I have been serving as the guest host of the USAToday Faith & Reason blog. Cathy Lynn Grossman has written with USA Today for a decade and asked if I would fill in for her on the blog while she is in Europe on assignment.

I chose an easy topic to handle: the issue of exclusivity in terms of obtaining eternal life. You know me; I do not like controversy. No sir. Keeping it nice and light.

I started by discussing some recent research. Here is the wrap-up to my second comment that will give you a flavor of where the discussion is going:

To further the discussion, let's talk about the core issues of exclusivity of beliefs and how that affects culture, religion, and human interaction.
How do you view those who hold such exclusive beliefs? Why do you think that people increasingly seem to hold universalistic and pluralistic beliefs?
Let's make it personal, as well: Many faiths believe there is only one way to God, heaven, righteousness, etc. If you are a person of faith, does your faith teach that? If so, why does it matter?

Be nice. Engage the culture. Listen.

Yesterday, I spoke in Saint Louis, Missouri at the Acts 29 Regional Quarterly Gathering.

If you want to see "loose" quotes of what I said, you can see them using the Twitter hash tag, #a29midwest. Nowadays, most speakers leave a Twitter-trail that is, at times, accurate. ;-)

Below is a picture from of the meeting at a former (and now renovated) Catholic Church.

I presented around my recent co-authored book, Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and Churches that Reach Them. I promised to post the presentation I did and you can find it below.

As you will recall, the numbers are those who agree, somewhat or strongly, with the statement listed. I have only listed the agree percentages. You can download a pdf of the presentation I used here.

Also, if you are interested in more information, you can check out a podcast where Jason Hayes and I discuss the younger unchurched generations and the churches that reach them.

Thanks for coming to St. Louis!

Yesterday, I spoke to the North American Mission Executives (primarily the district leaders) of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. I was impressed with their passion for the God's mission and desire to reach those without Christ. We talked primarily around issues of the missional church and a bit about church planting. Earlier this week I mentioned their Ablaze! outreach strategy. And, I shared a bit last year about the LCMS when I spoke at Concordia University in Irvine, CA.

Several of my friends asked (via Twitter and Facebook), "What makes a Lutheran a Missouri Synod Lutheran?" For many non-Lutherans, they may not be aware of the different groups in Lutheranism, but there are some important distinctions.

You can find an official introduction to the LCMS here. I have included some excerpts from Wikipedia that I found helpful.

First, some basic information about the LCMS from Wikipedia:

The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod (LCMS), founded in 1847 in Chicago, is the eighth largest Protestant denomination in the United States, and the second-largest Lutheran body in the U.S. after the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It is a moderate conservative, Confessional Lutheran denomination with German immigrant roots.

They have 2.4 million members, making them the second largest Lutheran group, behind the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (and, in this case, "Evangelical Lutheran" is not the same as the designation "an evangelical" in common use today). The ELCA would generally be classified as a more liberal denomination than the conservative LCMS.

The LCMS (along with several other groups) are Confessional Lutherans (an important distinction and the link is worth following to understand the nuances of that term).

To understand Lutheranism, you have to understand the Book of Concord. Wikipedia explains:

One of the signature teachings of the Lutheran Reformation is the teaching named Sola scriptura--"Scripture alone." The Missouri Synod believes that the Bible is the only standard by which church teachings can be judged. It also holds that the Holy Scripture is explained and interpreted by the Book of Concord--a series of Confessions of faith composed by Lutherans in the 16th century. Missouri Synod pastors and congregations agree to teach in harmony with the Book of Concord because it teaches and faithfully explains the Word of God. The Missouri Synod also teaches Biblical inerrancy, the teaching that Bible is inspired by God and is without error. For this reason, they reject much--if not all--of modern liberal scholarship.

Wikipedia explains the Lutheran view of salvation:

The Missouri Synod believes that justification comes from God "by divine grace alone, through faith alone, for Christ's sake alone." It teaches that Jesus is the focus of the entire Bible and that faith in him alone is the way to eternal salvation. The synod rejects any attempt to attribute salvation to anything other than Christ's death and resurrection.

One of the important distinctions of Lutheranism is the "means of grace." Methodists use the same term, but differently.

Wikipedia explains:

The Synod teaches that the Word of God, both written and preached, and the Sacraments are means of grace through which the Holy Spirit gives the gift of God's grace, creates faith in hearts of individuals, forgives sins for the sake of Christ's death on the cross, and grants eternal life and salvation. For Missouri Synod Lutherans, sacraments are actions instituted by Jesus and combine a promise in God's Word with a physical element.

I am no expert on Lutheranism, but I am blessed they would allow me to come and share with their leadership and hopefully encourage them in some way.

The Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod official website is here.

The folks at Pew released some new research worth your time.

They explained:

Americans change religious affiliation early and often. In total, about half of American adults have changed religious affiliation at least once during their lives. Most people who change their religion leave their childhood faith before age 24, and many of those who change religion do so more than once. These are among the key findings of a new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life. The survey documents the fluidity of religious affiliation in the U.S. and describes in detail the patterns and reasons for change.

The reasons people give for changing their religion - or leaving religion altogether - differ widely depending on the origin and destination of the convert. The group that has grown the most in recent years due to religious change is the unaffiliated population. Two-thirds of former Catholics who have become unaffiliated and half of former Protestants who have become unaffiliated say they left their childhood faith because they stopped believing in its teachings, and roughly four-in-ten say they became unaffiliated because they do not believe in God or the teachings of most religions. Additionally, many people who left a religion to become unaffiliated say they did so in part because they think of religious people as hypocritical or judgmental, because religious organizations focus too much on rules or because religious leaders are too focused on power and money. Far fewer say they became unaffiliated because they believe that modern science proves that religion is just superstition.

Read the full report here.

This week I will be out and about... home you can drop by!

St. Louis

On Monday, I will be in St. Louis with the Synodical Leadership of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. It will be good to connect with Mike Ruhl and the folks from the Center for U.S. Missions who had me speak at Concordia University last year. The LCMS plan is ABLAZE and it is an aggressive plan to "share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with 100 million unconverted people, 50 million of them in the U.S. by the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017."

Tuesday, I will speak at the Acts 29 Regional Meeting at Journey Church in St. Louis. Darrin and I will be recording a video early that morning and then I will be speaking at the regional gathering later that morning.

Nashville (and the rest of the world via USAToday)

On Wednesday, I will be speaking at LifeWay chapel at 7:30a.m. (yikes, that is early). Then, all day on Wednesday, I will be guest hosting the USAToday Faith and Reason blog. More on that later in the week.

