10 Missional Prayers

I liked James White's collection of 10 Missional Prayers - in particular these ones:

• That pastors would see other churches as a co-laborer, not as the competition.
• That members of churches would see themselves as ministers and missionaries, as opposed to consumers.
• That those committed to discipleship would quit pitting it against evangelism as if any emphasis on "reaching out" somehow takes away from "building up", creating a false dichotomy that doesn't exist biblically.
• That older generations would quit worrying about being catered to sufficiently, and would become more interested in passing the baton on to the next generation.
• That the false dichotomy between a concern for personal or sexual morality, and social justice, would evaporate.
• That the pendulum between whether to share the gospel or engage in social ministry would also disappear. We are to give a cup of water and the bread of life, feeding both stomach and soul.
• That we would understand that lost people are not the enemy.

The full, uneditted list can be found here.

Church For Men - The Website

The past couple of days i've summarised the two-part interview with David Murrow, and linked to the audio (here and here). There was a quick mention of his website Church For Men.


It's a very useful website. Obviously it outlines how we have a church that is against men, and how dysfunctional that is. But most of the website is devoted to making positive changes through a wide range of tips, tools and resources.

My personal favourite is the Guy-Friendliness Test. Answer the questions. Tally up the score. See how your church rates.

David Murrow - How Women Help Men Find God

David Murrow continued his discussion on James Dobson's "Family Talk" program (see my summary of part 1). This time the discussion was more about women - and how they can help the men and boys in their life find God. [Download Part 1 | Part 2]


The point of this discussion is well summed up by the dedication in David Murrow's second book:

This book is dedicated to 3 women - she who prays for her man but sees no change, she whose son has abandoned the faith, and she who searches for a Christian mate but finds none.

The female host reckoned that speaks to about 90% of women. The chat started with understanding how difficult it is for men in the church today.
More of David Murrow's own story:

I got so frustrated with Christianity, I began to wonder if I could be a Christian and a man at the same time. Our church was such a cautious place, such a nurturing place. And then i'd open up the scriptures and Jesus was anything but that. I began to realise that if Christ came to our church that he would probably be thrown out. He would be considered unfit to lead.

On how we've twisted the gospel:

150 years ago - If you went up to a pastor and asked for 'a personal relationship with Jesus' they wouldn't know what you're talking about. But now we've brought in metaphors like that, which takes the gospel and expresses it in terms of a woman's greatest desire - a personal relationship with a man who loves her.

On why some "worship" songs just don't cut it:

A man is going to express his love in terms of respect not romance. I'm not going to say "Ryan. I'm desperate for you. I'm lost without you. I'm so in love with you." You feel how weird that is?

Speaking about helping men find God, he says "you gotta realise that church may not be the way it's going to happen - or you need to find a church that understands men... Help them find other goldy men to hang out with." It's not a macho thing, It's about bringing a healthy masculine spirit, that's present in the gospel, into the church.

Chocolat - A Parable

Had the pleasure of watching the movie Chocolat this week. If you've not seen it - here is the trailer - i recomend you do see it.


Essentially it's about a small town whose religion centres around maintaining their tradition, discipline, rules, penance, self-righteousness and exclusion. Or as the character Jospehine explains:

You don't misbehave here. It's just not done, did you know that? If you don't go to confession, if you don't dig your flowerbeds, or if you don't pretend that you want nothing more in your life... then you're crazy.

The village attitude was best summed up by the poster put around town when a group of out-of-towners show up in the village, and the mayor initiats a boycott - encouraging people to have nothing to do with the 'morally contaminated outsiders'. A sentiment exactly the opposite of the Jesus the town pretends to follow. Jesus was criticised for engaging too much with people of dubious character.

Perhaps Jesus would have identified more with Vianne:

Roux: I should probably warn ya - you make friends with us, you make enemies with everyone else.
Vianne Rocher: Is that a promise?
Roux: It's a guarantee.

But the greatest part came when the priest (having previously been told what to preach) delivered his own message - about actually following Christ.

I'd rather talk about His humanity. I mean, you know, how He lived His life, here on Earth. His kindness, His tolerance. Listen, here's what I think. I think that we can't go round measuring our goodness by what we don't do, by what we deny ourselves, what we resist, and who we exclude. I think we've got to measure goodness by what we embrace, what we create, and who we include.

Even better was that the people of God actually went and lived out that message.

Same Preacher, Different Place

I read another article about those multi-campus churches in the US. The ones where a pastor preaching at one location is also screened at a second (or even third) location. This particular church had grown from 115 people in '97 to over 6000 now - too much for just one building.


"We're one church with many locations", said one of the people in the article. Which got me to wondering about denominational churches. After all, don't we say that we are all part of the wider church?

It seems to me to be entirely possible to apply the same principle across a denomination. To have pastors with some technology record their message for struggling congregations (who may not have a preacher) to download. Or even for occasional use when the pastor is on leave.

[see also my thoughts on Are Sermons A Waste Of Time]

Tips From Wayne

CMS recently talked to Wayne Elsey, CEO/founder of the nonprofit Soles4Souls, and author of Almost Isn't Good Enough: The Human Connection Changes Everything.


He had a few good points to make, coming out of his experience in the not-for-profit sector, and in churches.

On relations between churches...

...there is a more important question to ask: How can churches work together? Far too many try to compete. They are limiting their impact by not reaching out to one another. I just don’t understand it.

About evangelism (using a sales analogy)...

The old model of sales was give the prospect a bunch of information and move in for the close. This is the EE (evangelism explosion) model. The most effective sales people today ask lots of questions, focus on understanding the needs of the buyer, and work to help the buyer make the best decision. Evangelism today is more about solidarity and doing life together than cramming information down people’s throats.

His one tip for churches...

Get out of the pulpit and out of the pew and into the communities in which we live. Rub shoulders with people who are different from you. Listen and learn from them. ... Churches need to empower and facilitate individuals to do ministry and focus less on accumulating staff positions that remove the congregation from ministry.

Brad Stine

Christian comedian Brad Stine talking about a few things - including a few ways the church distorts Jesus and repels men.



Highlights:

"They make us do stuff at church that we do like to do - and then we think we're bad christians"

"Either Jesus isn't God, or sin isn't always what we think it is."

"We've tried to make Jesus exactly what we wanted to be - and he wasn't. He made a living ticking off the religious people."

Jesus Is For Losers

People are drawn towards folks who have it all together, or who look like they do. People are also drawn towards folks who know they don't have it all together and are not willing to fake it.

One of these is more in line with the attitude of Jesus, as he describes two men praying (Luke 18:10-14).

"Christianity can be built around isolating ourselves ... creating a community of religious piety and moral purity" says Shane Claiborne, in Chapter 9. This is the sort of church he grew up with - but he prefers the sort of church that joins with broken people crying out to God for grace. Or in the words of Jesus "I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners".

Shane believes the world would be more willing to listen to "a church that doesn't pretend to be perfect or have all the answers."

There are so many people who are longing to be brought to life, who know all too well that they have done evil and long to hear not only of a God who embraces evildoers but also of a church that does the same.