YOU KNOW YOU’RE IN CHURCH COMMUNICATIONS IF…

by Terrell Sanders of MinistryCOM and the folks of CFCC

1. You’ve ever contemplated breaking into your own church in the dead of night so you can delete the comic sans, Papyrus and Curlz fonts from staff computers.

2. You’ve ever used a cross instead of the letter T or X.

3. You’ve explained DPI more times than you’ve explained your faith.

4. Redesigning the church logo is a weekly project, yet your new design is never used.

5. The words “Don’t worry, this will only take a minute,” send you into fits of rage.

6. Staff members try to make your job easier by asking you to send them last year’s flier and they’ll just ‘update it a bit.’

7. Your suggestions are always brushed aside with, “but that’s how we’ve always done it.”

8. The design they had to have tomorrow is never used. And you’re never surprised.

9. Stolen images, pirated software and breaking copyrights is justified because it’s “God’s Work.”

10. You’ve ever wondered why God gets the credit when things go right, but you get the blame when things go wrong.

11. You’ve ever caught yourself proofreading the Powerpoint slides during worship.

12. You consider yourself bilingual because you’re so adept at translating Christianese.

13. Your only intimate relationship involves late Saturday nights with the church photocopier.

14. You can’t actually attend the events and programs you work to promote because you’re too busy promoting them.

15. Research for sermon series branding means watching tv.

16. You can’t invite your friends to church because you’ve told them to many not-so-flattering stories about your pastor.

17. You and the senior pastor have conflicting definitions of the word “deadline.”

18. It’s perfectly acceptable to use a volunteer’s work over yours, but using a volunteer’s sermon? That’s a good joke.

19. Pastors inevitably become your Art Director, and their previous experience with “art” involved crayons.

20. The Holy Spirit is a legitimate excuse for last-minute changes.

Pastor of Mega-Church (8000 +) Sells 12 Million Dollar Campus

From the Associated Press –

Hiam Shatir may look like your average pastor, but he’s not acting like one. In a nation filled with expensive mega-church buildings popping up, Hiam instead chose to sell his mega-church, Crestview Community Church, and attempt to live into what he says is the call to “be the church.” And although many doubt him, Hiam just knew it was the right move to make.

 

“We just felt it was the right thing to do,” said Hiam, a businessman turned pastor, from his converted basement where he now administrates the church. “We couldn’t put our foot on the problem. People were sitting in the pews and not doing anything. They would come and sit and leave. And we began to ask if this is the Gospel.”

Crestview was known for its amazing stage productions, heartfelt contemporary worship, and relevant sermon topics often based on current events and pop culture. It quickly grew in numbers—adding two satellite “video campuses” and a recently launched online church campus—and was cited as one of the fastest growing churches in the nation. “Having someone validate what we were doing like that was really cool at first. We were really good at creating the ‘Wow’ factor that would have them wanting more,” Hiam says in reflection. “But I would go home exhausted and consistently wonder what difference we were making. I didn’t like that. And I just reached a point where I couldn’t do it anymore.”

In what many would consider a stunning move for a 8,000-member mega-church, Hiam and the board of elders chose to sell their recently developed $12 million dollar campus to a local technology company, which is now planning to convert the sanctuary into a manufacturing facility. “Selling the building was easier than we thought,” one elder stated.

So what made this ultra-successful pastor of one of the city’s largest suburban communities take such a radical step? Hiam shared that it was faith. “One day I walked into the main sanctuary, and it was empty. It was this huge building that we were paying a mortgage on and it was dark. I just had this sense of wonder if this is really what Jesus would do. Would he have created this building? And then when the economy took a downturn, paying the mortgage became our primary concern. But everyone was hurting. We had to let people go from their jobs. All of a sudden paying the bills became our primary motivation.”

