The book is filled with true-life stories from our church and other similarly-minded churches who have leveraged pop-culture to the benefit of the Gospel. This doesn’t mean we have shiny, sparkly things to lure you in and then you can say that you go to church and belong to our little club. It means that we “meet you where you are”, to use a phrase repeated throughout “Pop Goes The Church”. It means that we care about your comfort. It means that we don’t think you need to be cleaned up for God to love you. It means that you don’t have to jump through hoops just to show up. We make things as easy and as comfortable as possible for you to learn about the love God has for you and we are there to assist you on your journey in any way possible. I cannot stress enough that you should, whoever you are or wherever you are in any sort of spiritual journey or lack thereof, read this book! (from blogger Stephanie Jean Salisbury).

And another:

The question the church must reckon with is this: is Christianity a “product” we must sell? Looking at the language many pastors and Christian leaders use today, it certainly sounds like it. In Pop Goes the Church, Tim Stevens argues that effective churches are those that identify the needs of their audience, speak their language and “scratch where they itch.” In Branding Faith, Phil Cooke says that the church needs to “start thinking in reverse,” by focusing on the audience rather than the message and realizing that “it’s not the message you send, it’s the message that’s received that counts.” … To “scratch were they itch,” then, seems like a futile pursuit for a church trying to win converts to the Gospel. People are itching for a lot of things, and some of them might actually add up to what the gospel of Christ offers, but at the end of the day the gospel is defined outside of and with little regard to whatever it is people think Christianity is or should be. (from blogger Brett McCracken, author of new book Hipster Christianity).

Two very different reviews on the same book. Which blogger got it right?

One day last year I got up before daylight, and spent hours traveling by plane to go across the country for the sole purpose of a one-hour meeting with some leaders for whom I have huge respect. During the meeting, there were several occasions when each of those leaders picked up their phone to read or type. At the same time, they glanced up at me on occasion as I was talking, said “uh huh,” then continued to “thumble” with their phone. I’m not a touchy-feely type of guy, but on that day I felt devalued. I walked away from that meeting purposed in my heart to never do that to anyone.

Here are a few habits I appreciate in others and try to put to practice…

• When you start a meeting, turn your ringer off and move it away from you. If the screen comes to life when you get a text–then put the phone upside down so you won’t see it. If it is likely to vibrate, then put it somewhere it can’t be felt or heard.
• If your phone does vibrate during the meeting and your guest says, “Go ahead and take that if you need to” — reach down and silence it without even looking. This communicates to your guest that they are very valuable to you.
• Don’t buy into the “what if there is an emergency?” line. Rarely does that happen. It’s not a good excuse for having to look at your phone multiple times through every meeting.
• If you know you will need to be reached during the meeting, let your guest know, “My wife is at the doctors office and may need to reach me, so I apologize in advance that I’ll be taking her call when it comes.” That tells your guest this is an exception–you wouldn’t normally do this.
• If you are in a meeting with multiple people–follow the same rules. Don’t convince yourself that your participation isn’t needed right now so you can disengage and respond to texts or play your next turn in Words With Friends.We fool ourselves into thinking we can multitask, or that our disengagement won’t be noticed for a few minutes. Not true.

I’m not saying phones are evil or every time you use your phone you are devaluing others. I’m a heavy smart-phone user. Your phone doesn’t need to be out of sight every time you interact with another human. There are times when I’m sitting around with 5 or 6 friends or family members and every one of us has a phone out. That’s part of the 21st century. I think it can actually enhance the conversation and social interaction. But there are times when you have limited interaction with others when you should be ALL there.

It’s about valuing people. And sometimes that means we are looking in their eyes and being fully engaged so we can really listen to their story and hear their heart.

Think about it.

Here are a few of the leaders already signed up…

• An Executive Pastor from a church of 2500 in Florida.
• A leader of a brand-new church plant in North Carolina–first service last month!
• A woman who is Director of Ministry Services at a church of 900 in Georgia.
• An Executive Pastor from a fast-growing church in San Diego.
• The lead pastor of a church with 3 full-time staff in Michigan.
• Several others from Indiana, Michigan, Florida, Illinois and Missouri.

One of the greatest advantages of the Coaching Network is the friendships you will develop with the others in the group. It is an experience of learning, talking with peers about difficult issues, and getting fresh ideas about your biggest challenges.

