Response: Church Fatigue

Earlier this morning I read a blog post titled Church Fatigue by Jennifer Tayler.  Jennifer opens up here heart and explains how she is bored with church.  The sad thing is that Jennifer is not alone in her struggle.  When viewing her post she has 27 comments in the last 24 hours of people who relate with her feelings about church and boredom.  I believe those 27 comments are just the tip of the iceberg. 

We live in fast paced culture that is overwhelmed my a myriad of different media formats all driven to entertain the masses.  Let’s use the example of an hour-long TV show.  According to one source, “a typical hour-long TV show involves dozens of people who spend 1,000 hours or more crafting the show.”  TV networks know the value of putting together a top not production.  Because we live in a media driven culture, people have high expectations of music, arts, TV, etc.  The sad thing is that many churches across the US try to compete with TV, broadway, movies, etc and by doing so will almost always fail.   So it doesn’t surprise me that many people (including myself) have the tendency to find church services a little boring. 

The nice thing about Jennifer’s post is that she has answered the question to her own problem.  She quotes Brett McCracken from the Wall Street Journal saying, “If the evangelical Christian leadership thinks that “cool Christianity” is a sustainable path forward, they are severely mistaken. As a twentysomething, I can say with confidence that when it comes to church, we don’t want cool as much as WE WANT REAL.”  I think Brett is right on the money.  Anyone coming to church for the right reasons wants to experience something real and something genuine.  They want to see and hear real people, with real struggles, following a real Savior – Jesus Christ.   Christians need to know they are not alone in the struggle to die to self (Romans 8:13) and putting others before themselves (Philippians 2:3-4).  We are not alone to dying to our sinful nature.  We are not the lone aliens and strangers wandering around on planet earth (1 Peter 2:11).  We are followers of Christ together with other REAL people.

The church will never be able to compete with programing side of our culture.  The church must present something different and unique.  After all we are called to be set apart and holy (1 Peter 1:15-16).  Church has to be able to provide genuine fellowship, interaction, real life stories and the truth about God’s grace through Jesus Christ.  The key to the Church not being boring is give up on competing with culture and present the REAL Jesus and his REAL followers.

Wednesday Night Programming

I’m really excited about Wednesday night programming resuming at Crosspoint tonight.  I don’t say that because it’s my job and it’s my role and responsibility to be excited about everything; I’m genuinely looking forward to things tonight.  We’re going to kick things off with some good food (hamburgers and hotdogs) and dessert and then start up with some new classes. 

What I look forward to most about Wednesday night is the interaction with other believers.  I enjoy hearing stories about how God is moving in the lives of others.  How each one of us has earthly struggles, difficulties, and setbacks and then to hear how God reveals Himself to us.  He reveals himself through healing, forgiveness, grace, friendship and overcoming the struggles that bind us.  Hearing how God has been working around and through others is such an uplifting experience.  That and it helps me realize that I’m not alone in my struggles.  We all struggle with dying to self and letting Christ reign in our personal lives.  Through this experience we all feel God’s love through Christ together as a Church.

Book Review: Jesus Manifesto

After reading Frank Viola and Leonard Sweet‘s online essay ”Jesus Manifesto”, I was captivated by their thinking.  The original online essay can be found HERE.  I read through the original Manifesto dozens of times each time reflecting on a new part of the implications.  I began to teach through 10 points of the essay in the young adult Sunday school class here at Crosspoint.  So when I heard that Frank Viola and Leonard Sweet were going to publish a book under the same title, I purchased the book on the day it was released.

The book Jesus Manifesto expanded on the ideas found in the original essay.  The original essay states the problem clearly:

“We believe that the major disease of the church today is JDD: Jesus Deficit Disorder. The person of Jesus is increasingly politically incorrect, and is being replaced by the language of “justice,” “the kingdom of God,” “values,” and “leadership principles.”

Do you agree or disagree with that statement?  Before you answer that, let me ask you a couple of questions:

1. Have you ever heard a sermon where the name of Jesus Christ was not mentioned? 
2. Take note of Christian worship.  Is Christ mentioned and exalted by name?
3. Ever been to Bible study where the topic of study was so topical in nature that one’s walk with the Lord Jesus was never discussed?
4. What percentage of what we do as Christians is focused on us and what percentage is focused on the person of Jesus Christ?

Fortunately, rather than blasting the fact that we don’t focus on Jesus Christ enough, Sweet/Viola choose to just reveal Christ.   The authors state their goals upfront saying:

“We hope to present our Lord to you in such a way that you cannot help but love Him, that you cannot help but fall at His feet and give Him your undying devotion – not out of guilt, duty, obligation, or fear, but because your heart has been captured by a glimpse of the greatest person this world has ever know, Jesus the Christ.                                Introduction, p.xix

This is where the book comes to life.  Each chapter paints beautiful pictures of who Christ is.  The book uses the epistle of Colossians as an outline to describe who Jesus is.  By revealing who Jesus Christ is in all his majesty the other issues seem to take a back seat.  When I was reading this book I stood speechless after every chapter.  Page after page I was learning more about more about my Savior, my King, my Lord Jesus Christ.  He was called to be my center, my passion, my all.  Jesus was to have the focus of my worship, my time and my energy.  But the fun doesn’t end there.  Not only is Christ the center of all things, early on the book Sweet/Viola hit the heart of the message found in Colossians 1:27:

 ^“To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

How stinkin’ cool is that!  The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the man who conquered sin and death chooses to reside in you and me.  Christ in YOU!  He doesn’t just choose to love us, forgive us, save us and allow us into heaven.  Jesus Christ does all that and more!  He chose not just to empty himself to take the form of a servant as described in Philippians 2:6-7, every single day he chooses to dwell and live in the hearts of all Christians, including you and me!  Knowing that, why wouldn’t Christ be the center of all we do in the church?  Why wouldn’t Jesus be the center of every Bible study?  Even our daily lives, if Christ does truly reside in us our lives should reflect His!  In order for Christ reign supreme and sovereign in the church, he MUST reign supreme and sovereign in you and me.

For the last 6 months I have felt something is brewing in the Kingdom of God.  I felt that we are on the tip of some sort of revival, some type of renewal within the hearts of Christian men and women.  I believe that this book and those who read it may be the catalyst for this type of movement.  Why do I say that?  Because if a movement like that is going to happen, Christ will be the center of that movement.  The Jesus Manifesto has Christ at the center as well.  I encourage anyone wanting to know the person of Jesus Christ on a deeper more intimate level to pick up this book.