More often than not, “partnering in missions,” means small churches give what little money they think they can afford to a larger church or a missions sending agency that will handle mobilization, screening, indoctrination, training, sending, and maintenance of missionaries on the field. This is not “partnering,” it’s outsourcing.
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PREVIOUSLY: Let’s Be Clear Some might read my commentary about widespread pragmatism in the American church today and ask, “So what?” Others might share my concern, but see few alternatives. I have never wanted to be merely a critic, so here I’d like to draw some conclusions. Next, I’ll try to share some ideas for [...]
Tags: Church, Counterintuitive, Megachurch, Pragmatism
PREVIOUSLY: Distribution So far, three parts into my multi-part series on the counterintuitive nature of life in Christ, and I’ve yet to receive any comments accusing me of being too negative or of harboring jealousy over the megachurch’s success. Clearly, I’ve either offended (or bored) away everyone who disagrees with me, or I’ve not been [...]
Tags: Counterintuitive, Megachurch, Pragmatism, video venues
PREVIOUSLY: The Gaps Another way the church has fallen into the trap of pragmatism is the way we distribute our resources. Let me explain: Say I’m in a mid-sized church that meets in small groups throughout the week. We only have so many leaders willing to lead these groups. Of those who are willing, we’re [...]
Tags: church leadership, distribution, Rationing, resources
PREVIOUSLY: The Counterintuitive Church Despite the Church’s current tendency toward extreme pragmatism, much of the life that Jesus calls us to is counter-intuitive. But that doesn’t seem to stop us from depending (almost entirely!) on our human logic when it comes to our missiology. Why is that? Why would we assume that a counterintuitive God [...]
Tags: church planting, Gaps, Missions, Pragmatism, Unreached
Week-long tourist mission trips that have suburban American teenagers staying in five-star hotels and complaining about the food. Missions done more for adventure than out of obedience. The Sunday-school class that passes out American flags and money. Culturally inappropriate choir tours, drama troupes, youth musicals, puppet shows, clowns, mimes in the park. Attractional replications of [...]
Tags: mimes, mission trips, Short-term
You may have heard about the controversy over the elephant exhibit at the Los Angeles Zoo. The zoo is building a $42 million exhibit for Billy, its only elephant. There are three sides to the argument: those who say that $42 mil is too much to spend on one elephant, those who say the new [...]
I believe that Jesus planted a (the) church. In my last post, I wrote that His twelve disciples, plus the 70 or so others were a church. That means that everything that has been added to the church since then is, well, extra. Praise and worship. A sermon. Professional clergy. Buildings, bulletins, committees, small groups, [...]
Tags: The church that Jesus planted
This is the last (for now) part in a series of posts. I’m taking the long way around describing what I find to be a more missiologically sound church. Whenever we talk about our theology of church, we usually look back to the “first church” that we read about in the book of Acts. Some [...]
Tags: Jesus, Kingdom, Megachurch, Mom-and-Pop
Starbucks realizes that coffee drinkers are looking for local, unique, responsible, and sustainable. Independent coffee houses can be all of these things. It’s a lot harder for the mega-corporation, though. They’re too concerned with things like quality control, efficiency, brand, and, of course, money. The things that make Starbucks Starbucks are causing it’s current identity [...]
Tags: Kingdom, Megachurch, Mom-and-Pop, sustainability
Part 1 of this post set the scene with the story of the rise of Starbucks in relation to smaller coffee shops. Part 2 drew parallels between Starbucks and American megachurches. Welcome to part 3. The similarities between the coffee chain and the megachurch aren’t incidental. The seeker-sensitive movement is built on a corporate model. [...]
Unless writing a lot makes one a "writer," Ernest is a former missionary. After more than six years in Western Europe, he moved to Portland, where he drinks too much coffee and over-analyzes human behavior. For more about Ernest, visit the About page where you can read a long-time reader's interview with him. Or, if you don't mind waiting a very, very long time, send him an email.associations attrition Books change Church church planting Coke contextualization Counterintuitive denominations entering culture ethics Evolution Favors Fear Finances Giving gospel Hobby Humanitarian trips Impractical Insuffiecient resources Interesting Person Kingdom learning leaving Megachurch Missiology missional Missions Missions Strategy Mom-and-Pop Money Papers Person of Peace Pragmatism reintroduction Rules small churches threat Training UpStream worldview
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