iCanuck

Definitions of Consumer Christianity

Skye Jethani’s new book Divine Commodity explores how consumerism has impacted our understanding of church, worship, mission, community, and God. He also offers insights into how we can overcome the influence of “Consumer Christianity” and awaken our imaginations through practicing private and corporate spiritual disciplines.

In keeping with that theme, Out of Ur is sponsoring a contest to see whether Urbanites can spot Consumer Christianity when they see it.

You can read a sample of the book here!!

See the sidebar for a short interview with Skye about consumerism and the North American church.  (The sidebar is over there. ) → → → →

So, here is my definition for the contest.  I have already purchased the book and am waiting for it to be delivered from Amazon.  So, if I win I can pass the book on to someone else – maybe one of you!!

In “Something Beautiful”, Sinead O’ Connor sings:

Oh I wanna make something
So lovely for you
‘Cus I promised that’s what I’d do for you
With the bible I stole
I know you forgave my soul
Because such was my need on a chronic Christmas Eve
And I think we’re agreed that it should have been free
And you sang to me

So, what do you think?  I know that many of you will have better definitions of consumer Christianity that I, so why don’t you enter the contest as well?  And, if you feel free, let us know what your definition is!

From Eternity to Here – Book Review

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A few years ago, I read several books by Frank Viola and I enjoyed all of them.  They provided me with a fresh perspective on church and gave me vocabulary to express my thoughts.  The books were part of a series and they looked pretty ugly (click here, here and here if you want to see what I mean.)  But we all know we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, don’t we?  I enjoyed the books for two reasons: 1) they helped me; and, 2) they were great conversation starters.

Frank Viola’s new book, From Eternity to Here has a clean, sharp look (i.e. not as ugly as the earlier books ) but I don’t feel it provided the same fodder for discussion as some of his other books do.  Before I say anymore, I asked Frank these two questions about his newest book:

Questions for the Author

READ MORE

10 Myths About Church Quitters

Despite the almost mantra-like status of the statement “people are leaving the church” there still appears to be little understanding about who is leaving, when they leave, why they leave, and what happens to them and their faith after they leave. Of course everyone has their own view on these issues but few, especially our church leaders, have taken the time to sit down and talk with an actual leaver or two.

It is much easier dealing with stereotypes than actual people, even if the stereotypes don’t help us understand what is really going on. For those interested in moving beyond the stereotypes and asking: “Who are these people who are leaving our churches?” an examination of some myths about church leavers may prove helpful.

Alan Jamieson

I first came across Alan Jamieson’s work through Julia Duin’s book, Quitting Church.

Here is his list:

Myth #1

It is only the traditional mainline churches that have large numbers of leavers. While it is true that people are leaving the traditional churches people are also leaving evangelical, charismatic and Pentecostal churches.

Myth #2

The people who leave are young adults, people on the fringe of our churches, and people who have not been in the church for very long.

READ MORE

The Coming Evangelical Collapse – A Canadian Perspective

In January, Internet Monk posted a series about The Coming Evangelical Collapse in America (***please link here to see the original posts!***) It has since been talked about all over the blogosphere and elsewhere.  I would love for you to read what he says so please follow the link above!

However, for all my Canadian readers, we need to remember these posts are about the church in the USA which is quite different than the church in Canada (believe it or not!).  We, in Canada, often think that our Christian culture is the same as in the States and we read books by American publishers forgetting that they were written from from a different perspective.  It is not easy to find the kinds of statistics and commentaries about the Canadian church.

And this is why I am linking to a friend of mine at Eclectic Christian where some of his posts give statistical information and reviews of Canadian Christians and churches.

Also Michael Bell has done a great job looking at statistics that help to expand on what Internet Monk was saying.  Please, please read his posts at Internet Monk here and part two here.

One of his comments is as follows:

If you want to know what America is going to look like in forty years, and how Evangelicals will be treated, look at Canada today. . .

. . . If my statistical analysis up to this point has been correct, then Evangelical numbers in the USA in forty years will be very similar to Evangelical numbers in Canada today. Much of what Michael has said about the way Evangelicals will be treated in the USA is already true in Canada.

So, please read these posts as they will prove to be very informative and helpful as we all aim to follow Jesus in our own contexts and what that looks like for the church in North America.

Also please refer to Michael Bell’s Ancecdotal Look at Canada in reference to the aforementioned Evangelical Collapse.

Interview with Bruxy Cavey

Bruxy Cavey

OK, so here is the long-awaited interview with Bruxy Cavey.  I hope you enjoy it.  I did.  I love his answers!

