A Different Way and a Secret Revealed
I think that anyone who has read this blog a few times can guess that I am not too hip on the takeover of business in the church. I think this is especially prevalent in the church planting racket. We have developed management training, marketing arks, business strategies and whole bunch of other stuff based on corporate America. As I have said many a time, if imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, then the church is proving itself to be very enamored by corporate America. Hell, we kiss corporate America’s ass and have made marketing and strategic planning our idols. The funny part is, our current economy, the recent Wall Street Crash, the housing crisis, and the over ten percent unemployment figures should tell us that the emporor of consumerism and business strategy has no clothes. But here we are, using a failed tools, tests, and methods and assigning God to them.
Though my first beef is not closely related to business strategy, it is related. In starting churches it is standard practice to have a core group. As an emerging missional guy, this is a hard one to swallow. The need for "mature" christians to sit in a room and plot and plan how we are going to bring in and attract real people who are outside the church. The problem is, that the "converted" know how to reach the other "converted" and you often end up with consumer Christians looking for the latest music, kids programs, and other stuff that does not matter. Well, it does not matter to those outside the church, but it matters for the consumer Christian. The problem is that you end up being beholden to these people and you end up performing so much maintenance to keep them happy that you never really do get to fulfilling the mission. Let me give you an example. I was once talking to a planter who was getting ready to start a church in a city with needs. This city has two sides to it. One side is affluent and the other side is poor. He claims to be missional, and when he talks about the city’s needs he always talks about the poor side. So, I asked him, why start on the affluent side when the need is on the poor side? He said he would leverage the affluence of the rich side to one day make a greater impact on the side with immediate need. Do you kind of see my problem? How many years will this take and how many people will he have to appease while people lose homes, live in fear of violence and street gangs, and suffer abuse and marginalization? What of the needs of the wealthy side? Rich people have hurts too. He will spend so much time administering to them with his sensitive and caring nature that he will only have token efforts to the hurting that serve mainly to make the wealthy feel good. It is backwards…people like Shane Claiborn and Mother Teresa just go to where the need they claim to have a heart for and do it with what little you have and let God guide the way.
Now, I realized I strayed, but I just thought of an analogy with my problem of the core group stuff. Imagine Jesus, instead of grabbing his motley crew of fishermen, women, tax collectors, and so forth to change the world and start this movement, he had gone with the core group principle. He would have to take some mature Jews who know the law…so….maybe a core group of Pharisees and Sadducees. They would all then sit in regularly scheduled meetings and discuss rationally how they are going to reach the hookers, the centurions, the lepers, and all the rest of the people that they have proved themselves to be painfully out of touch with. They would also need to work on fund raising, financial viabilities, find some space to rent, and create an awareness marketing campaign. Then, and only then, would they be ready for a first service and invite everyone-who already does not trust them-to come and see this wonderful new event.
Now that we are almost a year old and it is evident that I have nothing to lose since no one is offering us anything and we are bastard children not getting child support, I may as well discuss openly what I think is a different, and valid way to try things. What I am about to suggest in my next entry is not a better way per se, but it is a different way. When you hear me speak against different mindsets, please understand that I am not speaking AGAINST anyone or trying to vilify, I am trying to grow out of that. I am expressing some frustration that I never had the opportunity to be openly different and instead had to test the waters and strike out on my own in what has proved to be a very lonely journey. Mostly, I am expressing facts as seen through the lense of my existence. Try not to hold it against me. There will be a part two to this coming along shortly, I just did not want to make this entry too long.
