They came to learn to cross the street October 6, 2007
Posted by Zack in Georgia | 31 comments
I wish I could write faster and better, and tell you the whole story of everyone we listened to and met at this incredible, revolutionary gathering.
I’ll tell you one more quick story this morning before we get on the plane—not because it’s exceptional, but because it’s so typical of the church leaders who attended this conference.
A few years ago, “Matt” moved to a far-from-home state to become a lead pastor at a large church in a medium-sized midwestern city. By the time he had been there six months, the two most senior pastors in the church died, leaving a “new guard” (his words) of leaders in charge.
Over its history, the church had become more and more isolated—partly out of “doctrinal fears,” and partly out of fear of the changing geographic community around the church. Especially over the past couple of decades, huge numbers of poor people, displaced by gentrification, had moved out to the church’s inner-suburban neighborhood. Instead of embracing and finding ways to attract the new residents, the church had shrunk back into itself.
Matt and his new guard have a mission: open up the church, get the congregation outside of the “four walls,” and get them into relationship with the people in the community who are suffering and need help. In other words, do what Jesus did in the gospel! Where did the “new guard” of pastors get that mission? Partly, they got it from attending events like this one; reading theological books like the ones written by the speakers we’ve been listening to here; re-reading the Bible with new eyes that they gained through those experiences; and, ultimately, getting into relationship themselves with the poor and oppressed people who Jesus equated with himself over and over in the Bible. I don’t know the full history that created the conditions for all that—but it sure seems to be a very widespread set of experiences for pastors and other church leaders in their 20’s and 30’s.
So how will Matt and his new guard encourage conservative (and make no mistake, Matt is plenty conservative himself), upper-middle class, suburban, white people to “go across the street,” as he said, and “learn to accept, love and serve prostitutes, drug addicts and homeless people?”
The answer is exactly what’s so fascinating and thrilling about this revolution that is happening inside of evangelical Christianity. The answer is that he will use the culture that his people are already steeped in. He’s going to use a book that his people already believe is the “inerrant” Word of God. And he’s going to use the story of a man who they have already been worshiping all their lives as God.
In other words, as hard as it will be, Matt’s got a lot to work with.
The very last speaker to address the stadium gave a very serious, anti-pep talk about how hard it will be for the church leaders assembled to put all the utopian stuff they’ve absorbed at the conference into practice back in their churches. He talked about all the ways their colleagues and elders (board members) will oppose them out of fear and inertia. His main theme was that behavior change is primarily caused by systemic change. After three days of talking about the God, love and other matters of the heart, this was very practical stuff. He went through a dozen examples of specific changes to administrative structures that leaders might have to make in order to become churches that “look like Jesus.”
Most attendees came in small groups (very important organizational principle among this kind of Christian). A typical group might include a couple of pastors and several church staff and volunteers. During breaks and after each conference day, attendees gathered in their small groups to process and pray.
After that final session on leadership and systems, I saw one group right outside the stadium in a huddle, with their arms around each others’ shoulders in a big circle. To psyche themselves up for the difficult change-making process they’ll face back home, they were chanting, “We’re going to change our system, We’re going to change our system…”
As hundreds of church vans slowly filed out of the huge stadium parking lot, I was wondering: Can there be anything more powerful than a movement that systematically and self-critically strives to change and improve itself?
Tag: Catalyst conferenceGod did it October 5, 2007
Posted by Zack in Georgia | 5 comments
This conference is basically one sermon after another, all day—preachers preaching to preachers. They’re fascinating and entertaining.
But I keep laughing at places in the sermons here where no one else laughs. The preachers are saying really funny things—things which they mean to be funny, but things that are so profound, and so challenging to the “churched,” that the crowd softly gasps instead of laughing. Good preachers are great at using humor to get people to listen. And you can feel the minds opening and changing here.
That’s what these pastors and church leaders came for. It’s usually true of why people go to church too, as it turns out. I know that’s the opposite of the stereotype—you thought people were going to church to be reassured of their world view, right? But it’s true.
A pastor named Erwin McManus is on now, and a lot of those gasps are taking place.
