The third book I'm reviewing is Emerging Worship: Creating Worship Gatherings for New Generations, by Dan Kimball. This book is a sequel of sorts to the previous book I reviewed, Kimball's Emerging Church. As I mentioned in that review, his previous book wasn't "too heavy on practicality."

This second book, while not recommending any specific approach, is much more practical. The first half of Emerging Worship is about laying the foundation -- asking why changes are necessary, and thinking through critical issues before making any changes. To me, this is where the best stuff in the book is. The second half of the book takes a look at several churches (including two groups of house churches) that have implemented "alternative" worship gatherings.

Kimball lays out a very convincing narrative in the introduction:

I've had numerous conversations with younger people who told me they left their church to be a disciple of Jesus in a way that makes sense to them. They aren't abandoning their faith. Many choose to form small faith communities and meet in homes among friends. They are waiting for the larger, more organized church to change. This is no cop-out, either.

Virutally every young adult I have talked to sincerely tried to change their church and brought suggestions to the church leadership before leaving their church. Most volunteered to start something new. But the suggestions fell on deaf ears with a predetermined view of what emerging generations should be like in relation to "church."

The closed minds in their church leadership eventually made them choose to leave.

The story told in this narrative is something I'm seeing more and more in my peers. Some have turned to house churches, but I do believe that long-term, the house church trend will grow into something larger and more organized. Why can't existing organized churches start doing something now? Do we have to start from scratch? This is a question I'm struggling with right now.

Church leadership must recognize that there are distinct types of people that we are hoping to connect with. Kimball describes them in this way:

Pre-Christian: Someone who was raised with a basic understanding of "God" and a Judeo-Christian worldview. They may have had some church experience growing up that was primarily boring or dead ritual. So when a church provides a contemporary and relevant church worship service, they return to the church and trust Jesus Christ (or recommit to him). Most megachurches and growing churches today are reaching this group of people.

Post-Christian: Someone who was born and raised outside of any church influence and is now heavily influenced by our pluralistic culture and values. Generally few of their values, morals, or convictions are based on a Judeo-Christian worldview. "Church" either means nothing to them or they dislike it. Spirituality is subjective and individualistic, often an eclectic potporrui of the world's religious beliefs. They usually oppose the idea of joining any organized established religion. They often have strong anti-evangelical sentiments and a lot of stereotypes against Christians in general. Yet they are usually very spiritually-minded people.

Disillusioned Christian: Someone who grew up in a modern evangelical church, who left the church dissatisfied with the current way most churches function (with their emphasis on the big weekend worship service being the "church"). A rising percentage of younger people are not drawn to the megachuch philosophy or to the church structures and values that they grew up in (even in smaller churches). They desire to experience a different kind of church and different kind of Christianity than they grew up with.

I agree with Dan's analysis that most churches are reaching "pre-christians". In terminology consistent with the modern/post-modern discussion, these would be the people who would be classified as "modern." I also think that we will encounter more and more people who would be classified as "post-christian", or "post-modern."

But I am more and more convinced that the next generation of church leaders are primarily in the "disillusioned" category. They are not disillusioned with Christianity -- they are disillusioned with traditional church methodology. They do not believe that all it takes is a good kids' program to grow the church. They do not even believe that "growing the church" is a priority. They see that what we are lacking is growing disciples of Christ. We are lacking the growth of community among believers.

If any specific church does not attract a new generation of leaders, within the next generation that church will die.

We tend to ask the wrong questions when analyzing our worship services and programs. We tend to ask about how well an event was attended. Whether the transitions were smooth. Whether people sang loudly and clapped. Whether people responded to the sermon. Kimball explains that in the emerging church, we need to ask the following questions:

1. Did we lift up the name of Jesus as the centerpiece of why we gathered?

2. Did we have a time in the Scriptures learning the story of God and man? Did we invite everyone to be part of his story today through kingdom living?

3. Did we pray together and have enough time to slow down and quiet our hearts to hear God's voice and yield to his Spirit?

