the boutique church

the baby boomers, many from the early days of the jesus movement, helped found, establish, build, fund, etc the recent phenomenon known as the mega-church movement wherein churches in this country have grown numerically much larger than previously thought possible. the results are a variety of large, multi-thousand member churches which are doing great things in their respective communities. i've had the honor at serviing with several churches that fit this description and can and will testify to the effectiveness of these churches.
the question that arrises is, what is next?
for the baby boomers and the next generation down.
will they stay involved with these large churches or do those churches primarily minister best to single adutls (who can connect with other single adults) couples with children, (who can find great children and teen programs for their kids), single parents (who find incredible personal support as well as the aforementioned great programs for their children) and multi-generational families who live in close proximity and can attend church together, grandparents, parents, children, etc.
what of the empty nester couples who no longer need the exemplary children and teen programs? will they continue involvement with the mega-church or look for something different.
i think many will seek something different.
the mega-church is similar to the big box stores where a consumer is able to find everything desired under one roof, and at affordable prices. i think empty nester couples are going to begin looking for boutique churches; smaller fellowships with incredibly creative, diverse music, inspiring messages and worthwhile opportunities to support and serve others, but without the mad dash from theme park size parking lots.
for those of you ministering at small churches, your time is coming and perhaps has already arrived. but you will need to offer creative, high quality music and messages.
mega-churches will continue, because they offer something small churches cannot, and there are still huge numbers of people who need and want the mega-church experience.
one does not cancel the other. god is at work in churches large and small.
it is time, though for small churches to begin improving their quality and be ready for the rush of empty nesters who will begin walking through your doors. most of them are already christians, already tithers, and already willing to volunteer time, but you need to be ready because if you're not, they will move down the street until they find a boutique church that is ready.

t-shirts to polos

once upon a time a young man lived and ministered in a place called the jesus house. in said house he had several closets. one of these closets contained a shelf upon which young man neatly (most of the time) folded and stacked his assortment of t-shirts. these t-shirts were a nice accompanyment to said youn man's normal attire of jeans, jeans, and cut-off jeans. on special occasions he doned a sport coat that correctly matched the jeans and t-shirts. (sure he was known to wear an occasional suit, but this is the t-shirt blog). the t-shirt normally proclaimed special days, events, and other assorted universal spiritual truths; i.e. sonshine music festival, muster weekend, conglomerate weekend, adamsfishodor reunion tour (four of them!), french lick retreat, and many other too numerous to remember. for cold weather, the t-shirts were covered by sweatshirts proclaiming some of the same messages but also announcing the various colleges and universities the young man was known to visit for the purpose of speaking or performing a concert. (the young man learned that in addition to a love offering, a free meal and place to sleep most campus ministires were happy to include a school sweatshirt as part of the honorium so it became part of the contract!)

fast forward several years and young man, now older, still has a few t-shirts but now finds that the closet includes many polo shirts. most with addornment of various churches, ministries, schools and/or retreats. there was a time when said young man would not have worn these polos. has the world gotten fancier or has the young man, now older, moved into a new life stage. admittedly, the t-shirts do not look as nice. they fit tighter around the middle! o from what hights the mighty have fallen!

lunch is served

I know you've all been holding your breath since october 1, waiting to find out how the church is going, and so you're probably all dead because there was no oxygen flow in your body so your brain couldn't tell your heart to beat and all that...

But here is the long-awaited update.

Abandon House is just what I was hoping it to be. The first week there were 6 of us, and it's been around that number the past two weeks as well. We served mac and cheese the first week, grilled cheese and tomato soup next and last week was chicken and rice casserole. The food is reason enough to drive out to gloucester at 11:30 on a Sunday morning.

But we also talk about Jesus. The first week was entitled "reckless abandon," and we talked about why the abandon house is called such, and also what it looks like to abandon your life, faith, etc to Jesus. We ended up talking about living in community and how cool that would be. (i know, i know, but who will was the dishes?)
The second week was "we mistake panic for inspiration," and i spoke about how when something is wrong in our spiritual life, our first instinct is to do more "religious" things: read our bible more, tithe more, go to church more, go on a mission trip, almost in an effort to bargain with Jesus, or else we're just assuming that those are always the answers. We drew/collaged our spiritual life maps, including what we think God has in store for us in the future, trying to keep in mind that our first option is not always God's option.
Last week was a time of fellowship. aka jon and i were both super busy all week and didn't have time to prepare. so we all made lunch and ate and relaxed.
This week there is no church. It is fall break, and we all need one. But things are going well.

