I don't think there is a lot to say here about this UFC. This card is pretty much a one horse show, with Jackson v Jardine at the top, the rest of the matches are not that big of a deal. That being the case, I will only comment on two matchups.
Jackson v Jardine
This fight will not go well for Jardine. Jackson has too much speed, too much strength, and too much power. I call this fight for Jackson either via knockout or TKO probably in the 2nd round. Jardine is a good fighter at 205, but will never make it to the top of the heap in the UFC. That is no disrespect to his skills, its just to say that his natural abilities are just not top 3 level, and they won't ever be. Jackson, on the other hand, has tremendous athletic ability and has made some good adjustments to his training since joining up with the boys from Wolfslair. Once Jackson puts Jardine aside, the table should be set for the Jackson-Rashad Evans title fight, and I don't have to tell even the casual MMA fan that that will be a huge fight.
Gonzaga v Carwin
I really like this matchup for a lot of reasons. Carwin is an enormous guy with great athletic ability, excellent wrestling, and improved striking. Gonzo has great jujitsu and improved striking, as well as a ton of big-time MMA experience. I have a hunch that Gonzo wins this via submission. Carwin is a great wrestler, but I don't have confidence that he wins if this thing goes to the ground. The wild card in this fight is the stand up game. Will Carwin be able to use his greater size to tie Gonzo up, control the distance between them, and hold him against the cage and dirty box him, or will Gonzo keep Carwin at bay with leg kicks and superior foot work? At the end of the day I say Gonzo has too much experience against better opponents to lose this, but Carwin does have a chance for an upset. Look for a great fight and I think the winner of this match can make a strong argument that they deserve a shot at the belt.
Enjoy the fights!
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Churchapreneurs: a Reformed response
As we take up our final installment in this series, I want to conclude by offering a way forward. Before I do that, I want to briefly review what we have said. We began by defining a churchapreneur: a churchapreneur is a pastor of a local church who views Christianity as a product to be marketed and sold. In other words, churchapreneurs see the church and Christianity as a means of seeking financial gain and gaining access to power and influence through growing a big business. The churchapreneur creed is well articulated in the poster that hangs outside of Bill Hybel's office: what is our business? who is our customer? what does our customer consider value? This view is prevalent throughout Protestant evangelicalism today. To confirm that, all you have to do is take a look at the "whose who" of North American Christianity and the overwhelming percentage of them are churchapreneurs, from Chuck Smith, to Robert Schuller, to Joel Osteen, to Rick Warren. All of these men have compromised Biblical standards and replaced them with pragmatic practices designed to build their megachurch empires.
With that brief overview in mind, my purpose now is to offer a way forward that is Biblical and CONFESSIONAL. My aim is not to rehash critiques of broader evangelicalism, but to propose a model for confessionally Reformed churches to follow in order to counteract the devastating effects of the churchapreneur model upon the image of the church today.
First, Reformed churches need to stress the nature of church. One of the most significant questions that has to be answered in order to offset the business model of church is, what is a church? That's really the nub of the debate; if scripture did not include any teaching on the nature of the church, if it did not condemn using the church and Christianity to get rich and acquire influence and power, we would have no quarrel with churchapreneurs. The fact is however, scripture forbids using the ministry and the church as a means of financial gain, and it does give explicit teaching about the nature of the church. Over against the the business model of church, scripture teaches that the visible church is the covenant people of God and exists to be a word and sacrament institution governed by duly called and appointed elders. The church consists of believers and their children, and is authorized to worship collectively and Biblically, shepherd the saints lovingly, and evangelize the lost relentlessly. The primary way all three of these objectives is accomplished is through the public preaching of the word by a lawfully ordained minister of the word; and then secondly, that public, verbal ministry of the word is publicly reinforced through the proper administration of the sacraments, which are designed to visibly signify the gospel, and to seal and intesify our union with Christ. So, the first way for Reformed churches to work to counteract the unbiblical, churchapreneur business model is to identify the nature and function of the church, and then to faithfully implement that at the local church level. The visible church is not a business and it is not a social organization, it is the covenant people of God, believers and their children, and it exists to preach the word, administer the sacraments, and lovingly shepherd God's people.
