do we use it merely as a tool for our own works?

Closing out the weeklong series on 3 questions about the church is Brett Crimmel. Brett is the lead pastor of Forefront Church in Lakewood, Colorado and has some great insights to share on being the church and helping those in need. His perspective on the church and its future is an exciting one:

1) How would you define the (local) church?

The local church is a community of people gathered together with a unifying purpose: to Love God (great commandment), to Love Others (golden rule – both inside and outside the church), and to Change the World (great commission). The church has a task to accomplish – namely to help people find their way back to God.

2) Is the church relevant? Why?

Absolutely! The church has more work to do now than ever in the history of the world. People are spiritually hungry and the teachings of Jesus are what they’re looking for. Now, more than ever, we’ve got the answers to the chaos that everyday life and the meaning of life.

Now, there are plenty of churches that have lost sight of the great commission. They are certainly not relevant. They’ve become a hotel for all the perfect people instead of a hospital for all of us jacked up sinners saved by the grace Jesus alone can bring.

3) Do you see the church looking different in the future? Please explain.

Yes. I think we’re moving past the culture of OR and moving into a culture of AND. While mainline denominations are struggling to define why they exist, the walls of separation are being torn down for the greater mission at hand. I’m seeing less division and more inclusion. Voices that are divisive are being marginalized by the social media and the back channel and those willing to work together on the mission are working together in ways never seen before.

But at the same time, the gospel is becoming clearer and clearer. And we’re preaching it with more boldness than ever before. And people are getting saved.Seems like the churches that are “getting it done” are moving from modality (a mode of operation … we’re one big happy family) to sodality (a task to complete … let’s do whatever we have to do to accomplish the task at hand)*. Maybe it’s just the people I’m listening to or maybe it’s reality, but it seems that even the establishment is adjusting to the new world order of multiple voices speaking. Someone has to filter & prioritize the noise. Churches that are about accomplishing a vision seem to be thriving in the new world order.John Ortberg said recently, “You can’t define spiritual maturity in a way that the pharisees win in the end.” Unfortunately, the pharisees have been winning for far too long. And I think the future church redefines that reality. Thank God.

Stay in touch with Brett Crimmel by folowing him on twitter: @brettcrimmel or the happenings at Forefront Church on their website: forefrontchurch.tv

David Park‘s twitter bio says it best: I dream about Asian-American culture and the church. David has a great insight into the next generation of church and how Asian-Americans can collectively influence the church culture in America. He hosts the Next Gener.Asian Church blog and is the most eloquent authority on Asian-American ministry. David has a love for–and is a student of–the greater church-at-large and lends a great perspective as he answers the three questions below:

1) How would you define the (local) church?

A disclaimer: I’m not particularly fond of my own definition of the local church, but I do think it is realistic and names how the church is viewed by non-Christians and is a good starting point for us to imagine change in the posture and future of the local church. I would define the local church is the organizational container or entity for Christian fellowship. I know we’re trying to stay away from defining the church as a building, but clearly, when we’re talking about a local church, we’re talking about an entity that (hopefully) exists with a particular objective of engaging people in the restorative, salvific, transformative, communal and missional aspects of the Christian faith. I say “hopefully” because not every local church fulfills all of these aspects well, and furthermore, they fail to take into account the strengths of other local churches. In other words, many local churches are limited in its true objective/mission because it is often preoccupied with its own perpetuation and survival.

In an increasingly pluralistic and competitive landscape then, the local church often resorts to diverse expressions and tactics akin to the business world in terms of approaching market segments and developing various products and services. While this might make sense for the survival of organizational entities, it recapitulates the problems we witness in society with perpetuating systemic injustices, tribalism, and consumerism. It is a rare church that can display to the world what reconciliation looks like, or radical generosity, or transformation at the collective level. We take ‘ekkesia’ seriously when we call people out of darkness, but we have difficulty converting this into the ‘apostolic’ dimension of the church in sending people out.

2) Is the church relevant? Why?

Relevance is difficult to achieve at a macro-scale when we tend to create industries and silos to protect ourselves. The world simply is not impressed when we mimic their culture-transforming developments, whether in the arts or in business. The local church has the capacity and potential to be relevant, but many close themselves off from others citing differences in doctrine, in zip code, in politics, in worship style, and a variety of matters that implicitly tell the world that we are not as full of grace as the gospel we proclaim. Choosing our tribe was a luxury in Christendom, but in a web 2.0, globalized, shifting America, we no longer have the space of distancing ourselves from “others”. The Mormon, the Muslim, the Jew, the Hindu, the New Ager, the atheist, and the apathetic are all watching and we simply are playing a game (missiologically speaking) without any sense of gravity to our faith and our witness before the world at our doorstep.

3) Do you see the church looking different in the future? Please explain.

Old habits die hard, but the circumstances and the consequences are dire, so I do hope that churches look different in the future with a greater emphasis on collaboration and reconciliation. The church needs to not gloss over problems of individuals or of the collective, but to invest deeply an embodied doctrine of incarnation. We must recover what it means to be a spectacle, to live a critique against the idols of political power and economic forces, and display healing, hospitality, and care to a greater extent across a wider spectrum of people than before. If the church doesn’t look different in the future, we effectively forfeit our role in shaping and informing the development of Christian witness in the global south and east and their churches.

Learn more of David’s thoughts at his blog: Next Gener.Asian Church or follow him on twitter: @dpark75.

Many of you may know Tyler Braun from his blog Man of Depravity. He’s the wild card in this blog series as he is not the lead pastor of a local church, but he brings the voice of a younger generation and is a seminary student and youth pastor in Portland, Oregon. Here is how this dynamic young man responded to the following three questions:

1) How would you define the (local) church?

A smaller and more specific expression of the church at large (church universal), designed to reach the world through discipleship and evangelism.

2) Is the church relevant? Why?

By “church” here I will move forward with the assumption that church means the combination of all local churches (though I do not think that is necessarily what the word church means, only that is helps frame the question in a way that I can answer). I say yes and no. I say yes because relevant is such an ambigous term that is often used when we think of “cutting edge,” even when cutting edge might not be what is truly relevant. Relevant means something different to each person in their own individuality. The many expressions of Christianity in churches around the world tell me that absolutely the church is relevant. I say no because my own experience says that culture is changing so fast that it is nearly impossible to stay relevant in the forefront of that change. And It isn’t only the church that struggles with this.

3) Do you see the church looking different in the future? Please explain.

Based on my definition of what the church is I would say emphatically no. Granted, I used a pretty broad and basic definition, but even if I was more specific I don’t know that much would change. Even within my lifetime there will be the changes of moving to a more internet-based approach or anything other specific change you see happening even now and churches will change as they deem change is necessary to reach the people around them. But the basic tenets of what a church is and does will stay the same. We will still gather consistently in large and small groups to pray, worship, and hear God’s Word brought in a way that makes sense to us. In that way, I think the church will stay the same.

Tyler Braun lends his insights regularly at his blog: manofdepravity.com and you can follow him on twitter as well at: @tylerbraun.