Happy Birthday LifeBrook!

 

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As I was looking through the archives of the LifeBrook blog I discovered an interesting bit of information. This week marks the fourth birthday of LifeBrook. As they often say – “My, how time flies.”

I recall starting the blog back in 2008 in response to a calling to explore the use of electronic media as a venue for spiritual formation, specifically as it applied to blogging. At that time, I never dreamed the site would still be around four years later and I certainly had not entertained the fact that it would be as popular as it has become.

I want to express my heartfelt appreciation to those readers who take the time to stop by LifeBrook and it is my hope that you continue to find something positive here – something that will help you in your process of spiritual unfolding. The mission statement that I composed when LifeBrook first went up here on WordPress remains the same. It is my sincere wish that this site continue to provide material that will enable readers to:

Become the optimal version of themselves for the glory of God and the benefit of others.

Blessings in His Light:

Mick

Wise Words for Today

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I suggest, in fact, that if postmodernism functions as the death of modernist culture, many of us will find ourselves like the disciples on the road to Emmaus. We as Western Christians mostly bought a bit too heavily into modernism, and we are shocked to discover that it has been dying for a while and is now more or less completely dead. We need to learn how to listen for the hidden stranger on the road who will explain to us how it was that these things had to happen, and how there is a whole new world out there waiting to be born, for which we are called to be the midwives. The answer to the challenge of postmodernism is not to run back tearfully into the arms of modernism. It is to hear in postmodernity God’s judgment on the follies and failings, the sheer selfish arrogance, of modernity and to look and pray and work for the resurrection into God’s new world out beyond. We live at a great cultural turning point; Christian mission in the postmodern world must be the means of the church grasping the initiative and enabling our world to turn the corner in the right direction.

N.T. Wright

(from The Challenge of Jesus)

Related articles

• The Reintroduction of Jesus Christ (Part One) (lifebrook.wordpress.com)
• Quotes and Notes on Early Christian Missions (missionmusings.wordpress.com)

Kingdom Principles: Wisdom, Light, and Compassion

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Mick Turner

In addition to being a “sage,” – a teacher of wisdom, Jesus was also a perfect embodiment of compassion. His entire life can be seen through the lens of what biblical Greek terms “kenosis.” Kenosis is typically translated as “self-emptying love” and from beginning to end, Jesus’ mission exemplified this spiritual virtue.

It is this very concept of kenosis that makes the Christian path unique. Even within the faith itself, it seems there were and are still many who missed the boat, so to speak, in terms of understanding what Jesus was bringing into manifestation on this planet. Traditionally, the path of spiritual development has been seen as one of “ascent,” where the spiritual aspirant engages in spiritual practices in order to purify themselves. Growth is seen as an upward spiral or ladder. In Eastern traditions, spiritual practices enable us to accumulate more “chi” or “prana,” – divine spiritual energy that enables us to better live the spiritual life.

In the Jewish tradition, where Jesus and the first disciples grew and developed, this sort of spirituality was most clearly seen in the teachings of “Merkevah” mysticism. The Merkevah was associated with ascension in general and with the chariot of Elijah in particular. Elijah, as you may recall, was whisked away to the heavenly realm in a chariot. The ascetic group known as the Essenes were especially knowledgeable of the path of Merkevah.

Merkevah mysticism is especially concerned with divine “Light,” and this pure spiritual light is available to all if they know how to harness it. It is certain that Jesus was quite familiar with the tradition of Merkevah and its inner workings and is perfectly reasonable to speculate that those times he spent alone in prayer and meditation included extensive sessions of divine “Light Work,” recharging his batteries.

This path of ascension, however, was not Jesus’ primary mode of operation. Instead, his teaching and his life emphasized spiritual formation through kenosis – self-emptying love. Jesus showed the way of “giving, giving, and then giving some more.” His was a path of spiritual attainment through complete loving sacrifice. It was and forever shall remain, a path of “divine descending.”

Cynthia Bourgeault, in her wonderful book entitled The Wisdom Jesus, gives a detailed account of this path of kenosis.

