The Circus of Attractional Church

Last weekend some great friends invited my family to the Circus at the Macon Coliseum. If you haven't been to the circus - GO! It was amazing. Right on time, the lights in the coliseum dimmed and then BANG! the spotlights were on the central ring and the ringmaster could be heard over the speakers welcoming the gathered crowd to the greatest show on earth!

I think it MAY actually be the greatest show on earth. The night was amazing. from one entertaining presentation to the next everything flowed perfectly. While attention was directed to one area, the workers were setting up another area and the performers were getting ready. As soon as the clowns finished the spotlight changed and high above on the tightrope 3 performers got to work wowing the crowd with their talent. It went like that, one performance after another all the way through to the intermission. The intermission ended and the 2nd half of the night was just as great as the first! It was incredible.

Time and time again, as I thought about all that went into making the Greatest Show on Earth the greatest show on earth, I thought about church - particularly Attractional Church. The two seem very similar, at least in my experience with a church who thinks attractionally. In the particular church I have experience with, the basic thinking was that the more the church could offer and do, the more people we would have coming to the church. It was sort of a "if you build it, they will come" mentality. Our mission, it seemed, was to get people to come to church. Now the leadership would never state that as the mission. They would probably say that making disciples and seeing them grow in Christ was the mission, but in practice, that was almost alway secondary to how many programs we could offer and how well we could pull them off. I heard the pastor of the church say many times that the church needed "more hooks in the water." He explained, "The more hooks there are in the water, the more likely you are to catch something."

The Greatest Show on Earth - the Circus - has something for everybody! I don't really enjoy the weeny dogs doing tricks - but one of my kids did. I did like the crazy guys on the spinning wheels, but my youngest didn't seem impressed. All in all we each left having had a great time and we were all willing to come again (even though I didn't like the weeny dogs). That seems to be the goal of many attractional churches - do many different things to please many different people - you may not like Sunday School, but your kids will love children's worship - or one of the many other programs that are offered.

Not only must we use many "hooks" to attract people, but the things that we do must be show quality. I sat in on a staff meeting or 10 where the topics of discussion centered on such incredibly spiritual things as - how the worship service flows - how the closing prayer should be short and upbeat - how much the performers, I mean participants in the service should all smile and, like the prayer be energetic and upbeat - how to "do" communion was based on how long it took as opposed to how effectively in communicated the gospel or how it actually called us to commune with Jesus - Discipleship classes were decided based on how many people could be attracted as opposed to whether or not they actually discipled... I could continue, but I think you get the point. The danger of attractional church is that if we are not careful, everything becomes THE BIG SHOW - how can we entertain you and your childern? What will it take to get you to come, then to keep you coming? Like the circus. I am sure that every part of the show is evaluated based on how people enjoy it and will it keep them coming.

I am not opposed to the church being attractive. We should be. Jesus is.
I like the way Mark Driscoll addresses the positive of the attractional nature of church. I believe if we look like Jesus, people will be attracted - I believe if we sing and play our instruments and preach to the Glory of God - people will be attracted. The issue isn't attracting people - the issues are more in line with WHY are we wanting to attract people? And What are we doing with the people we attract? And in the way we "do" church, are we reflecting the clear commands of Scripture - As you go, make disciples - baptizing and teaching / that we might proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light / we (the members of the church) are ambassadors of Christ / you get the point - we are now the hands and feet and mouth of Jesus Christ - we are the Gospel carriers, not simply the church inviters. As pastors we are to equip the saints for the works of service - not entertain the masses as we grow a big congregation.

So - here are a few thoughts on how this impacts New City Church...
The mission of New City is Gospel transformation - not comfortable entertainment.
Therefore:
- we admit that while we strive to glorify God in all that we do, we will not be the Greatest Show on Earth and we're OK with that
- our programming will be kept simple and will always be judged by how well it works toward accomplishing our mission, not by how much it is enjoyed or by how many it "attracts"
- our people will always be pushed out not called in. The mission makes each believer a missionary. Missionaries take the message OUT to their culture, their city, their world.

Mark Driscoll on Missional v/s Attractional

The following comes from a blog post by Mark Driscoll and is from his book Confessions of a Reformission Rev.: Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church (great read).