As of today, I have 9 slots available. I’m praying that God will bring the right group of leaders together. If that’s you–don’t delay in applying.

Read my initial post about the network and then download information here: EP Coaching Summary 2010-11

No other company reimagines the fundamental parts of its business as frequently, and with as much gusto, as Apple does. Over its history, Apple has adopted new operating systems and underlying chip architectures several times–decisions that rendered its installed base instantly obsolete. Jobs killed the floppy disk in the iMac, and he claimed that optical drives were on their way out with the MacBook Air. Now, with the company’s embrace of touch screens, Apple seems to be gunning for the mouse, a technology that it helped bring into wide use in the 1980s. Apple’s willingness to abandon the past makes for better products.

Here is what I’m wondering: When is the last time church leaders re-imagined the fundamental part of their “business”? Pretty much since about 300 AD, the church has been constructing buildings, holding weekly services, teaching the Bible from an elevated platform, singing congregational songs, collecting money–and sending everyone home. Oh sure, our songs are a little peppier and some of us even use technology pretty well. But, the success of spreading the gospel is still largely gauged by number of church buildings built and the attendance at those buildings.

What would it look like to reimagine how we do church? Like I wrote a couple weeks ago–the percentage of people in our communities who will be reached by a “come to the box” type of church is small and shrinking. Alan Hirsch says that it is going to require out-of-the-box type of imagination if we are going to figure out to reach everyone else.

That is the type of imagination we are engaged in at Granger. We’ve asked the entire church to imagine. We’ve asked our entire community to imagine. And the dreams that are emerging are at a make-your-heart-beat-out-of-your-chest level of exciting.

More about that in the days to come. For now–what are your thoughts?

I’d like to think I’m more balanced. I carry an iPhone, but use a Dell laptop. I like the Mac operating system–but actually prefer using Windows 7.

Regardless of whether you are on Team Apple or not, from a business model Apple can’t help but garner your respect. I thoroughly enjoyed Apple Nation, a recent article in Fast Company magazine. Some interesting quotes…

Apple’s engineers spend 100% of their time making projects planned by a small club of senior managers–and sometimes entirely by Jobs himself. The CEO appoints himself the de facto product manager for every important release.

Apple sets its own agenda and tunes out the tech wags–competitors, industry observers, analysts, bloggers, and journalists who constantly spew torrents of advice, huzzahs, and brickbats in its direction. Behind its doors, Apple can ignore us all.

Steve Jobs primary role at Apple is to turn things down.  Every day, the CEO is presented with ideas for new products and new features within existing ones. The default answer is no. Every engineer who has gone over a product with him has a story about how quickly Jobs reaches for the DELETE key. “I’m as proud of the products that we have not done as the ones we have done,” Jobs told an interviewer in 2004.

So much of this makes sense for a for-profit company, and is the reason for Apple’s success. But I have some questions about how it might translate in the church world…

• If the senior pastor at your church was the primary creative director and had veto power for everything–is that a church you would enjoy attending? Would you want to work on a staff for that pastor?
• I wonder if members/attendees at many churches think similar thoughts– “Behind its doors, the staff/elders of this church ignore us all.” In the church world–is that good? Or is that a weakness?
• At Apple, the “default answer is no.” Would churches run better if they said “no” to more opportunities? Do we tend to get so broad that we lose impact?

Your turn–what do you think?

• June was all about family. Ten days on our family vacation near Branson. Then my family visited for an extended weekend. Then Faith’s family for a week.
• If every person staying one night at our house equals a “visitor night” — then we had 84 visitor nights in June.
• This week three of our kids are at Camp Adventure, and the other one is attending day camp. You’d think that would mean extended “lunches” at home. It’s only Thursday–I guess there is still time.
• We’ve decided life isn’t complicated enough, so we will be keeping a foreign exchange student in our home beginning next month. She is a 16-yr old from Croatia.
• Our senior team spent 11 hours last week working on the next 5-years. I couldn’t be more excited. I’m chomping at the bit to talk about it, but need to hold off a little while longer.
• We are all gearing up for Mark Beeson’s first-ever sabbatical. He’ll be gone 3 months this fall.
• I have a kid going to college in a year. She’d like to go to a college that also happens to be very expensive. We are spending the summer learning about how to apply for scholarships. I also learned last week (via Facebook) that she has a job with Chick-fil-A. Maybe the admissions department will accept coupons for chicken as payment?
• Last month I stayed the night on a sidewalk in Chicago. I’d like to say I was “in front of” the Apple Store–but in reality, I was a couple blocks away. It was an excuse to be with a good friend and a grand social experiment watching the insanity of consumerism. And yes, I walked away with two new iPhones. But in the bizarre world in which we live–I was able to sell my “old” iPhones on Ebay for more than the new ones cost.
• We just finalized our plans to be in Des Moines on September 11th at Cornerstone Family Church teaching Simply Strategic Volunteers.

