Anyway, for the two people out there who know about my super-secret Web project, you may be wondering what the latest news is. Well, the latest news is sad: the project died due to a lack of time, resources, and motivating vision. Here’s what the project was all about in a nutshell: an innovative Christian social news + networking site that would provide really cool ways to aggregate content from exciting news sites, blogs, podcasts, ministries, and so forth with an emphasis on media and the arts — all the while fostering meaningful relationships that would encourage discipleship and Biblical training. Lots of neat ideas…WAY too ambitious. I honestly would need to assemble a comprehensive team and expend a lot of effort in order to get this off the ground.

The strange thing is that the genesis of this project actually looked a little different and somehow it got lost in the shuffle: a site that would be forward-looking and would encourage and challenge the Church in the West to envision a future age where the Church isn’t a dying institution divorced from the language, culture, and concerns of the day but is wholesomely engaged in restoration and healing and progress within the culture around it.

Here’s what I think: there are many innovative streams within the Body of Christ today: missional, emergent, charismatic, apostolic-prophetic, reformed, and so forth. There are probably more streams that I’m not even aware of. The problem is that, by and large, these streams are not talking to each other — or if they are, it’s largely on a footing of either distrust or sheer ignorance. And so we come to an inescapable conclusion: if we’re expecting to reach non-Christians or former Christians with the Gospel and convince them that the Church is the place to be, then we need to be doing a much better job of understanding and articulating what the Church actually is (and is not) and what its primary purpose is in relation to people’s everyday milieu.

I am a strong advocate of unity within the Church (see my three-part essay on Thoughts of Resurrection for more on this topic), and one of the ways I would like to see unity in action is within the process of taking a hard look at how we “do church” and which ways we can embrace change, uncertainty, innovation, and Spirit-led renewal in order to effect a positive and greater impact on the world around us.

In other words, I wonder what it would look like if Brian McLaren, Bill Johnson, Rick Warren, Frank Viola, and N.T. Wright all got in a room together and talked about the state of the Church. Just a thought. (And if you don’t know who some or all of those people are, that proves my point exactly. We need more cross-pollination!)

So there’s a brief peak into my brain today. What is the solution to this conundrum? That’s something I’m still working on. If it ends up becoming a new project, that’s awesome, but if not, I’m confident someone else will pick up the baton. At any rate, I will continue to post my thoughts here on this blog over the next few months as I wrestle with these intriguing questions.

What do you think?

Only four months later…the Florida “outpouring” has dwindled to a few hundred people at the original starting church, and the leader of the revival, Todd Bentley, is now in the midst of a marital crisis and fierce doctrinal controversy that has left the broader charismatic movement reeling. Charisma Magazine wrote up in good detail the latest news as we know it.

I want to be very clear: I have been personally blessed by Todd Bentley’s ministry in the past, and some of his closest friends in ministry are people I know and trust (not personally, but in terms of spiritual fruit and teaching). So I don’t want to make light of this tragedy in any way, and I am praying for him and his family’s recovery and healing.

But something is going on in the Body of Christ right now, and we need to discern what is happening and not give way to doubt and hardness of heart. The first question we need to ask is: is the Lakeland revival over? I believe it is. But that’s the wrong question. The real question is: is revival over? And the answer to that is an emphatic NO!

I spent the last several days very distressed about this sequence of events, and as I’ve been seeking the Lord for answers, I’ve begun to sense some things that I think are important to remember and understand. I’ll just walk through some of my thoughts in bullet-point form:

