Overall, I'm a pretty big fan of Warren. In my opinion, he offers the best of what the mega-church, attractional model of ministry and evangelism can be. Warren and Saddleback do lots of great stuff, but that isn't really the point of this blog.
On page 220 (of my version), Warren writes,
The first line of Saddleback's vision statement says, 'It is the dream of a place where the hurting, the hopeless, the discouraged, the depressed, the frustrated, and the confused can find love, acceptance, guidance, and encouragement.'
This is a pretty good, evangelistic view of a church as a place where people can have the good news of Jesus Christ applied as a salve to their wounds from this world and, hopefully, place their faith in Christ. In my opinion, this view of the church is much more mature than many you will find in the USA these days, but I believe it is still limited in scope.
I want you to imagine for a second how we can make this statement of the church even more powerful and influential. Warren and Saddleback meet thousands of needs a year at their church campus, but this is a limited . How can we take this statement and make it hundreds of thousands, or even millions? It would be very difficult to have facilities for so many people and to attract so many people to one location (though if anyone could do it, Warren is probably your guy).
What if we changed a few words in their vision statement. Look at the old and new below:
OLD - "It is the dream of a place where the hurting, the hopeless, the discouraged, the depressed, the frustrated, and the confused can find love, acceptance, guidance, and encouragement."
NEW - It is the dream of a people who will seek out and go to the hurting, the hopeless, the discouraged, the depressed, the frustrated, and the confused in order to show them love, acceptance, guidance, and encouragement.
Rick Warren has done a lot for Christianity in this country. Imagine what more could be done if we build on his good work and change our view of church as a place to a view of church as a people.
That is a very powerful shift! I love it!
ReplyDeleteAnd sometimes, maybe more often than not, showing that love, acceptance, guidance and encouragement not from above but alongside
ReplyDeleteI like it except to say that it could sound like a fleet of spiritual paramedics servicing the visibly oppressed. Jesus' discipleship strategy was also to invest heavily in leaders - change the opinion of the opinion makers and you can change the world.
ReplyDeleteIn times of genuine introspection I think people honest with themselves admit that even the most successful of people fit the definition of hurting, hopeless etc. Most if not all people have their times of quiet desperation, though the successful rarely let others into their world to realise it.
So perhaps a tweak or two to make it more inclusive of even those who are outwardly successful. In other words, don't label the people, but label the condition of the world.
"It is the dream of a people who will accept that all of humanity experiences times of hurt, hopelessness, discouragement, depression, frustration and confusion and will seek out and go to them in those times in order to show them love, acceptance, guidance, and encouragement."
MZ - very good stuff. Thanks for posting. I agree 100 percent.
ReplyDeleteLook at you, player! "The Purpose-Driven Missional Church." I like it.
ReplyDeleteIt strikes me that for all of Paul's direct engagement of the powerful, Peter, John and James seem pretty generally neglectful of the powers that be. This weekend at my attractional church I was struck at how studiously the preacher (pretty good preacher, overall) overlooked the antagonism of James 2:6-7: "Are not the rich oppressing you and dragging you into the courts? Do they not blaspheme the good name of the one you belong to?" Not much reconciliation spilling out of that little two-liner. Of course, the greater context is a rejection of prejudicial treatment, but it seems like there's a more fundamental rejection of the kind of formality that favors the rich and entrenches power in the hands of the powerful, thus perpetuating (and implicitly endorsing) the status quo. The mission, then, takes into account the need of all to be reconciled to the God of love, but also the need for them to be reconciled to one another in ways that are consistent with the family orientation of the kingdom of God. Maybe then "the dream" is better conceived as "a people who, wherever they find themselves, meet hurt and frustration with love, depression and hopelessness with acceptance, confusion with guidance, and discouragement with encouragement." Or something like that. I like yours better than mine, quite frankly. :)