Hiam shared that his messages became motivated by how much those people could give to the church rather than the Gospel. And then a moment of clarity hit me. “I was standing there on a Sunday and, right in the middle of my sermon, I just stopped. I looked around and just realized that, if we let go of this burden, everything would change. It was at that time I started to really question our intentions. At the same time, some really good people asked if we were living ‘missionally.’ Were we really releasing people to minister to their neighbor? I didn’t have a good answer to that question.”

Hiam began to doubt his own faith and purpose. “It was a dark time. More than once I told my wife I wanted to quit and go back to business,” Hiam said. “I felt like I was losing my soul. But the board of elders stuck with me, and they began to ask how we could begin to use money to solve real needs when we saw them. We suddenly realized we had the power to release people to be ‘missional.’”

Hiam wrestled with the decision over a six-month period. He knew that letting go of the building meant doing things in a completely different way. “The show would be gone, and, in some ways, that was hard for my ego to let go. It essentially meant trusting God to work in the people and not being everything to everybody. It was like we had new glasses on. We quickly realized that, before, a small majority of people were doing almost everything. They were burned out and completely exhausted. Now everyone has responsibility and purpose. So many people came to me, thanking me,” Hiam said.

When the building was sold, many felt lost in the transition. “We immediately lost about 30% of the people who attended our church,” Hiam shared. That number roughly translates to almost a thousand people. “Everyone called me and told me they just wanted a place to go on Sunday. They didn’t want to go out into the world. People’s primary concern was the loss of our children’s program.”

In talking with several families that had left, one woman expressed what has become a common refrain of ex-Crestview members, “Who will teach our children about Jesus? We just felt we needed a good children’s program and didn’t want to lose that.”

Life for Hiam and the church is now more complex but, he says, more rewarding. To accommodate the lack of facilities, Hiam took the radical step and converted his basement into an administration center. “We slimmed down everything and focused on following Jesus into mission. We asked what it would mean to love God and our neighbor as ourselves. We now meet once a month for a large gathering and meal, and put all of our focus on meeting in homes. It meant really getting serious about discipleship and putting our trust into the hands of our gifted leaders.”

Once a regular speaker at evangelical conferences on topics such as leadership and church growth, Hiam says the invitations to speak have all but dried up. The shift has allowed Hiam to focus almost exclusively on meeting with leaders. He now meets almost daily with those who run discipleship groups in their homes. One leader, Bill Jarvis, liked the transition, “For the first time, I feel like I am understanding what Jesus meant when he said, ‘Go and make disciples.’ And I like it.”

The lack of mortgage has allowed the church community to give almost 80% of their tithe away. “We’re now seeing people take initiative where they wouldn’t before. We’ve empowered them to be Jesus right where they’re at. And they like it. One part of the community is using their money to help single mothers get through college. Another group has renovated an old warehouse and turned it into a community art complex. A third group builds fresh water wells for third world countries almost every month.”

Hiam is now more aware of his impact on the community and can’t imagine going back. “Someone just yesterday came up to me and said, ‘I don’t have to drive to the church to feel like a Christian anymore. I just have to go out my front door.’ That right there told me we made the right decision.”

This is a work of satire. We hope it causes some reflection and sparks some good discussion about how we steward the church in the midst of this economic crisis.

via [Emergent Village]

Portability

You need to stick with me on this post . . . it sounds like it’s going to be about writing, but I am going to turn it on the church and I would love to gain your input.

I was thinking last night.  I was working on a few things – some artwork, a webpage, and I was running a story through my head.  Some of you know, others don’t, that I have been wrtiting a lot lately.  To be honest I thought it was something I would be completely incapable of doing.

I thought this for a myriad of reasons, the biggest reason being I didn’t think I had the intellectual ability to make it happen.  I have been writing in the form of screenplays – and I seem to be okay at it.  And I actually have a lot of ideas for stories, which was another worry of mine.

