Monday, April 5, 2010 at 3:22 pm

A Jaguar from Jesus - How one church celebrated Easter this weekend

Posted by Brian Owen | Comments (0) |

How far should pastors go to make their church services attractive to visitors?

While I'm all for making church welcoming and inviting to curious seekers, a church in South Texas did something that leaves me speechless, and not in a good way.

One mega-church in South Texas gave away new cars during their Easter Sunday service.  Yes, you read that right.  In honor of "the ultimate giveaway of the Easter message", they gave away new cars (including a jaguar), as well as a bunch of flat screen TVs, and a host of other items.  Everyone in attendance that morning walked away with a gift bag containing $300 worth of gifts.

You can view a short clip about the church service giveaway here.

This church, while (hopefully) an extreme example, points out the challenges pastors face in making devoted disciples of Jesus in the midst of a consumer culture.  It also points to the temptation we face in equating ministry success with attendance numbers.

How do we produce devoted followers of Jesus, willing to give up everything in order to follow him, when the church down the street is offering them a new BMW if they show up on Sunday?  Will curious seeker see through the shallowness of game show church down the street or are they already blinded by our consumer culture? How do we move forward?

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Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 3:27 pm

The gospel of "right now"

Posted by Brian Owen | Comments (4) |

The scene still haunts me seven years later.  Hundreds of college students filed passed my information table in the student union.  I stood with a number of representatives from several student organizations, all of us eager for new members.  Several campus ministries in addition to my own participated in the "club fair."  At the table next to mine stood a representative from another para-church ministry.  Over his table hung a banner that said something like, "Do you know how to get to heaven when you die?  Find out how." 

Like many Christians, I was trained to ask that question.  I had used it countless times during gospel conversations with interested college students, but that afternoon, as crowds of co-eds swept past our tables, I couldn't help but wonder about my neighbor's banner as I looked at the nameless faces of students passing our tables.  Harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd, I grieved as I thought about their present lives.  How many of them were struggling with the reality of life in a fallen world?  How many of them were dealing with the consequences of their enslavement to sin and separation from God?  Did I have any good news for them in their present situation?  Or could I only offer them hope for the future?  My well-meaning friend had summed up our offer to the thousands of students on this particular university as an opportunity to be certain of one's eternal destiny.  It was an offer of a secure future in heaven with no mention of life in the present.

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Friday, April 16, 2010 at 12:37 pm

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Saturday, March 6, 2010 at 7:12 pm

What counts for true revival and transformation? (Calling all Jonathan Edwards scholars)

Posted by Brian Owen | Comments (6) |

Fifteen years ago, I had the privilege of participating in two dramatically different "revivals."  The first one had been taking place for months at the Brownsville Assembly of God church in Pensacola, Florida.  Night after night, as evangelist Steve Hill spoke, mass conversions and strange behavior took place.  Things like:  jerking bodies, uncontrollable "bowing", and hysterical crying.  On the night my friends and I attended, we witnessed all of these manifestations and more.  Honestly, we found the event odd, strange, disturbing, and disappointing.  But as we talked with others who attended, many claimed the event had a positive impact on their spiritual lives.

My second "revival" experience took place at a national staff conference for Campus Crusade for Christ.  As Nancy Leigh DeMoss spoke on "Brokeness", people began coming forward to publicly confess sins before a crowd of over 3000 CCC staff members.  This went on for over twelve hours and continued for two more days.  People were weeping and confessing secret sins at a level of vulnerability that was both shocking and moving.  People were walking across the aisles to apologize to one another.  Others lined up at pay phones (pre-cell phone days) to call parents and confess to not honoring them.  Periodically, we took breaks from the confessions to sing, worship, and pray.  Though virtually all who attended (myself included) would say that God showed up in a powerful way, some were skeptical.  One friend felt later told me that he felt like the environment was manipulative.

 

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Friday, April 16, 2010 at 1:13 pm

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Saturday, February 20, 2010 at 6:52 pm

Changing our default settings

Posted by Brian Owen | Comments (1) |

 This past week, during the "Small Group Summit" webcast, Dr. Bill Donahue, Pastor of Small Groups at Willow Creek, made the comment that "we default to content because it's safer than going deeper."  

Though he made this comment in the context of small group ministry, it certainly has broader application in church ministry.  For don't pastors place enormous value on the content of a sermon in bringing change to the lives of the men and women in their congregations?  And what about our church sponsored classes, Bible institutes, Sunday school gatherings, Christian bookstores, etc.?  Church members are swimming (drowning?) in content.

What would it look like to lead a congregation to a new "default setting"?  One that invites men and women to venture out of the shallow end of the spiritual formation pool, beyond the safety of information and into the deeper waters of transformation?  How can we begin taking steps beyond a content dump?

 

 

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Saturday, February 20, 2010 at 7:46 pm

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Wednesday, February 10, 2010 at 9:07 pm

Creating environments of love

Posted by Brian Owen | Comments (2) |

In the film Chocolat, a married couple, Serge and Josephine, are falling apart.  Serge beats his wife Josephine, a mousy woman who mutters under her breath and secretly steals from the other residents of their sleepy French village.  Both of them are a wreck and their marrige is a disaster. 

One night, after Serge leaves a brutal mark on her forehead, Josephine flees to Vianne's chocolate shop looking for help.  Desperate to save his reputation, Serge runs to the town mayor for help.  With the help of their rescuers, Serge and Josephine undergo two very different processes of transformation.  The mayor takes Serge through a series of activities, designed to turn him into a gentleman while Vianne opens up her life and her heart to Josephine as she teaches her the secrets of her chocolate shop.  Serge places himself in a procedure designed to transform him from the outside in.  Josephine places herself in the presence of someone who loves her and she changes from the inside out, emerging as a radiant, confident woman. 

