Maybe I can Get On TBN…all I Need is a Wig and a Little Bit of Crazy

This is the third in a series.  You can find the first two at edstetzter.com.  But there is some really good stuff here.

This Video Has it All!

In this Video there are a lot of things I love:  Mars Hill Seattle,  Lecrae, a Missional focus, and John Piper Quotes:

A Post From 2007…Still True…

A revisit of a post from 2007 that I enjoy:

So I was just reading about this church down Nashville way and I read their whole pitch and it just stressed me out…here are some of the quotes:

you WON’T see people in polyester singing badly

some of the best Christian “rock” music

Make no mistake, it was an EVENT…

Now I read that and I would just laugh if I did not believe that this truly wanted to reach people for Jesus, but shoot, when will the church learn that just because you are not wearing polyester it does not mean that you are not outdated? Just because you are not back in the ’70’s does not mean that your church is not firmly entrenched in 1992. Why are we bragging about the fact that we have stepped within two decades of pop-culture? Honestly the next time I hear a church describe itself as contemporary I will puke: 1. If you have to describe yourself as contemporary you are not and 2: the word has no meaning or value, it assumes a singular cultural and societal situation that does not exist. We never stop to ask: contemporary to whom? In most cases we the church are only contemporary by comparison to ourselves, and thus are not really contemporary in the sense in which we use it, but updated (yet still desperately behind). The church is essentially a poor caricature of cultures past while at the same time neglecting any real power she has. I would beg the church to discover the term missional, I know it does not go on the billboard as well, but it lives much better and will have a greater impact

Beyond that let’s be honest, some of the excesses of the 1990’s were indeed excesses, I don’t really want church to be an “event” I want it to be an encounter, an encounter with Jesus. I wish churches would just minister in their context and tell everyone it is all about Jesus instead of bragging that every week before the services you have a clown.

P.S. for all you churches stuck in the 50’s this post in no way validates your issues

P.S.S. My friend Aaron observed that I am just being closed minded and this is probably why our church is not a mega-church, here are his comments:

Dave, you know why we aren’t “growing” (as big as that church) ODDS ARE…

…it’s because we DON’T have jugglers pre-service

…it’s because we DON’T have hula hoop competitions (didn’t you read the book about that)

…it’s because we DON’T have our pastor paraded in on a motorcycle (side note, that would have been sweet if it was Palm Sunday…and the people were waving and laying down palms for him to enter into)

The Tangible Kingdom

I am reading the Tangible Kingdom by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay.  Like Hirsch’s “The Forgotten Ways” it is one of those books that totally blows you paradigm.  I am loving it.  I have this dream for American where the church abandons rote Americanism and truly begins to pursue Jesus again.  This book gives a glimpse of what it would look like for that to happen.  Beyond that if you want to know how unique this book is consider the fact that on the back it is endorsed by both Driscoll and McLaren.

Ah Relevance…We hardly knew thee…

Moving this post up:

So I was just reading about this church down Nashville way and I read their whole pitch and it just stressed me out…here are some of the quotes:

you WON’T see people in polyester singing badly

some of the best Christian “rock” music

Make no mistake, it was an EVENT…

Now I read that and I would just laugh if I did not believe that these people truly wanted to reach people for Jesus, but shoot, when will the church learn that just because you are not wearing polyester it does not mean that you are not outdated? Just because you are not back in the ’70’s does not mean that your church is not firmly entrenched in 1992. Why are we bragging about the fact that we have stepped within two decades of pop-culture? Honestly the next time I hear a church describe itself as contemporary I will puke: 1. If you have to describe yourself as contemporary you are not and 2: the word has no meaning or value, it assumes a singular cultural and societal situation that does not exist. We never stop to ask: contemporary to whom? In most cases we the church are only contemporary by comparison to ourselves, and thus are not really contemporary in the sense in which we use it, but updated (yet still desperately behind). The church is essentially a poor caricature of cultures past while at the same time neglecting any real power she has. I would beg the church to discover the term missional, I know it does not go on the billboard as well, but it lives much better and will have a greater impact

Beyond that let’s be honest, some of the excesses of the 1990’s were indeed excesses, I don’t really want church to be an “event” I want it to be and encounter, an encounter with Jesus. I wish churches would just minister in their context and tell everyone it is all about Jesus instead of bragging that every week before the services you have a clown.

(PS for all you churches stuck in the 50’s this post in no way validates your issues)

P.S.S.  My friend Aaron observed that I am just being closed minded and this is probably why our church is not a mega-church, here are his comments:

Dave, you know why we aren't "growing" (as big as that church) ODDS ARE...

