The Contemporary and Relevant Church Battle

It's hard to watch this without having a pretty strong reaction.  You'll either see it and cringe or become defensive.  Check it out.

"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer


This is actually the worship team at this mega-church satirically looking at themselves.  But the problem is that many think this has become the standard by which church is measured, and they don't think it's funny at all...even when done satirically.  What was seen just a few years ago seen as edgy and cutting edge is now seen by many to be a form of church that is great at developing crowds of spectators waiting to be entertained each week, but is lousy at creating participants in the worship of Christ.

These people say the central mission of the church is to make disciples and the "contemporary/relevant" church might be good at making converts and gathering crowds, but not making disciples.  Central in this criticism is that the contemporary/relevant form of church develops a very shallow, experience driven spirituality that requires another dose the next week to sustain it.  People are left more and more dependent upon the pastor and the service instead of living a life that is characterized by discipleship and the development of spiritually mature Christian character.

On the other side, the practitioners of the contemporary/relevant church model defend themselves by saying it's the church's job to meet people where they are at spiritually.  This requires the church to carefully plan a marketing strategy to best meet the felt-needs of the community and demonstrating to non-believers that Christians are not religious nuts and the church is relevant to daily life.  These churches have a contemporary feel to them usually meaning the music played during church is the same stuff you'd hear on any contemporary Christian music station.  They also seek to be contemporary in removing what they call "barriers" (traditional Christian church items such as crosses, pulpits, organs, etc) from the church building.  The resulting new construction has typically been nice, but utilitarian, with an emphasis on creating as many seat as possible for the lowest cost per seat.

There are many issues involved in this debate and this is what I'll be writing on for the next few weeks.  I would love to get your feedback on the video.  The blogs responses have been really polarized with many being incredibly defensive of the contemporary/relevant movement.  The basic response is how dare anyone criticize what is obviously a movement of God.  On the other side, there are many that believe the problems of this movement are so dire, they just can't believe this mega-church would sarcastically poke fun at themselves. They feel deeply and passionately that this isn't funny at all and the fact this video was made as a sarcastic parody proves how far off the mark these churches have become.

I would love to get your feedback.  What do you all think?  Please give me your reactions to the video.
Thanks

God of Second Chances

We all have hopes and dreams for ourselves and our families.  Sometimes, we get so caught up in all the accomplishing and striving to make these dreams a reality, we forget to enjoy what's going on all around us.  We don't live in the present because the present isn't much more than accomplishing the things for the future.  We forget that many times the journey is more important than the destination.  

Carlos Whittaker was going out with a video production crew to shoot some video for his song "God of Second Chances." And then Danny came along.  Check it out...

At the end of the song, Carlos says he told Danny to "keep trying to make it man."  Carlos says that Danny was looking kind of confused, and then looked him straight in the eyes and said "trying to make it?  I'm not trying to make it, I am making it.  [God] puts his soldiers everywhere.  [God] says 'Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,' and so he puts some of us there, in that valley." 


I needed to hear this today.  And without getting into the intricacies of Rastafarian theology I can learn from Danny, a homeless man who tearfully sat down and enjoyed the worship of God together with a stranger.  Sure, there are things that Danny should do.  But while he's where he is, his outlook says that God put me here and I am in the valley of the shadow of death for a reason. Sometimes I need God to save me from myself, and He usually does with good friends...

View the trials in life as valuable opportunities to become more Christlike...

Do not trust in yourself, but trust in God because He is good...

We must see our financial wealth as a trial and be responsible stewards of it for God...

Learn the truth and integrate it into your experiences...

Live a life of wisdom...Live a life of worship...Live a life of courage...

Thanks Danny