Mark Batterson has an excellent article that speaks to a principle we are using in our
Bridgebuilder Seminars. I'd be interested in your feedback. - Steve
The cross must be raised again at the center of the marketplace
as well as on the steeple of the church. I am claiming that Jesus was
not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross
between two thieves; on the town garbage heap, at a crossroads so
cosmopolitan they had to write His title in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.
At the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and
soldiers gamble, because that is where He died and that is what he died
about and that is where churchmen ought to be and what churchmen
should be about.
- George McLeod
A few years ago I had a Starbucks moment. I was
studying for a sermon at a Starbucks on Capitol Hill, and I usually
tune out the mood music, but one line of lyrics slipped through my
reticular activating system. I’d never heard the song before and I
didn’t know who the artist was. And maybe I just had too much caffeine
in my system, but the juxtaposition of words struck me:
There’s a church on the periphery, Lady of our Epiphany. And I had a thought as I sipped my vanilla latte:
as long as the church stays on the periphery, our culture will never experience an epiphany.
Over the last few decades, the church has been pushed further and
further onto the periphery of culture. Or in many instances, the church
has retreated to the comfortable confines of its Christian subculture.
So we are inside our churches looking out, but we really find ourselves
on the outside looking in. God is calling the church out of the church
and back into the middle of the marketplace.
I realize that I
pastor one church in one small corner of the kingdom. And I don’t want
to project my passions onto others. But if we are going to influence
the spiritual tide in America, the church needs to stop retreating and
start redeeming. The church needs to stop criticizing and start
creating. The church needs to stop seeking shelter and start competing
for the truth.
Paul didn’t boycott the Aeropagus.
1
He didn’t stand outside in a picket line arguing against idolatry. Paul
marched into the marketplace of ideas and went toe-to-toe with the
most brilliant minds in ancient Athens competing for the truth. Staying
on the periphery is one thing the Apostle Paul could never be accused
of.
CHURCH STEEPLES
There was a time, just a few
centuries ago, when nautical maps of Europe had legends that included
the location of churches on land. Church steeples doubled as
navigational tools for ship captains. Churches were typically built on
choice real estate in the center of town or atop the highest hill. And
in some places, there were ordinances against building anything taller
than the church steeple so it would occupy the place closest to heaven.
2
Nothing was more visible on the pre-modern skyline than church
steeples. And in a sense, church steeples symbolized the place of the
church in culture. There was a day, in the not too distant past, when
church was the center of culture. Church was the place to go. Church
was the thing to do. Nothing was more visible than the church steeple.
Nothing was more audible than the church bells. And it might be a
slight exaggeration, but all the pre-modern church had to do was raise a
steeple and ring a bell.
Is it safe to say that things have changed?
The church no longer enjoys a cultural monopoly! We are the minority
in post-Christian America. And the significance of that is this: we
can’t afford to do church the way it’s always been done. Our
incarnational tactics must change.
Don’t get me wrong: the
message is sacred. But methods are not. And the moment we anoint our
methods as sacred, we stop creating the future and start repeating the
past. We stop doing ministry out of imagination and start doing
ministry out of memory. And if we think that raising the steeple or
ringing the bells will get the job done; the church in America will end
up right where the Israelites found themselves in Judges 2:10:
After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not
acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things he had done for
Israel.
According to George Barna, 61% of
twenty-somethings who grew up going to church stop going to church at
some point during their twenties. They become dechurched. They still
feel connected to God in some form or fashion, but there is a
disconnect with organized religion and the institutional church. And
for one reason or another, they are checking out of the church at an
alarming rate.
I love the church. I believe in the church. And
I’ve poured ten years of blood, sweat, and tears into the church I
have the privilege of pastoring — National Community Church in
Washington, DC. But the church needs to change! And change always
starts with some honest self-reflection.
Some people hear
statistics like the one just cited — 61% of twentysomethings that grew
up in church leave the church — and they wonder what’s wrong with this
generation. I think that’s the wrong reaction. I can’t help but wonder
what’s wrong with the church.
In the words of Pogo:
we have seen the enemy and he is us.
Continue reading at this article
Posts
