The Present Future
The Present Future; Six Tough Questions for the Church
Reggie McNeal
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AmazonI have tried my hardest to put any quotes taken directly from the book in
italics. It is my desire to give Reggie McNeal credit for his excellent work.
To the new tribe;
You know who you are.
May your tribe increase!
There’s a world counting on you.
The Present Future
Intro:
McNeal makes it abundantly clear from the first sentence of his introduction that this book may not be for everyone. He states that he is not thrilled about writing this book because he feels he will fail to communicate properly what he wants to communicate and the readers will not be able to hear what he is saying because of being threatened by it. He clearly states that he does no mean to deconstruct the church in North American but desperately sees that what we are doing is not working and on this route we are doomed for failure.
His reason for writing this book is that he believes there is a group of people in churches that want to script a different story for the North American church. These people want to bring the dying church of today out of captivity and into the freedom that we gain with a relationship with Christ Jesus.
A final word of warning given by McNeal.
“Please if you fit any (or all) of these categories, take my advice and don’t read this book. It will just agitate you. Trust me, you don’t agree with it. Here are just some of the assumptions that are challenged in these pages:
If you build the perfect church (the way we think about church), they will come
Growing your church will automatically make a difference in the community.
Developing better church members will result in greater evangelism.
The church needs more workers (for church work).
Church involvement results in discipleship.
Better planning will get you where you want to go (in terms of missional effectiveness).The following review will be divided into the six chapters of the book:
The Collapse of the Church Culture
The Shift from Church Growth to Kingdom Growth
A New Reformation: Releasing God’s People
The Return to Spiritual Formation
The Shift from Planning to Preparation
The Rise of Apostolic Leadership
New Reality Number One
The Collapse of the Church Culture
The current church culture in North America is on life support. It is living off the work, money, and energy of previous generations from a previous world order. The plug will be pulled either when the money runs out (80 percent of money given to congregations comes from people aged fifty-five and older) or when the remaining three-fourths of a generation who are institutional loyalists die off or both.The good news is that the death of the church culture does not mean the death of the church. The church founded by Jesus is good; it is right. The church that Jesus began will survive till he returns. It is the culture that will collapse not the church.
The church in our nation has made a way of doing “church” that satisfies our desire and our checklists but is not satisfying or even addressing the hunger and thirst that our non churched brothers and sisters have for a relationship with Christ. Often times when we meet the pre-Christians we are attempting to convert them to church not to a relationship with Christ. A perfect example of this is that church culture today is geared for builders (those born before 1946) shown by attendance records that states 52 percent of builders report going to church compared to a mere 36 percent of gen Xers. I suspect the 36 percent is a rather high number. I also suspect that a good portion of that 36 percent has either learned to “like” church culture or is lying. My wife reports to me that some of her friends will go around to local churches before their parent’s come to visit and collect bulletins and spread them throughout the house to give the illusion to the parent’s that they are indeed attending church.
Percentages by generation that consider themselves to be “born-again”
Builders (before 1946) 65 percent
Boomers (born between 1946-1964) 35 percent
Busters (born between 1965-1976) 15 percent
Bridgers (born between 1976-1994) 4 percentAs a youth minister it is quite unnerving to know that 4 percent of both my friends and the students I am called to minister to report to being born again. Dawson McAlister reports that 90 percent of kids active in youth groups do not go to church by their sophomore year of college. One-Third of those never return to church.
The problem: I believe that through our modern mindset in our attempts to understand how everything works and operating in a world that can be explained somehow in some way we have taken God out of church. Well not taken him out but split him up into manageable digestible pieces, that is so mangled and gnarled by the time we are done that this jumble of pieces hardly resembles the Almighty God of the universe.
The post-modern world appears to be one of mystery. One where even scientists are not afraid to admit that they don’t have it all figured out. The wonderful thing is that we see God stirring the pot for himself and making people more aware of his power and his mystery.
Few people will argue that the church in North America is in trouble. The statistics are clear; the proof is in the pudding. As an example of this Pastor Gene Wood of Glendora, California began sharing a statistic at the beginning of every seminar he lead. The listeners consisted of church pastors and denominational leaders. The statistic he shared was this 85% of churches are in plateau or decline. He states he has no scientific proof of this figure but the number has never been disputed by a single pastor or church leader. We know there is a problem!
The answer to this problem is not refuge. Running back to the way we’ve always done things will not work. Holding the sheep in the fold to protect them from the wolves will not work…the sheep will merely starve to death.
The answer is not “better” church. We can make church into many things and trick many people to coming inside the walls. But we will just be kidding ourselves. People with no relationship with Christ don’t need church…they need Jesus.
A few statements to close this chapter:
People are not looking for a great church. They do not wake up every day wondering what church they can make successful.
Church hopping is for church people.
