I’ve never met Vince Antonucci.  I’m not even a friend of a friend.  At some point, a blog post of his was brought to my Google reader, and I’ve been following him for a month or two. 

Vince is starting a church.  On the Las Vegas Strip.  And his desire is to make his church something that people on the Strip who never thought they would go to church… would want to hear more about his church.  So he’s thinking about weeknight services instead of Sunday morning.  Food co-ops, seminars, block parties.

It’s been a great journey to track from my suburban home.  But I was particularly touched by his list of first worship songs.  Since I’m a fan of Needtobreathe and Tenth Avenue North, I decided to check out the rest. 

Most aren’t hymns.  Or overt worship choruses.  I love hymns and worship choruses, and think they have an important place in the church.  But considering where Verve Church is trying to go (and where many of us are), it’s a great list.  Here are a few examples:

Take Me Away (Lifehouse)

this time what I want is you
there is no one else who can take your place
this time you burn me with your eyes
you see past all the lies
you take it all away
I’ve seen it all
and it’s never enough
it keeps leaving me needing you

Typical (Mute Math)

‘Cause I know there’s got to be another level
Somewhere closer to the other side
And I’m feeling like it’s now or never
Can I break the spell of the typical

Amazing, Because It Is (The Almost)

I was so scared of everything you put in front of me
I’ve been marching to every part of me
Just to see,
See
Why you need me to be
The boy you need me to be

Surely We Can Change (David Crowder Band)

And the problem is this
We were bought with a kiss
But the cheek still turned
Even when it wasn’t hit
And I don’t know
What to do with a love like that

I’m Not All Right (Sanctus Real)

I’m not all right, I’m broken inside
And all I go through, it leads me to you
Burn away the pride
Bring me to my weakness
Until everything I hide behind is gone
And when I’m open wide with nothing left to cling to
Only you are there to lead me on.

I’m less of a fan of churches that deliberately play whatever song is popular this week at church.  I am a fan of carefully chosen songs that cry out about loss, brokenness, love beyond ourselves, and redemption.  Visit Verve to learn more and support their ministry.  The full list is posted here.

This fall, I am volunteering to help with the college ministry at our church, a group based on small groups.  I am more interested than usual than the idea of community, and of church, and what it is that we as adults are trying to teach and model to college-age students. 

Scot McKnight published this small quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together.  It resonated with me as a good vision of “church as a community of believers.”

Those who want more than what Christ has established between us do not want Christian community. They are looking for some extraordinary experiences of community… Such people are bringing confused and tainted desires into the Christian community. Precisely at this point Christian community is most often threatened from the very outset by the greatest danger … the danger of confusing Christian community with some wishful image of pious community, the danger of blending the devout heart’s natural desire for community with the spiritual reality of Christian community.

This idea is that the Christian community is messy, is difficult.  We want a place where we are fully accepted and loved, and can do great work together.  But then we struggle to build each other up and are chained down by our fears and weaknesses.  Perhaps the sign of a Christian community isn’t so much the great deeds we accomplish (either evangelism or justice) but that we are determined to bear with each other and forgive each other and accept each other’s weaknesses (and Christ’s strength) on the journey.

I was encouraged not only by this quote, but by the thoughtful comments about it on Scot’s site.  Have a look.

I’m going to be working for the first time with our church’s college ministry this fall.  Which means, of course, that I’m finding things to read about it.  One of the college ministry blogs I was looking at today was discussing the (often rocky) relationship between the college ministry of the local churches and the work of the parachurch organizations localized at the college itself (ministries like InterVarsity and Campus Crusade).  The comments on the blog moved back and forth about why college students should be involved in a church, versus be focused on on-campus ministries.

But, as best as I understand ecclesiology, the definition of church is the body of believers who call Jesus Lord and are worshipping together and building each other up.  So, really, both parachurch organizations and local churches fit the definition of “church.” Obviously, the strengths of these two types of “church” will be different.  The shape of the community will be different.  Those who feel strongly about parachurch orgs point out that these groups allow the students to be missional in their own culture, present and reaching out in their own environment of the university.  The local church, however, is where students will spend the rest of their lives, and perhaps they should be learning how to grow and serve and worship in this environment.

I’d love YOUR feedback, as I embark on this new journey into college ministry.  Please share your perspective:

• What parachurch organization do you belong to besides / instead of a local church?  What do you gain from that “external” type of church?
• What do you think college students MOST need to learn about being part of the (big C, Bride of Christ, community of believers) Church while they are in college?  If you are older than college age, what do you wish you had learned then?  Do you think that could have been done best by a parachurch org or by a local church?