(BTW, in case you didn’t know Bruxy is the teaching pastor at The Meeting House and the author of The End of Religion.)

Irreligious Canuck: Let’s begin with a fun question.  Tell us in one sentence or less what you have learned from the following people:

Bruxy:

N.T. Wright: We must be vigorous to understand Jesus in his Jewish historical context or else we will tend to project our own ideals into his teaching.

Homer Simpson: Somebody other than God really understands me.

Brian McLaren: Gentleness and Respect really do look good on a person.

Your wife Nina : Brains and beauty really can coexist. (And/Or… Good humour needs no secondary justification. It is self-justifying. Laughter is just good.)

Your best friend (Greg): The simple life is the good life.

Modandas Gandhi: Jesus’ teaching should be taken seriously.

The Dalai Lama: Smile!

I.C.: Here are some questions about your book.

What is the book about?

Bruxy: Jesus.

I.C.: Why did you write this book?

Bruxy: I’m not one of those people who have always wanted to write a book. To be plainly honest – I hate writing. But I love Jesus, and I want to do my part to get his message as wide an exposure as possible. At our church, The Meeting House, we felt together that it could be useful to gather up some of the teaching we’ve been processing over the years and make it available in book form. Some people will learn about Jesus best by being invited to a lecture. Others will learn best in dialogue. Others will read a book. So I was commissioned by my church to write The End of Religion as a tool for our church to use to help better communicate the message of Jesus

I.C.: Who did you write the book for?

Bruxy: There are lots of books written to Christians about how to explain the Good News of Jesus to their non-Christian friends. I wanted a book to function as a bridge-builder between Christians and non-Christians; a book that was addressed directly to non-Christians yet which Christians could also read and be challenged by.

I.C.: What do you hope is the outcome for writing this book?

Bruxy: My hope is that The End of Religion can function as a kind of meeting place for people of diverse spiritual backgrounds to come together and talk about this central figure of history and his radical spirituality. I have already received wonderful feedback about how this is happening in book clubs and other venues and it does my heart good to know the book is being put to such good use.

I.C.: In the book you talk about the “Water and Wine Scandal.” Jesus’ first public miracle at the wedding in Cana is an illustration of how he undermines religion. Can you give us another example from Jesus’ life where he undermines religion?

Bruxy: Jesus challenged the religion of his day in five areas: Torah, Tradition, Territory, Tribe, and Temple. Here are some examples.

Torah: Jesus challenged religious people’s blind allegiance to the letter of the Law by inviting a healed man to carry his mat on the Sabbath (something forbidden by the prophet Jeremiah), by touching lepers when healing them (against Levitical law), overriding Moses’ divorce and remarriage laws, and by undoing kosher rules (declaring all foods clean). In so doing, Jesus taught first-century Jews a radically new way to approach, interpret, and apply their own Scriptures. A lesson that we should still apply today as Christians.

Tradition: Jesus railed against the “tradition of the elders” in Mark 7, saying that religious people tend to put tradition ahead of God’s own will. To make his point, he regularly broke with the expected behavioural norms of his day.

Territory: In a world of geo-political kingdoms at war with one another, Jesus claimed to be inaugurating a Kingdom that was not of this world. This Kingdom of God would be a trans-national, multi-ethnic, family of faith, calling all people out of their territorial battles and into an identity group that would transcend all borders and boundaries.

Tribe: In a kinship-based culture dominated by an ethnic-based religion, Jesus claimed that whoever followed God’s will was his real family. This set the stage for the New Testament church to call each other brother and sister and really mean it, even across the dominant lines of racial, political, and socio-economic divisions. The radical diversity-in-unity of the early Church was an unprecedented sociological miracle.

Temple: Jesus replaced the entire religious system of temple sacrifice with himself. He claimed his own body was the temple, that his life was the final sacrifice, and that he was the one offering it to God as would a priest. His followers would then say that they were now the Temple of God together, all being priests to one another. This made the entire edifice of the religion of their day redundant.

I.C.:Now, I have some questions that are not directly related to the book.  What would you say to Christians who are not sure that attending weekly church services is helping them follow Jesus?

Bruxy: Find a church community that not only challenges you to grow, but that invites you to partner with them to reach out to others.

I.C.: How do you remain “irreligious” yet remain in the church?

Bruxy: Being “irreligious” is about a heart disposition that refuses to turn any one structure into an idol. No religious structures or systems of worship are sacrosanct. But that doesn’t mean that structure itself is wrong. Structure is a servant of the Church, the Body of Christ. To paraphrase Jesus, “Structure was made for us, not us for structure.” Being organized can be a good thing. But turning any one organization or organizational pattern into something untouchable in its centrality is fundamentally anti-Christ.

