Pre-Flight safety talk, and the church.

(This is part three of a three part series about the catastrophe that might be coming for the American church.)

Speaking when no one wants to listen.

The worst speaking job in the world has to be that of the chief flight attendant on a commercial airline flight.  This poor person is required by federal law to give a pre-flight speech before every takeoff.  This is the worst speaking job in America for these three reasons: 1) this presentation is generally ignored 2) it never has any deviation and 3) worst of all, it is always talking about the possibility of bad news or the worst-case scenario.   The message can be summed up thus: “If things go bad, really, really bad then here is what might be of help.”  The following words are kind of like that preflight speech.  I do not offer these as mandates for anyone else.  Each of us must work out our discipleship, but this is where my heart leads me and what I cam trying to live out.  If things go really bad for and with the church in America, here are four mindsets that might help us as church leaders in a worse case scenario:

“Walk away from your fishing nets.”  When Jesus called Peter, Andrew, James and John to come and follow Him he called them from what was apparently a successful and profitable livelihood in Capernaum, which was a hub of the Galilean fishing business.   For James and John the business was successful enough that their dad had hired staff to help.  The call of Jesus was to walk away from a well-paying, lucrative career.  Many ministers enjoy reasonably good compensation, between salary, tax benefits, gifts (such as pastor appreciation Sunday), to name a few examples.  Being a full time, vocational minister can provide an adequate living.  There is nothing wrong with that unless the career gets in the way of being a disciple.  One of the questions we must face is, “Is fulfilling the expectations of this congregation, fellowship, denomination keeping me from being and doing what Jesus wants me to be and do?”  I know a number of ministers that are bound by golden (or at least silver) handcuffs live in spiritual frustration.  They do the work because they are so invested in a retirement/pension program, feel they can’t make a living doing something else, or they have a job that because of experience is easy and a new start would be too difficult.  If a ‘job’, even a ministry job, keeps us from following Christ we need to walk away.  The call of the Lord away from dead-end ministry may include a call away from the security of the fishing nets. 

“Get ready for a trip to Babylon.”  When Solomon’s temple was destroyed and Judah went into exile the existing structure for the spiritual life of the Jewish people was shattered.  They had to develop new ways to learn, live and love their faith.  There was no way for them to predict what it would look like, so they had to develop it on the fly.  If the church structure in part or in whole collapses we will need to rethink what it means to be a disciple in a community of other disciples and what it means to be a believer in the world at large.   If, because of economic, political or social factors, your church lost all its financial assets how would you operate?  What if, as happens around the world, it lost most of its leadership?  How would it survive?  If your church lost its tax-exempt status and could no longer afford to hold its property where would you go and what would you do for gathering space?  This could be a bumpy trip.   How do we prepare for such a trip?  In some ways, it is impossible to prepare.  But here are some principles.  Travel light, get in good shape ahead of time, hold lightly that which is non-essential, and tighten the grip on that which is essential. 

“Think small, really, really small.”  American culture adores the grand and great and big.  We have given almost mythic status to those individuals and groups that have built great empires or dynasties in business, sports or churches.  From a log cabin to the White House, from the mailroom to the CEO’s corner office, from two families in a living room to a multi-site, mega-church we love and buy into the stories of the rags to riches.  In fact, we have been told that almost anyone with the right technique, location and resources can build a mega-church.  We just need commitment, vision, and hard work.    We have been told that each of us can begin a movement.  When we are really honest we tend to think of ourselves or want to be leaders of great movements.  What we say in our vision statements for a life changing ministry and history changing movements may be little more than our ego expressing itself.  Don’t worry about being the next Martin Luther, Jonathan Edwards, or (insert the name of your church hero).  Rather than think a movement, perhaps we should think in terms of one. The great movements of church history are often almost accidents that develop out of one disciple following faithfully.  We need to focus on being one disciple of one Lord.

