MikeZook.com

We Want To Be Relevant Church Reader Boards

I have been traveling a lot lately with work and have had no time to read, let alone write anything. It's amazing that our human nature is to increase activity when the economy is not doing well....anyway.

As I have been traveling all over Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Wisconsin and Indiana I have been taking note of the reader boards that seem to be on every lawn of every conservative mid-west church in the above mentioned states. What is more amazing is the message that they are putting on them.

Here is the list that I have gathered in the last couple months. I like a couple of them (seriously) and there are few that are pretty funny (#5) but most of them just made me want to drive my car right through the sign....

1. "GO TO CHURCH WEEKLY - NOT WEAKLY"
   
2. "A GOOD EXAMPLE IS BETTER THAN GOOD ADVICE"
   
3. "LIVING WATER IS AVAILABLE" 
   
4. "LIFE A JOURNEY - LET FAITH BE YOUR GUIDE"  
   
5. "YOU HAD BETTER WALK IN BEFORE YOU GET CARRIED OUT"
   
6. "ENTER TO WORSHIP - DEPART TO SERVE" 
   
7. "GAUGE YOUR WORKS BY IT'S FRUITS"
   
8. "SOULS BEING SAVED - LIVES BEING CHANGED - YOU BEING INVITED" 
   
9. "GOD BLESS THE WHOLE WORLD - NO EXCEPTIONS!" 
   
10. "FOR A GOOD TIME, STOP IN ON SUNDAY" 
    
11. "CHURCH - IT'S NOT A BUILDING!" 
    
12. "WORRY IS THE DARKROOM IN WHICH NEGATIVES ARE DEVELOPED"
    
13. "TODAY'S FORECAST - GOD RIEGNS AND THE SON SHINES" 
    
14. "TO REJOICE IS ALWAYS A CHOICE" 
    
15. "SIGN BROKEN - MESSAGE INSIDE" 
    
16. "YOU'RE NEVER A LOSER UNTIL YOU QUIT" 

And my all time favorite sign to want to drive through.... 

    17. "GOD'S GYM - WHERE YOU GET YOUR SOUL IN SHAPE FOR ETERNITY!"   

Which one(s) do you like or want to drive your car through?

A sign of the times???

I think this is becoming too culturally relevant....

Connection Metro Church in Denver, CO has chosen to "abandon ministry all together to focus on coffee" by transforming their 8 satellite campuses into a coffee chain.

CLICK HERE to read the article at LarkNews.com.

Faith and Doubt

Antother great post from ASBO Jesus. This captures a lot of the thoughts, wrestlings and restings that happen here at this site.

ASBO Jesus

Adding a new blog to my links. It is a satirical, yet truthful look at the church and christianity through comic strips. Jon Birch is the artist behind it and the website is called: ASBO Jesus.

According to the website:

for the non british among you… an ‘asbo’ is an ‘anti-social behaviour order’… the courts here award them to people who are deemed to be constant trouble in their neighbourhoods… presumably according to their neighbours!

Here are a few samples of his work:

A Cause, Sacrifice, a Comedian, Cravings and a Jack Black video

Here are a few thoughts by others that I have been reading this week. I hope you find them as encouraging and thought provoking as I have....Enjoy!

Erwin McManus: The Cause-Driven Church

Chris Tomlinson: Extolling the Virtues of Sacrifice

Torry Martin: A Comedian's Call

Jim Martin: What Do We Really Crave?

Donald Miller: Whats Now

Relevant vs. Irrelevant

When I was in ministry full-time I used to embrace the ideology of wanting to “make Christianity and the Bible relevant to our culture.” What I have come to realize as I have spent time out of full-time ministry and looking at church through the eyes of a “seeker,” is that all this “making” of Christianity relevant to our culture is actually doing the opposite!! In fact, it has nothing to do with Christianity at all!  It is irrelevant to our faith all together!

You see, the latter part of the statement is true with the exception of two words; “Christianity and the Bible ARE ALREADY relevant to our culture!” Jesus accomplished this when he died for us. But where I believe many pastors (including myself when I was there) have and continue to go off track is in the former part of the statement, “make.” By definition; “make” is to create, build, craft or manufacture something out of nothing. So the thought implies that we need to create something other than the redemptive message of Jesus’ death on the cross in order for people to accept Christianity.