What makes a church a great church?

 What makes a church a great church?

What makes a church a great church? What is the right tool for measuring whether or not a church is great? I suppose there are several things that we can use to measure if a church is great. The most common one that comes to mind is attendance on Sunday morning. Are there great crowds at the weekend worship services of the church? This has for a very long time been the measurement by which we establish if a church is great. But that is fraught with possible errors. Another way that we often measure a great church is by its building. Does it have a building that is large, beautiful, or inspiring? Whether it is a modern megachurch or a beautiful medieval Cathedral we sometimes measure if a church is great based on the structure in which the church meets. Another way that we often measure if a church is great is by offerings. How much money is collected on a given weekend? This can sometimes be an effective way to measure the generosity of the people who make up the church. I suppose this would be extremely accurate if everyone gave because they have a genuine interest to see the kingdom of God advance. However, sometimes people give with ulterior motives. I have known people who gave simply for the tax benefit or for the reputation that giving allows or even with the mistaken idea that if they give to a church then God is in some way obligated to give to them.

I cannot judge whether a congregation is great or not. That is a judgment that is left up to the Lord himself. However, I have seen great churches from time to time. In fact, it was my privilege to witness a great church this past week. Living in the military community moving and relocating is a part of life. Military people understand it and are really good at helping each other when move time occurs.   In our congregation we had a move this past week.  Typically, we have a few days' notice to prepare and to round up the volunteers. It's amazing how our folks will show up to help with the move. But this week was a little bit different. Due to unexpected circumstances, instead of having a few days' notice, we only had a couple of hours. We had hoped to do the move Wednesday after work. But it had to be done Monday after lunch. With almost no time to prepare and the clock ticking, word went out that someone needed help. Suddenly help started showing up as if by magic. In a matter of hours everything that had to be moved was loaded on the truck, driven to a new location and unloaded into the new house.

These volunteers turned off their lives for a few hours to serve someone. In some cases, the volunteers and the person needing help had never met before; there was just a connection through the church. By the way, did I mention we live in South Alabama and that this time of year it is miserably hot and painfully humid? Did I mention that this was an emotional and painful move and every volunteer conducted him or herself with grace and gentleness and kindness and love and respect?

With only a very short notice it would have been so easy for everyone to say “I can't help”. I know for a fact that one of the volunteers was involved in the middle of a rather demanding project. They dropped everything and left the project undone so they could go help.I will not mention these volunteers by name for two reasons. First of all, it would embarrass them and they did not do what they did in order to be praised. Second, there are a number of other people who would have gladly joined in if they had not been sick or if they had been in town or if they would have been in any way available.

Our church is not a great church because of its attendance. There are churches that have small groups and Sunday School classes larger than our Sunday morning attendance. Our church is not a great church because we have a magnificent building. You might say our building is nondescript if you wanted to be generous. Our church is not a great church because our offerings are so huge that we can fund dozens of ministries and missionaries. There are times that we can’t actually pay for everything we need. Ours is a great church because it is filled with people who, because they love God and love their fellow man, are willing to sacrifice, to serve, to give, and to set the interest of others above their own interest.

I am extremely proud to be a part  of a congregation like this.

5th Gen Warfare

I recently listened to a lecture on 5th generation warfare.  5th gen warfare is a little hard to define.  In fact, there is debate among some academics if it is a real thing or not.  I suppose a short and very inadequate definition is that 5th gen warfare is defined as a war of ideals and narratives.  This style of war is fought primarily in the information space.  The warfare in the information space is not the ultimate objective, but rather a means to control the physical space and the people who live therein.  This is most certainly a woefully inadequate definition, but it is a beginning place to understand 5th gen warfare. If you want to listen to the lecture you may do so by clicking 5th Generation Warfare: History, Modern Context, and (Some) Solutions.

As I was listening to this lecture it helped put into context the craziness we see in our world.  While I do not agree with everything said in the lecture, I did find it fascinating and useful.   I found it interesting that while 5th gen warfare is about struggles within the world in many ways it sounds like the attacks of the world, fallen human nature, and the powers of darkness against Christians and the church. 

What was of special interest to us was the part of the lecture that addressed the best ways to prepare for and engage in 5th gen warfare.    The advice is sound for society as a whole, but for those of us who are engaged in the Cause of Christ we need to hear and apply these principles.  These five actions need to be a part of the spiritual disciplines for all of us to practice consistently.

Five ways to engage in and prepare for a spiritual life in our crazy world.

1.  Take care of your mind.  In a traditional war, soldiers had to take care of their weapons to make sure that they were operational at the time of battle.  In the spiritual battle we fight this is even more important.  In Romans 12, Paul says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”   Taking care of our mind is absolutely critical if we are going to be effective in campaigning for Christ. The world around us and the powers of Darkness near us will constantly attempt to compromise our minds and our mental perspective. The two best ways to make sure that our minds are in fighting form is by the community of faith and the Word of God.

2. Make enemy attacks irrelevant.  The lecturer used the example of protests and riots as a way fifth generation warfare will be staged. As the saying goes, “Never waste a crisis and if necessary manufacture one”. As Disciples of Christ we need to make sure that we are not baited and drawn into unnecessary conflict. Not every hill is worth dying on, especially since you will only get to do that once. Much of Christianity's efforts have been expended fighting secondary battles. Avoiding the enemy’s field of conflict makes their offensive irrelevant and allows us to engage where our efforts are most effective.

3. Raise your Children.   In 5th generation Warfare one of the high grounds that has to be won is the heart, mind and soul of our children. It would be impossible to overstate the amount of effort that the enemy has put into drawing children away from faith, family and God. Oftentimes, the church has been an inadvertent and unknowing accomplice. Fighting the resistance against the powers of Darkness may look more like going on a picnic and having to walk with our children than a heroic last stand in the heat of battle.

