Not Like Me: A Field Guide for Influencing A Diverse World is a reprint of Eric Michael Bryant‘s previous book titled Peppermint-Filled Pinatas. I did not read the first release so I am not sure how it is different, but I do know that in the form of Not Like Me, this book is like gold! There is so much in here to take away and apply that it could easily take me a year (or probably more) to get through all of it. Apparently, I’m not alone as Eric has provided small groups resources and teaching materials from the book’s website: http://notlikeme.org/.

Pastor Bryant shares his own personal stories and incorporates a lot of humor in a way that helps break down defenses and makes us want to connect with this book in a more personal level. It’s exactly the type of thing Bryant advocates for us as Christians--and as the church--to do with those we encounter outside of Christian community. He calls us to help overcome the Christian stereotypes that unchurched people tend to have of churched people. In doing so, he wants us to understand that we must hold others in a new light--that which does not include judgement. As Eric writes, “We [Christians] have created an environment where we are seen as judgmental, irrelevant, mean, and hypocritical.” and “We should not be surprised when people who have not surrendered their lives to God live differently [than we Christians should].” In order to see this happen, Bryant’s answer is to practice “the art of woo.” It is through this “art of woo” that Pastor Eric unfolds a story of how we might learn to develop diverse communities, resolve conflict, overcome bitterness, create a better future, and even heal our fractured world. “Wouldn’t it be amazing,” Eric asks in the introduction, “if as followers of Christ we found ourselves as part of the solution in our divided world rather than as part of the problem? In the end, don’t people matter most?”

Sharing stories and ideas on realizing diversity within the church and reaching those that do not know Christ in a relevant way, Not Like Me is a training manual of sorts. It’s a book written by someone that has accomplished all that he offers to teach us. As a pastor and influencer of Mosaic--a diverse and amazing community that seeks to follow (and be more like) Christ with services that are in various locations such as a nightclub--Eric Bryant is someone who lives what he preaches. His heart for seeing diverse communities of Gospel love, compassion, and grace is big. Eric gets why it’s important to celebrate cultural diversity and why the church must be about loving others more so than becoming a shelter filled with Christians trying to escape from the world that doesn’t know Christ.

Thanks to Zondervan and Eric Bryant for allowing me the opportunity and privilege of being a part of the Not Like Me: A Field Guide for Influencing a Diverse World blog tour. It is with great passion and enthusiasm that I will continue to refer to the pages and apply the things that Eric graciously shares for communicating and building community with those around me, especially those not like me.

For all the people out there that say blogging is dead, I say you have no clue what you are talking about! I know that sounds harsh, but I adamantly believe it. Let me share a story of a dude named Dewde and my blog.

There was a lot of controversy surrounding an issue of Asian-American Christians taking offense to something, which I responded to in this blog post. Someone I did not know at the time read my blog post and chose to respond with a very short comment which simply stated:

Clearly you are not irrelevant.

Clearly.

peace | dewde

After that comment was left on my blog, I continued to see comments of peace and wisdom, all seasoned with a love that truly seemed to be evidence that Christ was alive and well in this guy named Dewde. He was everywhere in the blogosphere in response to the controversy, yet his remarks were always consistent — always taking the high road, yet acknowledging the inadvertent wrongfulness of the issue. I was taken back by his presence and devotion of time to exhibit such grace and truth from a non-Asian perspective. I imagined that Dewde must have been a well-versed Christian that somehow found grace and was devoted to sharing it with the world. I wanted to be more like him.

One night during a tokbox video conference on an issue of Asian-American ministry, Dewde pops into the conversation. I had to know more of his story. I was all set to be envious of his experience and learn what caused him to be so full of grace. Then, he softly spoke something that rocked my existence! He said that he was an atheist who married a Christian woman and came to know the eternal love of Christ through attending services at North Point Community Church in Georgia. What? An atheist? Specifically, an atheist-turned-Christian-through-a-mega-church-experience. Could this be true? Dewde definitely had my attention. The more he shared that night on tokbox, the more I realized that his story was very similar to mine. He shared a link to a video of his journey as an atheist who came to faith in the Lord. This guy who was so solidly grounded in peace and dripped the love of Christ from every pore of his body made statements in the video like:

• I had questions, but they were not answered to my satisfaction.

