How To Make Sure You Have A Bad Church Experience

Whether or not you attend Good Shepherd, there are certain things you can do that will ensure you have a bad experience in Sunday worship:

• Assume the worst. Be wary of the smiles of the people sitting next to you in the pew. Question the preacher's motives. And of course . . . have assurance that the people in charge of the money are mis-using it.
• Look for mistakes. Listen closely for any off-key note by the band or choir. Jot down the preacher's grammatical errors. Share all faux pas in the bulletin with your friends.
• Evaluate the fashion sense of other worshippers. If you don't do it, who will?
• Compare your pastor with Andy Stanley. Um, Andy always wins that one. Whoever your pastor is.
• Compare your worship leader with Chris Tomlin. See above.
• Decide whether people surrounding you are "spiritual enough" based on how many raise their hands during music. Of course.
• Think about all the people you know who aren't in church that day -- your spouse, children, or friends -- but who really "needed" that sermon. Then tell the pastor that on the way out. Make sure you're not on the list of people who "needed" it.
• Keep your bible closed between Sundays. Ditto for your prayer list.
• Continually ask, "what am I getting out of this church?" Don't ever ask, "how can I give to God & the community through this church?"

WE Virus Spreads

We showed this yesterday as a way of capturing how people catch and then spread the WE Virus at Good Shepherd:

carolyn update from Andy Weibley on Vimeo.

I'm grateful as always for the ways God harnesses all the talented people here to impact people's lives in meaningful, tangible ways.

Insights From A Former Methodist

The Methodist blogosphere (yes, it exists) is abuzz about the recent series of posts from Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv.

You can read them in succession here. Click on the link, and scroll down to the posts from February 22 - February 27.

Groeschel started ministry within Oklahoma United Methodism, grew frustrated with the bureaucratic hurdles he would have to jump in order to start a new congregation, and ultimately launched an independent church.

LifeChurch.tv now has well over 20,000 people attending in multiple sites all over the country, including the world's most advanced online church community. You can find out more about it here.

Groeschel's recommendations for us -- as a former part of "us" -- are pretty straightforward: 1) discard the itineracy system of appointing pastors; 2) change or abolish the apportionment model in which local churches underwrite the expenses of the national and international level bureaucracies; 3) simplify the ordination process; 4) enable more churches to go multi-site; 5) stop funding any efforts at denomination-level marketing or branding; and 6) arrange an amicable separation between theological liberals and conservatives.

I believe many of Groeschel's suggestions will become reality not so much by choice as by necessity. The itineracy and apportionment, in particular, will likely undergo fundamental change within the next 15 years or collapse under their own weight. The same is true for our cumbersome way of approving and ordaining pastors.

But I hope one change happens immediately: let's give up the ghost on denomination-level marketing. I've posted on the subject here. Funnel thoes funds and that energy towards enabling local congregations to be the best marketers -- and evangelists -- they can be.

2 Timothy 1:7

I went to sleep last night asking God to give me a word or Scripture for use in a meeting today.

I woke up at about 2 a.m. and 2 Timothy 1:7 was planted firmly in my mind:

"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-control."

It is quite easy in church leadership to adopt that spirit of timidity. It's the spirit that wants to offend as few people as possible, the spirit that endorses the status quo, the spirit that says don't fix what's not broken.

The spirit of timidity leads to death in churches.

That's why the spirit God does give us is fascinating to me. Look at the balancing act necessary between power, love, and self-control.

Usually people with great power have little love. Many times, people consumed by love forget their self-control. And self-controlled people are often too "in control" to demonstrate much power.

In Christ, God gives us the marvelous mix of all three.

Hearing that word is worth waking up in the middle of the night.

A Perpetual English Major

As a lot of you know, I majored in English in college.

I feel like it has served me well in ministry and I'm glad that my daughter is doing a double major in History and English while she is at Vanderbilt.

One reason I like being an English major is that it never really stops. I am almost always reading one novel or another. Maybe not quite on the order of James Joyce's Ulysses like I read in college (or tried to read), but some pretty good ones nonetheless. Here are some of the most influential novels of my post-college years as a perpetual English major:

• A Man In Full by Tom Wolfe. Epic, hilarious, sad, Southern, and brilliantly written.
• Cry The Beloved Country by Alan Paton. How did I not read this earlier?
• Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns. Think Flannery O'Connor without all the weird stuff.
• She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb. Picking my favorite Wally Lamb book is like picking your favorite kind of pie: whichever one you are eating. He has the gift of turning ordinary and extraordinary events into occasions for my tear ducts to go into overdrive.
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. See above.
• Straight Man by Richard Russo. Having grown up in a professor's house, I love books in which the protagonist is a professor. Russo seems to write effortlessly . . . . which lets you know he works really hard at his craft.

This list is by no means comprehensive but those are the books that dominate my memory today. Perhaps I'll add new ones shortly -- I've got three novels waiting for my next vacation.

That way, the best parts of college never end . . .

A New Look

So we unveiled a new look on our Worship Center platform yesterday. The new look involved paint, fabric, lighting, and then more lighting to create a flexible, dramatic look. For example, we started out green during the first song . . .

. . . followed by purple for the next number . . .

. . a slighty whiter shade of pale for what came next . . .

. . . and then my favorite, the rich blue that served as the backdrop for Glory To God.

Over the last few years, we have learned much about how to use the space God has given us.

Now we know: when you put lights, sound, and texture into the hands of the Master Artist, worship happens.

As it did yesterday.

Glory To God indeed.

The Bubble

We . . . are so excited to unveil a major redesign of the Worship Center platform this Sunday.

We . . . don't want to give away too many details, but please know that we are combining colors, lights, and fabric to create an environment that is at the same time thoroughly modern and warmly welcoming.

We . . . believe and pray that the new design will enhance our worship of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We . . . are confident God will continue to move us outside of the Christian bubble in which we sometimes find ourselves.

Sunday. 8:30 10. 11:30.