Church as an advertisement for the church

Mega-church Willow Creek has been drawing a lot of attention from bloggers passionate about the church as they've rolled out the Reveal study, as well as the changes they're trying to implement throughout their institution as a result. The study (so far) has basically quantified what a lot of us who care about the church already suspected: the deeper you grow spiritually, the less impact church services and programs seem to have on your life in God.

Although I don't resonate with the marketing they're doing with this information (pay to bring your church leadership/staff team to an Event so you can have a conversation about it), I admire the Reveal team for choosing to wrestle with the issue of what the church is - and isn't - supposed to be doing.

Focusing on the "why" strips away the obsessive focus on organizational/instititutional management that characterizes staff discussions at a lot of churches. Because promoting, managing and funding the institution becomes a focus, the church sometimes becomes nothing more than an advertisement for the church. If you drill deep enough in these places, you will likely find life - but you have to buy what the ad is selling, then perhaps hunt like crazy through the institution to find the (real deal, big C) Church in action. (Note: small groups in a big church are not the de facto place where you're guaranteed to discover the Church. If you've ever been in a terrible, false small group, you know what I'm talking about.)

However, this is not a slam against Big Box guys. Small congregations are just as easily tempted to focus on building and selling their own corner of the kingdom and claiming its something its not.

I have seen the Church at her most beautiful. She is radiant, hopeful, generous and completely love-struck as she waits for her Bridegroom. She lives like this as she waits:

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." - Acts 2:42-47

In fact, she lives like this because she waits. She knows Who she is waiting for.

You don't need to market and continuously massage your institution to in order to sell people church.

The Church gives herself away - to God, to one another, and to everyone around them.

Ding! You have mail!

If I had a nickel for every time I checked my e-mail in a typical day, I'd have enough shekels in my pocket so I could fill my gas tank.

If I drove an 18-wheeler from New York to LA.

When I first started writing, I used to run to the mailbox to look for the return of the self-addressed, stamped envelopes (SASEs) I'd sent along with my article or script submissions to editors. These SASE's contained the editor's verdict on my work: a fat envelope meant they were returning my manuscript to me with a rejection letter; a thin envelope contained a contract. Once a day, I would stand at the mailbox, grope the SASE, and, whether the envelope was fat or skinny, take a big, big breath before I tore into it.

Even though the fat envelope meant rejection, the rejection letters kept improving over the years. At first, they were almost always form letter rejections. Eventually, more of them carried revision suggestions or notes of encouragement about my writing skills. And the thin ones were always a party!

But e-mail has changed the rules of the waiting game for writers. E-mail means that an editor may reply to my query, article or book proposal at any hour of the day or night. (And they have!) This any-hours launching capability means the recipient gets that e-mail durn near instantly into my inbox. Which means that I can check my e-mail at 6:57 a.m., 7:19 a.m., 7:21 a.m., 7:40 a.m., 7:41 a.m, 7:49 a.m., 7:53 a.m. and so on. And some days, I do.

The ability to do so is not always a gift. It is a time-waster, and says much about my own pitiful lack of discipline. Business efficiency experts suggest checking e-mail only during specific times of the day. This is a good idea, and will require me to slowly break some really bad, almost compulsive habits.

What is in me that allowed these addictive habits to shape my writing time so easily? E-mail is a way to connect with another human being somehow. Writing can be a very solitary pursuit. Even though e-mail is a far cry from a flesh-and-blood relationship, it is a small marker I'm not alone; I'm worth someone's response. (I am also worth being marketed to - diet aids, porn, people from Nigeria looking for help procuring their dead aunt's inheritance.) Just often enough to reward my bad behavior, I get a response. It keeps me going back for more.

Too much of my writing career has felt like I'm standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon, whispering my longing for God's Life into a fierce wind. During seasons of discouragement (I'm kind of in one now), the sound of that wind mutes the sound of my whispered words. An e-mail tells me that maybe someone is listening.

And I forget. And remember.

He is.

Pray for Rachel's little boy

Our daughter Rachel is expecting baby number 2. We learned he's a little boy.