Also on Wednesday, I will be speaking right after Mark Dever at the Metro Conference for collegiate leaders and he and I will be doing a dialogue right after I speak.

Somewhere near Oklahoma City in a town called Davis

Finally, Friday, I will be speaking at Falls Creek camp in Oklahoma for something called the One Day seminars that my hosts plan to use to train 10,000 bible study leaders. I will be speaking three times and we will be shooting videos on these topics:
-Missional "small communities"
-Missional Leadership
-Lost and Found (Reaching Young Adults)

You can find information about the One Day emphasis here. The meeting is free for pastors if you would like to come. And, Jaclyn will be coming with me so we can do a little fishing in Oklahoma! Should be great.

See you this week via Twitter.

The most common question I get these days is not about culture, church, or mission. It is actually about weight loss. I am asked several times each week about how I have lost weight. So, while I am not an expert, I have decided to share a bit of the details of my thoughts and experience.

Let me say one thing first: taking weight loss advice from me is like taking parenting advice from Bill Gothard. It can be good, it might be right, but it is also theoretical. It boils down to this related to me-- you should not take advice from a person who has lost a bunch of weight but has not kept if off for any significant length of time. I've lost 110 lbs so far, and still have a way to go -- but, to answer everyone's questions, here is how I got started.

Donna (my beautiful wife) started us off about a year ago. She was continually tired and not feeling well so she decided to try a homeopathic physician. (I affectionately refer to her doctor as the "witch doctor.")

Well, the doctor (who is a believer and attends our church) put her through a bunch of tests and then recommended she avoid all wheat and processed sugar. There was much more to it than that, but she lost over 70lbs. That was inspirational. And inspiration and motivation continued to come.

Motivation came from several sources. First, over dinner with Junior Hill, he told me how he had lost so much weight through a physician-assisted plan. I decided I wanted to try that. In other words, I needed to hook up with a physician. I did that a couple of months later.

My friend Dino Senesi was also an inspiration. He had lost a bunch of weight leading me to say he looked like a crack addict (but only in a good & manly way). He offered to coach me and hold me accountable and explained how that helped him. Although I did not take him up on his offer becuase of my pride, I knew I needed accountability.

Additional motivation came from trouble sleeping. When I went to my doctor, he prescribed a sleep study (which I blogged about here for other reasons). I had sleep apnea and I had to sleep on this horrible device called a C-Pap machine. And, I could not handle some Alien-like face-hugger on me while I tried to sleep. My doctor said that losing weight might be a solution and I knew I needed sleep.

My final inspiration came at an amusement park on a trip with my daughter. We were getting on a ride after waiting in a long line and I could not fit-- the bar would not go down. Now, if you are big, you know that fitting into airline seats, booths at restaurants, and other tight places is a pain. For years, I sat at tables (not booths) and requested seat belt extensions on airplanes. (The world is not designed for big people.) But, it became more important when it involved my family and I know I needed to not limit activities with them.

In the end I knew I needed to lose weight for my own health. But, honestly, that was probably not the most important reason. I actually have consistently good physicals--healthy heart, good cholesterol and blood pressure, etc. But, I know that can't last so I decided to make a change. I knew I could not enter my 40's this overweight.

All of this worked together as motivation. It compelled me to do something. But, most importantly, I knew that God had a better plan for me and my physical health. And, I believed that making a change would be in line with His leadership in my life.

Soon, I will share some myths about fat people and weight loss. Then, I will share some about what I have done thus far. Finally, I will share a bit about future plans. Now, this is not the Richard SImmons blog, so I will only write on this occasionally becuase people ask and I know that many pastors struggle as I did and do.

Some of you may not find this very interesting, but I receive Twitter messages all the time from people thanking me and saying my journey was an encouragement. So, maybe this will help. But, it also is a help for me-- by writing this out, I am creating another venue to hold myself accountable.

More soon...

The SBC declined again this year in both membership and baptisms. You can read the news story here. There is some encouraging news about missions giving, but the membership and baptism declines are disturbing.

All one has to do is to look at the age of the messengers, the 50 year trend, and the current state of the convention to see things are not going well. The Conservative Resurgence restored and focused us on essential beliefs but did not deliver a Great Commission passion.

The churches of the Southern Baptist Convention have been home to me for all of my adult life. Southern Baptists are my spiritual family. I love our family. But our family is not feeling well today.

Today, LifeWay released the 2008 statistics from the Annual Church Profile. The ACP is our way of measuring how SBC churches are doing in a collective sense. We are a people who like to measure-- everything from baptisms to the collective value of congregational property. For good or bad, we have always been a people of numbers.

But today we are facing a set of numbers to which we are not accustomed. Last year, I said we "peaked" in our membership. This year, I believe that our tipping point continues to tip. Unless things change, we are about to enter a time when we grow accustomed to decline and think back to the good ol' days of growth.

On April 28, 2008, I posted a graph of our membership numbers beginning in 1950 on my blog and said, "our year-to-year growth has been in a constant trended decline, not for one year, but for decades--this is not a one year blip, this is a 50 year trend."

In that reference, I was speaking of the 2007 numbers with a "statistical warning" for us to heed. Today, I bid you an uneasy welcome to continued and ongoing trend of membership decline. Any hope for a "blip" has been crushed by reality. With fewer baptisms and a declining membership, the trends point to several years of decline in our future, save for God's intervention on our behalf.

We are a denomination in decline, at least in our membership and definitely in our evangelism and baptisms. The most rational decision now is to acknowledge its reality so we might deal with its consequences and discover solutions for our churches.

But, as we are Baptists, my fear is the proverbial witch hunt that will try to find who or what is to blame. Will straw men be erected; will new battle lines will be drawn?

I hope not. There are bigger issues and we need to face some facts: we face a culture turning its back toward us, a declining and aging membership, and young leaders who are choosing other partnerships.

Last year, some leaders tried to ignore the facts and buried their heads a bit deeper in the sand. Some skeptics of the ACP data from last year said it was simply a figment of someone's imagination. Well... that figment is looking more and more like our future.

Do these facts reflect upon our culture, churches, pastors, members, or the denomination? My check mark will have to be on "all of the above." And it reflects on me and my failures as well.

Is the culture getting worse? Sure it is. But we should be the ones giving a reason for our hope rather than hoping for a reason.

Do we have chronically dysfunctional churches in our denomination? Sure, but everyone has the one crazy uncle that comes to the family reunion.

Are pastors shirking their responsibilities? Some, but I generally believe in the trustworthiness of those in vocational ministry. They get beat up by plenty of others and I will not join the pile on.

