3 Defining Words–(Some) Characteristics of a Healthy Church Part 2

If ever a list were made of the top ten words that are most overused at church (and I just may), this word that helps define healthy churches would most likely be at the very top.  By the way, at the bottom?  Apothecary.  I want to use a different word, find a good synonym, but this is the best word to describe what I mean.  Since it is overused, it is therefore often misused.  I will, unfortunately have have to devote some time to what I don’t mean by the word.  Wow Cloften, could you please put in a few more vague disclaimers before you tell us what the word is?  No I will not.  Here is the word.

Relevant

(Yeah, dude.  That word is overdone.  You should have given more disclaimers) 

What do I mean by relevant?  Relevant means that it matters to people’s lives.  What we say and do in church makes a difference in the way that people live.  Maybe applicable is a good synonym.  Being relevant answers the “so what?” question.  Something can be true but irrelevant (Most American car horns honk in the key of F).  When we teach the Bible, we want what we teach to be relevant.  It needs to produce life-change (#7 on the list).  One might think that this is the same as contemporary (#2 on the list), but it’s is not.  Contemporary typically speaks to doing programs, worship, etc. in a way that is similar in style to the culture (#5 on the list).  While that is something that churches that I lead do, it is not the same.  Your church can be contemporary in style, but irrelevant in content.  Your church can be traditional, but relevant in content.

“Easy heretic.  The Bible is always relevant.”  It sure is.  The question is why do we sometimes teach the Bible as if it isn’t.  I think you have to try really hard to not be relevant, but we do it.

Here is an example:

If I told you that in the time that Revelation 3:14-22 was written that Laodecia had no direct access to hot or cold water, that would be true but so what? 

I’ll go a step further.  If I told you that they had to pipe in water from outside the city and by the time it got to them it was lukewarm water which was nasty, would that be relevant?  What if I told you that they hated that water, because it was too warm to drink and not hot enough to be used for hot baths?  Would that make you a better Christian?  Would that draw you closer to God? 

One more step further, since all of that is true, then we can know that in Revelation 3:15-16 when Jesus says he wishes they were hot or cold and not lukewarm, he’s not saying that hot is good, cold is bad, lukewarm is worse.  He is saying cold is useful, hot is useful, lukewarm water is nasty.  I still haven’t been relevant.

Relevant comes when I then in some way try to explain to you that when we sit around and become stale and useless, we become repulsive to God.  We were designed to be used by God.  How is God using you? What is your purpose?.  All the way up until I said that, what I was saying was true, perhaps insightful, it was also helpful in understanding a passage of the Bible, but it was not yet relevant.  However, if we come up short in our teaching, small groups, community (#9), ministries in helping people see how their lives need to be different, we are not helping people.  Life with God becomes an academic exercise, not one where God is changing our lives.

We need to be a church that is helping people become real (#4), authentic (#3) followers of Jesus Christ, where is he is changing people every day.  We must be relevant.

3 Defining Words–(Some) Characteristics of a Healthy Church Part 1

OK, this is going to be a little risky.  Anytime you start talking about characteristics of a healthy church or church values, there is always one more.  There is one that is the “most important” and “I can’t believe you left that one out.”  Then the discussion gets hijacked.  So here is what I would like to do.  I would like to start with a basic definition of what makes a church and then talk about some specific characteristics of what I believe make a healthy church.  Ok? Ok.

A church:

1. Primarily exists to bring honor and worship to God and secondarily to love people (the great commandment)

2. Believes that the Bible is God’s word

3. Trusts in Jesus alone for hope, life and salvation

4. Depends completely on the Holy Spirit to lead and guide and bless

5. (That one thing that’s really important to you that I forgot)

I know that not all churches hold to those, but these are what make a church, evangelical if we must have a category.  Go to 100 churches in 100 weeks and 90+ of them will believe and value those.  Yet some churches are growing and healthy and others struggle.  There are a lot of different ways to do church, different programs, leadership styles, etc., and many (most, all?) of those can be very effective.  However they can all be quite ineffective as well. 

After a less than great experience at a church in St. Louis, an amazing experience in Cabot, and talking, interacting and learning from some of the top church planters around, I have come to believe that there are certain characteristics of churches that make churches grow, be healthy and thrive.  To repeat the disclaimer, this is not an exhaustive list.  These are simply three that echo loudly in my mind.  We will tackle them one at a time.