• True revival is not about a person, a place, or a thing. It is about the sovereign move of Almighty God in response to Jesus followers crying out to Him from the depths of their souls.
• True revival is not about angles, visions, prophecies, miracles, visitations, glory clouds, gemstones, gold dust, oil, and other signs and wonders. It is about Jesus Christ. It is about His power to restore all the that enemy has stolen. It is about transformation. “I once was lost, but now I’m found. I once was blind, but now I see.” That’s revival.
• True revival cannot be beamed across a TV screen or performed on the platform. It cannot be told, it cannot be explained, and it cannot be contained. Because, you see, revival is the violent move of God in glory and power, and God — last time I looked — is not a video feed or a worship band or a talking head with a microphone up on stage.
• True revival is not a church, or a conference, or a tent, or a style, or a method, or a format, or a culture, or a tradition. True revival is timeless and transcendent, because God is outside of time and beyond this universe.
• When true revival comes, it will convict people to go out. All eyes will not be on any person, place, or thing. It will be on Jesus Christ. People will not wait for the “fire” to come to their city in pomp and circumstance before they go out and minister to people in the name of Jesus. They will go out and minister to people in the name of Jesus in order to bring the fire of God down to their city.
• When true revival comes, it will be messy, but it will not be flabby. It will not be frayed around the edges. It will not focus on the biggest and brightest and best and ignore the details. The devil is NOT in the details. God is in the details. The first shall be last, and the last first. When true revival comes, it will not be about flash, it will be about substance. It will be about meeting people’s needs where they are. It will be about speaking to people in a language they can understand. It will be about being all things to all men in order to preach the good news of Jesus Christ.
• Oh how arrogant to think that only the superficial gloss of “charismania” heralds the arrival of revival. Lord, forgive us of our pride, our presumption. Forgive us of our need for hype and attention instead of conviction and consecration. Forgive us for looking to men to bring us into your Holy Presence when all we need is a spirit willing to yield itself to you.

There is a shift going on…a shift in the Body of Christ right now where people are beginning to realize that the hallmark of every true revival is a gripping fear of the Lord and a powerful, irresistible yearning for holiness and purification. I felt this already when I was up at the JesusCulture conference a couple of weeks ago. More on that another time. Suffice it to say, it was an incredible, life-changing time, but not because of signs and wonders but because of God’s holy presence and the palpable feeling of intense spiritual hunger in the room that demanded a transformational response from heaven. We got down on our knees and we gave our all to Jesus, everything, without reservation, without hesitation. The conviction of the Holy Spirit was so strong that I was ready to repent of sins I haven’t even committed yet. That was a joke, in case you missed it.

So is the revival over? No! It’s just now truly beginning! Some people are saying the Lakeland “revival” was false and of the devil. I believe it was of God when it initially started. Other people are saying that the revival was real all along and the devil is now trying his best to shut it down. No, I believe that too is of God, although the devil is certainly on the offensive.

I believe God used Lakeland as a catalyst for radical spiritual hunger and has now shut down what was quickly turning into a quagmire in order for real revival to break out spontaneously, earnestly, sincerely, and sustainably across this dry land we call America. This time revival won’t be about Todd Bentley, or Lakeland, or God TV, or apostles, or miracles, or media, or glory clouds, or angelic hosts, or worship music, or prophecies, or anything else. It will be about one thing and one thing only: Jesus Christ. We will encounter Jesus, be saved by Jesus, be delivered by Jesus, be changed by Jesus, be loved by Jesus, be equipped by Jesus, and be sent out by Jesus to go do the compassionate works of Jesus in order for the world to hear about Jesus and see Jesus and be set free by Jesus.

If revival isn’t about Jesus, and Him alone, then somehow, somewhere, we’ve lost the plot.

“On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” — Matthew 7:22-23

Honestly, I had no idea who Ben was or practically how this event event got started before I came. I don’t even remember where I found the link to the initial information, but literally my impression a number of months back was like “Hey, some dude thinks he’s gonna put on a conference and Mark Batterson’s gonna show up. Sick.” I figured what the hey and signed up. Of course, the official Web site looked pretty slick once it went online and some of the other speakers were pretty notable as well, so both Shayne and I were jazzed to come.

I got to hear more about Ben and RCC at the conference today and actually was able to meet with him and chat in person which was fun. Seems like a super guy. He said the original idea was that maybe if they were really lucky, they could fill up a partition of the ballroom at the Hyatt with, say, 200 people, and that would rock. Well, it turned out God had other plans. I’d say there were at least 1,000 people there. The whole ballroom was packed. No partition necessary.

Mark Batterson, lead pastor at National Community Church, was brilliant as I expected, but the thing I appreciated more than anything else about him wasn’t what he said but the reasons behind what he said. Here is a man who really cares deeply about chasing after God and doesn’t consider his present condition or that of his team, his church, or his congregation as any kind of role model to emulate like it’s a finished product. He said point-blank that he was a work-in-progress and they’re still trying to figure out what they’re doing, and I believed his sincerity. God is indeed doing a mighty work in their midst, and I have no doubt that as long as Mark and the rest of NCC chase hard after God no matter the cost, without fear, and with conviction of heart and a complete abandonment to the Holy Spirit, they will go places they haven’t even dreamed of yet.