The need of the church in North American is not a methodological fix.Missional Fix:
What the church needs is a missional fix. The invitation to become a Christian has become an invitation to convert to church. We have become marketers of the gospel selling it like the newest product on QVC. We dress it up, get new stuff, generate new programs, and offer club membership. This missional fix comes in admitting that the building of our Church is not the same as the building of The Church. This will be talked about in later chapters.
God is interested in redeeming mankind. From the foundation of the world that was his intent and he made good on that by sending his son to redeem us. The love story found in the Bible is that of God’s reckless love for mankind. When he could have destroyed us and been completely within his realm and rightness of power instead he redeemed us. The church was created to join God in his redemptive mission of the world.
We have focused on taking the moral high ground rather than taking the missional emphasis of Christ’s earthly ministry. Christ looked inward and saw the heart not the outward. Just look at his interaction of the Pharisees, he calls them white washed tombs, appears put together on the outside but dead bones on the inside.
Spirituality in American is at a possible all time high. But don’t confuse spirituality with Christianity. People must be encountered with the missional mind of Christ. They must encounter his love and his desire of a relationship with Him. We must stop being focused on doing church better and instead focus on the harvest.
New Reality Number Two
The Shift from Church Growth to Kingdom GrowthThe church growth movement exploded about 35 years ago now. Coming out of World War II the church was booming. People were moving to the suburbs at alarming rates and it was really just a matter of putting a few churches in a growing areas and the church would grow. The church was at a favored place in our culture, a time when people attended just because that what people do. Starting in the 1960’s the church began to lose that favorable place in culture, thus putting pressure on church leaders, birthing the church growth movement.
The church growth movement made people make up to realize that people were no longer beating down the doors of the church to enter but rather it was the church’s job to go out and get them. Unfortunately much of the “growth” was the migration of Christians from one church to another, mega-churches cannibalizing the smaller. There will be a predecessor to the Church growth movement…what will it be?
For 35 years now we have been asking ourselves; how do we make this church better? And for 35 years we have received the same answer…silence. Listen to the statistics and the diminishing attendance of people in church. It appears people don’t care about rock-n-roll worship, drama, or a built in health club. This consumer mentality has not grown the church!
Our intentions are pure; we want to see people come to a saving relationship with Christ, I believe this and find it increasingly important to believe this the longer I am a pastor. So how to we transform our community? If they will not come to us (it appears they won’t) then we must go to them. We can keep offering what we think they want or we can start offering what they need.
The church that wants to partner with God on his redemptive mission in the world has a very different target: the community. In the past if a church had any resources left over after staffing Sunday school, and so on, then it went to the community. IN the future the Church that “gets it” will staff to and spend its resources on strategies for community transformation. Members obviously have needs for pastoral care and spiritual growth. It is critical that these be addressed. However, I am raising the question of how many church activities for the already-saved are justified when there are people who have never been touched with Jesus’ love? The answer is a whole lot less than we’ve got going on now.
I have heard that going to the “mall” is on the way out and people want to return to the “strip-mall” type system. Rather than go to one building that houses all their shopping needs they would rather have the option of only popping into one or two stores to get what they need. Notice fast food places beginning to partner with places like Wal-mart and Target to offer food to people while they shop. The point is where people are are at and why isn’t the church going to them. Remember asking them to come to us is not working.
Why not host a reading club at your neighborhood bookstore?
Why not have a truth seekers study at Panera?
Sunday school in McDonalds
Baptism at the county pool
Church service in the Park
There are two incredibly dangerous things about this mentality to the current church. The first is that it is comfortable to come into our club every week, see the same people and learn the same lessons, to banter back and forth in Sunday school and greet the few visitors. It is very uncomfortable to go out there and do these things where we may be stared at ridiculed or just not understood. The second dangerous thing is that we are so used to bull horning to people that they are sinners and going to hell, that being administers of grace seems scary. After all we don’t want to send the wrong message to homosexuals that we love them and so does God. We don’t want to let abortion clinics to know that God’s grace is extended to them as well. We don’t want the “nasty” people of society to hear about God’s reckless love for people because then we might have to see them in heaven. Secretly we want people to go to hell, because that’s what they deserve.
It is not our job to convict people of sin. According to Jesus the Holy Spirit will take care of that (John 16:8). It is our responsibility to tell the good news.
John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.People do not listen to you until they know you genuinely care about them and not about advancing your own cause. Yesterday I was getting my monthly haircut and I decided to try a new place on my side of town. The conversation was going well but I felt a burden to turn things to the spiritual. I told her that I was a pastor and she sounded a little interested but there was a wall. Through the natural course of conversation I began to ask her about her hopes and dreams, about her family and about paying the bills. She saw that I genuinely cared for her as a person, not just someone I was trying to “pastor”. I did genuinely care for her and she knew it!
The church must genuinely care for people and THEIR needs not our own.
