Change Is Possible!

[revtj]

GOOD NEWS! Homophobes Can Be Changed by Jesus Christ!

Rick Warren-inspired break from tradition causes a stir

By Gwendolyn Driscoll

The Orange County Register

(MCT)

NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Armed with rakes, a group of Baptist churchgoers in big-wheeled pickups surround the house of Harold Hawley, 67, and his partner of 26 years, Harry Longmore, 69.

The Baptists are not here to protest the presence in their quiet, east Texas town of two gay men. They are here to help.

"That's what raking leaves is: just helping someone who needs help," says Allan Rainey, 21, a church volunteer clad in a straw cowboy hat and plaid shirt. "This is what church needs to be all the time."

It is February 2006. Rainey is here with Billy McDaniel, an associate pastor at nearby Fredonia Hill Baptist Church, and about a dozen other congregants to tend to Hawley's leaf-strewn yard. Hawley, who suffers from hypertension and whose partner has Alzheimer's, says he cannot do it himself.

The good deed is more than an act of neighborliness in this close-knit rural corner of east Texas. Rainey and McDaniel are conducting a six-week campaign of community service designed to translate faith into action. In the process, they hope that the campaign - Saddleback Church's "40 Days of Community" - will transform their 91-year-old Bible Belt church.

They are not alone. Across the country, traditional churches facing graying membership and a younger generation seemingly uninterested in church have sought new methods to boost attendance and Christian commitment. (The number of Southern Baptist baptisms alone decreased by 4.15 percent from 2004 to 2005, according to the denomination's LifeWay Christian Resources.)

That desire has spurred the growth of pastor- and church growth-training networks such as the 11,000-church Willow Creek Association and Saddleback's "Purpose-Driven Ministries," which has trained about 45,000 churches. It has also aroused controversy.

At Fredonia Hill, the most obvious sign of the divide between traditional methods and Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren's more modern style is the transparent sound shield that protects the eardrums of older members from the church's new contemporary music band.

For Fredonia Hill Senior Pastor Johnny Dammon, the band is a way of attracting young people with "a dynamic expression of worship."

As are the two "Purpose-Driven" campaigns his church has tried: "40 Days of Purpose" (in which church members attempt to find their Christ-centered "purpose" by studying Warren's best-selling book, "The Purpose-Driven Life") and 40 Days of Community, a program of charitable outreach.

"I felt like we were at a time when we needed a shot in the arm spiritually," Dammon says. "We know we are not going to be Saddleback; we don't want to be. But we saw some very positive benefits."

Saddleback staff say those benefits include an average 20 percent rise in attendance at churches that try the ministry's campaigns.

At Fredonia Hill, Dammon says attendance rose 6 percent to 7 percent in the year after 40 Days of Purpose. Baptisms in the church rose to 30 in 2005 from about 20 in 2004.

Dammon is one of 400,000 pastors Saddleback staff say have tried a "40 Days" campaign or otherwise been trained by Saddleback Church's nonprofit Purpose-Driven Ministries over the past 26 years.

The goal is to instill what Warren calls "the five purposes of the church": worship, ministry, evangelism, fellowship and discipleship.

Warren illustrates these concepts through two diagrams - a baseball diamond and a series of concentric circles - that demonstrate the church's goal of transforming potential churchgoers into committed members and evangelists, usually through classes, volunteer activity, the Purpose-Driven campaigns and now Warren's PEACE plan, a global effort to link churches in programs of evangelical and humanitarian outreach.

40 Days campaigns recommend specific activities (a "Kick Off" message by Warren, study groups) and sell church campaign kits for $395. But they also leave space for churches to interpret the "five purposes."

In Nacogdoches, Dammon mimicked Saddleback's worship style by replacing organ music with a lead singer strumming an amplified guitar. He also started using PowerPoint presentations to show lyrics.

"The typical Southern Baptist church here would be a piano and an organ, and you would open your hymnals," Dammon says.

But the small "cells" of worshippers that Saddleback uses to organize its 22,000 members were less successful with Dammon's flock.

"That's a real foreign concept to most churches in the Bible Belt," Dammon says. "We have Sunday school. That is our small group expression."

Creating clones of Saddleback is not the point, Warren says. Instead, he compares his "purpose-driven" method to "the Linux of Christianity" - a program that helps churches implement practical strategies around "eternal principles" without dictating points of doctrine.

Such open-endedness attracts a wide range of churches and often fosters a contemporary worship style appealing to youth.