We also learned there's a potential complication with his umbilical cord Instead of 2 arteries and a vein, he only has one of each. This condition, called SUA , could be a sign of an array of serious things - or he could be just fine. If you have any experience with SUA, Id' love to hear from you.

The baby is about 20 weeks along. Halfway there...

Rachel and Carlos are very, very concerned, as are we. Please pray for them, as they're not really going to be able to relax much until after the baby is born. If you click on the "called SUA" link above, you'll discover why. This family is living on the razor's edge as it is. They've experienced more drama and hardship in 5 years than most of us experience in a lifetime. They need God's strength and wisdom to walk through this time in their lives...and in the life of this little baby.

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." - Psalm 139:13-16

Ratio, O Ratio, Wherefore Art Thou, Ratio?

In the most recent issue of Rev magazine, church growth dude Charles Arn spun out some interesting ratios featuring the word "should":

5:100 - Your church, according to Arn, should average 5 visitors for every 100 in attendance.

1:4 - 1 of every 4 visitors should be a regular attendee within a year of his/her first visit.

1:7 - Every one of your members should have at least 7 friends in the church.

7:100 - Your church should have 7 groups for every 100 members-plus-regular-attenders

6:10 - For every 10 members-plus-reg-attenders, your church should have 6 role/task positions

Arn suggests that these ratios are a pretty reliable measure of a healthy church, no matter what size the congregation is. Though these figures are rooted in social science and organizational dynamics, these numbers resonate with me. (Amazing, because I'm not generally a fan of numbers.)

In recent years, Bill and I have spent too much time being church visitors. Frankly, it is almost always a miserable experience. We have visited churches that were horribly unwelcoming. They might as well have put a security guard at the door and called the building a clubhouse at the 19th hole.

We have visited churches that appeared to be friendly, only to discover that there was no room for us in the social constellation of the church, another way of saying the place was terribly cliquey and self-congratulatory. Other church leaders informed us that there would be a place for us to serve, and that place was the nursery. (Which is OK, because God loves babies, but it's not OK, because they never really wanted to know who we were, but only wanted us to plug a hole in their schedule.)

And we've visited churches that offer us a bunch of spiritual coworkers, but are too busy to nurture discipleship-type friendships.

The church isn't called to have the relational dynamics of an elementary-school playground, high school cafeteria, or a Michael Scott-managed office.

I think Arn is right.

Beyond Arn's number crunching, I believe Scripture calls us to be counter-cultural in some socially-profound, agape love ways. I am contending in prayer for this, in my own life and in the life of the church. It is not an ideal. It is in our DNA as members of the bride.

Agree? Disagree? Let me have it.

Eleven ???? Tuesday

Spending time with my four year-old grandson Gabriel means that I become an instant authority on the way the world works - just for the day. "What do cars drink? Why can't the cat eat my soft taco if he likes it? What is grandpa doing right now?" I am required to have some snappy answers ready for him - or a very convincing "I don't know" that staunches the flow of further inquiry on a topic.

And then I wondered why kids get to ask all the cool questions. Here are a few of mine:

Why do cars like to drink four dollar-a-gallon gas?

Why does this cat like tacos, pizza and cream puffs?

When will it really, truly be spring (for a full week) in Chicago?

Will I kill the two tomato plants Gabriel and I planted today? (I have never harvested a tomato yet from any garden I've ever planted. Ever.)

Has American Idol jumped the shark this year?

Besides pastoring, what else can you use a Masters of Divinity degree for?

Will Hillary Clinton try for the Democratic nomination in a future election year she doesn't get the position this time?

And one very serious one:

How do you pray for an entire country (like Myanmar) or a region (like the Sichuan province in China)?

What about you? Got any questions? Or answers???

Motherless Mother's Day

This Sunday is one of those "firsts" they talk about in the aftermath of a significant death. It's the first Mother's Day I'll experience without a mom. My mom died last September. Though it has been years since I was able to share the day with my mom in person, there is something achingly sad about not being able to celebrate the relationship this year. I think that's because after a difficult relationship with her that spanned most of my life, the connection and healing that took place during those final weeks of her life gave me the gift of my mom's love in a more profound way than I ever could have dreamed.