Anyway – I was sitting there last night I was trying to get past a roadblock in a story.  I just couldn’t figure out what to do with it.  Then it hit me.  Portability.  I recently read the book Story by Robert McKee (Wikipedia Entry Here).  It has been a great took to help me with the structure of my stories and the writing process. There was a point in the book where he talks about how no story is portable.  He will talk to a writer and ask him about his story’s setting.  The writer will answer America – really it doesn’t matter it works anywhere.  McKee’s response is to say that assumption is untrue.  Divorce in Manhattan is different than divorce in the Bayou is diferent than divorce in Hollywood.  It absolutely matters where the story is taking place.  Your characters will react differently to different situations depending on the setting they are in.

This made me think about the church – why have we made our ministries portable?  Let me ask this a better way.  Why are we all doing the same exact ministries?  We have said it works for Saddleback, it will work for us.  That’s great, but they’re in socal and you are in the midwest.  Why aren’t we defining and creating ministries because of the leading of the Holy Spirit and the weight of God on our hearts about the needs of the poeople around us?

I think this story principle applies directly to the church – we put up a church give it the same band with the same music and the same ministries and are surprised when it doesn’t grow.  We have begun to ignore our local and global communities – we have disconnected from their needs and just made everyone elses ministries portable and decided they work for us like they did for someone else.  No more seeking God’s heart.  Let’s just stick to the box.

Now I get it – there are some ministries just generic enough that there could be a need for them everywhere.  Okay, but have we asked ourselves why and what that means for our commnunity of believers and for the community that surrounds us?

What do you think?

Learnings From an Odd Source

So today for our pastors meeting we did something a little different. We have been doing it different the past couple of meetings. trying to make them more helpful to us as a team and as individuals. To be helpful from a spiritual standpoint and from a leadership perspective.

Jon Keatts led today’s meeting and he showed us footage from a video I would have never watched on my own. It was a portion from a VHS tape series called “The 7 Laws of the Teacher” taught by Dr. Howard G. Hendricks. The first strike I would have had against it is it’s a VHS, secondly it has the title “The 7 Laws of the Teacher”, and thirdly it;s twenty years old. But it was good – I mean it was meant for teachers, Sunday School Teachers, etc. But I was looking at it from a how we do church perspective. Here are some meaningful points:

• Maximum learning comes from maximum involvement – preaching form half an hour a week won’t do it alone. People need to be involved, and I’m not talking about working in the nursery – but practically living what is being taught
• Experience is the best teacher – goes with the first point
• Learn by doing. Must be doing the right things.
• I hear and I forget. – 10%
  I see and I remember. – 50%
  I do and I understand/change. – 90%
• What kind of doing?
• Activity that provides direction without dictatorship. – organic movements, small groups, and ministries that are informed and formed by the congregation.
• Students don’t work for you – they work for themselves.
• Let them hang themselves – organic and incarnational – allowing room for people to experience what it means to fail, to have the willpower to move on and find new ways to be the hands and feet of Christ using the passions God has given them
• Activity that puts constant stress on application
• Activity that is planned with a purpose.
• A lot of what we are doing is an insult to their intelligence. – By telling people that serving as an usher is making an eternal difference, or giving them 5 steps to being a successful husband you are telling them they are stupid. They can smell the bullshit.
• A lot of what we are doing m – i – c – k – e – y – m – o – u – s – e.
• Activity that concerns itself with the process as well as the product. – the journey is important, it shapes us and teaches us what it means to live a life like Christ.
• They go beyond – you and know what they believe and why.
• Activity that is realistic and lifelike.
• Sin is fun – we forgot that.
• We’re answering the questions nobody’s asking. – so true of the church today

Church Pirates

It’s official. Ed Young has fallen off the deep end. Just watch:

As you can see from the image (from creativepastors.com) Ed cares about sharing resources with other churches. You see all that matters is that we’re on the same side, the same kingdom – until it comes to planting churches. Then you better watch your back. If you think that God may be calling a community of people out of your church to become a sister community than forget it, it’s not God’s will. This is crazy appalling. Here are some excerpts that will have you reaching for the barf bag:

• “are they legit or from church splits?”
• boutique churches
• the “God Card”
• If you start out of another community you are disloyal
• blessed subtraction
• If you’re big and bad enough to go out and start your own church

He goes on and on, and then he talks about how people are called to Palm Beach, etc. I agree that the church has abandoned those forgotten by society, but Ed – you’re in Grapevine TX. You’re not in the slums. You have a very trendy church.

