Risk and Paul

I am writing a four-week study on risk.

And it has just completely overwhelmed all of what little free time I do have. Which is the reason my blog has been silent the past couple of weeks.

I have the privilege and honor of being on the board of directors for RE:FUEL Memphis. Of what we do, and hope to do, is the yearly conference, held in April. RE:FUEL Memphis is an organization designed to bless the lives of men in the city of Memphis with the life-changing message of Jesus. This year’s conference will be our third, and best ever, with two very prolific personalities bringing truth from the Word of God, as well as Christian artist Todd Agnew. And we are opening the final session of the conference to the families and friends of the guys who will attend, so we can all, as a community, spend the last moments of the conference in worship.

One of the ideas from our planning sessions was to offer a small group study resource that would complement the theme of the conference, as well as extend the conversations of the conference into every arena possible, albeit church bible classes, small groups, private studies, or neighborhood gatherings. The idea behind these studies was to introduce the topics to not just men, but to everyone.

And, thus, I have been writing these studies. The conference itself, through the messages given by Don McLaughlin and Buddy Bell, will look at risk through the eyes, and life, of Peter. Peter’s life is filled with risk, consequence, and reward. I love his story for many reasons, but, for me, it culminates in this one verse, in the book of Acts:

“In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty), and said …” (1:15, 16)

To see Peter’s journey, his passion, his commission as the rock of the coming church, his treasonous betrayal of Jesus, and his doubt of the resurrection, and then to see him stand among the believers after the ascension, and speak words of leadership — it is almost too much to bear. Place yourself in his shoes, and be cast as the chief apostle, then the chief betrayer, only to rise as the chief leader.

It’s powerful.

Peter’s life will be well-documented in our conference. After some time in prayer, I believed that the four conversations I write should look at risk through the eyes of another great man of faith. I decided to uncover the risk and rewards in the life of Paul.

For most of my life, I was told Paul’s journeys looked like this:

Yet, truth be told, when I saw a map like the one above, my brain really saw this:

I had absolutely no idea what that map meant. I had no clue about the little lines drawn across land and sea. And I had no idea how to make any sense out of them. I knew only that Paul was merciless in his travels, but I could not, for the life of me, make any sense out of why those little squiggly lines were important.

The four studies I’m writing may not be able to interpret the map for you. But, I think, they may help us realize something of the personality of Paul, the decisions he made, and the experiences he had while listening to the Spirit of God.

I hope, too, they will engage us in all kinds of conversations about the events in our life that have culminated in this very moment, and how those experiences may actually be designed, by God, to propel us into arenas that, right now, make us afraid to consider.

These four-week studies are free to all who attend RE:FUEL. And, I’ll post them here, on my site, once they are completed.

I’m walking with Paul, though, in the next few weeks. It’s already been exciting, and exhausting, and I can’t wait to share what I’ve discovered.

Snapshot

The times are changing.

I compiled these statistics for the leadership of our church. They are just brief snapshots of our culture, as well as statistics on church growth and membership.  Our unique American brand of life is evident here, and is noticed in statistics that are current.

While these statistics may cause a bit of culture shock, the statistics on declining church membership should be equally, if not more, shocking. And it is not a far stretch to assume that the first series of statistics are relevant to the second series of statistics.

