Is the business model of church discipleships worst enemy?

I was reading about a new church in the Tampa area in the newspaper and came across this:

“There has been a whole strategy in this that had started with phone calls, bulk mailings, radio advertising, signs, sponsoring teams – a whole plan to put this together,” their pastor said. That approach is necessary for the contemporary church to thrive, said the associate chair of religious studies at the University of South Florida. “This is a relatively new kind of phenomenon,” he said. “What you see is something that most people would think is more akin to a business model.”

I’m not a huge fan of the business model in the church world. I’m not going to say that nothing good comes out of it. I have seen much good come out of it, but I think that it continues to send the message, “this church is all about YOU, to meet YOUR needs, to make YOU happy.” I'm not sure that is the best thing in the long run. It makes it harder to break the message of Jesus to people when he says that it's NOT about you. That the Kingdom/Church life is actually about dying to yourself and your needs and your wants to serve God's bigger purpose. Does this seem like we're sending a mixed message to people? We tell them that we have the best product (our fun church that we promise won't last over an hour and will feed you great stuff) adn then we have to tell them that Jesus says to die to yourself. Does this model make discipleship harder???

This model is what has led people like the woman last week to come up to our Impact Ministries table at the University and ask, "So, what makes your ministry different than all the others? Why should I come to your ministry?" She's basically trying to get me to sell her our ministry like it's a product or something. It is the most frustrating, disturbing thing which stems from this business/marketing model of church. So I told her that I didn't think she should come to our ministry, and I gave her a few suggestions of where she should go.

Is church marketing sending the wrong message? Would we need marketing if our people were fulfilling their role in sharing the faith, investing in others lives, and inviting people to the church community themselves?

***It should also be noted that on their opening Sunday they played the Creed song Higher. For the record let me just say that Creed is one of the most made fun of rock bands in the history of music and this song is from 1999 making it about 6 years out of date. Why is it that the only people that think Creed is cool are church people??? This is something I’ve never understood.

Velvet Elvis

Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith

Rob Bell has creatively taken the church by storm with his unique style of preaching and his beautifully produced Nooma video series that seeks to teach Scriptural truths through a new medium. So when I heard he had a book out and people were making him out to be a heretic on Amazon, I immediately jumped on it.

I thought the book was refreshing as it raised good questions and provided some adequate answers. A majority of the material in the book I have heard in his sermons at conferences or on a Nooma video so that was a little disappointing. It is mostly recycled material but he did expand on those previous thoughts.

A good illustration in this book takes the form of a trampoline and springs.

“This is where the springs on a trampoline come in. When we jump, we begin to see the need for springs. The springs help make sense of these deeper realities that drive how we live every day. The springs aren’t God. The springs aren’t Jesus. The springs are statements and beliefs about our faith that help give words to the depth that we are experiencing in our jumping. I would call these the doctrines of the Christian faith. They aren’t the point. They help us understand the point, but they are a means and not an end.”

This is a helpful reminder that it is not about believing all of the right things (although most denominations would disagree) but it is about how these springs help us to understand God. Fundamentalists have made the springs the point while liberalists have cancelled out the need for springs altogether. How do we believe “beliefs” without worshipping them and how do we seek God without throwing out need for “beliefs” completely? I’m confusing myself right now. I’m not even sure if this makes sense.

Anyway he would sum it up with, “Doctrine is a wonderful servant and a horrible master.”

Some parts of this book scared me. I feel like I understood what he was trying to say but I also feel like this book could be dangerous to the wrong sort of mind. For example, check this out:

“It is important to remember that we rarely find these first Christians trying to prove that the resurrection actually occurred. For one, a lot of the people who saw Jesus after he rose from the dead were still alive, so if people had questions and doubts, they could talk to somebody who was actually there. But there’s another reason: Everybody’s god in the first century had risen from the dead. To claim a resurrection had occurred was nothing new: Julius Caesar himself was reported to have ascended to the right hand of the gods after his death. To try to prove there was an empty tomb wouldn’t have gotten very far with the average citizen of the Roman Empire; they had heard it all before. This is why so many passages about the early church deal with possessions and meals and generosity. They understood that people are rarely persuaded by arguments, but more often by experiences. Living, breathing, flesh-and-blood experiences of the resurrection community. They saw it as their responsibility to put Jesus’ message on display. To the outside world, it was less about proving and more about inviting people to experience this community of Jesus’ followers for themselves.”

