Category Archives: Blog

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The North American Church’s Journey Through the Stages of Grief

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As a pastor, one of the things I am privileged to do is walk with people (shepherd them) through the stages of grief.  As every pastor has experienced, some people successfully journey through these stages over time, while others get trapped along the way, often leading to dysfunction in their life.

I would suggest that the church in North America is going through the stages of grief as it comes to grips with the end/death of Christendom.  As the church grieves the loss of its once held societal power, cultural influence and moral authority, it needs guidance and direction.  The church is in need of pastoral shepherds who will help guide it through these stages into health and effectiveness within its new reality – post-Christendom.  The challenge of this generation is to lead the church through the stages of grief, emerging with health and the reengagement of mission within its new environment.

The fact is, all churches and Christian traditions in North America are going through this grieving journey; however, they are all at different places in it.  Consider the five stages of grief:

  • Stage 1: Denial – There are churches that are still stuck in denial.  They believe that culture has not changed.  They are still doing ministry in the same way they did at the height of Christendom.
  • Stage 2: Anger – Churches in this stage are angry at the change our culture is experiencing and have focused their attention and energy at expressing that anger.  These churches are often known solely for what they are against, rather than what they are for.   
  • Stage 3: Bargaining – Churches stuck in this stage believe that if they do ______ then things will go back to the way they use to be.  In many cases, there is a focus on recreating past programs and ministries in a futile attempt to recreate past results.
  • Stage 4: Depression – Churches in this stage believe all hope is lost.  They are beyond denial, anger or bargaining but the weight of the challenge ahead has brought depression, manifested in hopelessness.
  • Stage 5: Acceptance – Churches who have successfully journeyed through the previous stages end with acceptance, beginning to think through what it means for effective ministry and mission in our new post-Christian environment. 

The church in North America is in a unique situation and journey.  It needs men and women who are committed to God’s mission, seeing the whole Church bring the whole gospel to the whole world.  The challenge ahead is for church leaders to be committed to Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit, helping congregations, denominations and movements journey through these stages in order to begin meeting the unique challenges of our changing world.  A post-Christian culture will need radically different ministries, need to ask profoundly different questions, and will need very different paradigms.  The Church needs to move beyond conversations that simply grieve the loss of once was, to conversations of what could be, as it engages in God’s global mission.  These conversations are why organizations and movements like Lausanne, Missio Alliance, etc. are vital and important for our time in history.  The Church in North America is at the precipice of possibility and Jesus, the head of the Church, is leading His Church forward with hope and mission.  

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Canadian Swimming

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The following post was also recently published in the Vermilion Standard.

A few weeks ago at Christmas, in a spontaneous act of temporary insanity, I put on my swimming suit, opened the front door, entered the icy air and jumped off of my front step into the snow (I even have the pictures to prove it).  I called it “Canadian Swimming.”  It was one of those events that caught my kids off guard and will be now be one of our family legends.  It was a crazy act, done partially out of rebellion of our long winter season and partially as a spontaneous act of joyful fun.

Upon reflection, and after warming up in a hot shower, I came to the conclusion that we all need to have more spontaneous acts of fun in our lives.  I am not suggesting that we all jump off our front steps into a mountain of snow but there are times when you need to break the cycle and routine of life and engage in some spontaneous fun.  It might be my own experience, but it is precisely these times of spontaneous fun that create memories and sometimes jar us out of our routines and ruts.

As a Christian, and as a pastor, it is often assumed that I must have given up on fun to live the calling I have.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  I love to have fun, love to laugh, enjoy times with friends, and do silly things like jump in snow banks in just my swimming suit.  At the same time, I’m normal (although after Canadian Swimming, this is debatable) and sometimes I get caught in the routine of life, the stress of work, and the busyness of responsibility and I lose track of the joy that I am invited to experience.

I think we can forget that life was created by God to be full of joy.  Even in the creation account of the Bible there is a sense of joy and play in the Garden of Eden.  This is what God intended when he created humanity and what God calls us to.  God calls us to life, abundant and eternal life through Christ Jesus (John 3:16; John 10:10), and this life is not a life intended to be devoid of play and joy but rather filled with it.  There is nothing shameful in laughter and clean humor; God has given us humor and laughter as a beautiful gift, a gift that we are called to embrace rather than erase or suppress.

I think we all need more spontaneous jumps of playful joy as we celebrate the life we have been given and enter into the eternal and abundant life available to us in Christ Jesus.

Blog, book review, misc

Book Review: “The Swedish Atheist, the Scuba Diver and Other Apologetic Rabbit Trails”

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There is a select group of people in my life that, with a conversation over a cup of java, make me feel smarter and wiser.  Randal Rauser is one of those people.  I have had the privilege of sitting down with him on several occasions over coffee talking life, movies and theology and I have always left feeling smarter and wiser as a result.