I’ll post some notes on what he talked about along with the other speakers in a (near) future post. Before I close this one though, I’d like to give a shoutout to the other presenters who particularly spoke to me and then finish off with some general impressions of the conference.

Vince Antonucci was a blast. Kind of daft in the head perhaps, but very powerful and God-centered in his exhortation. His personal background was that of an extremely “un-churched” variety, so he had a great and important perspective to share on the sometimes bizarre world of Christendom here in America and how vital it is that we focus on going out and saving people who are truly in need of a savior instead of catering to the weaknesses and comfort levels of seasoned churchgoers.

Darrin Patrick presented a challenging message about idolatry and how we often fall back on the desires of our human nature instead of relying on the One who is greater than anything we might treasure, worship, or give our allegiance to here on the earth. Until we seek out the root sin of idolatry in our lives, we will not be able to accomplish the mission God has for us.

Finally, but certainly not exclusively, I really enjoyed seeing Perry Noble in the flesh. I’d heard of him and heard him in a podcast interview recently, but his preaching in person was off the charts. God is really using him in an awesome way to speak to the state of the Church today. I can’t even go into all that he talked about, but basically his message was that if we’re not walking close to Jesus everyday and intensely seeking revelation from the Holy Spirit so that we can accomplish the work of the Father just like Jesus did, we might as well just give up now and throw in the towel. If we KNOW we are called by God to be in serious church ministry and leadership (and the calling has to be real and genuine), then we have to walk in that calling and claim the authority that God has for us to do what He has called us to do. Powerful, powerful stuff, and it absolutely convicted me to reaffirm what God has called me to do in my own life and not be afraid to chase after it wholeheartedly!

Overall, the conference was very, very good and honoring to God, and I truly hope it happens again next year. A few additional thoughts: these leaders are considered to be on the cutting edge of mainstream evangelicalism today, and being a fervent believer in the charismatic movement and the even narrower world of the apostolic-prophetic movement, I went in with a degree of curiosity mixed with trepidation to see if I would leave excited or frustrated. I’m happy to say that I perceive that the state of the church at large is strong if this is where it’s going. However, I am still somewhat sorrowful that the incredible supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit are not given the limelight they deserve and that people generally aren’t focusing on His outpourings in these circles. I see glimmers of hope though, and I know that Mark and possibly a few of the other folks there are “closet charismatics” who really are trying to walk out what the Holy Spirit is showing them, so I’m trusting God to work everything out in his good timing and that revival will not pass by the evangelical church as a whole.

And with that sentiment, I say Goodnight and God Bless. See you next week!

I want to believe that a man can work a sixty-hour week, spend quality time with his wife and kids, be involved in his community, find time for leisure, and still be an effective disciple of Jesus Christ. The kind of man who prays big prayers and knows God intimately for those prayers. The kind of man who readily leads many others to his Savior and disciples those same people to maturity. I want to believe, but I don’t know any men like that.

Well, it’s sad that Dan doesn’t know any men like that. I’m not sure I know too many myself, but one thing I do know. Separating out all those pursuits, and tacking on “and still be an effective disciple of Jesus Christ”, is the very thing that has caused the problem in the first place.

Why can’t I be an effective disciple of Jesus Christ when I work a sixty-hour work week? Why can’t I be an effective disciple of Jesus Christ when I spend quality time with my wife and kids? (Frankly, all the full-time ministry people out there need to spend a lot more quality time with their wife/husband and kids. A LOT more.) Why can’t I be an effective disciple of Jesus Christ when I get involved with my community, or when I take time off for leisure?

There is a man by the name of Chuck Ripka. Here’s a page about him on his ministry site. He’s a banker. He co-founded a “Christian” bank several years back, and when I say Christian, I mean people call up the BANK for prayer. They go to the bank and get healed. People have been saved by coming to the bank. In fact, that bank is more church for some people than church.

Chuck wrote an awesome book called God Out of the Box which explains his life and his ministry within the context of business, politics, and local community. His work, his family, and his friends are his mission field. It’s a great read.

