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image
or imagery?
by
john o'keefe
we
were excited! we had just arrived in a new city and were
excited about all the adventures that would face us. the
possibilities seemed endless and the promise seemed God
sent. we had actively searched for a church on the web for
about a month before we arrived. it took a while, but over
time we did narrow it down to one we felt good about. it
had it all; a killer site, great music and best of all the only
blue hair in the place was on the tips of the worship leaders
spikes. yes, this was going to be cool.
Our
Visit:
we
were pumped. it was saturday night and we went to bed early.
i know, not many people get stoked about "church" but
for us this was very cool. you see, we were not raised in
a church and when we came to know christ as our savior we gave
our lives to him - the change that took place in our hearts was
wonderful. this place seemed to have promise that other
places did not have - it was new, young, dynamic, independent
and it wanted to try new things. it wanted to experience a
relationship with God on a deeper level and it was a
"postmodern christian community." besides, it
had a killer website - filled with java script and links to
starbucks and puravida
coffee; it was cool.
sunday
came, we got up and drove across town happy and laughing all the
way. when we arrived, it was all we imagined. coffee
style seating, with coffee tables and couches. it was in a
warehouse, with concrete floors - not carpet and no stained
glass. pictures of elvis and monroe on the walls; people
said hi and welcomed us. people were friendly, and the
ambience was right on the money. but then it happened -
the service started and we knew it was no different then any
other contemporary church filling the cities of america.
yea, the music was great, very hip, very "creedy."
but everything else was contemporary with electric
guitars. it was a typical and predictable order of worship
- 3 songs, prayer, 3 songs, sermon, closing and offering -
standard stuff. but, we gave them the benefit of the doubt
and figured we come back again next week to see if this was just
a one time thing. we did, and it was the exact same thing.
when
we arrived home after our second visit we were disappointed to
say the least. we placed a great deal on this place being
what it claimed to be - cutting edge postmodern - and we were
very sad that it was not. we decided that we would not
talk about our individual experiences for one week - we would
pray over what happened then talk about it to see what God was
saying to us - and it was amazing, we both came to the same
conclusion - this was not the place God was leading us. unfortunately,
what we found many people find while looking for a place to
worship, places that claim one thing but are actually
another.
the
ivory factor
many
plants today use the words "community church" or
"fellowship" in their names, and they mention no
affiliation with a denomination - this place did just
that. in fact, when i asked about denominational
connection i was told that the church had no denominational
ties, but my wife was told they did have denominational
ties. that's par for the course. 99.88% of all
church plants today lie about being connected with a
denomination; it's the ivory factor. the leaders of the
plants feel, if they tell people they are connected with a particular
denomination people would not come to the church. they
justify lying to the people because, as they say, "let's
get them in the door and let them see we are not bad guys and
then we can tell them we are connected with a
denomination." one southern baptist church planting
friend of mine said it this way, "if people knew we were
southern baptist they would never walk in the door."
that disturbed me greatly. the idea of hiding a
denominational affiliation until someone wants to join the
church, to me is wrong - and is lying. there is no way
anyone can justify the lie - it is wrong. sure, in a
modern age and with modern people, this may have worked, but for
a postmodern people trust is a primary adventure. we
simply look at it as }another church another set of lies."
if
a church lies concerning its denominational connection, can it
be lying about other things as well? could the sermon we
just heard be a lie? how about the concept of salvation,
could that be a lie? remember, postmodern people are not
exactly working with a large trust factor, so this kind of
action is not good at all. if you are afraid of saying who
you are connected with don't connect with them. your lying
about it says more about you and the denomination then it does
about the people who won't visit.
another
twist to this is that most church leaders will tell you that
they are not lying, they simply are not telling people that they
are connected with a denomination - it is not a lie, it is an omission.
a lie by omission is still a lie. after all, what else did
you leave out of the conversation?
false
signs
another
claim that this church did, and a great many do, is the claim of
being postmodern - when they were not. while this is also
dealing with the underlining factor of honesty, this one is less
a lie them a mistake. it is so, because i believe many
churches simply do not understand what it means to be
"postmodern." i'm a firm believer that if you
have to advertise you are postmodern, you are not. this
church experience proved that point in massive ways.
many
churches still see "postmodern" as a generational
thing, and that they don't get right anyway. for example,
ask any pastor to define "generation x" and listen to
what they say. chances are it would go like this,
"generation x are young adults in college."
WRONG. older end "generation x" (and i must say
i hate the term) are in their 40's right now.
"generation x" is the generation between 1960-1980
with a current age range of 22-42. "gen y" is
college age, 1981-2001, making them 1-21. now, each
generation can be divided into "sub-generations" that
define them a little better, but most church still are lost in
this little word battle. one pastor told me once,
"there is no need to start a postmodern outreach, we have a
youth group." most churches do not understand that
"postmodern" transcends generational lines.
i
have found, when a church does have a postmodern ministry, or is
sponsoring a postmodern church, they do so to impress the
chicks. they have no idea of what they are doing, but they
think it makes them look good; it's a testosterone thing.
because they have no idea what it means to be postmodern, they
simply clone themselves and add an electric guitars. they
do not see that being postmodern is outreaching to the lost and
the hurt; they do not see that being postmodern goes beyond
generations; they do not see that old theologies and old
teachings can not fit into new skins; they do not see the need
for accountability and honest for all people, all people.
for them, it is image over imagery.
image
over imagery
most
churches today claiming to be postmodern, are not - sorry to
say. they make big claims, and they look good. they
got caught in this idea that a postmodern generation is driven
my image. so, they take out the pain and put a mural on
the wall and call it a good job' they get young guys with
"friends" haircuts and cloths to lead the worship;
they add an electric guitar and a reverb machine and call it a
good job' they look the part and project the part - but they are
not the part. you see, we are not driven by image, it is
imagery that speaks to us. we don't care what someone
looks like, we are interested in what they project. it all
goes to being honest and being transparent.
_________________________________
John
O’Keefe is the founder of www.ginkworld.net.
John sees a desperate need for the church as a whole to
change and reach a new people for Christ.
He is straightforward, honest and calls it the way it he
sees it. John is a
graduate of Drew and has been a Senior Pastor and Church Planter
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