The contemporary church growth movement and its evangelical seeker churches are attraction-based, meaning that the church functions as a purveyor of religious goods and services. Therefore, the primary task of these churches is to bring people from the culture into the church to partake of programming that targets their felt needs.

Conversely, emerging and missional churches see the church's primary task as sending Christians out of the church and into the culture to serve as missionaries through relationships, rather than bringing lost people into the church to be served by programming. Pastors of emerging and missional churches routinely criticize the attraction-based model as caring only about bringing more people in to grow a bigger church. And pastors of attraction-based churches commonly defend themselves by stating that their churches are larger than most emerging and missional churches, which they say proves that attraction-based churches are more effectively making disciples as Jesus commanded.

The growing criticism between these camps is in large part unnecessary, because they are working for the same goal-the reaching of lost people for Jesus-but simply using different methods, methods that are complimentary, not contradictory. Consequently, churches must both bring people in and send people out and must therefore structure themselves to achieve both objectives. Additionally, we see both attractional and missional ministry methods in the life of Jesus Christ.

Jesus' incarnation is in itself missional. God the Father sent God the Son into culture on a mission to redeem the elect by the power of God the Ghost. After his resurrection, Jesus also sent his disciples into culture, on a mission to proclaim the success of his mission, and commissioned all Christians to likewise be missionaries to the cultures of the world (e.g., Matt. 28:18-20; John 20:21; Acts 1:7-8). Emerging and missional Christians have wonderfully rediscovered the significance of Jesus' incarnational example of being a missionary immersed in a culture.

But sadly, they are also prone to overlook the attractional nature of Jesus' earthly ministry. In addition to immersing himself in a culture for a mission, Jesus' ministry was also marked by the large crowds that were drawn to him because of his preaching and miracles. [. . .]

Therefore, the growing hostility between attractional-ministry pastors with larger churches and missional-ministry pastors with smaller churches need not occur. Instead, each needs to learn from the other; each has a vital piece of the truth gleaned from the life of Jesus. [. . .]

Simply, the goal of a church that is both missional and attractional is to continually follow Jesus' example so that more people are saved for God's mission and more influence is spread for God's kingdom, without rejecting one aspect of Jesus' ministry in favor of another.

Stetzer on Missional Church

A Missional Church
By Ed Stetzer, Special to the Index
Published October 13, 2005

Thanks so much to The Christian Index for the Sept. 29 article on the missional church. For many evangelicals, the terminology is new, but the actual practice is as old as the church and her sacred effort. Now that the word "missional" is on the front page of The Christian Index, Lifeway's Facts & Trends, and throughout Baptist Press, it is good to be clear what the word means and why it matters so much.

As the Index correctly pointed out, "missional" is not the same as "mission-minded," though they are both important and related. The term "missional" is simply the noun "missionary" adapted into an adjective. For example, an "adversary" is your enemy. Someone who is "adversarial" is acting like your enemy. Thus, a "missionary" is someone who acts like a missionary (for example, understands a culture, proclaims the faithful Gospel in a way that people in culture can understand, and uses parts of that culture to glorify God). A "missional church" is a church that acts like a missionary in its community.

If we are going to reach a changing Georgia (and North America), we have to contend for the unchanging faith (Jude 3) but to do so using forms that are relevant to all kinds of people (1 Cor. 9:22-23). That's a missional church - a church acting like a missionary to the community around it while partnering with others to be missionary around the world.

Some will say, "The culture does not matter, just preach the Word!"

You may hear much of this in the letters to the editor over the next few weeks. However, we really don't believe that culture is irrelevant. Why? Because we send missionaries to foreign lands and, like Lottie Moon, expect them to don the clothes, live the customs, and be part of the community while proclaiming a faithful Gospel. We should not forbid North American missional pastors from doing the very thing we train international missionaries to do.

What missional churches look like
What, then, do missional churches look like? They are more than the things listed below, but certainly they are:
Incarnational: Missional churches are deeply connected to the community. The church is not focused on its facility, but is focused on living, demonstrating, and offering biblical community to a lost world. I am excited that Danny Preston, who was mentioned in the Index story, has become a part of the biker community that he is trying to reach by working at a motorcycle store while planting Logos Church in Little Five Points in partnership with First Baptist of Atlanta. He is an incarnation of the Gospel in an unreached community.