• I had a conversation with God. I told him that I did not believe he existed, and that this was his chance to prove to me that he did…I waited…I listened hard…And when the silence was over I had the proof I needed…And I became an atheist with a clean conscious.

What the heck? How could a guy who came to know Christ personally just seven years ago — a guy so rooted in his own reasoning skills and with so much evidence of Christians not being what they professed to be — how could this guy seem to have found so much peace? I said similar things during my years as an atheist, yet don’t reveal that much grace in my life. I was developing a bond with my newfound brother and it greatly encouraged me to know God was at work in this way in others. While Dewde and I have a lot of similarities in our journeys, we are two very individual people. We are not the same. Therefore, Dewde’s story is worth knowing and I encourage you to take a few moments to witness his story in the video below. I know many of you know him via twitter and the blogosphere, but I’m not sure many of you know how he came to be this amazing guy named Dewde, who loves others because Christ first loved him.

Here’s the video:

It’s Personal -- A Former Atheist Speaks from dewde on Vimeo.

I’m working through some things with someone and in the back of my mind I really feel like the timing is such that he is needing to know Christ. Maybe even knowing that I am in ministry, this person could be subconsciously (or consciously) seeking me out to walk him through coming to understand life with Christ. He has eluded to attributes in my character and my giving nature as things he would like to see within himself, but just can’t seem to get there due to anxiety and fear. It’s almost like a scene scripted from the Matrix where he is Neo and it’s time to make the choice--which pill will he accept?

As I think about the situation I am presented with and what this person is saying, I have to step back and realize that it isn’t a time for Christianeze. It wasn’t my citation of Bible verses that caused him to see me as a giving person. It wasn’t my public prayer that showed him my strength in times of adversity. It was me just being me and him seeing who I am that brought this about.

I need to consider that while God is the Creator of the universe and has all power and authority to do anything--that we can do all things with Christ who gives us strength--this may be a case where some medication could be the best way to intervene. Maybe just listening to him speak and letting him work through the emotions of anxiety could be the best way to begin.

It’s so easy to throw the Bible at him and tell him that he is feeling this way because he has a God shaped hole in his heart that only God can fill. I could ask him if I could pray for him in his presence. Too often I think we as Christians resort to this as our first line of action. We fail to use our gift of listening and compassion to help go through the messy times that we are faced with as humans. We try to immediately put our trust in God by pointing to him and then running away hoping he will just impose his will immediately and then we can celebrate the victory without getting our hands dirty. In the end we can come across as cold and programmed rather than loving and compassionate. God didn’t become the answer to  our lives until we were in a place when we could listen and realize God was there for us. We can’t just name drop Jesus and then flee believing that Christ will supernaturally become like a psychologist and have a spiritual dialog with others. Are we propaganda machines? Are we like car salespeople trying to get people to come into our showroom, only to turn them over to Christ the closer and stand back and watch him do everything?

In this situation I am going to be who God created me to be and seek to be compassionate and understanding. I am going to trust that God is ordaining this time and that his gospel will be made known. However, I am going to trust that one of his purposes for me was to be in situations like this and be patient, trusting that he wants to work through me, rather than without me. Trusting that in God’s master plan I don’t have the burden of setting a goal to lead other people to recite the sinner’s prayer. I will trust Christ that he will give me wisdom, patience, humbleness and the strength to be there for this person and let him know he is more than a statistic in my baptismal. That as God knew the number of hairs on this person’s head and knows his name, that he will lead me and let Christ shine as he fades me into the background. The process is beginning with prayer and through that I know God will reveal how to proceed as he softens this persons heart and draws him closer into his presence.

Do you know Jesus as your personal savior? If you don’t, won’t you take time to invite him into your life now?

How do you think most people in society would respond to that question? If you’ve been asked it before, you probably didn’t receive it favorably. If you’ve asked the question before, the conversation probably came to a halt shortly thereafter. Do you know why? In a nutshell, it’s because it comes across as if you are either selling something like Amway, or you are being asked to buy into something, such as Amway.

