Survivor and the American Church Pt. 3

A good enemy exploits the weaknesses of his prey.  The weaknesses that Mike Breen has identified in the American church are: CELEBRITY, CONSUMERISM and COMPETITION.  One sure way to be voted off the island on Survivor—to lose your place on the team—is to turn on someone with whom you have an alliance. Consider how the enemy of competition has made the church turn on our own teammates—and in the process miss the REAL enemy.

COMPETITION

You will never find a more hyper-competitive culture than you do in the United States. As a foreigner living in this land, I can attest to that with the utmost respect. Americans love to win, they love the struggle of the journey and love holding up the gold medal of victory. Now don’t hear me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with being competitive, it’s just how competition has become warped and twisted within our culture. And it’s that, at least in the church, we are competitive about the wrong things.

Much of the American church finds itself competing with the church down the road. “Are we bigger than them? Do we have more influence than them? Do we have the best/biggest youth group in town? Do people like to get married in our church building?

Do people like our church better than theirs?”

The fact of the matter is that there is a battle, we do have an enemy and we should be competitive…but against our enemy! What we haven’t seen is how crafty he is. This seems to be the alliance he has struck with the American church: “I’ll let a good chunk of your churches grow…just not at the expense of my territory.“

And so what happens?

96% of church growth is due to transfer growth and not churches striking into the heart of our enemy’s territory.

We’ll consider it a win because we have the new service or program that is growing…but that growth is mainly from people coming from other churches. That’s not a win! That’s a staggering loss.

Furthermore, for many pastors, we don’t think we’ve won until we’ve won AND someone else has lost. Seriously?! For sure, we have an enemy and we should be competitive, but we should be competing against our enemy, knowing that the final battle has already been won, and not competing against our own team members.

So gifted and skilled is our enemy, so conniving is he, that he has convinced us that beating the people on our own team is victory while he stands back and laughs, rarely having to ever engage in conflict, protecting his territory. He is beating us with a slight of hand, with a clever distraction, turning us against ourselves.

Question: In what ways are you competing (both in actuality or simply in your mind) against people who are on your own team?

In all honesty, it isn’t that the American church will ever truly die or survivor one world logocease to exist. It will always be there. But it is entirely possible that if these three critical issues aren’t addressed and dealt with, it will be a hallow shell that is spiritually listless.

If we think through Celebrity, Consumerism and Competition, the anti-body against all of these is sacrifice.

Learning to lay down what builds us up and giving to others instead. “Learning to serve, rather than to be served.” Looking for anonymity rather than celebrity. To build a culture of producers rather than a consumers. To live in a vibrant, sacrificial community fighting a real enemy rather than competing against the same community God has given us to fight WITH rather than AGAINST. It’s about sacrificing what we want for the glory of God and the advancement of his Kingdom, regardless of our advancement or desires.

Clearly this is what Paul was getting after in Philippians 2:6-11 when describing the attitude of Jesus as taking on the attitude of a servant, willing to sacrifice all acclaim and equality with God. It was a willingness to set aside and sacrifice celebrity, consumerism and competition at the altar of the incarnation.

Fifty years ago, as these three subtle threads were being woven into the American church, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., serving as a prophetic voice, said this:

If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century.

We are now into the second decade of the 21st century and we find ourselves still, for the most part, refusing to sacrifice what we want for what God is asking of us and his Church. Will we have the courage to sacrifice as Christ sacrificed? Will we do the things that cost us so that his Kingdom may advance?

Mike Breen, “Obituary for the American Church,” Verge Network

Survivor and the American Church Pt. 2

The enemy of the church identified in yesterday’s post was CELEBRITY.  The second enemy in Mike Breen’s list of three is CONSUMERISM. Consider how this attitude has infiltrated and weakened the American church.

CONSUMERISM

consumerWe live in a culture that revolves around consuming. Every TV commercial, every store, every credit card company, every bank, every TV show or movie, every piece of clothing, car or product, every website, every restaurant…every everything is tailored to fit your desires, needs or personal preference.

We are easily infuriated when things don’t happen exactly as we want them. We exist in a place that implicitly says this: “We are here to serve you and meet your every whim and desire. Let us take care of you.” What’s more, it’s never enough.

Eventually the house or the car get older and we want new ones. The clothes aren’t as fashionable and we want something more in style. That restaurant is getting boring, we must find another. Our favorite TV show is wearing thin, so the search begins for the next favorite. And on and on and on. This is how we are wired to think in the United States. And it is all backed up by this rationale: You’re worth it. You deserve to have what you want, how you want it, when you want it. And for the most part, the church plays the exact same game.

consumeWe do as best we can to provide as comfortable an experience as humanly possible, using every means at our disposal to attract them in (and then keep them in). So we tailor what we do around their wants and desires. That’s Marketing 101, right?