4. Grow your community.   There are no Lone Rangers. Lone Rangers are easy to identify and easy to take out. The best resistance to the powers of Darkness will be more effective when it comes from the community. Developing a community is not something that you can do over the internet or that you can order off of a website. A strong community will take time to develop and mature, be supportive and be effective. We will not grow strong communities by seeing each other for an hour on Sunday morning. A cohesive fighting force, regardless of the style of warfare takes time to develop.  Battles will be fought best by a group of people who know, love and will sacrifice for each other. Any believer who is not part of that kind of community is exactly where the enemy wants them to be.  By the way, in times of crisis it will be too late to become a community.

5. Create white space.   White space in military parlance is that open area across which an enemy must cross in order to engage you. It is in traditional military terms an open field that, if crossed, would become a killing zone for an advancing force. For those of us engaged in the conflicts of the Christian faith white space is the spiritual discipline of silence, which is almost entirely lost in American Christianity. For us it needs to be a time where we shut off the internet, social media, online shopping and even beyond that traditional media, music, and conversation so that in silence we can actually hear the Lord speak. If there are a thousand voices and 10,000 distractions it will be extremely difficult for us to hear the prompting of the Spirit. Embrace privacy, turn off the internet and, with nothing but your Bible, enjoy silence.

Much of what we talked about in these five approaches is almost completely foreign to contemporary Christianity. There are very few places in our busy, hectic and hurried faith that we can practice the kinds of things that will make us effective in the Cause of Christ

Crazy Times

 To say the times are crazy might be the understatement of the year.  Pick the subject and you will find reasons to say, “That is weird”.  The decay of American society and culture has a lot of people wondering how much long the nation can last.  Some people are asking if the United States will become the Un-United States, and follow the path of the break up of the Soviet Union.  At the same time many in the Christian community are looking for the signs or markers that The End has come and that Jesus is about to return.  What are the signs of the coming of the ‘Days of the Son of Man’?

When Jesus spoke about end times He was vague, enigmatic and, to our ears, confusing.  This Sunday we are going to study one of the occasions in which Jesus talked about the coming of the Kingdom of God, the Days of the Son of Man, and what many believe will be the end of time. Jesus tells us less than we want to know in one way, but in another He guides us into what really matters. What we find has nothing to do with dates or events, but rather faithful holy living.

Is it time to stop inviting people?

 I grew up in a preacher’s family.  Going to church was a given.  There was never a question of, “Will we go to church?”  At every service it seemed we were the first ones to arrive and the last ones to leave.  It seemed like failing to be the first ones at the church building was a mortal sin.  

From my earliest days inviting people to church was understood.  It was a way of life and it was as assumed as breathing.  Inviting people to church was the way we did everything.  When my dad planted a church we did door to door canvassing inviting people to come to our new church.  It was the same for VBS, Sunday School campaigns, Easter to Pentecost attendance contests,  youth rallies, and the bus ministry.  I can vividly remember the ‘fill your pew’ campaign, invitation to concerts, and revivals.  Growing up in the ministry in the 1960’s and 70’s this was the ministry form I lived and learned.

Toward the end of the 70’s and in the 80’s the Seeker Sensitive and Seeker Driven models of Church Growth did much the same thing, but on a grander and more sophisticated scale.  While the methods were more hip and cool, (drama trumps a “Be one of the bunch” paper banana campaign) the principle was the same.  Non-believers were invited to come to a church building to hear the Gospel or at least the advantages of being a Christian.  While this marked a new phase in the American church, the difference was purely stylistic, not substantive.  Church planters no longer went door to door and placed display ads in the local newspaper.  They developed demographically targeted, multi-item, direct mail campaigns.  Outreach is about getting people to come to the building, be it a cool mens’ “Beast Feast” with a speaker, or Mrs. Thundermuffin’s Sunday School class.  Slice it anyway you like, the principle remains the same, invite people to come to a church building.  

While I am not opposed in principle to the invitation, we may need to rethink things.  I am planning some invitations for Christians who are either disconnected from a church or new in town.  I do not doubt the value of the invitation to the church building and service.  However, I think there are several reasons to reconsider this model that has not fundamentally changed in living memory.  

Here are several that hover near the top of my consciousness: 

The internet:  Suppose you make contact with a spiritually-seeking person.  They decide to investigate Christianity.  They can get up, get dressed, go to a strange place, meet strange people and run the risk and anxiety associated with going to church for the first time. Or they can open up their laptop and while sitting in their pajamas choose from tens of thousands of highly polished and entertaining preachers. 

Covid:  Like it or not covid-19 has had a profound impact on the likelihood of non-believers going to church. Perhaps it is a genuine concern over the risk of infection or maybe it's just a convenient excuse. But the fact of the matter is, sitting in a confined space for an hour and a half with strangers in close proximity who may be infected  tends to discourage visiting church for the first time.

It's Not Biblical: Nowhere in the New Testament do we find where unbelievers are directed to go to church. Nor do we find anywhere in the New Testament a command for Christians to invite people to go to a church building or event. While church buildings and invitations are not specifically anti-biblical or anti-christian they are clearly extra-biblical; they might be helpful or they might not be. As with any pragmatic tool the measurement needs to be its end usefulness and effectiveness.

 Effectiveness: That brings us to the final point. How are we doing? It would appear that we are getting a smaller and smaller return on our investment. So much so, that some Churches don't even try to invite people anymore, having given up any hope. Other churches are doing the same old thing and growing more discouraged with such small returns. In a post-Christian, internet-connected, secular mindset culture the invitation to come to an event at a church building is not unlike an invitation to learn how to program your VCR.

What did the early church do?  Perhaps the way forward is the way back.