Did I actually just say that? Yup.  I’m pretty sure I did.  I might clarify by saying that I don’t think you grow a HEALTHY church that way.

The thought process has gone, for decades, that if you have a great Children’s program and then a great Youth program, you will draw the kids and then get the parents.

It appears that when it works two things happen, and neither of them are healthy.  1) Families transfer from a smaller, dying church to a bigger church with better programs, and/or 2) reclamation of church dropouts.

While the reclamation of dropouts sounds like a good thing, my observation has been that they only reconnected when their kids got to the age where church programs became a part of an already overcrowded schedule of their kids’ activities.  Because their reconnection was just part of the general “busy-ness” in which they enrolled their kids, they typically pursued a nominal Christianity as a tangential part of our congregation.  That is to say, they attended sporadically, they rarely gave and they never served.

Neither transfer growth nor nominal reconnection produce a healthy church.

In a recent study published in USA Today, it was revealed that 70% of people aged 18-30 had dropped out of church by the time they were 23 years old.

The survey addressed a small group of these dropouts who return, but the question was not related to the role of children in their return to church:

The news was not all bad: 35% of dropouts said they had resumed attending church regularly by age 30. An additional 30% attended sporadically. Twenty-eight percent said “God was calling me to return to the church.”

The survey found that those who stayed with or returned to church grew up with both parents committed to the church, pastors whose sermons were relevant and engaging, and church members who invested in their spiritual development.

That last statement is paramount.

To grow a healthy church, we are going to have to 1) grow healthy families, where 2) discipleship is a process that takes place within community and happens over a timeline from cradle to grave and 3) the worship is going to have to be relevant.

That sounds to me like a church with family based small groups (parents discipling their kids in an engaged community) and relevant worship.

Conversely, that would include a scaling back of programs.  Churches aren’t programmed to grow.  They are programmed to die.

The mashup of my observations and the survey is that even if you grow by transfer or by nominal reclamation, the program model is going to produce 3 out of 10 real disciples, and of the 7 out of 10 who wander off, you might see a fraction return in a positive way.

Program driven churches have been withering in America for decades.  To depend solely on those programs is to follow that well worn path to the death of our churches.

We need a more organic, healthy, family inclusive and holistic mindset and structure.  We need to re-shape the church.

“The Kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies. And he who will not suffer this does not want to be of the Kingdom of Christ; he wants to be among friends, to sit among roses and lilies, not with the bad people but the devout people. O you blasphemers and betrayers of Christ! If Christ had done what you are doing who would ever have been spared?” [from Martin Luther, as read in Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer]

Completely ripped off from: Joe Kennedy

I remember, over 20 years ago, reading Charles M Sheldon’s book, “In His Steps.” In that book, feeling himself challenged by a vagrant who is marginalized by the people of “First Church,” a pastor challenges his congregation to ask themselves the question prior to choosing a behavior, “What Would Jesus Do?”

The book was old when I read it, set, I believe, at the turn of the last century.  Ancient by modern perspectives. Yet, it had proven powerful for many readers and was equally so for me while I muddled through making my faith my own during my college years.

I also remember the time when someone in Christian kitsch put the letters, “WWJD” on a fabric bracelet to symbolize the question, which might have been more appropriately translated, “What would Jesus have me do?” since I’m pretty sure Jesus was capable of more than any of us at any given moment.  I think I wore a WWJD bracelet for all of a couple of months, but then realized that it had become the “in” thing among, well, everyone.

Last month, I caught a modern narrative.  My wife loves all kinds of reality shows, from game shows to documentaries, the latter of which had her attention on this particular evening.  The affair is called, “Intervention.” Aptly named, the series records families in turmoil being coached through confrontation between loved ones in the throes of addiction.

In this episode, two brothers were being challenged for their lifestyle of using and selling drugs, a pattern of life that had invited their parents’ home to be invaded and ransacked.  As one of the two sat, head in hands, the camera focused on his fingers as they wove through his greasy hair only to have the letters, “WWJD” come into focus as they dangled from his wrist.

I looked down at my wrist.

Decades after I tossed WWJD in the drawer, a yellow rubber bracelet adorned my right arm, engraved with the letters, “LIVESTRONG.”

I don’t know what you know about Lance Armstrong.  You probably know that he survived cancer and won the Tour de France.

You may not know that he won 7 times. In a row. That he is the most tested (for performance enhancing drugs) athlete ever.  That he has never failed a drug test.

You may know that he has become a tremendous advocate for cancer research and treatment, setting up the Lance Armstrong Foundation and Livestrong.com.

You may not know that he curses like a sailor, when not on camera.

Not to belabor the point, Lance is not a representation of conservative evangelcalism. Not now. Not ever.

Yet, I wear a bracelet that represents values he promotes while discarding the representation of values promoted by Sheldon, et al.

Why?

Because conservative evangelicalism has come to present itself to the world as shallow, self righteous, disingenuous… meaningless… separatist… a kitsch based lifestyle that is show without substance in the world.