So, my conclusion is this: you can indeed do it all. But first you need to get out of the horrible mindset that says that ministry is something you do within the confines of “church” that you aren’t doing when you’re working, playing, and generally doing life. That’s wrong, and that mindset must be crushed if we are at all going to have a major impact on future generations.

In this series, I have been attempting to bring to your attention some of my thoughts regarding the most common approaches to “doing church” in America that have been detrimental to the healthy growth and strength of God’s Kingdom on earth. Today, I would like to talk about the rise of the “let’s attract people in the world by looking just like them” church movement that, while admirable and in some ways even successful, has made some major blunders in its quest to “reach the lost”.

You may have been in one of these churches. They got their traffic cops out in the parking lot directing people. They got their Starbucks-derived café in the lobby. They got their marketing materials prominently placed in obvious locations. You can drop your children off at the “KidzTown” entrance (wow, it looks just like a mini-theme park!), and then enter into the sanctuary for a one hour “worship experience”. The band is made up of pasty-white teenagers with emo hair and lots of rips. Hope your ears can take the heat, because, baby, this worship music is LOUD. After enduring a few of the latest Top 10 hits in the Christian radio scene — sounding almost, but not quite, as good as the original CD — you settle down for a few dozen minutes of watching the 30 year old celebrity pastor strut his hip-casual-but-not-too-casual-just-so-you-know-he’s-more-than-a-regular-guy stuff up on the well-lit stage. It’s a bitchin’ message, man — full of plenty of anecdotes, funny one-liners, a handful of Bible verses just to make sure you know which religion you’re looking at, and a few Hollywood-quality video clips for good measure. There’s a call to action at the end, where you can fill out some of the marketing materials they gave you in order to “plug into” the life of the church (i.e., programs), and you’re done. No, wait, not quite, because remember, you do need to give away part of your life savings to the church (somebody’s gotta pay for all this equipment, brother!) so God can bless you. After being fully blessed by your sacrificial giving to well-paid staff members…excuse me, I mean the Kingdom of God…you can go out and pick up your kids who had such an awesome time in KidzTown, and enjoy another cup of latté from the Starbucks-like café before heading off into the world and living just like all the other suburban middle-class Americans do.

Whew. Well, I either just heard an AMEN! or a flurry of agitated protestation. Let me back up a bit and make something quite clear: I have NOTHING whatsoever against contemporary worship music per se. In fact, I listen to a lot of it and love it. I have nothing against church cafés — in fact, I think it’s a great idea. I have nothing against making sure kids have a good time in a fun and enjoyable atmosphere, I have nothing against young pastors who dress like the year 2007 and not the year 1849, and I have nothing against sermons that are relevant to people’s daily lives. Actually I like all of those things, very much. I even believe, strongly, that God does bless you when you give sacrificially to ministries that are pouring their hearts and souls into furthering the Kingdom of Heaven.

The problem is when the milieu trumps the mission. If you have to have all of those hip, relevant things in place before you can transform lives with the mind of Christ, the love of the Father, and the power of the Holy Spirit, then you aren’t doing it right. Yes, there are megachurches with 10,000 strong congregations that are making a huge impact in preaching the Gospel and setting people free from sin, sickness, and selfishness. There are also 10-person churches meeting in parking lots at 3:00 AM in the morning that are making a huge impact in preaching the Gospel and setting people free from sin, sickness, and selfishness. No one church model is alone in its ability to reach people. We need all models, and in fact we need models that haven’t even been invented yet.

I get really concerned, even frustrated, when I see people confuse their pet church model with the Bride of Christ. I don’t care if you have lots of people going to your church and being entertained with all of your really groovy ministry efforts. I don’t care if you have people filling out cards with the “I’ve accepted Jesus into my heart” box checked. And, please, don’t point to your number of public baptisms as evidence that your plans are working. I know people who have been heavily involved in churches their whole lives, baptized long ago, talking all the Christian lingo and saying all the “right stuff”, and their lives are a total mess and mirror that of the most screwed-up heathens. All the church programs in the world can’t give people the one thing they need the most: a supernatural encounter with the Lord Almighty.