Amway is a huge, global company. Funny thing about it is that it really isn’t about a product. It’s about getting people that will go out and tell others about how lucrative it can be and teaching them how to get others to do the same thing. It’s not the product, but the sales pitch that is king. It all sounds so corny, but there is no mistaking that it has been effective for some people. As successful as Amway has been, there is a huge stigma associated with it. When someone comes up to us and starts to pitch Amway we immediately try to find out if they are Amway salespeople and then do our best to flee the conversation. In the past, Amway representatives have gone to using deceit in order to make their pitches. They won’t outright say it’s Amway they are selling and are evasive in order to get you to take the next step. However, regardless of the tactics, we all have our idea of what Amway is and how it infringes on our time and why we would never be interested in it. Thousands of people make millions of dollars per year promoting Amway, yet we won’t even give it 15 minutes of our time. You know I’m right!

Now, think about how we approach evangelism of our faith. The way we “invite” people into a conversation with an agenda of getting them to make a commitment to seek the Lord. How we put our faith in hoping we can somehow give a polished enough presentation that others will be able to make a commitment to a grandiose god without any substance. We tout him as the answer to everything in a world that isn’t looking. We ask the question hundreds of times hoping that we will be invited to the top producers banquet in heaven someday.

What if you asked someone to accept Christ as Lord and they agreed--dropped to their knees and prayed right on the spot. Success, right? Well, when you present Christ as if you were presenting Amway, it is only temporary success that has no eternal impact. Imagine being the Amway salesperson getting someone else to sign on the dotted line and committing to sell it for you. When they are unsure of what they are doing, lack confidence because they weren’t really given much truth, and get beaten down from rejection, they will stop selling Amway as they no longer see any benefit. In the end, it was just a bunch of hype. We preach salvation so people won’t go to hell, yet when hell is no longer real to them their salvation becomes irrelevant.

Gregory Boyd has a chapter in The Myth Of A Christian Religion titled The REVOLT Against SECULARISM. In it, he describes this style of evangelism as a sales pitch:

We can be saved--which these people think means we won’t go to hell--simply by reciting this magical confession. We’re basically purchasing fire insurance with a magical prayer.

Boyd goes on to explain that Webster’s Dictionary defines a lord as: one who has power and authority over others. Therefore, when someone confesses that Jesus is their Lord, they should be confessing that Jesus has power and authority over them. Boyd claims that if someone confesses Christ as their Lord, yet does not submit to his power and authority, then they are contradicting themselves. He says it’s as if they are saying they are a married bachelor or a round square. Pastor Boyd affirms:

No wonder Jesus asked, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things that I say?”

The simple truth is that when the Bible promises us that if we confess Jesus as Lord we will be saved, it’s not telling us how to get cheap fire insurance by reciting a magical salvation formula. Rather, it’s stipulating what kind of relationship we need to have with Jesus to participate in the healing and wholeness of God’s reign. This relationship, by definition, must be one of submission. We are saved when we authentically surrender our life to Christ, enthroning him as Lord.

Once the confession of Christ as Lord is made, it starts a journey of being in submission to his power and authority. It’s a journey because we have to look at the long-term significance of an eternity with Christ, yet we can only do so one step at a time. Boyd describes it by saying “Our lives are nothing more than a series of present moments strung together. The only thing that is real is now.” How true that is!

How can we profess Christ as the magical answer to the world’s problems if we Christians live our lives filled with problems ourselves? Don’t you know that the world sees us as hypocritical, brainwashed and judgmental people? If we did, why would we live our lives outside of Christ yet feel the need to invite others into a life with Christ?

We must learn that the world around is a secular one. Gregory Boyd explains that the word secular comes from a Latin word saeculum, which means “the present world.” That a secular worldview is one that focuses on the present physical world and ignores or rejects the spiritual realm. If this is truly the world we live in (and it is!) then we must learn how to be more relevant in our actions and words. We must come to understand that it’s not about heaven or hell, but it’s about the beauty of a kingdom that puts other people ahead of ourselves and trusts in a Lord with power and authority. That we can have a relationship with this Lord and be in his presence every second of every day. To know that he is actually calling us on a journey with him in an imperfect world that can be made perfect through his reign. We are to seek first the kingdom of God, not just a desire to be in heaven instead of hell. Just as God wants a relationship with you, he calls us to seek a relationship with others. We should look upon people with love and kindness rather than prospects for a sales pitch. We should seek to explain to them the truth and the daily struggles that go along with our relationship with Christ, rather than churn people out as disciples of a well-orchestrated sales pitch machine.