Is it a lazy membership that is the root of the decline? The multitude who act more like spectators at a show than ambassadors of the kingdom certainly share the blame. But I genuinely love those in my own congregation and hope for the best in all believers.

So what do we do? There will be lots of answers provided in the coming days. And, it will be worth your and my time to listen and learn from others.

And, of course (and on cue), some will call for Southern Baptists to turn leftward theologically as the solution to our decline. And, I will wonder out loud-- does anyone read statistics? As I have written before, a left turn does not stem decline, it accelerates it.

So what do we do?

We cannot simply mandate how churches, pastors, and believers live. Our theological convictions of the priesthood of all believers and local autonomy of the church lead us to allow each church to heed God's will on their own. But on a denominational level, I believe we need to heed the words sounding from numerous places in the convention for a Great Commission Resurgence.

Our situation would be much worse if we did not have the Conservative Resurgence, but a Conservative Resurgence without a Great Commission Resurgence is an exercise in belief without action.

I believe this must be our wake-up call. Again. If not, there will be plenty more days like this in the coming years.

Last year, I quoted from Christ's message to the church at Sardis in Revelation 3:

I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you."

We have been lulled into evangelistic complacency and missional inaction. We fought and won a battle over the Bible but are now struggling live it out through cooperation, collaborative missions, and personal evangelism. As Chuck Kelley has explained, Southern Baptists have become the new Methodists (no offense to my Methodist readers, please).

I am grieved, but I also see opportunity if we can ignore the responses that are soon to follow explaining how it is all going fine and we just don't need to worry. Those in charge know what to do to fix it. Instead, I think we need to see this as the bad news it is but also an opportunity to change.

It is an opportunity for discovering a regenerate church membership living on mission.
It is an open door to pray for God's reviving of the church.
It is the motivation for a Great Commission Resurgence for all Christians, in the hearts of pastors, through a church planting renaissance, and in our denominational structure.

But change does not come easy for us. For that matter, it does not come easy for me. To illustrate and conclude, let me tell you something funny about myself-- I have oddly-shaped feet. They are too wide in the middle to wear normal shoes. So, years ago I found a brand of shoe that fits and it is all I wear. Because they are hard to find and replace, I will literally wear out the soles of my shoes before buying new ones. My clue is normally a cold puddle of water accidentally stepped in. But the sting of the freezing water rushing over my toes usually motivates me to buy new shoes. Finding new shoes is a pain. It costs me time and resources. And I don't like those pains in my life. I don't like the pain of change.

Here is the principle: People do not change until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change. And, neither do denominations...

So let me ask you a simple question: Are we hurting enough to make the changes we need?

If you are interested, here is the post I wrote a year ago. Neither my opinion (or the situation) has changed much.

Let me encourage you to answer a question in the comments below: What is the needed change and do you have hope that change is coming?

Trevin Wax recently interviewed me for his blog, Kingdom People. We talked about our new book, Lost and Found, and the issues facing our churches and the unchurched younger generations. Here's how it went down.

Trevin Wax: Did you encounter any surprises as you sifted through the data as you were researching this book?

Ed Stetzer: Yes. Not only did we see some surprises, but also we actually were really encouraged by these findings. It would have been unfortunate had the younger unchurched expressed interest in things that we simply couldn't offer.

In what I am sure was a clerical error, the folks at Duke Divinity recently asked me to respond to some questions about the state of the church and some other issues. I have deleted the Duke-specific part and am posting the rest here.

I. Church (Relate your answer to (1) congregations, (2) associations and regions, and (3) the denomination.)

1. What is your sense of the health of the Church?

Since I am in Orlando at the Exponential Conference, church planting is on my mind. I get a lot of requests for book recommendations, especially as they relate to church planting. In recent years we've seen a great increase in the number of books written on the subject. Here are books (along with some of my thoughts) that may be helpful to those thinking through church planting. (If I missed any, feel free to let me know. And, if you choose to share this on your blog, please note the comment about reproducing it at the end.)

Also, throughout the day, I will be tweeting some church planting related info. You can follow me on Twitter here.

"I like reading sailing books by people who have circumnavigated the globe; I prefer history from the pen of eyewitnesses who participated when the tide turned for a nation; and I want to read church planting books by people who have been down the alley-ways of neopagan Western society and know what it means to call together a new body of believers in Jesus Christ." -J. Nelson Kraybill, from the Foreword to Church Planting: Laying Foundations.

The books:

Small churches and small towns often get overlooked at our big, fancy conferences. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy and benefit from most of the conferences, but many of the issues smaller churches face are often left unaddressed at these gatherings of big church leaders. This is why I'm happy to tell you about a couple of conferences coming up that are tailored to the needs and issues facing smaller churches - and I am looking forward to sharing at both.


This Friday I'll be speaking on "The Missional Small Church" at 8:00 pm at the Tennessee Small Church Leadership Conference in Hermitage, TN. The conference is sponsored by Lifeway, IMB, and NAMB.

Here's the conference schedule:

Yesterday and today, I'm at the Acts 1:8 SENT Conference in Houston, TX. This is a conference exploring the changing shape of mission and missions. Jerry Rankin and I are the keynote speakers and there are a number of amazing breakouts. Tiffany Smith is the brains behind the operation and, if you are on Twitter, you can follow at our #SENThou hastag. (And, I am quite pleased that I was able to "set" my first hashtag on Twitter.)

Then on Monday through Wednesday I'll be at the 2009 Exponential National New Churches Conference in Orlando, FL.

Lifeway Research recently conducted a phone survey of over 1,000 randomly selected Protestant pastors concerning global warming. The question was not just whether or not global warming is happening, but if it is happening and is the result of anthropogenic greenhouse gases.

Participants were asked to indicate their level of agreement with the statement, "I believe global warming is real and man-made," and it turns out that Protestant pastors are split right down the middle. 47% agree (either strongly or somewhat), and 47% disagree (either strongly or somewhat). But the study is also interesting in that it shows that these views tend to settle in particular denominations, locations and ideologies.

Here's some of the breakdown...

75 percent of pastors in mainline denominations agree global warming is real and man-made, but only 32 percent of pastors in evangelical denominations agree. Pastors in rural areas are less convinced than large-city pastors. Forty-three percent of rural pastors and 55 percent of large-city pastors agree. Pastors in the Eastern and Western United States are more persuaded, 60 percent and 53 percent respectively, than pastors in the South (45 percent) and Midwest (40 percent).

