Category: community

Interview with Brian McLaren


Scott tipped me off to Next-Wave Ezine, where I found a recent interview with “Everything Must Change” author Brian McLaren.

Here’s a preview:

Question: At the beginning of the book ( p.3) you write: “And not only am I often unsatisfied with conventional answers, but even worse, I’ve consistently been unsatisfied with conventional questions.” One interpretation of this remark might be, “conventional questions produce conventional answers.” Is it your position that a large proportion of professed Christians have succumbed to a convenient living out of their faith that is askew with the teachings and life of Christ?

McLaren: Well, I think many people are doing their best to live out their faith in sync with the teachings and life of Christ, but it’s not easy to figure out what that means, especially in changing times. Some things are easy – like knowing you shouldn’t hate or commit adultery or kill. But pretty quickly, it gets complex – like knowing whether pre-emptive and hastily-launched wars fit under killing, for example. And that gets to what I mean about conventional questions. We have lots of religious arguments about the origin of the species, but far fewer dialogues about the extinction of species and what we can do to save species that we all agree are precious parts of God’s creation. We have lots of religious arguments about homosexuality, but far fewer conversations about the growing gap between rich and poor and what we can do about it. We argue about what to do about abortion, but we seem much less concerned about what to do about racial disharmony and political polarization and how we can be peacemakers and reconcilers. I’m not saying the common arguments are unimportant, only that less common questions deserve a lot more attention. I hope my book will help in that regard.

read more

re: Hanging out with Jesus

my friend John shared his comments via e-mail on the recent Hanging out with Jesus post. He took issue with some of Kevin Hendricks comments:

“He’s not doing anything productive, he’s just hanging out.”

Jesus was intentional in the things he did. He had a purpose.

“Not doing anything productive?” I don’t think so.

Purposeless? I think not.

“Producing” disciples involves intentionality and an investment of time in their lives.

John

Hanging out with Jesus

Kevin Hendricks (Church Marketing Sucks) shares some thoughts from his community group last week:

Throughout the New Testament he spends a lot of time just hanging out with people. He’s not doing anything productive, he’s just hanging out. That Jesus–what a bum.

But I think Jesus was intentionally modeling the value of relationships. In many ways I think our faith is worked out in our relationships with others. When I’m really close to people I don’t have to do anything with them. We can just hang out.

and love this…

Contrary to what we may think, Christianity cannot be lived in a vacuum. No Christian is an island. We need each other. There’s value in just being with other people.

Mixing stages within groups

Brandi has a good post on a recent struggle they’re dealing with at her church and within her community group.

The group was initially intended to be a mixture of college students, single adults, and young married couples (without kids). Most of those people were already in care groups, but they weren’t attending for one reason or another. (We were attending ours, but mostly because we felt like we were supposed to. We were one of two childless couples in a group where kids outnumbered adults by a ratio of about 12:1. It was not the most fun I’ve ever had.) We were looking to try and provide a smaller, more intimate group where people who were just a life stage or two away from each other could get together.

She says that after a Christmas kickoff party they realized there were differences within their group.

The feedback we got was very clear – the college students don’t want to go to a couple’s group. They don’t want to have a discussion group, they just want to hang out with each other and have a good time. The couples (and older singles), on the other hand, want more than just a social meeting time. They want to have discussions and do studies and really dig into some stuff.

I think that’s an issue a lot of folks run into. I know we want to reach out to singles/college age folks with each of our community groups, but so far we’ve had limited success. Many blame their schedules but I wonder if there’s something deeper going on. Maybe they’re just not interested in church based community groups. Maybe they feel they have that already built into class, extra-curricular activities and work. Maybe the ho-hum of life hasn’t caught up with them yet. Maybe they don’t see the need for the relationships built within community groups.

I have to say that Laurie and I have talked recently about how beneficial our community group has been to us. Granted I do lead, so I kinda have to be there but we always have a good time during our weekly meetings as well as those extra events we plan and do with folks from our group during the week. It’s amazing to think about how limited our social calendar would be if it wasn’t for the relationships we’ve made in our community group (both past and present).

I don’t begrudge the college students at all. I think sometimes we forget that we’re older than we think we are. At 27, I don’t feel old, but at 19 I felt like 27 was a million miles away. We’ll figure out a plan for them, whether Aaron and I are involved or not. But it was clear last night that there are a lot of people at our church who are in a similar life stage that we’re in, and those people are looking for community. We are those people. And if we can provide that for them and for ourselves, then that’s what we need to be putting our efforts towards.

What about your group? Have you or other groups you know of had any luck attracting singles or college age folks?

a ((deep)) recap

((deep))

Thomas has a great recap of ((deep)) on the Nanolog.

I’m listening to the podcast right now (you’ll need iTunes to listen to it).

After worship… Janet Robson spoke on the disciple John >> considering who John thought Jesus was >> shaping her thoughts/feelings on the subject matter into 3 points ::

  1. Words matter! Words can build us up… or tear us down. When God spoke (as recorded in Genesis 1) things happened. Word >> Action.
  2. John Baptizer’s job description was… “help people take it in… and take it on.” This is our job description as followers of Jesus.
  3. We are, by right, the children of God. It is a right and a blessing. But with rights come responsibilities >> just as “the Word became flesh”… we need to be the “flesh” of the Word in our own circles of influence >> family… work… play… etc. We need to show our people what Jesus looks like.

Great stuff! Keep up the great work Thomas. I’m excited to see how it this continues.

Nerd olympics

A Minnesota tech company is hosting the F1 Overnight Web Site Challenge, where teams of geeks will create fully functional web sites for Minnesota nonprofits in only 24 hours.

One part nerd Olympics, one part community service project and one part race-against-the-clock — Sierra Bravo’s F1 Overnight Website Challenge will partner deserving Minnesota non-profits with teams of talented web developers for 24 hours of fun collaboration culminating in a fully operational website for each participating non-profit.

Love it! CMS suggests this could work for churches too. I agree. What non-profit website would you upgrade/change if you could?