4. Did we experience the love, joy, and encouragement of being together as a church?

5. Did we take the Lord's supper together as a church regularly?

6. Did we somehow remind everyone of the mission of the church and why we exist?

7. Did we enable people to individually contribute something as part of the body of Christ?

Overall, the highlights of what existing churches are doing was interesting. But the one scenario that I would be interested in wasn't convered. In all of the existing churches that were highlighted, they added a new "alternative" gathering in addition to the one(s) they already had. I see two big problems with this:

1) Most small churches do not have the resources to start a new "alternative" gathering and keep the existing gatherings going, while doing both at high quality. Personally, I simply could not do both a morning "modern" gathering and an evening "emerging" gathering. If I was a paid worship pastor, it'd be doable. But as a volunteer worship leader, I'm simply not going to split my available time up that way. Small churches are working with a handful of leaders, and similarly need to focus their time and energy.

2) I feel that the changes that need to be made to connect with the post-modern culture need to be made to save the church from extinction. We've spent too long ignoring missions. Too long accepting passive participation as legitimate worship. Too long not challenging people into deeper intimacy with God. By starting an alternative worship gathering where you focus and what we're supposed to focus on, and leaving the existing gatherings unaffected, you leave the people who wouldn't attend an alternative gathering in relative mediocrity. Is this what the church is supposed to be about?

So in my particular situation -- how do you transition an entire church into a completely different model of ministry? More importantly, can it be accomplished? Has anyone tried it and had any success?

I'm also a little confused by the degree to which the "alternative" worship gatherings that are described are full of what, to me, appear to be "trendy" elements. I agree with the theory behind "multisensory" worship. But a lot of the descriptions I read about it sound awfully trendy, and when talking about alternative worship gatherings, I think people are distracted by discussions of prayer tents, art stations, journal stations, etc., and end up missing some of the critical points.

To Dan Kimball's credit, he ends the book with a chapter that questions whether we're just going to create a new brand of consumer Christians, ones who are as devoted to "multisensory" worship as some people are dedicated to the popular hymns of the 1950's. I know people are hungry for new things, and the multisensory stuff will feel fresh and engaging for a while. But we need to be focusing on who the church is, and what we do in a missional context, not the trendy things we incorporate into the gatherings.

I'll end this post with a table from Kimball's book, one that I think does a good job of talking about how we should view the church. But even as I review this now, I feel a sense that this isn't just for reaching post-modern generations -- it is for reaching all generations.

What the church isn't	What the church is
A "place" or building you go to	Disciples of Jesus wherever they go
The weekend meeting where the sermon is delivered and songs are sung	Groups of disciples meeting in homes and other smaller settings throughout the week who may also gather in a larger meeting to worship together on Sunday
Christians who go to a weekend meeting to get their religious goods and services	The worshipers of a local body on a mission together
Christians who go to "church" on weekends to get their inspiration and feeding for the week	The people of God who are passionately dependent upon God in worship and prayer all week long
Christians who ask, "What does this church have to offer me?"	Disciples of Jesus who ask, "How can I contribute and serve this local body on a mission?"
A place where Christins go to have the pastors do "spiritual" things for them	A community where the pastors and leaders equip the people for the mission and to serve one another
A place to bring your Children and teenagers for their spiritual lessons while you receive your sermon and sing a few songs	A community where leaders help train you to teach your children the ways of God and incorporate children and youth into the community so they aren't isolated

Labels: books, church, emerging

Tulsa - One of Tulsa's best-known ministers was attacked Sunday while giving the altar call. NewsChannel 8's Mark Bradshaw spoke with Billy Joe Daugherty of Victory Christian Center, who was almost knocked out in church.

Daugherty has preached in more than forty countries, many of them dangerous, third-world countries. And, he was in Russia last week. In all of his travels around the world, he has never been physically attacked. That all changed Sunday, in of all places, right in front of his own congregation at Victory Christian Center.

"Standing just like this, he went 'POW', and that knocked me back and I spun like that and he grabbed my coat."

It was an altar call Billy Joe Daugherty will never forget. The pastor is now sporting a black eye and stitches two days after the altercation at the altar that was caught on tape.

"I had been preaching on praise and Thanksgiving in every situation," he says. "And this guy walked forward. I thought he was coming to receive the Lord, but he had another plan."

Check out the full story, Victory Christian Center Pastor Attacked During Services. There's even a link to watch the video.