If your church looks just like the rest of the world, and smells the same as all the other stuff out there, something is seriously off-balance. I remember hearing a story about a “Christian” music store that had a large poster matching up secular pop stars with “Christian” pop stars. If you like Britney Spears, check out this artist. If you like Justin Timberlake, check out that artist. If you like Beyonce, check out this artist. We sell a sanitized and sanctified alternative for all of your favorite worldly stuff. Amazing, isn’t it? It’s almost like we use this magical cleansing product called Christianizer™ that you can spray on any secular cultural phenomenon and poof! It’s now Christian, replete with plenty of Jesus sprinkled on the top for good measure.

We need to get back to the basics. We need to get back to focusing on the things that really matter, living with radical love and with the fruit of our lives reflecting our supernatural faith in a supernatural God. We have to stop looking to the world in order to copy what they’re doing. God is so much bigger than that. If we really want to reach people, we should be inventing a Kingdom culture that is more beautiful, more excellent, more innovative, and more meaningful than anything the world has to offer. We need to possess such deep wisdom, such serene peace, such problem-solving potential, and such creative power that we attract those who are burned out with the mediocre sinkhole that is modern American consumer culture.

40 years ago the hippies realized that something was wrong with the mainstream modern world they lived in. They rebelled against an artificial, plastic culture and looked to communes and harmony with nature and ancient pagan practices to bring them into a better place. Then an amazing thing happened: many of those hippies became disillusioned when their quest brought them to a dead end, peace and love proving to be strangely illusive, and they went on to find something that would finally quench their thirst and nourish their souls: Jesus. The Jesus People movement of the 70’s was one of the largest periods of revival in American history. Entire church networks and denominations sprung up out of nowhere as the former hippies who weren’t welcome in established churches started their own, and the face of Christianity forever changed as these people found a more authentic, more real, and more community-minded faith. But somehow, in the intervening years between then and now, we’ve lost that revelation. We’ve forgotten that it’s not about buildings and programs and products and checkboxes and marketing materials and movies. It’s about people. It’s about God’s creation and His will to restore it. And it really is all about peace, love, and understanding!

I am happy to have a church that is “seeker-friendly”, but I am even happier to have a church that is “Jesus-friendly”. May we never lose sight of the fact that it’s not all about the latest Christian clone of Kayne West, or of Harry Potter, and it’s not about having a better video projector or theatrical lighting system than Bubba.

It’s all about Jesus!

Some people, because they use a computer on the job, want nothing to do with it in their spare time. Not me! Set me in front of a cool Mac, and I’m lost for hours. The problem with that, of course, is that there is something far more worthy of my attention. Yes, by Jobs, there is a Thing that is greater than a Mac, greater than a game, greater than a movie or a book or a symphony or a significant other — greater even than life itself. And this Thing, this mind-blowing, extravagant Being, deservers our rapt attention and our undivided love.

I want to be an effective steward of the resources the Holy Spirit has given me. I want to be continually in a state of worship and exaltation, giving praise and thanks to the One Most High. I want to be constantly at the ready to impart peace, wisdom, understanding, healing, and transformation to any person I come into contact with who needs it. And I can’t be at my best, filled with the glory of the supernatural God I serve, without first spending time in prayer…lots of time…focused solely on the heavenly places and the things above. I can’t operate in the prophetic gift, seeing the unseen realm around me and discerning the spiritual atmosphere of the places in which I inhabit, without first communing with God, keeping my eyes firmly fixed on Jesus and His beautiful countenance. Then, and only then, will I be able to walk in power and compassion; only then will I be able to affect change in the people and environments around me everywhere I go.

I’m tired of just playing and fooling around. I don’t mean rest — that’s very important — but I mean the idle fluff that is keeping me from becoming the person that God wants me to be. So I’m going to take a stand right now and say that I will place God first in my life, and I will turn to him before I turn to any other distracting pursuit that may have its usefulness but is not life’s ultimate objective. Lord, I will spend time praising you and listening for your voice, even if it means I have to look a few less blogs or a few less e-mails every day!

Pictures forthcoming (taken by my brother Shayne)….

In fact, I am really beginning to think that postmodernism may be a direct movement of God’s within the “unchurched” post-Christian world. Postmodernism is distrustful of institutions and centralized organizations and prefers a relational, decentralized lifestyle in areas of human engagement. Postmodernism stresses personal experience over logical truth. Postmodernism is skeptical of claims for a one-size-fits-all approach to life. Postmodernism rejects grand, overarching theories devoid of concrete impact and instead celebrates an on-the-ground, daily walk that is lived out rather than talked about.