“Do more, with less.”  I once served a congregation that despite all its advantages was consistently stagnate.  It had a well-established pattern of growth, crisis, minister departure, rapid-decline, new minister, which started the cycle over again.  One day I was exploring the church’s library (which was in reality a storage room in a back corner upstairs) and I discovered a number of “Wonder Kits”.  A Wonder Kit is a prepackaged program that will work wonders for your church.  They generally consist of a book by a mega church pastor, a series of hand outs/lessons, a set of DVD’s or VHS tapes and the implied promise that if you will run this program your church will grow wonderfully.  From a life driven by purpose to becoming a contagion as a Christian, to knowing how to master your mammon there is a “Wonder Kit” for you.  In fact, this congregation had 35 such kits but was still pretty ineffective.  I am afraid that Wonder Kits give us an illusion that we are accomplishing something; while in reality we are simply doing busywork.  Perhaps instead of “Wonder Kits” we need to do more of those things we find in the church in the New Testament.  Returning to scripture and the relationship in the community of faith and avoiding hiding behind the wonder kits, and stop trying to be wonder kids.  In the world today where the church is growing the disciples have only the Lord, each other and the Word of God.  Where the church has the most stuff (Wonder Kits, Seminars, Programs, hip worship bands, cool buildings, sports complexes, A/V presentation, etc.) the church is in decline.  I don’t think this is a coincidence. 

The church that is personally appealing but dead represents a troublesome dichotomy.   We enjoy the company of people whom we like who like us.  We are loved, accepted and respected and our time together is warm and friendly.  For those of us who want affirmation, the cozy warmth of the church is very desirable.  But some where along the way we did something that caused us to loose our first love.  We are, at times, in danger of became consumed by other things and in so doing we became lukewarm to our Lord. But the very lukewarmness is the food poisoning that makes the Lord vomit. 

I am far from settled in my own heart and mind.  But I know that I must in some way prepare for the possibility of a crash. 

Iceberg Bumps for the American Church

Walter Hurst recalled, “No one was very much alarmed, but knew we had struck

"Nothing to worry about folks.  Just a bump!"

something."  It was April 14, 1912 and the ship on which he served was the RMS Titanic.  Captain Smith had stated in an interview that modern ship construction had moved ships beyond the point where a ship floundering was even a possibility.    His statements lead many people to believe that the Titanic was unsinkable.  So, when the Titanic struck an iceberg many of the passengers and crew believed that it was nothing to worry about; it was just a little bump, something to be ignored.

So, here are ten iceberg bumps that I believe represent meaningful warnings that the American church is facing catastrophic crisis, which must be addressed.  (Disclaimer: this is not intended to be a detailed description but a generalized overview and will not apply equally to all churches or fellowships)