Labels: church, life

From James Taranto's column, Best of the Web Today on Thursday: Great Moments in Liberal Economics:

"The purchasing power of minimum wage is at an historic low. Coupled with the relatively high cost of living in New Jersey, the state's lower income workers are being pushed to the brink. Acting Governor [Richard] Codey believes all New Jerseyans deserve the fair proposition that an honest day's work should garner a living wage. Moreover, there is strong evidence that increasing the minimum wage also significantly improves quality of life--reducing hunger and increasing healthcare."--"State of the State Highlights," New Jersey government Web site, Jan. 11

"Several senior citizens working in non-profit and public organizations in Salem, Cumberland and Gloucester counties will face layoffs in December. Chris Davenport, executive director of Salem Main Street program, said the federally funded non-profit company Experience Works, which assists low-income senior citizens with job training and placement, has been forced to lay off seniors due to the increase in minimum wage."--Today's Sunbeam (Salem, N.J.), Nov. 17

The biggest effect of minimum wage laws is that jobs are eliminated when they're not worth the minimum wage. The biggest effect of price controls (to stop those pesky price gougers) is that you quickly run out of supply. Economics is pretty simple, folks. But rarely do politicians have the ability to understand the negative consequences of their actions.

Labels: politics

Anyone who knew me well as a kid would know what my three favorite toy franchises were -- Star Wars, Transformers, and GI Joe. (Our Legos served primarily as a way for us to build vehicles for all three of those, so those fit into all of them...)

Well, you can really tell who they're marketing these toys to now... us 30-year-old kids!


Star Wars Transformers! So Darth Vader becomes a TIE Fighter, Obi-Wan becomes a Jedi Starfighter, General Grevious becomes his wheel bike, and Luke Skywalker becomes an X-Wing Fighter. I'd say I was born in the wrong decade, because today's toys are so much cooler than they were when I was a kid, but if I was a kid today I'd probably think Transformers were goofy. Then again, most kids back in the day thought Transformers were goofy. But hey, it's all relative. Nothing was as goofy as The Tomorrow People. (And yes, mom, I'm officially sorry for having subjected you to that show... at least they never had Tomorrow People action figures!)

Labels: life

Walter E. Williams tackles windfall profits in his latest column.

Our US Senators, led by the likes of Republican Pete Domenici (NM) and Democrat Charles Schumer (NY), are investigating the oil companies' recent profits and whether or not they are justified.

Domenici says "they better come prepared, they better bring their charts, they better show us what they're doing with this money." Schumer says "the least they can do is give some back... we ought to force it to happen." Guess who they want the comapnies to "give back" the money to?

Talk is of a new excise tax, or a windfall profit tax, or some kind of tax to hit the companies hard.

Walter Williams explains why this is an awful idea:

Suppose there's a disaster wiping out food resources in Harrisburg, Pa., and I live in Philadelphia. Prior to the disaster, bread prices in both cities were $2 a loaf. I buy a truckload of bread, cart it to Harrisburg and sell it for $20 a loaf, earning huge windfall profits. When the word gets out that there are profits to be made, what do you think happens? If you said other people will start carting bread to Harrisburg, bakers will start working overtime to produce more bread, people who formerly used their oven to bake cakes and pies will switch to baking bread, there'll be bread conservation in Philadelphia and elsewhere and eventually bread prices will start to fall in Harrisburg and windfall profits would vanish, go to the head of the class. While some might find people earning windfall profits objectionable, the result of their actions, getting more bread to Harrisburg, is precisely what's desired.

What if politicians said, "People are profiting from the misery of others, and we're going to impose a bread windfall profits tax"? Say they legislated a 100 percent tax, taking all of the $18 of windfall profits. Would you expect to see people making all those efforts to get bread to Harrisburg? Suppose there were huge startup costs for companies to expand their operation or onerous regulations for people to get into the bread business, would that be good news or bad news for people in Harrisburg?

What kind of facism are we getting ourselves into, where the government can investigate an individual company's profit, and determine that it's too much and has to be given back? This is yet another example of politicians' ignorance disrupting the economic system. As Williams suggests, large profits are a signal that more production, more supply, and more research are needed in a specific area. And the profits are what provide the motivation, but profits also provide the resources necessary for that expansion.

