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You Teach ‘Creation Care’?

How green is your church? An interesting idea here.

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Rapid Increase in Alternative Forms of The Church Are Changing the Religious Landscape

For a rapidly growing number of Americans, a local church is no longer the place to go as their primary religious meeting place. A new study by The Barna Group shows that new forms of religious experience and expression are growing in popularity, drawing millions of people closer to God but farther from involvement in a congregational church. New ways of experiencing and expressing faith, such as through house churches, marketplace ministries, and cyberchurches, are becoming the norm for millions of people.
Link: Welcome to The Barna Group!.

Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly . The Emerging Church, Part One . July 8, 2005 | PBS

.This a very interesting and important article from PBS on the Emerging Church. It contains viewpoints from both sides of the fence - those who are leaders in the movement and those who are cautioned and even critical of it.

You can also watch the 10 minute news story on real player form the web page below.

I highly encourage you to read it. I'll let you know when part two is out.

Link: Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly . COVER STORY . The Emerging Church, Part One . July 8, 2005 | PBS

A Conversation on Creativity in the Church Pt 2

This is part two of my last post. A great conversation on a very importqant topic for the future of the church.

This is her second response -

"We (my pastor and I) talked about the tension between those of us who are artistic (creative) and those who are pragmatic (in his case, recreative). We both see the same goal (reaching people) but see the means to the end differently. Neither of us seeing each other as being "wrong..." just "different." I affirmed I don't see him copycatting or diluting his message - he is still authentic, even if our means aren't always the most original. As he said when we were all eating at that little Mexican place when we were all down there visiting - he takes things and adapts them for our audience.

(My thoughts in the conversation on pop culture) We (my church specifically) are using less and less of other church's things (good, IMHO) but still using pop culture references way too much (IMHO again.) It seems like EVERY church is ripping off EVERY thing in pop culture. Every time I see a church doing "Desperate Households" or "CSI" (guilty as charged here) ... it is making my stomach turn. Especially "iAnything" as well. iPray. iWorship. iConnect. iWhatever. I know these are relating points for our guests and can stir up interest, but I have been really convicted lately that the connection between people and the holy spirit will ALWAYS supercede ANY connection they may make with a pop culture reference. How can we creatively package felt-needs BESIDES using pop culture references in every galldarned thing?

(His thoughts) He agrees, reminds me that we are taking steps in that direction. Lovingly calls me out my impatience (true). But agrees and talks about how some churches do overdo it - one specifically in this area, also *****.

Which leads to the copy-cat culture of churches which that conversation you pretty much already wrote what we talked about below in your first reply. :)"

Here is my second entry in the conversation -

"I think the pop culture thing can be overdone as well. But I also think it is a valuable language “link” in connecting the unchurched with the message of Christ. When it is problematic is when it supercedes us in creating our own “art.” We will never lead in our communities culturally if all we ever do is live in reaction/adaptation mode. We lead and we influence when we create.

You don’t hear cover songs at the Grammy awards.

No one will win an Oscar for remaking “Schindler’s List” anytime soon.

One thing that makes Pixar so successful is they aren’t content to rest on their laurels and just franchise a single film because they know people will see “Monster’s Inc. 2.” The new story is the priority.

The church must stop reacting to culture. But it still needs to understand the language of culture. Missions 101. What is the language? What are the questions and metaphors? What are the felt needs?
Mission is driven by love. Love wants to understand the one loved.

We influence and create the future when we are wholly ourselves, empowered by the ever creative Spirit of God. God has put His indelible, innovative, creative, diversity-loving thumbprint on our very souls. This is part of what it means to be “created in His image.”

We live by faith.
We are known by love,
We are a voice of hope."

Next time - Indigeneity in Worship.