1. The church on spin cycle.  Living in a society of positive thinking, many churches have made a priority of putting a positive spin on things.  The most glaring example may have been J. Herbert Nelson, II Presbyterian Church USA.  Facing the loss of 89,893 members in 2016 (1728 a week) he claimed, “We are not dying. We are Reforming.”  I heard one mega-church pastor say, “We don’t want no stinking thinking.”   Churches have developed an attitude of self-congratulation rather than honest self-assessment.    The day after Easter, for example, churches will brag about the great day they had, numbers, eggs hidden and other meaningless data.  While ignoring the overall health and evangelistic effort of the church.
2. We are not maturing we are just getting old.  Currently, the average age of attendees for Christian denominations is 53 and getting older.  In about twenty years this will spell disaster.  Our best efforts at a “youth movement” has failed.   We have for the most part been unable to engage young adults with the heroic challenge of a life of a disciple.  By the way, the national median age is 46.  And the median age for Mormons, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Atheists, and Agnostics are all below this median age. 
3. It is just us and we can keep it that way.  The church is completely comfortable with an utter lack of evangelism.  Church growth and evangelism are not the same thing.  While evangelism is about lost people becoming followers of Christ, Church growth, more often than not, is about moving Christians from one congregation to another.  It has been suggested that the average church has four additions by conversions for every 100 people attending worship.  My personal opinion is that this projection is radically over estimated. 
4. The shift of Bible Colleges turning into Liberal arts schools. Want to trigger people?  This is a great way to set off debates, indeed arguments.  No one will ever deny that we need to have Christian businessmen, councilors, etc.  However, in pursuit of students many colleges that were established for the purpose of training ministers, missionaries and other career specific Christian workers have shifted their emphasis toward a more general, educational, career field.  We may soon find a shortage of quality ministers to lead our congregations.
5. A related iceberg bump is the escalating cost of education for ministers.  The cost of a minister’s education has over the last several years escalated dramatically.  Ministry has never been about great income but the student debt-potential income equation may lead some ministry students to pursue other careers.
6. The rise of clergy killers.  Few preachers have not been the victim of or know someone who has been a victim of a clergy killer. Churches will often times take the easy way out and let a minster go rather than confront a dysfunctional clergy killer.  This is often a power or money-motivated decision.  The result empowers the worst rogue sheep in the congregation. 
7. The loss of understanding of the meaning worship. Worship Wars are universally conflicts over styles of music.  We have mistaken our style preference for worship. This loss is especially evident in the loss of meaningful content about communion or the Lord’s Supper.
8. Comfort and Frivolity  The wealthiest church in history (the American church) is bank rolling its own comfort and frivolity while spending little to reach a lost and hopeless world.  It is estimated that about 1% of all spending by American churches is directed to foreign missions.  If God is the source of our material blessings and we are using those blessing for our own luxury and satisfaction can God’s revocation of those blessings be long restrained?
9. The financial structure of the church especially related to debt.  While the occasion of church foreclosure has decreased in the last four years the church is way too comfortable with debt.  The interest that churches in America are paying on loans is leeching off kingdom resources.  We are trading long-term effectiveness for short- term flash. 
10. The inability to lovingly and effectively confront sin.  We have resorted to trying to pass laws about moral issues rather than praying, loving, and seeking heart change.  During the age of The Moral Majority, The Christian Coalition, etc. we witnessed a gigantic effort to turn the tide of moral decay by law, election and political action.  It was, in the long term, utterly ineffective.  We are pretty good at yelling at people about their sins-we are not very good at humble service.  Eph. 6:5-6, Col 3:22, I Tim. 6:1 and Titus 2:9 seem to indicate that Christian slaves have an obligation to obey their masters, even if they are not Christians.  If I am a baker and I have a gay customer order a cake am I obligated to act as a slave?  I fear the Christian community has focused on "our rights", "civil authority" and an attitude of “self -righteousness", rather than humble service.  I had the privilege to attend the wedding of a former prostitute who has become one of the most dynamic disciples of Jesus I have ever met.  The wedding theme was "From ashes to glory".   She was lead by love, grace and humble service not by having someone yell at her about her sins.

No one wants to say the baby is ugly.  No one wants to tell the emperor he is naked.  No one wants to admit that the church in America is not just in trouble, but in a catastrophe. We in the church may be feeling bumps that we are ignoring and there may be grave implications.  Perhaps this is alarmist, but then again, Laurence Gonzales was teased about being an alarmist and reading too much when he refused to fly to a bookseller’s convention.  Gonzales had recently been researching and writing about the safety issues associated with the DC 10.  When he learned that the flight to the convention was aboard a DC 10 he refused to go.  On takeoff this DC 10 lost an engine and crashed killing everyone on board. Alarmists are not always overreacting. 

To the angel of the church in Sardis write:

These are the words of Him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.  I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.  “Wake up!  Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.

Member of Parliament for Liverpool dies in a train accident and lessons this can teach the church.

William Huskisson was a Member of Parliament for Liverpool and a former member of the British Cabinet.  He was killed in a tragic accident on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.  The train knocked Huskisson to the tracks where his leg was run over at the thigh.  He cried out, “It’s over with me.  Bring me my wife and let me die.”  Huskisson passed away later that night.  What has this to do with the church?  Huskisson was caught by surprise even though the danger was clearly insight.