I can understand his main point and agree with it. People have to experience the life that Jesus came to bring and not just be argued with about the details. But I also think the details in this case are pretty important. I could see how people would think he is saying, “Well even if the resurrection didn’t happen, we can still wine and dine people into being a part of our group.” I don’t think that is what Rob is saying but it almost hints at it.

Anyway, I could go on and on but I enjoyed thinking through this book. Not anything totally new but it helps flesh out some not completely old thoughts. He has a certain way of bringing Scripture alive historically, although sometimes I feel like I would like to see his references. Sometimes I have a hard time believing him with some of his historical study. Does anyone else feel that way? Don’t get me wrong, I find it fascinating but I also wonder, “why haven’t I heard this before?” or “Why didn’t our professors tell us about this?”

Dear World at Large,

I would like to take a moment to request a change of title, for I no longer wish to be referred to as a Christian or be associated with Christianity for the following reasons. I feel like I need to explain why I wish to unassociated myself with this category. I wish to leave religion because of the definition Christianity holds in the mind of your people as follows.

1. Greedy Right Wing Republicans

These are the self-proclaimed “Christians” that focus their whole existence on two issues (homosexuality and abortion). Both of which Jesus never specifically mentioned while the one issue (the poor) Jesus mentioned more times in his life than anything, goes on the backburner. Our “Christian” leaders have let the poor go without aid or food while giving the countries richest 1% a large tax break. But some of you world go on to believe in these politicians because they can speak “Christianeze” and you disregard what Jesus said about a person being known by their fruit.

It is my belief that if I am to follow Jesus, the poor, the downcast and those you do not judge as important would be my biggest concern and at the heart of my thoughts and prayers. I would not spend my time hating homosexual people, many of which Jesus would likely be hanging out with or hating Planned Parenthood who are doing what followers of Jesus should be doing which is loving teenage girls who have made a mistake and desperately NEED help.

It is also under my suspicion that the environment and the earth are unimportant in your definition of Christianity and that is also not want I want to involve myself in. The Earth is God’s creation and while it is there for us to use, it is also for us to take care of and part of the responsibility given to us by God in the very creation process.

2. An Unhealthy View of Salvation

I’m not speaking of the actual salvation that Christ gives, but I’m talking about the response to salvation or rather, how “Christianity” teaches one to “work out their salvation.” It tends to start with separating yourself from all things unholy (including friends) so you can shelter yourself from evil influences and grow strong enough to be able to invade the world as you grow stronger, this time being a missionary. Unfortunately by the time this “strengthening process” is over you have no connection back into the outside world because your friends are gone, your music sucks and you have no hobbies that doesn’t include praying after you are done. I’ve always wondered why you would pray after a poker game anyway. You have long abandoned the places Jesus would have hung out and instead have monopolized coffee shops all across the country. How did coffee become the Christian beer and the coffee shop become the Christian bar? And no, for the last time I don’t want to host another Church Coffee House night.

3. An Embarrassing Eschatology

I’m not going to pretend that there has not been some good come out of the Left Behind Series or the ministry Tim Lahaye has done in the sense of people being introduced to Christ for that I rejoice. But I am also not going to pretend to have not seen the damage done in the name of Christ by this series either which includes:

--an escapist mentality such as, “Don’t worry about bettering the world because it’s all going to come to an end soon anyway. Then we’ll be lifted up into heaven on a cloud and everyone else can just go to hell. So let’s just sit back in our church and wait it out.

--a literal interpretation taken straight from apocalyptic (symbolic) literature. After all of my study of eschatology and apocalyptic literature I still have never figured out why you would interpret a symbolic book rich with numbers, symbols, colors and all kinds of figurative dream language literally! My only guess is because fear trumps hope in the sales realm. Media has had so much success capitalizing on people’s fear that it only makes sense for the “Christian” world to jump on the fear train and ride it out. I won’t even begin with those on TBN for whom God has probably had to change his end times plan just because He would be embarrassed if these men got something right on account of their ridiculous demeanor.

4. Cheesy Attractional Churches:

I don’t want to be a part of your church because your music is “cool” or your teaching is “relevant”. No matter how hard you try, your music is going to be sub par to what I’m listening to so please don’t pretend that it is the same quality. And don’t try to wow me by playing the cover of the newest rock song on the radio.

