The New Adventures of an Old Preacher

What a super weekend God blessed us with at Gateway! We celebrated our 30th anniversary with a great family reunion and homecoming. All of the former preaching ministers were here to add another great dimension to the festivities.

Bill Goree from DLU, Eddie LeVick from Huntsville, Buddy Bell from Montgomery, Chris Seidman from Dallas and Harold Jones from McMinnville, TN helped us to remember and to look ahead. Each did an outstanding job. Former youth minister Matt Elliot of Atlanta lead our worship and praise. We enjoyed an awesome family picnic and cookout on Saturday and over 700 celebrated with us on Sunday.

As you might expect this event has consumed much of my attention (as well as many others at Gateway) even this week as follow-up work was done. So I have not had the time to devote to blogging.

Thanks for checking in though. I will post again very soon and look forward to- as always- hearing from you.

To me, the response to the challenges presented us by an ever-fluid religious landscape is not going to be found in reaction. Granted, I do consider it important- no imperative- to have an understanding of movements and trends among believers, but to chase after them would always render us at their mercy. We would end up just being the flavor-of-the-month church without any real identity.

Also I believe that we cannot just keep doing business as usual. The Church of Christ of our parent’s generation and, yes, even of our own is- to borrow a phrase used about us- perceived by many as “yesterday’s church.” While we may not like to hear that and are inclined to argue against it, maybe we should consider it constructive criticism.

I love the Church of Christ. I do not want to come across as bitter. I am not. I certainly do not enjoy engaging in church bashing and to be fair there are numerous vibrant and growing congregations of the Church of Christ who are engaged in relevant ministry, effective evangelism and community involvement.

Overwhelmingly though, most of the Churches of Christ of my acquaintance are now smaller than they once were- including the church where I now preach. To me this- alone- is enough to set the alarm bells ringing. Numbers speak for themselves. Whether it is our young people headed toward orthodox churches, our boomers headed toward praise churches or our disillusioned burn-outs headed nowhere, we must wake up to the fact that there is a disconnect somewhere and respond to it.

And we have tried. As many have noted we have tinkered with, changed and micromanaged our worship hour to the point of overly sensitizing everyone as to what happens within it. I have even heard vocalized the idea that if we get it “right” people will come. Excuse me but the church is not a cornfield of dreams.

The church is also not nearly just about what goes on in that one hour. Maybe it was okay for our previous generations influenced by “modernity” to sit passively and compartmentalize worship to Sunday morning but it is anything but okay now. Now people are seeking a God they can experience.

Ask for volunteers to form a mission team, to work with a hurricane relief group, to work among and feed the homeless, to staff a work camp and they materialize- sometimes almost instantly. To them it is not about a worship style or a five-step plan. They just want to experience the presence of God hands-on and to know they are making a difference and often are not finding encouragement for such among us.

But that can change- and must. To me, it is all about the presence of God. I think where we have failed is in not impressing upon our children as we sit at home or drive along the road or at bed time or breakfast time- the real, incredible, life-altering presence of God among us. Other things are written upon our doorposts and gates. We have tended- generally speaking- to leave it up to the teachers and the preachers in those couple of Sunday hours to do the impressing. Consequently we have lost the real sense of his presence and possibly lost a portion of this generation to our churches.

So to me, the way to recapture the attention of those who may be leaving us has much less to do with praise teams, candles or whatever the next church fad-of-the-moment is and much more to do with a recapturing of the sense of the mystery of God and his daily presence within us.

Just consider it. A daily focus in our homes of prayer, Bible reading, devotion and meditation; An ongoing example set to our children of hands-on ministry and of active involvement in kingdom work; A demonstration of a true and transparent transformation because of our relationship with Christ; An acknowledgment of and an awesome reverence for the person and presence of God; Would that not anchor our kids and overflow into our worship?

I’ve never thought it was about worship style. It is about what we bring to worship that counts. If we bring with us a life lived in the shadow of the daily presence of God- that will energize any worship style- even “yesterday’s church” and make it genuine and alive to every generation.

