In this weeks Leadership Weekly email put out by Christianity Today an interesting tactic is being employed by many churches in their communities that will certainly do nothing to create a sense of goodwill or bring about any sort of partnership between the church and the communities they’re trying to reach and be a part of. Here’s the story:
It’s become known as “The Bush Doctrine.” In order to prevent another devastating terrorist attack like 9/11, President Bush announced that the United States would launch a preemptive strike against any credible threat. It doesn’t exactly jive with Jesus’ command in the Sermon on the Mount to “turn the other cheek,” but then again the United States Government isn’t pretending to be a church.
So what happens when a church decides to employ the Bush Doctrine by preemptively suing their local government for a zoning code the city hadn’t yet violated? This week Collin Hansen reports about the escalating tensions between churches and cities over land use. Municipalities are less welcoming to churches buying and building in their communities, because it takes land off their tax rolls. As a result, many are changing their zoning codes to severely restrict where churches may locate.
Some churches are responding with aggressive legal maneuvers of their own—including filing lawsuits before the cities even reject their land use applications. Do these strongarm tactics work? Are they right? And what is the impact on the church’s mission in the community afterward?
I must say that this is a rather destructive tactic, and one that will certainly engender more and more animosity against the church in the community. This certainly can’t be the sort of message Jesus was asking the church to convey…
Tracy and I have packed everything we own (and what we didn’t give away) into a tiny little pod (8′ deep, 5′ wide and 7′ tall) that is making its way across country to San Francisco at this very moment. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it might be to get rid of all of our furniture, and a tremendous amount of our possessions and it was actually very liberating and freeing! When we arrive, in early August to San Francisco, we’ll have very little to unpack and situate and hopefully a much more open and uncluttered home than in the past.
We said goodbye to many of our friends in Chicago-land over the course of the past month and hopped into the car Saturday afternoon to drive to St. Louis to spend time with family and some much needed rest and relaxation. It’s been a hectic past couple of months full of travel to San Francisco for housing and job interviews (for Tracy), trips downstate to meet with churches, and the craziness of packing and loading and wrapping up loose ends. This week will hopefully prove to be much different… restful is the key phrase.
We’ll be enjoying lazy, quiet mornings in the St. Louis countryside where my parents live and enjoy the sites and sounds of the city in the afternoons. I’m looking forward to unwinding, loosening up a bit, and preparing/restoring myself mentally, spiritually and emotionally for our next chapter in San Francisco.
“My cousin Heindl could have been a great athlete, but he bought a pair of irreguar footie pajamas from the store and his legs grew unevenly. Now he can only run in broad elliptical patterns. When he ran for the bus he would have to aim 45 degrees to the right, and the natural curve of his warped-leg path would eventually guide him back to the door.” ~ Dwight
The San Francisco Chronicle ran a story this past week highlighting San Francisco as the most walkable city in the United States. As I began to look through the website it links to, I noticed that not only is the city extremely walkable, but the neighborhood we’re moving into (South of Market shown above highlighted in blue) is tied for 5th in the whole city.
We arrive in the city in just a little under 3 weeks and plan to walk and utilize as much public transportation as possible! It’s a great city, and we can’t wait to get out there!
Last Sunday was my final Sunday at the Shorewood Campus and Community Christian Church. I must say that it was bittersweet, however I can’t imagine a better place to have served.
When I started at Community 14 months ago I was in a completely different place than I am now, fresh off a gut wrenching and soul draining experience—in short a hellish year of ministry (somehow even those words can’t quite sum it up). Tracy and I came to Community extremely wounded, limping in on our last legs and expecting the impossible from the people and staff of Community. We came in expecting them to restore our hope in the church, to restore our wounded psyche, our broken hearts, and help us on the road back to wholeness. What was unfair on our part—we didn’t tell them of these expectations.
