Following up on some thoughts from yesterday's post, I was thinking about the state of the church, especially here in Maine and New England. The Northeast now has the distinction of being the least churched part of the country. Although you will find some churches growing, you find a great many closing their doors, or just a few funerals away from a real crisis. Now there are many reasons a church can live. Perhaps God has really been blessing, perhaps you have some committed people who are putting forth great effort and keeping the church alive and even thriving. Sometimes it is more a social function of being a fun church where people just enjoy being there. A church may live even if the gospel is not preached. When it comes to church's dying, I think the primary cause can be narrowed down. Primary Cause of Death: Lack of Evangelism. A local church is supposed to be a localized gathering of the body of Christ. The body of Christ lives on the love of the members for each other. The body grows as new members are added through the proclamation of the love and salvation of God. Evangelism in other words. When a local church is no longer seeing people come to know Christ, the smell of death is there. Evangelism does not require a program. No fancy outreach events or staff members dedicated to such things. You just need people who are in passionate love with Jesus, are living that love and sharing that love. Then some others will start reacting to that love and boom, you have growth. Now there are plenty of secondary causes of death. These are the things that caused evangelism to stop. Church members who don't live it. Church members who don't know the gospel themselves. Church members more interested in going to church than being the church. Church members who don't know how to be friends with non-believers. All these things can contribute to the lack of evangelism, and without evangelism, a church is dying. So, do you do personal evangelism? Are you looking to intentionally share God's love with others and see others that you know have an opportunity to meet Christ? Great things to ponder today.

There are always movements and battles in the philosophical life of the church. One of the more recent ones that many may be aware of is the "Emerging Church" movement. Like any term, it is not as clear cut as saying "This is what it means to be 'Emerging'". As with any movement, you have a range of beliefs and adherents and depending on your own beliefs, the term can mean different things. Kind of like "baptist." :) The Emergent Movement really is an expression of the newer generations (X, Y) coming to terms with what church means for them. At 39, I am on the older end of Generation X and it is this generation that has been moving into the driver's seat of church leadership over the last 10 years. More and more senior pastors and teachers are from this generation, and as we move into leadership, we are asking "what is the church for us?" Each generation has defined church according to their culture, with the predominant church culture being very 'Modern' for the last generation. My generation spans the change from a 'modern' way of thinking to a 'post-modern' approach and this means redefining and recreating anything that is a cultural institution. So while the Church as the Body of Christ remains, church, the institution, is undergoing some transformations, as it has to. Now the tension comes as transforming church starts to affect how we understand the Church, the body of Christ. The Emerging Church movement really began as an attempt to pull up all the old stakes of tradition and culture that had tied the church to modernism. This kind of thing is very exciting to Generation Xers who are interested in making things more relevant. In the process though, the movement got away from itself. Instead of simply reexamining the cultural context of church, it pulled up ALL the stakes. It began to question truth itself and the Word of God. Really, the movement began to fail to distinguish between 'cultural' and 'Scriptural'. At that point, it no longer became of question of what is church, but began to affect the WHO of the Church, the body of Christ. This has lead many of my age, like Mark Driscoll, who have an Orthodox understanding of God's Word but a post-modern approach to culture, to distance themselves from the movement and these problems. Church, as a cultural institution, will change and adapt. It is unavoidable. As an institution, church will always reflect our culture. The trick is to remember that THE CHURCH is not defined by its culture. The CHURCH is defined by being saved by the blood of Christ and Christ alone. Being baptized into His Body and walking with Him. The trappings, while oh so important to us, are irrelevant in the long run. Whether we despise tradition or hold on to it for dear life, whether we are moved by hymns or choruses, whether we prefer our Bible with or without a lot of 'th's', is irrelevant. The question that the church needs to answer to be relevant and emergent is; Do you know the Love of Christ? Is the Love of Christ your prime mover? Do all who know you see the Love of Christ? The Gospel defines us, it is us, and when we put the Gospel, the Good News, the ministry of reconciliation, the CROSS, at the heart of who we are, what we do, and what we say, we will be emergent, we will be relevant, and we will be unified!

So here is a LINK to a story about how a well respected rabbi has now declared that even so called "sabbath elevators" that stop on every floor so that you don't have to push a button (and thus break Jewish law) use too much electricity and therefore are against Sabbath law. So, if you live on an upper floor, you have to lug the kids, the stroller, and everything up several flights of stairs. So walking up several flights of stairs doesn't break the day of rest, but riding an elevator does!? I am not belittling the Orthodox Jews, but it is an example, just like in Jesus' time, of Jewish leaders who are totally missing the spirit of the law while going nuts over the letter of the law. God intended the day of rest to make sure that we stopped, that we gave time to God, that we set aside part of our weekly schedule for Him. This whole debate so loses the point of a Holy God. How sad.

Here are some interesting statistics I came across recently. • By the time they have been retired for two years, 78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce. • Within five years of retirement, an estimated 60% of former NBA players are broke. We are often very jealous and envious of those who seem to have more than we do. I have to confess that I have looked at what some of these star athletes and movie stars make and have said, "If I could make that much just once, I would be set for life." Of course, there I go shattering that 10th commandment. The truth is that in Christ I have much more than many of them will ever have, and even financially, I am better off than these guys. In fact, according to these statistics, I am better of the 78% of them. :) The Bible says "But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. " (1 Timothy 6:6-10) That's what these statistics say. I guess I don't envy them after all. I'm going to go down, help my wife fix supper, help my kids get ready for bed, go join my brothers and sisters in a time of prayer at church, and spend the evening with my wife. Life is good.

This day started well and finished better. The kids and I did our special activity this morning which was cutting up apples and bananas, treating them with lemon juice and putting them in our dehydrator. The kids had a great time and did a really good job. The only hard part was that they kept wanting to check it every 20 minutes or so and I told them it would take all day. :) This afternoon Sarah came home and we got to spend the evening together which was very cool after missing her all weekend. So a great day all around. Nothing deep or theological to espouse on tonight. I'm just a happy man. I have the kids again in the morning as Sarah needs to work tomorrow, but I will be trying to get work done tomorrow too so it is going to be a busy day!