belong - behave - believe

The world as "we" (Modern West) have known it for the past couple hundred years has operated in a pretty similar pattern for most Groups:

believe - behave - belong

my experience is mainly with the Church & specific churches, but i am speaking more broadly about groups in all parts of our culture.

this is generally the way things have worked when you are going to be a part of some group or organization. DEFINITELY this is the way it has worked in churches.

if you want to be a part of "us", 1st you need to BELIEVE. you need to believe what we believe. that comes 1st.
specifically in churches, you need to believe in Jesus. you need to believe that and maybe even some other important doctrines before you can even begin to THINK about belonging to our group.

This couldn't possibly be any clearer as most churches pretty much straight up say, if you want to be a member of our church you must 1st BELIEVE. that's the very minimum requirement.

but really there was another step in this system in Modernity. you couldn't just believe and then you belonged... really you had to BEHAVE before you could belong.

you need to act, dress, talk, walk, understand, fit in, and generally BEHAVE like the rest of the in group BEFORE you could be "in." before you could truly belong.

anyone alive who has ever been a part of a church knows this. this is just how it works in the Modern religious world. you don't truly belong unless you behave a certain way - like all the rest of us. then we'll let you belong.

<*MAYBE some in the Modern Church would argue it was more like "believe - belong - behave." in that a person was truly accepted into belonging after they believed something and then they could take their time in learning to behave. i respectfully disagree.>

but once you finally make it... once you finally believe the right stuff & then behave the right way... You're in! you're finally in. you belong now. and you also become one of the "in crowd" to forever perpetuate this system.

i happen to think that's all pretty jacked up.

especially because it perpetuates forever. that is, as long as Modernity sticks around as the dominant way the world operates.

but things are changing. some would say they've already changed... there are just Modernity's fragments hanging on in corners of the Western world. but no doubt, postmodernity is coming.

and postmodernity doesn't quite embrace INDIVIDUALISM the way that Modernity did. the individual will not be king in this new world. there will be a huge priority on BELONGING.

in that old system of believe - behave - belong someone maybe wanted to belong, but there were just too many barriers.
the world will necessarily change though.

this is what the new system will be (if it hasn't changed already when we weren't looking)  :

belong - behave - believe

yep. exactly the opposite.

when someone wants to be a part of some group in this new world - they will simply be welcomed. the group, organization, or whatever will welcome them in.

then eventually they'll start to "behave" - look, act, dress, talk, etc... like everyone else in the group. & eventually, they will believe. believe that certain things are important - the same things that the rest of the group believes are important.

then they're "in." but they felt "in" long ago... because they belonged. 

and being able to first belong actually ENABLED them to then behave and believe!

the Church will follow suit. no longer will you need to behave and believe a certain way to "belong" to a community in a local church. you will be welcomed with open arms and you will BELONG simply because you are. simply because you are curious, or because you have a desire to "belong" in community.

the beautiful thing is that this new way of the world will enable TONS of "outsiders"... people who don't believe and behave like Christians in the church to BELONG first. slowly, they'll begin to see that the way the others in this community are behaving is very attractive. it appeals to them. this Jesus way of life actually appears to be a better way to live. and they'll start to follow suit.

and then... yep, you guessed it - they will believe. it will be real. it will be personal. Jesus will capture their heart and be their Savior.

too bad the Church didn't figure this out 300 years ago. because Jesus made it pretty clear.
and even before Jesus ever showed up, God, in the Old Testament chose a people & simply asked them to "join" Him. be a part of His movement. just follow Him. it wasn't until after they did that that most of them believed.
And Jesus' example - when He called each of His apostles... He just said "come follow Me." just be a part of what i'm doing. come join me. yeah, you can belong.

how preposterous! Jesus didn't even ask them what they believed 1st? whoa.
slowly they're behavior all changed and started to be more and more like Jesus. they saw that it was way better that way.
and it wasn't until way way later that Jesus finally asks them - what do you believe? or "who do YOU say that I am?" & Peter says "You are the Messiah... the Anointed One... the Son of God!"