Friendly

Great churches love people.  They especially love people who are brand new.  They mostest especialliest love people who are new and far from God.  When new people walk in, that church very quickly does everything that they can to make that person not feel new.  The church lets them know that they are wanted and are invited to be a part of that family.  There are no strangers, no outsiders, no lonely people at this church.

How do you know if your church is friendly?

1. The members leave the best parking spaces for new people.

2. New people have been greeted, welcomed, shown around, multiple times before the service starts.

3. You have a hard time starting on time because people won’t stop talking in the cafe, lobby, back of the worship center, etc.

4. The “meet and greet” just won’t end.

5. The person that has to lock up the building never gets to eat lunch at a reasonable time.

6. Everyone, not just the greeters and ushers, welcomes and meets new people.

7. New people come back.

It is troubling the number of churches that say they want to grow but seem to resent at worst,and are  indifferent at best to new people.  But not your church.  Your church loves people.  It greets everyone.  It creates a welcoming environment for everyone, visits people in the hospital, surrounds people that are hurting.  Your church loves people.  At least it can, starting now.

August 1st is Coming, AKA Help Me!

Wow.  We are moving in 8 days.  It really is hard to believe.  It has been an amazing four years at Fellowship Cabot.  I have learned so much about being a pastor and leader.  It has been overwhelming.  As I look to make this transition, I’ve been trying to categorize and put into words what I believe God has taught me about church and what it means to lead a church.  Over the next days, weeks and months that vision will come out in blog posts, sermons, staff meetings, and random meetings at various coffee shops around Northwest Arkansas. 

In the meantime, I am overwhelmed by how close August 1st is.  In a short few days, I start a new job and an incredibly opportunity to lead a great group of people and prepare for another God adventure.  I am “pre-working” over these next few days to get ready, and I need your help.

Everyone

Please pray that our house will sell quickly.  We’re moving into an apartment until our house sells.  We believe God has a great plan for us, the people he wants to have our house, and has prepared a house for us in Fayetteville.  On the other hand, this is stressful.  I know many of you have been praying.  Please keep doing so.

Those who don’t live in NWA

Everyone seems to know someone who lives in Fayetteville or NWA.  If you do and they don’t have a church home, let them know about the Grove Church.  www.thegrovechurch.org  We are going to be spending August getting to know each other and talking about what kind of church we want to be and what we hope to see God do in and through us.  That would be a great opportunity to get to know us and be a part of what God is doing. 

If you know a student at the U of A, same thing.  We want lots of college students to be a part of the Grove and hope that God will continue to use as to reach and minister to U of A students.

If you live in Fayetteville or NWA and don’t go to the Grove

If you are not connected to a local church there, you can imagine what I’m going to say to you:  “see you soon.”  Come August 1st and say hey, check us out.  God is doing cool things at the Grove and will continue to.  I would love to have you be a part.

If you are connected to a local church, the invite gets a little trickier.  I would still love to see you one Sunday.  Come by and say hi.  We would, of course, love to have you, but we don’t want to be known as a recruiter from other churches.  There are so many people in Fayetteville and NWA that are not connected God and/or to church and those are the people that we want to reach.  Many of you I have been friends with for years, and I would love the opportunity to partner and minister with you at the Grove. 

On the other hand, I do not want to take you from a church where God is using you and blessing your family.  One of the best things that happened to me in Cabot is having friends and fans at other churches.  We want to partner with other churches in reaching people.  We are all on the same team.  If all you do is love us, pray for us and our churches can work together, then that would be great.

If you go to the Grove.

Pray, pray, pray.  The Grove is a great church and is doing some great things.  I believe he is going to build on that.  We are going to be a church that is reaching people who are far from God, strengthening believers, and launching missionaries around Fayetteville, NWA and the world.  You have a role to play in that.  You are going to be hearing all throughout August opportunities to be used by God to help us move forward.  God wants to use your talents and passions to reach and serve people.  Be praying now that God will show you what your part is.

Wow.  10 days and I will be preaching my first official sermon at the Grove as pastor.  Please be praying.

Sunday’s Coming Movie Trailer or “I don’t if I’m supposed to laugh or be convicted”

I don’t mean to be 2000 and late on this as I’m sure that many of you have seen this.  When I showed it to the worship team at Fellowship Cabot, they loved it and said that we have been busted.  I’m scared to show this to the good people at the Grove, because I would like to convince them that what we are going to do when I get there is both fresh and original.  Nope, we are already the subject of a spoof video.