In Greek the verb “kenosein” means “to let go” or “to empty oneself,” and it is the word Paul chooses at the key moment in his celebrated teaching in Philippians 2:9-16 in order to describe what “the mind of Christ is all about. Here is what he has to say:

Though his state was that of God, yet he did not deem equality with God something he should cling to.

Rather, he emptied himself, and assuming the state of a slave, he was born in human likeness.

He, being known as one of us, humbled himself, obedient unto death, even death on a cross.

For this, God raised him on high and bestowed on him the name which is above every other name.

So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bend in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

And so every tongue should proclaim “Jesus Christ is Lord!” – to God the Father’s glory

After this scriptural quotation, Bourgeault goes on to say:

In this beautiful hymn, Paul recognizes that Jesus had only one “operational mode.” Everything he did, he did by self-emptying.

The author then goes on to list the various ways that Jesus emptied himself in divine kenosis:

   He emptied himself and descended into human form.

   He further emptied himself (even to death on a cross) and fell through the bottom to return to the realms of dominion and glory.

   In whatever life circumstance, Jesus responded with the same motion of self-emptying – or to put it another way, of the same motion of descent: going lower, taking the low place, not the higher.

Bourgeault then contrast this kenotic type of spirituality with the more common ascension model:

What makes this mode so interesting is that it’s almost completely spiritually counterintuitive. For the vast majority of the world’s spiritual seekers, the way to God is “up.” Deeply embedded in our religious and spiritual traditions – and most likely in the human collective unconscious itself – is a kind of compass that tells us that the spiritual journey is an ascent, not a descent. Most students of the wisdom tradition consider this upward orientation to be one of the foundational attributes of sophia perennis itself…..In biblical tradition, the image of the spiritual ladder goes all the way back to the headwaters of the Old Testament, with the story of Jacob’s dream of the ladder going up to heaven. It’s probably five thousand years old. Christian monastic tradition returned to this image and developed it still further, as essentially the roadmap for the spiritual journey.

Bourgeault points out that the archetype of the “spiritual ladder” was so deeply embedded in Christian mysticism that the seventh century teacher John Climacus took the monastic name of John of the Ladder. I would also add that in the 14^th Century, a watershed period for Christian mysticism, the English mystic Walter Hilton wrote his most famous work, entitled “The Ladder of Perfection.”

When we look to the life of Jesus for practical guidance and spiritual direction, we can clearly see that the path he taught and lived was one of perfect balance between wisdom, light and compassion – gnosis, merkevah, and kenosis. From a human perspective, he attained wisdom through immersion in scripture and tradition and divine light through the regular practice of prayer, silence, and solitude. This inculcation of wisdom and light was carried out so that he would consistently have something to give away. The Master always made connection with the source so that he could be filled with wisdom and light; and he took this wisdom and light and emptied it out in repeated acts of compassion, healing, and love. Always doing the will of his father, he emptied himself into the world so that other might have light and life. Bourgeault gives this succinct yet telling summation:

Thus he came and thus he went, giving himself fully into life and death, losing himself, squandering himself, “gambling away every gift God bestows.” It was not love stored up but love utterly poured out that opened the gates to the Kingdom of Heaven…Over and over, Jesus lays this path before us. There is nothing to be renounced or resisted. Everything can be embraced, but the catch is to cling to nothing. You let it go. You go through life like a knife goes through a done cake, picking up nothing, clinging to nothing, sticking to nothing. And grounded in that fundamental chastity of your being, you can then throw yourself out, pour yourself out, being able to give it all back, even giving back life itself. That’s the kenotic path in a nutshell. Very, very simple. It only costs everything.

 If we are bold enough to lay claim to the status of “Christian,” then we are called to no less. If you desire more insight into these themes, I strongly encourage you to do two things. First, find yourself a copy of Cynthia Bourgeault’s The Wisdom Jesus and Robin Meyer’s Saving Jesus From the Church. Read these two books slowly and reflectively in tandem and make every attempt to apply these teachings to your life. Secondly, spend time in prayer and reflection considering exactly where you are in terms of establishing a balance of wisdom, light, and compassion – gnosis, merkevah, and kenosis – in your walk of faith. Pray and meditate, seeking guidance from the Spirit on what you need to do to establish and maintain a more consistent balance of this trinity of spiritual virtue.