Thanks!

I suppose books on apologetics might be oversimplified into two types – those that Christians read to better talk to non-Christians, and those that Christians hand to non-Christians for them to read on their own.

Both of these, of course, are not ideal.  The first seems like it’s planning for an attack, and the second says, “I can’t defend my faith, but this other guy can.  So read him.” 

What would be ideal?  Perhaps a book that Christians could read, and think to themselves, “Wow!  That’s such a wonderful way to describe Jesus, or the world, or heaven!  I can’t wait to see if my neighbor X likes this idea as much as I do!”  To me, Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense was that book.  Written in 2006 by N.T. Wright, it is a beautifully written story of why the world is the way it is, and why we wish it were different, and how God has made the right world possible.

To give you a quick overview, the book is divided into three sections.  In the first, Wright explores the ideas of justice, spirituality, relationships, and beauty.  How we ache for these things, but can see that none of them is fully realized.  In the second section,

Wright gives a great summary of biblical theology.  He uses the full Old and New Testaments to talk about the big pictures of covenant, exodus, tabernacle, and word, and how Jesus fits into and fulfils God’s plan to fully redeem his creation.  And in the third section, he talks about how Christians are to live this new plan through worship, prayer, scripture, communion and baptism. 

I greatly enjoyed this book for both structural and theological reasons. 

First – structure. Wright has the ability to write a supremely organized book with set ideas (justice, spirituality, relationship, beauty) and return to them again and again. He does this with these longings, with worldviews (pantheism, deism) and with his themes of heaven, word, and kingdom.  But the bones of the book are highly organized, his tone is lyrical and readable and thoughtful without being academic.

Second – theology. N.T. Wright is someone who thinks that the gospel is about God bringing his whole creation back to rights.  That we do have a responsibility after we are saved to help God in his kingdom. We become God’s children by believing in his saving grace, and then we are to be “agents, heralds and stewards” of God’s new kingdom.  I love this.  I’ve given a couple samples of his words here and here.

I do feel like the book would have been strengthened with a larger discussion of sin and grace.  Wright spends very little time on this.  I suppose I should go read a similar book by John Piper to get the full story.

But overall, this is the sort of book that I would love to talk about with someone who was interested in God and the world.  Do you know someone who is interested in justice and beauty, and thinks Christianity is all about rules and hell, and who isn’t interested in that?  Offer to read this book with them, and have some great conversations. 

From the book Simply Christian, a definition of the church:

“It’s a place of welcome and laughter, of healing and hope, of friends and family and justice and new life. It’s where the homeless drop in for a bowl of soup and the elderly stop by for a chat. It’s where one group is working to help drug addicts and another is campaigning for global justice. It’s where you’ll find people learning to pray, coming to faith, struggling with temptation, finding new purpose, and getting in touch with a new power to carry that purpose out.  It’s were people bring their own small faith and discover, in getting together with others to worship the one true God, that the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.”

…

“The Spirit is given so that we ordinary mortals can become, in a measure, what Jesus himself was: part of God’s future arriving in the present; a place where heaven and earth meet; the means of God’s kingdom going ahead. The Spirit is given, in fact, so that the church can share in the life and continuing work of Jesus himself, now that he has gone into God’s dimension – that is, heaven.”

This does not, of course, completely contain what it means to be a community of believers.  Crabb would add that it is a place of transparency and honesty that strengthens our faith.  Erre would add that it is where Christians seek God’s work through prayer. Piper would add that it is a place to see clearly that we are utterly dependent on the grace and love of God.  And all of those are more fabulous things.  But this is still a great quote of how the Holy Spirit works in a community of believers to bring new life.

I’ve read a pretty tall stack of books lately on “how to do church” and “how to be a better Christian.”  Thanks to Thomas Nelson, I was able to add Larry Crabb’s book Real Church to my stack.  The only other book I’ve read of his was Papa Prayer.  And it was good in concept and I liked the theology, but a bit awkward in the “PAPA” alliteration and the actual prayer instructions didn’t stick for me. 

I’m not sure what I expected from this book.  I thought Crabb wrote books on Biblical counseling, which is not an area of interest for me.  But I like books that explore ecclesiology, and this one sounded controversial and exciting, perhaps trash-talking some groups and promoting others.