...it's because we DON'T have jugglers pre-service

...it's because we DON'T have hula hoop competitions (didn't you read the book about that)

...it's because we DON'T have our pastor paraded in on a motorcycle (side note, that would have been sweet if it was Palm Sunday...and the people were waving and laying down palms for him to enter into)

Be Subversive

I am temporarily abandoning my pursuit of the writing project below. Not because I do not feel it is worthy, as I certainly do, but because I feel as though there are things that are more worthy. I have decided to put my energy into leading and loving a truly missional church. While the other would have been fun and in some sense constructive I am not sure it would be more constructive then spending the bulk of my time trying to introduce post-Christians to the one thing they really need: Jesus. I am just feeling a real call right now to living out a radical Christology. I am excited and called greatly to the concept that Christianity rightly understood and lived looks little like the model that good ole’ Constantine has foisted upon us. I am tired of hearing people argue for the mainstream nature of Christianity. Christianity that is in any sense mainstream has lost it’s true power and center. We follow a King who after all challenged people to deny themselves and take up their cross, he them took up a cross himself and for us died there, he also you might remember rose from the dead. None of these things fit well into mainstream American life. I do not want to be mainstream, I want to be subversive. The truth is that Jesus is incompatible with so much of our American lives, not only that he is a threat to them. Allegiance to anything apart from Christ must be questioned. In this sense Jesus and his kingdom are a threat to the rule and the reign of our day (they understood this once upon a time and killed him for it). He is also a threat to our naturalism, subjectivism and consumerism (and a host of other ism’s). All of these must be taken down. I don’t want a mainstream faith I want a subversive one! The joy of it all is that this subversive faith has been at the center of missional movements for all of Christian history, see the apostolic church (the real one with Peter and Paul, not the oneness petecostal posse) or the Chinese Church for instance. They live out a subversive, faith and people meet Jesus, really that is all I want to be about.

On that note I recommend this book “The Forgotten Ways“

Radically yours,

D

So I guess I am Just not feeling Angry Lately…

I have been having trouble getting up the energy to post about anything in particular…So let me just say this: I don’t maintain this blog just to make snippy comments about other folks (though it is a nice side benefit)… The reason I maintain this blog is so that I can help certain young peep’s whom I love ask intelligent questions. I think there is an ongoing battle for the future of Christianity, I want to help those young people ask the right questions and make the right decisions. But beyond just helping them to believe the right things, I hope to help them break free from the cultural malaise that has hijacked Christianity in our country, even though that might mean that they have to get rid of their American flag Bible covers, and reject the faulty reasoning of their predecessors that Rush Limbaugh is a prophet for this generation. It is a weird tension, because while there are many things I hope to see them reject there are so many more I hope to see them accept. I long for a truly Christian response to racial issues, and issues like the enviroment and immigration and wars in Iraq and education. More than that I am hoping that this generation unlike their forefathers will realize that each of these is a spiritual issue.

Most of all, I hope to help my friends navigate culture without caving to it. I hope that they will be Salty Christ followers, useful and flavorful, Christ followers who do not view the culture as the enemy of our mission, but the field. Right doctrine plays a large part in this, but so does dialogue, and especially love. So my friends I am occasionally angry but I hope I am always radical. I hope for the sake of the King and his unmerited but oh so amazing love that you will risk it all and be a radical too.

Sola Deo Gloria

Wonder what Mark Driscoll Means by This?

So I was reading over at the Resurgence which is Mark Driscoll’s Blog, and discovered an interesting quote. Before the quote I would like to note this..that though I do not live in Seattle I kind of consider Mark my Pastor, you see I am a pastor and since I think it is good for me to get continual teaching I listen to his regularly..It really speaks to me. I have both of his books and consider them to be amazing… I think Mark is awesomely used of God…However I just read this on his sight:

“I know a lot of people, especially idealists with blogs and small churches, think they know what we should teach and what we should do. All I can say is that we are working hard and trying to figure it out, but to be honest, it’s not an easy task. We’re all a bit tired, humbled, and honored that Jesus would use us.”

