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Playing “church” or playing to win?
The Bible says the Body of Christ is supposed to function under His headship, and be knit together by what every ligament supplies. It says we all have a role to play, and that it won’t work right until we do. It says it’s the saints’ job, in general, to do the work of ministry, and the leaders’ jobs to equip them, and not the other way around. It says God is giving to the Church “first the apostle, then the prophet.” That said …
What if the prophet of God is artsy, has long hair, and talks with a stutter? The one God has given the gift of clear Spiritual sight, and to whom He reveals the plans of heaven, has been beaten down emotionally all his life because he’s “odd” and so can’t bring himself to speak up during the organized, orderly Sunday Morning ceremony, and has never been invited to participate in “church” leadership?
What if the one called and gifted as an apostle has an MBA and left the organized “church” years ago because his gifts were unwelcome? Apostles, in the model God intends – the ones He says should be first in the Kingdom lineup – simply don’t fit well in the stiff, pyramid structures of todays “churches.” Just a little too passionate to sit quietly and play “nice” in the face of stubborn ignorance, I guess.
What if the smartest person in the congregation is a geek? The one with the gift of healing is a shut in? The one with faith that can move mountains smells bad because she has 100 cats? The deliverance warrior who can face demons head-on never sat through “membership” class because he finds the Sunday “sermons” to be like watching Barney reruns?
What if God gives a revelatory word to a child, or a divine vision to a newly recovering alcoholic?
What if God is calling a body of believers to do something the IRS would consider “for profit” (like make tents, or own a fishing company, as early apostles did), and so the “church council” is aghast at the very idea? (The infamous BTK serial killer was a respected member his “church council,” remember.)
What if we as a body defined our “religious service” as a ceremony we conduct on Sunday mornings, instead of as God does – and that is, rolling up our sleeves, working up a sweat, and giving sacrificially to help those in need?
What if we defined “worship” as singing? What if we thought “church” was a building, or a defined organizational structure, or a set time of meeting? (If you’ve sat for years during “worship service” in the same row with a person, and you don’t know the most intimate details of their life, you don’t know their true giftedness, and you’re not sowing into each other’s lives on a regular basis, then you can call that place a lot of things, but don’t call it a Church, because God sure doesn’t.)
What if the founder of our denomination or congregation was indeed called by God for a reason and a season, but because of our way of doing things, he went further and solidified his position for the long term through a formal legal, organizational or theological structure? What if the person wielding his positional authority today was selected by an appointed or elected committee, for who-knows-what real reasons?
What if the guy with a “seminary” degree and “ordination” certificate went that route because he was a failure at everything else, or because his fiancée wanted to be a “pastor’s wife”? They’re out there, I know them personally (you probably do, too, unawares), and today they’re good little “pastors” at nice little “churches.” (Not surprisingly, they’re often the first ones to claim that God stopped calling apostles and prophets 2,000 years ago … and the sheep just follow along out of empty, dangerous tradition, because “pastor said so, and he’s ordained.”)
Seriously, what if the nice, charming guy who is decent at administration and who is a great public speaker and fundraiser is really not the one God wants calling the shots? Those are gifts of a politician, not a shepherd. Yet our model of “churchianity” has thrust them to the top.
What if there is a growing body of passionate, faithful, mature brothers and sisters who are truly led by the Spirit, and who regularly gather with other believers to serve each other and advance the Kingdom, yet … they sleep in on Sunday mornings (to obey God’s command to take a real day of rest each week) … they don’t ever enter a steeple-topped building … they can’t stomach listening to the weekly McSermon … they don’t recognize the Spiritual authority of a man who claims it simply because he holds a man-made title and “ordination,” and … they don’t belong to one of the Christian country clubs that man calls “church”? (Darn back-door losses! What is this world coming to?)
I don’t have to ask “what if” for any of these questions, because this is the reality we live in today.
No wonder Christ is increasingly mocked and marginalized in the world. Look what we consider to be His “body” today!
No wonder we’ve lost our influence in the culture. We can’t even influence our own selves to clearly discern and be obedient to His Word, because “the old wine tastes better.”
No wonder we have to fake out folks with a Sunday morning rock concert and stirring motivational speech just to get them to join our “church.” We don’t offer them much else anymore.