Wait a minute, am I really describing postmodernism, or am I describing the first century New Testament Church? Sometimes it seems to me that hippie communes have more in common with Biblical Christianity than CEO-led Fortune 500 corporations. When I think about how Jesus, the disciples, and later the apostles lived, I think about a tightly-knit community of Kingdom lovers who lived together, ate together, slept together, and traveled together. Church wasn’t a building with a weekly service, it was a family with a mission to adopt new siblings. And this family was relational, decentralized, on-the-ground, experiential, and personalized for each setting, place, and time. Hmm, sounds an awful lot like the postmodern milieu we find ourselves in today!

I think God invented postmodernism, and I think it’s the best thing to happen to the Church since 33 A.D. Rather than be frightened by it, we should be rejoicing in our Lord’s sovereign hand that is determined to reshape the Church in His image rather than in our image. This isn’t a religious crisis, this is a supernatural opportunity given to us by Heaven that is unparalleled in the history of Planet Earth. In this postmodern world, the Church is starting to rise up as the glorious Bride she was always intended to be, and I for one am more excited about the “postmodern” Church than just about anything else I can think of.

Bring it on!

Typically when you hear criticism of how the church relates to the world, you hear it in the context of liberal vs. conservative. The conservatives are the “fundies” who want to spoil everyone’s fun and rule the world from the pulpit with a Bible-thumping fist (and who probably want to stone gays and steal candy from little children), and the liberals are the “dead” cultural religious folk who have compromised with every position imaginable for so long that so that they stand for nothing at all (except that they don’t like fundies, and the feeling is mutual).

Now of course I’m exaggerating for effect, and I don’t necessarily agree with any of these allegations. Personally, I have what would probably be considered by most to be a decidedly conservative theological bent. But I’m not here to defend Biblical literalism, creationism, Calvinism, or any other “ism”. My viewpoint is clear: in a certain sense, I think they’re both wrong, and here’s why.

We have a serious perception problem in the world of the church today, and it is that the Christian religion is old, outdated, uninformed, out of touch, and no longer necessary in this modern (or I should say post-modern) era. To coin an overused but useful term, the church is no longer relevant. There are a huge variety of complex factors at work here, so it’s difficult to pinpoint any particular reason for the decline of healthy respect the culture has for Christianity these days. One thing is for certain: neither the conservatives nor the liberals are exempt from this phenomenon. In fact, liberal mainline denominations are shrinking fast, with most congregations comprised mainly of aging baby-boomers and senior citizens. Many churches are now more cultural relics of a bygone age than actual, healthy, functioning members of the body of Christ. And on the conservative side, there may be plenty of strong and even growing churches dotting the landscape, but they’re basically living in a bizarre Christian subculture (some would say ghetto) of evangelicalism that is perceived with increasing hostility by the unchurched. A recent Barna poll shows that evangelicals are seen very poorly by many Americans, especially when it comes to young people. Look, you can feel proud to stand fast on all the correct doctrine in the heavens and the earth, but if you’re essentially part of a cultural movement that people intensely dislike, you may want to ask yourself if this is really the persecution that Jesus warned of or if instead you have blown it in the “love thy neighbor” part of the Great Commandment.

The real issue at stake here is that in the Christian arena, both liberals and conservatives look different and smell old. When the average 18 year old looks at the Pope, he sees a weird old dude in a funny hat talking about theological issues he doesn’t have a clue about. Boring, man, let’s go back to fragging that SOB in Halo 3. When the average 25 year old looks at the Second XYZ Church of the Incarnation of the Blessed Tabernacle of God with that wacky dude in the suit wearing the rings and talking about the “glorraay” of “Jeeeeeesus”, she thinks OK, whatever, and goes back to watching the latest episode of Top Model. And the more the twin Christian subcultures of dusty, ritualized, centuries-old, institutionalized, compromised mainline denominationalism or the squeaky-clean, holier-than-thou, suit-and-tie, leave your sin at the door, moralism of the fundamentalist churches continue to wreck havoc in the public arena and distort the message of Jesus and the precious gift of the Holy Spirit, the more the people who are really on fire for the Lord and want to reach out in love and in truth to all who would draw near to the heart of the Father have a difficult time getting past that nasty filter of failed expectations that the church actually has anything meaningful to offer anymore.