YES!

it's hard to know that you can believe until you belong.

that's why i love being a part of Ridge Church. one of our mantras... one of the things we set out to do with this thing we call Ridge is to create a place, a church, a community where people can belong BEFORE they believe. and it's happening.
i wrote a lot about that with Ridge specifically HERE.

so, i'm thankful that postmodernism will actually force our churches to change. but i'm even more thankful that Ridge has been doing this from day 1. i'll end this post with an echo of the words i wrote in that post about this a few years ago...

"i want to be a part of the place where people have no problem belonging way before they believe. a church FULL of peeps who are walking with us, hanging out with us, before they even know what they fully think about God. that's beautiful. that's what i signed up for."

this new world is here to stay

i hear a lot of people say that this "postmodernism thing" is just a fad. it's just the "new" thing right now... it's a one hit wonder that will stick around for a few years and we'll never hear from it again.

i have yet to hear anyone say that who actually knows what postmodernism is and understands it. or else they wouldn't be saying that sort of thing.

the experts have been predicting it since at least Michael Polanyi in the 50s.

and in the words of the famous missiologist David J. Bosch -

“The ‘post’ phenomenon is not just a fad. We have truly entered into an epoch fundamentally at variance with anything we have experienced to date.”

postmodernism is a new world. 

the world as we knew it will never be the same again.

like it or dislike it. good or bad. we are living in the postmodern era.

it might even take another 50 years for it to fully arrive. but it is here now.

no need to fight it. that would be like fighting the rising of the sun. it's happening. so don't waste your energy.

spend your time figuring out how we're going to live in this new world. 

because when you live in a new world you have to figure out how to live and do everything you do all over again.

you'll never "make" it until you're SURE!

this is a follow up post from Friday titled "CLOSED MINDS".

The question i asked in that post was WHY do the closed minded people (especially "Christian" people) always talk the most and the loudest about everything they're closed minded about?

my theory is that you'll never "make" it until you're SURE!
(and not "sure" like those old school deodorant commercials. i used to love those.)

only the people who are dogmatic and have it all figured out can be the prominent figures in their field.
it's easy to see in the "christian"/church world. It's pretty much only the loud, dogmatic, and seemingly closed-minded peeps who become the prominent & well known speakers/influencers/leaders that we listen to!

nobody wants to listen to someone who is not sure. (or at least we think we don't.)

think about it - that's just how it works. that's how we're set up.
in my humble opinion we're set up this way because it's EASY! it is SO EASY to be sure and dogmatic and closed-minded. you just read it out of the book from the last guy and accept that 100% and then say it in a little bit newer, fresher way and you're good to go.

it's HARD to be open minded and admit you don't have it all figured out, yet keep pushing on confidently in the mission. i think that's why most turn into dogmatics and closed-minded or just give it up... because they think it's all or nothing.

but the world is changing. at least i think the world is changing.
(+ there are already several exceptions [for different reasons] - peeps like McLaren and Francis Chan.)

Postmodernity is a new word where we don't have to always be sure about everything. and i think that's a good thing because it's usually just fake anyway. it will be a world that's less arrogant, more transparent, more vulnerable, and the closed-minded people won't always be the loudest people we hear.


my mind is not closed. it is constantly open to the possibilities. the day i'm dogmatic and have it all figured out is probably the day i'm worthless.
but i am not so naive to think that my mind is truly totally open. i am aware that, unfortunately i am arrogant and closed minded in many areas that i don't even know about.
God, help me.

11 reasons why we MUST study culture (part 2)

Read part 1 with the 1st 5 reasons = HERE. I gave a lot of preface thoughts too. The list is from Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger.

Basically, these posts are all about why we should act like missionaries (because we are) here in the West and study our culture in order to contextualize the gospel in it!

6            ***Because the Majority of Current Church Practices are Cultural Accommodations to a Society That No Longer Exists ***

“Much of what we understand as historical church practices are simply cultural adaptations that occurred at other times and places in church history. The church must ‘de-absolutize’ many of its sacred cows in order to communicate afresh the good news to a new world.”

*Example = the Protestant Reformation was all about a Linear progression of thought, highly reasoned exegesis, and expository preaching. These things illustrated the new culture’s focus on the written word! (print culture)

and we also at times removed the symbolic, mystical, and experiential to make a space for logical and linear ways of thinking and living!

"We MUST be aware of the ways we’ve worshipped written culture at the expense of oral, aural, and visual worlds.” **
[and that's just 1 example]

7            Because the Primary Mode and Style of Communication in Western Culture Have Changed

All faithful missionaries must understanding the language of culture! The Church has been really slow to adopt new communication technologies.