___________

Culture

• Social Media
  • There are, now, 800 million Facebook accounts.
  • More than 50% of active users log into Facebook every day.
  • There are more than 2 billion posts liked and commented on every day.
  • 250 million photos are uploaded every day.
  • 75% of Facebook users are outside the U.S.
  • It is available in 70 languages.
  • 47% of Facebook users have swear words on their Facebook profiles.
  • The average Facebook user spends almost 8 hours on Facebook every month.
  • Facebook links about sex are shared 90% more than average.[1]
  • 41% of teenagers are very unsure about the future of email, and 15% already consider it dead.[2]
  • The words “retweet” and “sexting” are now part of the Oxford English Dictionary.[3]
  • And shopping on “Cyber Monday” – the Monday following “Black Friday” – this year added sales in excess of $1.25 billion, up 22% from the totals of 2010, breaking last year’s record high.[4]
  • Americans viewed 42 billion online videos in October, 2011.
    • That is 21.1 hours per viewer.
    • Half of those were watched on YouTube, or other Google sites.[5]
• Millennials
  • Half of all 12-year-olds are on Facebook (some 1.78 million), and they are evading Facebook’s age limit requirements.[6]
  • 45% of Millennials (those between 18 and 34 years old) use their mobile devices to research product details before buying big ticket items. (As compared to 34% of those between 35 and 54.)
  • 28% of these use their devices for location-based apps multiple times a day.[7]
  • 33% of the more than 1400 18-29-year-olds surveyed said that Internet access has become a basic need ranking behind air, water, food and shelter.
  • 64% said they would prefer an Internet connection to a having a car.
  • 40% said that the Internet is more important than dating or going out with friends or even listening to music.[8]

• Video Games
  • Seven of the top 10 video games, sold in America in 2011, were “shooter games.”[9]

• Music
  • “92% of the “Top Ten” Billboard songs are about sex.”
  • Of the top selling 174 songs in 2009, each contained, on average, 10.49 sex-related phrases per song.[10]

• Family Time
  • “The average parent spends 38.5 minutes per week in meaningful conversation with their children.”
  • “Family dinners are more important than play, story time and other family events in the development of vocabulary of younger children.”
  • “Frequent family meals are associated with a lower risk of smoking, drinking and using drugs; with a lower incidence of depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts; and with better grades in 11 to 18 year olds.”
  • “Adolescent girls who have frequent family meals, and a positive atmosphere during those meals, are less likely to have eating disorders.”
  • “Kids who eat most often with their parents are 40% more likely to say they get mainly A’s and B’s in school than kids who have two or fewer family dinners a week.”[11]
  • “Family time has decreased since 1976.”
    • “The percentage of respondents who engaged frequently in attending religious services together decreased from 38 percent in 1976 to 29 percent in 1997.
    • The percentage who engaged frequently in watching television together decreased from 54 percent to 42 percent.
    • The percentage who engaged frequently in sitting and talking together decreased from 53 percent to 42 percent.
    • The percentage of respondents who frequently have the main meal together on weekdays decreased from 72 percent to 58 percent — and the percentage who take a vacation together decreased from 53 percent to 38 percent.”[12]

Church Growth, or Lack of, In America:

• “How many people do you know who will, most likely, not walk into a church building? They are not alone. Western cultures are facing a major crisis. With 83.6% of America not attending a conventional church on a given weekend and approximately 95% of the people in other western cultures not attending a conventional church …”

• “Approximately 80% of all churches in North America have reached a plateau or are declining. The vast majority of the church’s growth comes from “switchers” – people who move from one church to another.”

• “There is precious little conversion growth. Researchers suggest somewhere between 1-3%.”

• Church attendance is declining:
  1990 — 20.4% of Americans attended church on a given weekend
  2000 — 18.7% of Americans attended church on a given weekend
  2005 — 17.5% of Americans attended church on a given weekend
  2010 — 16.2% estimated church attendance
  2020 — 14.4% estimated church attendance
  2050 — 10.7% estimated church attendance if Jesus has not come.

• “Other western cultures, like Europe, Australia, and New Zealand record church attendance ranging between 2% – 8%.”

• “As of 2008 over 3,500 people leave the church every day.”

• “The yearly decline in the percentage of people attending a Christian church was faster from 2000—2005 than it was from 1990—2000.”

• “The average church in the United States will spend as much as 64 percent of its budget on staff salaries.
  Additionally, it will spend as much as 30 percent of its offerings on maintaining its buildings.
  Researchers say that churches spend between 82 – 96 percent of their financial resources on maintaining themselves.
  In 2001 “the total cost of Christian outreach worldwide averages $330,000 for each newly baptized person. The cost per baptism in the United States tops $1.5 million.”

• “Fuller Theological Seminary did a research study that found that if a church is 10 or more years old, it takes 85 people to lead 1 person to Christ. If a church is less than 3 years old, it takes only 3 people to lead 1 person to Christ.”

