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| 10 Big ProblemsOur problems are more complex than just planting more churches or improving our leadership skills but attending the next edge cutting edge conference. Unless we are willing to tackle some of the fundamental issues we will see at least a generation of stagnation or most likely decline.
Here are the biggies as I see ‘em.
10. Christian TV
Most non-believers will only get a brief view of the whacky preacher channels as they surf but even the micronic exposure is enough to prove to millions that all believers are money obsessed and emotionally weird. How can we be taken seriously with this religious circus on TV 24/7?
9. Church Skits as Art High Art
From sappy, poorly acted films to a tsunami of bad paintings, skits and soloists, we are, to put it politely, under-performing in the area of creativity. How can the church have credibility in a visully driven age without rediscovering its place of leadership in the arts?
8. Amish-ism
“Run! The atheist are coming!” is the response of any evangelicals to the advance of materialism. Hiding in small irrelevant enclaves makes for good furniture and jam but does it work that well for reaching the world?
7. Urban Flight.
We have abandoned the cities. Is there any wonder why, for the most part, they disdain us?
6. Sexual Compromise
Twenty years of big name leaders involved in big time sex scandals has rendered us impotent on all ethics issues, especially sexual ethics. Can we tell people true love waits while we indulge?
5. The Celebrity Model of Leadership.
Related to our sexual ethics problem is the list of evangelists, pastors and preachers who have been ruined by a top down view of authority. What is the further cost of not renewing our theology of the Body-of- Christ-oriented servant leadership?
4. Exodus at age 16.
Youth leave the church in droves once they reach age 16. All of our smoke machine worship and pierced youth pastors is doing little to keep ‘em. Can we survive while losing 60%-80% of the next generation?
3. Out Classed Apologetics.
The few Christian academics and campus ministers who struggle to love and engage secularist intellectuals do a noble work but they are under-funded, undermanned and largely unappreciated. Average Joe believer is apologetically under-equipped and uninterested. Some Christian “scientists” find T-Rex saddles while emerging pastors blur the line between materialism and faith. Meanwhile, Christianity continues to be characterized by secular deans and doctors as having the same credibility as those who believe in a flat earth. Where is the next C.S. Lewis?
2. Reaching College Students.
Likewise, we complain that the media, government and marketplace misrepresent Christianity yet we refuse to invest in building relationship with these same leaders while they are on campus and still open to hear our message. What would happen if we saw a student awakening on a majority of major universities?
1. Twenty-somethings Rising.
This may be our biggest problem or our perhaps our biggest hope. If we do not experience renewal, for all the reasons above and a few more, twenty-somethings are either going to leave the church entirely or, more likely, use their significant generational power to dismantle the evangelical church. When they take control, and it will be sooner than we think, will the church become an impotent relic or credible force for the historic cause of Jesus?
Did I miss any? | | |
| Attack of the AkitaWe had quite the weekend. Emma was attacked by an Akita while we attended our Chi Alpha state leaders Conference. She now has 23 staples in the back of her head. Kelly put this on her facebook today and I thought instead of rewriting I'd just pass on her account here. She writes...
ok, we're home from san diego. emma is doing great. for everyone who doesn't know...thursday night about 10 pm emma was walking back to our hotel with maddy, ana and victoria treuil when they came upon a man walking his dog. they asked him what kind of dog is that? Akita, he said. and before they could do any thing else the dog lunged for emma. thankfully she ducked her head down and covered her face and the dog's jaws landed on the back of her head. the man could not pull the dog off and ana tried with all her might to pull emma away.
soon we heard screaming down the beach, "emma's been bitten!" over and over. everyone began to run... many campus pastors. thankfully a couple of campus pastors wouldn't let the man go... he was trying to leave the scene.
when i got there curt was "talking" to the dog owner. emma was huddled in a stairwell with victoria treuil. her neck and shoulders and hair were drenched in blood.
it was far beyond what i expected... i held her and people were offering rides to the hospital and 911 was called and and emt came out from the hotel and someone shoved a phone in my ear and it was animal control. they wanted me to know the dog was registered and had it's rabies shots. then the next thing i know... an ambulance appears...
they come out and talk to emma.... she is shivering ...and we get inside. they radio children's hospital that they have a dog bite coming in. at this point everyone is thinking it is probably a puncture wound of some kind. no one lifts up emma's blood soaked hair.
emma was being so brave... just holding on to my hand the whole way there.
once inside. we do the emergency waiting game. the triage nurse brings us in and takes a little look.surprise! there is a 3 to 5 inch gash to her skull in the back of her head.
a flood of anger rushes over me and curt worse than we were already swimming in... i can't believe it. the triage nurse gauses the wound and sends us back out to the waiting room. to wait for the next doctor.
at about 1 am we go in to see the doctor. emma is falling asleep. the doctor lifts the hair and can't believe it.she says she has to wash it off and that it will need staples. as she is doing that she finds another 3 inch gash to the skull. we are in such an utter state of disbelief and anger and shock.