Indigenous: Missional churches are indigenous. Churches that are indigenous have taken root in the soil and reflect, to some degree, the culture of their community. An indigenous church looks different from Seattle to Senegal to Singapore. We would expect and rejoice at an African church worshipping to African music, in African dress, with African enthusiasm. So shouldn't we rejoice at churches of different missional expressions across Georgia, North America, and the world? The messianic congregation at Jonesboro Baptist is one of many examples - in this case indigenous to Jewish culture.

Intentional. Missional churches are intentional about their methodologies. There are scripturally commanded requirements about church, preaching, discipline, baptism and many other biblical practices. Church and worship can't take just any form. In missional churches, those biblical forms are central, but things like worship style, evangelism methods, attire, service times, locations, and many other man-made customs are not chosen simply based on the preference of the members. Instead, the forms are best determined by their effectiveness in a specific cultural context.

Did you notice that the list did not include contemporary, young, or hip? A church is not missional because it is contemporary or traditional. A church becomes missional when it remains faithful to the Gospel message while simultaneously contextualizing its ministry (to the degree it can) so that the Gospel can engage the worldview of the hearers. Traditional churches that are engaging communities that are receptive to traditional methods are just as missional ... as are contemporary, blended, ethnic, emerging, etc. The key is biblical fidelity and missional engagement.

A missional church responds to the sending commands of Jesus by becoming an incarnational, indigenous, and intentional Gospel presence in its context. When Jesus said, "As the Father has sent Me, so send I you," (John 20:21) that was not to a select group of cross-cultural missionaries. Instead, that was a commission to you, me and our churches. We have a sender (Jesus), a message (the Gospel), and a people to whom we are sent (real people in culture). It is worth the effort to go beyond our personal preferences and to proclaim a faithful Gospel in whatever context we find ourselves. That's missional.

This week's message gives us an opportunity to talk about NCCd's missiology and ecclesiology. We'll compare Attractional Church and Missional Church. I'll be posting more on the subject this week, but for now - below is a quote from Alan Hirsch that might be a helpful step in understanding the differences.

Essentially, attractional church operates from the assumption that to bring people to Jesus we need to first bring them to church. It also describes the type or mode of engagement that was birthed during the Christendom period of history, when the church was perceived as a central institution of society and therefore expected people to 'come and hear the gospel' rather than taking a 'go-to-them' type of mentality (missional church). Alan Hirsch, 'The Forgotten Ways, Brazos Press

Here are some eralier posts on the subject:

Missional Dating

Biblical Basis for Missional Living

Missional vs Attractional, A Recent Conversation

Good for the City, Fun for New City

Tonight was NCCd night at the movies. The Capitol Theater was showing Bee Movie and offered NCCd folks $1 off the regular admission price. I thought the movie was a lot of fun - the kids enjoyed it and Amy and I laughed a lot - lots of clean adult humor. It was good to laugh and talk with other New City folks - A Fun Night For New City.

I'm not sure on the #s, but clearly NCCd represented more than half of those present at the movie. It looked like we ate well - pizza, popcorn, sodas - THAT's good for the theater - and the theater is Good For the City!

Gospel Christianity

If you think you really, really understand the gospel, you don’t. If you really think that you haven’t even begun to understand the gospel, you do. Gospel theologizing isn’t anywhere near enough if we’re going to change the world with it. There has to be a lifelong process of more and more deeply realizing the wonder of the gospel. (Tim Keller)

Look for info coming soon on a 10 week NCCd study of Tim Keller's Gospel Christianity. This is a study selected to bring NCCd together in understanding the depth and centrality of the Gospel in who we are and how we live. I can't wait!

Dinner and a Movie

Sunday January 27 - NCCd Night
Bee Movie @ the Capitol Theater

The movie starts at 5:00 pm so get there early for a good table and order dinner.
Popcorn is $1, drinks are $1
Tickets are normally $4, but mention that you are with New City Church and get $1 off each ticket purchase!

This is a great way to support our theater, and a great opportunity to hang out with our New City family!