God is definitely asking us to share his love and describe our life with him to others. He is actively working through you and I in this world so that he may be made known to it. However, please don’t take this to be an agenda. Don’t be cliche. Know that it’s about much more than words…it requires action based on our submission to Christ. We must take the time to listen to his direction, discern what needs to be done, and trust that his power and authority will be made known to those that we come in contact with. God isn’t the CEO of Amway and he shouldn’t be reduced to a sales pitch. Boyd closes the chapter by writing:

As we grow in our capacity to live under the reign of God moment-by-moment, we increasingly manifest the beauty of his ever-present love while revolting against the ugly secularism that afflicts or world.

This is the heart of the Kingdom of God

This is the heart of the revolution we’ve been invited to participate in.

Viva la revolution!

A large part of the missional church movement is a call to action within our communities. There is an underlying core belief that we need to get out and let the world know we are disciples of Christ intent on sharing his love with others, rather than holed-up in a building on Sunday mornings with others that believe as we do.

I know the mission of the missional church clearly rubs some people the wrong way. Let me clearly state that I while I don’t feel called to lead a fellowship of people into becoming the next mega church or follow purpose driven principles, I applaud you for doing what you do and reaching people the way that you do. However, your calling is not my calling and God will use all sorts of people through all sorts of methods to see people come to know him through his Son Jesus the Christ.

A lot of us in pastoral ministry tend to take sides on evangelism. We all cite the Great Commission as something that needs to be taken seriously as disciples, yet we don’t all agree on what carrying the Great Commission looks like. For some it’s having an attractional church with lots of programs to meet the needs of families. By drawing them in with programs, they can be exposed to the gospel. Others send missionaries to various parts of the world and help support them. Many churches will do special events and ask congregants to take advantage of the opportunity to invite their friends and neighbors and co-workers for a chance to come in and be hooked by the gospel.

The one thing that I stand upon is that nothing about the gospel in Scripture is attractional. Throughout the entire New Testament, there is one clear, underlying theme to the gospel: repent and be baptized. Call upon the Lord for forgiveness of sins and profess his name and you will be saved. In so doing, the Lord will never leave you, nor forsake you. It’s pretty simple and blatantly clear.

To me, being attractional means living a life in celebration of Christ and taking seriously his commands. So, I guess in that sense I am attractional. Our vision for planting and launching Revolution Church Sacramento is based upon this through our vision statement: We want to be a gathering of transformed people that God uses to help transform the lives of others in the Sacramento area. I am a firm believer that our vision and mission are supported by Scripture in Acts 2:42-47:

42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

If we live a life of faith praising God and give of ourselves for the sake of others that have need, God will add to our number daily those that are being saved. This is first and foremost they way we should evangelize. We cannot cause someone to know Christ, but through us and our living witness to the glory of Christ Jesus, God can use us to sow seeds that he will nurture and grow into fruitful service to the kingdom of heaven.

Father God, I pray that you will continue to speak to your servants and call them to be used by you for the sake of others coming to know you through your Son Jesus. Thank you for your call upon all of us as your ministers of the gospel to live a life that honors and glorifies you and being open to be at the right place at the right time, doing the right thing to impart thoughts of your love into the minds and hearts of those you are about to call into the kingdom of heaven. Thank you for using each of us individually to do your work for your people. That no greater love exists than your love for your people. A love so strong that you sent your Son to die for the forgiveness of all sin because we could not do not so by ourselves. Bless the work of your Church and the people in leadership to show love for all and to be burdened for others more than for themselves. Bring us to a place of peace and unity within your body so that we may be living witnesses that draw others to be added to our number daily those that are being saved. You are good and your mercy endures forever. I pray your anointing and favor on your people and those in pastoral ministry whom you have entrusted with your flock. In the name of Jesus, amen.

