Where’s the CD drive?

 

 

Newer and Better!

 

 

So, I didn’t get to go to the National Youth Workers Convention this year in Cincinnati  But I did get to have dinner with someone who did!  I’m sure a few things were lost in translation, but the dinner was only $30 (plus a babysitter), and I was able to hear a cool story or two from people like Tony Campolo and Reggie Joiner (through the summary of my dinner date).

 

One story stuck in my head and I decided I wanted to write it out.  I guess I would call it a modern day parable shared in a way that makes sense in my head.  This might not work for you, but then, this is MY blog, and if you have a better story, you should write it on YOUR blog…

 

First the back story.  The conference theme was about ‘time’ and everything that goes with it, and this particular story came through a talk about how long (or not so long) churches take to move through change.  A church consultant firm had shared some statistics they had measured in churches regarding how change that moves quickly (in 3 months) sees the same numerical loss (in attendance, tithing, participation, etc) as change of the same magnitude that takes 2 years (approximately %30).  The speaker suggested that if the same amount of loss was going to take place, it would behoove the church to make changes quickly and completely so as not to drag on what would be a difficult situation for 4-6 times as long as would be necessary.  Ok, I can agree with that.  I can think of a few examples in my life where a church would have been better making a change quickly and decisively instead of dragging things on and on.

But, that’s just the back story.  We’re not there yet…

So then Reggie uses an example of how the digital camera came to market around y2k, and how 3 different companies (Kodak, Nikon, and Cannon) handled the change differently and saw different results.  That’s another good story I don’t have time to share, but basically, the company that tried to take the time to transition slowly (to hold on to their customer base) lost a very large chunk of their customers to the company that jumped in with both feet and made the change quickly.

The common theme that I heard shared by multiple speakers was that churches that are willing to tackle the hard issues and solve them quickly and completely are the churches that see the most positive growth (spiritually, and numerically) while churches that seem to toy with ideas or slowly integrate new processes over time wear down congregations and (more importantly) good leaders.  There was another example shared that I don’t have the time to go into where a bunch of employees in a company recognize and admit that because of poor performance, their entire group is about to be fired by upper management.  So they sit down and make a list of all the things that will change when the board brings in new people (staff, processes, budget, etc).  Then they look at each other and say, ‘well, we’re gonna get fired if we do nothing, so let’s do what the new guys will do and we’ll see what happens’.

 

But that’s not the story…

The story comes when the presenter walks out on stage with a package.  He’s talking about change and how it’s important for our church to pay attention to how well we’re prepped for ongoing change.  He’s talking about how if a church is building a building, are they building a space that can change easily?  Are they preaching that when the place is built, people can’t sit back and say ‘finally, we have our space’ but can say, ‘ok, now how can we constantly adapt this new space to meet the changing needs of our community’?  He’s asking if our church structure is arranged so that we can shift easily when needs come up or do we find ourselves saying “if we only had more money, or a bigger building, or a better location, or more teachers, etc”.  All good questions, but not where I’m going…

And then he pulls out of the package an A2 Apple computer.  It was his first computer.  It cost $2,400 new.  Ya’ll know what I’m talking about, that’s old school

So, he explains how he just recently purchased Adobe Photoshop CS4 for another computer and it occurred to him that he’d like to put it on his old A2.  But of course, he couldn’t.  The first problem was that the A2 didn’t have a CD drive (or a color monitor which is kinda important for a photo editing program ).  So he decided to call Mac technical support!

The conversation went something like this:

Mac:  Hi, how can I help you?

Reggie:  Hello, I’m having trouble installing some software on my computer and I was wondering if you could help.

Mac:  Sure, what kind of software?

Reggie:  Adobe CS4

Mac:  Sure, no problem!  We can help you with that.  What are you installing it on?

Reggie:  An Apple A2

Mac:  [long pause…]  I’m sorry, can you repeat that?

Reggie:  Yeah, I’m having trouble installing Adobe CS4 on my A2 computer

Mac:  [long pause as the tech person waves over all the other people in the office “you guys gotta come over here and listen to this!”…]  hold on while I put you on speaker phone… Ok, can you please repeat that?

