Blogging Will Be Light…
November 23, 2004
Posted by Dan Edelen in : Announcements Feedback : 4 comments
Blogging will be light through the end of the year while I finish up my novel. Would like to have it complete by the end of January, but at least I’m in the homestretch—final few chapters and then the torture of editing.
So while there will be blogging, it may be days between posts. Hang in there, dear readers, because I am not going to vanish into the ether of the blogosphere. Just going to attend to what brings home the bacon.
Blessings!
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Magnets
November 17, 2004
Posted by Dan Edelen in : Uncategorized Feedback : 3 comments
My son is a magnet. I’ve lost track of the number of people who have come up to him and given him toys or candy without him doing anything. It happened again today when we were on a boys’ night out. A man came up to our table and handed my son a toy that came from one of the fast food places in the food court.
Now there were dozens of young children around, but this man purposefully walked through them to give my son the toy. He just dropped it off, smiled, and left without saying a word. Never met the guy before in my life.
Now I don’t know why this happens so often with my son, but I think people see something in him that resonates with them. Perhaps they don’t even know what it is, but I think I know.
It’s not just my son, either. My wife has long reminded me of the fact that people who need help with something will routinely single me out of a crowd of a hundred or more. I get asked for directions a lot. Women are always asking me to help them get the can on the top shelf at the grocery store, or to assist with car problems, or some other pesky issue.
When I need help, why do I select the people I do? Is there something in them that draws me to them?
In my younger days I would often see someone in a crowd and automatically know they were a born-again, Spirit-filled Christian. To check, I would usually go up to them and pointedly ask. I can never recall anyone saying no. In fact, most people laughed as if there were some light shining out of them that they’ve been unsuccessful in keeping hidden. As I’ve grown older, I don’t have to ask anymore, either, because now I know.
Shouldn’t we Christians all be magnets? I pray the illumination of the Holy Spirit shines so strongly in each of us that we are always the ones singled out by people. God knows that each appointment has meaning and potential. Are we expecting Him to use us like this? Is this not the chance to share the hope we have within us?
Lord Jesus, make us magnets to the lost, a light to those who wander without direction. Make our assurance in You shine out and cause others to wonder enough to come our way, even if they do not know why they are coming to us. Make us a supernatural people on whom your Spirit rests and calls from deep to deep, that we may know You and communicate you effortlessly to others. Always for your glory alone, amen.
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I Want to Be a Clone
November 12, 2004
Posted by Dan Edelen in : Christianity in North America, Church Issues, Relevance Feedback : 4 comments
Is it just me or has nearly every church in this country been cloned?
In the last few months, my wife and I have visited about a half-dozen different churches. Just a decade ago, the differences between those churches in their musical choices, sermon styles, liturgy choices (including no liturgy at all), and the like would have been profoundly different. Even their emphases on particular doctrinal aspects of Christianity would have been prominently on display during a worship service, and uniquely geared to the denominational beliefs of the church. Today, though, it doesn't matter if you go to a Free Methodist, Friends, Vineyard, Baptist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, or any other denomination because what they show you on Sundays and through the week is identical. Say what you will about the worth of denominational factionalism, but if our churches are all aspiring to a lowest common denominator sameness, is that an improvement?
Now you can make a claim for ecumenism here, but I think it goes far beyond that. Evangelicalism is enmeshed in the church growth movement to such a degree that denominations are jettisoning their cores in order to embrace the flavor of the week. I continue to be astonished at the rate with which The Willow Creek Association is consuming churches, asking them to ascribe to Willow Creek's ministry models without question. But is anyone asking the pivotal question: What if Willow Creek's ministry model and philosophies are wrong?
This is not going to be a diatribe about Willow Creek or Saddleback or any of the other churches out there like them. Well, maybe I'm not being honest here, because I'm commenting on the fact that so many church out there are exactly like Willow Creek and Saddleback. Honestly, is there a church out there in the evangelical ranks that has not done 40 Days of Purpose? Does a men's group exist in an evangelical church that has not read through Wild at Heart? Is it possible to attend a worship service in an evangelical church today and not sing a worship song that isn't copyrighted by Vineyard Music?
What is with all this sameness? I know some would argue that this is great and that the techniques used by many megachurches are filtering down to everyone; the churches that go this direction certainly do enjoy the growth.
Yet the numbers show a disturbing issue. About 42% of Americans attend church on the weekends. This has remained fairly steady for more than seventy years. If the megachurches and their Willow Creek and Saddleback models are truly bringing in unchurched Harry and Mary, then why is this number not increasing like crazy? Or are the "church growth" churches merely cannibalizing the congregations of churches around them who haven't signed up to be a Willow Creek Association member?