Now the context is people attacking him..but here is the thing, I have a blog and I also pastor a small church (not intentionally so, and growing, but small none the less)…What bothers me about this quote is that it seems to be an attack on people who are actually trying to do the same thing Mark is, break their communities Missional code. this is not easy, the number one rule of old school church planting was to find a growing, middle class, white area and plant a church you could naturally expect it to grow. The neighborhood in which we planted however fits into none of those categories. It is not middle class, but predominately poor, it is not growing, but rather rather is depressed, it is not white but extremely diverse. So in a sense not the easiest and simplest choice of planting communities. But this is the neighborhood we chose, because while we have seen lots of plants in our city none had any interest on our people. And our neighborhood needed a missionary, God called us. At times we have no clue what will reach them, and we continue to look for the key to that lock. In the mean time we continue to preach the Gospel and the power of the cross (which is what our neighborhood needs more than air) and the growth is slow at times, like questioning my call from God slow, but there are people meeting Christ, there are marriages being healed, there are people being bapstised, It’s all just slow. My point is this: I don’t think Mark was referring to missional folk like us, but it still kinda stings, when the situations of life have already made you sensitive.

Ray Bakke Quotes that Resonate

For those who do not know Ray Bakke is what might be called the grandfather of Urban Ministry…Especially to those of us who are white. He has recently written a new book called “Street Signs” which I have just begun to read, but as always happens when I read a Ray Bakke book (”A Theology as Big as the City” was life changing for me) it is resonating with me. Here are some quotes and thoughts:

“On God’s green earth, white people only comprise 13 percent of the population…I believe if you are a white parent with white kids and you haven’t taught then to live as a minority within the earth’s population you have done them a disservice. You haven’t prepared your children for a world reality”

I could not agree more than that. While we only have one child in school right now throughout her first two years she has always been one of only a few white kids in her class. I believe that this is good for her. If fact I would have it no other way. I believe that on a social level and a mission readiness level this will give her a huge head start. Beyond that I believe that she will have better insight into truly understanding the message of the gospel if her perspective in not limited to only her home culture, and its blind spots. (This is what I refer to as Dalmatian Christianity…Dalmatians become sicklier the more pure bred they become, the same is true for the faith, when our perspective is limited so is needed correction.) While my daughter will not likely ever have to understand what it truly means to be a minority (she is still white and no matter the student demographics, and whether white folk like to hear it or not, that still affords her privilege in our society) I hope at least that God will use this to prepare her.

“We discovered that the inner-city was the safest place to raise our kids spiritually in America…In those days the kids and I were always asked to pray at sporting events and Banquets. As a help to our kid’s schools, [my wife] and I worked as volunteer teachers. Our belief was, if you put your kids in an inner-city school, you should go with them as volunteers.”

What a joy it is for me to know that James Dobson and the Home School Mafia do not have the corner on Christian though and education. What Bakke speaks of is what my parents, and now my wife and I practiced, and frankly I would put the results up against even the best of home schooling (which is not to say that home schooling is not sometimes a valid choice.) Bakke has 3 children, one teaches, another was recruited by Harvard and is working on his doctorate as the only white student at Howard Divinity school and another is a case worker for an agency in Chicago. But the most common thread is that all are living for Jesus. Similarly my parents raised five children in a public school and all of us follow Jesus. The concept is basic and speaks to a hypocrisy that Christians sometimes have when they speak of education and family it is this: Does parenting matter or not, it would seem that most argue that it does…in fact some argue that it may even be most important (I agree by the way). If however this is true it then it is foolish and hypocritical to blame urban educators where 75 percent (or more) of students come from single parent homes form their performance. And if parenting does matter than, home schooling is not what is needed but rather home education. Education in how to live like a Christ follower in this world, how to resist pressure (rather than trying to hide from it, which frankly is usually a disaster waiting to happen), how to make friends and influence them and not vise versa, a Christ following parent can do this if they dare take the risk, and the result can be amazing. We can educate our children at home and yet send them to do kingdom work in the schools.

Stuff Like This Is Why I Love Mark Driscoll

I totally agree with the following quote from Mark Driscoll. It seems to me in this modern “let’s have Community” sort o’ world, that any sort of reason associated with that community has been lost:

“Sadly, with the missional conversation often turning toward authentic community, the focus of using every possible means provided in culture for the gospel to reach as many people as possible is getting lost. It is as if the thought of thousands of people getting saved is a bad thing because it results in a megachurch without enough seats for all the people, as if the goal of ministry was to connect fewer people to Jesus. In saying this I am not defending megachurches in general, but am arguing that it is possible to be urban and evangelical, emerging and mega, authentic and video, evangelistic and reformed because, in the missional world, “by all possible means” is to be taken literally.”

Read more here: Mars Hill Church or The Resurgence