"hostile witness"

Just got off the phone with a pastor who called me a “rockstar” and politely declined me leading worship at his church. that may be in part because I didn’t feel comfortable using the church band or it may be that he just doesn't trust me. neither notion makes me comfortable and unfortunately for me it has become one of hundreds of situations where i feel like "me" and the guy on the other end of the phone, (who represents the local church) were not meeting eye to eye.

Let me be clear about something before I move on. I have no delusions of my status in the rock star world nor do I have any notions that I am an expert on all things church and worship.

I am in part a hostile witness to the events that are shaping and molding our culture and church today and If I don’t get them out of my head, its going to be ugly. So read on… or don’t.

I was in a large church in May of this year and was very excited to hear the pastor speak as I had heard many good things about him from friends.

I was greeted at the door by the youth pastor and satellite pastor and then took my seat to take in the message and continue my worship.

The church is a bit larger than most so the pastor preaches at a different church and the message is piped in to this branch.

So the screen came down, the congregation quieted and the pastor appeared on the screen. I almost reached for my popcorn I was so excited.

This is the part of church that I really like – I was a member of a church in Ohio that was considered a mega church. Not a big fan of the size of the church but I loved my pastor! What an amazing teacher and man of God. Every time he preached I was convicted, moved, educated and encouraged – I get excited even thinking about it now.

So the anticipation was killing me – I felt like a little kid waiting to take a turn at bat at my t-ball games when I was six.

The video streamed and there was the pastor greeting everyone and welcoming everyone to open their bibles.

He then stated, “ we here at bla bla bla” are a bible believing church and we actually bring our bibles to church so if you don’t have a bible with you today you probably should get one and get used to bringing one so you can actually use it as we will this morning”.

I felt the heat rising in me as my ears got hotter and I had to keep rubbing my palms on my jeans to keep them busy from harming someone near me.

I thought, “well, I’m sure that was a one time thing - this guy cant be that polarizing.” Wrong. The next hour put the last few nails in the coffin, so to speak. Little did the pastor know that the Lord would use him to catalyze my calling.

“the purpose of the church is missions, he stated, and the purpose of missions is the church”. Ill come back to this statement later but I listened and took it in knowing that something about that statement made me uncomfortable. I wrote it down with a big question mark beside it and knew I would come back to it later.

“we aren’t going to plant 10 churches in the next 10 years but 1,000” ( I was actually excited about this statement). I loved his vision and excitement and started to get drawn in to the sermon….

Something kept bothering me about his previous statement and I couldn’t put my finger on it. I pondered it for a second but then got back to the sermon.

“the Spirit of God does not live in the parachurch….they do not produce sound doctrine” ….”campus crusade for Christ, moody bible institute etc etc are not the church” and again, “they do not produce sound doctrine”.

God moves through the local church (and dare I put words in his mouth, not the parachurch).

Now I grew up in a ministry called Young Life, a parachurch ministry dedicated to the salvation of young adults in middle school and high school.

They minister to the disabled, young mothers and to communities all across the globe. It is by no stretch of the imagination been my church family for years.

I have been involved in local church bodies and was actually a church elder for a short time and after all that I know that I know that I know that the local church does not constitute the fullness of the Church of Christ.

My friend and pastor Chris Buda once said to me that we need to applaud everything good that comes into someone’s life. For those of us who have been in the church for a while we know the words of the Gospel, “the body is made up of many parts”, i.e. it takes all of us to live out the responsibilities of the Church through our local churches and ministries. If someone is better suited in this community of believers over another we, as the body need to encourage that , cheer them on and love on folks through those decisions. If we cant agree on that, then we cant agree on much else.

Im sure I am not the first to think this and certainly not the first to state this but the Church as we know it is not doing its job. We are failing in more ways than one and the ripple effect is moving steadily inside and outside the walls of the local churches and communities and institutions of education.

Failure is certainly not something to be afraid of but is part of the growth process.

I was a professional coach for 10 years and would always rejoice when I saw an athlete get over a failure and move on and grow. It was one of my favorite snapshots in my work.

I carry those “pics” with me now. I love seeing young believers fall down and get right back up ready to take on life’s challenges. You see the mistake, the flaw , the sin (if you will) – correct it and move on. It’s an amazing process of transformation the Lord has set before us.

In 2005, George Barna released a book entitled, Revolution. In it he outlines the plight of the modern American church and what “new” practices and types of believers and churches are going to emerge.

Almost 5 years later, I picked up the book and read through the stats (he is THE stats man, btw) and it earily went along with my last few years of experience.

I have visited with over 200 congregations in the last 6 years and it has led me see a few things: one, that we as the body of Christ are doing things that are not working and we are not doing the things that Jesus did as a part of our daily life.

Barna cites many “Revolutionaries” who are asking our churches and pastors, “why are we doing this?” and sometimes, more importantly, “why aren’t we doing this?”

Ken Wilson, a Vineyard pastor and author states in his book, Jesus Brand Spirituality, that (and I paraphrase) if we take on the practices of Jesus in our daily lives that we will see Him there- that we will encounter the living God in our daily movements and appointments. So to that end I started meditating on what I have seen in the past 6 six years, in the past 20 years and I have made a list of favorites.

Now I don’t know if its good or bad that I have favorites but I do. I love certain church communities and others, well…. I think we share a mutual disdain for each other wanting each other to just “go away”.

A pastor in Northern KY, after finding out that I was friends with some low life’s said this to me in an email:

“I hope you are not one of those artists that brings shame and reproach to the Cross and brings shame to real Christians”…

I’ll address his thoughts laterJ

I am going to be spending my time on this blog telling you two things. I’m going to tell you about the most amazing of people and churches that I encounter in my travels and I am going to tell you about the counterfeits and the practices that make them so.

I told Jesus years ago that I hated the church. After years and years and years of bad stories I felt like I had the right to say that to Him and He said to me with love and certainty,

“you cannot love Me and hate my bride”

so that started a new journey for me, a new road for me to traverse – what exactly does it mean to be the bride of Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ? And more importantly, “How do I love what Jesus loves? How do I love His Church?”

I don’t have great answers but I can tell you that I have learned to ask great questions (and I now know what I like and dislike).

So if you journey with me, join me in doing a few things…..

Trust the Scripture and trust the Holy Spirit who promises to “teach us all things”.

Keep a journal and write your own thoughts to share with your own communities.

And worship continually.

Btw, that’s the purpose of the Church - worship! (if I may be so bold to correct that dear pastor in my earlier story)

More to come….