May your endeavors and your journey bear much fruit and bring increasing manifestation to the Kingdom on earth.

© L.D. Turner 2010/All Rights Reserved

Wise Words for Today

The life and energy of the new wine cannot be contained in the old structures. Just as first century religion could not embrace the new wine of Christ, so the religions of today, whether Eastern or Western, traditional or contemporary, program-driven or purpose-driven, are entwined with an inorganic structure of a particular culture. Our present-day wineskins are not capable of serving the new wine for today’s rising number of religious refugees and spiritual sojourners. Without a radical paradigm shift, the modern church will continue to “convert” spiritual seekers to a syncretized form of cultural Christianity.

Jonathan Campbell

(from The Way of Jesus)

Wise Words for Today

These are the churches I feel most at home in now and in which I see the future – congregations full of liberals and conservatives, old and young, many formerly unchurched but now committed Christians, suburban but involved in their cities, urban who make the city their “parish,” evangelical, mainline Protestant and Catholic, but comfortably ecumenical, full of families and kids, crowds of teenagers in the youth group, traditional and contemporary in worship, intellectual but warm-hearted, successful but humble, Democrats and Republicans who believe God is neither, becoming as colorful as the rich diversity of all God’s children, and most of all, fervently committed to a gospel that is both personal and social and refusing to divide the word of God or the Body of Christ. And they are churches who now want to reach out to their neighbors from all the other faith traditions in their communities and those of no faith at all for projects of “the common good.” It is a future for which I have been hoping and waiting – for a long time.

Jim Wallis

(from The Great Awakening)

A Few Thoughts on This Present Age

Mick Turner

There can be little doubt that we are living in a very important era in the long panorama of earth’s history. Change is taking place at a pace never before imagined, must less witnessed. I firmly believe these changes are a part of God’s plan for the world and, although I don’t know all the ins and outs of that plan, I do know several things:

• Change is real and happening rapidly.

 

• Part of God’s plan for this age has to do with deepening our understanding and application of spiritual laws and principles, especially as related to mental laws.

 

• Unity within the Body of Christ is essential if the next phase of Kingdom Manifestation is to occur. We can only see through a glass darkly, but we can, on faith, understand that God’s establishment of the kingdom is progressive. It is a dynamic process. I have the strong sense, perhaps a revelation if you will, that this issue of unity is key at this time.

 

• Unity is critical because Satan’s primary weapon has been division within the Body of Christ. “Divide and conquer” has been his strategy and, to a large extent, it has worked and continues to work. Satan uses the saints to “accuse” one another and by doing so, weakens our ability to not only withstand his intrigue, but also, to further advance the kingdom.

 

• Another aspect of this age will be the erosion of the forms of “church” as we know it and in its place, the establishment of new and more effective structures of faith. This will require much openness and flexibility from within the Church universal, and do not be surprised when you see that the majority of the resistance will come from within the Body.

 

• The Church is exploding in Asia and Africa. There are many examples of miracles, works, and powers happening in these places and they are genuine. They are not happening so much here because of our rigidity and lack of unity. The West will no longer be the center of the Christian faith and we need to get our minds around that.

 

• I firmly believe in the old axiom which states “the brighter the light the deeper the shadows,” and as the Master bombards our world with an ever-increasing amount of light, the enemy will be busier than ever. He cannot defeat us, and he cannot even overpower us except by the use of the primary weapon left at his disposal – deception. This age we live in will be witness to an increasing amount of spiritual darkness and demonic activity. This does not mean that more people will be possessed and have heads that twirl around like on a swivel – but more than likely, it will be manifested as an increased amount of demonic oppression resulting in all sorts of negativity. (See section below on Witchcraft and Demonic Oppression).