Reggie:  OK, I’m trying to put Adobe CS4 on my A2 computer

Mac:  [laughter from everywhere…]  Sir, you can’t put CS3 on your computer.  You need to go buy a new computer…

 

 

You get the idea.  I was laughing out loud picturing this guy from tech support wondering if the person on the other end was crazy.  When the A2 was built, it took a crane to move a computer that had enough memory to support CS4’s processes, let alone even store the data from 1 picture.

 

But here’s where it matters.  Reggie says this, and it blows the crowd away…  he says “you can’t put new wine into old wine skins.”

 

There it is… the modern parable.  You can’t put new wine into old wine skins.  But what do we do as a church?  We try and shove new wine, the new things God is doing, into systems that just can’t support it.  We don’t operate in a way that allows for the new things God wants to do, because we’re too busy protecting the old wine skins.  We love our old wine skins.  We’re friends with them.  We have carried them for a long time.  They’re worn in the places we’ve held them, they’ve covered miles and miles as we’ve traveled together.  They have done their job and done it well.  We feel like we can’t just move on, we can’t just abandon what God did before.  But if we’re not preparing ourselves to receive new wine, all we end up doing is breaking our old wine skins and loosing the wine we’ve been praying for.  No matter how much we want it, we’ll never be able to run Adobe CS4 on an A2.  And we’ll never be able to respond to the ‘new thing’ that God is doing in our church if we’re not willing to get ourselves some new wineskins.

 

That’s a modern parable that I can relate to.

 

JF

A herd of what?

Sometimes I find myself frustrated with either the ability or lack thereof to communicate in a meaningful way to people who don’t want to listen.  Clearly, Jesus had a message that he wanted to communicate with everyone.  A message of life, and hope, and meaning.  And since he was, as some would say, the Master Communicator, I would think we would want to model our approach after his.

Of course, the problem is, I’m not a whole lot like Jesus!  (I know, it’s true )  He always seemed to know when a kind word was in order, or when a stern reprimand was more appropriate.  To one person he would offer a blessing, to another a curse, to another a warning, and to others he wouldn’t say anything at all.  And each time, it seemed to be exactly what was needed.

So, Yay, props to Jesus.  He was perfect.  But what about me?  What about the church?  How do we know when to speak, and what to say?

I think everyone feels at some point in time that they have the perfect answer to an immature attitude, an honest question, an angry letter, a biblical (or un-biblical) world view or an inaccurate rumor.  In fact, I hear peoples answers almost every day.  But they’re rarely appropriate.  Most of the time they’re just angry.  And usually there’s someone in another room voicing their exact opposite opinion and they’re just as angry.

The nice thing about my job is that I get to sit and listen to both sides and act sort of like a judge (at least in my own mind ); it gives good perspective and makes it easier to assess the spiritual health of the parties involved.  But what I find myself wondering is this:

If Jesus was here right now, would he act like most churches seem to act?  Would he try and keep everyone happy, try and give people their own space to create their own bubble, try and separate the angry people so that some semblance of peace was in the air (but not in the hearts)?  Would he go out of his way to appease people who had no idea of what the Kingdom of God should look like so they didn’t bring it to the school yard against their opponents?  Would he put peace and pacifism above truth and forward progress?

OR, would he find all these people with different opinions, force feed them Red Bull, lock them in a room, turn Demon Hunter up to 11 and let them work it out?

Although option two sounds like more fun at times, it seems that we’ve had our share of bloodshed because of our misguided belief systems over the years.  What would suck would be if one side in the locked room sneaked in a gun.  Now it’s gone from Christian love to a Crusade.

But the first option doesn’t seem to be working too well either.  In a generation that demands authenticity in Creator-Worship, we can’t stand the way the church seems to handle it’s interpersonal issues.   I constantly hear people asking “why can’t we just tell them (whoever they are) how it is?”  We want to be a part of a community that’s real, not fake, that is open and upfront about truth, not quiet and semi-assertive.

So, what would you say if you could?  If you weren’t worried about being excommunicated or kicked off your committee, what would you preach from the chancel/platform/altar/stage area?

And what would Jesus say?

JF

What does it LOOK like?

The altar??? I'm looking for the horns

So, I was going through the comments from the “who stole my church” discussion sheets and a statement gave me pause.  It was listed under the “things I don’t like about my church” heading.  It caught my eye because I remember seeing some comments on this blog (and others) about the altar and I wondered if this comment was written by one of the authors of those aforementioned replies.