When the pastors' personal beliefs are factored in, the differences grow even more pronounced. Among pastors who consider their political ideology liberal or very liberal, 93 percent agree that global warming is real and man-made, and 79 percent of self-perceived moderates agree. Among those who identify themselves as conservative or very conservative politically, however, agreement is only 37 percent and 16 percent respectively.

Go and read the entire article here, and the PowerPoint presentation of the data is available here.

And what about my readers? How would you answer the question, "I believe global warming is real and man-made."

The newest issue of Biola Magazine is about "The Church in the Missional Age." I was interviewed for this issue and thought I'd share some of that conversation here. Be sure to read the whole thing at the Biola Magazine website, then come back here to discuss.

BM: Ed, would you say that the average Christian has an understanding of the term "missional"? Or is it still an "insider term" among church leaders and theologians?

ES: I would say the term has started to gain wide acceptance since the turn of the millennium among Christian leaders, however I don't think it has gotten down to the rank-and-file level. I've written a book, Compelled by Love, which is trying to be a lay-level explanation of missional, and other authors are trying to do the same. But yeah, primarily it's still a pastor's or theologian's word.

BM: My sense is that there is widespread confusion about the word, even among the pastors and theologians. Is the word useful? Is it too confusing for its own good?

ES: Well, it certainly has become the descriptor du jour. I think the problem is that people tend to see in missional what they want to see. If they want to see the church do more social justice, that's "missional." If they want to be more evangelistic, that's "missional." But I still think there's a power in a new or modified word that enables us to say, "We do need something different." I think missional has become a descriptor -- an imperfect one -- of the shift we might need in evangelicalism.

...

BM: Why is the missional movement happening now? What brought it on?

ES: Recently the New York Times quoted me referring to the "modern evangelical machine." And I think there's some discomfort with the modern evangelical machine that has produced a catered, franchise, packaged Christianity that is pretty neat and freeze-dried. I think people are looking for something that is more transformational, more organic, and missional has become that which people rally to. There are other people using other words -- like "externally focused" -- which are describing similar ideas. So the question is: Does the word "missional" have enough redefining influence to help us think more biblically about the church, or will the word become a distraction? As of yet, I don't think it has become more problematic than it is helpful. I think it's still helpful.

...

BM: So the core purpose and idea of mission is good, but there have been some unintended consequences?

ES: I think every movement has unintended consequences. The unintended consequence of the church-growth movement was that we taught churches how to meet consumers' needs, and perhaps an unintended consequence of the missional movement will be that we will deemphasize some things we need to emphasize, like sharing Christ and biblical orthodoxy and things like that. And I want to learn from both.

BM: What would you say are the good, positive contributions that you've already seen coming out of this missional movement?

ES: I think a move away from preference, from church being defined by the preferences of its attendees to church being more focused on how we can be a sign and instrument of the kingdom of God in this community. So I think it's a little less self-focused, which is positive. I think its forced people to think about what is the source of our mission, and that mission is an attribute of God himself. It's helped people to see their lives as part of redemptive history, on the move, as sent ones and sent churches. I think the rediscovery that the Jesus of Luke 19:10 -- who said "I come to seek and save the lost" -- is the same Jesus as in Luke 4 -- who came to pronounce freedom for the captives, sight for the blind, and caring for the poor -- is also a positive contribution.

...

BM: Is "missional" necessarily anti-megachurch? Can you be a megachurch and also be missional?

ES: Depends on who you ask! I think it's harder to be missional if you're a megachurch, because the machine has to be serviced. I preach every week to a church with 9,000 members, so obviously I'm not anti-megachurch. But I like to think that the church functions like a yo-yo. There are two functions at work: sending itself out, like the centrifugal force, but also the force pulling us in, which is the organization that needs to be maintained. When you spin a yo-yo, the centripetal force pulling it in and the centrifugal force pushing it out are in equal balance. But I think the more your church has, the more you have to service it, the thicker the tether. I think many megachurches spend all their time servicing the tether and not sending it out on mission. If you have 10 people in your living room, all you have to worry about is the centrifugal, but if you have a megachurch you have to worry about the centripetal as well. So I think its harder as a megachurch.

BM: One of the criticisms about missional that Dan Kimball, among others, has pointed out recently is that there have not been new converts in the missional church. Do you think this is a concern?

ES: I do think that a church should not defend their lack of converts, but rather repent of it and resolve to change. I think that some missional churches want to defend it. I do think that conversion takes longer these days. People don't really know what "getting saved" means anymore. In a secular society, missional engagement and conversion are going to take longer, but at the end of the day, if all we have is reform but no one getting born again, then I don't think that's a better situation than what we have right now.

BM: I think another criticism that has been raised is just this balance that missional tries to strike between social justice and "living out" the gospel on one hand and the proclaiming or preaching of the gospel on the other. And you even talked about this at your talk at the American Society for Church Growth conference here at Biola. How do we balance these things?

ES: I think, ultimately, if I push on two fronts -- A and B -- and I only get resistance on B, then I've got to push harder on B. Now, from my perspective I might think they are equally important, but we have to remember this: When you speak of justice, people will praise you, but when you speak of Jesus, they'll condemn you. But we can't speak of Jesus without speaking of justice and we can't biblically speak of justice without understanding Jesus, so ultimately we will have to overcompensate in the area of evangelism because that's where there is resistance.

...

BM: Do you think the missional movement might bridge the gap and divisions between, for example, the "emerging" people and the neo-Reformed crowd?

ES: Well, I don't know if it will be the great unifier, but I think we can all agree on missional -- that we need to be focused on the mission of God, not on us. I speak to a lot of pastors about missional, from Assemblies of God to Reformed, and I think that all of them more or less get it, and get why it is important.

Go and check out the whole interview (there's quite a bit more), and come back to talk about these issues. What are your thoughts?

I thought I'd share a few thoughts on Easter and some photos taken during our five worship services that morning. We had a great service and tried to make much of Jesus and his mission.

I have been at the church for over a year and a half now. And, I really like the folks at First and have greatly enjoyed being there. We are coming up on two years together, but I am thinking that they will have a pastor soon so I am excited for them, but in many ways not looking forward to that day.

As an "interim" pastor, that means I am the "fill in," while they look for a new pastor. This has been a unique experience for me-- I have never been a regular attended at a large traditional megachurch, let alone served one as pastor. My background has been in contemporary churches, church planting, and innovative ministry and mission. But, God is working in all kinds of biblically faithful churches, traditional, contemporary, and emerging, and I have been thrilled and blessed to be there on journey with my friends at First in a well-done blended church setting. And, we just had a great time of worship at Easter. It made me miss being a "real" pastor!