• “Between 1990 and 2050 church attendance will grow from 50 million to 60 million.
  Census estimates forecast a population growth from 248 million to 520 million people.
  In other words, America would need (as of 2008) 15,000 new churches of any kind every year to keep up with population.”

• “Every year, approximately 4000 new churches open their doors. Every year approximately 7000 churches close their doors for the last time.”

• “Agreeing with other researchers, George Barna, in his book Revolution, has confirmed that many are going to house churches, in a spiritual quest of a more relevant relationship with God.”

• “The new Revolution differs in that its primary impetus is not salvation among the unrepentant but the personal renewal and recommitment of believers. The dominant catalyst is people’s desperation for a genuine relationship with God. The renewal of that relationship spurs believers to participate in spreading the gospel. Rather than relying on a relative handful of inspired preachers to promote a national revival, the emerging Revolution is truly a grassroots explosion of commitment to God that will refine the Church and result in a natural and widespread immersion in outreach.” (From George Barna’s book, Revolution.)[13]

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[1] http://www.youthministrymedia.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/mashable_infographic_graphics-facebook-numbers.jpg

[2] http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2011/09/is-e-mail-dying-teens-check-in.html

[3] http://mashable.com/2011/08/18/oxford-english-dictionary-retweet-sexting-woot/

[4] http://mashable.com/2011/11/29/cyber-monday-sales-2011/

[5] http://mashable.com/2011/11/29/online-video-views/

[6] http://www.homeword.com/blog_info.php?articles_id=1247

[7] http://mashable.com/2011/10/13/millenials-mobile-infographic/

[8] http://iblogo.com/2011/10/04/for-youth-internet-is-as-essential-as-food/

[9] http://www.videogamesblogger.com/2011/01/01/top-100-biggest-games-of-2011-happy-new-year-from-vgb.htm

[10] http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2011/09/92-top-ten-billboard-songs-are-about-sex/43182/

[11] http://dinnertrade.com/568/interesting-statistics-on-family-dinners

[12] http://www.sermoncentral.com/illustrations/statistics-about-Family-Time.asp

[13] simplechurchathome.com/Why.html

Strangers

The Mayflower.

The good ship Mayflower brought to the shores of America those who wanted a religious freedom.

Kinda.

They came from England, by way of the Netherlands.

Because they went to the Netherlands first, and it was there that they first experienced religious freedom. They weren’t harassed. They weren’t maligned. And they certainly weren’t persecuted. Their persecution ended when they left their homes in England, and migrated to the great town of Leiden. And there, in those small pastoral communities, they found their freedom.

It was a different brand of freedom, though. They were extremely conservative — for they were Protestants who believed that England had not gone far enough in its dramatic transformation from a Catholic empire to a Protestant one. Once they believed their rebellious thoughts and ideals would continue to warrant persecutions from mainline Anglicans, they left England for the quaint little town. But not before they had their say.

There was a little conference where they were given an opportunity to voice their displeasure with the Church of England, and they were discounted on all arguments, with the exception of their desire for a new English translation of the Bible.

England obliged. And from that conference a slightly well-known version of the bible was produced. Specifically, the King James version.

Seeing they were at an impasse, though, they left. They could not change an institution so great as the Church of England. And though their persecution may have been difficult while in England, most scholars believe that they were never physically harmed.

Their community in Holland, though, was not their supreme ideal. It afforded them distance from England, but they weren’t exactly happy. William Bradford himself, in some of his own journals, lamented the influence the local culture was having upon the children of these Separatists. Here’s what he wrote:

But that which was more lamentable, and of all sorrows most heavy to be borne, was that many of their children, by these occasions (and the great licentiousness of youth in that country) and the manifold temptations of the place, were drawn away by evil examples into extravagant, and dangerous courses, getting the reins off their necks, and departing from their parents. Some became soldiers, others took upon them far voyages by sea; and others some worse courses, tending to dissoluteness, and the danger of their souls; to the great grief of their parents, and dishonor of God.

Their decision was made. They must leave. They must go to a place where they could organize a community in a cultural vacuum, where their children could forever escape any vile influences. But they couldn’t escape them entirely.

