Less of me
As I have talked to some older more conservative brothers in the church of Christ, there seems to be a fear of change. One common idea that came out was how we were the fastest growing church in the late 50s and early 60s. It was as though the restoration movement, especially our branch of it, reached its peak in 1964. Anything new would jeopardize the perfection that was achieved.
If that is the case then we are now in a "post-restoration" period.
I appreciate anyone who works for the kingdom and anyone who shares the love of Jesus. But who were we trying to reach?
As one person said, “We were the fastest growing church because we were converting people from other churches!”
What is that?
For those who were alive in 1964. You were blessed. I wasn't there. This was the era of Jewel Miller film strips, Debates, real potlucks, Sunday drives, the space program and rock and roll, hippies long hair, drug and so on
Since I wasn't there I may not be the best judge but in my humble opinion...
I think the best is yet to come!
The church of Christ is not dead in the water. We have so much to offer the world. We need to reach this generation.
I understand that change can be scary but we need to remember a common theme through out the Old Testament was how the Lord dealt with each generation and how they followed HIM.
This generation did evil in the eyes of the Lord and there were consequences. Another generation repented and fell down before the Lord and the Lord raised up someone to save them. (a judge, a king, etc..)
Each generation must follow the Lord.
Let's not judge others or each other...let's love them and love each other.
Let's not exclude others ...let's do everything we can to make others feel welcome.
It would be better for those who think they are strong in the faith to be a little uncomfortable if this can bring others closer to the Lord.
Paul said that he became all things to all men so as to win a few.
Christianity at its very core is selfless.
His body must be selfless!
Our church growth statistics in the states do not look very good right now. But that can change!
We can learn from the zeal of the door knocker, the patients of the joy bus driver the endurance of the memeograph turner and the care and love that went into every homemade potluck dish.
We are not throwing out the past we are learning from it. We are growing from it and becoming wiser because of it.
I heard a missionary once say, “If you do the same things you will get the same results.”
We are having a hard time keeping our very own kids let alone others.
Some want to act as though it is still 1964.
It’s not. There is a new generation that must step up. They have to take off their ipods and listen to a new voice ...that of the Lord.
There are some changes that need to be made. And that should start with me.
Maybe we could grind up our golden calf (What ever it may be)and look beyond ourselves.
There are so many who need the love of Jesus.
So many decision seem to just add cushion to pews and expanding the borders means wider parking spaces.
How about sacrificing that comfort for those who need the Comforter.
Missionaries should do all they can to bring others to Christ. That only makes sense.
This is something that we are trying to practice all the time!
Cross-cultural, cross-economic, cross-generational evangelism needs much flexibility (ie less of me) and more Cross.
To be effective the receiver of the message becomes more important than the message sharer. Let me give you a few examples from here…
In the name of Jesus we sucked the brains out of fish so as not to offend our drunken host.
In the name of Jesus we have eaten pig brains and thanked our Congolese friend who gave them to us.
In the name of Jesus we have sat on hard wooden benches until our backsides are numb.
In the name of Jesus we have been out on a lake in a boat during a storm so we could share the love of Jesus with those on the far side.
In the name of Jesus we have sat in terrible traffic.
In the name of Jesus we have driven across flooded rivers.
In the name of Jesus and Because of where the calling has taken us, we have had ak47s pointed in our faces.
We have been in danger from rebels.
In danger on the roads
In danger from disease and sickness
I and most missionaries I know would do it all over again and again
I don’t know very many missionaries who think they are sacrificing anything!
It is an honor to carry the banner of Christ into battle!
Why would we allow ourselves to be put in these situations?
Jesus set the ultimate example of love and sacrifice. The meager efforts we make to share His love does not compare to the real thing.
For me to step across the keyboard and say I'm sorry for how we treated you is Nothing compared to what Christ did for me.
For me to walk across the church parking lot and down the street to that other church and humble myself and try to share the love of Jesus with those people is Nothing compared to what Christ did for me.
For me to help a witch, an alcoholic or the guy hooked on drugs is nothing compared to what Christ did for me.
For me to share a message of love with a prostitute trying to sell what the world “calls love” is nothing compared to what Christ did for me.
For me to try and break down the walls between those with light skin and those with dark skin is nothing compared to what Christ did for me.