Anyway, these interwebs were buzzing last week as we all talked about their upcoming Easter worship services. Seemed like we were all excited. I know I was. It's not that this one day is more important than any other Sunday, but that many nominal Christians and relatively unchurched individuals show up at our worship on Easter. Some are coming for the right reasons, some for the wrong, but for a variety of cultural and spiritual reasons most of our churches have higher attendance numbers on Easter than most other Sundays. And this is exciting.

But I think we can easily get confused. It's not exciting simply because attendance is higher. And it shouldn't be exciting because we put on a big show (In fact, I'd like us to take a step back from the big show, and instead make a big show of the gospel itself by clearly communicating the good news in ways people can understand). It isn't about the big band, the cool music, great choir, or whatever else we are tempted to exalt for a big show.

It's exciting because worshipping our risen Savior is exciting. It's exciting because as we make much of Christ, many more have the opportunity to hear his story and his words, and by God's grace many will believe! And, it is in many ways just like any other Sunday-- the gospel is preached and people need to live a cross-centered life in the power of the resurrection.

Let's not lose focus of this: no show, stage dressing, egg drop, or speaker should eclipse the one who conquered sin and death. We want people walking out of our worship remembering, talking about, wondering and marveling over Jesus, not a show.

We had a wonderful God-honoring service at First Baptist Church of Hendersonville and, I hope we make that our focus.

Jesus is the point. On Easter, today, and every day.

By the way, if you are interested in listening to my weekly messages, you can do so here. I have been preaching through Ephesians and three of those messages are on the site in addition to a new series I have started this week on Easter called "Lies We Believe." They are all here and you can also subscribe on iTunes. Finally, thanks to David Walley for the pictures.

As a Christian, a researcher, a pastor, and a father I am very interested in the spiritual temperature of the younger generations. In surveys conducted by Lifeway Research we found that many have been getting it wrong concerning the younger unchurched.

In fact, 73 percent of unchurched twentysomethings consider themselves "spiritual" and would like to know more about "God or a higher supreme being." This is 11 percent higher than among unchurched individuals who are 30 years old and older. They are also significantly more likely to attend church or a small group than older, unchurched generations. This research is included in my newest book, Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches That Reach Them, co written by Richie Stanley and Jason Hayes. You can get some more numbers and thoughts from the authors of the book in this article at Lifeway.

Below you can check out a podcast where Jason Hayes and I discuss the younger generations and the churches that reach them. Give it a listen and share your thoughts in the comments.

I didn't do a "Saturday is for Seminars" this week because it was Holy Week and my mind was elsewhere. But, today, we are 'a "seminar-ing."

Right now I am in the car driving to Birmingham with my friend and co-author (of Compelled by Love) and the author of the new small group curriculum by the same name.

We are headed to two places.

First, we go to the Women's Missionary Union. It is the largest women's missionary organization in the world and an auxiliary to my denomination. The leadership there has a great passion for global missions and I look forward to my time with them this morning. Without the WMU, my denomination would not have the missions focus that, in many ways, defines the SBC.

Then, we are heading to Beeson Divinity School at Samford University. They have been kind to give me an award as "D.Min. alumnus of the year." Philip is also a graduate so we are looking forward to visiting our old school.

My experience at Beeson was incredibly encouraging. To see conservative evangelical scholars working together from different denominational traditions was a remarkable thing. My time with Timothy George was great as was the interaction with all the faculty. I will be lecturing in some classes and doing lunch with some friends.

More via Twitter...

Since I did not want to post "on top" of this "Convergent Church" interview, I posted a clarification below from Rick Warren's people below. Click here to read that and only comment on that issue in the Rick Warren post.

What prompted the writing of the book?

Alvin: Mark and I had talked for some time about writing a book together that would bring together ethics (Mark's field) and evangelism (Alvin's) in a way that is rarely seen. As we witnessed the rise of the Emerging/Emergent movement and as we observed the waning influence of the evangelical church, we began to talk about writing a book that was even more, a book that looked at faith and culture in our time in a manner that would not only discuss relevant issues, but also offer suggestions for change.

Mark: While this book interacts with the emergent church, I think for both of us it is much bigger than that one issue. We are concerned that as culture on the whole embraces the ideas of post-modernity (or what David Wells call "hyper-modernity") the Church must be careful to do three things:

1) Know where we are and how we got here,

2) Re-invigorate our commitment to foundational faith and doctrinal certainty,

3) Layout sound strategies to live in culture as missional worshippers

This book is our attempt to serve the Church by writing on these very things.

What do you mean by convergence?

Mark: It is so important for us evangelicals to not be afraid to listen to our critics. We do so many things well... but not everything. Like it or not, there are areas that conventional Christians have failed methodologically and where we are also failing to listen and learn. Thus, when we say "convergence" we are hoping to give an honest listen to folks in the emerging church movement who seem to be very aware of some very important ways the "conventional" church has failed to recognize we are living in a new era of thought and cultural norms. At the same time, while listening we also want to be careful not to simply capitulate to new ideas without first testing them by the standard of God's word and historical orthodoxy. Thus, convergence means an attempt to take the best critiques of the emergent movement while rigorously seeking to stay true to the doctrinal purity that the conventional evangelical church fought so hard to maintain.

Alvin: Simply put we mean bringing together the best of two things that may not be exactly alike for the greater good. Mark and I had such a convergence in writing the book. I grew up in the south and have pretty much always been a Southern Baptist. Mark grew up a self-proclaimed "theological mutt," and only recently has become committed to the SBC. I am not a Calvinist and Mark is; I teach evangelism, Mark ethics; and in all these things we have attained a personal convergence that we think can happen in the evangelical world and in our tradition.

What do you mean by "conventional" and "emerging?"

Alvin: I will let Mark answer this one.

Mark: While it would be wrong to categorize the Emerging Church Movement (ECM) as one large, monolithic entity, in our book we lay out what we believe to be six aspects or traits that serve as core values of the ECM. These include a commitment to being missional in methodology, wholistic in ministry emphasis (practice not just doctrine), culturally and contextually relevant. Crucially, this group will describe themselves as post-evangelical in the sense of "outgrowing" evangelical ideas of the past. This does not not necessarily abandoning them, but being willing to move beyond.

In light of these core elements we also identify (following Ed Stetzer's lead) four different "streams" or divisions appearing within the emerging church movement: relevants are those who are doctrinally conservative but methodologically innovative; reconstructionists who are seeking ecclesiological change; revisionists who are willing to surrender key elements of historic orthodoxy in order to achieve relevance; and a group we call roamers because while they are disenchanted with the conventional way of doing things, they are uncertain of where to go forward and often merely drop out of local churches and attempt to go it alone.

