dont just stand there … be something

Oh, it’s the catch phrase of the decade. Stop going to church and “be” the church. We need to preach this. We need to live this.

Yesterday Lori called me and told me that her employer, First Methodist Church in McKinney, might need to use my 16 ft. trailer. She said she volunteered it for “us”. Then she said … I volunteered you to … to pull it with your truck. I was excited … didn’t know what I was going to do with it … but it sounded adventurous. FUMC had been collecting stuff to go to Galveston Island … diapers, toilet paper, peanut butter, water … in fact 3 trailers worth. She called back and said they needed a covered trailer and alas mine is not a covered trailer. They left yesterday to distribute.

It’s true that Journey Church does not have a lot of people attending at this point. We average 10 on Sunday morning. It sort of reminds me of Steve Sjogren when he started a Vineyard church in Cincinnati. After 18 months … they had 37 people attending.

Then Sjogren returned to the Gospels and saw that Jesus served everywhere he went. Then the 37 went into their community to serve, including scouring the restrooms at local bars while disbelieving employees looked on.

That’s right … he gathered up his little band of people and they started cleaning toilets in bars. 18 years later … 7,000 people go out every Saturday for 2 hours to serve others. Serve Fest is what they call it.

You want to know why I started Journey Church … this is why. To serve, like Jesus.

wg < —

 

church is for losers

I read a very interesting blog this morning here. In Austrailia, several church leaders have come together to basically … “market” Jesus. I have my opinions about church marketing … but they are always in a state of flux, so I am open (most days). So, they hire Angus Kinnaird, a self-described “non-believing humanist.” Ok … now I am very interested. Why would they hire an atheist to help Australians get back to church?

Kinnaird says —

“I’ve had lots of clients wanting to update their image,” says the Melbourne strategy director of FutureBrand. “But I don’t think I’ve ever come across one that has quite as many problems as the church.”

So after his research … what does he come up with? Jesus! That’s right … the strategy of the campaign to get people to go to church in Australia … is Jesus! What a novel idea! Brought to you by … a non-believer.

Why Jesus? “That was the only place we had to go,” Kinnaird says. The research shows that the church is almost an insurmountable obstacle to the campaign. “The church was seen as the problem, not the solution,” he says.

The blog goes on to say that other campaigns focused on Christianity have failed.

“The problem we detected from our research was that a lot of Australians see Christianity as being for losers,” Kinnaird says. “Focusing on personal crisis as the reason for talking to the church would simply reinforce the existing perception that the Christian church is a place for people who have failed.”

The problem? Isn’t that the whole message of the gospel? We have failed and come short. We need something. We can’t get it on our own. I know we would just like to “spin” the church into something that is really cool and hip … but really, how are we going to get by of the message of Christ who says … to be first, you must be last. Jesus is the answer. The church has done a bungling job of getting that message out … but, when it’s all said and done … “those that lose their lives … will find it”.

(quotes from church marketing sucks)

<< — wg