I take comfort in the fact that North Point was making fun of themselves as well.  What do you think when you see it?  Is it funny, sad, ironic?  Let me know.  I’ve seen it 10 times and I’m still not sure.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isGrCmCFFmY

A Sad Goodbye

Dear Fellowship Family,

 

When Heidi, Maylee, Lauren and I moved here four years ago, we moved here with the idea of planting a campus for Fellowship and being the kind of church in Cabot that was reaching people, equipping people for ministry and being used by God to transform our community.  In four short years, we have seen God do some amazing things.  The growth of Fellowship Cabot has been tremendous and we have had great impact in our community and world.  The last four years have been great for me and my family.  However, during the last year, I have felt an urge from God that he had something different in mind for me–that he wanted me to be a lead pastor somewhere where I could use my teaching gift on a more frequent basis and be the primary leader of the church.  Over the last few months that voice has gotten louder and louder.  I want to tell you that I have taken a job in Fayetteville, AR as the lead pastor of a church called The Grove.

 

The vision of Fellowship Cabot was to be a multi-site campus, not an independent church and doesn’t call for a sr. pastor but a campus pastor.  Those are two very different roles.  A campus pastor is not responsible for the direction of the church and doesn’t shoulder the teaching load.  I believed in 2006 that being a campus pastor was a perfect fit for me and would be a job that I would have for 10+ years.  I didn’t think I wanted to be a lead pastor.  I didn’t feel that it fit my gifts or my passions.  Over these last few years, God has grown me as a pastor, leader and teacher.  I believe that for this next season in life that is exactly what I need to be and what God has crafted me to be.

 

The great thing about the model of Fellowship is that it was never built around one person or personality.  Our church was built around a mission and team.  One person leaving doesn’t change what God has called this church to be and doesn’t really affect our ability to accomplish that mission.  God is the reason this church has done well.  You are the reason that this church is doing well.  Your commitment to God and to the mission that he has called us to.  I would like to think that emotionally I will be missed, but as far as who this church is and what God has done, is doing and will do, nothing has changed.  God will still use this church in incredible ways.  We are part of an incredible church in Fellowship Bible.  There are great pastors and leaders still here and more than all of that, you are here and will be used by God to reach people who are far from God build them up and unleash them for ministry.

 

I love you guys and I have loved my four years here and will always look back on my time here with great happiness.  We are not leaving right away.  I will remain with Fellowship through the end of June.  We will transition and July and start in Fayetteville on August 1^st.  We ask for your prayers for the transition of our family, the sale of our house and that God would be with us in this new ministry.  Thanks.

 

 

Charlie Loften

Stupid Things Christians Fight About #1

Can you follow up one successful series  with another one?  Is it possible?  Well of course it is.  George Lucas is clearly the poster-boy for that.  How does one guy come up with Star Wars and Indiana Jones?  (He does that and what do I do?  I make humorous, sometimes cynical observations about life and tell goofy, mildly-embellished stories about my kids.) 

Let’s be clear, Stuff Christians Need to Stop Saying is no Star Wars and this series is no Indiana Jones.  I might could say that SCNTSS is Wes Craven’s Nightmare on Elm Street and STCFA could be Scream, but the metaphor there is too painful.  Anyway, let’s see what happens.

In this corner:  Conservative Evangelicals who believe that the key to being a Christ follower is what you believe.

In the other corner: Liberal Mainline Christians who believe that the key to being a Christ follower is what you do, namely being socially active.

My History: I feel like I should start with a confession.  I spent the entire decade of the 90’s square in the middle of this battle.  I went to college at Hendrix College in Conway, AR.  I was a student leader and ultimately a staff minister for a college ministry there.  I ended up being at Hendrix, one way or another for 10 years, essentially all of the 90’s, from the fall of 1990 to Spring 2000.  We were the champions of the “being a Christian is based on what you believe” camp.  People who thought that it was important to be socially active by helping needy people were soft on the truth and were trying to earn their way to heaven.

On the other side, were a group of people who wanted to live out their faith not based on what they believed but living in a way that they believed Jesus lived.  Being a Christ Follower is less about believing certain things about God and Jesus, but were about following what Jesus did and the way he lived his life.  We were the Bible-thumping, narrow-minded fundies.