As I ponder what’s next with the call God put in my heart to share the love & grace of the gospel of Christ, I am reminded of the powerful and thought-provoking words of the song God of This City by Chris Tomlin and how I was moved to tears when I first heard this song. The chorus tells us:

Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done here

Won’t you take a moment to watch the video and let this song speak to you today?

You’re the God of this City
You’re the King of these people
You’re the Lord of this nation
You are

You’re the Light in this darkness
You’re the Hope to the hopeless
You’re the Peace to the restless
You are

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater thing have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done here

There is no one like our god
There is no one like our God

[Chorus]
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done here

Are you excited? Outreach magazine just published their compilation of the top 100 largest churches in America. While I’m glad that people are still gathering in masses to worship the one true God, I find myself scratching my head at why anyone would want to glorify the church in this manner.

The sad fact of the matter is that there are pastors out there that will inflate their attendance numbers so that they can run with the big boys. They are immersed in the numbers game. They seek to grow numerically in order to confirm their status within the kingdom of heaven. In the minds of many senior pastors is the misconception that a growing church is a healthy church.

However, when polled most senior pastors will say that they are not interested in numbers, but instead they desire to see many to come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior. That’s a noble thing, but at the same time many encourage people that were previously baptized in a church already to come forward and be baptized in their church, thus inflating the numbers of salvations and diminishing the scripture in Romans 10:9 which clearly states:

That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

I guess contrary to the word, confessing once isn’t enough?

We are taught not to envy or covet, yet we see statistics like this glorifying the local church and putting them on a pedestal because of the number of attendees they draw. When health and numerical size are used as factors to determine “success” in the church, how can a pastor not want to seek credibility for what God is doing in their church in the same fashion? It can cause us to see our numbers diminish within the smaller church because people are flocking to the mega-church because the music is so professional or they have more technology and staff in their children’s ministry and then believe that God is working in the mega-church, but abandoning us in the smaller churches.

I believe that God is working through the mega-church model to see people come to honest professions of faith in the Lord, with transformed lives making a difference in their community as the result. My criticism isn’t on the mega-church, but it’s on the glorification of the mega-church. Look closely at the image above or click here to see the whole list of the top 100 largest churches. It’s not just the top 100 churches listed, but they are ranked in order from largest to smallest and there is also the name and photo of the senior pastor and in addition to that, there is even a link to books that some of the pastors have authored. Sorry, but this just brings the kind of attention to the pastor that rewards him for obtaining such high status on lists like this. Somehow, it just doesn’t seem like such a godly thing for pastors to be recognized in this way or worse yet, to see them strive for such notoriety.

As I write this, I think the thing that gets me most is the notion that it’s all about attendance and not about transformations and loving others. As many of you know, I’m excited about the missional church movement. Not only the missional church ethos, but of the nature of the missional church to be more organic and empowering others to lead and disciple communities based on visions God gives them to be pastors and ministers of the gospel. What about the missional church that honors God through the Greatest Commandment and the Great Commission and sees itself being reproduced throughout the city or the world? If a mother church grows to 200 in attendance and then starts reproducing itself by sending missionaries/pastors out to lead others and disciple them in the ways of Christ, only to see this repeating itself time and time again, isn’t this the way of the first century church? The mother church may ebb and flow and never break the 200 barrier by intention, yet be responsible for seeing 20,000 come to know Christ and carry on his mission through daughter churches and other ministries. Should they be off the radar screen or not viewed in as high a regard as the mega-church of 10,000 members that lands on the list of top 100 churches? I don’t think so. Is having a congregation of 12,000 meeting in one building a better definition of outreach than having groups of 1,000 people meeting in 12 different buildings? Again, I don’t think so.

We should not be working to receive our rewards here on earth. Pastors can say that who am I to write about this when God is the one sending people to their church and they are just doing their best to shepherd his people. Okay, I’m with you on that. However, what about the inverse of this? How about when your mega-church of 10,000 people and 40 staff members sees its attendance drop to 5,000 in less than a year. Do you believe that God has his hand in moving the sheep to another shepherd, or do you go into panic mode and start cutting programs and laying off people and doing all you can to figure out how to get your attendance numbers back up to justify the big building and church campus?