The statement read:  I wish the altar looked like the altar!

So, the obvious question ran through my head… what does an altar look like???  I mean, to answer the question, we would need to know what it was that the person that made the comment meant by 1. the altar, and 2. what THEY thought it should look like.

On point #1, the reason I ask is because there was a comment located elsewhere on the sheet that spoke about the ‘altar-area’.  I wondered aloud:  What is the altar/altar-area?  How big is that ‘area’ and what does it include?  Does it include the space above and below the altar, or is it only the space adjacent to the altar?  Does it include the platform the altar is on as well, or is it only the platform before you get to the piano, or organ, or drums?

On point #2, who determines what the altar should look like?  The only reason I ask is because I did a google image search on the word altar, and I got a whole bunch of results that didn’t look anything like the ‘altar’ that I’m familiar with…

Now, I’m a bit tongue-in-cheek when I say I have “no idea” what people mean when they use the word ‘altar’ because obviously I assume they mean (in our church) the big white stone table in the center of the stage.  But the questions I have are more of a philosophical nature.  This white stone table that we have doesn’t look anything like the ‘altar’ that God described for the Israelites to build, except that it’s, well… heavy.  It’s not square, it doesn’t have horns, it’s not covered in bronze, there isn’t enough room to put an ox on it and light it on fire, and there isn’t a place to collect ashes…and I don’t think we could carry it.  In fact, rumor has it we’ve had over 6 strong guys try and lift it with not even a budge!  (If you want to, you can find a description of the way the alter was to be constructed in Exodus 27:1-8)

So, sometime, somewhere, someone found it acceptable to interpret the idea of the altar and what it represents and create a large, heavy, rectangular, white, flat surface, and decorate it with candles.

The funny thing is, I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THIS!!!  Why not?  I don’t think we should only use the biblicaly prescribed altar in our church, just like I don’t think our priests and pastors should be wearing the super cool/expensive clothing that God commanded the Israelite priests to wear.  Nor do I think we need to keep our Saturdays free from any work or refrain from eating pig that wasn’t blessed by a priest.

What I DO have issue with is when someone creates an altar in a specific way and calls it good,  holy, proper, and reverent and then tells someone else that the altar someone else creates IS NOT good or holy or proper or reverent.  The question that begs to be asked is:  By WHO”S STANDARD are you judging? Is it by God’s standard?  Why or why not?  And if it’s not by God’s standard, what gives one person’s interpretation or representation a higher or more correct status than another persons??

Just a question I like to think about

So to the original statement, my question back would be… What does an altar look like to you?

JF

New Service Times?

What time is it? 4:30. It's not late, naw, it's just early, early

So, we’ve embarked on an experiment as a church.  We’re going to try and go to two services for a little while and see how it goes.
Sounds like fun to me!  But how does it make YOU feel?  Are you looking forward to it?  Are you looking forward to it ending?  Is it not going to bother you either way because you’re planning on going no matter what time it is?

Well, I hope you weigh in regardless of how you feel.  If we don’t know (we the church, not we as in ME) how people feel, it will be harder to gauge how effective the move was in moving us towards our mission (our as in the church’s mission, not MINE in particular )

Now, I’m sure we could all get into a good discussion about what our mission (individually and collectively) actually is, and I’m sure that would be a lot of fun, but let me ask  you…  Have you participated in the “Who stole my church” study yet?  We’ve only had 1 week, but it seemed to be a good one.  If you missed it, you should definitely show up for the next one.  They start with a dinner at 5:00 on Wednesday in the church basement.

I would be interested to know if some of our bloggers who wrote in on my first post have read the book or have attended the group, and what they thought about it so far…

Cheers!

JF

Busy?

 

Anyone for some Halo 3?

 

 

 

Ok, so I’ve been busy.  Really busy.  I guess you could say I have a lot on my plate…  Well, that’s because I do  

Your first question might be, “well John, if you are busy and you have a lot to do, why are you writing this blog?”  Well, that’s a great question.  And here are two answers.

1.  I am writing this blog because I think that the church should be in the business of people.  People are very important.  People make up the church, people support the church, people are the vehicle that God will use to spread His story.