New Reality Number Three
A New Reformation: Releasing God’s PeopleThe first reformation was about freeing the church the new reformation is about freeing God’s people from the church (the institution). The church or congregation that helps followers of Jesus live abundant and missional lives are the ones that understand the new reformation. This is not modeled by gaining new people into the church and then assimilating them into ministry and eventually making them ministry leaders and Sunday school teachers. Currently we get new people, throw them a spiritual gifts inventory and mine them for their gifts to be given to the community…NO WAY to be used in the church for already believers. This method is missionally counterproductive.
Becoming a missionary movement is not easy. It requires admitting that as much as we want to be one body each generation has their own needs, speaks their own language, and cares about different things. It requires us to go into our community and find out what they need, what is important to them and investing in those things.
The truth is that member values in a church are not missionary values. Church under this new reformation is no longer about “me” it is about “them”. These two mindsets cannot coexist. One will prevail over the others and there will be a battle.
Every year churches in my district of my denomination are required to report several statistics to our District Office who then report to our National Office. I believe the report asks for financial giving, weekly worship attendance, salvations and baptisms. The higher each of these numbers the better you are doing. Get these numbers high enough you get a pay raise, get them even higher and you move on to higher level jobs.
The fact is that if your church is a missional movement like the book is suggesting these numbers may actually decline. At first glance of your reports it will appear as if your ministry effectiveness has actually done down. The key to this is changing the scorecard.
How many volunteers do we have in the local schools?
How many conversations are we having with pre-Christians?
How many congregations are using our facilities?
How many languages (ethnic and generational) do we worship in?
How many community groups do we have?
How many hours per week are our people spending in ministry outside the church?
All in all the missional movement should ask this question before any and every ministry endeavor is begun. “Who is this for?” We know what the answer should be!
New Reality Number Four
The Return to Spiritual Formation
I have learned a few things about Cathy in our two-plus decades of marriage. I have discovered what she likes and doesn’t like. I have learned about her family. I don’t know about her. I know her! She and I have achieved and intimacy that comes from hanging out together, sharing dreams and hurts, working on projects together, experiencing leisure and fun together and from sharing countless days of more routine experiences.Those who claim to be followers of Jesus claim to have a relationship with him. We don’t just learn about Jesus, we KNOW Jesus. After all aren’t we told that the devil knows about Jesus?
If you were to walk into a health club or gym today and start a new membership there would be a person assigned to you to help you get started. They would take you through a series of questions asking you what your target weight would be, what you hoped to achieve by working out. They would then show you the machines you would need to be using and help you right out goals to assess when you were making progress.
People don’t come to church to make the church better they come to make themselves and their lives better. Rather than dump on new believers or attenders information about Jesus why don’t we show them the equipment and show them how to live with Jesus and get to know him in a relationship?
Life coaching seems the way to go about this. Viewing this method as spiritual formation is best. If your church pursued life coaching for people you would accomplish seven things.
You would communicate to the person that personal spiritual growth and development is anticipated and expected. Show them that you care for them and that the church is there for them not vice versa.
You would check the pulse to determine the needs and hopes of the church. Letting need drive ministries not budgets.
You would be intentional not just busy. A rocking chair has a lot of motion but never goes anywhere.
You could use this as an opportunity to introduce people to and educate then about spiritual disciplines and spiritual growth.
You could custom make spiritual formation to fit interests they are already pursuing. For instance don’t quite your indoor soccer league to go to church, take church to the soccer league.
You could help with life needs not just spiritual needs. For instance financial planning.
New Reality Number Five
A Shift from Planning to PreparationSurfers don’t plan the waves out they are going to ride. This is an impossible task, they have no control over the tides, temperatures, or weather conditions, and therefore the surfer never plans the waves. Instead the surfer always stands ready, checking the wave conditions, practicing his balance and waxing his board. The surfer prepares to ride the next wave but never plans it.
The church in North America is real used to being at the helm controlling where the ship is going. But that mentality is all wrong. Our culture is deciding where it is going it is the church’s position to be poised to minister in our changing culture. This does not mean we sell out to the culture. The gospel of Jesus Christ must remain truth, absolute truth. But we know that Jesus was on a mission to seek and save the lost and he asks us to remain on this same mission.
McNeal offers and excellent strategy for preparing rather planning.
Vision
Values
Results
Strengths
Learnings
Read the chapter!
New Reality Number Six
The Rise in Apostolic Leadership
You get the chance to give shape to the movement that will define its expression for perhaps hundreds of years (if Jesus doesn’t come back and usher in the kingdom).There is much to say about this chapter but I fear I won’t do it justice. Really you’re just going to have to read the book. But I will close my book review with this quote from the author.
The willingness and ability of church leaders to talk intelligently and forthrightly about the emerging world will not relativize Christianity but will relevantize it.
