Think Christian Welcome to ThinkChristian.net, where we talk about Christ, culture and the ways that faith plays out in everyday life. We want to exercise our faith in every aspect of our lives: heart, soul and mind.
This is a bit of a follow up to the "What if Starbucks Used Church Marketing" post from last week. Richard Reising, the church marketing author behind the video, had a post on his blog about a scene from the short where the two visitors were driving into the "Starbucks" and noticed all of the bizarre coffee bumper stickers on cars in the parking lot.
The couple were a little uncomfortable when they saw slogans like "Real Mean Love Java" and "Think This Coffee's Hot?" Another sticker had an image of the Starbucks logo eating the Juan Valdez logo. While the video is a parody of how churches market themselves, Reising says this scene is not meant to be a "cheap shot" at Christian bumper stickers. Instead, he's trying to show how the stickers some Christians intentionally pick have combative overtones.
He writes:
While I fully believe that Christ portrayed the ultimate man, I'm wondering how many non-believers on the highway today fell to their knees seeking manhood after reading "Real Men Love Jesus" on the car in front of them. Jesus is awesome. He doesn't need us telling non-believers they aren't "real men." Knowing scripturally that only God knows our heart and that "man looks on the outside" (1 Sam 16:7), I just wonder what we are showing unspiritual people about what God is like. The chances are, my only reaction as a non-believer would be to close myself off even further. You might as well drive by and yell to someone at a stoplight, "You're not a real man!" and then drive off. If you have 10 seconds to say something to someone with your car, is that what you want to tell them?
"Think this Texas heat is hot? Wait till you get to hell." This is along the lines of "Get saved or get microwaved." It might sound cute when we say it among believers, but would you ever kick off an evangelistic effort with this door-to-door opening line? Oh yes, and we are not the biggest Darwin fans, but does our fish have to eat his fish? I'm not saying it doesn't work'-just that combative evangelism is not necessarily the best way to open hearts.
Worship matters asks How do you teach an Inconsistent Melody? The post is particularly relevant to worship leaders, but the last paragraph is worth considering no matter who you are:
This discussion does highlight one of the differences between a song that is congregational and one that isn't. Even though people can learn difficult songs through repeated listenings (most rock concert prove that), writers can serve more people by writing melodies and singing them in such a way that it makes it easier for people to learn them, not harder.
There are two forces at work here: the composer's desire to write complex and meaningful songs, and the congregation's skill and flexibility. On the composer's end they face a tricky battle: how to write a compelling song that's easy to learn without dumbing it down to the technical level of Mary Had a Little Lamb. On the congregation's end: they all need to be able to sing it. If the song is supposed to be a congregational song everyone has to be able to sing it, no matter what each individual's musical background is.
This dicotomy generally leads to a lot of middle-of-the-road quality worship music, which in turns leads people to dismiss worship music as simplistic drivel.
A friend of mine once had worship music explained to him thusly, "There's a reason most worship songs are written with G, C and D. It's familiar. Why should a musician purposefully make their music more difficult for those that are trying to worship?"
There's some merit to that idea; however, it severely limits musical expression for those with some skill or'-worse'-makes worship uninteresting. And on the other side of that, if your congregation or'-far worse'-your worship band cannot handle the tempo and awkward cadence of that latin-fusion song then why sing it?
Thoughts on this?
Bonus question: Are there songs your congregation tries to sing that they just don't quite get?
Item Category: Music Item comments: http://www.thinkchristian.net/index.php/2008/11/17/disjunct-melodies/#comments
About every couple of months it seems like some hip new way of presenting God's Word hits the streets. It's often billed as the most relevant translation ever created and it often makes a lot of Christians groan. So, why then do we always need more versions? Because everyone is different, and despite the Bible's ubiquity people still have not heard about it. And frankly, people read them, which is always a good thing.