What’s amazing about the staff at Community and in particular the people of the Shorewood Campus: they didn’t bat an eye, were completely unfazed and immediately surrounded us with an amazing presence of love, support and encouragement like we have never experienced before. It’s the same sort of love, support and encouragement that they give to everyone—yet for us it hit the spot and did more than we could have ever hoped or imagined.
Fourteen months later I am leaving with a renewed sense of hope and faith in the church, a firm belief that the church can actually be a healthy, vibrant, world changing force. This post doesn’t come close to giving Community its due for how it has shaped and impacted me over the past year, but I am far different and a far better person because of how this church pushed towards the mission every day. Thank you Community… I wouldn’t be heading to San Francisco if it hadn’t been for you.
Zondervan—Church & Ministry | Church Life | Church Growth
Although the early church started out with this beautiful concept of the priesthood of all believers—with every member an active minister and good works carried forth in all directions—during the last couple of centuries, most churches have retreated to the Old Testament model. Here’s how it often plays out:
A group of a hundred people get together, decide to form a congregation, and “hire a minister.” …Then they say to their new minister… ‘Preach. Teach. Marry. Bury. Make hospital calls. Visit members. Counsel the confused. Evangelize the community. Raise money. Print the bulletins. Do announcements. Pray for the sick. Then, come year end, we’ll get out our report cards and determine whether you have met our expectations. If you have, we’ll sign you up for another year. If not, we’ll hire someone else.’
…The congregation hires “the clergy” to do the ministry.
So the church ends up with a few overworked professionals, paid by the tithes and offerings of the congregation ot fulfill the whole gamut of priestly functions, while everybody else remains passive observers, their gifts and talents atrophying from disuse.
This is the most widely practiced ministry paradigm in existence today—and it doesn’t have a shred of biblical support. Tragically, this approach has left many contemporary churches in shambles: weak, unorganized, and powerless. And unfortunately, it’s a tough mindset to change. (pg. 62)
When I read these words in a book written by Bill Hybels I was a little taken a back because if you didn’t know who wrote it or aren’t aware it could sound very much like something from Emergent Village. Hybels published this book back in 2004. It makes me wonder how much more we have in common with each other than we truly realize. From much of the rhetoric that gets thrown out in bloggy-land you’d think we were arch-rivals. Hopefully we can begin to find more of a middle-ground and set aside our differences for the greater good of the Kingdom.
I was impressed with this book and although at times it felt “elementary” and “simple” it was a good refresher with great reminders not only for myself but for the church at large. I enjoyed many of the stories and it certainly gave a great glimpse into the world that is Willow Creek Community Church.
David Cook Publishing—Religion | Christian Ministry | Evangelism
239 pages
This book wasn’t quite what I was expecting… although admittedly I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I picked this book up at a Borders after browsing the shelves looking for another book. This one in particular caught my attention because I had seen it laying around the office at Community and figured it must be worth a read, so I snatched it up and paid for it with a gift card.
Starving Jesus was the dream of xxxchurch.com founder Craig Gross and his associate J.R. Mahon born out of numerous rants about the church. It certainly takes on the form of a rant in its writing style, however in the middle it takes a major shift away from what’s wrong with the church towards the spiritual discipline of fasting—particularly 40 day fasts.
I’m not quite sure there was a cohesive theme that ran throughout the entire book, and if there was one I completely missed it. However, if you see each chapter as a sort of essay tied around the hope of what the church can be then it hit the mark. There was deconstructionist tones towards the beginning that found themselves muted at the end, lost in the conversation of fasting. I’m not sure there was a great deal of understanding that I gained from the book, however if you’re looking for something to explain fasting this can certainly be a good start ripe with story and testimonial that I found to be somewhat helpful. Otherwise, I’m not sure there’s anything in this book that I haven’t read or heard elsewhere.
“My cousin Heindl could have been a great athlete, but he bought a pair of irreguar footie pajamas from the store and his legs grew unevenly. Now he can only run in broad elliptical patterns. When he ran for the bus he would have to aim 45 degrees to the right, and the natural curve of his warped-leg path would eventually guide him back to the door.”