This scene from the film is a parable of the church today.  We offer many opportunities for transformation that don't seem to do much when what we really need is to offer wounded men and women a place to be loved in the midst of their brokenness. 

In his book, The Complete Book of Discipleship, Bill Hull acknowledges that "just about everyone agrees that love is life's most powerful force.  However, few people really understand love or have any idea how to create an environment of love."

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Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 12:40 pm

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Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 8:17 pm

From the Courtroom to the Bedroom: A review of "Apprenticeship with Jesus" by Gary Moon

Posted by Brian Owen | Comments (15) |

A number of spiritual formation writers, under the influence of Dallas Willard, have sought to move us away from a solely forensic understanding of salvation.  Gary Moon is one of them.  His recent book, "Apprenticeship with Jesus" is a rich read, full of laugh-out-loud humor, moving stories, and wisdom on living as an apprentice of Jesus.  He invites us to see the gospel as more than a forgiven past and a future in heaven.  While not dismissing these facets of the gospel that address our guilty past and our future in heaven, he paints a compelling picture of the good news of the present opportunity offered to each of us to live as an apprentice of Jesus.  (Note:  Click here to read my previous post on the challenges of using the term "apprentice" for "disciple").

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Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 2:16 am

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Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 7:19 pm

Homebound discipleship

Posted by Brian Owen | Comments (4) |

This afternoon, I met with a group of pastors from my church to discuss the state of ongoing discipleship in our congregation.  Specifically, we were looking at how we can bring about a shift in the mindset of the average church member.  A shift in which parents would see themselves, not the church, as the primary disciplers of their children.

We wondered what it would look like for us to encourage and equip parents to disciple their children.  Deuteronomy 6, among other passages, makes it clear that spiritual instruction is to take place in the home.  What would our role be?  What would the parent's role be?  

While we are far from developing any solid answers, we did conclude that we want to help parents think about discipleship of their children more in terms of conversations, and less in terms of formal content.  Content is good and important, but we concluded that discipleship from parent to child should be more organic than formal times of instruction (things like weekly family devotions, etc.).

Plus, we have a tendency to forget that parents have an unusual place in the discipling of their children. This is more than an older Christ-follower helping a younger one.  Parents actually have a god-like status in the life of their children.  Their unique status must be taken into consideration as we help parents nurture the spiritual growth of their young ones.  I believe that a Mom and Dad's ability to be present to their children, in both the good and bad, has huge implications for a child's relationship with God and their understanding of how to deal with guilt and shame.

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Friday, April 16, 2010 at 2:36 pm

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Sunday, December 20, 2009 at 11:06 pm

A Double Advent

Posted by Brian Owen | Comments (3) |

Joy to the World!

The Lord is come, let earth receive her king!

Let every heart prepare him room...

 

Preparing room in our hearts for Jesus.  Isn't that what the Advent season is about?  

 

But how does one actually prepare for an event as monumental as the arrival of Christ into the world?  At the moment of our conversion, did we ever pause to consider the enormous significance of his entrance into our lives and what would happen when he arrived to take his rightful place in our hearts? And during this season of Advent, are we prepared to welcome him into our lives anew?

 

If we're honest, I think the answer is "yes and no."

 

The dictionary defines the word "advent" as "the arrival of something momentous."  I have to wonder, though, when those momentous occasions occur, do we truly realize what is arriving?

 

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Friday, April 16, 2010 at 4:04 pm

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Sunday, December 13, 2009 at 4:37 pm

Transfer of information or transfusion of grace?

Posted by Brian Owen | Comments (3) |

When you hear the word "discipleship", what comes to mind?  What does it mean to disciple someone?

In my own experience and initial understanding, discipleship involved meeting with someone for a weekly appointment to learn the foundational aspects of Christianity, such as, basic doctrine and practical “how-to’s”, like, “how to be filled with the Holy Spirit, how to study the bible, how to pray, etc.”  While these things are certainly important to know and live out, receiving a weekly transfer of information is not the same thing as learning to open up to the ongoing, moment by moment transfusion of grace from the indwelling person of Christ.

How do we teach Christ followers to attend to the intimate presence and activity of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27)? How do we help them move beyond the limitations of simply learning both the right answers to questions of basic Christian beliefs and the right things to do? 

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Friday, April 16, 2010 at 1:06 pm

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Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 11:15 am

Is "apprentice" a synonym for "disciple?"

Posted by Brian Owen | Comments (9) |

In recent years, Dallas Willard has made popular the notion that the another word we can use for the term "disciple" is "apprentice."  Two new books on spiritual formation have latched on to this word.  James Bryan Smith's Apprentice Series (a three book series) and Gary Moon's book "Apprenticeship with Jesus."  Moon's book, in particular, elaborates on the term in detail. He suggest that "the word disciple has not aged well - particularly as used by modern-day evangelicals."  I agree that the term has suffered from overuse. From my own experience, when I hear the phrase "discipleship," I tend to think of a weekly meeting between a mature Christian and a new believer that focuses primarily on certain skills or activities (how to read the bible, how to pray, why church is important, etc.).

Moon states that he prefers the word "apprenticeship" to "discipleship" because he wants to "imply learning through co-laboring with and experiential awareness of the real presence of Christ."

Like Moon, I find myself drawn to the apprentice language for the same reason. It implies a relational, being-with-Jesus approach to spiritual formation that seems to have been lost from the "disciple, discipleship" language of the New Testament.  

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Friday, April 16, 2010 at 1:51 pm

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