In this particular example, our politicians have learned nothing from the oil crisis of the 70's, which resulted in higher prices, low supply, and increased dependence on foreign sources of oil. I'm not surprised to see Democrats want to make the same mistakes. But Republicans should know better. The more and more Republicans act ignorant of basic economics, and there is less and less of a difference between Republicans and Democrats, the more and more I'm becoming Libertarian.

Labels: politics

Last week I talked about Post-Modern Pilgrims by Leonard Sweet. This week I will continue the discussion, and talk about the next book I read: The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations by Dan Kimball.

While the two books both cover a discussion of the postmodern culture, they are quite different in how they approach it. As I mentioned last week, Sweet's book was written early in the discussion of how postmodernism affects the church. As such, it's written more to explain the feelings behind postmodernism, giving examples of how we can see postmodernism affecting culture, and it asks a lot of great questions about how the church needs to change its thinking.

Dan Kimball's book, on the other hand, was written in 2003. While only separated by three years, Dan's book is written more as a reflection of his and others' experience with attempting to engage the postmodern mindset. But the book isn't too heavy on practicality. He purposely stops short of making strong suggestions on how to conduct worship gatherings, because each group needs to determine their own specific direction.

The first half of the book is "deconstruction." It explains postmodernism rather well -- in fact, a lot of the summary I gave of postmodernism in my last post came out of this book, not Leonard Sweet's book. But more than that, he analyzes problems the postmodern mindset has with the modern church. The second half of the book is "reconstruction," trying to get a glimpse of what the emerging church will look like -- where it is that we're going.

Another term I feel that I need to discuss is this "emerging" thing. Like "postmodern," a lot of people aren't really comfortable with it, and I'm not sure I like the term, either. But it represents the transitional point at which we are at -- we are not fully out of modernism, and we are not fully into whatever "postmodernism" represents. We're somewhere between the two. Likewise, we don't really know where the church will end up in all of this: it is all a work in progress.

So "emerging" refers to the idea that we don't know exactly what the church will look like once it's "emerged" into postmodernism. "Emerging" doesn't specifically refer to any style of worship, in terms of music, or liturgy, or schedule. It refers primarily to changing our church culture to move away from the "seeker-sensitive" model of gatherings into a more "vintage" model of gatherings -- one that represents our rich heritage, and incorporates deep spirituality and building strong community as focal points of our gatherings.

But as Kimball explains, "rethinking the emerging church involves rethinking almost everything we do. The worship service is but one part of it."

"Postmodernity and the spiritual relativism it brings completely pulls the rug out from under most of our current, modern ministry strategy and methodology." What does this mean? It means that we can take nothing for granted. (Sound familiar?) It means that we can't assume any of the programs or approaches that we used to use will still work.

Most who read that sentence will know that I'm thinking about how that applies to things like how we schedule our gathering time, what styles we use, etc. But we also have to be willing to think about that in terms of the approach we're used to taking. Do we need flashy high-production-value presentations in the postmodern culture? Kimball would say no. I'm starting to agree. They might not hurt so much, but they might not help so much, either. If we have it, no big deal, but in terms of what we pursue, it has to be something different entirely.

Our pursuit has to be discipleship -- being an apprentice of Christ. Our pursuit has to be worship -- being obedient and submissive to God. Our pursuit has to be community -- serving each other in love.

For too long we've been heading down the road of the church being a vendor of religious goods and services. We must shift that mentality to that of the church being a group of people who are sent on a mission.

Kimball had the following table, about how the values of the church need to shift, that I think is important enough to include in its entirety.