But it isn’t much like that.  This is more like sections from his private journal, interspersed with essays on ideal Christianity.  Essentially, Crabb is tired of church.  He isn’t tired of a particular style – he’s tired of all of them.  Why?  Because they don’t help him where he needs help the most – how to overcome the deep self-addiction and loneliness he feels.  Crabb discusses the types of church that don’t work, and further explores how he is often spiritually empty.  The meat of the book is his very clear, very encouraging discussion of what the church does need to do for its community.  In my words, he decides:

1. A real church explains the full Bible as a story of God’s love – which includes the character of God, the grace of the gospel, and our proper response through the Holy Spirit.
2. A real church demands that its members lovingly confront their own and each others’ selfishness, and encourage each other to mature.
3. A real church demands that its community practice forgiveness, unity, grace and love with each other, through all our human weaknesses.
4. A real church sends out its community to work for God’s kingdom here, expanding God’s rule in both evangelism and justice.

The parts of the book that most resonated with me:

• Crabb’s honesty about how he feels isolated.  And that someone who is dedicated to being like Christ may not feel that empty space filled with God, but instead learns to hope and trust for the eternal fulfillment of the kingdom to come.  And it’s our temptation to fill that empty space now that is the addiction all Christians struggle with.
• Standard church activities of singing and listening to sermons do not provide the painful training needed for real spiritual growth.  Real spiritual formation requires me to honestly articulate where I am now and humbly accept instruction from actual friends about how to move to be whom I want to be.
• “Missional” ministry only moves beyond humanist morality when it comes from a community of believers who are seeking loving unity and spiritual growth within themselves first and concurrently.

This book is honest, clearly articulated, and has valuable insights about what a strong Christian community would look like (plus he cites Gerald Sittser’s Water from a Deep Well, which I love).  I highly recommend this book to all Christians, but especially to pastors and small group leaders who ache for for a Christianity that moves beyond Sunday morning.

I’ve been a Christian for a long time.   But last August I had a bit of an epiphany about how little I knew about God and Christianity, in spite of being in church and small groups forever.  So I started reading.  It’s been a year, now, and lots of books later.   I thought maybe you might find it entertaining to see what happens when a non-seminarian tries to learn.

1. How to Read the Bible for all its Worth.  I learned a tremendous amount about the complexities of translating the Bible, and recognizing how important it is to read the Bible in paragraphs and chapters and books, rather than in verse-snippets.

2. The Divine Conspiracy.  I had a sense that this book was “important.” But I’d read it ten years ago and remembered nothing.  I started it again and took notes this time… and realized that it was about the kingdom of God.  And I knew nothing about what the kingdom was.  How could Jesus talk so much about something that never got mentioned at my church?

3. Blogs.  I start finding people are talking about God online.  I learn new names and find lots of people ponder God and the church.  Mark Driscoll, John Piper, Carlos Whittaker, Michael Spencer, Anne Jackson.   They all seem to say we need a greater focus on Jesus and the gospel and the Bible.  But apparently, people argue about God too.

4. Epic of Eden, According to Plan, The Big Picture.  Turns out many people think the Bible tells a single story.  Biblical theology.  Never heard it before.  I learn about covenant, and God as a reconciler, and the themes of relationship and community.  I begin to question the definition of “gospel” beyond Christ dying to save me from my sins and get me to heaven.

5.  True Story, I Once was Lost, Death by Church.  Over and over, the ideas that the kingdom of God is now and should be part of the church.  That we need to enter the culture, be missional.  That issues of social justice and environmentalism are part of the role of the church, as well as evangelism.  But, opposed to that are the responses I see to ideas like this (mostly in blogs), that a kingdom focus is a function of liberal Christianity and is works theology.  That if the church is dedicated to preaching the gospel and encouraging spiritual growth, we’d all be better off.

I am now full of new words – Calvinism, reformed, missional, emergent.  Bible-centered churches vs attractional “megachurch model” churches.  Faith vs works.  Justification vs sanctification, N.T. Wright vs John Piper.  The Holy Spirit.  Covenant, incarnation, community, redemption, regeneration, reconciliation.  Eschatology and ecclesiology.

I have learned so much in a year… and am so much more confused, too.  But that’s okay.  I prefer my God to be mysterious.  It’s been good brain exercise, and has energized my faith.  Lots to think about, and write about, and discuss.  I don’t have a lot of answers, but I’m thankful I can pursue them.

I’ve read several books recently that talk about the things that the Western church is doing wrong, including They Like Jesus but Not the Church and Unchristian.  So when I bought Mike Erre’s Death by Church, I expected the same sort of book: 1) point out what we are doing wrong, 2) offer advice to fix it.

But that’s a different book than this one.  This is a theology book.  I got halfway through, realized I had been reading without really following, and started over again, this time taking notes.