the dr. leaves to go and talk to someone about what to do...
we wait.
emma is in blood soaked clothes and now soaked from the saline washing.
dr. comes back with extra stapling stuff. and begins to numb emma's head... omg. finally she begins the stapling. 8 staples on one wound and 15 on the other.
we get home about 3:30 am... and put emma to bed. the next morning i bath her with out getting her head wet. the water is red.
what does emma say? "that stupid dog, why did it have to bite me?"
thank you for your prayers. emma kept saying over and over... "God is with me." (thank you, victoria for telling her that.)
emma is doing well. not much pain and on antiboitics. we were all interviewed by "animal cops" and she was much photographed.
we have pics that we wont post but if you want to see tell me and i will email them to you.
oh yeah...the man said his dog just scratched her with her paw...yeah right. | | |
| Of The Church, The End of Hippies and The Next GenerationI wrote on the evening of the Obama victory in the Iowa Democratic primary. I thought it was relevant to post here today on the eve of this historic election. CH
In 2004 many predicted that the 25 and under crowd would sweep Kerry into office. Post election tabulations showed that college age people wanted to head bang with John at Bruce Springstein rallies but that they did not want to chad punch for his cause. After the votes where counted, twenty something came out to vote at the same level they always do. This did not surprise the tabulators. Twenty something have a long history of not following through at the voting booth.
Amazingly, in this election cycle something different has already happened. Almost 100,000 under 30 voters shattered turn out records in Iowa. In New Hampshire Hilary’s come from behind victory suppressed the story of record turnout but they to saw a wave of twenty somethings actually voting. In South Carolina a record one in five voters where under 30. The AP is reporting that the number of young voters registered in California for this primary is already greater than the total for the 2004 presidential election.
At this writing, even though Obama fever has taken a few team Clinton body blows it is still evoking messianic devotion at rallies and record breaking numbers at fund raisers.
In short, Obama my have be able to do what Springsteen and Kerry could not. He may ignite a generation to produce real change.
No one can say just yet if the early signs of young voter turn out will hold through the fall but the church should not be shocked if it does. What if this generation does more than rock? Like their boomer elders who found their voice in one historic summer of love, we might be in store for another 1967 revolution.
If it happens it will not be another hippie movement. Instead of LSD trips expanding minds we will see RSS trips mobilizing people. Instead of “turn on and tune out” as a message we’ll hear “iTune in and YouTube on” to get the message. What this revolution lacks in flowers and beads it will make up for in blazing technological. It will make the hippy movement appear like a blip on the green monochrome screen of history.
Let me be clear. I am not commenting on a candidate or a political cause or an issue. Whatever your personally feelings about Obama, this is about more than liberal vs. conservative. It is about the what, why and how of capturing the hearts of a generation.
And this is not just any generation. This is a group that may be the most talented and confident cohort to come along in 100 years. Whether it is the predictions of noted generational experts like Neil Howe and William Strauss, the trends reported in the UCLA freshmen study, the hard data of rising SAT scores or a simple observation of their internet savvy, make not mistake, this group has game.
Here’s the problem. According to Barna, this super skilled set of twenty-somethings are the least likely age group to go to church.
Some will argue that at this time of life young adults always leave the church. “When they become parents they will return.” I am not sure our attendance records would support this notion but even so, why wait. Would you let Charles Wesley, Amy Carmichael, Hudson Taylor, Jim Elliot, Lillian Thrasher, or Charles Spurgeon get away at age 20? These leaders set the course for their globally impacting lives in their early twenties. We can’t give up on this time of life. It is the season that forms greatness.
Right now, however the church is not succeeding. Whatever we are doing, whatever we are preaching, it is just not capturing the hearts of this group. Maybe we are not living the message we preach? Could it be that somehow the rhetoric of political change looks more attractive than the message of Christian change?
Maybe we are relying on techniques over substance? Maybe they are looking for more than a cool new slogan, smoke machines during worship, or a strong coffee in the foyer?
At the risk of sounding over dramatic, I wonder if it is too late. Maybe the lesson of this primary season is that a cause has already captured their hearts. Will they serve a political uprising only and never discover the higher calling of the kingdom? Is it too late to see a wave of college age believers break over the church flooding us with renewed faith and effectiveness? | | |
| The Question Behind All Questions“Who has the time to do this?” This gravity well question echoes in my brain at every moment of every planning meeting I attend and in my role, I attend quite a few strategy smack downs. In the last three years I have consumed about 10,000 gallons of coffee meeting with churches to discuss how to start Chi Alpha outreaches on the colleges and universities near their congregations. In every one the “time” query haunts the air around us.
Almost every church is initially motivated to improve their twenty something outreach, but once the brain storming dust settles, very few actually end up getting students mobilized on campus. Their biggest problem is not talent or heart but time.
It is usually the very busy youth pastor or even busier young adult pastor (after all he/she is also the media pastor, small group pastor and landscaper) who must find time to develop these efforts on campus. Herding this scattered age group with their multiple low-end jobs and community college schedules, can quickly become a time warping schedule killer. Getting them in one room anywhere, let alone on campus, can seem as impossible as stopping time itself.
