There is a great quote over at an association of associations* blog, Acronym, that is from Ben Martin over at Certified Association Executive.

“And the conversation isn’t all about your blog: If you write a blog but don’t read others’ blogs, comment on them and link out to them, what you have is antisocial media. My mom taught me that God gave us two ears and one mouth so that we could listen twice as much as we speak. Unfortunately, many seem to believe that God gave them ten fingers and two eyes so that they can type five times as much as they read.“

This touches back to my A Conversation for Everyone post, and the fact that we need to be seeking an ongoing dialogue instead of one-way rhetoric.  If there is no conversation there is no change, and if there is no change then there is no point to our conversation.** I am currently attempting to stay on top of 83 blogs in my Google Reader. It isn’t always easy, and I don’t get to thoroughly read every post that I want to (many are starred for return), but it keeps me involved in the many conversations that are happening under the umbrella of the emerging/ missional conversation.

This is true for Christ-followers, Association Execs, and anyone else who dares to put their ideas, thoughts, and struggles in the blogosphere for all to see!

Peace.

* This may seem redundant, but it is not.  It truly is an association of associations; and it gets really confusing when you begin to talk about their gatherings and how they associate their associations with the association of association, as well as the synergy of one association with another association within the association of associations (gotta love In Good Company).   

** While Yoda-esque in its wording, this is not as circular in definition as it may appear.  It is merely a sign of the abundance of caffeine in my system, as are these footnotes that didn’t really need to be here.

(HT: my lovely wife, Dana) 

The last few weeks I have been thinking about the transition from attractional to missional, and how best to help my church find its missional indentity. 

The attractional church makes decisions based on how they can attract more people into their building, to keep them coming back, and to officially join the membership & become financially involved.  This desire to attract & keep the attention of churchgoers affects the design of classes, sermon-series, worship services, architecture, branding & marketing, and extra activities of a church.

The missional church doesn’t look at attracting people into the church, but instead sees it’s own identity as a community of faith that exists to be a part of God’s mission to seek reconciliation with the people in the neighborhood/ city that they are in.  This focus is not inward (money & people serving programs), but outward (money & people used to meet the needs of people in their surrounding community).  People come into the church through the invitation of a friend.

My question is how do we seek this transition in local churches from the inwardly-focussed attractional church, to the outwardly-focussed missional church?

The church I am serving is attractional to the core.  Even our ‘evangelism’ efforts are dramatic extravaganzas at Christmas and Easter.  

I will be starting a new class in April, and my desire for this journey is to help people seek their missional identity.  I plan on utilizing the missional texts of scripture, as well as the writings of Newbigin, Guder, Frost, Hirsch, & Roxburgh.  I would love to know what you have done in seeking a missional identity in your community.  Thanks.

Most days I feel a great freedom in my identity, as I seek a better way to follow Christ and shepherd a faith community towards a missional, holistic existence.  

Then there are days like today. I spent the evening in a committee meeting talking about a new financial campaign to pay for the attractional efforts of the church I am currently serving.  I tried to move the group from a message of “you will be blessed by God when you are obedient in giving,” to a message of the church’s missional identity — inviting them to accept God’s invitation to be a part of His mission of restoration in the world.  Being the blessing if you will. 

I have not given up, but I must say that I feel defeated & drained.  These are the nights when I feel like Cypher in the Matrix.  I remember when he was having dinner with Agent Smith, and sealing the deal to betray the others in exchange for being plugged back into the Matrix with his memory erased.  

He said, “You know, I know this steak doesn’t exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain… that it is juicy… and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize? Ignorance is bliss.”

No matter how beat down I feel, I will never surrender to blissful ignorance.  Turning the attractional church of propositions from the Believe + Behave = Belong, to the outwardly focussed, incarnational Belong + Believe = Become is the ministry that God has called me to.  

No matter how hard things get, I know there is nothing else that I could do.

As our church is still in the process of finding a new senior pastor, I have been thinking a lot about church shopping.  Most pastors strongly disapprove of church shopping and chalk it up to a young (and/or weak) faith.  “People shouldn’t hop from one church to another asking, ‘What does this church have to offer me?’ or ‘Is this church meeting my needs?’.  They should be loyal to their denomination, and serve in the church where they feel God can use them to improve things.”

While I agree that church (s)hopping is consumeristic and that the above statements are often the litmus test concerning the ‘right church,’ I do not agree with the hypocritical view that most many pastors hold.  First off, I feel that denominational loyalty is dead – or at least on life support.  Some will try a denomination’s church first out of familiarity, but I have seen too many lifelong Methodists go to a Baptist church (and vice versa) simply based on music, preaching style, and programs.

Music, preaching, and the programs offered to the churchgoer are in my opinion the three main factors of church shopping.  We all know that “meet my needs” is code for “meet my preferences,” and if you like power-pop worship bands, a pastor in jeans, a plethora of Max Lucado & Beth Moore studies, and a children’s ministry that is just short of Epcot – then that is what you will go on a search for.

The second (and main reason) that I disagree with many pastors, and see their loathing as hypocritical is because the way they choose to do church is the cause of many of these problems.  Pastors have stopped asking, “How do we reach people with the good news?” and have focused on, “How do we bring more people in, and how do we keep the ones we already have?”  The solutions to this question are all inwardly focused and attractional in nature.  Bigger more modern sanctuaries, polished rock bands with mega sound systems, catchy sermon series, the flavor-of-the-month study-in-a-box (yeah, I know it’s a lot of dashes, but I felt they were necessary), and a glossy website/ mailing campaign to let the world know where you are, so that they can come and see.

The church we are currently serving is your typical modern, seeker-sensitive church that is oriented around programs, “evangelistic theater” and servant-evangelism – all of which is meant to either get our name out to people, or get people into the building to see what we have to offer.  The majority of our 600+ people were drawn from another church by one program/play or another.

This brings me to two questions:

1)   How do you help a church realize that their attractional focus is not only enabling church shopping, but actually inducing it?

2)   Where do you start in an attempt to come alongside a consumeristic people, and help them to not only acknowledge their (mis)emphasis of inwardly-focused service to church members – and to recognize their missional identity as a people called to be a part of the missio Dei in the community that surrounds them?

OK, I know I snuck a whole lot into that last question, but I try to break the chronic three-points-itis whenever possible. 

I would love to know your thoughts on this, as my main focus right now helping our people realize their missional identity and the call of God, to move beyond the walls out into the community and show the love of Christ to people where they are.  I honestly feel that the missional identity has to be realized and owned before they can begin to accept the call to be incarnational.  But I will save that for another post…  

It’s a new year, and I decided that I would finally start my own blog in 2008.  So, with help from Adam Walker Cleaveland & Chris Pearson I am writing the first post of ogrepraxy.  I hope that this will become a welcoming place for generative conversation about living better as Christ followers.  As a pastor/learner/teacher/writer I will often talk about things I am struggling with or chewing on, but I also hope to further dialogue that is happening elsewhere in emerging conversations that seek a more missional, incarnational, holistic faith of action, hospitality, compassion, and love.Welcome to ogrepraxy everyone!