I’m a big fan of those pictures they take of you while you’re on a roller coaster. The best one I’ve ever seen was when my sister rode what she thought was a cute little waterpark ride. You know, one of those rides that makes a big splash at the end. It was all smiles when she got on. It was sheer terror when she got off. What happened was obvious: she underestimated the power of this “cute little ride.” I’ll never forget what she said as she stepped off the ride soaking wet; “I didn’t know!” The church often uses this phrase when it comes to the surrounding culture. I didn’t know…
The widening gap between church and the surrounding culture is undeniably harmful. And all around people are stuck with an I didn’t know look on their face. Author and researcher David Kinnaman finds that ½ of people under the age of 30 are considered unchurched. This figure has grown by 1/3rd in the last decade! But here’s an interesting finding by Kinnaman: 69% of people have a favorable view of the church. It’s just that ½ of them don’t think it’s necessary to attend. It’s not that people aren’t attending Sunday in order to partake in intentional sin and debauchery (enter Church Lady). The reason they don’t attend Sunday is because the church is not relevant to their life. Kinnaman puts it like this, “Younger people increasingly associate church as being judgmental, homophobic, hypocritical, and sheltered.” Many people are determined to make a difference in their community with or without the help of the church. Churches that work with and increase awareness of community organizations that address these “issues that matter” are more likely to engage the unchurched. So what can we do to help narrow this gap? Here’s 3 things that can help. #1) Refocus your mission: Most churches have one. In fact most churches have a pretty good one. A mission that is important, relevant, and well thought out. Unfortunately most churches (and organizations) clutter their mission with countless activities that don’t actually engage issues that matter. Often what happens when churches talk about change is we talk about new activities. We create cookbooks, host revivals, organize camp meetings. Maybe these are popular ideas in your church. But do they outwardly connect with the surrounding culture? Do they confront the issues that matter? People are hungry for something genuine. They are hungry to make a difference. But not only do countless activities clutter, they sap the energy of your church. There might be some difficult decisions ahead, but these are urgent times and the potential impact is something that can’t be overlooked. #2) Stop hating culture: Speaking of wasting energy, how much energy do we spend as a church rolling our eyes at the habits of our surrounding culture. Personally, I struggle understanding the Sunday sports craze. As a current coach and former college athlete, I was never pressured with Sunday playing opportunities as kids are today. I didn't have as much pressure to choose sports over church as young people do today. It's wrong for me to judge the parents and culture that are heavily involved in the youth sport's culture today. It's very likely I would be too if I was in their shoes. But the problem is that we’ve spent so much of our energy hating culture that it’s nearly impossible to have a meaningful relationship with someone outside the church. It’s also important to keep in mind that most people are not worried about being hated by the church. Using guilt to get someone through the doors on Sunday is not effective anymore (sorry Church Lady!). In other words, people just don’t care if you hate their cultural practices. It’s likely they feel great about what they are doing to make the world better (Carey Nieuwhof has more on this point here). There’s a great quote from Carey Nieuwhof that puts all of this into perspective:
If we find ourselves frustrated by culture today we’d be wise to remember the 1st-century Church. It was amidst a dominant, military-led civilization where Jesus coined the words “Love your enemies.” The early church had a much more difficult time practicing this love then we do today. #3) Be open to change: I used to watch ESPN Sportscenter everyday. I knew a lot about the sports world. But I barely catch an episode anymore. Why? The answer’s pretty simple. I have kids. I sacrificed my love of a sport's show so they can watch Transformers or Scooby Doo. We can be so closed-minded when it comes to making changes in our church, but so quick to change things when they concern our children. Or our grandchildren for that matter. Recently our pastor moved out of his home of over 20 years. His reason? More space for his grandchildren. What a fantastic analogy for the church. We have to be open to change. Not just so we can make an impact today. But so our children and grandchildren will be impacted tomorrow. What would you be willing to change for them? One change your church can adopt right now is to give the Church Forums structure a try. The mission of Church Forums is To provide resources for community gatherings that engage culture. The goal is simple; To help eliminate the widening gap between churches and their surrounding community. Church Forums don’t claim to be the only change you should be open to, but it is one model that can help narrow the gap like never before. To illustrate this point, I'd like to close with a quote from author Brian McLaren’s book A New Kind of Christianity;
Church Forums is just one structure that will help close the gap not only between Christians and nonchristians, but between Christians and other Christians. Perhaps at one time there was no gap. The church had a monopoly on spiritual matters. But this is not true in our postmodern, post Christian society. And rather than be consumed fighting it, it’s time to reinvent the way we think about church.
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