No wonder youth ministry today is typically little more than cheap, worldly, “cool,” entertainment with the name of Jesus occasionally slipped in when it’s not too creepy. We simply don’t understand the fact that their deepest desire is to be real, because we ourselves don’t know what real is.
No wonder the most popular “pastors” are either tradition-bound, toothless types who don’t want to shake things up, or prosperity hustlers who encourage their flock to live it up in the here and now. Give ‘em what they want, because what they really need might make them uncomfortable.
No wonder the general consensus among Christians today is that our best hope is for Jesus to come back soon and take us home, in some heretical idea of a sudden “rapture.” Kingdom victory is why we’re here. It’s our God-given assignment and destiny. But with today’s churchianity model, it’s simply not going to be possible.
“It is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: ‘Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ Be very careful, then, how you live–not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” Ephesians 5:14-17
– You are the salt of the world. Stay salty, my friends!
Ministry UPRISING — The essence of leadership
NOTE: If you’re waiting for Part Three of the “I don’t want it” series, you’ll have to wait a bit more. I don’t want to write it myself — I want the Lord to write it through me. He’s given me bits and pieces, but not the whole thing yet. It’ll come, just like the past two…
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I’m going to start writing from time to time on the theme of “Bringing UPRISING to churchianity.” This is the first of what may become a long series…
God has blessed me with the opportunity over the past 10 years to lead something of a youth ministry movement. The group He used me to build, CTO, is a powerful, fruitful, life-altering ministry that is WAY outside the box of the current way most youth ministries work. Last year, the Lord showed me it was time to move on to the next chapter in my life. There are several plotlines to this new chapter, and a big part of that is writing, and thus my book and this blog (and other books in progress).
Another part of this chapter is working to bring the things we learned through CTO into the four walls of traditional “church.” Talk about a challenge. Over the past decade, I’ve spoken to literally hundreds of pastors and youth ministers who wanted to work for CTO because, they felt, it was IMPOSSIBLE to bring our fruitful methods into the traditional American “church” system — and they were either going to burnout and quit their career, or sell out and stop trying to make a real difference. So, bringing these methods into churchianity is a real challenge, and one that has washed out many a good man.
By His grace and wisdom, God opened the door for me to an incredible “laboratory” to work on this very thing. At the same time I was turning the page to this new chapter in my life, the Army called the youth minister of a local church up for active duty. The pastor of that church, who read UPRISING and said it deeply affected him, asked me to step into that role on an interim basis, to work to bring UPRISING to the community, starting with our youth. I’ll chronicle these efforts here.
My first effort has been to shift the “center of gravity” from the appointed “clergy” to the body. The youth of our group (whom, I would submit to you, are very much like the average pew-sitting Christian) were used to being catered to, 100%. The adults would cook a meal, and clean up after the kids. They’d organize the “program” for the gatherings and make sure everything happened on time. The kids wouldn’t clean up after themselves or contribute anything real to the gatherings (other than the expected fill-in-the-blank answers that kept things on track). So I’ve been working to really mix things up.
First, I established a rule: “If you don’t help cook or clean, you don’t help eat!” (Paul said something very similar in the Bible, after all!) It took a few weeks of grumbling, but now it’s part of the culture. Just last week the building manager pulled me aside to tell me the building was left cleaner than it ever had been. He was shocked when I told him that not one adult lifted a finger, or even supervised the effort! So we’re making progress.
Next, I’ve been working to shift the ”program” to a dialogue; a real conversation with the youth. So for most weeks I’ve intentionally NOT prepared for the evening! The first time I sat them down and said, “ok, what do you want to talk about?” the blank stares on their faces were priceless. There was a long, awkward moment of silence before the ice started to break, and we ended up having a great conversation. Still a lot of work to do here, but we’re making progress.
My big thing right now is to raise up a core team of youth leaders, and give them authentic ownership of the group. I can’t disciple 50-60 kids. Maybe 5-6, for real. The only way we’re going to make this a meaningful ministry (as Jesus modeled it, and the early church practiced it), and truly make a difference, is to get the kids discipling other kids, and that starts we me discipling the leaders. Fruit comes when you think SMALL, not big!
This week will be the second gathering of our leadership team. Last week I asked them to think about their vision for our group, and we’re discussing it tonight. Below is a post I just put up on the leadership’s team FB page.
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I’ll let y’all know how it goes.
– You are the salt of the world. Stay salty, my friends!