A Conversation on Creativity in the Church Pt 1

Here is just a brief conversation I have had recently with a young creative person who is on staff at a mega-church in the mid-west. She has given me permission to share this with you. She shares a bit of her frustration with the current thinking in her environment regarding originality and creativity in the church. I think this resonates with many of us. This will act as an introduction to my thoughts on indigeneity in the church that I will try to write next week

Her initial thoughts -
"wow.
i have so much to learn.
so many habits to let go of...
ways of thinking to change.
a new lens to look through.
being the same is making me sick.
i feel like i am watching our culture...our time in civilization depreciate.
culture (in all aspects) is like biology. a living, breathing cycle....but filled with the fingerprints of humanity's interpretation of life.
it seems as if we are going in the direction of cloning everything, music. art. religion. methodology. ourselves.
why can't we be different? why can't we be authentic - to ourselves. to others. to our world. our world deserves nothing less from us.
personally speaking, my Father deserves nothing less from me. how can i glorify Him with what he has given me...set me apart to do...if i am just like everyone else? He is singing to me. a unique melody. just like he is singing to you.
but if we continue in this cycle of reproducing each other's "songs," it will eventually lead to the destruction of all things sacred. glory in it's fullness will not exist. how can it?"

- My first response-

"You are absolutely right! I wish I had the time to devote to that article I promised you I’d write.
But, you are right on track.
When we go to conferences, it’s great to be inspired. To be renewed in vision. But it’s a mistake to try and look like and sound like them.
We need to learn to fish. It doesn’t help if we are handed the fish.
What is God birthing in your time and place right now?
What song is He singing to and through your community right now?
You are unique in all the universe. Unleash the God ordained, unique potential that may be lying dormant in your community. Help people realize their passions and dreams in Christ.
If you do this, you will look and sound like yourself to the glory of God who made you for this time and place in History. No one else can fulfill the vision for you. Create the future!"

See Pt. 2 next time!

Staying on the Edge

by Alex McManus
On what it means to be truly progrssive in ministry.
Link: Welcome To The Origins Project.

From ChurchMarketingSucks.com .... Why CAn't Every Service Be Like Easter

This was posted as a comment from one of our readers, Anne Jackson. I thought it was so good we should make sure everyone gets to read it. Some great questions worth thinking on.

From ChurchMarketingSucks.com .... =============================================

"With the Easter weekend behind us, many pastors will be taking today off (some for the whole week) as a well-deserved break from the intensity of all things Easter. In my own church, the pastor decided to involuntarily take off before the weekend ever began as a result of his voice going out—poor guy. (I felt even more sorry for the assistant pastor who finds out he's doing all four services for one of the church's best attended events of the year!)

The one thought I kept repeating over and over in my mind the whole time I was in service yesterday was why can't we do church this way every weekend?

Why can't the praise/worship (and choir) be this lively every weekend?
Why can't kid's church always have this much to do?
Why can't we always have this many greeters to smile at me when I walk in?
Why can't the video supplements always be this relevant and engaging?
Why can't food always be a part of your church community?
Why can't the Gospel message be this clear and direct every weekend?
I wonder if the reason we can't hold on to some of the spike in Easter weekend attendance is due to this very fact. We make a decent first impression but follow it up with a more sustainable pattern in the weeks and months after Easter (of course until we ramp up again for Christmas).

While I certainly understand the uniqueness of the big three services each year (Easter, Mother's Day, Christmas), and I do realize that out-of-the-ordinary services result in out-of-the-ordinary attendance, there still seems to be a disconnect.

What did you do this weekend—that worked—that you could continue doing every weekend?

What did you do this weekend—that didn't work—that you should discontinue doing every weekend?"

Straddling the Fence - "Untamed God"

So, I wrote this worship song a couple of weeks ago called "Untamed God." It was one of those songs that came fairly quickly. And I felt really good about it. It is an aspect of His character that I feel God has been revealing to me recently. Though the song is darker in tone musically and it uses some pictures that we don't typically hear in modern worship music I feel very good about it Biblically. It is very supportable scripturally even though it paints a different picture in worship than we are used to.

I played it in both our boomer and our emergent services with what I thought was a largely positive response. My worship team was very engaged with it. The aftermath was quite a bit different for both groups, however.

Our emergent group pretty much didn't bat an eye at the song. And most of the feedback I got from the younger ones was good. But, when I started to get feedback from our older crowd, I was surprised at how strongly some of them responded. And not in a good way.

