“I Want To Light a Fire in the Church!”

What an encouraging letter from a passionate young man:

I recently attended the Willow Creek Arts Conference. Walking into that place is amazing. For the first time I sensed a clear calling from God, one I have never felt before.  I finally saw that it was O.K. to be a creative artistic person in the church. I saw that you could be totally into cool creative things in the church and be a technical artist that served God full time. So I have been praying that God use me. I pray that God makes his path for me clear and that I can serve his will through the talents he has given me.
 
So I have a bit of a problem you might say. I have a burning desire for technical arts, movie making, drama, lighting, computer graphics, animation, etc… I recently picked up your book Pop Goes the Church and can identify with you 100%. I have always felt the need for church to move into modern times. So between your book and the Willow Arts conference, I have tried returning to our church to encourage them to try some new things. I am being met with quite a bit of resistance.  The reasons are both financial as well as the "well we're not sure that would go over real well." kind of answers.
 
 I want to light a fire in the church. I want to become the Willow Creek or Granger of [our area]. How do you start? What steps do you take to begin the journey from here to there? 

Any suggestions you might know would be great. I am just trying to serve the best I can in the calling I feel God has made to me.

I believe his frustration is as much personal as it is with his local church. Here are some thoughts I shared with him…

• I loved reading your story. What a great path you are on! It's amazing how being exposed to something new (like you were at the Willow Arts conference) will put your mind and life on a new trajectory. Suddenly, you see things completely differently, through a whole new perspective!

• Pursue your dreams! If God has wired you to be a creative/technical person and that is what makes your heart beat fast — then keep learning as much as you can and pursue the opportunities God puts in front of you. I have found that almost every creative person working on a church staff started off as an amazing volunteer.

• Pick up Hybels' book called Holy Discontent — he talks about how often God is working through the frustrations in your spirit to put you on a new path, or to help you start a new thing or follow His direction in some way. I would press into that discontent.

• Share all of this with your pastor or one of your leaders. Let them know this new burden you have. Get their counsel on good next steps for you. The people around you will best know your strengths and weaknesses and potential. Find someone who knows you well and also believes in you, and have them help you figure it out.

• Don't have too high of expectations of your church. They are where they are. I think it is great to pray for them, help expose them and talk to them, but when the leaders make it clear that they are not going to go in the direction you are pressing…then that's okay. Hebrews 13:17 says follow your leaders "so their work will be a joy, not a burden." God may want YOU to go in a different direction, but not necessarily the church where you are currently serving.

• Attend the Innovate Conference at Granger that takes place in September — and bring some friends with you. If you can swing it, pay the way for your pastor or one of your leaders to attend with you. Watch their eyes be opened in the same way yours were at Willow. If you come, I’d love to meet you. Please look me up.

What else would you have said?

Hey Church…We’re Just Not That Into You

As pastors, we have a tendency to burden our people with excessive expectations. The average Joe church member can't possibly do everything you say they should do. Don't believe me? See if this list defines some of your expectations of the Christians who attend your church…

1. Attend church service weekly.
2. Volunteer during another service
3. Attend Bible study or Sunday school or midweek service (whatever brand your church offers).
4. Serve in a ministry that helps the poor and needy.
5. If you are a leader (and we know who you are), then we'll have a few more meetings to attend, contacts to make, events to organize and teams to rally.
6. Attend periodic special events hosted by the church.
7. Be a great husband or wife and invest time in your marriage.
8. Oh, and make sure you are involved in mens' or womens' ministry.
9. Get in a small group and meet regularly.
10. If you are a man, you must be in a mens' small group for accountability. Otherwise we know you look at porn.
11. If you are married, you probably should also be in a couples group if you care about your spouse.
12. Read your Bible every day. Anything less than 30 minutes is probably not enough.
13. Be a good citizen. Vote and get involved in your community.
14. Give ten percent of every penny that you make. And give to the special offerings. And give to the kids going on the missions trip. And give to the building fund.
15. Go on a missions trip. Been on a local trip? Overseas is your next step.
16. Invest in relationships in your neighborhood and at your workplace.
17. Invite people to church. Every week. The purpose of that, of course, is so you can get them to church so they can do #1 through #16 above.

This list wears me out just reading it…and I'm a pastor! Just think what it does to normal people in our church. They keep trying and trying, doing and attending, but then life catches up and they feel like they can't ever keep up with our expectations. They feel deflated.

Because on top of everything we expect, everyone else in their life also has expectations of them. They have sports events to attend and in-laws to keep happy and PTA events to organize. They have complicated family relationships to navigate, second jobs to find so they can put braces on the kids and keep food on the table. And many of them are involved in really good endeavors building into their communities or helping the under-resourced.

Sometimes I think we need to get a clue. We need a wake-up call. Some people are saying (or thinking), "Hey Church…we're just not that into you. You are teaching us some great things and we are growing in our love of Jesus. But we can't possibly do everything you are asking…give us a break!"

In a culture that is ever more complex and insanely busy, if we really want to help we will find ways to help them integrate a walk with Jesus in the context of their lives. We will ease up on our expectation of attendance and activity–and instead focus on spiritual outcomes. WARNING: This is VERY difficult to do because it is so hard to measure–and church leaders LOVE to measure stuff (me included!).