So if the overall number of people in America who are at least attending church on Sunday (and I'm not even going to attempt to determine how many of those are actually born again) is not increasing, then what have we gained in the church growth movement by embracing these ideas? Even more alarming, by embracing these ministry models, did we lose something instead?
That latter question should bother us all. I get the feeling that the baby has been thrown out with the "new ministry paradigm" bath water. Have we sold out the Lord for a trend?
I am seeing an increase in the dissatisfaction levels of Christians who have been so for many years who witnessed their churches being "cloned" right out from underneath them. I know that I am struggling mightily just trying to find a church in my area that isn't a church growth clone. Where do you go to get back to that "Old Time Religion?" Are we in danger of forgetting how well that served us?
Now there are some out there who think this is an End Times creation of an apostate church. I have not signed on to that view just yet, but it is something to keep an eye on. The ease at which this trend is spreading is truly astonishing. It seems like every church leader is mouthing the same church growth gobbledygook no matter where you turn. And churches are adding "Community" to their names faster than they can take down the cross in the sanctuary. It seems like madness.
Or is it just me?
Tags: Christianity in North America, Church Issues, Clones, Homogeneous, RelevanceRelated posts
The Needle in the Haystack
November 8, 2004
Posted by Dan Edelen in : Uncategorized Feedback : 11 comments
I came to the grim conclusion the other day that the church we have been trying out for the last four months is not going to work. Having left a church earlier this year that I had been a part of for more than twelve years was hard enough, but now we find ourselves cast adrift once more.
Is it right to be hard on people who go from church to church? Or are we ignoring the fact that many churches today are missing something necessary for vital fellowship and growth in Christ? The church we left earlier in the year is the model for half the churches being planted in the greater metropolitan area near us, yet they have discovered they’ve been losing forty percent of their seasoned Christian base year over year, drawing in new people, but losing them only a few years later. There is a message there and I suspect that this church is not alone in that horrifying number of turnovers.
Thinking back to 1976 when I became a Christian, I’ve seen a lot of changes in churches in this country from then to now. The rise of Postmodernism has wrecked some of the important theological discourse we must never ignore in our churches, while the megachurch mentality has assailed the real meaning of Christian discipleship, smothering it in whatever tasty topping the casual church shopper wants to munch.
With the prominence of business practices that are akin to survival of the fittest—not only between businesses, but between individual employees—and the progressive shifting of good jobs from one region to another almost overnight, we are finding that our churches are a litany of people passing through. Add to this mix the fact that churches cater to the lowest common denominator in order to keep people from jumping ship and I have got to tell you that I truly wonder if Christ’s church in America has reached a point of no return. A winnowing is occurring that cannot be denied, but it is hard to see if the good seed is being preserved or cast away.
In all honesty, I do not know where to go in our case. It would be nice to be no further than twenty minutes from whatever assembly we do join, but we have been uncertain as to the lifeblood we have seen flowing in the dozen or so churches within that radius.
Does a house church call? Are we the seed for starting anew one? I don’t know. But what else explains the heartbreaking dissatisfaction both my wife and I feel concerning the houses of worship in our area?
What cannot be escaped is that we are the generation that must now lead. I will be forty-two this week and I almost feel as if I’ve already missed the boat in that regard. But still, no man is an island. Other people out there feel as we do, but is there enough momentum there to join us together or will we always be little islands floating in a stream of Christianity that routinely feels foreign and odd to us?
Should it be this hard? In one church you have an entrenched leadership that won’t let “the laity” lead until the ministry options are pried from cold, dead hands. This church preaches against the charismata and that one over there abuses them. In another you find rampant heresy expressed as “cutting-edge ministry.” In another you discover the same old pop-psych Christianity that has robbed the strength from the Gospel. And again, over there you find a fellowship that will not ever understand what fellowship truly is. No church is perfect, yes, but we have got to be doing better than this. And the solution is not to plant more churches. There are about 350,000 churches in this country by one count and I have got to believe that it is better to wake them up than to start more.
In the course of my life I’ve been a part of some great churches. I know they used to exist. But what happened? I find it even hard to write about this because it is so confusing. Cerulean Sanctum exists because I feel we need to explore what is happening and ensure that no one goes through feeling like there is no place to call home. Finding a church to call home should never be a needle in a haystack proposition.
I’d love comments on this, the more the merrier. Please let me know what you think since this issue is so very important.
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