He’s challenging this audience of 11,000 on all sorts of things. Here’s one. It’s become a universal habit among Christians to verbally attribute everything good that they do and everything good that happens to God. I’ve given this a lot of thought because it’s so unusual to me, being still pretty “unchurched,” as I am.
On the one hand, “giving it to God” can be a wonderful thing. It makes Christians who believe it very humble—no matter how big their accomplishments, it wasn’t them. Moreover, it sometimes gives them great strength and confidence, because they believe (so long as they’re doing good works) that God is working through them. But best of all, it makes them accountable, in their personal judgements to God. And since these sorts of Christians believe that God just wants them to love and serve others, it’s a win win for everyone.
But on the other hand, it can cause Christians to absolve themselves from getting involved in bigger-picture social change. It’s common to believe that if “I just do God’s will”—by helping at the homeless shelter, adopting, giving away 10% of one’s income, etc.—then God will work the rest out. (Interestingly, this theology of social change has been adopted by a lot of the left too, but without God in the equation.)
So, Erwin has just taken on that whole notion in a pretty edgy and confrontational way. He began by reading from Ecclesiastes 1, where Solomon laments, that “everything is meaningless” and that there is nothing new under the sun—with the implication: just stop trying to change the world. Erwin is talking to a stadium in which probably 99% read the Bible “literally.” The concept of Biblical “inerrancy” is a complex issue that I’ll deal with in the future, and I don’t want to over simplify it here. But Erwin starts out by shouting, “Solomon was wrong!” And he backs it up with about 10 Bible verses—many in the voice of God and Jesus—that contradict Solomon’s bar on history-making.
That’s when one of those jokes came up, when I laughed and others gasped. He hollered, “God must’ve forgot to read Ecclesiastes 1!” It was funny. But, really, no one laughed. They were too busy thinking about it. Same thing happened over and over through Shane’s sermon—and almost every one that’s happened here.
And really, that’s why these folks are coming here.
After telling some stories of history-making beautiful moments made possible by Christ-like behavior by humans, Erwin closed with this:
Tag: Catalyst conferenceIf God could step into human history, and take on flesh and blood—then I have a feeling that the best thing we can do is to accept that we are human, and to step into history ourself and start making those beautiful moments.
Pictures from Catalyst main conference Day 1 October 5, 2007
Posted by Zack in Georgia | 1 commentHere are some pictures from Day 1 of the main conference yesterday. These show some of the hundreds of kiosks that surrounded the stadium, showcasing humanitarian and social justice organizations, vendors and consultants, publishers and authors. Catalyst attendees are mostly pastors and church leaders—they’re visiting these kiosks looking for resources they can use to better serve their church, and to use to help their church serve others.
Tag: Catalyst conferenceChurch or Food October 4, 2007
Posted by Zack in Georgia | 9 comments
One of the other five main speakers to address the full stadium today was Francis Chan.
Francis told his story: He had become a wildly successful mega-church preacher with an exploding church. But he felt something was off. Something made him walk away from it all. He told his church he was leaving and might never come back. He prayed and studied the Bible for three months months and came to the conclusion that he and his church had fallen off of Jesus’ path—the path of giving to and serving the poor.
The church was about to embark on a multi-million dollar building project (that’s what mega-churches do). They canceled the project and decided to just hold chuch outside. They had massively outgrown their old church. He said their plan now is to give away 50% of what they bring in.
From the Cornerstone church website, here’s why they’re holding church outside instead of building a fancy new sanctuary:
The idea of building an outdoor amphitheater rather than an auditorium sprung from a desire to save millions of dollars. It came from a belief that God would rather we spend that money in other ways. It comes from a thought that God would receive more glory from seeing His children sacrifice for others- namely, those around the world who lack basic necessities. The idea then evolved into developing the property into more of a park-like setting that could be enjoyed by the community throughout the week. In this way, we would be giving to our community as well as to the needy around the world.
In reality, this is about more than a building. The park/amphitheater is an expression of a mindset. It represents a group of people who are willing to sacrifice their own comforts in order to better care for others. The following are not just reasons to build inexpensively, but they are the reasons why Cornerstone strives to be a “giving” church.
- We love the poor: People around the world desperately need aid (Romans 12:13).