Is this even possible? Can we attain a convergence today?

Alvin: We believe it not only possible but essential. You can see this in the SBC today. There is a growing tension between holding on to our conventions, our heritage, and at the same time a growing number who argue that if we do not see a genuine, deep, biblical, great commission resurgence our convention will slide more and more into decline. While we did not write the book with that in mind, we think it can add much to discussions in our own tradition.

Mark: I can only wholeheartedly agree with Alvin. Too often we evangelicals find ourselves years behind the cultural shifts and thus we miss out on great opportunities to be in the midst of the messiness of life where only the name of Jesus can bring healing and hope. Emergents seem to have the vision of where culture is going, conventionals have the hope of truth and biblical fidelity. Lets figure out how to take the best of both so that we can be about the mission of God for the glory of God in the most effective manner possible!

How does this relate to converging evangelism with social ministry?

Mark: There seems to be a rather unhealthy fear among evangelical leaders that as soon as someone wants to engage social justice issues they will also surrender historical orthodoxy to do so. No question there is historical precedence for such a fear in light of the "social gospel movement" of the early 20th century. But the greater and richer history of the people of God is that throughout the previous 2000 years it has consistently been the people of God wh were not afraid to stand up for social justice issues that have also been some of the most effective witnesses to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One need only think of Annie Armstrong or William Wilberforce to understand this. In our chapter on this issue, however, we expressly emphasize that it is via a intentional direct VERBAL proclamation of the gospel message that social justice ministries reach their most effective level. It is a both/and strategy and methodology.

How does this translate into effective church ministry?

Alvin: our attitude is one can add without subtracting. We do not argue for abolishing current methods of evangelism, but reshaping our perspective and changing the culture of our churches to be less institutional and more missional. We offer eight points of convergent evangelism:

Mark: Likewise, discipleship and mentoring moves out of the classroom and into the lives of men and women who we must seek to train up into mature and ministering worshippers of God. This is not to say Sunday school and curriculum based training is a thing of the past - far from it. When combined with life on life accountability, interfacing with lost people in real life settings and commitment to authentic community we see significant change in the quality of life, discipleship and ministry of the people of God.

Mark and/or Alvin will be on the blog today to answer your questions, so jump in the comments and let's talk. Also, I wrote the book's foreword and will post that later this week.

This clarification has been sent out to news outlets and has been posted in several locations across the Internet:

Here are some things I mentioned in this morning's message.

First, here is the Newsweek story I mentioned. Jon Meacham, the author of that Newsweek story, talked with my friend Tim Keller during "Morning Joe" here:

And, here is the clip from the Colbert Report:

Of course, this is comedy-- but I love the part about him "burying the lead: God died."

For more information, J.D. Greear addresses Ehrman's comments here (and references his earlier post here). Ben Witherington also addresses Ehrman's claims does in the comments here.

As I said in my message this morning, I want to follow the one who was dead and is now alive!

Have a great Easter!

He is risen indeed.

As you may know, I am kinda' into Twitter. A few of us at LifeWay have jumped in (including the big boss, Thom Rainer) and we find it to be a helpful (and enjoyable) tool.

But, I know that some of you blog readers have been hesitant to jump in. There are some obvious pros and cons in social networking (and I have opined on that subject here.) But, let me encourage you to start a Twitter account and get going.

In order to help you make the leap into social networking, I am giving away some signed copies of my new book (written with Richie Stanley and Jason Hayes), Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and Churches that Reach Them.

Here's a quick look into what it's all about:

Who are the young unchurched, and how can they be reached with the good news of Jesus Christ?

In a poll result highlighted by CNN Headline News and USA Today, nearly half of nonchurchgoers between the ages of twenty and twenty-nine agreed with the statement, "Christians get on my nerves." Now, researchers behind the larger study present Lost and Found, a blend of dynamic hard data and modern day parable that tells the real story of an unchurched generation that is actually quite spiritual and yet circumspect, open to Jesus but not the church.

And, here is a video the fine folks at B&H made. It made me chuckle.

Now, here are the giveaway rules:

Once my Twitter "followers" reach 6000, I will give away a free book to every tenth person that follows. That should be 6000, 6010, 6020, etc. up until 6100. However, the count is based on my notifications. (Each time someone follows you get an email notice.) So, I will simply mark when I get the 6000th follower and then count every 10 after that until 10 books are given away.

If someone "unfollows" during that time, it could mean that the count you see and the number of follows I receive do not line up. My count is final. And, since more than one person might "follow" at 6000, my notification will be the signal for a free book.

And, these are for new followers I am encouraging to connect with via Twitter. If you are brand new Twitter, that will be great, but if we are just new "Twitter friends," that is OK, too. (And, I follow back all who follow me.) Now, for the 26 of you who "unfollowed" after I announced the contest on Twitter for "new" followers, I will let your conscience be your guide. ;-)

Everyone will be notified via Twitter direct message within 24 hours.

I hope to see you on Twitter.

You're probably reading this first sentence with some skepticism. "Missional" is the highly abused buzzword that gets attached to too many things already. You may be thinking, "What in the world is a 'missional wedding,' and why would I care?" However, some pastors see helping couples outside of the church through the marriage process is a great way to connect the unchurched to the gospel.

Bill Yaccino has served in pastoral ministries for 18 years, and is now the Executive Director of Catalyst, a network of congregations in Lake County, IL that collaborate towards greater Kingdom impact. (www.Catalystweb.org) His Web site, WeddingPastorsUSA.org, connects pastors with couples who are looking for ministers to perform their wedding ceremonies, and he's hoping to see more pastors take advantage of this great spiritual and cultural need. He sent me some information and I asked for permission to put it here on the blog for you to discuss. Bill calls these "missional weddings."

Bill was recently telling me that he sees this as an "in the trenches" opportunity to serve our communities. And in this situation couples come to the pastors! He said, "In Chicago, I performed over 50 weddings in 2008 and gave away over 100 to local pastors in the area!"

Bill recently pointed out that in most large U.S. cities, 35 to 45 percent of all weddings occur outside the church. "In fact," he writes, "according to a survey by Condé Nast Bridal Media, there was a nine percent decrease in the last year of couples married in a church or synagogue. And while an increasing number of ceremonies are held in parks, banquet halls, museums, hotels, and private homes, the vast majority of those couples say they still want it to be "spiritual" in nature. Most don't know what that means, yet they equate spirituality (not religion) with significance and authenticity."