 

• Related to the increase in spiritual darkness is the fact that the “power of God” will be increasingly demonstrated through what has traditionally been called “signs and wonders.” This has little to do with charismatic foolishness such as holy drooling and barking like dogs. Instead, it will be akin to what is already being seen in the churches in Asia, Central and South America, and Africa. The miraculous is becoming commonplace in these areas as the church is growing at a rapid pace. God’s supernatural power is being demonstrated and those Christian that cannot acknowledge the supernatural and apply it in their lives will be left behind. This may seem harsh, but it is simply in recognition of what God is doing and how he is currently moving in the world. Just as Paul described to the Corinthian church during his time, God is speaking us today so that we can see that his ways and wisdom are far different from ours.

 And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. (I Cor. 2:4-5)

 As these changes take place we will begin to see some areas where God will be moving rapidly and, in these cases, there will inevitably be some stragglers who get left behind. In other areas, God will move more slowly and with great deliberation. In either case, the important thing to grasp is that God is moving and he is doing a new thing. Our task is to develop our sensitivity to what he is doing, pray for wisdom as to what our role and calling might be in his work, and then get busy doing it.

 It is becoming increasingly apparent that the supernatural realm is where the real action is in these days. As a race, especially those of us in the West, we have become so sophisticated that we discount the supernatural without adequate investigation and, by doing so, fall into the enemy’s trap. We must pay closer attention to the supernatural realm because we are involved in a supernatural battle, whether we understand it or accept it.

 It is interesting to note that the fastest growing churches in the world are those of the charismatic/Pentecostal traditions. This is especially true in Asia and Africa, but really, it is a phenomenon that can be seen all over the world. By the same token, it is those denominations that adhere most closely with the use of reason, logic, science, and the legacy of the Enlightenment that are withering on the vine. This is not how I would have predicted things to have worked out and it surely is not how I would have wished it would have worked out. Quite frankly, some of the craziness and downright foolishness seen in the Charismatic and Pentecostal churches is an abomination in my sight. And I suspect that much of the really fringe elements of these movements will disappear as time progresses.

 However, I think the core elements of Pentecostalism and the Charismatic movement will continue to prosper because God says he must be worshiped in spirit and in truth. And certainly, now more than ever, the supernatural side of things must be taken into account. I am uncertain as to exactly how this will manifest itself here in the West, however. One thing is certain, the church in the West will need more manifestations of God’s power in these rapidly changing times. Yet this revealing of God’s strength must be presented in a manner that is less chaotic and “sensational” than in the past. The days of flopping about, running around the sanctuary, and drooling have passed. It is a time for the world to see God’s power and presence in all its glory, not in  patently bizarre human translations of it that greatly miss the mark.

 As the future unfolds, one of the most needed of the spiritual gifts will be that of discernment. Pastors, teachers, elders, and others in positions of spiritual authority will need to be deeply educated in the criteria of discernment, or at least in recognizing those who have this gift, even in its embryonic forms. Anytime there is a period of increased Holy Spirit activity, and this is without a doubt one of those times, the potential for the Great Deceiver to lead many astray is great. We live in an age that is ripe for deception. Trained, gifted discerners are in critical need. James Goll speaks directly to this issue:

 Lack of discernment and an unscriptural emphasis on experience beyond the confines of Scripture are major stumbling blocks for the majority of Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians who are open to the supernatural and revelatory realms of God…..When it comes to gifts of miraculous powers and prophecy, we need mature elders in every church who are equipped with the gift of discernment to watch over the flock. We also need apostolic voices who will release guidelines for discernment in the years to come, as the sense of God’s Presence and power increases throughout the world – growing alongside the “tares” of this world, evidenced in soulishly and demonically induced counterfeit expressions of power. Right now, we are sadly equipped with too few apostolic leaders who are respected enough to speak the truth in love about these issues of discernment and correction. And we have too few humble church leaders who are open to correction from apostolic leaders, regardless of their denominational preferences, networks, or alliances.

 Many within the Mainline denominations and Evangelical churches have such a historically “negative charge” with the Charismatic movement that they suspect anything of Spirit-filled nature as being either doctrinally lacking or worse, a product of Satan. This mind-set is not entirely their fault as there has been such excess and, yes, plain wanton foolishness in more than a few Charismatic and Pentecostal circles. Yet at the same time, it is not wise to completely slam the door shut.