- We love Jesus: He says that He is the One suffering (Matthew 25:35-36).
- It’s best for us: We’ll be more joyful if we give rather than receive (Acts 20:35).
- It affects unbelievers: They are impacted when they see good works (Matthew 5:16).
- It models Christ: Laying down our lives is how we imitate Christ (1 John 3:16-17).
- We gain eternal rewards: God rewards those who care for the poor (Matthew 9:21).
Almost speechless October 4, 2007
Posted by Zack in Georgia | 11 comments
It’s too much! What I’m seeing here is just too much to describe.
This stadium is full of eleven thousand mostly white suburban, Republican evangelical Christian pastors and church leaders. And here’s a little bit of what they’ve come from all over the country to hear:
… We’re to vote for the poor, we’re to vote for the peacemakers, we’re to vote for Jesus. …
And here are those eleven thousand “confessing” aloud sins of war, judgment and greed at the close of Shane Claiborne’s sermon/talk, as he led them in a “Litany if Resistance”:
Please listen to the clip. But here’s a little bit of it transcribed:
With governments that kill…
…we will not comply.With the theology of empire…
…we will not comply.With the business of militarism…
…we will not comply.With the hoarding of riches
…we will not comply.With the dissemination of fear
…we will not comply.But today we pledge our allegiance to the kingdom of God…
…we pledge allegiance.To the peace that is not like Rome’s…
…we pledge allegiance.To the Gospel of enemy love
…we pledge allegiance.To the poor and the broken…
…we pledge allegiance.
The sound clip is just the tail end of a long incredible litany that Shane wrote with friends Jim Loney and Brian Walsh (who we interviewed in our first real post on this blog—I’m trying to get a full copy of the text from him).
Above is a picture of the stadium as it recited the litany. The words were projected up on the screen. The words on the screen in the shot below were: From the idolatry of nationalism, deliver us.
Tag: Catalyst conferenceWow! October 4, 2007
Posted by Zack in Georgia | write a commentIt’s a BIG conference…
Yesterday—the Catalyst labs day—was just a prelude to the main Catalyst conference. There were probably 3,000 or so people yesterday. Today it’s 10,000. Hundreds and hundreds of authors, churches, businesses, magazines, resource centers, side meetings and much more are set up all around the arena. This thing is really enormous.
Tag: Catalyst conferencePictures from Catalyst conference Lab Day October 4, 2007
Posted by Zack in Georgia | write a comment Tags: Catalyst conference, Catalyst conference labsunChristian at Catalyst October 4, 2007
Posted by Zack in Georgia | 4 commentsThe final session of the Catalyst “lab day” last night was fascinating. Gabe Lyons, of the Fermi Project, and David Kinnaman, of the Barna research group, teamed up a couple years ago to study perceptions of Christians among young non-Christians (as well as young Christians too). They turned the study into a book, unChrsitian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity… and Why It Matters. In the final session last night, Gabe and David presented the research, and then brought up Shane Claiborne and Rick McKinley, two Christians who have done a lot to reach outside of the Church, to join them in discussion.
David reminded the audience several times that results of big-study research are hugely complex, and warned against over-simplification.
So I don’t want to oversimplify.
HOWEVER, one thing really stood out, and subtly became the main focus of the evening forum. Apparently, all the anti-gay marriage ballot initiatives and other anti-gay campaigning have really been ravaging the perception of Christianity among the general public, and even among young Christians. He showed one graph that showed favorability ratings over the past several decades for gays shooting up from low single digits to 33% today. (That might have been just among young people, I can’t remember.)
Meanwhile, right along with that, the favorability rating for “evangelicals” among the same group plummeted from high numbers to 3%! David didn’t argue for a direct correlation between those two numbers. But he talked about how today most young people know openly gay people, and they are having a hard time reconciling what their church says and their valued relationships.
He gave an anecdote from the research of one person who said he was sitting in church, with a gay friend who they had brought, and the pastor was preaching that “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.”
This topic requires a long, in-depth article, not a blog post. But you could hear a pin drop at moments last night, as the audience (a couple thousand strong) wrestled with the results. Shane and Rick gently danced around a different—more loving—way of relating to gays. But they weren’t arguing that homosexuality was Biblical. Looking around the audience, some people looked thrilled and enthusiastic about what Shane and Rick were saying. Others looked troubled.