These new technologies aren’t faddish, but are “the very essence of how people today construct their worlds.”

This is maybe the spot where church is most out of step with culture! The Reformation contextualized the gospel for the print era, but we haven’t had another reformation as we moved out of the print era! = to bring the gospel to our image-based era.

We “continue to communicate a verbal, linear, and abstract message to a culture whose primary language consists of sound, visual images, and experience, in addition to words.”
[we simply need to wake up and get with it. start being missionaries and contextualize our message to reach our culture!]

*current styles of preaching are having diminishing impact. Communicators must understand the comprehensive nature of language in order to be heard by culture! 

[I'm just trying to wrap my head around it. but i know it's more holistic. the message and the medium are more intertwined than I have always thought.]

8            Because a New Culture Means that New Organizational Structures are Required

Basically, seeing ourselves as missionaries we must rethink inherited ways of administering church in our times. What of our current structures are dictated by modernity not the Bible? I don't know... we just need to rethink as objectively as we can.

9            Because Boomers Are the Last Generation That is Happy with Modern Churches

It's very interesting to me that the huge wave of Boomer returnees to church had no parallel in Europe, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand! (more fully postmodern cultures)

*the postmodern generation is “disillusioned with institutionalism and sees the church itself as an obstacle to faith.” That’s why postmodern generations simply “ignore the organized church as irrelevant to their spiritual quest.”
wow! that's pretty hard to swallow.

***of course this postmodern shift is NOT a generational thing! That’s way oversimplifying complex issues. Those of you who keep saying that it's just generational need to WAKE UP AND PULL YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE SAND! It's not only here to stay, but becoming more and more our way of life. get used to it.

*Again, Gibbs & Bolger back me up that it’s NOT a generational thing! = “Generational issues are imbedded in the much deeper cultural and philosophical shift from modernity to postmodernity.”

Interesting -> Boomers are the last gen to be satisfied with a modern church service that is linear, word based, and abstract. Postmoderns need rituals, visuals, and touch. [not even sure what this new style will look like?]

10            Because of the Increasing Appeal of Spirituality Derived from Other Religions

“The church is sending spiritually minded people to strive after other religions because it has become secularized.”

Wow. that is a hard core indictment. I need to rethink it. in what ways has the church ceased to be spiritual? Have we done it intentionally?

11            Because Many Christians No Longer Follow the Religion of Their Parents

 “no longer does one adopt the traditions of one’s parents. Individuals make their own religious choices.”

**For the 1^st time (at least in American history) religion is chosen rather than received.

The individual is figuring it out for themselves. And that's the way it should be! I think that is awesome. We have the chance to raise up a generation of crazy passionate Jesus followers! But we gotta study our culture to figure out how to best do that! 

These authors sum it up best = “Ultimately, Christians who want to serve within Western culture must be trained as missionaries.”

OK, reasons #6-11... what do you think?

why we MUST study our culture (11 reasons)

(This is somewhat of an offshoot from #2 of yesterday's post. But really this is a major passion area of mine.)

I will shout it from the rooft... well, from my deck and front porch (because my roof is really steep and I'm a little afraid to shout anything from up there) that = we (the Western Church) MUST study our culture like (cross-cultural) missionaries ferociously study the culture that they are sent to! 

We are missionaries to Western culture and we've gotta start acting like it. When I move to sub-Saharan Africa one day, I am going to study the heck out of that culture. I should do the same as a missionary here in Charlotte!

So, of course I'm excited when I read Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger (both profs @ Fuller - my 2nd choice according to THIS) writing awesome missional lists like this one in their book I've been reading, Emerging Churches. Below is their awesome list with my thoughts and commentary following.

*11 Key reasons why the church must seriously study culture:

1            Because of the Incarnation

Jesus took on our culture and practices = “As Jesus did, we must immerse ourselves in the local cultures of our time.” “As Jesus did, we must provide a critique, but that evaluation must come from within rather than be imposed from outside the cultural context.”
*Jesus critiqued as fully a part of the culture and immersed in it! right on - this should be obvious. We can’t be missionaries to China and not be fully immersed in their culture, but still condemning and critiquing their culture! we don't get it when we do that!