Randal’s new book, The Swedish Atheist, the Scuba Diver and Other Apologetic Rabbit Trails, is a unique project, inviting the reader to listen in on one of those types of conversations.  Although it deals with weighty apologetic subjects, it does so comfortably and conversationally, making it approachable for the average reader.  Using inviting language and playful prose, Randal invites the reader to eavesdrop on a thoughtful conversation over a cup of coffee.

If you are interested in exploring the current apologetic debate, this book will help introduce you to the conversation in an inviting way without compromising the content of the arguments.  Randal demonstrates his unique blend of gifts through this book: his vast knowledge, his ability to teach and his writing skills. This unique blend creates an inviting aroma that warmly and inclusively invites the reader to join the conversation.

*Note: Although the good people at IVPress, as part of the book’s promotion, mailed a complementary copy of this book to me, at no time was I obligated to write a positive review.

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Holy Interruptions

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The following article was also published in The Vermilion Standard.

Be honest…interruptions are annoying!  Whether it is an interruption in your schedule, an interruption in the middle of a great night sleep, an interruption to your travel plans by a flight delay or an unscheduled construction detour, interruptions can be very annoying. 
We are trained to hate interruptions.  Consequently, we have “do not disturb” options on our cell phones, office phones and signs for our hotel rooms.  We have been conditioned to see interruptions as negative, unpleasant and unwelcomed detours in our scheduled lives.   All that being said, what if all interruptions are not bad?  What if our conditioned despise for interruptions has made us ignorant of what God might be doing around us?
As we prepare for Christmas, I want to reflect on a passage of Scripture where an interruption was welcomed, leading to some everyday people experiencing the extraordinary and being changed as a result.  I want to reflect on the story of the angel’s interruption to the shepherds on the night of Jesus’ birth.
In the biblical account of Jesus’s birth (Luke 2), we find a group of shepherds tending their flocks.  They were working the night shift, doing what they normally did.  They were protecting and watching over their sheep by night.  In midst of the ordinary, the extraordinary happens.  Breaking into the darkness is the shining light from the Glory of God and an angel who announces that the Savior has been born in Bethlehem. 
When the angel leaves, the scripture says that the shepherds decide to go out of their way and look for this child.  Upon their arrival in the small town of Bethlehem, they discover things exactly as the angel described.  The scripture then describes that they praised God and amazed many people with the stories of the things they saw and witnessed.
Imagine if the shepherds were not open to being interrupted.  Imagine what they would have missed.   Throughout the scriptures, we discover that God often works through interruptions; God is an experienced interrupter.
Are you open to being interrupted?  What if the ‘annoyances’ of interruptions this Christmas were the very path towards seeing and experiencing something extraordinary?  In the Bible, extraordinary things happen to ordinary people all the time – it is how our God works and in in his working, he uses interruptions as opportunities.

What are the interruptions God has planned for you this Christmas?  Are you prepared to embrace them as possible opportunities for the extraordinary to break into your ordinary? 

article, Blog, mobiquity, socialmedia, technology

Another Facebook Prediction

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As Facebook forges ahead into the undiscovered social media landscape, it has and will continue to push boundaries on many levels affecting and shifting culture as a result.  Consider the cultural change to online pictures and privacy in the last couple of years.  It was only a couple of years ago when people were concerned about people seeing images of their children on Facebook and they initially refused to post them.  This privacy concern emerged again with the addition of the GPS tagging and location sharing.  It was considered an invasion of privacy at first and now has been adopted into our collective and ubiquitous use.

Inevitably, the next stage of this development is what I call: “auto-tagging.”  I predict that Facebook will soon release a software upgrade allowing face recognition to automatically tag your pictures based on the facial profiles of your friends.  This technology already exists on a consumer level with Apple’s iPhoto and it will be inevitably utilized by Facebook in the near future.

In fact, you may have recognized this already beginning to develop.  Still in its infancy, it is already utilized by Facebook.  Just try tagging someone.  When you place your cursor over the image, Facebook already can identify what is a face and what is not.  The next inevitable evolutionary step is to utilize facial recognition software and “auto-tag,” saving the user time and effort.

People will, as they always do, cry foul at first; however, people will, as they always do, eventually accept it and welcome it into their ubiquitous social media experience.

This reality highlights the cultural shift that is occurring regarding our concepts and perceptions of privacy.  In people’s desire to narrate their lives with social media and mobile technology, privacy is being eroded into the public sphere.  As more and more of our lives are lived online with open transparency, it is creating sweeping cultural impact and societal change.

In the pre-digital age, people longed to be wealthy and famous, living public lives on a public stage, but this is changing and so will people’s desires.  As the future unfolds and privacy erodes for the average citizen, people will desire what only the wealthy and select few will be able to experience – privacy.

A shift is occurring and privacy is experiencing a tipping point.