So, today, a prayer of thanks:

Heavenly Father, I am grateful to You for the ways my mom expressed her care for me as I was growing up: uncomplainingly shuttling me around here and there (something I was never quite able to master with my own kids), that unending supply of Oreos always on the kitchen counter, clean clothes, hard work for years in the office of a plastic bag manufacturer. I am grateful today, too, for the sweetness of the gift You gave me during those turbulent weeks leading into my mom's death, and the honor of watching You work reconciliation with You and others in her life. Because of that time, I miss her more than I ever could have imagined possible. The sting is removed from her life and death because of Your great love and forgiveness. I honor her memory...and hope in You. In the name of Your Son, who honored You perfectly in all things.

Should a tabernacle have a zip code?

Within the last few weeks, I've heard reports of renewal bubbling up in a couple of churches in the southeastern U.S. (I hesitate to use the term "revival", because right now, the people who are experiencing this particular nearness of God here are primarily Christians. In my head, "revival" is something that explodes out of the four walls of the church and impacts society.) I saw some video of a service at one of these churches, and before I even knew the source or location, I exclaimed, "That's what I want." It's probably more accurate to say, "That's what I need."

We've been in a couple of churches where renewal swept through the place like a tidal wave; heaven touched earth in an unforgettable way. People spontaneously began confessing their hidden sins, deliverance and healing (both internal and physical) happened, people came to faith in Christ, and many others discovered for the first time that their faith was far more than assent to the words on a page. Their faith went 3-D.

There are some who call these hot spots of renewal nothing more than emotionalism and hokum. And yup, in some cases, the nay-sayers may be right. But in other cases, particularly in places in the non-Western world, God is moving in a very present, signs-and-wonders kind of way. And His presence messes people up, undoes them, strips them of their usual masks and performance tendencies.

The challenge is what happens after the renewal receeds. The human tendency is to want to build a tabernacle to make a home for the Presence, to try to hang on to the experience, to memorialize and institutionalize it, to be able to give others a mailing address to come and experience their own renewal. Church history, both distant past and very recent, tells this story to us again and again.

I can't begin to explain why God comes in this particular way to a body of believers. But I do know that the burning sweetness of his Presence, and the aching sadness as He moves away holds the temptations of (a)"return-to-status quo" (albeit with maybe some new music), (b) cleaning up the mess that comes when not everyone gets it right and (c) and institutionalism. He isn't asking us to stay on the mountain, but to pursue Him with the single-mindedness and passion we see described in the Song of Solomon.

No matter how you feel about these renewal movements, I am urging you as a member of the body of Christ to pray for these churches today. Pray that they will be able to remain faithful.

Have you ever been in a church that's experienced renewal? What has your experience been?

There's no one at home...

...and there hasn't been for at least a year and a half.

When we moved into our townhouse in June of 2006, one of the things I liked about our location was the fact that there were single-family houses across the street. And a good number of those houses were full of noisy kids.

The house directly across the street, in fact, had 3 or 4 young kids living there, and the backyard was full of the kind of equipment suburban families buy to keep their kids entertained: plastic kid-sized picnic table, a Little Tykes playhouse and a trampoline. This family was outside all the time, parents mowing the lawn or pulling weeds, kids playing in the sprinkler and bouncing on the trampoline. The kids fought and tattled and ran in circles around that yard. And they jumped and tumbled and pairs of them held hands and tried to jump up to the clouds. Higher. Higher! I'd wave and say hello, and celebrated the noisy kid life their family was enjoying.

Then one day, a few short months after we moved in, the trampoline was gone.

The house has been vacant ever since.

There was a "for sale" sign in front of it for months, and then one day, that sign disappeared too. Now the house just sits. Waiting. Wasted, empty space. Dandelions are sprouting for a second year in a barren yard.

I miss the trampoline. I wonder if the family is okay, and if the kids have a place to bounce.