 At one end of the spectrum you have those sincere followers of the Master who are so turned off by what they see as bizarre extremism that they slam the door shut of Charismatic experience. In a sense, these folks use too much discernment in the sense that anything even remotely resembling “Spirit-filled” experience is discounted out of hand. At the other end of the spectrum you have the fringe elements of Pentecostalism and Charismatic Christianity that fall into all sorts of error, both doctrinal and experiential, and wind up engaging in practices that seem too strange to be true. At this extreme, too little discernment is practiced and, in some cases, none at all.

 Obviously, what is needed is a more balanced approach, grounded in Scripture but, at the same time, not so tightly bound as to quench the Spirit. The real challenge for the church at this point is the development of this much-needed criteria and, after that, widespread training in its fundamental applications.

 Although this particular age is filled with challenges to the Body of Christ, it is at the same time an era of golden opportunity. Despite the negative blathering of naysayers and the sometimes harsh judgments launched by critics of the church, the fact is, these can be times of positive transformation in the Body of Christ. What is needed is consecrated, committed Christians who are creative in approach, flexible in attitude, and open-minded enough to realize that the status quo in a rut we can no longer afford to wallow in. As someone much wiser than me once said:

 A rut is nothing more than a grave with the ends kicked out.

 Think about it.

  © L.D. Turner 2010/All Rights Reserved

The Church and Change: A Contentious Partnership

Mick Turner

Much has been written of late regarding the demise of the institutional church. As a fresh wind blows across the land, Christians in America are experimenting with a variety of new ways of “doing church,” some holding much promise and others about as fulfilling as an empty Coke bottle. Still, in spite of this recent trend and all the promise it indeed holds, I think we can safely assume that, at least for the foreseeable future, a large portion of our mission of incarnating Christ’s ongoing work on earth will be done in the context of the “traditional” church.

 

However, as the new century progresses and our culture moves farther and farther away from being a part of “Christendom”, it becomes apparent that the form the church takes in these challenging times will be much different, particularly as it applies to approaching the youth culture. Much of what we have done in past models of the church has been well meaning but quite ineffective. This is a difficult truth for many of us to face, but face it we must. Otherwise, we will continue to do what we have always done and continue to get results that are less than desirable. David Foster, author and pastor of a large church in Nashville,  gives a vivid example of what church was like for him in his younger years and his response to the programs of his church.

 

I was raised in a typical county seat church in the south whose mission centered on fear, guilt, and manipulation. Like most guys my age, I viewed the whole church thing with a jaundiced eye. Church was little more than an obligatory nod to God every seven days. It was a cheap form of fire insurance against burning forever in the fiery flames of a devil’s hell. So I went to church, lied about reading my Bible, made a “decision” for Jesus, endured boring sermons, and got with the program like all the other good little religious robots. After all, acquiescing to the church-thing one hour a week seemed like a small price to pay for an eternity of bliss and happiness in heaven, especially since death seems pretty much unavoidable.

 

Personally, I can relate to much of what Foster says. My experiences with the church, particularly in my early teenage years, were far from the ideal. When I am brutally honest about it, I must confess that my motivations for regular church attendance were less than that of a spiritual giant. My reasons for sacrificing that greatest of joys were not what you would find in an autobiography of a saint like Francis or Augustine. No, the inner magnet drawing me to first the Baptist Mission in Nokomis, Florida and, a little later, the Nazarene Church in Venice, Florida, was not a holy desire and, unless the Celestial Canine took a very creative disguise, it was not the famed Hound of Heaven. No, my motivations were of a baser nature. My reasons for crawling out of bed on Sunday morning were, in all candor:

 

Paulette Boatright and Diane Shattuck.

