intersections

Do evangelistic campaigns "work"?

A few days ago I was a part of one of those unfortunate conversations about whether evangelistic campaigns or public evangelism still "works." The question always leaves me wondering, "what do we mean when we say "works?" Normally I think these conversations primarily have the pragmatic concern of church growth in view. Therefore, the question is more acurately, "does public evangelism still produce church growth." The proponents say yes, the detractors say no. My comment: does it really matter?

Is church passé?

Here's an article I've been wanting to write about since I first read it early last week. It ran on the front page of the LA Times under the headline, "God's Call Comes by Cell Phone." The opening line of the article reads as follows:

A recent national poll found just 17% of adults view the local church as essential for developing faith.

I was stunned by this statistic. (It turns out this research was done by Barna Group. You might find our more about this at Barna's website). I guess I shouldn't be so shocked. I'm always talking about how we live in a post-Christian society, but America has always been the bizzare exception. Christian faith is still a huge part of our culture (reduce and domesticated though it is).

So, if this survey is to be believed, the local church is diminishing in importance in people's lives. In it's place? You guessed it...technology! The kind of technology that makes it so simple for me to put this message on my website in a few minutes before I fall off to sleep. The same technology allows me to have a nice looking church website and even podcast my sermons. But it is not just the rise of technology that has contributed to the obsolescence of the local church. I think the local church is to blame as well.

O Lord, graciously hear us.

Christ, heralded by the angels,
open our eyes to your presence.
O Lord, hear us. Graciously hear us.

Christ, born of the blessed Virgin,
teach us obedience to your word.
O Lord, hear us. Graciously hear us.

Christ, born in a stable,
give hope to the homeless.
O Lord, hear us. Graciously hear us.

Christ, visited by the shepherds,
strengthen all who work on the land.
O Lord, hear us. Graciously hear us.

Christ, adored by the wise men,
guide all rulers and governments.
O Lord, hear us. Graciously hear us.

Christ, exiled in Egypt,
give comfort to all refugees.
O Lord, hear us. Graciously hear us.

Blog silence

I'm realizing now that it's been nearly a week since I've posted something on my blog. It isn't that I haven't had things to write. I usually think of at least one thing a day to write about. I just entered a busy period of life, got sick, and just generally didn't feel like writing. Which got me to thinking...this blog doesn't own me. I own it! I can choose not to write if I want to! So, if you've been checking and haven't noticed anything for a few days, I do apologize. Now, let's get back to it!

Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage is nearly a lost category of spiritual practice. In ancient times, pilgrimages were undertaken by the devout who wished to travel to sacred sites for times of intense worship. But there is a renewing sense of importance about experiencing first hand the places that saw the formation of our faith. Modern day Turkey is one such place. My friend, Jeff Gang, took a pilgrimage to Turkey a few years ago and since that time, he and I have discussed leading a community to Turkey. The good news is that just such a trip is being planned for later this year and we'd love for you to go along. Please visit Jeff's blog that he set up for this trip, read through his posts there and look over the itinerary.

WARNING: It's a big time commitment (September 1-17) and it costs a quite a bit of money. But I want to challenge you to think about ways you might be able invest this time and money into a deeper understanding of your faith. Pastors, in particular, should consider this trip a must! Many pastors have been to Israel. Very few have traveled through the Near East. If you have questions you can ask Jeff or myself and we'd be happy to talk this over with you.

Worship in the Shadow of Idols

Thanks for all the participation on the last post. It was a very personal rant that I felt could be useful as a conversation catalyst - I was right about that. It was also helpful to put to words the way I was feeling. It really helped me work out some things. I want to do several things in this post: share with you how things turned out for me on Sabbath after my post and your comments and share some general observations about the comments. All in all this has been generative and pointing in a great direction. Keep it up!

First, my sermon series took a turn for the better. This past Sabbath and the final two of the series will focus on obstacles to worship in our contemporary context. If you care to see how this past week's sermon (In the Shadow of Idols) turned you you can download it from the Hollywood Church website. You can also subscribe to our podcast on iTunes.