The Verdict:  Ridiculous, all of it.  Who decided that there was a fight to be had here?  How did it come to this?  Nerd alert!  In part these are rhetorical questions, a study of Christianity in the 20th century will answer this question, with the shifting of focus of many mainline denominations and the rise of fundamentalism in the 50’s in response to that. End nerd alert!  How does a Christ Follower say that it doesn’t matter if you do what Jesus did?  What does follower even mean? Not Christ Follower but Christ Believe-the-same-as-er?  Similarly, how does a Christ Follower say that it doesn’t matter who Jesus was or who he believed God to be?  That is not a Christ Follower but Christ Be-somewhat-like-er.

Someone who wants to follow after Jesus needs to understand everything that Jesus came to do.  He came to give us new life, forgiveness of sins, if we would believe in him.  He also came to show us the heart and values of God, to show us how to live in right relationship with God.  One of my biggest regrets in life is my participation of in this battle.  (When I’m older and bolder, we can do a series on my 10 biggest regrets and what I’ve learned from them) I can only imagine what more God could have done through our ministry if we had shared God’s truth and lived it out in the lives of the poor and needy.  Let’s not make that same mistake and let’s make a commitment to be complete Christ Followers, believe as Jesus did and live as Jesus did.

To choose one to the exclusion of the other is something, but it is not following Jesus. 

(Suggestions for this series are greatly desired)

Now THAT is Church

It was a rough weekend for many people in Arkansas.  There were some terrible storms, some with tornados that causes a lot of damage and destruction.  One tornado hit just outside of Cabot and took out several homes and businesses, leaving many without power and without a place to live.

Out of that destruction, I get some phone calls and notes. (Of course, one person unable to find my phone number, knew that FB would be a great way to get a hold of me)  “We need to do something to help.”  Out of those calls came two guys who wanted to lead a team of folks with chain saws to clear yards if possible.  We decided that we would announce that folks are going to meet in the parking lot around 1:30 and see what we can do.

This is where the story gets really cool.  One of the men in our church is an insurance agent who insures many of the people who were hurt by the storm.  He tells us that he knows of an 80 year old lady whose husband passed last year and all of her family lives out of state.  She lost her house, her yard is a wreck and she had always prided herself on her lawn.  During the first service he drives out to her house and tells her that some folks from our church want to help someone and asks if we can come by.  She told him that she had just gotten finished praying that God would send her some help and that God told her that he would.

So now we announce we are meeting at 1:15 and going to this lady’s house to help her.  Coincidentally (yeah, right) Tim Lundy was preaching on the Good Samaritan.  After that story, the invite is easy.  “Do you want to help this lady who has no one to help her?”  Knowing that many people had plans they couldn’t change, we didn’t know what to expect.  What we had was 50-100 people swarm this lady’s yard and like an (un)tornado cleared her yard.  You may wonder why such a bad estimate of people.  One, we were too busy to count and even trying to estimate it was like estimating the number of ants scurrying in the grass.  Constant motion and work.

The best part of that story for me is this.  No one, except the agent, had any idea who this lady was.  She wasn’t famous.  There was no TV or newspaper.  No publicity except here, which means that you and my mom will know.  People did this because the love of God through Jesus compelled them to go.  No glory, no fame, certainly no quid pro quo, just a love for others that comes through experiencing God’s love.  

I was very proud to be a member of Fellowship Cabot on Sunday.

Diversity, Choirs, Guitars and Excellence

You may be surprised to hear that I wasn’t necessarily intending on opening multiple cans of worms in posting about worship.  I didn’t necessarily feel that what I said was controversial, but I certainly do not mind it.  Discussion is healthy.  Disagreement is healthy.  The pursuit of God often is found in such ways.  To catch up, read the original post here. 

We are going to do something a little different.  Rather than respond to my thoughts, I want to hear you respond to something someone else said.  In one of the comments, a friend of mine from St. Louis brings up one of the trends in worship music:

The musical shift in the last 10 years has been frightening to watch. Churches now focus on having the cool, young, hip guitar player as the “music minister”, and if you play any instrument that would fall outside of a standard rock band, you are no longer welcome. Only the beautiful people need apply now – young, physically attractive, professional-level talent is all that is desired. The average person no longer has a place other than in the crowd. Most choirs are gone, and your average singers can’t pass audition in most churches. Read the music forums sometime for full-time worship leaders and see the types of things they discuss – it will give you chills. A lot of it is focused on how to keep everyone but hand-selected professionals off the stage, and how to keep the few people they do allow on the stage under absolute control. There is a reason why they want it that way……music in most churches has become all about performance.