So Bill's dream is for missional pastors to engage the communities God has sent them to by serving couples in need of someone to guide them through the process of covenanting together in marriage. Many pastors find themselves too busy, or too uncomfortable, to marry people outside of the church. Bill was one of those guys. But he found that this ministry helps him to connect with outsiders in real and important ways that give him the opportunity to share Christ in word and deed. He wants other pastors to get in on it too.

Bill also has a site to get other pastors involved. Download and read his article, Pastor, Will You Help Us?, in Rev! Magazine here, and then check out WeddingPastorsUSA.org for more information.

So, here is my question. What do you think? What approach do you take when you are approached by people outside of your church? What about outside of the faith?

Bill will be dropping by to answer any questions you might have.

Christian George has written two books that are connecting with a growing number of people - especially younger generations. Sex, Sushi and Salvation, and his newest, Godology: Because Knowing God Changes Everything, both push a biblical concept of God while using very non-traditional language and imagery. Christian lives in St. Andrews, Scotland with his wife Rebecca. He holds a Master of Divinity Degree from Beeson Divinity School and is working on a PhD in theology.

Christian will be on the blog today interacting with your questions about the book, theology, the Christian life, or the younger generations in the church.

So Christian, why "Godology"?

Godology is the idea of theology up close and personal. I wrote Godology because I sense within my generation a real hunger for authentic Christianity. This is a book for those who want to dig deeper in their faith--to trade rakes for shovels. In each chapter I explore an attribute of God, a spiritual discipline that helps us know him better, and a practical way to express that truth in the world. It's my hope that this upward, inward, and outward approach will foster intimacy with Christ and community with others.

How is this book different from other books about God and spiritual disciplines?

One thing I try to do is use fresh language to talk about ancient truths. There's so much in the past that evangelicals can draw on that will aid us in the future. What I'm saying in this book isn't new - it's orthodox Christian evangelicalism through and through. But I love to look at the Bible through lenses that help us think about our faith in new ways. You won't find some of the spiritual disciplines I talk about on typical "top 10 spiritual discipline lists" (art, labyrinth walking, and vow making, for example), but they're practices that have benefited Christians throughout the centuries and can invigorate our spiritual lives.

You have some pretty creative chapter titles. In "Jesus Ninja," you talk about God's power and say things like, "Sin bows before Christ its sensei." How did you decided to use these kinds of images in Godology?

I always try to view life holistically. Christianity isn't compartmentalized to one part of life. It touches everything. I try to see Christ at work in everyday activities - as a [wannabe] martial artist, as a student, and as a musician, whatever. What I'm trying to do is incarnate theology for people who might not pick up an academic theological textbook, and to show people that theology is exciting. Jesus used word pictures to talk about eternal truths. He connected with people through images they could relate to. So when I say that "holiness is the lone Kit Kat bar in a bucket of Butterfingers," or "journals are blogs for the soul," I'm trying to paint the Christian life in a way that a new generation can resonate with.

In Godology, you challenge some of the ways we live life and do church. Talk about some of these.

I'm very hopeful for my generation. I believe God is brewing a revival in our youth groups and on our college campuses. It's not boiling yet, but it's brewing. We're taking our faith outside of the walls of the church and showing the world that Christianity is a call to serve and love in radical ways. In other words, we're tired of a kiddie-pool Christianity; we want to go deeper. In Godology, I encourage believers to take seriously practices that fuel our faith and draw us closer to God and each other. These disciplines are a call to a counter-cultural way of life.

Silence is a forgotten element that can play a significant role in our worship services. Fasting teaches us how to really feast on Christ. Virtual prayer walking can open our eyes to what God is doing in other parts of the globe. God uses practices like these to wipe off our spiritual milk mustaches and exchange earthly habits for holy ones.

In Godology, you talk about God's attributes. Is there one that you have struggled with the most?

Definitely God's holiness. I actually wrote that chapter barefoot - kind of a Moses-before-the-burning-bush approach. Trying to condense God's holiness into twelve pages was an impossible (and probably dangerous) thing to do. I think a more solid understanding of God's holiness is one thing we're starting to recover in our churches - the high voltage glory of God. We're getting glimpses of a God who is bigger and brighter than we thought, and it's reminding us of how God got down and dirty on earth so we can be holy too. That's the beauty of Christianity. Christ came down to lift us up. When we recognize this - when we understand that a holy God intersected with a broken world - we can offer the world something truly worth living for.

Hit Christian with your questions in the comments section below. He'll be on the blog throughout the day.

LifeWay Research recently finished a survey that reveals the ministry priorities of pastoral leadership in churches of various sizes in the SBC. The study, "Critical Ministries and Their Leadership," surveyed 801 Southern Baptist pastors about what they believed were the most critical ministries in their churches, whether those ministries have effective leadership in place and how they relate to those ministry leaders. Mark Kelly unpacks some of the data in an article written for Lifeway news.

When pastors were asked to list up to five ministries in their order of importance, the largest group (24 percent) identified evangelism/outreach as the most important. The next six ministries identified as most important were Sunday school/Bible study/small groups (17 percent); worship/specific worship services (13 percent); preaching/proclamation/preaching (10 percent); children/youth (9 percent); discipleship/spiritual growth/mentoring/counseling (7 percent); and prayer/prayer ministry/prayer groups (5 percent).

When a list of the five ministries mentioned most often was compiled, however, children/youth moved to the top, identified as one of the five most important ministries by 85 percent of the respondents. The other four most-mentioned ministries were evangelism/outreach (68 percent); Sunday school/Bible study/small groups (53 percent); discipleship/spiritual growth/mentoring/counseling (37 percent); and worship/specific worship services (33 percent).

One of the interesting finds what that the size of a church determined which of the ministries described above were considered most important. Churches with fewer than 100 in worship attendance are much more likely to see evangelism as a critical ministry than churches with 250 or more in attendance (72 vs 60 percent). Churches with worship attendance between 100 and 249 are more likely to list children's or youth ministry as critical compared to smaller churches (90 vs 83 percent).

Larger churches (worship attendance of 250 or more) are more likely to include worship or worship services as a critical ministry (46 percent) compared to small (30 percent) or midsize churches (33 percent), McConnell noted. Smaller churches (worship attendance under 100) are significantly less likely to include missions or Sunday school/Bible study/small groups among their most important ministries.

The study (and Kelly's article) goes on to examine effective leadership. Read the article, it's all very interesting, and come back to discuss.

Churches of differing sizes have different ministry priorities. Is this good or bad, or is it just the natural and/or necessary prioritization that stems from the nature of a local church and it's size?

