evan lauer

coastlands church

(this is one of pastor john's favorite places)

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1.  how would you define the postmodern movement?  A shift in how people view the world.  A willingness to embrace the arts, experience, mystery.  It's also a willingness to abandon truth, at least in the Christian sense, which if obviously not a good thing.  It's a refusal to look at the world and religion especially in a purely rational, linear, logical way.  Everything doesn't have to make complete sense to believe it.  Postmodernity is a move away from a rational, scientific approach to life and a move towards a more experiential, tangible way of looking at things.

2.  what would you say is the uniqueness of coastlands church?  We reach our tribe, the surfers and beach people well. Yet we also do that in a somewhat traditional way.  Our church is certainly not "the coolest thing in town." We are not the biggest or fastest growing new church in Pacific Beach.  Within our context (beach services, shorts and sandals attire at church, new Hawaiian shirts for the men at Easter etc.) we are bringing the richness of historical Christianity to our people.  At Coastlands you'll find people who match our community, surfers, artists, tattooed and pierced people, families with kids etc.  You'll also encounter original music, current praise music, hymns, creeds, liturgy, silence, reflection, meditation, candles, visual presentations, and bible teaching.

3.  how do you see the church changing over the next decade of so - any major shifts?  I'd like to think that churches would be willing to address postmodernity.  If they do, I think we'll see a shift from the "seeker sensitive, marketing, let's give 'em a show" approach to church to many variations of authentic Christianity.  I think we'll see a resurgence of the richness of our past blended with needs of today.

4.  your site is one of the best designed for a church i have seen in a long time.  how important is the internet to your ministry?  Huge.  Many people want to check out what we do before ever getting there.  Our website gives them a chance to do that.  I want people to be able to see what we're doing from a safe distance.

5.  how do you, if at all, work "home churches" into your model of ministry?  We call our weekly, weeknight meetings in homes, "Home Fellowships."  Not very original, but it speaks to what we do.  We consider home fellowships to be the life-blood of the church.  We believe that until someone is connected to a small group, they are not really connected to our church.  I tell our people "Don't expect me to miss you if you don't come on a few Sunday's, if that's all your doing.  How can I miss you if I don't know who you are?"  We hope to multiply our home fellowships to meet the needs and schedules of all our people.

6.  in a world where friendship is so very important, how does coastlands church help build friendships?  For better or worse, (and a definite shot at my ego) our church has been about 100 people since we started.  Just when I think we're losers cause we aren't growing at what I thought was a good pace, I am reminded by many people that the very reason they come is because we are small.  It's easy to get connected at our church.  People like knowing they can connect with their friends at church.  I have interactive sermons and I'm always calling out names. People like that.  If for some strange reason, God blessed us with rapid growth, I'd start more churches of about 100 people.  So, friendships start on Sunday morning and grow from there as people get involved in various other ministries at our church.

 
7.  how would you define "a world view of Christianity?"  That we as stinkin' Americans don't have all the answers.  To our shame, we have sent missionaries for centuries to other parts of the world and tried to turn 'em into "American Christians." That would be like a missionary from Texas coming to PB and trying to force us surfers to wear cowboy boots, big hats, big belt buckles and tight jeans.  Ain't gonna happen.

To me, a world view of Christianity would be that God is just as real to someone from a completely different culture than me.  How can we allow that person to stay who they are and honor God?  A world view is "God for the masses."  I believe the love of God transcends culture.  As we learn to embrace the Christianity that the world does, we will all have a richer view of Christ.

There's my two cents.  Hope it helps rather than confuses.

Evan