It seems that some of the word pictures I used to depict the more dangerous aspects of God's character were very disconcerting for some to the point where I was asked not to play it again. It's one thing not to like a song. It's quite another to be accused of heresy.

I have no problem when people don't like something musically. But, I felt a little blindsided by how polarizing this situation was. And I have never had a song banned from a service before! Pretty exciting!

The difference in world views and cultural langauge are much more clear to me from this experience. Just as the word "gay" has changed dramatically in the past 50 years there is much of our common verbage that has changed to varying degrees over the last few decades. Words like "wild," "untamed" and "mystery" can connote very different reactions from different generations. When you couple that with the hugely shifting dominant world views in our generation you can get a bigger "miss" in communicating than you ever thought. It seems as if we are all speaking english on the surface. But, at the end of the day we are often unaware of how much we are misunderstanding each other.

More on langauage next time. I am part of an emerging church dialogue team that has revealed how great this communication "miss" really is. I was more than just a little stunned!

Here are the words to that song just in case you were wondering!

UNTAMED GOD
Vs
From the greatest depths of Your cold mystery
To the raging fire of Your stars
From the brutal glory of Your highest peaks
To the secret jungles, there You are

Your touch, it brings me to my knees
Your Word dividing heart and soul
Your gaze pierces to the heart of me
Your voice is calling me home

Chorus
My wild, untamed, magnificent God
You’re greater than the greatest thoughts of men
My wild, untamed, mysterious Maker
More powerful than I can comprehend

Br
You are too big for my story
Make me alive in Yours (repeat)

Words and music by Troy Kennedy
Ilium Music Copyright 2005

Straddling the Fence - Pt. 2

The interesting thing is that the older crowd will definitely capitulate more towards a younger sound, musically speaking, but the younger crowd won't go "older." This is just speaking stylistically.

But, more importantly, the difference in world view is much more prominant in the actual song content. There are songs that I can't actually do at either service because of the lyric approach, not musical style so much. Most songs, I have found, can be musically reinterpreted to fit a specific group.

With our Canvas crowd there is a desire to explore different facets of worship. Songs that are darker in tone are more acceptable. The desire to worship God through the idea of our brokeness is huge. And this speaks to the high value of at least perceived authenticity.

Whereas the Boomer group prefers the happy kind of "victorious," up worship style. They definitely resist exploring the darker or edgier ideas. I don't think it is an inauthentic approach as much as it is a desire to relate to God as having overcomed or temporarily put aside our brokeness; rising above it, if you will.

The boomers would accuse the busters of wallowing in their baggage. Where the busters would accuse the boomers of candy coating the experience and putting on a fake smile.

Some of these differences in world view were exacerbated for me when I introduced a new song I had just written to both crowds.

Tune in tomorrow!

Straddling the Fence

I have the honor and frustration/opportunity to minister in a multi congregational church. On any given weekend we have about four different styles of worship, not including ethnically specific congregations or youth and childrens ministries, in 5 main worship services.

I am responsible for anything that can be construed as contemporary; from children's ministries to our emerging gen congregation to our "boomer" congregation. There is another guy who leads what is largely our bulider congregation doing a traditional or "blended" worship style.

What is interesting to me is that I get to play in a couple of very different sandboxes. One is our "as modern as the day is long" Baby Boomer oriented service. And the other is our emerging gen service designed to reach post-moderns called Canvas.

Depending on what book you read, Gen -X-ers, i.e. people with a native postmodern world view, are born starting in 1963-65 up through the early 80's. I was born in '65. So you might say I am the oldest of baby-busters. But, nearly the entire time I have been in ministry I have been serving in very modern boomer oriented churches. I have generally been amongst the younger staff members. And, consequently, I have compromised my instinctive preferences in terms of how I connect to God in order to serve the people He gave me to serve.

But, now that I am in leadership in a very new emerging gen community as well as our big happy-clappy boomer community. I am feeling a bit schizophrenic. Very often, I have served, in the same evening, both of these groups as a lead worshiper and sometimes as a speaker. My tendency is to lean towards the emerging gen as a lead worshiper even in the boomer crowd. And even though we might do the exact same songs, I have found my approach to be very different for each.

More on this tomorrow.