I’m not one of those guys who thinks there are no absolutes.  You know those people, the ones who are convinced every answer is the right answer and that truth is relative.  They usually wear tie-dye shirts and drive 30 year old vans with couches in the back (you know who you are).  That’s definitely not me.

But I have to be honest, I’m getting tired of the litany of arguments flying around the Church that somehow place unrelated things on a sliding scale with one another.  Seeker-sensitive vs. Bible-based.  Missional vs. Attractional.  Large vs. Authentic.  I think we’re so bent on placing spiritual labels on things that either define our preferences or challenge our natural tendencies that we end up having completely irrelevant dialog.  Have you noticed your own propensity to spiritualize your own personal preferences?  (I guess I’m the only one?)

Who placed these things on a sliding scale anyway?  Why does being cognizant of the spiritual condition and Biblical knowledge of those who find their way into our weekly worship environments suddenly mean we can no longer be Bible or truth based?  (If you want my honest opinion, I think we WAY over-estimate the Biblical understanding of long-time church attenders anyway).  Who decided that having more than 200 people in your congregation suddenly meant you could no longer be genuine, vulnerable, authentic, or effective?  Why does building a weekend worship environment that attracts a crowd automatically mean you can’t missionally care about the city you’re in (or vice versa)?  Where was I when we had the meeting that put these things on a comparative continuum?

The truth is we’re greedy, jealous, broken people.  Yep…me too.  We thrive on comparison and impulsively throw stones at things we either don’t understand or that offend our religious culture or sensibilities.  Those who love the status quo angrily accuse those exploring new modes of expression of leaving “the way.”  And those who have grown tired of bowing to the way it’s always been done often swing the pendulum so hard in the other direction that the baby and the bathwater go spiraling down the drain.  We’ve allowed ourselves to be defined by our worst abuses.

If the goal of the church is to accurately reflect Jesus to the world (the Bible refers to us as His body), I think we’ll find that the answer isn’t in sliding our personal expressions up and down a man-made continuum in search of the one perfect answer, but in truly and completely embracing the character and nature of the One we follow.  He has an uncanny way of messing with my view of reality.

If that means I need to invest in some tie-dye and a ’74 Dodge van, I guess I better get to shopping.

One of the topics I’ve seen flying around many of the blogs and feeds I follow is the question, “does the church need a new scorecard?“  It spawns a great, thought-provoking dialog, and one I’m very interested in since I’ve just co-planted a brand new church in downtown Indianapolis.  Last Monday morning, the day after our launch, the questions were predictable:

“How many showed up?”
“How much was in the offering?”
“How many salvations?”

It’s the typical stuff, and it’s not so much that it’s wrong to ask or that those issues aren’t important (or are they?).  It’s just that this checklist has become our scorecard and I think it may measure the wrong thing, or at best push things of lesser importance to the top of the list.  So how do we “keep score?”

This morning I met with one of my newest friends, Dr. Mike Elmore.  Mike has spent the past few years developing his passion and personal plan for mentoring people towards real & positive life-change.  He threw a couple of questions at me, things he looks for in those he’s mentoring, and it got me wondering if maybe these wouldn’t be the beginnings of a dialog that could lead to a better gauge for our “success” as a church.

• What does my spouse or significant other say about me to others (unsolicited)?
• What do I talk about?  Is the reality and activity of God in my life evident in the way I speak?
• Have I shown a shift from self-focused to others-focused?
• Have I shown a change in my attitude towards adversity in my life?
• Do I have a desire for solitude with God?
• Have I progressively shown more positive interaction in relationships with others?
• Do I have a passion to serve humanity?
• Have I displayed an increased submission to God in decisions that I make?

Honestly, these things can’t be quantified in a graph or Excel spreadsheet.  They’ll show up in relationships.  In dialog.  In real stories from real lives.  But at the end of the day, these questions dig into the things that really matter.  I’m not sure what it all means or what we do with it, but I know the church I’m called to co-lead needs a different filter.  A new scorecard.

I’d love to hear your thoughts…

As we worked today on populating the soon-to-be-launched second tier of CityCommunityChurch.com, I thought it might be good to spend a few posts explaining in more detail the values that are driving the planting of this church.

Number one for us is practicality.  We’ve coined the term “making Christ accessible to humanity.”  But what does that really mean?  Unfortunately, knowingly or unknowingly, I think a lot of churches today make it difficult for actual, normal people to see the reality of God through the lens of their own lives. 

As my buddy Nathan says…when Jesus died on the cross the curtain in the temple was ripped in two, representing the breaking of the barrier between God and man.  Why do so many Christians seem to be trying to sew it back up?

Our desire is to do everything humanly possible to present the truth of God in a way that everyone can understand and connect with.  When Jesus spoke to the crowds on the hillsides, he used stories and illustrations that spoke new life in terms familiar and easily understandable to all who heard. 

He was practial.  He was accessible.  We want to be, too.