Putting down the horse

Yesterday, Barbaro was euthanized. It was a sad day for many in the sports world. Barbaro was the winner of the Kentucky Derby last year. I'm not really an animal lover, much less a fan of horse racing, but it was a grizzly site to watch the replay of this strong creature break his leg during a race. The problem is that horses do not realize that when the bone in the leg snaps they should stop running. All sorts of problems ensue. Barbaro went through many surgeries, but ultimately could not be restored to health.

I was thinking about how this applies to churches. I reviewed some statistics supplied by the Church of the Nazarene Research Department for various churches. I saw many church that once had a great number of people attending 15-20 years ago, that are now running 15-20 people, or less.

In many ways they are much like Barbaro. They were winners, on top of the world, but something went wrong. Reasons are numerous why churches decline (they have problems, cities and neighborhoods change, the culture changes, among other reasons). I think many of these churches may be beyond repair. It's hard to say without knowing the details, but I will nonetheless make some broad generalizations. Perhaps it's time to "euthanize" some of these churches. Put them out of their misery. Shut them down. Then restart them with a fresh new vision.

I pastored a church that was in mega-decline. It really had never gotten off the ground. It was dying. And, it did die. Now there is nothing in its place. Had the church higher ups listened to my suggestion about a restart before everything fell apart, there may be something there now.

Closing the Back Door of the Church

There has always been a discussion of closing the back door of the church, at least in my memory. It usually referred to the retention of visitors that would come to a church. Churches felt the need to "hook" visitors so they would come back, and hopefully become integrated into the life of the church. This is certainly a worthy goal.

When I was a pastor, I came to the realization that there were some folks who would not come back. They were visiting, because that is what they did. They visited churches, never with the intention of staying at any church they visited, no matter what "hooks" a church had.

There has been an effort in many churches (again, this is good) to retain and involve fringe people. Those that come a couple times a month would be considered fringe.

My concern more recently is closing the back door for those that are currently involved in the church. They may be leaders, or just committed people who come every week. It seems that more and more these good people are finding their way out the back door. I'm not sure why, but it seems that once one person leaves, it makes it easier for someone else to leave. It's as if the Joneses leaving gives the Smiths permission to leave. The next thing you know three or four formerly committed families are down the street at another church.

Why does this happen? How can churches prevent this?

I will offer a couple answers, but feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments section.

I think one reason it happens is that people are micromanaged if they are in leadership. They are not given autonomy in their ministries. They get frustrated and leave.

I think part of the reason in cultural. We are much more mobile as a culture now than we were 30-plus years ago. We change jobs, dwellings, spouses, so why not churches?

I think we can prevent this "rotation" by empowering leaders to do their ministry. Sure, there has to be oversight, but we must give them the tools to what they need to do. We need to give them the space to do it.

As to the cultural reasons, I guess the only thing we can do is sit around and complain, like I'm doing now.

Faces of Persecution

Please, take the 4 minutes to watch this video. It was posted on YouTube by Voice of the Martyrs. How can we ignore this?

Labels: Part 2

I previously posted an entry called "Labels." We are so good at labeling everything from products to people.

There seems to be one time when labels don't really matter to most of us. When someone is in trouble. When a church burns down, we suddenly look at the members of the church as fellow Christians, not Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalian, or whatever. When we look at persecuted Christians, we don't see labels. Read some of the stories on the Voice of Martyrs website, and while they my mention the denomination or group the martyr served with, you will look past the label.

I wish we could get past looking at the labels, and see people as what they are: people.

Nazarene Rap?

Labels

Have you ever noticed that everything has a label? When you buy a piece of clothing there is a price tag, size label, and a washing label. We label electronics, cars, sporting equipment, and just about everything else we buy, sell and trade. We also like to slap labels on people:

• Nerd
• Gay
• Liberal
• Conservative
• Hot
• Not hot
• Jock

You get the point. We could go on and on forever.

We do that in the Church as well. Most Church Folk have PhD's in labeling. We are as good as this label maker, the PT-1500 from Brothers (this is not an endorsement):
We slap labels on everyone. As Mike Warnke (I know all about his past) said, "If we don't like the label they have, we try to cover it up with ours."