2            Because Cultural Understanding has Always been Essential to Good Mission Practice

“Questions regarding the relationship between church and culture are critical to the mission of the church. Faithful mission practice requires understanding of the culture in which one is serving.” of course it's the same in Western culture - just like in any other culture.

Missionaries historically engage the culture, “seeking to communicate the gospel in indigenous forms while remaining faithful to Scripture.”
*duh. BUT, in the West we sell culture way short! We're convinced we understand the various cultures in the West, but this is a big mistake… because we obviously don't. we need to study it.

This is great advice = “The church must recognize that we are in the midst of a cultural revolution and that nineteenth-century (or older) forms of church do not communicate clearly to 21^st century cultures.” A major transformation MUST occur in the way the church understands culture!

*And I think this is a fair and important warning on this point = “The church must embody the gospel within the culture of postmodernity for the Western church to survive the 21^st century.”

3            Because Christendom and Modernity are in Rapid Decline

The Church does NOT maintain the central place in society anymore. The Church is pretty much non-influential.

“More often than not the church has found itself taking the side of modernity, defending its project against all viewpoints.” = ouch.

**So, this shift from Christendom and modernity has profound implications for the Church, the nature of ministry, mission in postmodernity, and the ways next gen leaders are equipped for these new challenges!

We can hunker down/run away or move forward in this new mission!

4            Because the West is in the Midst of Huge Cultural Shifts
It used to be that a certain culture hung around for an entire lifetime. Now, the church can’t even relate to its surrounding culture which is why we’re perceived as irrelevant.

*A few cultural changes Gibbs & Bolger say have contributed to marginalization of the church:
1) shift to postmodernity

2) shift from Westernization to globalization

3) communication revolution = shift from print to electronic-based
4) shift in our economic mode of production = transition from national and industrial-based economies to international, info based, and consumer driven.
5) we're on the verge of breakthroughs in human biology

           6) a convergence of science and religion that hasn’t been seen in centuries

“Any one of these shifts requires significant theological reflection. Pastoral leaders must listen carefully to culture and be prepared to abandon cherished forms if necessary.”

5            Because the Church is in Decline

A big reason (imho) is that culture has drastically changed and we haven't kept up. Somehow we can be missionaries when we cross oceans, but we don't apply those same principles in our cities here in the West!
I'm stoked to be a part of a generation that has a completely different philosophy on this. I'm stoked to see how God might use us to be a part of changing the way the Western Church looks at culture and therefore the scope of our influence for His Name's sake!

There are thoughts on the 1st 5 reasons. Check in tomorrow for thoughts on the 2nd 5!

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS? 
AGREE OR DISAGREE? OR BOTH??

"how far we are from where you are"

I think this is really fascinating and relevant for what I get to be a part of (Ridge Church).

A while back I read my 1st Henri Nouwen book = Life of the Beloved
The book was written to Nouwen's friends who were - "secular", nonreligious, unchurched, postmodern, and did not see the relevance of Jesus in their lives. He wrote it to try to help them see how awesome God is and to try to show them the relevance of Jesus to their lives.

So, he intentionally wrote the book with these unbelievers in mind = trying to speak on their terms, etc...

After writing it and giving it to them he followed up with his friends. This was their response and I think it is SO HUGE for any church concerned with reaching the people in our culture who don't follow Jesus and aren't really interested... 

“although you express to us what is most precious to you, you do not realize how far we are from where you are. You speak from a context and tradition that is alien to us, and your words are based on many presuppositions that we don’t share with you. You are not aware of how truly secular we are.”

Wow. I wish all church leaders could hear that. That's what we don't realize so much of the time! we have no idea how far we are from where they are and we are speaking a foreign language that is alien to them!

Here were Nouwen's thoughts on that response from his "secular" friends:

"My attempt had been to be a witness of God’s love to a secular world, but I had sounded like someone who is so excited about the art of sailing that he forgets that his listeners have never seen lakes or the sea, not to mention sailboats!” 

I think that is such a great analogy and I think that's what we too often do in church world.
I'm stoked to be a part of figuring out how to contextualize a relevant message and package and present it in a way that anyone and everyone GETS.
*I'm stoked to be a part of a church that is trying to bridge that gap that separates "how far we are from where you are..."