church culture
Yesterday I was in a meeting with several pastors. The focus of the discussion was “How to Become a Missional Church.” In my head I was thinking, “Isn’t the Church missional?” The church, simply put, is a group of people who have been called to continue to mission that Jesus started 2,000 years ago. The Church in its very nature is missional. So why are we having a conversation about how to become missional? If there is a group of people meeting together who are not missional, they are something, but are they the Church?
As I sat there I began to think about the Church in America. I listened to these pastors say things like, “I know I am going to experience resistance from my people over this.” I heard others say “We had a lot of people leave when we spoke of our new emphasis.” It took everything in me not to blurt out, “These people have never been a part of the Church! They are not leaving anything!”
As I listened to these comments I began to wonder who has had the greater influence in America’s congregations over the last hundred (or more) years … the Kingdom of Heaven or the Empire of America? I asked myself questions like, "What kind of power impresses us?" "What is normal for us?" "How do we define success in our churches?" "How do we govern in our churches?" Before you jump to an answer so quickly let’s consider together the state of many churches in our country, and reflect on just who it is influencing them.
When I was sitting in the with these pastors one of them commented on Jesus’ command, “Go sell your possessions and give them to the poor.” He spoke of how difficult that is for people today, and that in our minds Jesus must have meant something else. Well, Jesus also said he was homeless, told people to be willing to die, and said woe to the rich and the oppressors. These words kill us don’t they? We are told that we are supposed to manage wealth so that we can get more and retire when we are 55. We are to “reward ourselves” by driving big Buicks in an aloof manner all over America’s highways and by-ways. The reality is that Jesus speaks against hording wealth more than he speaks about being born again. Yet which do we hear more about?
Is this influence the Kingdom or the Empire?
I have been asked by many people, “How is the growth of your church coming?” The success of our faith community is measured, by some, by our church’s bottom line … how many butts in the seats, how big is the building, how swollen the budget. Let’s just be honest and say that a church is counted as successful by the numbers; like anything else. I wonder what people in America would think about a homeless, God-loving prophet in today’s world who had twelve flaky teenagers who were a part of his "church". No by-laws, no membership classes, no strategic plan … just living in such a way that others were pointed toward the good news of Jesus. I look at the largest Evangelical Church Conferences in the country today. More and more they are bringing in business experts to speak to pastors about systems, numbers, theory, strategy, Human Resources and staffing. The Church has become a billion dollar business.
Is this influence the Kingdom or the Empire?
At the pastors meeting we shared prayer needs I told them about my wife and I, and some of the thoughts that we have had about how we should live. I told them that we had been praying for families to live with and a neighborhood to live in. Our desire is to live communally and missionally together in our daily lives. I spoke of some of the neighborhoods we were thinking of moving into. Each time I speak of these neighborhoods people say things like, “Why would you live there? There is no plan to improve those neighborhoods!” “Don’t you know what those neighborhoods are like?”
Beneath these questions there is another question being asked. “Why we would not look in the wealthy, white suburbs (or neighborhoods) offering safety, good education, hope for a future, no trees because they were all cut down to develop non-energy-efficient homes, and the peace of mind knowing all of my neighbors think like me, look like me, and speak my language?” This is normal, this is what a good paycheck gets you. This is what four years of undergraduate work, and three years of graduate school have offered me, right?
Is this influence the Kingdom or the Empire?
So who has been more influential, the Kingdom or the Empire? If you are still curious walk into your church’s building and see what has been removed the American flag or the cross. Both are central to their respective cultures, yet it seems to be the cross that has taken the bigger hit so as not to offend people.
The church’s attempt to learn culture’s characteristics, thoughts, feelings, presuppositions, and values so we can streamline the message of Jesus has led to our mastery of the culture of the Empire. We create clever slogans like, “Got Jesus?” We wear the T-shirt and know that although we do not have a milk moustache people surely know what we are getting at. We have become so deft in learning the culture of the Empire, and in the meantime we have forgotten what the culture of the Kingdom is supposed to be.
The people of God are to be an alternative to the prevailing culture of the Empire. Our role as salt and light is to be about something else … we have encountered a new culture, the culture of the Kingdom. We have encountered the gospel of Jesus. Our role is to be a people who are constantly challenging to the norms, assumptions, and presuppositions of our culture based in the alternative culture of the Kingdom. It is more than simply withdrawing from our culture and becoming invisible. After all no one puts a lamp under a bowl, right?
We are to be in our culture, being for them, the gospel lived-out, experienced, and demonstrated in our daily lives. We are to be in the world, but not of it. The problem seems to be that we are of the world but not in it. The Church is to be the people of God that present an alternate way of living that brings healing, hope, love, peace, and justice to any culture in which it exists. If this is our role, then we cannot pay allegiance to earthly cultures, even the culture of the American Empire. No culture leads people toward true healing, hope, love, peace, and justice except the culture of the Kingdom of God. Kingdom culture is missional.