At one point, Shane gave a rousing and beautiful little speech that closed with something like, “We need to be able to disagree with each other and with others, and still love each other.” Maybe 1/5 or 2/5 of the audience applauded enthusiastically. The rest sat still. I saw one head shaking.
Don’t misunderstand: that head that was shaking almost certainly would agree with the cliche “love the sinner, hate the sin.” In other words, he believes in loving gay people, but thinks homosexuality is “not the way God meant us to live,” right along with pre-marital sex. What he probably disagreed with was that his church should tolerate open and practicing gays as a member of the community. (Shane had earlier explicitly argued that the church must welcome gays.)
So, is the Christian right (with its high profile anti-gay campaigning) shooting the Church in the foot? That 3% favorability rating sure suggests it. There is a new generation, a new guard, who are trying to undo the damage by practicing “uncensored grace”. If Catalyst is any indication, they are well placed, and well prepared to succeed.
Tags: Barna group, Catalyst, Catalyst conference, David Kinnaman, Gabe Lyons, Rick McKinley, Shane Claiborne, unChristianFirst Catalyst Conference Report October 3, 2007
Posted by Zack in Georgia | 3 comments
It’s just those Bible-Fundamentalist, Anti-Enlightenment, Creationist, Republican-voting Christian Neanderthals again…
Move along. Nothing to see here.
Except that they’re wrestling with what Jesus meant when he said they would find Him among the poorest of the poor…And it’s leading them to think about turning the economy upside down…As they struggle desperately to find ways to rescue everyone in poverty. I wanted to do this blog to dispel some of the shallow stereotypes about evangelicals—but at this conference I find myself having to catch my breath over and over, because I didn’t expect it to be THIS different.
That message of turning your whole life over to the poor—and organizing your church to do the same–is almost the dominant theme at Catalyst this year. Chris Seay was just one person to deliver that message on this first day of the conference in front of about 1,000 people (there seem to be about a few thousand here today, attending different concurrent sessions). You can catch the essence of his talk in this video of his. PLEASE check it out, just a few minutes long:
Today has been packed solid. Between the two of us we’ve seen talks on: racial reconciliation, the modern abolitionist movement, how hip hop culture can be a positive social change agent, creation care (by a pastor of a very Republican & conservative charismatic church), radical person-to-person anti-poverty work and a Las Vegas church that welcomes everyone—including strippers, gamblers and drug addicts—in the spirit of “uncensored grace.”And there’s another full session tonight. So we might not be able to write up as much as we wanted to each day.They’re making available full sets of CDs of every session on Friday. So I HOPE to be ale to put together some sort of audio montage that can give our readers a feel for what all’s going on here.
Tags: Catalyst conference, creation care, environment, poverty, racial reconciliation, slaveryHumble October 2, 2007
Posted by Zack in Georgia | 1 commentI’ve started getting some flack for being “negative” about the left/progressive movement on this blog from some left/progressive friends and colleagues. I’m not being negative, I’m being constructively critical. And our inability to self-criticize is another thing I need to criticize—and once again point to evangelical Christians as a movement that can teach us a thing or two.
Check out this post from yesterday on the blog of Mark Batterson, one of the speakers I’ll see tomorrow at the Catalyst Conference:
So excited about the book, unChristian, that releases today! … The book is a great compilation of what’s wrong with the church. And I really loved the humble tone. The church has a serious perception problem. But it is more than a perception problem. Sure, there are lots of unfair characterizations by the media. But we need to look in the mirror and admit our mistakes!
Something to notice is how inclusive these evangelical insurgents are towards their own Christian establishment: “We need to look in the mirror…admit our mistakes.” That comes from the fanatical emphasis on “love” that Christians (especially these insurgents) try to live by. But it’s also a sign that they’re taking themselves seriously, expecting to succeed and therefore coming from a position of humble confidence.
It’s just the exact opposite of the angry ranting toward the Democratic establishment that, on the left, you get from most Netroots bloggers (including me!).
Tag: Catalyst conference