 

I won’t bore you with the sordid details of my attraction to and subsequent pursuit of these two fine young ladies. It is sufficient at this point to say that Paulette, in all of her pristine, 13-year-old glory, kept me at the Baptist Mission for over six months and, after that pre-adolescent fancy faded into a haze of disappointment and fizzling hormones, Diane appeared. The fact that her family were fundamentalist and, worse still, hanky-waving holiness folks, didn’t matter. What mattered was Diane and I hit it off. I bought a pack of white hankies with my allowance and went with her family to the Nazarene Church for close to a year. So, you can see, just as the Prodigal Son returned to his Father out of less than saintly motives, I, too, returned to God’s house more out of pubescent fire than any flame of the Holy Ghost.

 

As the Church morphs into something more effective and enlightened in its response to the realities of postmodern culture, we will quickly discover that the newer generations are looking for things of a much different nature and quality than what we Boomers sought and are seeking. And we should not be at all surprised when these younger Christians, sincere but much different than past norms, are quite vocal about what they think they need. David Foster, in his fascinating book Renegades for God, relates the following, which speaks clearly to this issue:

 

God is too good and life is too short to allow rigid, self-righteous, do-gooders with a religious agenda keep you from Him. So if you’re done worrying about what “they” say or do, then join the club. If you’re weary of the morality police and their cellophane sainthood, then lean in and let’s talk. If you’re repelled by the pointless, prosaic preaching of self-appointed prophets with a Messiah complex, then you, my friend, might just be a closet renegade and today could be your coming out party…I’m calling for the creation of a renegade nation where love is the ethic and freedom is the goal. Declare your independence from lazy legalism, feeble faith, and domesticated religion. If you suspect that deep down inside you lives a vibrant, vital, virtuous soul ready to rid itself of shame-bound religion, then you’re a renegade ready to step forth free and fully engaged in the art of the J-life. You can love God passionately and with deep conviction without becoming an arrogant, self-righteous, know-it-all.

 

As we encounter postmodern, post-Christian culture, in whatever setting God places us, we may be called upon to challenge, and at times, dismantle religious sacred cows of the past. Not because these relics were bad or ill-conceived, but instead, because they no longer give milk that will sustain our mission of bringing Christ’s message to the world in which we find ourselves. Again, Foster speaks:

 

An R4G (Renegade for God) dares to question the conventional wisdom and spiritual infallibility of the religious elite. “They” fear your freedom and at the same time display little confidence in the gospel’s power to renovate the human heart, renew the mind, and redirect the renegade spirit within toward the epic, ethical purposes of God. “They” want only mindless, spineless adherents who spout out an endless stream of “praise the Lords” as you pack their pews and fill their offering plates.

 

Regardless of their motives, their tastes, and other generational inclinations, one fact remains true regarding this emerging horde of younger Christians: The Church belongs to them.

 

Yes, ultimately the church belongs to Christ, it is, after all, his bride. Still, the fact remains that in terms of earthly ownership, the church belongs to the younger set of Christians. Many of us old codgers don’t want to see this or accept it. I think this resistance, deep down where it is really real, stems from our denial of a very central truth: 25 years from now, most of us 60-year-old pundits probably won’t be around. Some of us might be, but our days of church leadership will have long been over. Instead, we will find ourselves, however subtle or ceremoniously, put out to ecclesiastical pasture.

 

What I am getting at here is the reality that we older Christians must now deal with. Our greatest challenge is one of “letting go.” Granted, this may seem difficult and it surely will seem unfair to many of the Builder generation and the front end of the Boomers. Unfair as it may seem, it is the major task before us at this time. We have to let go and give the reins of the church to a younger crowd. It is not so much a question of one group being more important than another. It is, however, a question of significance.

 

The younger generations are going to be around a quarter century from now. For the rest of us, this is an iffy call at best. In this sense, at least in terms of the survival of the church, the responsibility of moving forward rests with those generations behind us.