Church attendance numbers in no way portray the effectiveness of outreach or seeing people come to know Christ for the first time. They do not accurately reflect the health of a church, nor the genuine nature of those that gather. A mega-church of 10,000 in attendance on Sundays, but 90% of the congregation is from church hoppers is not deserving of being more highly regarded than a church of 50 that live the mission of Christ everyday, drawing in people that may take years of living in a community of faith before they actually take the step of faith to put their trust in Christ eternally.

[At this point I feel a disclaimer is in order. I'm not envious of the mega-church or their pastors. I have not had any negative experience from serving or attending in mega-churches.

I have a great respect for the calling and vision of every pastor on the top 100 list of largest churches!

Those that know of my work in the ministry know that I speak highly of Pastor Craig Groeschel and participated with LifeChurch.tv in their One Prayer campaign last July. I have read and been blessed by several books authored by Andy Stanley of North Point. I'm amazed at what it took to see Bill Hybels ask for a raw and unfiltered assessment of Willow Creek through surveying their members and then responding in revolutionary ways to change the course and direction of their ministry in order to see true discipleship and transformation occur.

I am encouraged when I see how the Reveal study that was done by Willow Creek is causing local churches to take a look at what they are doing and why they are doing it. When things like this surface not because of diminishing numbers, but because of lack of discipleship and mission it can only be a positive step that deserves recognition. Most of my friends within ministry are pastors of larger, non-denominational churches with seeker-sensitive services. I love and respect each of them and sometimes feel they are better-suited to ministry than I am because of the larger resources at their disposal and their big faith to serve and make a difference. Again, I'm not in opposition to the mega-church model. I just think we are flirting with danger and temptation when we in ministry and those in the media begin putting so much attention to only those with larger attendance numbers. Bottom line is that I love the church and I love God and I pray daily that the church will start working to be more unified and seeing the love of Christ personified in cities all over the world. I just believe that in our humility we should seek to have God get all the glory and for people to see Jesus and not be awestruck by the celebrity status that pastors are being encouraged to embrace. It's a dangerous thing and we've already seen the enemy take too many people out of their calling to see the gospel reach the ends of the earth.]

Church envy…is it godly?

During the past few years there has been a lot of discussion about the emergent church. Now it seems that many have not been happy with the way the emergent church has moved to and have re-branded themselves as missional.

Is the missional church just another form of the emergent church? To that I say, yes and no. Just as the emergent church has its various ways with no single unifying factor defining it, the missional church is not in complete agreement either. However, there is a big difference in the way I see the emergent and missional churches.

A key focus on emergent churches is the experience. What does one feel when in an emergent environment? How can the church become a sensory experience? I admit that I was taken with this style of church for a couple of years as it seems like a way to connect with those outside of the church and in opposition to “religion.” They weren’t connecting in the more-traditional or seeker sensitive church so why not give them a place to experience God through making it seem more real and less judgmental? It made sense to me until one day I was hit with something. What about the gospel? Was the emergent church bringing awareness to the gospel in a way that lives were being transformed or was it simply paving a way for people to have their needs met in a Christianity tailor made for the season of life?

I have nothing against those in the emergent church or those called by God to serve in that capacity. I don’t believe the emergent church to be leading people down the wrong path any more than I believe the purpose driven or seeker sensitive church is misleading. God’s vision for his church is bigger than any of us can imagine and the isn’t to do it in only one way; instead the key is to make the focus on God and to live in unity and love. If we do those two things God will take care of the rest.

With that said, how can the missional church be the same as the emergent church? Simply put, the missional church requires an experience. However, where the emergent is about creating an atmosphere that brings about an experience, the missional church is all about experiencing something because of what we put into it, not what is presented to us. Additionally, the missional church will connect with those that aren’t connecting with the traditional Sunday consumeristic experience. Those that aren’t looking for a church with programs that cater to their needs.

The more I prayed about leading an emergent church, the more I believe that I received clarity on the true nature behind God’s vision for the church he was calling me to. It wasn’t about engaging people in an experience so they could feel God’s presence and come to know him more. It was about being a real and relevant place that people wanted to engage in every day. A place where Jesus could be made known without someone having to purposefully step foot into a building on a Sunday. It was about having a meaning and a purpose that stretched well beyond the borders of modern Christianity. To spell it out, this was a place that no building or program could summarize. It’s a place that can only be found deep within the heart and soul of a person. This is what led me to come to find the missional church.

