“I can’t stand your relgious meetings. I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making. I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me?

Do you know what I want? I want justice–oceans of it. I want fairness–rivers of it. That’s what I want. That’s all I want.” (Amos 5:21-24, The Message)

God just lays the smack down, doesn’t he?

And of course that last verse sounds a little more familiar in a more standard translation: “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream” (NIV). It adds a little more heft in context.

Last week I talked on Church Marketing Sucks about an upcoming debate between Christians and atheists on Nightline. The debate was between a rather vocal group of atheists (they issued the ‘blasphemy challenge’, encouraging people to commit the ‘unforgiveable sin’) and Growing Pains star Kirk Cameron and evangelist Ray Comfort of Way of the Master (you know, the banana guy). I labored a bit over the entry, wondering if I should really be so hard on two fellow Christians (a sentiment echoed in the comments on the post).

We Christians are always beating on each other and I didn’t want to contribute to that. Sometimes there’s a need for criticism, but you have to be careful with it. Well, I went ahead with the post and after seeing part of the debate I stand by my criticism.

It aired on Nightline last night and you can watch portions of it online. If it’s any consolation, I think both sides come off looking like jerks.

Continue reading Christians vs. Atheists Debate Hurts My Soul →

The self-imposed Christian ghetto lives. As if we didn’t learn anything from the Christian music scene and the lame Christian alternatives to MySpace, we now have a Christian alternative to YouTube: God Tube. Newsweek calls it “a goofy, fascinating window into the world of Christian youth,” and with a tagline like “Broadcast Him,” is it any wonder? Broadcast Him to whom? Perhaps the choir.

Ray Comfort’s banana as proof of God video is, well, it’s a bit too much for words.

I don’t talk about it much here, but I’m the “chief blogger” for Church Marketing Sucks (CMS) and the Labs Director for the the non-profit parent, the Center for Church Communication (CFCC). The former is a role I’ve had for two years, helping to launch CMS and watching it take off. The latter is a role I’ve had since last fall when CFCC went non-profit and we really started figuring out where we’re going with this thing.

I love working on these projects. If I could do it all day long, I would. I love constructive efforts to help the church get better. And I love that so many people are jumping on the bandwagon.

Continue reading Heart and Soul of Church Communication →

I don’t blog much about the Episcopal Church. It’s messy, confusing and I usually don’t want to go there. Maybe I should, seeing as I attend one.

This week the newly elected bishop of the Episcopal Church of the U.S.A., Katharine Jefferts Schori, was intereviewed in Time magazine. Three items stuck me:

Is belief in Jesus the only way to get to heaven?
We who practice the Christian tradition understand him as our vehicle to the divine. But for us to assume that God could not act in other ways is, I think, to put God in an awfully small box.

It’s certainly not a new statement. But what struck me when I saw it this time around is that I wonder what the point of evangelism is if you think there are other ways to God? If my neighbor’s path to God is equally as valid as my own, then why should I bother to tell her about God? She’s already on her way, as far as I know. Obviously I disagree with Schori, but her approach, at least as far as I’m trying to logically apply it, seems so contrary to the words of Jesus in the great commission. I’ll admit that Christians need to be more open and understanding towards the faith of others, but this seems to much like relativism to me. And I’ve just never understood the logical appeal of that.

Continue reading Responding to Bishop Katharine Schori →

Pastor Andy Stanley and author Jim Collins debate church leadership with some interesting comments on the spirituality of leadership. But what’s even more interesting is their agreement on the perils of unamimous church leadership:

Both men agreed on the dangers of unanimity. While it’s often posited as evidence of the Holy Spirit’s guidance, Stanley warned his own elders against requiring 100 percent agreement on big decisions. “It sounds so spiritual, but… I knew it would’ve been the worst possible thing we could do.”

Collins concurs: “I’ve never found an important decision made by a great organization that was made at a point of unanimity. Significant decisions carry risks and inevitably some will oppose it. In these settings, the greatest legislative leader must be artful in handling uncomfortable decisions, and this requires rigor.”

Interesting comments in the light of my own church’s struggles in the aftermath of the Episcopal Church’s 2003 General Convention where a gay bishop was elected. My church has a unanimous leadership model which has effectively taken us nowhere on this issue.

I’m working on a sidebar for an article about apologetics in a Christian magazine and I need some help. I’m looking for quotes about what people believe and I’m hoping you’ll provide the quotes.

So, what do you believe? Specifically about God, eternity, heaven, hell, Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, etc. We’re talking spirituality here, not Santa Claus. I’m especially interested in responses from people who don’t consider themselves to be Christians (or maybe you consider yourself to be a Christian, but certain Christians might scoff at your claim), but I don’t know how much of my blog audience that is, so for the sake of this entry, I hope everyone will chime in.

For the sake of the magazine there are a few guidelines. You’re welcome to ignore the guidelines for the sake of these comments, but do know that for me to use your quote I’ll have to make them fit the guidelines. And those are: Two sentences max. They may be anonymous, but we’d like to give a first name and a city. If you’d like to be anonymous, feel free to make up your own first name. Personally, I’m partial to Xander. I’m also looking for a wide range of beliefs: Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, atheist, etc.

Thanks for your help. I’ll start.

I believe we’re messed up people, but God loves us anyway. Jesus Christ came to mop up that messiness with his own blood, which sounds kind of messy and counterproductive, but that’s the way a sacrifice works.
-Kevin, St. Paul

Today I appeared on the Blogging Church podcast along with Brad Abare as we talked about blogs and Church Marketing Sucks with Terry Storch, who is working on a book about church blogging. It’s kind of peculiar to go back and listen to an interview like that.

The more I do interviews the more I learn that preparation is very important. Now I know why folks like Bono and Franklin Graham have the same stories they tell all the time. You come up with a good line and you use it. Being a writer I know what it’s like when someone doesn’t say anything worth quoting. You make the writer’s job a whole lot easier when you say something quotable. And usually that means coming up with good lines ahead of time.

Continue reading Church Marketing Sucks on Blogging Church →

The author of The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning, lives in New Orleans and stayed in the city during Hurricane Katrina, evacuating only after the flood walls failed and the mandatory evacuation order was given. Manning talked with Christianity Today about the African American community in New Orleans, how he almost ended up at the Superdome, and how his future is in doubt like most people in New Orleans.

He also talked about the minimal damage in his area and the usual questions of why:

I happen to live in an area where, by the sheer grace of God, things are dry, except for the broken tree branches that fell on the road. I have sewage. And a few miles away some children drowned. I don’t ask why. I don’t ask why there are a million displaced people and 2,400 children still missing, and I have sewage. I just say thank you. The words of the poem [“Bone”] by the Pulitzer Prize winner Mary Oliver make a lot of sense to me.

She said, “truly I know / our part is not knowing, / but looking, and touching, and loving.”