I spent last Thursday, Friday and Saturday (9/25-27/08) in Minneapolis meeting with five other veteran leaders who have proven results facilitating church-based campus ministry. We came together to see if we could come with a plan to help churches. We asked a lot of question but behind them all lurked the issue of time.
To start, we decided to pool our experience and make a list of all of the examples of great church based campus ministries to see what we could learn about how they do it. We quickly discovered that there are some great examples of churches that have figured out how to make this work.
From these success stories we formed a question to guide our plan. How can I invest 10 hours a week and get a return of at least 100 engaged students?
Ok - hold on. I hear all of you campus missionaries and young adult leaders laughing at me right now but give me a minute to explain.
First of all we figure that unless we empower students to do the ministry it will not work even if we have all the time and money in the world. The point is that limiting our time may actually help if we do it right. The focus of having only ten hours a week forces us to invest in student ownership almost exclusively. Furthermore, the reality on the ground for most churches is that finding a leader who can give 10 hours is already a stretch. In most settings, if that youth pastor, church planter or young adult leader can’t do it in 10, it probably can’t be done at all.
Finally, as everyone who has visited youtube knows, viral growth always out performs artificially orchestrated growth. It is not unnatural laborious plans that produce great campus ministry. Lasting results come from cultivating environments (especially in the genesis of the ministry) that seed reproducing viral growth.
Here’s what we came up with in terms how to pull of this 10 hour viral based investment:
1 Diagnostic Survey. The leader with limited time must learn his/her missionfield backwards and forwards first. This alone will save an enormous amount of time by learning about hidden pitfalls and avoiding specific strategies that waste time because they will not work in your mission field.
2. Nucleus Selection: Jesus took an entire night to pray about who should be a disciple and who should become an apostle. Before any on campus presence is established praying through and recruiting a small core group (3-5) of highly committed leaders should become the exclusive focus of our time. Getting this step right may take more than a few weeks but if we do get it right we will save tons of time down the road.
3. DNA Strengthening: Once we have recruited a core, that group does the same for their friends. This DNA strand of 20 or so sets the genetic direction for the future of the group. A weekend retreat, road trip or missions adventure is essential here, not only to bond the group relationally but for strengthening core values from the start. I confess this will probably take you more than 10 hours if you do it correctly but you can always make up the time invested here during later (like during finals week).
4. Culture Self-Perpetuation: Now comes the fun part. Notice we have not talked about models or strategy or launch dates at all yet. That is because your job is to make them come up with the strategy. This is essential both for saving time and for increasing their ownership. An ok idea that is owned by students will always work better than a great idea that you came up with. If you spend your 10 hours a week as an idea mediator and plan encourager not only will you free up you calendar but you will see greater fruit on campus.
5. Provide Holistic Supervision: This is the “repeat as needed” stage. Once you have the patten of selecting and enabling students to do the ministry then, your job becomes providing oversight. Helping student balance worship and fellowship, or discipleship and witness, while they perform the actually ministry is the goal.
This is still very much only an outline of an outline. Our group hopes to pull in more church based campus ministry leaders to leverage resources for each stage, develop effective start up model plans, and help with the recruiting of these core supervising leaders. In all of this the specific plans, models, small group and large group meetings will vary from situation to situation greatly but the need to develop students to own the ministry will not.
You might be thinking about now “Curt, this sounds like it would work even if I am full time on campus (or planting a church, youth ministry etc. etc.).” You got us. It’s true. This is not a new creative plan (in fact read Coleman’s Master Plan for the best discussion of this method) it is just the plan we must use if we are very busy.
The truth is that the time and challenges of ministering to twenty somethings on campus force us to focus on this ownership development pattern. Because time is the question behind all questions for church based campus ministry we are forces to select, train, release and supervise to maximize our time. | | |
| the curtcast returnsFor all six of you who have been made at me for my failure to continue the curtcast, I offer this new episode.
For everyone else, let me explain, five years ago I started turning on my digital camera and just thinking into it. I wanted to get down my artists perspective on proof for God so I sort of just did short manic brain burps into my Sony. Before youtube, these video blogs were posted on my "funny clips" page. Later I did some photo driven podcasts (see my iWeb sight) with the same feel.
I have been in enough late night coffee fueled conversations with seeker college students to know that the church desperately needs a new apologetic style. More dialogue than debate would be nice. Something that is more Christian than comments about why Sam Harris' past lives and Friedrich Nietzsche foaming at the mouth.
The stream-of-thought video format with word pictures is my attempt to practice this new style. However, the time it took to edit the footage caused me to mothball the curtcast during our big move back to California. I intended to restart as soon as we got settled. That was three years ago.
Now with my iSight built in to my laptop and youtube having risen as the Gangis Khan of the digital age I am going to try to revive these video blogs. The one to the left will probably not turn out to be my best effort ever but it's a (new) start. Let me know what you think.
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