Camden and I

I Laughed When I Saw This

Students give up social networks for Lent

Resurrecting

I have been reading a book recently titled, The Irresistible Revolution.  It is by a guy named Shane Claireborne.  He is just a regular guy who wanted to write a book about being an ordinary radical.  He started a small community of Jesus followers called The Simple Way in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  In his book he has a chapter entitled Resurrecting the Church.  I won't spoil it for you, but I will tell you about this principle.

Shane goes in depth to show how Christianity is about resurrecting the culture around it.  Jesus was famous for this.  He would take everyday normal situations and bring them to meet theological realities.  He constantly makes the humanity of people much more important than the everyday dredge of life.  Rob Bell says in his book Velvet Elvis that it is out job to call out the truth in the world around us.

I am currently looking into the business of resurrecting the things around me.  How can I make a difference in little ways by claiming the truth of Gospel inside all parts of culture?  I think a lot of just being intentional about thinking.  I am so often completely thoughtless... blowing in the wind.  I want to try and turn on my brain so I am aware of the things around me.

Here is a list of things I am currently resurrecting:

Environmental Awareness

I want to be more conscious about how I destroy the environment.  How can I be better at conserving energy?  How can I travel less or more efficiently?  How can I single handedly stop the encroachment of the apartments in Clemson?  More on this coming soon!!!

The Boy Scout "Do a Good Turn Daily"

How can I do this without being a cheese ball and/or responding like a TV evangelist?  I want to be more in tune about helping out people in little ways.  Wether it be a couple bucks here or returning the plastic baskets to the counter at a popular Clemson restaurant, I want to make a small difference in people's lives everyday.

Its a small list, but I'm working on it.

I what ways can you resurrect the culture around you? Leave a comment!

See

I would say that the majority of people come to church because of the music they hear on Sundays. Growing up, music was a constant battle in my church. I remember the struggle of power between the pastor and the Staff-Parish Relations board. My mom would come home and vent about the ‘old fogies’ that thought that hymns should never be replaced, and that drums were not an acceptable form of worship. Music, among other superficial disagreement, has divided and ended countless churches.

Churches want to be identified for some reason. The first thing you see on church signs, despite the incredibly effective evangelistic messages, are the times for ‘traditional’ and ‘contemporary’ services. Some churches have taken it a step further and completely let go of the conservative traditions that defined ‘church’ in our parent’s generation. I have been in both situations, and I find myself in one word: disappointed.


Too many times I hear churches and parachurch ministries attempting to do something amazing in their weekly gathering to bring people in. I cannot ignore the fact the humans are inherently curious, but curiosity only goes so far without action. Not to be cliché, I believe that seeing is believing. I think much of the world works this way.

What would it look like if we decided to present ourselves as the Church to the people we are called to minister to? Advertising, videos, and skits are great and all, but what is the point if the church isn’t moving? I know with my bout in creative meetings, I have spent far too many hours thinking about how to bring people in instead of thinking about how to send people out.

My challenge to all those who work, or lead, creativity teams is to spend more time thinking about the how your faith community can meet the needs of the community that surrounds you. How can the Church be present? How can you communicate this mission to those who normally attend your gatherings? How can you provide a way to meet the needs of the people who filter in from the community to your gathering? I think these question have much more important answers than, “Which announcements do we announce?”

One of my good friends tells this story:

“I was thinking while sitting in my mom’s church in Pennsylvania during communion, ‘What if a homeless man was here taking this with me?’ He would pass the plate as he received a small wafer. He would take a small cup of juice as the silver-plated tray is passed around. On cue he would take part in the most holy sacrament in Christianity. In the end he would leave with nothing, but a bad taste in his mouth and a dissatisfied hunger for something more.”

Is this all the church has to offer? Stale crackers and a small cup of grape juice?
I believe that it is true: Seeing is believing. If we want to people to believe in Jesus, and his Church, we must show them the Jesus that’s in our everyday lives and ministry. I think it is time to give people more than tasteless crackers and bland grape juice. It is time to bring people the saving body and redeeming blood of Jesus.

Come

I have been apart of way too many church meetings where we tried to brainstorm how to get people to come to our event/gathering. We would sit and rack our brains for hours on end trying to find that one thing that will burst the dam. A creative spark that result in the salvation for hundreds. Most of the time we came up with some pretty clever marketing campaign.

My roommate thought of this idea: In a few weeks FCA at Clemson will be in a series called Fight Club. People were tying their hardest to think of a clever way to get students from all over campus to come. Dan, who is always off in some distant island in his imagination, suddenly had an amazing idea. The idea was to stage a fight on campus in between class changes. The fight would last for about 2 minutes and then it would spontaneously break up. Those involved would then pass out cards to invite students to the gathering. I liked the idea and its creativity.

Do we have to sell the gospel in this way? Why is that we feel like we need to create a teaser for people to come to our event? Isn’t the gospel enough?

I am beginning to realize that people are not going to come unless we give them something they want. Do our creative ideas resemble that fact? Would most people come to a known ‘Christian’ event because of a comedic fight broke out in front of them? Some would… but I think many are going to laugh, put the card in their pocket, and never think twice about changing their Thursday night plans. The meeting isn’t meeting their needs, but it sure is funny to watch them try.

What do people need? I think this is a more suitable place to find how to creatively bring people into the doors to hear the gospel. College students are desperately in need of acceptance. They deal with loneliness and singleness. Often, students are blind to the cultures around them.

How do we solve this? I think in the creative arts realm we need to be more keen to ask the question, “What do they need?” Obviously people need Jesus, but even Jesus didn’t just give himself. He gave the blind eyes to see. He made the lame walk. He provided the party with wine. Jesus met the needs of people, and in response they found him as their Lord.

What are the needs of our communities? Maybe we even need to ask this question: Who and where is our community? These questions will answer our longing for people to come and know Christ. We should structure our planning around how to meet the needs of others. By doing this we will take the first step into creating meaningful environment. It will create a place that is simply irresistible.

Simply Irresistible

The first time I heard this combination of words was last summer as I was preparing to work with the middle school of a massive church in Atlanta.

(Aside: Yes its me back from a weeks worth of craziness in the teaching world of US History)

I was taught last summer that it is our role to make the church seem irresistible. Students, singles, and married folk of all kinds should step into church and feel welcomed. They should see a church that is more appealing than going to a grand opening of an Ikea on a Sunday morning. As someone who was specializing in creative arts, my part of making things irresistible is providing videos, a setting, or lighting that will engage the audience. Provide mediums for people to feel safe and focused in on what the topic for the week has chosen to be.

Since my internship, I have learned quite a lot. That church is reaching thousands of middle to upper class white people. This is the culture that this church, and its campuses, are surrounded by. They are doing what they set out to do, and they are doing it well.

I am, however, starting to question if making things irresistible in this way is the way I see how church should be communicated to the cultures around us. Rob Bell, a pastor and teacher from Grand Rapids, Michigan, said that the church should be so ingrained with community around them that if they decided to leave the community will beg them to stay. I am starting to wonder if the church's "Presence" should be found less within a confined meeting space, but living, moving, and breathing among those around us.

During the week I am going to focus on three words: Come, See, Find. I think this is how I am going to start to wrap my mind around creating a gathering that is simply irresistible. The goal is to work out through this blog how a church's large gathering can be community oriented and focused while also providing a creative environment that is engaging to the culture at large. In the fourth post I will attempt to show how a church's gathering can be involved in the process of restoration that the Kingdom, thats us, has been called to do.