Have you ever found yourself working on something so hard or so intensive that you didn’t notice what was going on around you?  I’ve heard people say that they were so busy talking that they didn’t notice a red light or a stop sign!  I’ve heard people say they worked so much that they forgot what it was like to hang out with family.  Or they forgot what it was like to get a good nights sleep.  Or they totally missed their kid growing up because they weren’t paying attention to the important, they were paying attention to the immediate.

I don’t want to be one of those people.  So, I figured that I would take a few moments out of my day to write a blog to remind myself that while video mixers and guitar strings are important, they aren’t as important as people.

2.  I am writing this blog because I’m stuck.  I’m working on about a hundred different things, all of which are very imediate, and are very annoying because I can’t just get them done.  I think I need an intern that would be willing to take care of all the little stuff I have going on so I can focus on the major stuff.

But instead of an intern, why not a volunteer?  That’s a great idea.  Why not ask someone who loves doing the kinds of things you need done to take the bull by the horns and get it done?    Well, now, I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before… but that’s a great idea!!!

 

Well, actually, I do know why I didn’t think of that before.  There’s 2 reasons…

1.  I think better when I’m talking out a situation.  If I just sit and ponder an idea for too long, my brain does this sort of shut-down thing where it slows to the speed of jelly on a skateboard and turns my productivity into productnotivity (awesome word, yes, you can use it).

2.  Sometimes, us perfectionists like to do things ourselves.  We think know that if we do it, it will get done right, get done quickly, and will be just the way we want it.  But there’s a slight problem with the perfectionist.  Here’s an example:  If you gave a perfectionist the job of picking up his mother in Dayton at 1:15 and his father in Columbus at 1:30, he wouldn’t think “hey, I can’t do that, it’s not physically possible”, rather, he would just wander back and forth in either direction until, eventually, his head exploded.

 

So, to summarize: busy, need help, boom

 

 

Have a great day!
JF

Who stole my church??

 

Who Stole My Church by Gordon MacDonald

So, here’s a short little post to say just a few words… YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK!!

 

First recommended to me by my brother (not real brother) Jim Phillips, I was intrigued by it’s title.  Has the church been stolen?  Then I read the tag line (what to do when your church tries to enter the 21st century).  Oh boy, I know about that  Did you know there’s this thing called e-mail?  Did you know that our church still makes cassette tapes of the sermon?  Did you know that they don’t sell tapes at walmart anymore?

 

Let’s just say, I was a bit scared of the book…I half expected it to say something like “fight it with all your might because technology is evil” OR “more people die from technology than technology saves” or something ridiculous like that.  Well, the good news is that it’s not that type of book.  The BETTER news is that it’s not about technology at all.  It’s about people having real conversations (um, but it’s fiction) about what it means to be a church.

 

I don’t want to spoil things, but lets just say it’s become a mandatory read for St. Paul’s staff.  And Jim might just hunt you down and make you read it in front of him!  (just kidding Jim!)

 

I would love to hear from people that have read it!!!  Favorite parts, parts you agree with?  Don’t agree with?  Characters you see yourself as?  Funny stories you can relate to cause they happened to you??

JF

Welcome to the experiment

Hey Awesome People, whoever you are…

Welcome to my blog  Just a few pieces of information to start.

1.  This is not my first blog.

2.  This IS my first wordpress blog.

3.  This blog is an experiment on the ability and desire for people to dialogue about the CHURCH and it’s roll in the world.  Micronominaly on St. Paul’s Church, Celina OH, and Macronominaly on the universal church (aka, the bride of Christ). 

4.  Yes, I made up the word micronominaly, but it sounds super smart, doesn’t it?

5.  To my chagrin, it does not appear that the text editor I am using to compose this first entry has any sort of spell checking.  That is very dangerous because I am a horrible speller.  Note to self, compose in Microsoft word

6.  Along with the topics of the micro/macro church, I am also interested in the roll that art and technology plays/will play in the church.  I welcome comments/observations/opinions about anything cool like that…

7.  Finally, I am extraordinarily busy (learning how to spell) so this blog will be more of a conversation than constant rambling.  It will be an interaction with people, not a podium to belt my annoyances to the emptiness of cyberspace.  So if people don’t respond, I probably won’t either.

8.  I reserve the right to edit posts with proper spelling whenever I want to

 

 

I hope this blog finds itself speaking truth and searching for it at the same time…

JF