Church Times talks about a new glossy magazine version of the Bible replete with high-quality photographs, slick design and great marketing that took Sweden by storm:
'The Book' is a glossy magazine-style version of the Bible that has been very popular in Sweden - over 10 percent of Stockholm came to see the outdoor show of the book and there have been large increases in Bible sales. An English language version is shortly to be launched...
Yep, 10 percent of the city came out to see the launch of a book and that book was a rendition of the Bible. The Book's English site.
Personally, I think that we need more and better ways of communicating God's word to every generation and people. Not by changing the message, but by changing the presentation.Thoughts?
Item Category: The Bible Item comments: http://www.thinkchristian.net/index.php/2008/11/13/glossy-bible/#comments
Throughout my life, I've been somewhat of a late adapter to technology. I waited awhile to get a cell phone. I resisted when people told me I had to be on Facebook by saying, "Grown ups don't use Facebook." But now, I'm a little bit of a social media and tech junkie. I love Facebook, I text a lot more and I'm connected to friends in a much better way.
I came across a post on the Swerve blog that takes a look at how we're using some of the technology we have in terms of who are our friends and contacts.
Bobby Gruenewald wrote:
When we visited Hillsong in Australia several months ago, my good friend Darren Kitto was telling me a personal story and in that conversation mentioned that his mobile phone address book is full of people who don't know Christ. He wasn't saying this as a challenge to me, but it was. You see, I've been engaged long enough in my role as a pastor and have developed so many relationships with our staff and other pastors/church leaders that my address book is mostly full of people who are believers. I know lots of people who don't know Christ, but sadly I'm not engaged deeply enough to have many of them on speed dial or even in my phone at all. My mobile phone address book is at least one gauge of the importance I place on a relationship.
Practically, having someones contact info in my phone makes it much, much easier and consequently much more likely that I would call or sms whenever I think about them.
So if you are like me and could use a little intentionality in this area'here's my very simple challenge: This week add the names/numbers of two or three people who don't know Christ to your phone and give them a call/text as you think about them.
When I look at my contacts list and Facebook friends, I definitely see a Christian majority. But I wonder, does that matter? Is that really a good judge of how well I'm reaching out to non-Christian friends?
How is it for you? Do you care if your address book isn't packed full of non-believers? Or should we all be taking this kind of challenge?
Item Category: Internet Item comments: http://www.thinkchristian.net/index.php/2008/11/12/cell-phone-challenge/#comments
Cheryle M. Touchton lost her 200K executive position when the dot.com bubble burst. Now her husband's severance pay is being depleted as they try to sell their second home and make repairs from tropical storm damage.
Touchton draws heavily on God's promise from Jeremiah 29:11-12: 'For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.' (Although she doesn't mention it, that Scripture was given to the Hebrews before they were taken into Babylonian captivity! Not a good time economically.)
Weeks ago I stumbled on the blog � ê' � �' � ��" (how does one type that? copy and paste to the rescue!), the author recently asked: do we have to close our eyes to pray?
First, it seems to me that the Bible clearly doesn't require Christians to close their eyes in order to have a more 'spiritual' prayer. Jesus did say in Matthew 6:6 "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." Note that Jesus teaches the disciples to close the door, and not the eyes. Doors have to be closed i think because Jesus wants the prayer to be sincere and not a self-performance in front of many people. Therefore the main thing about prayer is a sincere and honest heart, and not a ritual eyes closed.
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Third, we should be dare enough to continually question our tradition. If we believe in Sola Scriptura, then every tradition must always be renewed and aligned with the teachings of the Bible. It means that we will never give tradition a status of ex cathedra. Tradition is not infallible. Yes, tradition is very important for our theology. One of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral is tradition. However, it should be understood also that the only reason why tradition is so important is because in building theology we have to know our history and our past that has formed us now. It is completely wrong if we use tradition as a reason for us to be rigid and changeless. It is not the purpose of being familiar with tradition. When we know and become critical to our tradition, then it will help us to grow. We can learn from our past mistakes and then improve ourselves for a better and brighter future.
