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This is a bible study that I wrote for our Adult Bible Fellowship (Sunday School) classes at FBCE. It is intended as an intro into our four week study/campaign focusing on Bill Hybel’s Just Walk Across the Room. It’s my first foray into the task of authoring curriculum. I’m rather proud of the result as our Minister of Discipleship made a few content additions and style changes, but basically left my original in tact. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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Although it is biblical, I’m thinking the whole “Free gift from God thing” isn’t really working as an evangelism strategy these days. Let me tell you why before you chop my head off.

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I find it fun to go through times like I am currently. I’ve been pretty frustrated with a lot of things, and stressed with the amount of things in which I am involved. So, when I get on a soapbox like I have been lately with evangelism, it’s gratifying to have it affirmed by the things around me.

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Church plants are springing up every five miles all over the nation. Each has the same basic purpose, but with completely different motives. This concerns me. I agree with the basis of the idea that church needs to change. However, I think we need to be very very careful as to how we approach it.

Movements have been labeled Missional, Emerging, Reformission, etc. We’re not dealing with movements. We don’t need a name. We’re dealing with people. By labeling these movements, we’re boxing ourselves in. We must be very careful to not build cookie-cutter approaches of how to “do church” into these movements. Challenge all you want, but understand your audience before you just plain make things worse.

There is a book by George Barna titled Revolution. I won’t write a book report or even review it here (maybe later). However, he labels this group of people rethinking church as “revolutionaries.” I love the term. My mom thinks it conjures images of war. Webster defines “revolution” as:

a sudden, complete or marked change in something

Culture has changed since Jesus’ time. Culture has changed since your church was founded. Culture has changed since you were born. We need to embrace change or we’re going to be seriously irrelevant if we aren’t already.

Where we have to be extremely careful is the fine line between revolution and rebellion. I’ve spoken to too many people involved in planting a new church that say something along the lines of “We’re going to be a church for people burned by the church.” Right away you’re founding your body on rebellion, a dangerous ideal. You’re saying that church is bad (it probably is), and we’re going to do it better (you probably will). What you’re also saying is that “church pissed us off, so we’re going to show you how church really should be done.” Stop now.

I’ve actually heard the statement “church should be done like this.” Church should be “done” however best addresses the needs of the culture in your community.

God can’t bless a bitter attitude. What God can bless is meeting people’s needs. Take that exact same group of people who have been “burned” by the church and find out what else they have in common. Just take out the “we’re frustrated” piece and focus on building honest, positive relationships. So what if they’ve been burned by the church. The point is building a relationship with the one true God, not a group of people called a church.

Yes, church needs to change. We need to get up out of the pews and make a difference in whatever culture is around us (there are probably several vastly different cultures within a five-mile radius of your church building or your home - pick one).

We need to be smart about how we spark change. Saying “church sucks” may work to inspire some folks (it did me), but it would anger others, backfiring completely. We could spend weeks talking about who’s problem that is. Sure, the people who get angry when challenged shouldn’t be angered by the idea of change, but I have a feeling we can make much more progress with more effective communication.

Understand your culture. Build relationships. Change what needs to be changed. Just please, please, please communicate effectively. Your message may be right on, but if you don’t understand your audience, or you communicate that message poorly, you’re going to have bigger problems than you started with.

Since the pilot, the television in our house has been tuned to NBC on Monday nights for Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. It’s a beautfiul portrayal of the pressures that surround entertainment in this day and age. At the same time that special interest groups are fighting for their right to free speech, other groups are fighting to silence that which sheds negative light on their particular message.

NBS, the fictional network that airs the fictional SNL clone, Studio 60, heavily controls what sketches make it to air. If small-market Terra Haute is threatening to not air the show, NBS balks. That was then. In the pilot, the current producer freaks mid-show (it airs live, as does SNL) and walks on camera to slam the censorship that is a result of ridiculous political correctness for the sake of art. This, my friend, is real life.

The show continues and we find that the newly hired president of NBS actually stands up for art, by refusing to continue the micro-managing, hiring back the ex-writer and producer that were on the show in its hey-day, and brute-forcing her way through protests, small markets refusing to air the show, etc. All of this leads to newfound success on the fictional network and show.