I.C.: There is a growing movement in our society of Christians who stop attending church services. Do you have anything you would like to say to this group of people?

Bruxy: If church is just about attending, then I would stop too. But it should be less about just showing up and more about living together, doing life together, challenging and supporting each other as spiritual family, and reaching out to the community as a force of radical grace and generosity. Church should include face-to-face fellowship and shoulder-to-shoulder partnership in reaching out to others in need. If it has just become a matter of sitting and listening and maybe singing, then something should change. That might mean leaving one church to find one that is a better fit, or it might mean becoming an agent for change and reform within your current church. Either way, don’t give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but continue to find ways to spur one another on to love and good deeds.

I.C.: What book are you reading now and what are some books that you are planning to read soon?

Bruxy: I’m reading N.T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church
in preparation for our series on life after death.

I.C.: In 1-3 sentences, why should anyone be a follower of Jesus? (Or, what is the purpose of a Christian life?)

Bruxy: Jesus most clearly shows us God’s heart, offers us reconciliation for our broken relationship with the Divine, and teaches us a new, irreligious-yet-passionately-spiritual way of living. Why look anywhere else?

I.C.: And finally, here are three questions from our blog readers:

1) Religion as defined by the American Heritage Dictionary is: 1. Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe. 2. A personal or institutionalized system grounded in such belief and worship. 3. The life or condition of a person in a religious order. 4. A set of beliefs, values, and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader. 5. A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion. Doesn’t saying that we are not “religious” just confuse the person with whom we are trying to communicate? Shouldn’t we rather think of “religion” as being either the structure through which your “faith” or “relationship” is able to take expression, or the set of beliefs that guide your expression of your faith?

Bruxy: This person should start reading my book back-to-front. These are the issues I address in my last chapter and appendices. For now I will simply point out that we are under no obligation to use or defend an English word that is fraught with misunderstanding and falls woefully short of adequately labeling the life-changing message of Jesus. This is true especially when we find that the Bible does not provide an equivalent word the way we use the word “religion” today. In fact, in a beautiful play on concepts, James says that the only religion God cares about is that we live in loving ways every day of our lives. That is as “religious” as the God of the Bible would want us to become.

2) Is there tension in teaching inside an institution when many of your messages speak against that very institution? What keeps you from walking away from the traditional setting of the church when so much of it is religion and does not follow the teachings of Jesus?

Bruxy: Thankfully, I’m part of an Anabaptist movement (the Brethren In Christ) that is always open to change and renewal. We don’t view the church as the enemy, but our own human propensity for legalism and rigidity. As I mentioned above, we see structure and organization as a servant of the message, but not an indispensible part of that message. This is a very freeing and rewarding way of living in Christian community.

3) I see people who loathe religion but yet they seem to be attracted to cults. In your opinion, why does that happen?

Bruxy: It seems to me that many people feel betrayed by traditional religion, especially the warring, judgmental, violent religion that claims to worship someone they know as the “Prince of Peace”. At the same time, I am convinced that God has wired all people for relationship with himself. So, many people who reject traditional religion still hunger for a deeper connection with God. This is a beautiful and dangerous place to be, since these people will often settle for whatever non-traditional spiritual message they encounter first. As Christ-followers, our commission is to get His message out there and to help make disciples.

So there you have it!  What do you think? Leave comments below . . . (who knows? – maybe Bruxy himself will respond )

Also here is the link for the book site http://www.theendofreligion.org/ where you can listen to podcasts, learn more about the book and join in the conversation.

Thank you, Bruxy, for agreeing to do this for us.  I know this will be helpful for all of us in our journey.

John Eldredge: Quit Church Because Sick of Pretending

Admittedly, I don’t know much about John Eldredge except that he was written some popular books and many people I know have said he is their favourite author.  I have read Epic: The Story God Is Telling
and enjoyed it, though.  I found out from Julia Duin’s book (Quitting Church: Why The Faithful Are Fleeing And What To Do About It) that John Eldredge quit attending church.  For some reason, I found that surprising.  (Perhaps this is the “mature Christian” who left the institutional church that was referred to here.)  Here is what he said in an interview for Beliefnet.com as reported by Julia Duin on page 169 of her book.

“I don’t think we’ve come to appreciate how utterly numbing most church experience is.  Most people’s church experience amounts to about an hour a week.  It’s the Sunday service.  They are passive participants for the most part.  They listen to a message, they hear some songs, some music, all in an attempt to sort of inspire and courage.  It is mind-numbing, most of it.

