December 27, 2007
Top 10 Posts of 2007
A year ago on this blog it seemed hard to imagine that 2007 would surpass 2006 in traffic and participation, but that is exactly what happened. Thanks to the thousands of Ur-banites that read this blog everyday and drive the conversation, 2007 has been the best since Out of Ur launched in ’04. Thanks for sharing your time and insights with us. You've made this blog an engaging place to discuss the intersection of ministry, culture, and theology.
Here are the top ten posts from 2007. These were not determined by the editors, but by Ur’s visitors. These are the posts which received the most traffic and provoked the most comments.
ONE
Willow Creek Repents?
Why the most influential church in America now says "We made a mistake."
TWO
Heresy on Tour?
Popular pastor/author Rob Bell’s controversial message: God loves you.
THREE
Gordon MacDonald's 2008 Questions
FOUR
Willow Creek Repents? (Part 2)
Greg Hawkins responds with the truth about REVEAL.
FIVE
So Many Infant Christians
Why are we so good at leading people to faith and so bad at prodding them to maturity?
SEVEN
Goodbye Religion, Hello Spirituality
Is there a place for the Christian "religion" in the 21st Century?
EIGHT
Thus Saith the Radio
Does Christian radio have more influence over your flock than you do?
NINE
Alien Nation
One pastor’s perspective on the immigration debate—and immigration opportunity.
TEN
A Former Pastor Goes Church Shopping
And he wrestles with the advantages and disadvantages of mainline and nondenominational churches.
Posted by UrL at December 27, 2007 | Comments (1)
December 20, 2007
Advent Conspiracy Videos
Challenge your congregation and share the real meaning of giving this Christmas.
Earlier this month Skye Jethani posted about the obstacles we face during the Advent season, and his church’s attempts to overcome the busyness and materialism of the season. Last week, David Swanson reported on the new film What Would Jesus Buy and Reverend Billy’s crusade to rescue Christmas from consumerism.
In keeping the Out of Ur’s theme this December we’re happy to share with you that our friends at Faith Visuals are offering a series of free Christmas/Advent videos. These vids all focus on consumerism, priorities, and giving. You might find them useful and inspiring personally and for your congregation.
Check out the videos at FaithVisuals.com.
Posted by UrL at December 20, 2007
December 18, 2007
The Rise of the New Bishops- Part 2
Learning to trust older leaders may protect us from the hype surrounding younger ones.
In part 1, Chad Hall questioned the emergence of popular young church leaders. Through their books, conferences, and postcasts these "new bishops" are attracting a great deal of attention. Hall wondered if their status was the result of their genuine spiritual authority, or the cleaver marketing of Christian publishers. In part 2, Hall suggests ways we can respond to these pastor celebrities without falling prey to the hype.
How can Christ-followers navigate the era of new bishops and guard against theology by marketing majority? Here are a few ideas…
First, let’s not forget that faithfulness to God often does entail faithfulness to leaders. Leaders discerning God’s movement and directing others toward faithfulness is Biblical. We happen to live in a world where we get to choose our leaders, and we should choose wisely. I hear some ministers today who almost seem unwilling to follow anyone other than themselves. Being your own bishop is not healthy.
Second, let’s be savvy in noting the complex relationship between following and consuming.
We need to be alert to marketing hype and sensationalism and to separate message from medium lest we buy into an inappropriate message simply because it’s packaged well. If we’re blind to the new reality we can get sucked into inappropriate hero worship and faulty faith.
Finally, although this may not be politically correct, I suggest trusting older leaders rather than the hottest and latest leaders. While I’m not disagreeing with 1 Timothy 4:12, men like Gordon MacDonald, Dallas Willard, Leith Anderson, Peter Kreeft and Eugene Peterson have enough water under the bridge to lead me to trust them, which is distinct from simply admiring them. People live a long time these days, so let’s not rush to make bishops of the young guns just because we live in a culture that worships youth.
And while were at it, let’s not neglect the bishops who’ve lived in centuries past. The minor fact that they are dead shouldn’t remove them from our list of trustworthy leaders. They may not have websites or bestselling books, but they have insights that many of us need today. (BTW, Christian History did not pay me to say this!)
So who plays the role of “bishop” in your ministry? Why?
Chad Hall is an executive coach with SAS Institute Inc. in Cary, NC. He’s also the co-author of Coaching for Christian Leaders: A Practical Guide and Vice President of The Columbia Partnership.