 

If you would like more insight into this issue, I would highly recommend reading Gordon MacDonald’s book, Who Stole My Church? MacDonald tackles this thorny issue head on in a creative and attention-holding manner. MacDonald has written the book in a highly readable format, one that lends itself very well to the topic. Rather than writing a standard didactic non-fiction work, the author has arranged the book in a fictional setting in which the pastor of a church is facing significant friction from a cadre of older, active members who are resistant to the changes being brought about by younger congregants with a different focus. In order to gently educate these resistant members to what is going on and why, the pastor forms a “Discovery Group” which meets on Tuesday nights to dig deeply into the matter. The group also serves as a venue where these committed church members can vent their ongoing frustrations about changes in the church. The fact that MacDonald puts the book together this way makes an otherwise difficult subject highly readable and even entertaining.

 

The book is subtitled, “What to do When the Church You Love Tries To Enter the 21^st Century.” MacDonald well understands that the future of the church lies with the younger generation, not with the older folks, no matter how loyal and committed they might be. This view is not to downplay or trivialize the needs of the older members in a church, but instead, to break through the church’s denial system and help us all see that unless the needs of the younger people come to the forefront, the church will go the way of the dinosaur.

 

© L.D. Turner 2008/All Rights Reserved

Potential Impact of Rising Fuel Costs On Churches

Mick Turner

As fuel prices soar and Americans are confronted with the harsh realities of trying to juggle a budget without sinking beyond a level of no return, many families appear to be cutting costs wherever they can, especially when it comes to operating their vehicles. What remains to be seen is what sort of domino affect this will have on the spiritual life of Christians and the additional impact these issues will have on churches.

 

I have been thinking about these issues for several months now, especially as the price at the pump is growing faster than Jack’s beanstalk. I live in a generally rural part of the country where income is not very high. People around here work hard just to make ends meet and just about everyone I talk to tells me that they are feeling the pinch of this economic downturn as well as skyrocketing fuel costs.

 

Although I have yet to conduct in sort of formal research, several pastors have confided that they have seen overall giving decrease fairly dramatically over the past six months. At first, one of these pastors, an optimist to the core, said it was most likely the normal summer lull in offerings to the church. I hated to remind him that the day we spoke, June 22, was only the second day of summer. No, this downturn in giving runs much deeper than the usual mid-summer slump. And of course, a decrease in giving will in turn start its on chain-reaction of predictable events. For mid-size, large, and mega-churches, the impact will be real but perhaps not will be felt as strongly as with those small churches with budgets that are limited to begin with.

 

Another area we might not think about being impacted by the new reality of $4 per gallon gasoline relates to church attendance. For people who attend church near their homes or in their local community, chances are things won’t change too much. However, for mega-churches, things might get a bit dicey.

 

Think about it. Most mega-churches draw not only from their surrounding community, but also draw a significant number of members and attendees for areas far away from the church campus. Around my area, for example, it is not uncommon for a family to hop on the Interstate and drive 30 or 40 miles to be a part of a dynamic mega-church community. The pressing question now is: How long do you think these families, with budgets already strained to the max, will be able to keep this up?

 

What will happen to these families if they opt out of driving great distances to attend church? Will they become a part of the cyber-church, getting their spiritual fix from the Internet? Or, could this outflow from the huge congregations be a positive sign for struggling local churches? Is it possible that significant numbers of these folks will return to the churches close to home?

 

I would love to hear what you think about these trends.

 

© L.D. Turner 2008/All Rights Reserved

 

 

On The Cusp Of Change: Churches And The Internet

Mick Turner

If you can imagine for a moment what life would be like without the Internet as we know it today. For some of us older folks, that isn’t so hard to do. In fact, if you came of age before the early to mid ‘90’s, it should not be too much of a reach to imagine what life was like without so much instant information at your disposal.

 

I have been thinking about the Internet and the church for sometime now, along with how other current realities may affect the Body of Christ as we march forward in this new century. Technology, like it or not, has a great potential to help churches both meet the needs of its members in this fast-paced day and age, and further, has even greater potential in reaching those who are still outside the faith. The question before us is: To what extent is the church currently using this valuable tool and what are the future directions this use may take?

 

Christian researcher George Barna has recently completed a study dealing with churches and their use (or lack of use) of technology in general and the Internet in particular. The findings of this study are both interesting and enlightening. With proper reflection, these results are also quite educational.

 

Let’s start with something basic, like web sites.