So, what’s the point? Several articles and conversations have recommended a boycott because of the token sketch causing the ruckus at the fictional Studio 60, titled “Crazy Christians”. Though it airs, we never get to see the sketch, so we have nothing to go by but the fictional show’s frenzy. Also at the forefront of the criticism of the show is how the female lead is portrayed as a hardline Christian and somewhat “nutty”. Because the show paints Christians in a negative light, and makes fun of this seemingly “nutty” group of people, we, as Christians, should not watch the show, regardless of its entertainment value.

Some people fail to see the humor in this real world fight against Studio 60. The show ignores the protests and boycotts of Bible-belt markets and airs the sketch anyway. They poke fun at the protests. Yet, here is the same group of people, in real life, boycotting a show that is poking fun at the group boycotting the subject of the show. Seems kind of counterproductive, no?

Besides the fact that I enjoy the entertainment value and humor of the show, I see something that we as Christians can take away from it. Lose the bubble mentality. Look at the show from the perspective of the “other side.” They’re writing the material into the show because that’s how they see us. Why give them more ammunition by taking the defensive and boycotting the show that is making fun of us boycotting?

Rather than fight against the show, use it as research. Find out what they’re really trying to say. Is it simply humor for humor’s sake? Satire? Probably, but let’s assume for a moment these people really do hate Christians and are using Studio 60 as their platform. Find out why, and embrace it. What a concept, huh?

We as Christians too often take the defensive approach. Sure, there is reverse discrimination happening all over the place these days for the sake of political correctness. By taking the defensive approach, we build this little bubble around us and prolong the idea that “Christians are crazy.” When people think of Christians, they think of protests, annoying “ram-it-down-your-throat” evangelism, boycotts, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Joel Osteen. Why prolong the insanity? We don’t want to listen to what they have to say about us, but we’ll talk all day and night about what’s wrong with them. People, believe me, we have our flaws too.

Remember, Studio 60 is an entertainment program. You may not think it’s entertaining, but don’t make it your platform for saying “Christians aren’t crazy.” We may not be crazy, but the rest of the world sure thinks we are. By doing exactly what they say we do by being crazy, we don’t help our cause any. It’s time we actually do something to change the world’s opinion of us and speak their language.

We don’t have to change the message, but we definitely have to change they way we present it.

In standard Easter fashion, we at FBCE pulled out all the stops and built a service around extraordinary music. We have some exceptional talent in our church and as volunteer Technical Director (that’s a self-proclaimed title), I absolutely love to be a part of it. In addition to a solo performance of “Arise my Love” by Woodchuck (a.k.a. Bryan) that gave me chills and received a standing ovation (I know you missed that last note, man, but it didn’t matter. Really. It didn’t), we experienced a time of worship kicked off by one of the most energetic tunes I think we’ve ever done. Besides the fact that it really gave us the opportunity to stretch our new sound system to its limits, we challenged ourselves to get out of our comfort zone. So much so that our guest drummer for the day (a great friend of mine and long-time member of our church) said “are we allowed to play this one?” He said it half in jest and half sincerely, as it was really something we haven’t done in a while, if ever.

We challenged ourselves to leave the “churchy stuff” behind and hopefully shake up the view some may have of our church. This is where we’re headed. Hop on and enjoy the ride.

Remember, when I talk about relevance or creating an environment comfortable to those not familiar with church, I don’t mean that we sugar coat anything. We don’t change the fundamental message. That HAS to remain the same. What we’re doing is presenting that exact same message (fire, brimstone and all that) in a way that people understand, can relate to, and are willing to get up at 8am on a Sunday to come hear.

This brings up a few questions for you:

If you don’t attend church and you did yesterday, why? If you didn’t, why not? Is your “expectation” of church what keeps you away? If a church in your area blew that expectation out of the water and met you right in your comfort zone, would it make a difference? Is it the environment or the message that is given? Does the environment affect the message?

If you’re a church staff member or even just a regular attender, what was different about your Easter Sunday? Was it just another regular service? Was it just another Easter Sunday where you present some drama, give the Gospel presentation and sing the standard hymns? Did you build it with the visitors in mind?

I realize some of those questions are loaded, but I’m really curious. This is something I’m building my life around and I really want to know what people are doing, and what people expect from Church.