If you know of a church hitting a homerun in this area, I'd love to hear about it!

No Apologies

It's been over a year, and I continue to see bloggers referring to Granger's reveal results. It is amazing to me the conclusions that have been made, but I'm learning to just smile and move on. Most recently, this was left as a comment on a previous post:

"For example, look at Granger’s results from the Reveal Study. Close to half don’t believe in salvation by grace and a majority believe there are other ways to eternal life. You can not be a Christian and believe in anything other than grace alone. You can not be a Christian and believe there are other ways to eternal life…"

You gotta help me here, cause I don't get the problem…

What is wrong with having a gathering every week where half the people who are in attendance don't yet understand salvation by grace?

Wouldn't every pastor or church leader in the world be ecstatic if they could plan an event every single week where Christians and non-Christians alike would gather…and everyone present would hear biblical truth and the gospel of Christ?

And wouldn't those same leaders be shouting from the rooftops if, on average, about 40% of the non-believers made a decision to follow Christ each year?

And wouldn't they also be giving each other high-fives if they knew that those who were seeking were coming out by the hundreds to serve the poor and help those in need, and that by doing so they were seeing Christ in the people around them?

We don't claim to have a church of 5000 people. We have a crowd of about 5000 people that gathers each weekend–and we do everything we can to help them take steps.

Our goal? Turn the crowd into a church–an unstoppable force of grace and love that makes an undeniable daily impact on our community. And for that, I'm not apologizing.

Love Found Me

When I was enjoying my family somewhere in the Caribbean–it appears that the folks back home got carried away. They started the service like this…

I don't know how you are wired–but for me, this is worship. Nothing ushers me into the presence of God more quickly than what you just watched. It is excellent, it is passionate, it is Christ-centered, it is delivered by men and women whom I know and love.

Even watching weeks later on my computer screen, I find myself saying "yes God" as it is presented. If that isn't worship, I don't know what is.

Innovation Exposed

It would be GREAT to have you join us in Granger on September 24-25.

Keeping Up vs. Unplugging

When I was vacationing with the family for two-weeks, I was mostly disconnected from the world of information. Not a lot of time for TV news, and the few times I was able to get online was limited to uploading pictures for friends back home.

It is amazing how much can happen in a two-week period. It's easy to feel like you are out of synch. Just in the technology-geekdom world, here is what happened while I was gone…

• Microsoft announced Project Natal for XBox 360

• Apple introduced the newest version of the iPhone and software update.

• AT&T talks of plans to roll-out 7mbs cellular speed.
• The switch was finally flipped for digital TV.
• The Palm Pre (an iPhone competitor) was released.
• Last but not least, Windows Vista released Service Pack 2.

That's just the tech world. When you unplug, you miss so much more. Let's face it, I missed Jay Leno's last night, Conan's first night, the launch of the One Prayer series, a great First Wednesday at Granger, the Sunburst Marathon, the elections in Iran and more.

I like to keep up. I love to know what is coming, what is next, what is the newest, best, most cutting-edge tool available. But every now and then, it's okay to give myself permission to breathe. To focus on something else. To divert my attention for a period of time.

Keeping up can wear you out. Especially in today's world. I respected Anne Jackson's decision to unplug from all things tech this past spring. I'm not sure I could do it for that long, but I do know that unplugging for two weeks with my family was the right thing to do. We all love each other a little bit more because of it.

A View from a Cynical Critic

In Pop Goes the Church, I wrote about the power of using secular music in your church services: "The next week, when they hear that song on the radio, they may be instantly pulled back to the service. They may remember again that God has a plan for them, that he can help them start over…" (Page 151).

I experienced that a couple nights ago watching a Foo Fighters concert on TV. As soon as the first few notes of Best of You rang out,  I was instantly pulled back to a service we did about two years ago when J Aquila delivered a flawless cover of the same song.

Then a couple days ago I received a letter from a man who lives several hundred miles away and doesn't attend church:

So, I was driving home late the other night and was scanning through the Kansas City radio stations and landed upon a random station playing a familiar song. Now, generally, I only listen to my iPod or NPR, so when this song caught my ear, I wasn't sure where I knew it from. I kept listening until I got to the chorus.  The song was Disturbia. I finally pieced it all together, and realized that I knew it from Granger Community Church…

… I realized something as I was listening. I have NO IDEA who the original artist is, but I remember GCC's performance the great female lead, and the tie-in with Romans 7.

All that to say, I'm still not sure I'm fully on board with the methodology of GCC, but I fully recognize it's value and power. After all, I don't attend the church, am fairly skeptical, AND YET have been impacted for the good by it.

All that to say, thanks for your ministry and keep it up. It's reaching and influencing even the cynical critics, such as myself.

People who have always gone to church don't need this type of methodology. They are already "in" — they are convinced. It is the cynics, the skeptics, the "I-don't-need-your-type-of-religion" people in our communities who are often impacted by the unexpected threading of a secular song with a spiritual truth.

I'll close with a great quote I read this morning from the blog of Jim Johnson: "We believe that in the expressions of our culture—music, film, books, TV—we can hear the heart cry of people asking the deep questions of life. When we acknowledge these sentiments and let them be heard in our weekend services, we create connection points with seekers that enable us then to speak God’s words of truth into their lives."