Posted by UrL at December 18, 2007 | Comments (16)
December 14, 2007
The Rise of the New Bishops
Who has chosen the new crop of celebrity church leaders—the people or the publishers?
After reporting on Rob Bell's tour last month, Chad Hall has been wondering about the influence of young Christian leaders like Bell. Are these "new bishops" the result of a generation searching for leaders outside traditional church structures, or are they a product of publishers and slick marketing?
I’ve been thinking lately about how influential a few leaders are in evangelical Christian America – especially among younger Christ-followers. Such leaders exercise a tremendous amount of influence on the thought and practice of other church leaders. I’ve come to think of them as the real bishops of today.
Just like the earliest church fathers, today’s bishops earnestly seek to discern what faithfulness is and then dispense their discernment among followers. Oh yes, and just like the old bishops, the new ones sometimes disagree and dispute what it means to be faithful and the dispute can carry over to their followers (as an earlier post re: Rob Bell and Mark Driscoll demonstrated).
So what gave rise to these new bishops? Three primary factors…
First, denominations are waning and few church leaders look to denominational leaders as experts on how to think theologically or practice church ministry well. Even in traditions who ordain bishops, the influence of these leaders to affect the thought and practice of those they serve is diminishing.
Second, geography has shrunk through the use of media such as the internet and especially the blogosphere, thus giving the masses access to leaders they’d otherwise never have encountered. And unlike TV and radio, the internet allows followers to interact with one another and reinforce allegiance to bishops. Getting a following today doesn’t require years of moving up the church hierarchy, but the ability to get attention and keep it.
Third, there seems to be a growing populist mindset among our generation that prefers to select our leaders rather than have them selected for us. I’m sure this has a lot to do with distaste for institutions and hierarchy and all of that Strauss and Howe generations stuff.
As Christ followers, what are we to make of this era of new bishops? Is this good or bad or somewhere in between?
I’m not pessimistic about the advent of these new bishops, but one thing disturbs me: this could dissolve into theology by majority. While I suppose the church has always relied on the Spirit to sway folks toward beliefs and practices that best reflect God’s will, the current circumstance seems somehow more precarious. With book deals and conference invitations based on who will buy what, the consumer ambitions of publishing houses and conference promoters (and ad-revenue blogs like this one!) may drive choices more than ambitions of faithfulness. And while Christ-followers may think they are choosing their bishops, they may really be taking some marketing bait. In this context, the marketer who gets us to buy something may also be getting us to buy into someone.
In part 2, Chall Hall will explore how we can navigate in this new era of celebrity bishops and guard against theology constructed by marketing majority.
Chad Hall is an executive coach with SAS Institute Inc. in Cary, NC. He’s also the co-author of Coaching for Christian Leaders: A Practical Guide and Vice President of The Columbia Partnership.
Posted by UrL at December 14, 2007 | Comments (22)
December 11, 2007
The Church of Stop Shopping
A prophetic documentary preaches a message that should be coming from the church.
Last winter Pastor Dave Swanson was Out or Ur’s man on the street at the Sundance Film Festival. His reports sparked an excellent discussion about the impact of films on culture and theology. Swanson is back with a review of a new documentary about the evils of consumerism, and he wonders—why isn’t the church preaching about this?
The film raises important questions, but first a bit of context. Bill Talen was born into a Dutch Calvinist family in the Midwest. After moving to the west coast to pursue acting, Talen developed the Reverend Billy character before relocating to New York City where the character would reach maturity. While other street preachers were condemning the sex shops in Times Square, the Reverend Billy was using his pulpit to preach against consumerism.
Eventually his combination of street performance, activism, and evangelistic zeal attracted enough of a following to loosely form the Church of Stop Shopping complete with an energetic gospel choir. This is where the film picks up the story.
Director Rob VanAlkemade follows the Church of Stop Shopping as they pile into two buses for a cross-country tour of music, protest, and their unique and often hilarious stop-shopping gospel. Because the tour takes place in the frantic days leading up to Christmas, the tour’s message takes on greater poignancy.
To be clear, Reverend Billy’s “church” does not believe everyone in America should completely stop shopping. Rather, their hope is that the songs and lively message will cause shoppers to question the quantity and necessity of their purchases. Other important themes for the tour are rising consumer debt, the slow demise of small towns, the affect of our consumption on the developing world, and America’s “death by consumption.”