Beautiful Day

In spite of the threat of icy roads, below freezing C O L D winds, and the lingering disappointment that we didn't get snow (3 inches had been predicted) our Sunday was beautiful! Though our crowd was off, we still had a strong turnout with several new visitors. And as usual our volunteers were incredible. In fact, our volunteers include a mother daughter combo - the picture above shows the HUGE backdrop that one of our folks painted for the current sermon series. It looks great. She and her mom built a frame for it as well and we got set up Saturday afternoon. I am amazed at how good God has been to us in the area of talented and hardworking people.
After our service and the tear down, my family had lunch with two of our NCCd attendees. One has just begun her walk with Jesus, becoming a Christian in recent weeks. The other has a long Catholic background and is exploring the Gospel and what it means to be a Gospel-centered person and a Gospel-centered church - beautiful.
I also had the great opportunity to meet a couple who have been out of church for 6 months or more and another with little or no Christian background - both visiting NCCd for the first time.

Our mission is to see the Gospel transform everything within our reach - ourselves, our church, our city, and the world. I think we're beginning to see some glimpses of it - BEAUTIFUL!

How Do You Do THAT In A Theater? BAPTISM

Exciting times! It seems God is doing just what we believed He would - imagine that - He is drawing people to Himself and using New City Church. Got a great e-mail from someone this week who wanted to talk with me about "starting her journey with Christ," and "how she can make Christ her Savior."
Can we get a SHOUT!?!

So, with great joy, we may be looking at a baptism soon! Which leads to the question - How do you do that in a theater? (I have already sent out the initial question of CAN WE? to the theater and am waiting on a reply) I have looked up prices for actual portable baptistries - WHOA! I have looked into 150 Gallon Rubbermaid containers (seriously) and even portable spas (as pictured)! Interestingly a portable spa with heater can be had for much less than a portable baptistry without heat! So - I am open to suggestions!

UPDATE:
We just got an OK from the theater for baptism!!! I picked up our "baptismal pool" yesterday - we should have our first baptism on February 10.

Dedicated to Cletus

This is dedicated to a friend I nicknamed Cletus (I don't know why I gave him that).
Cletus - you know who you are, and this should be your Life Song!

Great Day

New Visitors. Returners. Good Music. Good Fellowship. As usual all our volunteers did an amazing job!
Good response to the message. Good coffee.
Great Day! God is Amazing.
And the last day of hauling the Red Trailer!!!!!!! The theater has given us some space for storage and we are celebrating - at least I am. Last week on I-75 at 8:00am I was praying REALLY L O U D - more like BEGGING really loud as the trailer swerved back and forth out of my control on the way to the theater - YIKES! I feel sure that the cars and trucks around me on I-75 were also begging God on my behalf! So, I am most happy to have had use of the trailer these last several months - Thanks Mabel White - But it is an equally great joy to have parked it in Mabel's parking lot today - whew!

Why the little "d" - NCCd ?

I'm posting this question from Joe McDaniel, he left it as a comment. Joe became a good friend as we served together at Mabel White.

Why NCCd - Why the little "d" - GREAT QUESTION!
New City will be a church planting church. We will plant or help plant in foreign countries, other states, and other cities. Statistically this is a great way to spread the Gospel, and biblically it was THE way to spread the Gospel.

We will also plant CAMPUSES in the middle Ga area. The thought for now is to have multiple New City campuses - all a part of the same fellowship, all sharing the same vision, all engaged in the same mission. We believe that multiple campuses are a more effective way of reaching an entire region - like Middle Georgia.

We hope to plant a second campus in year 3. Part of our current leadership building strategy is geared toward the start of these campuses and church plants. For example, we are beginning to work pretty had toward having multiple bands and multiple worship leaders. The idea is that in 3 years, when we add another campus, we can simply rotate bands and perhaps leaders between the worship gatherings. That eliminates the need to find a leader and band in 3 years. The same will be true of other leadership positions - like small group leaders, deacons, kids workers... We are working now to send out a core to start our next campus, and our next church. We will send them out from us with joy as they become missionaries in a different area and different context. SO - We don't know where our second campus will be in three years, but if it were in Forsyth, it could be New City Church north - NCCn.

So - as small as the "d" seems, it is really a HUGE part of our strategy and vision!
Thanks for asking, Joe! See you soon.

