I am a church guy.
Twenty years of pastoral ministry, two books and a Ph. D. on the subject and I still have trouble recognizing myself as such, but it is true. I remember being a young youthworker running Campus Life clubs for Youth for Christ and talking passionately about the difference between “religion” and “relationship”, about the need to be a disciple of Jesus and that there is “no church to join, no institution to support, nothing to do but believe and follow Jesus.” If you had told me 25 years ago that I was going to be the pastor of a church I would have laughed. I figured it was far more likely that I would end up a flamenco dancer. Youth evangelist? Sure. Missionary? Ok. Urban social worker, leader of a parachurch organization or movement or radical group? Possibly.
As a young Christian, I was weaned on ideas like living on the “cutting edge” of the faith, the “frontlines” of mission, about being a “pioneer” and not a “settler”. I really considered myself as part of the “radical” maybe even “revolutionary” fringe of followers who lived out our faith and didn’t just “go to church.”
To me, back then, church was boring, status quo and conservative. So what happened to me? How did I become “The Reverend Doctor”, rightly ordained and installed as a pastor in a mainline denomination? Is it just that I settled or was there something more, something of God’s own spirit that led me see that now that the church, the local church, the often dysfunctional, frequently disappointing, and regularly dull gathering of people in every town and community is in fact the “cutting edge,” the “front lines” and indeed, in the words of Bill Hybels, “the hope of the world.”
Indeed, that is why I started this blog a little over a year ago: to offer my voice, theological training and pastoral experience so that the Church universal would be strengthened through strengthening the local church.
And as this New Year dawned, I took some time to do some thinking and prepared a series based on conversations with two vehemently unchurched people who spoke long and loud about how the church is irrelevant, hypocritical and all the rest. That will have to wait a bit. Just when I thought that the church needed to answer the challenge of the world, I found myself facing a most unexpected salvo from a brother in Christ whose work I have long admired.
George Barna has recently released a new book called Revolution, in which he declares that there are 20 million Christians out there who are “reshaping Christianity” and “rocking the nation”. Barna’s intention in the book is to go from pollster, surveyor and equipper of church leaders to advocate for this “new breed” of Christians who are part of an “under-the-radar but seminal renaissance of faith that will remake the religious contours of this country over the coming quarter century” (p. 15).
Who are these Revolutionaries? They are people who are deeply committed to Christ, who are “confidently returning to a first-century lifestyle” and are those who see the local church as nothing more than one of many potential “mechanisms” that “can be instrumental in bringing us closer to (Jesus) and helping us be more like him.” In other words, in Barna’s revolution, the local church is no more important than one of his books.
Over the next few posts I will give Barna’s arguments the attention they deserve. I believe he has thrown down a gauntlet that deserves to be taken up and that his challenges require biblically rooted responses. I do not question his faith, his sincerity or his skills as a researcher, I have never met George Barna, but maybe through the power of the internet I will. So, here is my introduction.
Mr. Barna, Thank you for you work over the years. I for one, am a better pastor and leader because of your writings. I am grateful for your passion, your conviction and this challenge. But, Mr. Barna, this is not a revolution, it is a retreat. You and I share the same passion for the spiritual battle that rages around us. And in your descriptions of the state of the church and faith in our culture, I have great confidence.
But, in your prescriptions, Mr. Barna, you are wrong.
P.S. For some other reviews and thoughts see Jollyblogger, a recent article in CT, DJChuang offers even more links all worth as well including a quote from a blog that is so good, I wish I had said it.
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