Meanwhile, when you first get diagnosed with cancer and call Livestrong, a counselor will talk to you about all things related to your disease, including treatment, side effects and what is going to happen to your family.  They are raising money and last week at the World Cancer Summit, Lance spoke and elicited commitments from several nations to increase their investment in finding cures for this disease.

They are actually trying to make life better on the world and everyone can see it, no matter what they believe.

Bottom line: It seems to me that when asked “What would You do?” Jesus would most likely answer, “get involved with the healing of the sick, the comforting of the wounded and the betterment of the world, of course.”

And, no.  I don’t think He would want us to stop without sharing the Gospel and calling these people to redemption, but I do think that they are more likely to actually hear that message from a person working alongside them to raise money for cancer research than from a person wearing WWJD apparel and sitting on the sidelines.

Yesterday I couldn’t get into my gmail account even though I knew there was mail that I needed to handle there.  Now I know why:

Official Gmail Blog: More on today’s Gmail issue.

Here are some things google did right:

Capable and empowered staff on hand to deal with the issue immediately.

Flexible infrastructure that allowed them to correct the problem without having to create a plan, purchase hardware or put together an inadequate solution.

FULL DISCLOSURE.  Not only did they handle everything, they told their patrons EVERYTHING that happened, why it happened, what they did and what they are doing.  It creates trust among those who are invested to know that they are so on top of what is going on.

I can thing of a few organizations and, er… denominations… er… task forces… that could learn something from google here.

Just sayin’.

If you had told me 3 years ago that I would be sitting, at Ronnie Floyd’s invitation, in his church listening to him, Johnny Hunt and Al Mohler talk about the SBC as being in decline and the need for us to deconstruct that which is complex and bulky to get to what is efficient in accomplishing God’s Mission – I would have thought you insane.

But there I sat, front and center, listening to them say some of the things I had been thinking for years.  Even taking some hits from some dude channelling the spirit of Roger Moran until interrupted and chastised by both Hunt and Floyd, being further corrected by Mohler.

How did I get here?  Am I dreaming?

Some will complain that these guys are just classic middle adopters, attempting to lead from the middle.  Others will say that they’ve offered nothing new.  I’ve heard others say they are simple politicians, finding the flow of the crowd and getting out in front.

Those things may be.  I can’t tell you, but you see, the thing about a middle adopter is, he’s adopted.

These guys seemed pretty genuine to me.  If not, time will tell.  The telling of their sincerity will be in Orlando and it is something for which they asked.  Judge us by Orlando.

Fair enough!

Before I quit blogging about the SBC, I said that if the statesmen of the SBC stood against the wall while I stood to the mic, then the SBC will fall away into decline and there would be no stopping it.

The big deal about the principles and ideas being put forth by the GCRTF is that those speaking are not on the fringe of power within the SBC, but they are the leaders and statesmen.

About time.  Well done.  Thank God.

Yep, I’m going.

I’m not sure if I’ll bother live blogging, but I might tweet.

If you are interested follow my twitter or the MissioScapes twitter feeds.

I’ll probably write a post event perspective for later in the week.

Right now, over at MissioScapes, you can read an article from Marty Duren that is the beginning of a series entitled, “If we were the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force.” It’s Marty being Marty on the SBC and I know some of you have missed that stuff. My article will be there in a few weeks.  There are a few scheduled to drop between now and then, but all will be worth your while, I think.

Oh, and please remember that the MissioScapes blog is ideological, not political, and not focused on the SBC.  Rather, since the SBC has made the move to further its ability to fulfill the Missio Dei, it seems that we are focused on the same things at the moment.  No, I don’t think we are always focused on the same things as the SBC, if that question crossed your mind.

Not to ignore my postings here at 12 Witnesses, I’ll be dropping an article this week about Christians intentionally partnering with the unholy.

I hope to pique your interest by saying that I think we should do it.  Alot.

Interesting what this evangelical pastor has to say about the church’s involvement in the political process.  All three videos = just over 20 mins…

There are three neighborhoods that I believe are the responsibility of every believer:  The one in which you live, the one in which you work (wherever you do what you do, be that a spread out “neighborhood” like clients of a landscaper or salesperson, or a close “neighborhood” like a cubical based office design, or anything in between) and the one in which you worship.

In The Connecting Church, Randy Frazee gives a list of “Rules to Being a Good Neighbor” that might allow us to build relationships in a way in order to make a difference.  I found them to be fairly significant and I’d like to synopsize them for you here.  Obviously this was written for the neighborhood in which you live, but it seems easy enough to adapt the majority of the list to the other two as well.  You can find the full list on pages 146 & 147.

• Take care of your property.
• Visit your neighbors spontaneously. If they are working on something, pitch in and help.
• If your dog barking is an annoyance, solve it. (Or for the office, if you listen to music in your cubical, get earbuds and wear one in and one out so you can hear your music and the office chatter, for example)
• Borrow stuff from your neighbors, giving you common grounds for a conversation. Return what you borrowed promptly and in better condition.  If it breaks replace it quickly. It would also seem to me that you should be a generous lender as a part of this principle.
• Use common sense.
• “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.”

Any others you might add?