As a film, What Would Jesus Buy? is very well done. VanAlkemade is excellent at pulling together a compelling story from what must have been an unconventional filming experience. Halfway through the documentary, Reverend Billy’s wife collapses on a hotel bed and wonders aloud whether they are making a difference. Has even one person scaled back his purchasing because of the Church of Stop Shopping? It’s a tender moment, and one that every minister can relate to. By contrasting scenes like these with news footage of frenzied shoppers maxing out their credit cards, VanAlkemade effectively draws us into his story.
Beyond providing a great viewing experience, What Would Jesus Buy? raises a number of questions that are still rattling around in my head.
How is it that the Reverend Billy, who places himself outside the Christian faith, is one of the most intriguing and possibly prophetic voices regarding the affects of rampant consumerism in our culture today? Shouldn’t the church in America be the one proclaiming this reality?
I also wondered about the title of the film given that it seldom refers to Christ. Over dinner after the film one friend suggested that the title was a shrewd marketing tool. I wonder if the producers are tapping into a cultural sentiment regarding the disconnect between the person of Christ and the often disappointing behavior of his church. It was not accidental that this documentary was filmed and released in the weeks prior to Christmas, a time we imagine to be about hope and expectation but which is often characterized by stress and consumer remorse.
Finally, could the occasionally abrasive, often humorous, sometimes profane, and generally earnest Reverend Billy have something to teach those of us who lead within our churches? There is much that his “church” proclaims that many us of would agree with, much they preach against that we too find appalling about our consumer culture. We are followers of Jesus, the one who taught, “Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes… Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out” (Luke 12). Have we traded this aspect of discipleship for comfort and cultural esteem? If so, perhaps our first response to the colorful Reverend Billy is to thank God that someone has the courage to speak prophetically to a society desperately in need of an alternative way of living.
David Swanson is the associate pastor of Parkview Community Church in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
Posted by UrL at December 11, 2007 | Comments (10)
December 7, 2007
Are You Ready for a Mormon President?
What evangelicals heard in Romney’s ‘Faith in America' speech.
From time to time this blog has addressed issues of faith and politics. In September, Isaac Canales shared his views about the church’s response to illegal immigration. Brian McLaren has spoken here about the demise of the Religious Right. And we’ve debated Greg Boyd’s belief that America’s status as a “Christian nation” is a myth.
Yesterday, a leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination gave a speech concerning “faith in America.” Mitt Romney’s Mormon religion has increasingly become an issue in the campaign—particularly as his sizable lead in Iowa has been lost to Baptist pastor turned politician, Mike Huckabee. But what impact will Romney’s speech have on the crucial conservative evangelical voters that populate the base of the Republican Party? Will they overlook his Mormon faith and focus on common ground values? Or will theological differences trump political ideology?
Our colleague at Christianity Today, David Neff, has analyzed Romney’s speech. We encouraged you to read his article on the CT website and then share your impressions here. Below are a few excerpts from the article:
After promising, "I will put no doctrine of any church above the plain duties of the office and the sovereign authority of the law," Romney resisted those who would want him to put distance between himself and his faith. "That I will not do. I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it.
My faith is the faith of my fathers—I will be true to them and to my beliefs. Some believe that such a confession of my faith will sink my candidacy. If they are right, so be it. But I think they underestimate the American people. Americans do not respect believers of convenience."
Evangelicals will welcome Romney's appeal to common values in the political sphere. "It is important to recognize that while differences in theology exist between the churches in America, we share a common creed of moral convictions. And where the affairs of our nation are concerned, it's usually a sound rule to focus on the latter—on the great moral principles that urge us all on a common course." He spoke of a common human dignity and the principles of freedom.
Romney offered a strong endorsement of the place of religion in American public life. "In recent years, the notion of the separation of church and state has been taken by some well beyond its original meaning. They seek to remove from the public domain any acknowledgment of God. Religion is seen as merely a private affair with no place in public life. It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America—the religion of secularism. They are wrong." Romney went on to allude to the ceremonial expressions of religion in our public life, including the references to God on our currency and in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Read David Neff’s entire piece at ChristianityToday.com.