There is a difference between relevant teaching done in a scriptural way and scriptural teaching done in a relevant way. I do not need any more relevant teaching. I know how to balance my checkbook and I know how to have sex. I need something that transcends my regular life, not an escape but a dose of the reality Jesus said he came here to bring.
I need something that is living and breathing that can get inside of me and rattle my world. Sometimes I think I could go to church for a year and at the end I feel like I still would not know God

I do not wish to receive any more of your clever marketing trying to convince me that I’ll love the music and have free gourmet coffee. I can listen to good music and have good coffee anytime I want. I desperately need to experience God. I need something that I can’t find apart from a community of faith.

In closing, these are some of the things I do not want to be related to in any way. And therefore I renounce your version of Christianity. I no longer want to be known as a Christian, Religious or a Church Goer so I would appreciate you making the correct adjustments in further proceedings with me.

From this point on I would like you to address me as a follower, disciple, learner, student, adventurer, or companion of Jesus Christ. Thank you for making the correct changes.

a follower,

Dustin Bagby

Church

I read this on www.churchmarketingsucks.com and resonated with it.

Creating a slick product simply doesn't make an effective church:

"My private theory has been that many young people avoid churches these days because they sense a creeping cheesiness in the very way churches try to appeal to them. As twentysomething Sarah Hinkley wrote in First Things magazine, "We know you've tried to get us to church. That's part of the problem. Many of your appeals have been carefully calculated for success, and that turns our collective stomachs." Since the 1970s, many American pastors began to turn to the experts of the "church-growth movement" who told them the best way to reach people who thought the Church was irrelevant was to appeal to something that is undeniably relevant to the mass culture: being entertained. Sermons got wittier, music lyrics got catchier, and meat-and-potatoes theology took a back seat to just about everything else. ... In a way, the church-growth movement worked, because a lot more people started coming on Sunday. But, as its music and preaching became more trivial, many other sensible people stopped taking the Church seriously. Who could blame them? The mode of church life they witnessed, even in cases where the doctrine was solid, was pure mayonnaise. And as the saying goes, no one will take the Church seriously until the Church starts taking itself seriously.

"...the Church will be most provocative and alluring when it is being itself, being who God has constituted it to be, that is, being a mini-society that proclaims the Person and work of Christ, and imitates his sacrificial service. The Church will be least relevant when it is caught in the act of reinventing itself to gain more friends. I remember as a teenager that the surest way to get me to avoid a Christian event was to show me a flier promising "cool music and awesome teaching." That meant that for sure the music wouldn't be cool, and the speaker would be more aware of himself, or me, than of God."

Switchfoot Review

After the huge mainstream success of their last LP, “the Beautiful Letdown”, some fans were afraid that Switchfoot would take their hit single, “Meant to Live”, and try to reproduce it for every track on their new album. I have to admit that I enjoyed their hit the first 21, 349 times I heard it. But I would not relish an album trying to mimic the success of one radio pleaser. All fears and wishes aside, this album is sadly that exact dilemma come to life.

The lyrics are as predictable as they are vague. There are so many “us”, “we”, “everyone” and “everything’s” that it makes your head spin. The generalities and clichés are easy targets on the lyric sheet. As a writer myself, I understand that I need to be more specific if I hope to get a point across. I cannot rely on such generalizations as “everyone” or “everything” which Switchfoot has banked on repeatedly in this album. The word “everyone” is used 19 times. This wouldn’t be so bad if “everyone” wasn’t the main subject of the songs in which it is used.

The worst sample of lyric writing comes on “Happy is a Yuppie Word”.

“Everyone dies
Everyone loves a fight
Nothing is sound
Nothing is right side right
Evening comes, when the sun goes down in red
Nothing is cool
When will all the fighting end
When will all the fighting end”

I have no idea how any of these lyrics or ideas correlate with one another. There is a disconnect lyrically and this actually made me laugh out loud because it reminds me of a poem I wrote and submitted to a national poetry contest in 7th grade. I received a letter back letting me know that I should never write poetry again. Not bad advice.

The only interesting thing about this song is its title which was taken from a Bob Dylan quote in a 1991 interview with Rolling Stone. Dylan was asked if he was happy in which he replied, “Those are yuppie words, happiness and unhappiness.”

In “We Are One Tonight” the huge hook and chorus sounds like a Bon Jovi song. I picture thousands of screaming fans jumping up and down feeling like they are actually a part of Jon Bon’s band and show. As likeable as Jon Bon Jovi was in the 80’s we also figured out that he is very cheesy, as are the lyrics and feel of this song.