Every church has a vision and mission statement. However, most often the mission of a church is to grow and be healthy and to see others come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior. The mission isn’t really a mission, but instead it is more like a mantra. We at XYZ Church want to disciple others and cause them to live out the Great Commission is basically what it comes down to. Is that bad? Absolutely not!

For me though, mission cannot be fulfilled unless it is a part of who one is. It is taking like-minded people and getting them united in a cause. In my case, the cause that should unite the church is loving God and loving others. We can show we love God by coming to a church building and lifting up our worship to him. We can show others that we love them by creating a great Christian children’s program for their family or teaching them how to be good stewards of their finances or how to stay married for life. For me though, I believe I can show God I love him by keeping his commands and I can show others I love them as Jesus loves them by going to them and not trying to attract them to me.

In my mind the missional church is about worshipping God through our daily lives and sharing the love of Christ with others in ways that have nothing to do with attracting people to a church building or connecting them with some great program. As Jesus did, we need to hit the streets and show the relevance of our faith in Christ and our genuine love for our fellow man. We should give sacrificially and engage in community and pray together and spend time studying and heeding God’s Word. In essence, to me, the missional church can simply be defined as a church that follows the model of the Acts chapter 2, first century church.

It can be a house church, mega church, internet church, college campus ministry…it cannot be defined by it’s look or it’s people. It can only be defined by Jesus and continuing his mission to see the kingdom of heaven upon earth. Jesus didn’t do things to draw people into his church. He went from town to town administering love and kindness and forgiveness to all that had eyes to see and ears to hear. He did not discriminate his message based on culture or profession or social status. His love was enough for all in 30 AD and it is still enough for all in 2008 AD. Why not go out and show the world that Jesus loves them and wants to use his people to share his love of them? Why must we call the world to come knocking on the door of our church instead? Jesus was about making those in the establishment feel uncomfortable, but at the same time he called upon his disciples to feel uncomfortable. Is a transformed life, dead to sin, going to matter much to a dying and hurting world if that transformation is only visible in a comfortable theater style seat with professional sounding music and polished speaker delivering a sermon on Sunday. A transformed life will be empowered through the Holy Spirit to speak eternal love into someone’s life if we go out and meet them where they are and not cast judgment on them. A transformed life will bring glory to God when lives outside of Sunday services are touched, yet no one mentions a church by name and uses it as propaganda. When we as Christ’s church offer to a free gift of bottled water to people because we want them to be hydrated and healthy, yet there is a big XYZ Church label on the bottle, is it really a free gift? Is it really about God’s love or the church’s love?

I don’t know how long the emergent church will continue or what the future holds for it. I love, pray for, and learn from many of my emergent church brothers such as Dan Kimball & Erwin McManus. However, I do know that the missional church isn’t something that came about as a way to try and make Christianity relevant in a post-Christian world. Missional church is just a modern expression of the first century church and it’s about time we got back to our roots of living life for the glory of God and believing that Christ will make this a better place the spirit of love he gives us through the indwelling of his Holy Spirit within us.

Missional churches are starting to gain momentum, which is a little odd to me since they were in existence back in the first century following the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.

To help clarify a little on missional churches and explain why I believe this movement is relevant, I’ll be posting my views this week as they relate to the Scriptural and cultural relevance of missional churches. The posts this week will reflect my opinions as I have come to understand them through prayer and study. I don’t profess to be an expert on the missional church nor am I completely comfortable with churches being categorized with terms such as missional, emergent, seeker-sensitive, mega, postmodern, giga, traditional, organic, attractional or whatever labels people want to use to describe something that was intended to be unified and loving. However, it is my hope that my posts this week will help explain some of the details of what makes a church missional and how this aligns with my vision for the local church.