 

In 2000, 34 percent of Protestant Churches had web sites. By 2005, according to Barna’s findings, this number had jumped drastically to 57 percent. Since that time, the number of churches with a web presence has grown slowly and is currently around 62 percent. While this is a significant percentage, it does raise some interesting questions.

 

Recently, I attended a small group meeting of local pastors and church leaders, during which several topics were discussed related to church growth and future trends. The use of the Internet was among the topics on the agenda and I found that here in the Bible Belt, although an increasing number of churches had web sites, most of these sites primarily functioned as venues for delivering information to members. A significant number of these sites, located mostly in North Alabama and South Central Tennessee, had as their primary content information gleaned from the church bulletin passed out at the door of the church the previous Sunday. There was little material included that dealt with evangelism, discipleship, or even the most rudimentary Bible teaching. Instead, worship times were printed and various and sundry announcements relevant to congregational activities were prominent.

 

A majority of those pastors and church leaders (elders, deacons, and the like) admitted they had never considered using the church web site for any other purpose than to provide up to date information for their members and to let outsiders know when the church gathered for worship. In discussing the matter, most acknowledged they would be open to expanding the content of their respective web sites, but just about every person in attendance agreed that they would never want to do this at the expense of informing their members of what was going on. To a man (and two women pastors), this group saw the primary function of Internet presence for the church as dispensing information that members could easily obtain by other means. A few agreed that evangelism might be a worthy use of web space, but no one felt discipleship could be done through electronic means.

 

I found this most disturbing as one of the primary missions we have here at LifeBrook Ministries is providing discipleship materials on the Internet. When I raised this issue and discussed it, I met with a cordial response but might just as well have been speaking a foreign language.

 

I should say that this particular group consisted mostly of rather conservative pastors and leaders, mostly Southern Baptist, Church of Christ, and Assembly of God. When I launched the same discussion in another setting with Methodist, Presbyterian, Nazarene, and Independent Charismatic leaders, the response was much different. In fact, many of these leaders were already working toward adding things to their sites like Pod casting and Blogs.

 

All of this spurred me to look into the research on the matter and that’s how I stumbled upon the recent findings by Barna. Let me share just a few of these findings with you:

 

One out of every four Protestant Churches (26%) now has a presence on social networking sites like MySpace.

 

Pod casting is now being implemented by one out of every six churches, roughly 16%.

 

13% of Protestant Churches now have blogs.

 

These numbers represent a major underutilization of perhaps the most efficient tool for reaching large numbers of people available to churches today. Further, it indicates reluctance on the part of many church leaders to invest in new, creative ways to do evangelism, discipleship, and other functions normally carried out by congregations. What are the reasons for this?

 

First, there is resistance for resistance’s sake. Some folks, church leaders included, a hesitant to embrace change out of fear or lack of information. In other cases, smaller congregations appear to feel that they simply cannot afford these sorts of technological innovations due to small and shrinking budgets. Even larger churches sometimes avoid services like blogs and pod casts because they fear the expense would be too great. The problem with this line of thinking is that it isn’t grounded in reality. There numerous avenues whereby pod casts, blogs, and other up-to-date services are available at little or no cost. For some churches, lack of a knowledgeable person to design and maintain the site is yet another factor creating resistance.

 

Whatever reasons a church may offer for not utilizing this important resource, I believe it would be to their benefit to move past their resistance and get on board. The potential benefits are just too great to be left behind scratching their chins and wondering what happened.

 

Barna sums things up quite well I think:

 

The Internet has become one of the pivotal communications and community-building tools of our lifetime. Churches are well-advised to have an intelligent and foresighted Internet strategy in order to facilitate meaningful ministry.

 

Without a doubt the importance of the Internet and its impact on ministry both inside and outside the traditional church setting is going to continue to expand. The question each church must ask of itself is, “Will we keep up with these positive changes and exert a growing influence on our culture, or will we wait patiently on the sidelines while other spiritual groups, philosophies, and secular movements leave us in the dust?”

 

It is really up to you to decide.

(c) L.D. Turner 2008/All Rights Reserved