We are one, tonight!
And we're singing it out!
We are one, tonight!
And we're dreaming out loud!


What you can expect from this record is almost entirely what you would imagine it to be - the same “crunching” guitar sounds repeatedly heard clear back to 1997’s release Legend of Chin. Please listen to me Switchfoot! Find some new effects on your guitars! There are hundreds! You will also hear the same themes that have covered every album like thick gravy. Eleven out of 12 songs have to do with being “lost”, “broken”, “wounded”, “lonely”, etc and needing something “more”. If I could sum up Switchfoot’s entire catalog it would be with the idea of “wanting something more.” This idea is perfectly fine and makes sense in my mind but is also a little cliché and wears on you just the same. It is like listening to the same song 12 times in a row.

Good moments on “Nothing is Sound” depart as quickly as they arrive. Compellingly difficult questions are raised on “the Blues” that remind us that as humans we don’t have answers for everything. The unique harmonies and lyrics on “The Shadow Proves the Sunshine” are beautifully honest. Jon Foreman pushes for a much needed global perspective on “Politicians.” And the one “unique to Switchfoot” moment comes with a surprising harmonica on “The Fatal Wound.” All in all, this far from salvages the self-produced pop album that is “Nothing Is Sound.”

This album lacks logical and creative lyric writing. There are no musical innovations or original moments waiting for you on this record. What is special about bands such as Radiohead is that they knew when it was time to reinvent themselves. They knew they could not be the Radiohead of The Bends/Ok Computer era forever or people would get tired of it. After 5 releases of The Legend of Chin, it is time for Switchfoot to reinvent themselves or they will be bound to a future of re-releasing albums and one solid greatest hits tour. If you are looking for a piece of art that is either creative or original, “Nothing is Sound” has nothing for you. I would pay 99 cents to download “The Shadow Proves the Sunshine” and then just keep listening to the Switchfoot records you already have.

Peace Prayer

St. Francis of Assisi

Lord make me an instrument of your peace

Where there is hatred,
Let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is error, truth;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, Joy.

O Divine Master grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled
As to console;
To be understood,as to understand;
To be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Some Fall Tunes

Here are some mellow songs that have been rattling around my brain lately.
You should check it out.

Josh Ritter - California

Son Volt - Windfall

John Vanderslice - Plymouth Rock

Death Cab For Cutie - I Will Follow You Into The Dark

The Shore - Take What's Mine

Over The Rhine - Latter Days

Josh Rouse - Sad Eyes

SUV - the new minivan

This is exactly why i won't be buying an SUV soon. I think it's brilliant how SUV's have been marketed as these rugged tough vehicles when all they are is a spruced up minivan. Now of course there are exceptions to the rule, some Jeeps. Well, not many exceptions I guess. But in any case, why do i want to buy a new version of a minivan and pay a ton of money for it because it looks a little sportier. It's still a minivan! I can barely tell the difference between these two. The Lexus is by far the worst sporty minivan as you can see, it has no SUV qualities at all. Hardly something you would want to take "off road". The SUV is a great soccer mom vehicle however. No doubt about that. You have to admit it is funny how many people have been fooled by this scheme though. Actually thinking they own an SUV. Hahahahahaha.

Resevoir Hotties

This is a pretty sweet pic. This could only be done by Jamie Simpkins. Pretty impressive. And I've got to say that Josh Peigh looks like the biggest badass in this picture. He's second from the right. Wow, we are awesome. I wish we were even a third as tough as this photo makes us look like.

In order in case you don't recognize us, from left to right: Jon Hentrich, Josh Peigh, Nick Plassman, Me, Josh Carr, and Brad Prunty. My boys, nice work. Nice work Jamie!

D

Music Survey

1. Who is the most UNDERrated artist in music right now?

2. Who is the most OVERrated artist in music?

3. What is your favorite album of 2005 so far?

4. What was your biggest disappointment of an album this year?

5. What would you like to see live the most?

Solitude

Tim Keel - Creating Space For Solitude

This is a phenomenal talk from when he was visiting Rob Bell's church a few weeks ago. I highly recommend you check it out. I've realized how important solitude is in the past and have read plenty of Nouwen and Thomas Keating and love the idea but besides a short period of time have never carved out the kind of time to be with God alone as is necessary to understand who I am and who God is. I never realized just how absolutely necessary solitude is until I heard this talk. I'm shocked that I've been a follower of Christ for 8 years and have never heard a message like this when it should be the first discipline in our lives. Wow.