What do you think?  Does a church have an obligation to use anyone who wants to be used in the music ministry?  Should a church provide a diverse range of styles so that a classical singer can be used as well as electric guitar player?  Has the striving for excellence in the worship music made the music more about performance than worship?  What do you think?

I Hate the Worship at That Church

What an incredible thing to say, but I’m sure that many of you have heard someone say it or something like it.  Maybe they don’t say hate, maybe they just say “didn’t like.”  Regardless, it is still a strange thing to say.  Several things strike me about such a statement. 

First, how did music style preference become such a huge controversy in church?  Sure there are some styles of worship music in churches that I might find cheesy or old fashioned.  But for everyone of me that thinks that there are dozens who are connecting their hearts with God and worshipping him.  Some may find the worship at our church a little, shall we say loud? Someone once described it as “loud and sounds like a rock concert.”  It took me just a second to realize that this person was not giving us a compliment.  I understand musical preference, but what I do not understand and cannot tolerate is castigating other styles of worship as “bad.”

Which gets to the larger point, worship is not the same as music.  You can have worship without worship music and you can have worship music without worship.  Right now I sit in the lobby of FBCLR and worship music is playing, but I am not worshipping to that music, I am typing.  Worship is not simply singing.  It is your heart connecting with God’s heart.  It is you demonstrating with your words and with your life that you love God and are completely devoted to God.  Worship is an expression of your heart.  If I walk into the most traditional of worship services and hear a hymn, I should be able to worship.  If the words and music of that hymn do not captivate my heart, then I assure you problem is not with the minister of music or the organist, it is with me.

I should be able to worship God in any style of music.  More than that, I should be able to praise and worship God when I see Lauren (my 9 yr old daughter) winning her soccer tournament.  I praise God for the beautiful, sweet, strong young lady she is becoming.  I should praise God just by waking up to another day, a day that is a gift from God.

Worship is so much more than being in a worship service where music is played that you prefer.  Worship is you from your heart appreciating and praising God for the amazing God that he is.

Making it Easter All Year Round

I want to give a huge shout out to everyone that made the weekend of Easter services at Fellowship Cabot incredible.  Really I want to give a shout out to all of Fellowship and really everyone who did something a little extra over Easter weekend to create great worship experiences for people last weekend.  I have heard incredible stories from pastors and friends all over the nation.  Great job everyone.

Some people came to the Saturday night service and then served all 3 services on Sunday morning.  They were at church for an hour and a half on Saturday and then over four hours Sunday morning.  People parked far away from the front door even though they got there early (isn’t that the perk of getting there early, along with fresher coffee?).  People sat on the front row.  Who would ever do that?  A lot of people did a lot of small things.  When you put all of the small things together, you have something really big that helps make for an incredble worship experience for people of all ages.

Here is a question?  How do we keep that spirit going?  I know that not every week is as big or heavily attended as Easter.  Easter is the best opportunity that churches have to minister to a large group of people who normally are not in church.  If everyone did as much on Easter every week, we would have a lot of tired people.  But what part of that attitude that drives us to do the little things on Easter can we keep alive all year long?

1) Make the serve one service, worship one service routine, an every week commitment.  More community is built in your serving team than just about anywhere.  You will be used by God every week in the lives of people you serve.  You will be considered a hero by the leader of that team.  If you are working with kids, then you will build deep relationships with them and provide much needed stability.

2) Attend the least attended service.  Often the smaller services are just a few families away from having enough momentum to really taking off.  You could make the difference.  Some people, on Saturday night services for instance, can only attend these “off-peak” services.  You worshiping with them is partnering to help minister to them.  It also provides more space for the peak, highly attended service.  Even if you only can do it every now and then, like once a month, it can still make a huge difference.

3) Consider yourself a greeter every week, even if you are not on the greeting team.  Be a friendly face for new people.  Show them God’s love and that your church loves people.

Those things may seem small, but again, a lot of small become big quickly and make a huge difference in the lives of people.

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