I really enjoy teaching at seminaries, and value the interaction with students over a longer term.  I consider it a privilege to teach at schools passionate about the gospel.

I get that I am a bit of a motivational speaker (who lives in a van down by the river). Every week, I go somewhere and talk to pastors and church leaders about gospel, church and mission. When I come and speak, people want me to bring a  "dynamic message." Fair enough. But I am skeptical that a 30 minute message with Bible, humor, and illustrations can really produce the change I hope to see. (Even in those settings, I try to direct people to the blog, books, etc.)

Over the course of time these crowds have become larger, and though I know I am supposed to be glad about that, sometimes the "big program" works against the relational connection that I put a lot of value in. By teaching at a seminary, I get to connect with people bit longer and work through some deeper issues that simply require time.

Now, this is not to say that all theological education is well done. I have been in settings where professors and students hold firm positions, debate them aggressively, criticize constantly, and tell other students "how it must be," even though their theoretical ideas won't work outside the hollowed walls of the academy.

On the other hand, I have seen healthy environments. In these environments, students and faculty are on a journey of learning together-- with a common mission and purpose. 

I have thought much about seminaries having taught at more than a dozen different schools. I greatly appreciate those with a strong focus on God's global mission.  As a missiologist, I am particularly interested in and enthused about schools with a passion for mission.

I think of Columbia International University as a great example of a good learning environment driven by God's global mission. I have taught a few classes there and almost joined the faculty at Columbia Biblical Seminary.  (This was before Thom Rainer, Brad Waggoner, and LifeWay called and changed our direction.) Our draw there was because of their mission-shaped curriculum and their high view of scripture.

CIU is  serious about making God's global mission central to their ethos. The schools mission statement says "Equipping Great Commission Christians to minister in multicultural communities." And, it is obvious that mission is their passion and their passion and their ethos.  They require every course to be taught through the lens of mission.

I think such a mission-shaped ethos is both essential and (unfortunately) missing at many schools.

One school that is still thinking through how best to do this is Biblical Seminary in Hatfield, PA (near Philadelphia). Biblical is in the midst of a transition. Like most periods of change, it has not been without fits and starts. But, I appreciate their passion to create a "missional" focus. I had a great time there a few weeks ago teaching, "Entering the Missional Conversation."

I have loved teaching at schools like the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, Indiana Wesleyan University, Reformed Theological Seminary, and some of my own denominational seminaries, but I have decided I need to focus so I can have longer interaction with students and faculty colleagues.  I am doing so be putting my focus on two schools with a high view of scripture and a focus on mission: Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

A few months back, I talked about my role at Trinity.  I taught at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School a few weeks ago (the pic above is from that time) and I will be doing so at least twice a year. Here is the info about my most recent class and I will be teaching there again this fall, October 26-30th. Trinity is a remarkable school and I encourage you to check it out. I am honored they would invite me to teach there.

Here on the blog I also mentioned that I was joining the faculty of Southeastern. Southeastern is a great seminary with a growing influence inside, and well beyond, the SBC. If you're considering a seminary education, you should give SEBTS some serious thought. In June, I'm teaching a D. Min. course at SEBTS titled, Practical and Strategic Issues in Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth. 

So, my two schools are Trinity and Southeastern, two schools focused on God's global mission with a high view of scripture. I hope to see you there!

Here is the syllabus for my upcoming class at Southeastern:

The blog has been on "content overload" as of late, so perhaps a lighter topic might be helpful. If you follow on Twitter, you know I like to take the kids to movies. But, I am also particular about what I take my daughters (ages 4, 6, and 10) to see. Since I am now officially on vacation, I am quite certain we will be checking out some movies.

Obviously, one of the dominant forms of art and entertainment in our culture is film. We've got it all these days when you go to the mulit-plex: "Popcorn flicks," independent film, "Rom' Com's," drama, "bio-pics," summer blockbusters, the never ending stream of re-makes (or re-imagining for those trying to feel better about it), and of course we have the man who is a genre unto himself - Michael Bay. In the last few years we've also seen a growing number of "Christian films" of varying degrees of quality getting theatrical releases.

With movies playing such a large roll in American culture Christians always have something to say about the film industry and the new releases that hit the big screen every weekend. It seems like much of it is complaining. Some of that is valid, but sometimes I think we should take ourselves to task.

If you have children, it is your job to check out the film before you to to the movie.

Maybe you took your kids to see Michael Bay's Transformers without knowing the content. Well, you knew it wouldn't be an Oscar nominated film - it's a Michael Bay movie, after all.

But giant robots fighting it out on the big screen? Robots that can change into suped up Cameros? Robots that had cartoon series and toys you were into as a kid? You expected something exciting and fun. You didn't expect it would have some of the more coarse parts.

You can take issue with those choices by the filmmaker, but you took your kids to see it without knowing what you were walking into - and you should have. You could have.

We recently were going to take the kids to see "Marley and Me." Seemed like a happy film about a cute couple with a fun loving dog. Well... you might want to check out the review before you go (we did and decided it was not for our kids).

Let me just encourage everyone to be responsible participants in the culture, thoughtful movie-goers, and involved parents. If you take your kids to see a movie without doing your homework on the content of the film, and then find the film objectionable, don't yell at the industry or film makers before you sit yourself down for a serious talking to. You dropped the ball. It's easier than ever to find out what's in a move before you drop $60 on tickets and snacks for the family.

No, you can't rely on the ratings system (it's broken), nor the trailer (they're trying to sell you tickets!), but you can get the low-down on the themes of the movie, language used, sexual content, violence, and of course reviews on the quality and value of the film as well all before you cross the velvet rope. Here are a few helpful resources for the thoughtful movie goer.

Plugged In Online
Kids in Mind
Screen it
Rotten Tomatoes (not a Christian site, but compiles reviews and gives an overall "fresh" or "rotten" rating-- and you don't want to go to bad movies just because they are "clean" movies, right?)

Are there other resources you use in checking out a film before you go to see it? Share in the comments below.

Scott McConnell has been researching the beliefs, behaviors, needs and preferences of church leaders, laity, and the unchurched for over 12 years. He is the Associate Director of LifeWay Research and has written the new book, Multi-Site Churches: Guidance for the Movement's Next Generation. It seems like everyone is going mulit-site these days. But is it for everyone? Can any church go multi-site? Should every church set up multiple campuses? Check out this interview with Scott as he addresses these questions and much more. Then jump into the comments and ask questions. Scott will be around today interacting with the readers.

What classifies as a multi-site church?

Continue reading Church Leadership Book Interview: Multi-Site Churches w/ Scott McConnell.