welcome to the story.

I started thinking yesterday about what the difference was between churches that look the same as other churches, and yet are drastically different. These faith communities, which may have the same type of buildings, budgets, and bodies (the Baptist way of determining if a church is healthy is to notice the size of these 3 B's) but be totally different regarding philosophy and its actual practice. I think it has to do with values. And by values I mean that certain churches live off of their values. They are rooted in their values. They have spent time deciding what was a non-negotiable. That if everything else fails, their values won't fail. They will be the engine that drives the church. Most churches don't have values. What drives their church, is a building. Come look at our new building. Our new rooms are amazing. Our new environments are "cutting edge". Come check out our new service. Our service is "contemporary". We have lights and screens and guitars and drums. We sing "choruses". We have "dramas".* Values don�t drive this type of church. Pragmatics drive this church. What works drives this church. People�s opinions drive this church (if people like it � they do it, if they don�t like it � they don�t do it, if it is a mixed reaction � they do things half way). And so the �marketing� (and I use that term as loosely as I possibly can) of the church has to do with how great the service is. Or how great the music is. Or how cool a building looks. Or how cool a youth room looks. But the difference, as I�ve hopped around on websites of churches, been to different churches, read about different churches, is that the ones that are real and fresh and inspiring and AUTHENTIC communities that feel necessary . . . are the ones that are driven by their values. So the �marketing� (and again this term basically has to do with how the �in� people tell the �out� people about their church) of the church has everything to do with the values. So its . . . you should come to our church. It�s a really safe place. It�s a really creative place. It�s a really authentic place. It�s a really encouraging place. It�s a really relational place. It�s a encouraging place. It�s a kingdom of God as you live, not heaven as you die place. These are the values that get communicated directly and indirectly all the time. These are the things that people talk about to their �unchurched� friends. Not the �coolness� of their music or service or environments. Maybe those things do play a part but they shouldn�t be what drives it. And the probably with those who aren�t driven by values. Is that the church is driven by pragmatics. And church growth principles are relied on more than the Spirit of God. And if Saddleback or Willow Creek or NorthPoint do it and it works (big numbers of people come, i.e. the �bodies� we were talking about earlier), then it must be for everybody. So the photocopy machines gets pulled out. And little copycat churches spring up all over the place. And this may not be a bad thing. Its probably a better option than most churches. But if all you do is photocopy because it works, then you never have to stop and ask yourself fundamental questions. Root questions. The serious questions. You just do whatever works. And when �it� quits working, you can just change and jump on whatever new bandwagon is rolling through. And you never have to stop and be contextual. Or indigenous. You only have to be pragmatic. And I can�t tell you how much I hate pragmatics. Pragmatics are for people who like easy and safe and numbers and who lack the ability to listen to the Spirit of God and the faith to trust Him enough to be driven by something much more meaningful than buildings, budgets, and bodies (i.e. numbers). The problem is, everybody loves numbers. Everybody loves having big buildings. Or a big budget. We like being a part of a big enterprise. It makes us feel important to be a part of some big machine. In a big organization, everybody can get themselves worked up into a frenzy (see my previous post on fear), and can create this strong tonic that can get really close to brainwashing or �cloning� (I know somebody somewhere is smiling at that). But I don�t really like that way. I like being driven by values. Some non-negotiables. That are life and death to a faith community. I forgot who said this recently, but Christianity has always been served best when at the margins. It is at its nature a grassroots movements. When it gets to big, it becomes a machine and we become its parts and the parts always end up serving the machine. Resources always go to maintaining the machine. Thoughts always focus on the machine. After all the machine is the machine. And we all love a good machine. But I love God a little more than a machine. And I�ve learned something over the years, when the machine doesn�t help you get the job done, you get rid of the machine. Most people just trade in the old machine for a new machine (again that whole issue of pragmatics; and I hope you guys are seeing the symbolism). But what if we stopped and asked the root issues of why we even use the machine. And is it more helpful or not. Asking these kind of questions would lead us to realize that we don�t let the machine use us and direct us and determine the agenda. If we let values set the tone, then the machine becomes a platform that we can use. But it is never the end. It is only a tool. We can not forget that. It is a tool. Tools have a purpose. Tools can be helpful. But tools can also be harmful. If you have the wrong tool . . . Just thoughts. Not a lot of answers. Just stretching things out a bit, more for me than anybody else. *As a side note, I love quotation marks. There is a certain sarcastic implication when they are used. Or they just mean that the term is so loosely held or means a thousand different things that the only way is to use quotation marks.