Aboard the Mayflower were others. Entrepreneurs. Soldiers of fortune. And these people did not share the intense beliefs of the Separatists. So the boat ride across the Atlantic became their second attempt (if you count their experience in Holland) at mixing with heathens.

They had an interesting word for those on the boat that didn’t share their beliefs, as well. They called them “Strangers.”

And, of course, they called themselves “Saints.”

And their settlement in Massachusetts, in Plymouth, mirrored that. They had a charter, and a government, and implemented a settlement that, within a few short years, dictated anyone who lived in their colony must worship in their churches. Those sanctioned churches received tax money from the colonists. Attendance was strictly enforced. And competing churches, or beliefs, were declared illegal under colonial rules. Colonial laws were passed to ban these faiths, and those in disagreement could be punished with death.

A few people paid that price. Read Mary Dyer‘s story on Wikipedia.

How interesting, then, that the very people escaping repression soon enacted their own repressive system.

The early colonies set a powerful precedent that still exists in America. Going to church is a very hard thing to do.

Right now, only 16% of Americans attend a traditional church. In ten years, and based upon current trends, that number will shrink to 14%. That even includes the new, hip churches with soaring attendance. Those churches, rapidly growing, aren’t helping the sliding numbers at all.

And right now, in America, based upon fiscal budgets of churches, and the number of those baptized into Jesus, it costs $1.5 million in church budget monies to lead just one person to Jesus. In churches at least ten years old, it takes 85 people to lead just one person to Jesus, based upon the average numbers in growing attendance.

So what, then, is the solution?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Heaven

The Dura-Europas church is one of the earliest known homes which also functioned as a Christian church, from 235 AD.

In Chinese, the term, literally, is “underground heaven.”

I now know why.

There is something special when believers are together, in a very small setting, sharing their own revelations from God.

__________

In a previous post I wrote of how the first Christians worshiped and shared. In the years following the ascension of Jesus, and as Paul began to plant Jesus in various parts of the world, small gatherings of people met in homes, sometimes daily, and shared the moments in their lives when God was active. These groups of believers did not have church buildings or facilities. They had no bibles, and many were Gentile converts, and may not have even known Abraham or Moses. They had no preachers, or ministers, and certainly had no one who received a salary. And, initially, they had no elders.

The revelations they shared, described in 1 Corinthians 14:26, were just one part of a larger worship order that probably offends most contemporary pastors, preachers, and church leaders …

… because, in that “worship order,” there appears to be very little order. Everyone participated in the gathering. Women, men, children, slaves, nobles, aristocrats and commoners. It was a gathering of people from varying degrees of life, sharing the most intimate moments of their lives together. And God was alive. He was seen.

I am a fairly gifted teacher. I’ve won an award or two for teaching in the collegiate setting. I’ve heard testimonies from former students, both in college classes, and from our own church, of how their lives were changed because of the things I said, or taught. And those compliments are fine, and I praise God for any benefit anyone has received because of, and in spite of, me.

But my ability to lead a group of any size pales in comparison to what happened in my small group last night. Because God showed up, and the meeting changed into something that felt a lot like heaven.

__________

We’ve built a series of expectations with our students in this small group. Through the first six or seven weeks, I have encouraged them to envision a different life by centering each week around one central question: What would your life look like if your future was planned to solely benefit the Kingdom of God?

Students aren’t really taught to answer that question. Historically, we’ve built a society, and an educational system, to push personal success above all other achievements. So to ask that question is quite radical. I dare say most churches may not even teach their students to answer that question. But it offers a unique plan for life.

What if every career choice, and relationship, and dream, and plan, was all determined by how that choice or relationship or dream or plan would benefit and expand the Kingdom of God?

I was never taught to ask that question. You probably weren’t, either.

So from there we emerged into a couple of weeks of teaching on how God moves us, and then how God moved Paul. We ended last week with a simple assignment: notice, through the week, the moments when God is revealing Himself to you, and then be prepared to share that at our next meeting.