David Neff is editor-in-chief of the Christianity Today Media Group of Christianity Today International
Posted by UrL at December 7, 2007 | Comments (17)
December 5, 2007
Out of Context: Ken Fong
"The old paradigm of evangelism was a transactional sharing of the gospel. I would try to get people to intellectually agree with me. But the new paradigm is different, an approach in which I invite you to walk alongside me, examine my life, and see evidence of the truth, and hopefully there will be something compelling that you see. It's a no-strings-attached invitation to enter my life as I follow Jesus."
-Ken Fong is the senior pastor of Evergreen Baptist Church of Los Angeles. Taken from "5 Kinds of Christians" in the Fall 2007 issue of Leadership journal. To see the quote IN context, you'll need to see the print version of Leadership. To subscribe, click on the cover of Leadership on this page.
Posted by UrL at December 5, 2007 | Comments (11)
December 3, 2007
The Obstacles of Advent
How is your church combating the busyness and materialism of the season?
Last week my wife and I got all of our Christmas shopping done—in one day. This blitzkrieg approach has become a tradition for us. It’s like pulling a tooth; better to have the whole thing out at once. In the evening we treated ourselves to a victory dinner at a restaurant. While savoring my accomplishment and my meal, I watched A Charlie Brown Christmas on the television above the bar. Ah, Christmas in America—spend all day battling the crowds at the mall and have Luke chapter 2 recited to you by a cartoon character at night.
Many have lamented the way our culture has “taken Christ out of Christmas,” and in recent years we’ve heard conservative pundits freak out when retailers wish customers a “Happy Holiday” rather than “Merry Christmas.” But even for those of us in the church, aware of the season’s spiritual significance, and determined to celebrate the advent of the Messiah, this month still poses many challenges. Let’s face it, focusing on God in our society is always difficult and the added stress of the holidays only makes things harder.
Four years ago we decided to shift the way our church engaged Advent. We came to see that December posed unique challenges for our people, and if these obstacles were left unchecked they would significantly interrupt our mission to be formed into the image of Christ. For this reason our church is taking some intentional steps to help people commune with God this Christmas in a counter-cultural way.
The first obstacle we identified was busyness. Ask anyone in my church, on any day, what keeps them from communing with God and chances are they’ll say busyness. But during December it really gets out of control. Beyond ordinary obligations schedules also fill up with numerous parties, school holiday programs, shopping excursions, vacations, and family gatherings with Cousin Eddie. During a season when we are supposed to slow down and commune deeply with Christ and family we can hardly find time to breathe.
We decided the church should combat this tendency rather than contribute to it. So, instead of adding programs and activities during December we’ve actually reduced them. For example, we’ve stayed away from large Christmas productions for children or adults. These events, while beautiful and worshipful, often take weeks of preparation that fill up the calendar with practices which separate families. We also suspend most adult and children’s classes on Sunday so families can worship together, and we provide at-home Advent family devotionals and encourage heads of households to gather their clan weekly.
In addition, beginning in late October we start encouraging everyone to complete their Christmas shopping before December 1. This frees up time during Advent to connect with others, and hours that would otherwise be spent at the mall can now be used to serve someone in the name of Christ. It seems so simple, but I can’t tell you how many people have been blessed by this suggestion.
The second obstacle we identified was materialism. You know consumption is a problem in society when the first day of the Christmas shopping season is known as “Black Friday.” It is so called because it’s the day most retailers discover if they will make a profit for the year (be in the black). Our entire economy hinges on whether or not people celebrate Christmas by purchasing ChiaPets and little dancing Santas. But all of the focus on “stuff” distracts us from focusing on Christ. (If you haven’t heard about it already, check out the site for What Would Jesus Buy?—a new film debuting this month.)
To address this obstacle we encourage our community to reduce their shopping expenses and match whatever they spend by giving to a compassion or missions project. This year we’re highlighting two projects in particular. The first is in partnership with our missionaries in Cambodia working with AIDS patients. The other is an urban ministry in Chicago we’ve been connected with for years. There are other projects available, and a number involve more than giving money. Many small groups, for example, take time to engage a local service project together and children are encouraged to participate as well.
To be honest, not everyone has appreciated this approach. Some come to our church with expectations of an elaborate Christmas pageant, and others don’t want to be challenged every week to shop earlier and spend less. But our desire is simple—to release time for communion with God and service to others, and to refocus our attention away from the kitsch and onto Christ.
That’s our attempt to overcome the obstacles of Advent. What is you’re church doing?
Posted by Skye Jethani at December 3, 2007 | Comments (10)