So yes, I took a year off of church.  Just because I was so sick of pretending.  I was faking it; that was the problem.  I was faking a holiness I didn’t have, I was faking an enthusiasm that frankly wasn’t there, and I said, “I can’t do that.  It’s dishonest.” (These interviews can be found here.)

(This last comment reminds of two songs which talk about talking one way and acting another way: The Pretender by the Foo Fighters and Acrobat by U2)

According to Julia, John Eldredge and his family left the established church a decade ago and “never looked back.”  He told Julia that it is good to take time off church “to find the real thing”.  He went on to tell her that church does meet the need of newer Christians but for the most part “they are not bringing people into a genuine encounter with God.”

Finally, John Eldredge says, “The accusation is that we are backsliding, but the fact is, we are living a richer Christian experience than ever.  It’s mature Christians who have opted out of church.”

. . . WOW! . . .

So, my question today is . . . for those who have opted out of church, do you feel you are living a richer Christian experience than ever (as John Eldredge) or have you had a different experience?  Leave your comments below.

Mature Christians Should Leave the Institutional Church?

There is a new book that might make it to Books That Influence This Blog.   I have ordered it from Amazon and I am excited to start reading it.  The book is Quitting Church: Why The Faithful Are Fleeing And What To Do About It

Quitting Church

Julia Duin is the religion editor for The Washington Times and a self-described born-again Christian (is that possible even possible? . . . ha ha).

Here is the product description from Amazon:

Duin brings two kinds of experiences to bear in this engaging little jeremiad: as religion editor for the Washington Times, she is in her element marshaling statistics, interviewing authors and clergy, and commenting on the trend of faithful evangelicals who increasingly vote with their feet by leaving their churches. But she’s also a self-described born-again evangelical herself, coping with the personal pain of not having a viable and permanent church home. Drawing heavily on research by pollster George Barna, Duin diagnoses a widespread dissatisfaction among evangelicals, who feel their churches do a decent job with new Christians but fall far short with mature believers. In particular, Duin shows, women and singles are leaving churches in ever-greater numbers. (As a single woman herself, she discusses her own experiences with being marginalized while successfully evoking a larger context through research and polls.) Duin has some prescriptions to help with these problems, including meatier sermons that address real issues; house churches and micro-churches that foster more genuine community; and even in-church matchmaking services to help singles who want to find a mate.

At the Wall Street Journal, Terry Eastland has written a review where he comments that Julia Duin calls church quitting an epidemic among evangelicals. He also writes:

She reports, among other things: a lack of a feeling of community among church members, inducing loneliness and boredom; church teaching that fails to go beyond the basics of the faith or to reach members grappling with suffering or unanswered prayer; pastors who are either out of touch with their parishioners or themselves unhappy, or who fail to shepherd their flocks, or who are caught up in scandal, or who try to control the lives of church members in a high-handed way. She claims that many churches have “inefficient leadership models” and that many, preoccupied with the care of families, neglect single people.

A “lack of feeling of community?” . . . “loneliness?”. . .  “boredom?” . . .  “out of touch?” . . .  “scandal?” . . . “inefficient leadership models?”  Really?  Come on now, not in OUR churches . . . really?  (sarcasm intended)

Apparently, Julia writes about “a best-selling evangelical author quitting his church and arguing that leaving the institutional church is something that “mature Christians” should do.”  Who is that?  Does anyone know? I really want to know who this “best-selling evangelical author” who quit his church was.  If you know, tell me.   (Of course, I can always wait to read the book but if you tell me that I don’t have to wait.)  (OK, since posting this originally, I believe I have found the answer to that question.  See here.)

My wife and I are church planters working in Japan, but currently residing in Canada until we go back to Japan in 2009.  And so, I am totally excited to read this book – not because I want more ammo to bash the institutional but because books like these are valuable resources for us.

Can’t wait for the next Amazon box to arrive on my porch!

A Church Sign I Would Love to See and a Sermon I Would Love You to Read

Church signs.  Whenever I pass I church always look at them but later I rarely remember what they say.  There are really bad ones and really good ones.  (What constitutes a good one?  I’m not sure but you just know when you see it.)  There are videos on YouTube of different church signs.  There are groups on Facebook devoted to church signs.  I assume that church signs are used mainly to get people to come to the church.  How effective are they?  I don’t know, but there are some church signs that would have the opposite effect.

