Good Question
Alex McManus is asking some tough, important questions: HERE and HERE. Some of the questions are immediately relevant to the conversation of faith in postmodern context. I’ll share a few. Go read the rest.
1.) If the gospel spreads more quickly via “real world” relationships, why bring converts into the world of fake church relationship?
2.) Once a deacon and finance director of the church told me – in a budget crunch – that there were things he just would not do [like cleaning bathrooms]. How do people like this get to the highest places of church leadership?
3.) What will it mean to be human when the first robot wakes up?
4.) There are a lot of articles explaining how Pastors or churches should go about hiring staff. Does this point to the fact that we have lost the essence of what it means to be the church?
5.) Why does it seem that all the most “successful” pastors in America are either CEO’s, TV stars or celebrities, but in China they are scarred apostles?
6.) The Reformation was more a product of Gutenberg’s printing press than it was about Luther’s thesis. How would the Church have evolved towards the gospel if the world had never heard of Luther or Calvin?
7.) If the sweetest, most authentic moments for a church plant are the momentum building, evangelism, laughter and community that occur before the doors are open for an official launch, why ever, ever open the doors?
8.) Wouldn’t mega churches be better off just selling their mega properties, dissolving their mega staffs, giving their mega budgets to plant churches in India and Africa, and distributing their members into small evangelistic teams?
April 17th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
Great stuff, and BTW, your RSS feed is working perfectly! Hallelujah.
April 17th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
john,
thanks for the ping. i notice we have quite a bit in common. i’m an intj too, for example. i’d also really lie the feel of your blog design. love the whole euro train thing. anyway, just thought i’d express my appreciation. [just an fyi...the second link intended to point to my second set of questions, leads to a different site altogether. had to mention it, though that's deifnitely not the reason for this comment].
best to you.
April 17th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
Hi Bill – something about my former web host’s database and RSS just didn’t get along. All seems to be fine now.
Hi Alex – you’re asking great questions. I, too, have more questions than answers, so your post deeply resonates with me. (tks for the head’s up on the link – i made the update).
April 21st, 2007 at 11:58 pm
1. Hmm, this seems a bit unsubstantiated?
2. Dang church politics.
3. Huh?
4. How did you arrive to that question from that?
5. Freedom of Religion
6. Less Denominational division?
7. So people will gather to have those sweet times
8. Hmmm, seems unbiblical..and what about the other countries? Is Holland not important?
April 22nd, 2007 at 10:11 am
Hi Derrick. I agree – many of Alex’s questions are a bit rhetorical and/or intended to push our buttons. Yet I think each reflects an ailing element of our Western ecclesial condition.
As for the robotics question: read Kurzweil’s “Singularity” and think about how these coming changes will impact the global church.
As for mega-churches selling all they have for the poor and breaking into local cels as a -primary- expression of church, this sounds like the book of Acts.