Here’s what’s funny – he wants to share when you are buying his resources, but not so much when it comes to anything more significant. It sounds like someone is jealous and bitter and isn’t trying to accomplish the same things as others. What would you expect from a man that’s in every video his church makes – he has gotta be the star!

Although in some ways I understand what he’s saying, I think dude has lost it.

via [Better Than Blank]

n is for no survivors – pt1

A quick note: I am having some trouble with my comments since upgrading to the current version of WordPress. I hope to have this resolved soon

I wanted to spend a few posts blogging about what’s been on my mind. Mainly it’s the church. N is for no survivors comes from this simple question: Is anyone going to to walk away from the carnage of the modern/western church? I will just do a preface and overview for this first post so you will understand where I am coming from.

I don’t know if you have read George Barna’s book Revolution (if you haven’t you should) – but in it he shows some trends and numbers, numbers that “indicate a revolution is already taking place within the Church–one that will impact every believer in America. Committed, born-again Christians are exiting the established church in massive numbers.”

Even without seeing the numbers, I completely get it. I work at a church, and sometimes I don’t understand what it is that I am doing.

The church is a whore, but she is my mother. – St. Augustine

I am starting to grasp in part that this is a generational thing. People my age are generally wary of corporations and large companies, we don’t like to be members of anything (goodbye Blockbuster), we strongly believe in social justice issues – redemption, environment, fair trade, poverty, AIDS, etc – and unfortunately these are things that are on the backburners at most churches.

But churches are still stuck in the 80’s mindset of running the church like a business and a corporation – they give people titles with words like executive in them that are 5 words long, no matter how modern they are in style they still follow inane traditions like church membership, they only believe in being involved in social justice issues when it makes them look good in a public light, or when it’s easy or beneficial to them. They need something in return if they are going to help someone with AIDs or befriend a homosexual.

So when you put 1 and 1 together it’s easy to see why it is that people of my age are leaving. When I look around though, it seems to be a wider trend among people of all ages. It seems that people are alright with Jesus, they just aren’t crazy about the church – and it’s not just outsiders anymore.

I know that not one word typed here is original in the least bit – it’s all been said somewhere by someone else before. But I do have a series of questions to ask, and I would like all the feedback from you guys I can get.

I’ll try to post my first question in the next day or so, but until then – what about you guys? Have you given up on the church? Do you see it wrecking more lives than it’s redeeming? And I am talking about the church as an institution, not about the leaving breathing body that exists whether there are buildings or not. Sound off . . .

I taught at church the other day . . .

So the other night I taught at church. It was the beginning of the month actually – I have just been super slow in getting anything done on this site. I have some posts I need to post and I also have some video of our vacation at Disneyland I need to put up. I’ll post it all here soon. Anyway, click here and download it for yourself.

“I Wish I Could Home-Church My Kids”

Here is an interesting article I found . . . .

A friend said this to me over dinner last Thursday. Playing off the always-controversial home-school option, he was describing his distaste with his current church’s programming and missiology.

He went on to elaborate about the importance of his children to be part of a larger community and to take part in something bigger than themselves. There is something valuable, he feels, about being a part of a growing and vibrant community that takes seriously the teachings of Jesus to feed the hungry, give to the poor and love your neighbor.

But he wasn’t finding it in the church he has called home for the last few years. Somewhere along the path to fatter membership rolls, the church began to embrace circus-like sensationalism and has lost its focus on being a refuge to the broken. In place of sacrifice is now a gospel of entertainment, an ethic of power, and a mentality of isolation. And it was no place he wanted to raise his kids.

Read the entire article here . . . . .