For me to risk what God gave me for His Kingdom is nothing compared to what Christ DID for me.
What we did is nothing... What Christ did means everything.
The less of me… the more they can see…Jesus
posted by Jeff Cash @ 5:35 PM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Many church FADS are the honest attempt by someone to reach “their” people.
Conflicts occur when other (older?) people confuse the message with the method.
The message of the bible never changes – if we try to change it we are wrong.
But we have lots of freedom to alter the method we use to take the eternal message to the world.
Entrenched interests err when they feel that their method is equal to scripture. This applies equally well to Baptists, Catholics, and Church of Christ Elders. It’s interesting to read some of the history of the Church of Christ. Doctrinal Divisions create lawsuits in Illinois in 1905 over which group owns the building.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_christ.
So much for sound doctrine – I guess these folks never read Matthew 18.
As long as our methods don’t violate scripture … it makes sense to suck the brains out of a fish and hang out with drunks to the glory of god.
For example:
Each Generation tries to remake the church to better speak to their generation
1960-70 Jesus Movement, baby boomers flex their muscle, reaching out to hippies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Movement
1990’s Seeker Churches – baby boomers flex their muscle again, reaching out to the unchurched, mainly suburban middle class using a slick worship experience designed to appeal to someone who hasn’t been to a church in years or decades.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeker_sensitive
1990’s Gen-X post modern, alternative worship (X’ers often felt that the super slick Baby Boomer seeker churches were fake) - Alternative worship tends to be decentralized and participatory in its form. There is no stage with a preacher. People moving about involved in doing and experiencing physical elements which are designed to bring them closer to God.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_worship
1990’s-2000 Emerging Church - A common characteristic is the concept of missional living where Christians are sent out into the world to be a blessing wherever they are. Narrative presentations of faith and the bible as well as the use of multimedia, the internet and blogs are popular with this predominantly younger generation of Christians.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergent_church
Send me an email if you’d like to discuss further. Jimcoffey62@yahoo.com
I'm getting long winded - hopefully some of you will find this useful.
Unique features of my local congregation that are specifically designed to appeal to our neighbors here in League City, TX, Galveston County, near NASA and Houston.
1. We start and end promptly on time … to the minute. If you claim to end at noon and you consistently run long you are not truthful. Either end on time or tell people up front that you are going to run until 12:30. The worship team spends 10 hours a week practicing to make sure that everything runs smoothly. We’re visitor focused. Visitors don’t understand your announcements so we usually don’t have any. Members are expected to be smart enough to read the bulletin. The only unplanned announcements that I remember were 9/11, the space shuttle explosion, and Hurricane Katrina.
2. Nobody wears a tie. Shorts and sandals are cool. We live near the ocean.
3. We have a specific mission – Take unchurched people and help them become fully devoted followers of Christ.
4. We design Sunday to be an excellent experience for a visitor who is unchurched. Everything we do drives toward this aim. We keep only essential elements required by the bible. We teach, we pray, we sing. Anything else can be added or removed depending on what we want to accomplish that Sunday.
5. We don’t water down the message of the bible. We don’t teach a prosperity gospel. But we do keep our sermons short, to the point, and relevant to your life. We concentrate on the milk of the word - when you bring your friend you don’t have to worry that we’ll be in the middle of a series on Leviticus. We don’t assume that they have a bible. We put the verses up on screen for them.
6. Wednesday night is designed as our primary worship service for believers. The sermon is deeper. We expect you to bring a bible on Wednesday.
7. All members are expected to have a list of their top 5 unchurched friends, pray for them, become great friends. I introduce them to Jesus via my life, my home group, and our Sunday morning service.
8. If the building starts to get full … members get up and go out into the lobby so we can create empty seats for the visitor that you brought today. This happens every week.
9. When you show up with your friend – you took a huge risk. Every single volunteer is working to make your friend’s church experience perfect. Great bible teaching, superb music, awesome child care, kiddie sermons, good coffee. We want your friend to say, “That was great, I think I’ll come back next week.”
10. We have a passion for planting churches. We started as a church plant. We train church planters. Our mission money is dedicated to helping plant new churches around the globe. We train our planters to become self supporting – so we can free up the money to go plant more churches.