Friends of ours who also read Geez Magazine brought my attention to a sermon contest that the magazine held. I read Geez online and I hadn’t visited the page recently so I had missed the contest winners.  The third place sermon is titled The Lawn Sign Sermon.

PLEASE GO AND READ THIS SERMON!  The church sign talked about in this sermon would, without a doubt, bring newcomers to the church.

(Photos found on http://www.holytaco.com/2008/08/04/church-signs-that-wont-make-you-go-to-church/)

Rethinking the Sermon

The sermon has become the central part of most worship services today. When you ask someone, “How was church today?” or “What is THAT church like?”, you will get responses either about how good the sermon/preacher is or how good the music is. Even so, the music is usually seen as preparation or a lead-up to the sermon. The sermon is the most important part of most churches today so you would naturally thing that it would be the most effective part of the worship service. But, is it? How effective is the sermon? Or, is it effective at all? Some may argue that the effectiveness of the sermon depends on the giftedness of the preacher. That may be true . . . to an extent. I still think, though, the effectiveness of any preacher who is preaching in a large group setting is still quite limited.

I have been to Christian conference grounds where there are chapel services every morning and evening Sunday to Friday every week of the summer. Many faithfully attend these services daily with their Bible and notebook in hand. They hear sermons wice a day, every day for weeks! And what is the result of all this pew-sitting? Are they “closer to God” at the end of the summer then they were at the beginning? Are they following Jesus more wholeheartedly (Yes, I recognize the redundancy of that phrase, but I ain’t no professional author ) as a result of all the sermons they heard over the summer? Do husbands treat their wives better the more sermons they hear? Are wives more faithful to their husbands after attending a sermon filled weekend conference? Do you stop criticizing others the more years you spend in the church? Granted changes do occur seemingly as a result of sermons. I say “seemingly” because I am hesitant to give the lone sermon too much credit. Before I explain what I mean, take a look at something that A.W. Tozer, a well-known preacher, once wrote:

“Though God… has provided answers to our questions concering Him, the answers by no means lie on the surface. They must be sought by prayer, by long meditation on the written Word, and by earnest and well-disciplined labor. However brightly the light may shine, it can be seen only by those who are spiritually prepared to receive it.” (The Knowledge of the Holy)

So, if this is true, what does it mean for the Sunday morning sermon? Could we also say, “However eloquently the preacher may wax, it can be heard only by those who are spiritually prepared to receive it?” If someone is ready, if there are spiritually open, if they have heard God silently speaking to them already BEFORE attending the Sunday morning meeting, they are more likely to respond to something the preacher has said. But, what about those that haven’t been seeking by prayer, or meditating on the written Word, how effective will the sermon be for those people?

When there is genuine change in someone after attending a Christian conference of listening to a sermon, I wonder if it is because God has already been speaking to that area of the person’s life even before the sermon was delivered. Let”s say I have been feeling bad about how I treat my wife for some time and I have really wanted to change but I just haven’t gotten around to working on being a better husband. When I read the Bible and pray I feel that God is reminding me of this area of my life and how it needs to change. Every time I show disrespect I regret and feel bad. Sometime I say sorry to her. Then one day I hear a sermon on how to be a good husband and finally I make some changes in my life. Was it the sermon or the preacher that changed me? Or, was it that I had already placed myself in the position and was spiritually open at the time I heard the sermon that helped me make these lifestyle changes? Was it the sermon that effected the life change or was it my times of personal study and prayer?

If the sermon is not solely responsible for effecting change in one’s life, why is so much energy and time put into its preparation? Could that time and energy be used in other ways more effectively?

I have more to say but let me leave it here for now and give you a chance to respond. Of course, if nobody responds, I will just shut up and say no more but I would love to hear what others think and what their experiences have been.

It’s Not About the Church

I wanted to add another post soon after the last one but this week I have been at a conference in Ottawa with little access to the Internet. Some might think that I hate the church or am anti-church in some way after reading my last post. So, I just want to say that it really isn’t about the church. I don’t hate the church. The issue is with the structures that so often go together with church that often hinder us from following Jesus. (The podcast found at www.thegodjourney.com often puts words to thoughts in this area.) Once a church is started, you need to be a certain amount of energy into just keeping the church running and making sure that enough people attend the church so as to support itself. We all know that spirituality cannot be programmed and yet most churches are full of programs that are supposed to help us in our spiritual journey. But it doesn’t. I heard about one church this week in the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination that recently acquired a building and then decided to not use the space for church programs but to open it up for community groups to use during the week. I don’t know much else about that church but I would love to learn more about that church and others that put more value on people than programs. More to follow in the days ahead . . .