Sermon Series and Sermon Discussion

We kicked off the new year and our weekly services with a new sermon series entitled Gospel Joy. This series will take us through Paul's letter to the church in Philippi. I am pumped about this study and where it will take us. I cannot wait each week to unpack the true Gospel of Jesus Christ that brought Paul such great Joy!
I will post the coming week's verses in the right hand sidebar. I'll do that so hopefully our NCCd folks can read in advance and think about the section that we will cover. I also suggest reading through this great letter each week. As you do pay attention, and be alert for Paul's use of words like Joy and Rejoice as well as the great number of times that Paul refers to the Gospel, Jesus, or Christ.
Also, in conjunction with the new series, I have started a second blog - New City Sermons. This is a precursor to our Life Groups (small / community groups). These groups will be formed later and one of the things that will happen in these groups is discussion and unpacking of the previous weeks teaching. I am hoping that New City Sermons will serve as a platform for discussion, questioning, and thought within the NCCd community.
If you miss a sermon, or just want to share a message with someone, visit the New City Downtown "Media" page.

Can't wait till Sunday.

Great Kickoff!

Today was a great day for NCCd. We kicked off weekly services. This was the next step for s, and I cannot wait to see what's going to happen next. I am looking forward to getting back into

somewhat of a "pastor" routine - study, sermon work, following up with visitors, planning for the future...

Here are a few of the cool things from today - in no particular order:

* One of my best friends from high school came with his family - thanks Ed!

* The legendary ATV World Champion of 1988, Donny Banks and his son Chandler joined us as well. Did I mention Donny was ATV Champion of the WORLD (inside joke)

* Wendell and Peggy Price showed up - Wendell was praying for me (literally) when I met Jesus. He and Peggy were Sunday School teachers for me and Amy for years.

* My parents and little sis were able to join us.

* Chuck Ray led our song worship today - his first time.

* Anny was back with the band today - her second time singing with the band, her first time as a believer!!!!

* Fox 24 TV showed up, shot some video, interviewed one of NCCd folks, and I presume will air a spot on us tonight at 10:00.

* After the service a guy came to talk with me who "was just passing through" liked old buildings and thought he'd check this one out - he stayed for the whole service and said he was glad he did!

* I met volunteers today that I had never met before!

I am incredibly tired from the day - but already excited about next week.

Pick Up Your 11th Hour Copy

I got a call late this week from Brad Evans at the 11th Hour. If you aren't familiar with the 11th hour, they are a bi-weekly publication, here's how they describe themselves:
The 11th Hour is Macon’s most comprehensive source for cultural events, dining and nightly entertainment. Pick it up, free, at over 300 locations in Macon, Milledgeville, Byron, Perry and Warner Robins, including retail outlets, restauarants, hospitals and college campuses. Brad wanted to meet for a short interview to go in the latest issue. We met at their offices, walked down to the theater and talked - good conversation.
I picked up a copy this morning, Brad gave a great plug for NCCd in a half page column, complete with a picture of me in front of the theater, and several quotes about Jesus! Great timing! Thanks Brad.

Sunday Launch

To let middle GA know that New City is kicking off weekly services we have fliers that should be hitting around 15,000 homes today, an ad in the 11th Hour this week, and an announcement in New Town Macon's News Letter as well.

Its Wednesday and everything seems to be lining up well for the launch of our weekly services. We are excited - to say the least - as we get ready to take this next big step!

If you are new to the blog - WELCOME! You will find tons of info here. The blog was started as a sort of journal for the church start. It has also served as a great way to communicate how we are and where we are headed as a church. Most of the posts have been "labeled" to make it a little easier to find what you are looking for. So, check out the "LABELS" in the right hand column - happy reading, and I hope we see you Sunday at the big kick off service!

A Church Planting Church

NCCd will be a church planting church. One of the great things about the Acts 29 network is its emphasis on planting churches that reach people with the Gospel. Over the past couple of weeks I have had the pleasure of talking with Alex Early - an almost church planter! Alex is from the Newnan, GA area but is in school right now at London Theological. Alex contacted me when he saw NCCd as a GA Acts 29 church. Alex is planning to graduate in September and be working on the new church in October with weekly services launching 1 year from now.
Alex and I will stay in touch. Hopefully, since we are a step ahead of Alex and his core, we will be able to help steer them through potential problems and be a great encouragement for them. Who knows, maybe in a year we'll be able to partner with them financially as others are partnering with us!
For now - I ask that you pray for Alex and for all church planting churches as you also pray for NCCd.

Happy New Year! I cannot wait to see what God has in store for us this year.