The comments to the last post were so good on so many levels. I think everyone who wrote said some great things. What I loved about all the comments was nobody was saying, "Wow, I can't believe you're struggling with this, here is a three point outline to answer your simple question." I'm getting a picture that we're all in this together, facing a difficult challenge that has no technical solutions. Here's what I'm hearing in your comments and our common struggle...

Preaching is Difficult

It's not so much the act of preaching (which is also hard, at times) but the writing of a sermon, that is so difficult. Ironically, I find that the longer I practice my vocation as a pastor the more difficult it becomes to write sermons. Some things come easier. I'm more adept at interpreting scripture. I have more and better skills with the text, my imagination is deeper and broader than it was 10 years ago.

But 10 years ago things we simpler in my mind - fewer contraditions and more black and white. I had more answers. Today I have more questions. How does one speak into an environment in which people are conditioned to be listening for answers? How vulnerable should I be about my own wrestling? I don't mean wrestling over the veracity of the virgin birth or whether the throne of God literally moved from one apartment of the heavenly sanctuary to the other in 1844. It's probably easiest to describe my struggle by giving an example...from today!

Is the moral values debate shifting?

I'm not sure how much stock to place in this, but today's New York Times/CBS News poll (conducted May 4-8) reports that 50% of Americans believe the Democrats "come closer to sharing [their] moral values." That is compared to only 37% who believe the Republican's are closer to sharing their values. Maybe the big loser is the "Neither" category which only got 5%. This is an amazing change in American public opinion after the 2004 election just two-and-a-half years ago when all the news outlets were saying that religious values tipped the scales toward George W. Bush.

Is this merely a temporary reaction to all the scandals plauging the Republican party or is that people like Rabbi Michael Lerner, Rev. Jim Wallis, Sojourners, Call to Renewal and the Network of Spiritual Progressives are beginning to make an impact on the conversation. Could it be that the discussion of what "moral values" are is widening to include concern for the poor, immoral wars, foreign policy decisions, global warming and the enviroment, genocides around the world, HIV/AIDS, and other vital issues? I hardly dare hope....

Boundary Crossings

It has been suggested that Christians are (or should be) border crossers. Paul's expression of this is nowhere more eloquent than in Ephesians 2:14-16 when he declares:

For he himself [Christ] is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.

This weekend was an exercise in crossing boundaries; some small, some not-so-small...

Doctrinal statements

A while back when I was conducting a class I called, simply, Exploring Christian Faith, we got into a minor side discussion about the Adventist doctrinal statement that has recently grown from 27 to 28 "fundamental beliefs." I have been working on a relatively short curriculum for those exploring faith or on a journey to be Christians via baptism. My focus in that series has been to turn our attention from "belief" to "practice," while recognized that both are important. In fact, I suggest in the opening lesson that a third leg of the stool trumps all three in importance (Lesson 1 of that series will give you more on this, as will Richard Rice's book, Believing, Behaving, Belonging). I created a separate blog called, A New Way to Be Human, which is dedicated to chronicling a bit of this journey.

So, on the week before a group of seven were about to be baptized I felt it was important to introduce them to the 27, ummm...excuse me, I mean, 28 funadmental beliefs, even thought we'd really covered 90% of them in the framework of practices. The look on some people's faces was priceless. It was like I had just double crossed them. At least that's how it looked and felt to me. And the conversation totally changed from one of living the Christian faith together in community as we seek after this amazing God of love, to offering philosophical arguments about the nature of man and life after death. It was stunning.

So, today, over at Emergent's blog, a scholar named LeRon Shults wrote about Emergent's reticense to issue a doctrinal statement. While the applications are not direct, I thought it was a helpful piece about how doctrinal statements function. I found myself saying, "Yes, YES!" So, I encourage you to read it, and tell me what you think.