Many of you know that I am the Adult Ministries Pastor at StoneBridge Christian Church in Omaha, Nebraska. Those who have known me for a while know that this was a bit of a change of focus for me - initially I imagined myself as a seminary professor rather than a pastor in a local church. But I've been doing this job for about 5 months now and I love it. I love this church and their commitment to reach people who don't know Jesus and disciple those who do. I love being part of a staff that is absolutely committed to pursuing this goal with excellence, and is willing to try new ways of reaching out to the people in our community. And I love the people in this congregation - their desire to minister to lost and hurting people, and willingness to devote their time and energy to the ministries of this church in service to the Kingdom of God have humbled and moved me more times than I can count.
So I got a little defensive when we ran across a blog post that seemed critical of what we were trying to do. The author of the blog, Brandon, seems like a genuinely nice guy. He says he never criticized what we do, and I think he sincerely means that. He said he simply wants to ask questions. Fair enough. Although I can't help but think that the title of his post ("A Church is Making Idols"), coupled with his assertion that what we were doing is weird, and the fact that several people posted completely negative reactions and Brandon never responded to those reactions until we discovered the blog and posted a defense, amounts to a pretty critical take on things. Having said that, our interactions with Brandon on his blog have been positive, and he's asked some valid questions, so I don't want to belabor this point.
So here's the issue itself. We had a former American Idol contestant, Heather Cox, perform a concert at our church on a Saturday night. She also led a forum that morning where people could hear about her experience on the show, as well as receive pointers on how to audition (American Idol held auditions in Omaha a week later). As a part of the audition forum, people had a chance to perform, and the best performers were given the opportunity to perform at Heather's concert that night. Heather is a young Christian woman, and this was an opportunity for people to hear a Christian perspective from someone involved with a TV show that has become a cultural phenomenon.
These events acted as a lead-in to a sermon series on American Idols that began the next day. The series used the show as a springboard to move deeper into the Bible and see what it has to say about four things Americans have a tendency to idolize: popularity, beauty, money and power.
My question to you is: do you think this is weird? That is the question posed by Brandon on his blog. You can see the responses to his question at the link above, as well as my explanation of why we do events like these. The short version is, we want to bring the community into our church, with the hope that they'll like what they see or hear and return. I believe pretty firmly that every event we hold does not have to include an in-depth discussion of the Bible - sometimes we just want to connect with people in our community in a non-threatening way. And I'm disappointed that some people (like several of the commenters on Brandon's blog) are so willing to make snap judgments about churches that make an attempt to be culturally relevant. When did "relevant" become a dirty word in the church, anyway?
PS - Here's a link to another church member's blog on this topic.
6 comments:
I don't think its weird.
I think when you use something popular like American Idol you'll invoke all sorts of reactions. And I would guess that a pretty good percentage of the people who responded negatively to the event do not care for American Idol.
I don't think it's weird, but then again I go to a church that allows big name secular artists, businesses, and speakers to use our main auditorium as a concert or conference venue during the week, often for free (in Sept, Clint Black is having his concert there and tickets are regular price). We also have our building open everyday to the community and local businesses to use our conference rooms, couches, or class rooms, along with free wi-fi and free coffee. Why? Because we believe that anything we "own" doesn't belong to us (us personally, us as a congregation, us as Christians). Rather, it is God's and should be used to be a blessing to others. Note that Jesus had the habit of meeting the needs of "sinners" prior to expecting them to convert. Note also that it is a historical fact, even agreed to by non-Christian historians, that early Christians were known for their generosity to their communities (i.e. non-believers) and that this fueled a great deal of Christianity's growth. See Robert L. Wilken, The Christians as the Romans Saw Them, Yale U. Press (1984). My congregation's hope is that people will come to our church for a totally non-church reason, will see that it's nothing like what they expected a church to look like, and maybe God will work in them to try checking it out one weekend when they might never have been willing to step into a church before. It sounds like StoneBridge is doing the same thing.
here is what you need. actually all churches need this. i know that you cant be copletely honest because you work at the church and you need to be above reproach. but you need someone, disconnected from you, to write or meet this guy, smack him, and say "shut the hell up you irrelevant douschbag."
ne ways, i think that will work.
Thanks for your thoughts, guys. I'd welcome more responses as well.
Justin, while I appreciate your thoughts, I'm going to have to ask you not to say things like that on this blog. I really want this to be a place where people can discuss their ideas when they disagree - and to do that we need to treat each other with respect, and respect their ideas even when we disagree with them. Whatever you may think of people, please do not call anyone names here (or advocate doing physical harm, for that matter). I know it was played for a joke, but it is not the kind of environment I want to promote here.
The Learned Hand,
Another book that speaks to the same phenomenon you mentioned is the recent one by Rodney Stark: The Rise of Christianity. (I can't figure out how to use the html tags on these things). I believe it was chapter four that elaborated on the point that: one of the reasons why Christianity succeeded was because it went in head-first, when things went bad (e.g., plague), while the social elite bolted for the hills.
Post a Comment