It’s all about presence.

What do you think?

Ten years ago I remember being engaged in an almost continual dialogue with my then youthful youth minister about all matters Church of Christ. He basically refused to accept any orthodoxy from us and challenged a wide list of our traditional teachings. He left us and full-time ministry and ended up in another city worshipping with a very progressive congregation. In time this was not satisfactory. Eventually he settled in the Episcopal Church. It seems he represented a wave of the future.

Much more recently in a conversation with a college minister he shared with me that one young brother had “converted” to Catholicism. He further stated that another person about to move had already decided on the Episcopal Church after the move and that several others in his college group would not stay with the Church of Christ once on their own. Like the others, he felt, they would end up in one of the more ritual-oriented, ultra-orthodox churches.

This is more than just a local trend. Numerous college age and young professionals in search of stability in an unstable culture have turned not to a rocking, praise-oriented, bells-and-whistles style religion , but to the opposite of such. This migration has been noticed and documented by the church growth folks. It is not going away. According to these experts it is a reaction of the shake-up of values in a post-modern world. Seeking solid ground young people are turning to what they perceive as the “roots” of Christianity.

My question is where does that leave us? Many of us are still pushing worship teams and hand-clapping and praise songs as the way to connect to our youth. Apparently this is not happening- at least with some.

From my understanding of the reasons some are making this migration is that they are searching for something deeper and more defined and the rituals and slight mystery involved in some of these religious practices deliver it. It also possible that they could just be caught up the novelty of it all.

Again, where does that leave us? Obviously we will not turn to the practices of these churches. So, what shall we do? Anything?

I have some ideas and will share them in a later post. I would love to hear from you in the meantime.

Our oldest daughter, Taylor, is now a full-fledged soccer player. She suits up, put her game-face on (which is just a goofy grin) and runs around on the field with other four and five year old kids chasing the ball and one another. It is a true hoot to behold.

And I am thankful to behold it.

Twelve years ago I could not even have dreamed of it. Then my world was crushed by a devastating divorce. My life was shattered. Gone in an instant were a wife and then later in some ways, a daughter. Loneliness and hopelessness became my companions.

But God was faithful! He sent many of his people to surround me with his compassion and love. Eventually he sent a beautiful and vibrant young woman from Arkansas to annoy me by “calling the hogs” and to love me just as I am. Then he surprised us both with the awesome gift of not one, but two incredible girls.

Now I am on the soccer field watching one- goofy grin and all- trying to kick the ball while her little sister grunts for something else to drink.

Oh yeah, I am happy to be a soccer dad.

Praise God.

I ran across this old bulletin article of mine from back in the nineties and thought I would share it with you. Something must have really been going on back then to lead me to pen this! lol

Beware of these three dreaded “p’s”. They lurk around churches like ticks on a hound. They can drain a church of energy, focus and enthusiasm. They can create all kinds of havoc and division. They are not from the Spirit of God.

• Politics. Behind closed door maneuvering. Hidden agendas. Power plays. Sowing seed of discord. Damage done in the name of truth. Organizing private support for personal issues. Leave it all for Washington. It does not belong in the house of the Lord.

• Pettiness. Grudges. Inability to forgive and move on. Personal vendettas. Pushing buttons. Lingering dislike. Envy. Unwillingness to resolve personal differences. My way or the highway. Childishness. Cowardliness. It does not belong in the heart of God’s people.

• Pessimism. Always against. Never seeing the possibilities. No discussion, no prayer, no investigation, just no! Doom, gloom and disaster. Fear, not faith. Kills churches dead. Read Scripture. We do not serve this kind of God.

Run as far and as fast as you can away from these three “p’s” in this pod. Concentrate on better things. Bury yourself in the wonderful love of God. Not only these three not there, they are defeated there. Love is everything these three are not. Love builds up while these three destroy. Read Scripture again. “God is love.” Trash the three “p’s”!