Things you can pray for would be people's commitment to come, we're having trouble getting the same people there week after week, and almost feel like we're starting over with publicity every monday. Also pray for time. As i said, Jon and i are both really busy with school, bands and really cool jobs which leave little time for preparing worship songs or a sermon anytime before Saturday really, and I have some really cool things i want to talk about that need more preparation time than one day.

Overall, I am really pleased and can't really believe that for three weeks i've managed to get people to my house in the hopes of talking about/with Jesus. So thanks for the prayers that have already been prayed and the ones that will be.

birthdays

"i don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve"
so goes one of literature's great birthday speeches. imagine inviting 144 people over for a birthday party and including that line in your speech.

i just had a birthday, turned 55. one of my friends signed a card, "to the aarp man of the year." now I can sign up for all those "senior discounts" and eat early bird specials in restaurants. i wonder if paul mccartney flashes his senior discount card when he dines out?

people tend to be very nice on birthdays. it's almost like birthdays are a time off from anything nasty or bad relationships or anything harsh...but when bilbo spoke the words i quoted at the beginning of these thoughts he was breaking the cardinal rule of niceness on birthdays and speaking harsh truth, at least truth as he saw it.

a hobbit does not recieve gifts on his or her birthday but gives them. one year i did that with my family. i surprised them with gifts. years later my son was still asking when i would do that again. it is still his favorite my birtday.

i like good surpises. rick mapes gave me a good surpise on my 30th birthday when the normal jesus house concert was turned into a surprise birthday party for me. it was quite an evening. i still have the photos.

if you have a birthday soon, i hope you spend it with people you, at least, half like.

danger fish in the abandon house

oh heyyy....
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2006, 11 AM.
abandon house aka church at the beach will commence.
lunch will follow, so don't you wish you were in college?

i miss bill too, it's kind of embarassing the way america votes these days. i'm in an american politics class this semester and we're learning crazy stuff about the lack of democracy in our democratic republic... anyway. my main point right now is that in most little fishies minds, the next election is between mr. barak "chi-town" obama and ms. hilary "solid as a freakin rock so i rule the state of new york" clinton. basically either world is fine with me.

i'll be bahck, in the words of my governator. and i'll have church service numero uno to report on.

i miss bill

occasionally I spot a bumper sticker that expresses the driver's longing for the previous president. i share that sentiment. yes, he did something wrong, haven't we all? but in spite of the wrong thing he did, there were hundreds of right things he did while president. i'm finishing his autobiography and remembering how much i liked having him as president. on election night, my wife and i were watching the results while staying in an incredible bed and breakfast in key west, florida. (if you go to key west stay at the eden house) we ate pizza and cheered. his first inauguration was a celebration of hope. first baby boom president. those were great years for this country; low interest rates, the deficit disappeared, the government was running on a balanced budget with money in the bank, smallest government since the 1930's, the number of abortions performed were reduced, the number of people on welfare was shrinking, college students were getting help for tuition by working in poor areas helping others, layoffs were rare because companies had confidence in the economy, the number of violent crimes went down every year for eight years, and unemployment was at 1950's levels.

the only government waste i noticed was the tens of millions of dollars ken star wasted finding out the president did nothing wrong.

during the past week, president clinton has been on an abundance of news and interview programs. listening to him answer questions reminds me of the incredible president he was.

during eight of little fish's school years, he was the president. i wonder who will be the first peson of her generation to become president. perhaps her generation will have the courage to elect a woman or minority. this country is on its 43rd president; all caucasion males. speaking as a caucasion male, we're okay, but sometimes bland and boring. isn't it time for a little variety in the oval office? not that the texan hasn't given us a few laughs. i am impressed he is bi-lingual. i wonder if he pronounces any spanish words in the same funny way he messes up english words? but i still miss bill.

those people

recently recieved an emial titled "Can a Good Muslim be a Good American?"
I do not know the author so do not have the opportunity to speak directly with him or her
after a list of reasons why, in the author's opinion, a good muslim cannot be a good american (you knew that would be the result didn't you?) the author closes with the observation, "perhaps we should be very suspicious of all muslims."
i suppose an american who is an athiest can live that way, but any american who is also a christian has a higher calling on his or her life
i suggest that the author either never read or has ignored the words in the Bible, "for God so loved the world" and other passages which point to the reality that God not only loves people of all nations, but really wants christians to love people of all nations. God does not want us to become suspecious of a group of people from another religion simply because of the tragedies caused by a very small faction within that group.
if this were true, then people would need to be suspicious of all white, southern christians because of the KKK.
people would need to be suspicious of all white military veterns because of Timothy McVey
people would need to be suspicious of all japanese because of Shoko Asahara

growing suspicious of a group of people because of religious, ethnic, or racial differences is notthing new
it is also nothing good