The problem is at the end of the day, the only thing that Jesus is counting is disciples. That’s it. He doesn’t seem to care too much about converts, attendance, budgets or buildings. It’s about disciples. And, by nature, disciples are producers, not consumers.

Yet most of our churches are built around feeding consumers. I’d argue 90% of the church’s time, energy and resources are linked to this. But the issue is this: The means you use to attract people to you are usually the means you must use to keep them. In other words, if you use consumerism to attract them to your church, it often means you must continue using it to keep them…or else they will find another church who will meet their “needs.” And yet…that consumer mentality is antithetical to the Gospel and to the call of Discipleship.

Disciples aren’t consumers, they are producers.

Jesus cared about disciples more than anything else.

Question: In what ways is your church community using consumerism as the means to draw people to a Gospel that is, in and of itself, anti-consumerism?

Mike Breen, “Obituary for the American Church,” Verge Network

Survivor and the American Church- Pt.1

survivor one world logoThe 24th season of Survivor premiered on Feb. 15, 2012.  America has not tired of watching contestants struggle and strain to outwit, outplay and outlast each other in the hope of winning 1 million dollars.

In every season successful contestants reveal that a key to winning is to identify which of the other challengers is the most threatening enemy.

A recent blog post by Mike Breen made me wonder if the American church has identified its most threatening enemies.

What is it that is seeking to vote the church off the island in America? 

He suggests there are three enemies:

  • a culture of CELEBRITY
  • a culture of CONSUMERISM
  • a culture of COMPETITION

CELEBRITY

The idea of celebrity is deeply woven into American culture and values. All you have to do is look at the ridiculous nature of Reality TV and you see how Americans are constantly craving celebrity (either to be a celebrity or to find the next celebrity and stalk their every move). Now there is nothing dark or sinister about “celebrity” in and of itself. You can’t find an argument that says Jesus wasn’t a huge celebrity in his day.

However, there is a difference between being famous and being significant. If Jesus was famous, it’s because he was doing something significant. The problem with many pastors is they make decisions, develop personas and define success from the lens of what will make them a celebrity/famous (even if they don’t know it or see that they are doing this). So in American church culture, it’s pretty easy to become a celebrity: Grow a HUGE church. Now all in all, it’s not terribly difficult to grow to be a giant church if you have the right tools at your disposal…but that doesn’t mean the ends justify the means of getting there.

For instance, though Jesus was a celebrity in his day, he was willing to say things that ran people off in droves. In fact, the book of Mark chronicles the way (from about the mid-point of the book on) how people left Jesus to where, at the end, virtually no one was left. NO ONE wants to be associated with him for fear of the consequences. That’s a Charlie Sheen-esque flameout (obviously without the character issues!). That’s not something you see too often in American churches.

I suspect it’s because riven deeply into the American psyche is the desire to be a celebrity. And American pastors are very susceptible to this. Many subtle things happen in people who desire to this kind of celebrity status:

* They can disengage community and isolate themselves, setting themselves up for moral failure.

* They can make decisions that are numbers driven and not always Kingdom driven.

* They can skew to a shallow understanding of the Gospel as opposed to a holistic one that leads people to discipleship.

* They can put the good of their church (their personal Kingdom) over the good of God’s Kingdom.

Question: In what ways are your decisions made by a subtle undercurrent of ambition and a hope for celebrity?

Mike Breen, “Obituary for the American Church,” Verge Network

More tomorrow!

Groupon and Torture Porn

When my friends and I share Groupon recommendations through Facebook,  it is usually for things like 2 for 1 entrees at a nearby restaurant, a groupon1vase of flowers or a cheap teeth whitening treatment. 

I was stunned and disgusted to find out that this company is presently selling coupons to tour Kink.com an internet porn company that has its headquarters in a historic building in San Francisco.  The ad for the tour suggested that groups may get to see live filming in progress. Seriously…is no low too low?

Selling coupons that will go to support the degradation of young women and children leads me to think it is time to cancel the Groupon subscription.

World Malaria Day 2012

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For half the world, a simple mosquito bite can have deadly consequences: Every year, malaria kills approximately 655,000 people, mostly pregnant women and children under the age of five.

We can stop this. Since 2000, malaria deaths have been reduced by up to 33% in sub-Saharan Africa, but there is so much more we can do. This World Malaria Day, join ONE members from many different faith backgrounds to advocate for full funding of effective malaria-fighting programs like the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and malaria.

ONE is partnering with important faith-based malaria initiatives to Shine A Light on Malaria, including: Faiths Act, Islamic Relief, Lutheran Malaria Initiative, Union for Reform Judaism, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and Episcopal Relief & Development. Together, we can show that people of all faiths care about our neighbors suffering from malaria, and provide the lifesaving resources required to eliminate malaria deaths. Join us to mobilize your faith community to “Shine A Light on Malaria” and take action to save lives. Sign-up now to download your action guide and get started today!