The Minister of Worship and Arts at church sent me an email very similar to that yesterday. Well, that’s how I read it. It really just said “can you do lunch?” My reply simply asked for more information so I could better be prepared for the reaming I was expecting to receive. He wanted to talk about an upcoming worship concert, the band, our technical ministry team, and lastly, dealing with criticism from church members. So we met at California Pizza Kitchen for lunch.
It ended up being an amazing discussion about passion, worship and ministry. My respect for this guy went up considerably. You see, we’re fighting a not-so-unique battle in our church. The church is a pretty strict Southern Baptist congregation, founded in 1959 and has a pretty fair number of charter members still around. We serve up two services, a traditional and a contemporary to try to minister to those charter members as well as the community in which we live. It’s a very delicate balance.

There have been very few times in my life that I’ve felt a very strong calling from God to do something. The most recent (besides starting The Company), was marrying The Wife. Here’s what I’ve learned about myself during those times - I’m an idiot. I say “okay, God, cool. Now you’ve called me, I’ll take it from here.” See the problem?

Here’s what else I’ve learned. If I get out of the way, step out of the boat, and let God do His thing with me, success is inevitable. I can’t fail.

How does this relate to my lunch? Part of what he wanted to do was simply encourage me (something I desperately needed). He knows the struggles we’re facing there financially, gaining acceptance, and finding passionate servants to help us lead. My response to him went something like this, “I know God is leading every thing that I do as part of our ministry. The criticism is one of two things - constructive or Satan - and I turn it over to God to help me discern. If we are going to truly make a difference in our community, we must step out our comfort zone as a church and follow His lead.” This is the only way I can stay in my current position, put in the hours I do, and take the criticism I do - because He is calling me to do so.

I can’t say that I’ve ever been more confident of what it is I’m supposed to be doing with my life.

I have a post regarding relevance in Christianity in the works, but felt I needed to get something off my chest. In any industry, one must first define it’s market and meet the needs of that market the best that they can. It is common practice to shoot for an 80% success rate when discussing groups of people. If you can reach 80% of the people 20% of the time, you’re succeeding.

The same holds true in ministry as well. Too many times churches set lofty goals to reach their entire community for Christ, and they attempt to do so in only one or two ways. A block party here, a Christmas pageant there, etc. While these are great in Theory (I’ve always wanted to live there), there is no possible way to succeed with these goals in mind. While you may say “wait, dude, anything is possible with God, right?” I’ll respond with yes, but God also does things differently for different groups of people. The Corinthians, the Thessalonians, the Romans, all received very different messages that were relevant to their specific needs.

What we as A Church - a single group of God-fearing Christians - must do is to break the masses up into smaller groups of people and reach them in ways that are relevant to them. Church A then ministers to one group while Church B ministers to another. Why work against each other and expect Church A to be everything to everyone. It won’t work. If you encounter someone at Church A not being reached, let them know about Church B, or even better, Church C that just started around the corner.

We do this so well with international missions, breaking people groups up and providing materials in their language, storyboards, and dramatic presentations, how come we forget that there are multiple groups of people right outside our doors? Just because we all live in the same community doesn’t mean we all worship the same way.

If Church A happens to have two services, and is still missing their target(s - there could be more than one), maybe a third service, or modifying one of the existing two is in order. It isn’t about a single style of worship or about the music, it is how best to relate the message in away that is relevant to their target audience.

There has been an uprising of community churches with multiple campuses or satellites. This is not only to cover a larger geographic area (churches are all about numbers, you know), but is also to be more relevant to different groups of people in the community.

In a perfect world, we wouldn’t have to be relevant in our presentation, because the distractions wouldn’t exist. Our vision of God would be clear and the desire to know Him would be inherent in all of us (it truly is, but we don’t realize it) from the start. Therefore we would already be at the point of “What can I do for Him” rather than the selfish, human “what can He do for me?”

The problem here is that the people we’re trying to bring into the church and minister to are not able to grasp a concept of “what can I do for Him.” That takes time. We must first be patient and understand that before they can get there, they need to understand “What can He do for me?”

Speak their language. Be relevant. Be passionate. Don’t be afraid to point someone in a different direction (not the same as turning them away) that speaks to them. Work together. If you want to be more things to more people, realize that it’s going to take time & effort and can’t be accomplished in one or two ways.