To set the context this was not a recent accident.  Huskisson was killed 15 of September 1830.  The occasion was the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway an event attended by a number of dignitaries, one of whom Huskisson had crossed the track to visit.  In the moments before the accident Huskisson apparently tried to cross the tracks and may have panicked and failed to judge the essentials of time, space, and distance.

Nothing in his world could have prepared Huskisson for that moment.  He had doubtlessly crossed hundreds of roads.  He had very likely crossed in front of tens of thousands of draft animals pulling carts or carriages.  But never in his life had he seen something this large on land (the engine alone weighed 4.3 tons) nor had he ever crossed in front of something this large moving this fast.  This steam engine was capable of the reckless speed of 30 mph.  A new reality came bearing down on Huskisson with no time to prepare for an entirely new worldview needed to navigate this new experience.

This may sound like an illustration used by those advocating contemporary worship or a seeker-driven model for the church.  In my opinion, the differences between contemporary/seeker-driven models of church and the traditional model are less significant and less dramatic than we might like to think.  To be sure there are differences.  There is more openness about style.  Music is more recently written, Sunday morning dress is more casual, and the use and style of media has broadened, but these differences are more window dressing than substantial.   The basic model has not changed that much.  Crowds gather in a specific location to participate in certain group activities and watch a designated expert present a talk and the larger the number of attendees for these events generally the better.   Operations of the church are essentially the same.  Paid staff members develop, oversee, and, with aid of volunteers, carry out programs designed to meet some perceived need.  We may tinker with or modify the peripheral, but at the core the contemporary church is built on the structure of the traditional church.  In 500 years, church historians will not see a big difference if we read song lyrics from a page in a bound book or from a projection screen.  To use the illustration of M.P. Huskisson the difference between traditional and contemporary church is like the difference between a horse drawn carriage and an ox cart.

The church in the west has not undergone a radical change at its functional core since the Protestant Reformation.  Again, there has certainly been microevolution within the church in the last 500 years.  But those micro evolutionary steps are small compared to the difference that occurred when the Reformation separated from the Roman Catholic Church.  I believe that in the very near future the church in America will need to undergo significant and substantial change.  This will be more than window-dressing kinds of changes. 

Next week, I will share 10 bumps that I believe are harbingers of the need for dramatic and radical change in the American church.

Christmas, in case you have not heard, is tomorrow so I will be taking the day off and the regular Monday blog is coming out this Christmas Eve Morning.

Christmas and Unexpected Obedience

We do not know what Joseph expected or wanted from life.  Very likely it would be to live a quiet life in a small town with the small hopes of a happy family and the greater hopes that things would get better.  Nazareth being an out of the way community with a significant, Gentile population would perhaps be less likely to face Roman hostility.  He would marry the girl he loved, do his work, and raise his kids before passing on to his ancestors.  He had no expectation for what was to come.  Without wanting or planning it, Joseph was thrown into the midst of the greatest drama in universal history. 

Rather than the quiet life of a blue-collar laborer he is visited by angels in dreams, becomes a stepfather to the Messiah, helps deliver a baby in a barn, welcomes shepherds to see this child, hears some pretty, outlandish prophecies from two, old people and has mysterious Mystics show up at his home with valuable gifts.   These last visitors are hardly out the door before he is part of a murderous manhunt, or baby hunt, by a raving, petty king.  A few months or even years in Egypt likely living in or near a expatriate Jewish community, only to have the dreams return calling him back to his quiet little town where it all started.

Quite the detour.  A very long way from what was expected to what actually happened.  Perhaps the best commentary is what was said about Joseph near the beginning of his part of the story.  “And Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him…” _{Mt 1.24} He was living his life, trying to do the right thing and when confronted with an unexpected moment he did what the Lord wanted done.  We really don’t know much about Joseph, but what we do know is pretty great; he was obedient. 

Final thought as we celebrate Christmas this year.  We do not know what the coming year will bring.  We may have our plans, but so did Joseph.  But come what will, may this year find us obedient to the unexpected call of God on our lives. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

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