That’s all I got. More soon.

We’ve gathered input from thousands in the church. And now we will begin to pull that together. To begin, I’ve asked each person on our senior team to write out their personal view of what the future might look like in five years (today we will share those initial thoughts with each other). As I was writing mine, it jogged my memory to a similar process twelve years ago. Here was how I envisioned the future of Granger Community Church in 1998.

It is the dream of a biblically functioning community, where Christ-followers are continually taking steps in their walk with Jesus.  It is a place where all are quickly connected in meaningful and life-changing relationship with others; where care and comfort happens in the context of shared life together; where a plethora of opportunities are available to help seekers and believers take their next step toward Christ.

It is the dream of sending scores of our people all around the world as career missionaries, and sending hundreds on short-term mission projects to every continent.

It is the dream of a campus large enough to support a regional ministry and national training site.  It will include a state-of-the-art auditorium seating thousands, a comfortable gathering area for discussion and fellowship for hundreds, a care and counseling center, a technologically advanced and flexible training center, and top-notch childcare facilities.  It will be set in a peaceful environment  with bright flowers, beautiful trees, pools of still water and sparkling fountains.

It is the dream of 10,000 gathering each weekend to explore Christianity and take their first steps toward Christ, and 4,000 growing together in spiritual maturity through worship, study and fellowship – loving, laughing, and learning together, understanding God’s plan and living life to its’ greatest potential.

It is the dream of a truly cohesive ministry strategy to reach all generations with the love of Jesus.  A place where we celebrate the strengths of all and focus on the similarities while accepting the differences.

It is the dream of a people who never shrink back from communicating the truth of God’s Word using relevant and innovative means; where “cutting-edge” is normal and change is readily accepted; where artists are pursued, affirmed, cultivated, loved, and released to use their gift in the church.

It is the dream of a church that makes an indisputable impact on our region, where people of all races and religions will wonder aloud what God is up to at GCC.

- Tim Stevens (February 12, 1998)

So much has remained the same in my vision. And–so much has changed. It’s going to be fun to hear everyone’s dreams this afternoon. If you have a minute–pray for us!

In two weeks we begin a series at Granger that explores the spiritual truths from four different movies. In each case, we begin with the questions raised in the movie–and we discover answers together in Scripture. I hope you will join us in person or online.

What do you think…does this make it easier to invite a friend to church?

I appreciated a recent blog that Ed posted. He writes…

Eddie Gibbs, in his book ChurchMorph, has identified at least five changes, or megatrends, as he calls them, happening in our culture at present.  They are the shifts from modernity to postmodernity, from the industrial age to the information age, from Christendom to post-Christendom, from production to consumerism, and from religious identity to spiritual exploration.  Books have been written on each of these.  The amazing aspect of them is that they are converging in our time, causing seismic shifts in our culture which require paradigm shifts in our thinking.  In this environment, “church as we have always done it” will find increasingly fewer participants.  Just as financial advisors are needing to modify basic principles they have used for years in this new economic scenario, so will those doing church development need to consider new ways to impact their mission fields.

And then Ed draws some conclusions…

Of course, the church will be slow to respond.  The classic bell curve used to show acceptance of innovation applies here.  Since the church is not feeling immediate drastic consequences of the cultural changes, most church folk, including leaders, will be glacial in accepting the need for change.  Ample evidence abounds indicating that even when change is clearly needed, change is very difficult to implement. (Read Ed’s entire article here.)

I am so encouraged to read of one of our conference leaders thinking “out of the box” thoughts like this. It is right in line with what I’ve talked about in relation to being attractional AND missional–and fits the precise topic of our November conference called AND.

Do you think Ed is right? If these changes are coming, will the church be slow to shift?

HT Matt Johnson