I think the bottom line is that we’ve got to stop looking like we’re pathetically disconnected from the culture, and we’ve got to stop smelling old and out of touch. I believe that the explosive creative power of the God Who created the universe is radically new and fresh everyday, and our lives must echo His abundant blessings and passions every day that we walk this earth. I know there are certain directives we have as Christians to distance ourselves from the world in the areas of sexual immorality, greed, pride, selfishness, etc. Sometimes, we’ll need to take a stand and fight the sad degeneration we see around us. But at the end of the day, to quote a wise man, the church should be known for what it’s for more than what it’s against. We should be the purveyors of a positive, optimistic outlook on life that says that things really will get better. We serve an awesome God Who we can delight in and rejoice in, Who fills our lives with joy and meaning, Who empowers us to rise above stifling mundanity and hot temptation and find eternal peace and fulfillment. This is a great message! Let stop focusing so much on the garbage out there and start focusing on the breathtaking beauty of our Heavenly Father!

I encourage you to find or start a church that has a grand vision, a huge cause, and a massive love for God and for people. That is a church worthy of its calling, and that is a church that will redeem the culture and be a part of the next Great Awakening that I believe is soon to come to the shores of America.

Next week’s post is titled “Look Alike, Smell the Same” and is a critique of the viewpoint that in order to reach the unchurched, the church should look just like the world. I’m looking forward to seeing you then!

What I want to talk about now is a very sticky subject, and there’s conversation flowing fast and furiously in many circles on various aspects of this issue. I’m calling this series Look Normal, Smell Different, and the main thrust of the subject matter is this: as Christians, we are called to a life of purity and holiness yet we’re also called to engage the world — i. e., be in the world but not of it. How this plays out in the life of the everyday believer and especially the well-known church leader is not always simple or straightforward, nor is it easy. In fact, it can be downright challenging, controversial, and sometimes dangerous. Entire movements have been birthed out of arguments surrounding this topic, and much of the debate raging in the Evangelical Christian world is about this. Yes, there’s also debate around doctrines, systematic theologies, strict moral issues, etc., but largely what it ends up coming down to is how we as Christians relate to the culture of our day.

In case you haven’t noticed, and perhaps you haven’t if you live in the heart of the Bible Belt, by and large we are living in a post-Christian society here in America. Typically we’ve tended to assume the person sitting next to us on the bus or the neighbor next door or the smiling clerk behind the counter or the newscaster on TV basically shares the overall philosophy and outlook on life that we do. Sure, they might not be “religious” per se or go to church every Sunday, but they basically “believe in God” and are “nice people”.

Oh, there’s no doubt that most Americans check the “believe in God” box on the poll and really are friendly folk, but the overall ethos and sense of purpose that drive people today is often widely different than it was just a few generations ago. Church life used to be a given, a norm that held culture together. When people wanted to be part of society, part of community, that usually meant being part of a local church or at least participating in the community events promoted by churches.

I don’t have time to delve into the pros and cons of that type of cultural religiosity, but suffice it to say, Christians in this day and age have little reason to believe that Christianity will survive a hundred years from now simply on the basis of cultural trends or acceptance. As an intrenched mindset, Christianity as we know it is going the way of the dodo. And with that shift comes a huge challenge to us as followers of Jesus: do we continue to pretend that people understand us when we speak of the things of heaven and quote Bible verses, or do we acknowledge that we don’t even have a foot in the door anymore and may need to begin from square one relationally, intellectually, and even spiritually?

Let me outline where this series is going: I’m going to start out from the position of a loving critique of what I feel are the twin extremes on either side of this debate. Then I will progress to an exhortation of what we can do to live as authentic Christians who both honor man and please God without compromise. It is indeed possible to live this out, as I will explain in an analysis of what the Apostles Peter and Paul said about evangelism. Granted, this is not an easy task as I mentioned previously, and I can’t say that I have it all figured out myself. But I will say that I’m trying my best to walk the walk and not just talk the talk.

Remember, we have been commissioned by Christ to do one thing on earth: make disciples of the nations. May the Lord reveal to us how to do that lovingly in both spirit and in truth.