To help get up to speed on the missional church be sure to spend some time here. From the Friend of Missional website, let’s start the discussion with an excerpt of what they state the missional church is not:

• A missional church is not a dispenser of religious goods and services or a place where people come for their weekly spiritual fix.
• A missional church is not a place where mature Christians come to be fed and have their needs met.
• A missional church is not a place where “professionals” are hired to do all the work of the church.
• A missional church is not a place where the “professionals” teach the children and youth about God to the exclusion of parental responsibility.
• A missional church is not a church with a “good missions program.” The people are the missions program and includes going to “Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
• A missional church is not about a new strategy for evangelism.
• A missional church is not missional just because it is contemporary, young, hip, postmodern-sensitive, seeker-sensitive or even traditional.
• A missional church is not about big programs and organizations to accomplish God’s missionary purpose. This does not imply no program or organization, but that they will not drive mission. They will be used in support of people on mission.
• A missional church is not involved in political party activism, either on the right or left. As Brian McLaren wrote, we need “purple peoplehood” — people who don’t want to be defined as red or blue, but have elements of both.

I’ll start posting next on what the missional church means from Jesus’ perspectives and why this ancient form of “church” is so refreshing and relevant to some. I’ll also be explaining my view on why I believe that missional and emergent are very different words and why postmodern is becoming an irrelevant term.

Father God, may you grant me the wisdom to aid in the discussion and convey clearly about what is being called the missional church. May my words glorify you and may they speak to those that think church is something out-dated and irrelevant. Let this movement bring about hope and joy as people all over the world connect and exemplify your love for all people and come to know the saving grace of Christ for all eternity. May the results help to bring unity to the vision of your church in ways that honor you Lord. In the name of Jesus, amen.

I am reading a lot of reports that show myspace as having more subscribers, but that Facebook is fast becoming the social network of choice. I think a lot of this coincides with the emergence of web 2.0 as Facebook fits within the parameters of web 2.0 much better than Myspace.

For me, they are vastly different forums and they each serve separate purposes:

Facebook-

• clean and consistent feel so no surprises
• consistency leads to a generic sense of place with no real individualistic identity
• allows one to get info quick and run off to the next task
• better suited for networking with others than facilitating relationship building
• links very seamlessly with blogs such as blogger, typepad, etc.
• for whatever reason it has gained more respect and credibility from adults (adults are more inclined to link to a facebook profile page rather a myspace profile page
• can’t send links to friends advertising your facebook (friends need to search for your name and then have to be accepted by you before they can see your full page)

Myspace-

• very personalized -- lots of creative freedom for background images, different layouts, fonts, etc.
• blogs and categories used by many that don’t want to maintain a blog and social networking account separately. includes notifications to friends on myspace of new posts and encourages feedback.
• more standardized for chatting and messaging. intended to be an experience and to allow us to live life connected with others though photos, bulletins, blog, im, polls/surveys, etc.
• can be used for advertising and promotion of events since direct URL access is available (i.e. www.myspace.com/mybirthdayparty)
• promotes a better sense of community because of the interaction

Because of certain relationships I have built in the past 3 years on myspace, I still maintain a blog and engage some agnostic and atheist friends in discussions. I say hello and offer encouragement to people around the world and they do the same for me. However, I found that over the course of this year I have spent much less time trying to stand and be technologically creative and captivating on myspace. I went back to the generic profile with a white background. In essence, my myspace profile is beginning to look similar to my facebook profile.

Facebook can be quite distracting to me at times with all the applications that can be added. I’ve been able to do away with most of those things. I’ve linked my facebook profile to this blog and have been networked to people though it. There is no myspace badge which allows that. I’ve noticed too that most pastors my age or younger are promoting their Facebook profiles so this allows me to network with other people that are planting churches or considering planting churches. That has been interesting for me :) However, I still find way less interaction with people through Facebook. It seems very informational and not so much relational. In a fast-paced world this makes sense and its simplicity is appreciated. It just seems a little impersonal.

So, in conclusion, I utilize Facebook to network with people and get glimpses of their daily lives and thoughts and they do the same towards me. I send updates and photos from my cell phone. I even just added a Facebook toolbar to Firefox so I can share my browsing experience with my Facebook network. Facebook is a great tool for this aspect of social networking. However, I still believe that there is a place for Myspace and the relationships that I can maintain and the new ones I can create through the more personal interaction through its way of social networking. I don’t think either will consolidate things to replace the other with one social networking platform that is the king of internet interaction. So for now, I’ll maintain the blog and Myspace and Facebook.

Anything you’d add to this or care to comment on?