We label in generalities: Christian or non-Christian. Then within the Christian circles, we have: Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox. Then we break down even further. Within Protestant circles we have "mainline" (usually read "liberal") and evangelical (usually read "conservative"). We have Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Nazarene, Wesleyan, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Church of God, Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, Fundamentalist, and on and on and on.... (I am deeply sorry if I neglected to mention anyone's label.)

We rarely extend the hand of fellowship to anyone who doesn't wear our label, and when we do, it's only grudgingly. I guess labels allow us to feel morally superior to someone with a different label.

Let's quit labeling everything and everyone, and be about communicating the love that God has for all humanity (regardless of what label they wear).

"Cram It"

(I know this title may be offensive to some. Get over it!)

Have you ever been force fed? I recall the "Lima bean incident of '99." For some reason of absurd parental power, I tried to force my three-year-old to eat a Lima bean. Needless to say, I got my fanny kicked by a three-year-old. Trying to force feed children, or anyone else rarely works. It accomplishes nothing other than to cause antagonism between the two parties. A stare-down ensues.

Why is it that some churches feel that it is their duty to cram the gospel down the throat of every person who comes through the doors?

My wife has heard associates say that they will never go to any church again because every time they have been to church they "cram it down my throat."

Whatever happened to building relationships with people? The church needs to show people who don't attend church that we are normal people. There is a stereotype that churches are only after two things: butts and bucks. Butts fill seats and inflate stats. Bucks line the pockets of the church.

Church, please, let's be real. Let's show people that we are normal. Let's quit trying to cram it down people's throats.

Excuses

As an instructor at a community college, I have heard all kinds of excuses from students:

• "My car broke down."
• "My kids are sick."
• "The dog ate my homework." (This is no longer valid, because now they do their homework on-line. Perhaps, now, the dog will eat the computer.)
• "The aliens abducted me."

Whatever the case, we can usually come up with a good excuse that will get us out of a sticky situation. We think that an excuse will absolve of responsibility. For example, when students give excuses (like those above), they think that they no longer have to do the homework, or take the test. Excuses, however, do not absolve us of responsibility.

Jesus told a story about excuses. It is often referred to as the parable of the great banquet. It is found in Luke14:16-24. The gist of the story is as follows. A man is giving a banquet, but all the people he invited had an excuse as to why they could not come. One had business concerns. One had to see to his personal possessions. One had familial relations that took precedence. They had known for some time of the banquet. The man giving the banquet was ticked that they made excuses. He then invited the homeless and other marginalized people to eat at the banquet.

The banquet is a metaphor for the Kingdom of God. The ones who made the excuses were the religious elite. They thought their place at the banquet was secure, and their invitation written in stone. They were forced to watch the banquet with their noses pressed against the window of the banquet hall.

What are our excuses for not entering the Kingdom of God? Sometimes we think only of the Kingdom of God being heaven. When we die, we go the Kingdom of God, heaven. The Kingdom of God, however, is also in the here and now. We are supposed to be living in the Kingdom right now. I have made excuses. My family comes first. I'm too busy working. I have to take care of my junk. I need to quit making excuses. We, as the Church of Jesus Christ, need to quit making excuses.

What I Want and Don't Want in a Church? Part 5

This is the last installment of this ranting about what I want and don't want in a church.

I don't want a church that is inward focused. So many churches expend all their energies taking care of each other. Those things are important, but they consume time and resources that could be better used.

I want a church that is outward focused. We have a hurting world out there. There are hungry and thirsty people in our world. They need our help. They need food in their stomachs. They need clothes on their backs. They need to hear the Good News of salvation.

We need to get beyond the four walls of the church. We will be changed for ever. I recall a scene from Field of Dreams. A bright young baseball player named Archie Graham in playing in the baseball field that used to be a corn field. The girl falls off the bleachers and begins to choke on a hot dog. Archie Graham runs to the edge of the field and stops. He has a decision to make. If he leaves the field, he cannot go back. As he steps across the line, Burt Lancaster appears as an aged "Doc" Graham to save the girl.