Erre’s basic outline is this:

1. The church is in trouble (only two chapters of the 21)
2. Ecclesiology has forgotten the true role of the church in the kingdom of God
3. If Christians understood the kingdom of God, and the correct role of the church, then the church would be on the right track again.

The majority of the book is serious theology.  If you aren’t the kind of person who is willing to look up and hold onto terms like ecclesiology and eschatology, you’ll find this book a big mystery.  There is very little as far as “your church should be doing this” kinds of fixes.  In fact, that’s kind of Erre’s point.

If, however, you are okay with a little seminary-speak, and are open-minded about bringing the kingdom of God back to evangelical Christianity, then you are likely to enjoy this book.  Erre’s logic is this:

• The kingdom of God is the central theme of the Bible.  God is ruler over all, while Satan has rule over this earth for a short time.
• The full gospel is a story of creation, fall, Israel, Jesus, Church, and renewal.  It is more than a “I sinned – Jesus died– I go to heaven” story.
• God is fully engaged in the world, working to rescue and redeem people AND creation.  The work of Jesus and the Holy Spirit has created a new community of the church, which has the power and mission of continuing to announce Jesus’ message of the kingdom.
• The number one job of the church is not to expand the church.  It is to join God in his kingdom work. We are to witness to the kingdom by proclaiming Jesus as Lord and announcing God’s plan of community and redemption.

How does this theology affect the practicality of being a church?

• The number one goal of the church is to seek where God is already working through prayer and waiting, and then join God in his work.  No formula or plan to guide or grow the church is appropriate.
• The church is a community, not a group of individuals.  It is a separate, subversive culture that is both part of the Age to Come and the present age.
• Worship in the Christian community should challenge the believers towards confession and growth.  It must have a public work of proclamation, love and service.
• The church must not debate between evangelism and social justice.  God’s kingdom works to bring all creation back into right relationship with himself, and both are necessary.

This is not an easy book to read – both because of the subject, and because the flow is not completely clear.  I’m a literal sort of reader, and it helps me when the book sections and chapters are labeled in a way that helps me follow the flow of the argument.  While I certainly feel like I understand Erre’s main points, I often failed to find the major point of each chapter.  Even the title is not helpful.  The “death by church” is addressed in the first chapter, but it is not really the focus of the book.

The theology itself is challenging as well.  Like Erre, I grew up with the four spiritual laws and the Left Behind theology.  A change to a kingdom of God focus is a big change for me.  I adore the idea of bringing all creation and justice on board as the work of the kingdom.  The arguments presented by Erre are convincing to me, though I’m sure they will horrify others.

To conclude, I’m excited to see how this theology plays out in a real church.

(Disclaimer – I am part of the church where Mike Erre is Teaching Pastor)

A short history:  Willow Creek Church developed a survey (REVEAL) to see how spiritually mature its congregation was.  They were shocked to find high levels of dissatisfaction with the church, and a big lack of correlation between church activity attendance and spiritual growth.  Granger Community Church (about 6000 members) recently completed the survey, and also found some facts that shocked them.  Attenders indicate they have very little spiritual maturity: minimal Biblical worldview, minimal ability to spiritually grow on their own.

Today’s post:  I’ve been watching the video of the midweek service where the pastor of Granger is telling the midweek attenders about the changes to the church in response to the survey.  It’s powerful, because he’s a dynamic speaker.  But I want to get to the meat of what I’m learning.  My hope is writing this will clarify how a church could arrange itself to maximize the spiritual growth of its members… and how a class like my new one might be part of such an arrangement.

What Mark Beeson said:

• Culture changes, but the Word of God does not.  We need to make the Gospel available to today’s culture.
• People who visit a church today are intrigued by the idea of experience (worship, commitment) more than seekers 20 years ago. Don’t be afraid to maximize worship.  Also, make parking better.
• Focus on spiritual growth.  Granger is creating a mid-week worship (1 Wed) / growth (3 Weds) night.  The classes for growth are called: Encounter, Empower, Engage.
• Encounter:  study the Bible, take notes, create a Biblical worldview.  Classes on books of the Bible (Matthew, Ephesians, etc).  Learning how my story intersects with God’s story.
• Empower: spiritual disciplines.  What should I do (or stop doing) to make room for spiritual growth?
• Engage: Applying God to my daily life.  Marriage, budgeting, parenting, addictions.
• BE CHRIST CENTERED.
• Have youth also do Bible training on Wednesday night (save fun-n-Jesus for Sunday afternoon)

My thoughts:

• How much are people attracted to teachers, rather than the work and discipline itself?
• How can I break through the barriers to reading the Bible that people have?  How can people become excited about READING?