MODERN CHURCH (Seeker-Sensitive)	EMERGING CHURCH (Post-Seeker-Sensitive)
Worship "services" in which preaching, music, programs, etc. are served to the attender	Worship "gatherings," which include preaching, music, etc.
Services designed to reach those who have had bad or boring experiences in a church	Gatherings designed to include and translate to those who have no previous church experience
Services designed to be user-friendly and contemporary	Gatherings designed to be experiential and spiritual-mystical
A need to break the stereotype of what church is	A need to break the stereotype of who Christians are
Stained glass taken out and replaced with video screens	Stained glass brought back in on video screens
Crosses and other symbols removed from meeting place to avoid looking too "religious"	Crosses and other symbols brought back into meeting place to promote a sense of spiritual reverence
Room arranged so individuals are able to see the stage from comfortable theater seating while worshiping	Room arranged to focus on community, striving to feel more like a living room or coffeehouse while worshiping
Lit up and cheery sanctuary valued	Darkness valued as it displays a sense of spirituality
Focal point of service is the sermon	Focal point of the gathering is the holistic experience
Preacher and worship leader lead the service	Preacher and worship leader by participating in the gathering
Uses modern technology to communicate with contemporary flare	Gathering seen as a place to experience the ancient, even mystical (and uses technology to do so)
Services designed to grow to accommodate the many people of the church	Gatherings designed to grow to accommodate many people but seen as a time when the church which meets in smaller groups gathers together

Some of the shifting values in this table really resonated with me. I really connect with the shift from the "need to break the stereotype of what church is" to "need to break the stereotype of who Christians are." To me that speaks volumes. It would also make a great slogan -- not breaking the stereotype of church, but breaking the stereotype of Christians.

There were more tables in the book that were also excellent, but the following is a combination of what I think is the best parts of them. These were more values that we need to shift, but there were separate chapters (and tables) on preaching, evangelism, discipleship, and leadership. Below are some of the best elements from the chapters on evangelism and discipleship.

MODERN CHURCH (Seeker-Sensitive)	EMERGING CHURCH (Post-Seeker-Sensitive)
Evangelism is an event that you invite people to.	Evangelism is a process that occurs through relationship, trust, and example.
Evangelism is primarily concerned with getting people into heaven.	Evangelism is concerned with people's experiencing the reality of living under the reign of his kingdom now.
Evangelism is something you do in addition to discipleship.	Evangelism is part of being a disciple.
Evangelism is a message.	Evangelism is a conversation.
Evangelism uses reason and proofs for apologetics.	Evangelism uses the church being the church as the primary apologetic.
Missions is a department of the church.	The church is a mission.
The Bible is a book to help solve problems and a means to know God.	The Bible is a compass for direction and a means to experience God.
Discipleship is an individual experience.	Discipleship is a communal experience.
Discipleship is based on modern methodology and helps.	Discipleship is based on ancient disciplines.
Discipleship is knowledge and belief.	Discipleship is holistic faith and action.
Discipleship is education.	Discipleship is spiritual formation.
Being a disciple and evangelism are two distinct things we do.	Being a disciple is being on an evangelistic mission.
Spiritual formation primarily occurs through presentation and teaching.	Spiritual formation primarily occurs through experience and participation.
Discipleship is something that happens after people attend the worship service.	Discipleship is the center of the mission of the church.

The irony is that the changes we need to make, as individuals and as churches, have little to do with being culturally relevant, and everything to do with reconnecting with our original mission and calling. For example, while postmodernism will demand that we shift evangelism away from an "event" to a process that occurs through relationship, the reality is that this is how it is supposed to be anyway. The very things we need to do to connect with postmodern culture are the same things that would have worked better in the modern culture. The postmodern culture will force the church to be the church. This, I think, is a good thing. But the question is how do we get there, and what will it look like?

We must begin by no longer measuring our success with the three B's - buildings, budgets, and bodies. Kimball writes:

Success is more than having an alternative worship gathering that has become the hottest thing in town, attracting hundreds of younger people. The emerging church must redefine how we measure success: by the characteristics of a kingdom-minded disciple of Jesus produced by the Spirit, rather than by our methodologies, numbers, strategies, or the cool and innovative things we are doing.

It's clear to me that if we hold onto our current programs for the sake of the programs, and we hinge our idea of success onto the success of the programs we've generated, we won't get where we need to go. Instead, let's make room for God to work. Let's encourage each other on our journey as we seek God deeper. Let's be the community we're called to be, so that even outsiders will "bow down before God and worship him, declaring, 'God is really among you.'"

Dan Kimball has a blog where he shares a lot of great stuff, if you're interested in this stuff (you must be if you've read this far!) check it out at www.dankimball.com.

Labels: books, church, emerging