I'm positive there are myriad reasons for keeping our eyes closed, if for no other reason than it closes out visual distractions. Could the state of our eyelids really negate communication with God? I think not. Still, even if someone proves that keeping our eyes closed is theologically unnecessary, I think most people would continue doing so.
Nothing can silence the ever-present chiding of your 3rd grade sunday school teacher.
Thoughts?
[During a "rebellious" streak in college I experimented with lots of ways of connecting with God, eyes open whilst praying being one of them. It was a very weird experience the first couple of times (protip: God will connect with you anywhere, anytime and in pretty much any way if you're truly seeking).]
When I look at a church's image, I have a big interest in visitor's perspective. What is it like from an outsiders view when they visit the church's website, first drive into a church's parking lot or walk through the front doors? Most likely they have a lot of questions. Where do I go? Where can I sit? Is it safe to leave my kids here? Is it okay that I'm wearing jean shorts?
I feel like churches are really mixed in handling this well and not so well. Some really know how to make someone new feel comfortable and others don't. I've been to both. I bet you have good and bad examples, too. I found this video on the blog Beyond Relevance and it looks at what it would be like if Starbucks marketed itself like some churches do.
From Village of Joy comes a top twenty list of Unusual Church Buildings. Here's my favorite:
Of course, this begs that question: what role does the building play in worship? Personally, as long as the space isn't distractingly ugly, I couldn't care less what the building looks like; after all, I do go to a church that meets in an old mall. However, I would argue that there's something to the way in which architecture can drive worship.
Thoughts?
Do you have a favorite church building?
[the Church/Mountain picture is from flickr user Tourning Boy
Greetings! Just in case you can't get enough of these introductions, here's another one. I'm Michael Geertsma, a producer at Back to God, and I'll be occasionally contributing to Think Christian. Currently, I work on two other projects'-Spotlight, a radio program for people around the world who speak English as a second language, and Walk the Way, a daily radio spot and video blog that challenges Christians to actively engage their faith and 'walk out' the way of Jesus. I'm really excited to have Think Christian become part of what we're doing, and I look forward to all the conversations we'll be having here!
And given the current political climate, the volatile economy, the war in Iraq and the overall state of the Union, it is easy to see why people are putting so much weight on the result of today's vote. Admittedly, I have fallen prey to the hysteria, and I often find myself thinking about how terrible it might be if one candidate gets elected'-or how wonderful if the other is elected.
But as Christians, should we believe the hype? Is a presidential candidate really our only hope? According to Focus on the Family's 'Letter from 2012 in Obama's America,' yes.
This letter is a sad commentary on the current state of the relationship between Christianity and politics. Thankfully, dozens of Christian bloggers, writers, thinkers and pastors have spoken out loudly against this type of political fear-mongering. (Read Jim Wallis' letter to James Dobson, a beliefnet post on the backlash). Because the truth is, as Steven wrote on Monday, the church is much bigger than the United States of America. And we are called to do things that are much more significant than throwing our collective weight behind a presidential candidate.
We are the hands and feet of Jesus Christ in a broken world. Sure, voting and getting involved in the political process can be a small part of that'-but we can't use politics to abdicate ourselves of our responsibility to be loving, to fight injustice, to feed the hungry, to heal the sick and to constantly look to God's word for his guidance about the important issues we face every day. When we limit ourselves to slandering or blindly following politicians, we fall far short of the plan God has for us in this world. When we put trust in a politician as our 'only hope,' we are forgetting where our real hope lies.
I am reminded of Third Day's song 'My Hope is You,' where Mac Powell writes:
You are, O God, my salvationGuard my life and rescue meMy broken spirit shoutsMy mended heart cries out...
My hope is you
Show me your waysGuide me in TruthIn all my daysMy hope is you
On this election day, the 'most important of our lifetime,' I hope that we can find some truth and comfort in those words. Yes, voting is important. I believe that it is one of the most important things we can do in our role as citizens of a democratic society. I plan to vote today, and I hope most of you plan to as well. But as you do, remember that our real source of hope, comfort, inspiration and truth transcends politics.