And so, last night, we did that. And there was a moment, felt by all, when we realized that something very special was happening. The meeting took it’s own course, it’s own shape, and I was aware, even if others weren’t, that I was no longer leading. I felt that.

A very intense time of sharing began. Students, and adults, spoke of their own revelations. We all left with the sense that, while God works in our own lives, and while we pray deep prayers for intervention, God also works in the lives of others. He is active. He is alive.

And it was this “order of worship” that literally changed the entire world. Believers in Jesus, in the first few centuries after Jesus’ ascension, literally set the world on fire, just by meeting together, and hearing each other’s revelations from God.

Remember — we had no curriculum. We had no bestselling book as a discussion guide. I offered no teaching moment. We just invited the Spirit of God to join us, and were all in agreement in that invitation. And then it happened.

In China, where Christianity is, for the most part, a persecuted faith, Christians must meet together, in secret, in homes. And their word for house church is simply translated into English as “underground heaven.”

After last night, I know why.

__________

There is more that will happen, and should happen. We are in a society that would rather not show hurt or despair, or even adulation, when the Spirit of God is revealed to us. Because of this aspect of our culture, we aren’t expected to share any sort of revelation from God, in part because we are taught that God no longer speaks … or we are taught that God’s Word is His final spoken will to us. That cannot be true, though, especially if the church flourished without the Torah, and certainly without the current version of the Bible we own.

Also, we have great difficulty even looking directly at people when we do share with them, simply because our churches are designed for us to see just one person. We are taught, inadvertently, to access God through just one leader standing before us.

I am quite confident, though, that we will become more comfortable with this ancient-yet-emergent format, as this group continues to experience something that is very, very special. I am praying prayers of protection now, because when God comes in power, there is serious opposition. I expect it, because I saw, and experienced, the power of last night.

Relax

In the course of teaching a men’s class this summer, I read Pagan Christianity? by Frank Viola and George Barna. Their thesis is that most modern Christian worship practices are the successors of imperial Rome, which, in turn, inherited these (or borrowed them) from the pagan cults of the first century.

In continuing the research, I read through parts of a book in my library by Robin Lane Fox, called Pagans and Christians, which gives a side-by-side look at the emergence of Christianity and the demise of pagan cults in imperial Rome, and thereafter. Other books on church history were referenced, as well.

The reason for reading through all of these books was to pock large holes in current worship traditions. My belief is that disagreements over worship practices are quite useless, considering that “the way we do things,” is, in large part, not entirely consistent with how the first Christians worshiped.

In essence, I believe that we are wasting our strength on things that are quite irrelevant, if all churches really want to adhere to the practices of the first Christians.

The first generation of Christians gathered in homes. Their gatherings were intense, with everyone offering something to the gathering. I Corinthians 14:26 is what an “order of worship” was supposed to look like. There was complete participation by everyone there. (Even though some churches get bent out of shape because of the later verse where women were told to be silent, we often forget that just three chapters earlier, Paul instructed women who pray in public to wear appropriate clothing. Let’s not forget that.)

Everyone participated. Everyone.

Based upon all of this, and because of an entire class I taught devoted to this, one of the practical suggestions I offered, as I drew the class to a close, was that we need to relax some of our traditions.

Traditions are valuable, whether they are older or newer. There is little doubt about that. Traditions give us unity and commonality, and familiarity. In a world, and culture, in constant flux, traditions give us great stability. We should never exalt them, though. We should use them, but not display them. We should manipulate them, not because of personal preferences, but because of kingdom preferences.

We waste precious strength in bitter arguments over styles and personalities and direction. We have become seriously distracted with constant conversations about how to lead churches, and, more specifically, how to lead our corporate worship. The first Christians had no such liturgy, or written order of worship. Their gatherings, in homes, looked more like really special family reunions or holiday times with those we love, rather than the modern hour of worship on Sunday mornings.

I don’t believe, though, that there is anything wrong with how we usually do things. There isn’t. We shape ourselves and our culture simultaneously.

But if we worship God with all of our strength, then let’s worship God with all our strength. Let’s not worship “worship” with all of our strength. If we do that, then we are wasting time, and strength, on the wrong things.