If we leave the church to save our world, we will never be able to go back to the way things were before. We will be changed. Our world will be changed.

Props to the Gators

As much as I hate to do it, I must give the Florida Gators their props. They took care of business against the Ohio State Buckeyes last night in the BCS championship.

I would have loved to see Ohio State and Michigan, as I believed Michigan deserved a shot. I am a Big Ten fan, and was pulling for the Buckeyes.

All that said, I still believe a playoff is needed. Had USC beaten UCLA, as everyone expected, Florida would not have had a shot at the title.

Get a clue, folks. You need a playoff, like every other amateur and professional sport.

What I Want and Don't Want in a Church? Part 4

I don't want a church that is noisy. That's not to say that the music shouldn't be loud. I like loud music as much as a anyone else. I don't want a bunch of white noise. Noise for the sake of noise can hinder our worship. We need not fill every second with noise for fear of silence.

Silence can be powerful. This is related to part 2 of my rantings about what I would like in a church.

I want a church that takes time to be quiet and listen to God. If we don't listen to God, what are we doing.

What I Want and Don't Want in a Church? Part 3

I don't want a church that focuses at the surface issues. Many churches are full of hurting, aching people who put on plastic smile just so everyone else thinks everything is a-okay. I have done that before. Someone asks, "How are you doing?" And I reply, "Okay," when everything really isn't okay.

I want a church that gets beyond surface pleasantries. I want a church that is real. I want to be able to share my doubts, fears, pains, struggles, and whatever else baggage I have. I want to help others get through their struggles. I don't want to know just to know for the sake of gossip. I want real, trusting relationships.

This is difficult and dangerous, but it could also be empowering and exciting.

What I Want and Don't Want in a Church? Part 2

I don't want a busy church. I don't want a church that does things merely for the sake of doing things. I don't want constant activity. Why do we need to be busy with church stuff every night of the week?

I think we are to busy doing various stuff that we don't have time to think about the things of God. I want a church that takes time to be still before the Lord. Psalm 46:10 says, "Be still, and know that I am God." We need more time for reflection and contemplation in our lives and our worship gathering.

I desperately want to be still and know who God is.

What I Want and Don't Want in a Church? Part 1

I am making an effort to be more positive. I have often ripped the church as we know it today. This is really only beneficial if I offer some positive solutions. With that thought, I offer part one of this post.

I loved TV in the 1980s. There was this fad that started (I think) with "The Dukes of Hazzard." The fad was that people were not the stars of the show; the real stars were the vehicles. In "The Dukes of Hazzard" the real star was the 1969 Dodge Charger named the General Lee. Sorry, Tom Wopat and John Schneider, but you were not the stars. Then there were shows like "Knight Rider." David Hasselhoff was not the star of the show, KITT was the star. The show "Airwolf" was all about the helicopter. The "A-Team" was not as much about the van, but it was a star. Ever "Magnum P. I." had the Ferrari as a co-star. This was a fad that was pretty much dead by the time 1990 rolled around.

The same is true in the church. There are fads out there. Remember bus ministries in the 1970s and early 1980s? Then there was the "Purpose-Driven Church" fad of the late 1990s, followed by the more recent "Purpose-Driven Life" fad.

Fads are that, fads. They come and go. They don't stay around long. They leave us wondering why we word leg warmers or acid wash jeans.

I don't want a church that is driven by fads. Just because some famous pastor writes a book, we don't have to follow it. In 1995, Rick Warren wrote The Purpose-Driven Church, which I have read. It is a good book. In the book, he says not to copy everything he has done, but churches tried and failed.

Just because someone we went to school with is having church in a tree house, doesn't mean we have to have church in a tree house.

I want a church that is driven by vision. We need pastors who are bold enough to ask God for a specific vision. This is scary because it unsafe. It's easy to do what someone else is doing. It's scary to start something new or different.

I want a scary church. I want a church that looks at its community, people, culture and geography. I don't want to do the same thing everyone else is doing. I want to do what God wants us to do.