kind of ticked...
i don't know at who (or whom... maybe)
yesterday on the front page of our local newspaper was this big story about a new church being planted in a recently developed part of the town. Had a bit about the pastor coming to Raleigh and his schooling and how Billy Graham's daughter is going there and they're meeting in a movie theatre, etc. I'm all for this church. We're in the same boat. I pray they do really well and reach a lot of people...
this weekend was our 'human trafficking awareness weekend'. we had a benefit show downtown on friday, slept on the capital lawn saturday, and had someone who has given her life to this cause speak on sunday morning. on monday morning, this article on human trafficking appeared in our newspaper, and if you look really carefully there's this line about our weekend: "This past weekend, a Raleigh church encouraged people to sleep on the state Capitol lawn to draw attention to the issue."
please don't misinterpret this... this isn't about me wanting to get press or being jealous that another church plant got a front page story. i'm pretty sure that story's not going to help them accomplish their mission and i would have been happy to remain anonymous in an article about our weekend.
this about me being concerned with what is getting communicated to our culture about the church. the big sunday article communicated that there's a new church starting and talked about how that church is maintaining and growing it's own existence. what could have been communicated in a story about our weekend is that the church is concerned about someone's existence other than their own, and by extension it could have communicated God's heart for the poor, oppressed and marginalized people of our world. i would rather that be the message that is communicated to our culture about the church.
like i said, there's no one to really be ticked at... i just wish things were different and people understood God's heart for our world...
posted by jeff @ 1:34 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Jeff, I'm glad you are ticked about what this article is saying about the church. Our culture loves success, and this article is the protoypical example of building a church around a succesful charismatic leader. I actually cringed a bit when I read it because I could have followed that trajectory of the "quarterback-entrepreneur leader type," but I began to see about 5 years ago that this mentality is more of an American cultural phenomenon than Kingdom leadership. It's kind of eery how big of a crowd you can gather in American if you are charismatic and sound convicing. I think equipping and empowering leadership has been replaced by submitting and speaking leadership in our culture. Interstingly enough, many "church growth experts" say that the suburbs is the best place to "grow a church" because that is where people with the kinds of values attracted to church live. But, I don't think it is the mission of the church to "grow a church" and to attract people to hear a message and get people in small groups. How can we expect this to translate into a revolutionary movement to change the community and world when it is removed from the real needs of the community and world? Thanks for your heart to see the church known for the character of God in the community and the world.
Peace bro
corey
yes... speak, prophet... speak...
seriously, I couldn't agree more. not sure what good it does the church to show others who want to "come to church" that there is yet another "church" to choose from. I guess it is good for people to know you are here... but knowing a church is there is about as meaningful as one could say they know Jesus - and have no idea what he is really like.
Seems more beneficial for all of us if the reality of the church being on mission to bring Gods Kingdom came crashing into the lives of those in the same community...
I agree... it appeared that the article was about success in terms of "an atractive leader" and a "good space to meet". These are two things that I think our culture probably thinks of when think of church. I know that it will be a long road to chipping away at that perception, but I take heart knowing that we are doing our part. Hopefully through grass roots faith being lived out daily, we can truly live out God's dream for the church in a way that turns our culture for a loop.
Maybe people will begin to notice that churches do care about others than themselves.
Well, I just spent some time in the 3rd world and I have no idea how pissed off I would be about this if I wasn't already preoccupied with other pissed offedness!
PS: I lay claim to the savvy arrangement of words above and resent their re-use without the expressed written consent of Irked Incorporated!
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