According to a survey by the Christian research organization the Barna Group, six out of 10 spiritually active teenagers stopped engaging in worship in their 20s, a pattern of apathy that deepens with age. Programs that hold the promise of renewal for aging churches (and Warren's own reputation for building a successful megachurch) may explain at least part of the success of the purpose-driven movement.

In the feistily independent world of evangelical Christianity, such programs are also a cause for concern.

Critics contend that the campaigns have sowed discord among some churches reluctant to relinquish more traditional forms of worship in favor of Warren's more contemporary - and to some, unbiblical - style. (Warren's focus on positive, self-help-style messages and his use of multiple Bible translations is a source of consternation to some of his critics, who say he molds Scripture to fit his ideas.)

"Christianity is not designed to be some attractive thing to make everybody feel better and be popular in the world," says Bob DeWaay, a Minneapolis pastor of a 200- to 250-member church and author of "Redefining Christianity," a book critical of the "purpose-driven" approach. "It's a teaching that's about atonement and redemption."

Backlash by traditionalists spurred a spate of negative publicity this year. During the same period, the Purpose-Driven program experienced a steep decline in revenue, necessitating the layoff of 33 members of its staff. There are currently 130 members on staff. Additionally, Purpose-Driven Ministries relinquished its autonomy and was folded under the wing of Saddleback Church for cost-savings reasons.

Church staff say those most likely to try the program - the "movers and shakers" interested in new techniques of church growth - have already done so.

"The other churches that didn't pick it up were either afraid or it was too expensive or it just wasn't the right timing," says David Chrzan, Warren's chief of staff. "There are a number of reasons. Maybe God didn't want us to build a brand."

Even Warren followers such as Dammon say there has been tension over the new methods, especially among older members of the church.

"There's always a tension," Dammon says. "The reason I can get away with it here is the people trust me. They know I'm not a radical upstart, I'm not going to take them anyplace they don't want to go."

Dammon and Warren say churches must adapt to the tastes and preferences of future generations, or risk losing them.

"The message must never change," Warren writes. "But the methods must change with each new generation."

Ana Munzinger, 24, a new member of Fredonia Hill, agrees.

Munzinger says she previously attended a Methodist Church in Corpus Christi that she described as "a lot more structured and a little cold. There was a lot more politics and it just kinda turned me off."

Fredonia Hill's emphasis on practical, unimpeachable good works - and its lack of overt judgment about people such as Hawley, whose sexuality does not conform to Baptist beliefs - is "what church should be about," she says.

[BruceChris]

Or if being Open and Affirming/Accepting did, but I know of two churches that I've been to recently, where there is a very clear age/gender split. Most everybody over a certain age is hetro, and most everybody under isn't. Clearly, they're learning something. One is UCC, and one is Baptist, albeit a very Liberal Baptist.

And then there's my church, where being Open and Affirming means going out and recruiting Straight People! (But still, as straight people)


Edit: Now that is one version of "In Christ, All Things Are Possible" that works for US. - And I might suggest that we make this argument, when it is useful.

By which I mean that the power of Christ's love can cause judgemental homophobes to be accepting and loving, Not that it can/should turn gays straight.

Peace and Love, Bruce Chris

[scott snedeker]

nice story!

Scotty

[Daniel]

Originally Posted by revtj

GOOD NEWS! Critics contend that the campaigns have sowed discord among some churches reluctant to relinquish more traditional forms of worship in favor of Warren's more contemporary - and to some, unbiblical - style. (Warren's focus on positive, self-help-style messages and his use of multiple Bible translations is a source of consternation to some of his critics, who say he molds Scripture to fit his ideas.)

"Christianity is not designed to be some attractive thing to make everybody feel better and be popular in the world," says Bob DeWaay, a Minneapolis pastor of a 200- to 250-member church and author of "Redefining Christianity," a book critical of the "purpose-driven" approach. "It's a teaching that's about atonement and redemption."

Interesting story. I have no doubt the elderly gay couple appreciated the help. With the growing population of elderly- we are going to need more and more of this kind of approach.

The critic's persepctive, I think, reveals two things, one being that the old order where faith must be so very serious may be waning somewhat: people of faith do want to feel better and be involved in ways that really matter. What, after all, is wrong with that? DeWaay's use of the word popular says more about DeWaay than it does Warren perhaps. The other thing is this: everyone, it seems to me, molds scripture in one way or another to suit their purposes. It's how you use a thing that matters. Unless, of course, one wants to worship form over substance.

Hey. I'm not a fan of Warren's, but good works, as I see it, go in the right direction. Good for them.