11. We concentrate our local ministry efforts on the unchurched people who live in our local neighborhoods.
12. We don’t put energy on things that don’t support the core mission. Blood drives are great, but it didn’t seem to help us attract local unchurched people so we refocused our blood drive volunteers in other areas. We don’t have a food bank or soup kitchen. Other local groups do a great job and we have members who support them.
13. Membership means something. To become a member you must complete a membership study packet. Members are unified on our key beliefs. Members are committed to the specific mission of our congregation. Membership is renewed annually via a signed commitment form. Members are all interviewed and approved by an elder or minister. All members must be part of a home group. The home group is how we make sure that you are taken care of and don’t accidentally drop through the cracks.
14. Everyone who teaches or holds a microphone must be a member.
15. We have 4000 people who attend on Sunday, but only about 800 members. We started as a church plant with 7 families in 1994.
All of this could be duplicated by an Acapella Church of Christ.
My local congregation uses instrumental music, but that’s not why visitors show up. They show up because we make a deliberate effort at friendship evangelism. They come back because we try very hard to teach the truth – and people recognize and yearn for the truth of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection.
www.clearcreek.org or email jimcoffey62@yahoo.com
wow jim, we are a new plant here in the NW and those are statements and our core beliefs. i am glad to hear about this and that it is working. our core team right now understands that to be with us they have to love the lost and realize that the unchurched don't understand what is going on...i like your comments and will visit your web.
i have a million things i feel are church "fads" but, i have already gone on enough.
Wow Jim, I echo my wife's comment. This is good. I think I will be contacting you.
Ron Clark
Cool blog. Call me now Jeff--if you get this message! bw
Dude, very nice. Thank you for sharing a piece of your life there. It helps put into perspective what living for Christ, whether inside or outside of America might look like. Keep on being God's tool. Rusty
Jeff,
Hey it's Kaylin, the children's ministry intern from Glenwood this past summer. I just wanted to leave you a message and ask you to give it to the whole family. I thought of you all the other day, like yesterday? or something and I just want you to know that I miss you guys very much. Especially the children. I feel like we really bonded this past summer for those few babysitting sessions and I would just about do anything to see them again and get to play pic nic and kill wasps in the house haha. Anyways please give them all a big hug from me. my email is krboogie@gmail.com if you want to write back!
God Bless,
Kaylin
Before we "throw out the baby with the bath water," let's remember that every new generation thinks that they have a new and special insight into what to do and how to get it done, while those looking back long for the "good ol' days." Comments are made about confused ("older") people, while the older ones think that the young are out of control. Old Testament writers as well as Greek philosophers made some very current comments about the subject.
The filmstrips of the 50's were just as advanced and new to the church as the latest electronic device on the market today. Thank God that they had the courage to use them. Thank God people had the courage to knock on strangers' doors to talk to them about Christ and His Church. What made the churches of Christ the fasted growing church? People were spreading the message. Why does Africa have more congregations than the U. S.? Because people of previous generations went there to teach, and were effectively followed up by the current generation. If they are third world now, what kind of a number would you call them then? [We have instant communication, but it took them weeks and months to send a message.] Is change scary? Of course it is - because we don't have any idea where that change is going. We confused old people remember the changes of earlier generations - many of them were disasterous. People were hurt, churches distroyed, faith lost. Some of the social change movement of the 60's was "Burn, Baby, Burn!" That is a philosophy of: if it is, it is bad, tear it down, and something better will replace it. Some of the church changers followed that lead. Many of us [not all] would welcome change if we were confident that the change were actually leading us toward additional truth in Jesus, while not discarding the TRUTHS already in place. [Of course some of the "truths" were just misguided opinion.] Our experience has shown us that changers tend to become myopic going way beyond the center of truth in their own narrow field of thought, because of their new "inspired" insight. Most of us realize that the restoration priciple is on-going, and will be so as long The Lord allows people to inhabit the earth. The church of the 50's - 60's had reached an admirable level of truth in certain aspects of restoration, but were very lacking in others. It is this generation's job not to be cynical about what they did, nor to criticize their methods, but to examine where growth needs to take place and do it. For me, I know that I must constantly be restored, and change within me must take place daily. It just seems to be more difficult as I get older. Physical sacrifice is hard, but to let Jesus take COMPLETE control of me - now, that is scary!
Post a Comment
<< Home