The Church is missional. Any attempt to “make it missional” is like telling someone you want to make an apple more like fruit. An apple is fruit. The Church is missional. As we move toward understanding this more fully we may want to begin by throwing off the dominant culture in the Church which is of the Empire, and dive into the subversive culture of the Kingdom. When we live according to the Kingdom’s culture then we can stop talking about the Church becoming missional, for we will understand that our very lives are a mission.
As I sat there I began to think about the Church in America. I listened to these pastors say things like, “I know I am going to experience resistance from my people over this.” I heard others say “We had a lot of people leave when we spoke of our new emphasis.” It took everything in me not to blurt out, “These people have never been a part of the Church! They are not leaving anything!”
As I listened to these comments I began to wonder who has had the greater influence in America’s congregations over the last hundred (or more) years … the Kingdom of Heaven or the Empire of America? I asked myself questions like, "What kind of power impresses us?" "What is normal for us?" "How do we define success in our churches?" "How do we govern in our churches?" Before you jump to an answer so quickly let’s consider together the state of many churches in our country, and reflect on just who it is influencing them.
When I was sitting in the with these pastors one of them commented on Jesus’ command, “Go sell your possessions and give them to the poor.” He spoke of how difficult that is for people today, and that in our minds Jesus must have meant something else. Well, Jesus also said he was homeless, told people to be willing to die, and said woe to the rich and the oppressors. These words kill us don’t they? We are told that we are supposed to manage wealth so that we can get more and retire when we are 55. We are to “reward ourselves” by driving big Buicks in an aloof manner all over America’s highways and by-ways. The reality is that Jesus speaks against hording wealth more than he speaks about being born again. Yet which do we hear more about?
Is this influence the Kingdom or the Empire?
I have been asked by many people, “How is the growth of your church coming?” The success of our faith community is measured, by some, by our church’s bottom line … how many butts in the seats, how big is the building, how swollen the budget. Let’s just be honest and say that a church is counted as successful by the numbers; like anything else. I wonder what people in America would think about a homeless, God-loving prophet in today’s world who had twelve flaky teenagers who were a part of his "church". No by-laws, no membership classes, no strategic plan … just living in such a way that others were pointed toward the good news of Jesus. I look at the largest Evangelical Church Conferences in the country today. More and more they are bringing in business experts to speak to pastors about systems, numbers, theory, strategy, Human Resources and staffing. The Church has become a billion dollar business.
Is this influence the Kingdom or the Empire?
At the pastors meeting we shared prayer needs I told them about my wife and I, and some of the thoughts that we have had about how we should live. I told them that we had been praying for families to live with and a neighborhood to live in. Our desire is to live communally and missionally together in our daily lives. I spoke of some of the neighborhoods we were thinking of moving into. Each time I speak of these neighborhoods people say things like, “Why would you live there? There is no plan to improve those neighborhoods!” “Don’t you know what those neighborhoods are like?”
Beneath these questions there is another question being asked. “Why we would not look in the wealthy, white suburbs (or neighborhoods) offering safety, good education, hope for a future, no trees because they were all cut down to develop non-energy-efficient homes, and the peace of mind knowing all of my neighbors think like me, look like me, and speak my language?” This is normal, this is what a good paycheck gets you. This is what four years of undergraduate work, and three years of graduate school have offered me, right?
Is this influence the Kingdom or the Empire?
So who has been more influential, the Kingdom or the Empire? If you are still curious walk into your church’s building and see what has been removed the American flag or the cross. Both are central to their respective cultures, yet it seems to be the cross that has taken the bigger hit so as not to offend people.
The church’s attempt to learn culture’s characteristics, thoughts, feelings, presuppositions, and values so we can streamline the message of Jesus has led to our mastery of the culture of the Empire. We create clever slogans like, “Got Jesus?” We wear the T-shirt and know that although we do not have a milk moustache people surely know what we are getting at. We have become so deft in learning the culture of the Empire, and in the meantime we have forgotten what the culture of the Kingdom is supposed to be.
The people of God are to be an alternative to the prevailing culture of the Empire. Our role as salt and light is to be about something else … we have encountered a new culture, the culture of the Kingdom. We have encountered the gospel of Jesus. Our role is to be a people who are constantly challenging to the norms, assumptions, and presuppositions of our culture based in the alternative culture of the Kingdom. It is more than simply withdrawing from our culture and becoming invisible. After all no one puts a lamp under a bowl, right?
We are to be in our culture, being for them, the gospel lived-out, experienced, and demonstrated in our daily lives. We are to be in the world, but not of it. The problem seems to be that we are of the world but not in it. The Church is to be the people of God that present an alternate way of living that brings healing, hope, love, peace, and justice to any culture in which it exists. If this is our role, then we cannot pay allegiance to earthly cultures, even the culture of the American Empire. No culture leads people toward true healing, hope, love, peace, and justice except the culture of the Kingdom of God. Kingdom culture is missional.
The Church is missional. Any attempt to “make it missional” is like telling someone you want to make an apple more like fruit. An apple is fruit. The Church is missional. As we move toward understanding this more fully we may want to begin by throwing off the dominant culture in the Church which is of the Empire, and dive into the subversive culture of the Kingdom. When we live according to the Kingdom’s culture then we can stop talking about the Church becoming missional, for we will understand that our very lives are a mission.