Second, the Reformed church needs to recommit to the regulative principle. The regulative principle, as stated in our Reformed confessions, is that we may worship God in no other way than he has commanded in His word. That means, that the church, when it gathers for worship, may only do what God has commanded in scripture. This is a very challenging principle, because it is so clear cut: it does not permit good intentions, people's preferences, or church traditions to determine what is done in worship; it only permits what is commanded either explicitly or what is deduced by good and necessary inference. Just because some people find certain things "meaningful" or "enjoyable" does not mean that its warranted to have in worship. Additionally, just because we think certain practices or styles of music might attract unbelievers to church, that, of itself, does not authorize the church to worship in that manner. God is worshipped only in the way He has commanded. If you think about that, it makes perfect sense. God knows Himself and what glorifies Him better than we know Him and what glorifies Him; and therefore, we must not presume to be wiser than God by offering worship to Him that seems fitting, proper, and even satisfying to us, if He did not command it. To do so is to put ourselves above God and dictate to Him what He should like.
If the church submitted to this principle, much of what passes for worship, in the name of "innovation" or "creativity" or "seeker sensitivity," would be eliminated from worship since it is included in the service purely for human consumption, and, is not commanded by God. Its what Paul called "self-made religion" in Colossians 2:23; it has the appearance of a religious experience, makes people "feel good," might even attract a crowd, but it is of no value because God did not command it. The Reformed church could do much to counteract the churchapreneur phenomenon by conforming its own worship to the regulative principle which it confesses, and then call other Protestant churches to do the same thing.
Beyond conforming its worship to what scripture commands, the Reformed church needs to conform its church life to what God commands. The regulative principle extends not only to worship but also to church governement and by extension to church life. I say this in connection with the churchapreneur "program" approach to luring people to church. We talked about the "cutting edge" programs churches utilize in order to attract customers to church. These programs are designed to offer some sort of religious experience in a casual, attractive atmosphere. The problem with this approach is that it seeks to offer something that God did not command the church to do. Christ has instituted the means of grace, the preaching of the word and the sacraments, as the two means by which he communicates himself with his grace to believers. There is no other way, ordinarily, to receive the grace of Jesus Christ than the preaching of the word and the sacraments. Yet, the modern Protestant church has multiplied sacraments, far beyond Roman Catholicism, through instituting numerlous programs, as new and "fresh" ways to access the grace of Jesus. The church does not exist to be a social club, to hold karaoke meetings, to be a place to pursue personal hobbies with fellow believers, or to be a glorified recreational facility or amusement park; the church is a word and sacrament institution where believers may access the grace of Christ by making use of the means which Christ has appointed to receive his grace, and be shepherded through this life under the watchful care of the elders of the church; THAT'S IT! If Reformed churches are to please God and to counter the destructive influence of churchapreneurs they must recommit themselves to this regulative principle, remove from their worship and church life what is contrary to it, and seek to access the grace of Christ only in the ways which he has ordained: the preaching of the word and the administration of the two sacraments, Holy Baptism and the Holy Supper.
Third, the Reformed church needs to counter the churchapreneur paradigm by aggressively and relentlessly pursuing its mission, the Great Commission. The Great Commission is Christ's command to the church to make disciples by going, teaching, and baptizing. Its aim is to win converts to Christ by His grace, not to simply attract great numbers of people to church in order to have a big building, make lots of money, and acquire access to power and influence. The aim is not numbers, its CONVERTS to Christ. We don't know how many the Lord has determined to effectually call; but, we do know He has chosen to call His elect to himself through the preaching of the gospel by the church and therefore we must be busy pursuing that commission. Just as the churchapreneur paradigm is unbiblical in so far as it conceives of the church as a business and aims at acquiring wealth and access to power and influence, so it is wrong for the Reformed church to sequester itself behind the safety of the church walls, turning the church into a social club for personal enrichment and mutual admiration, to endlessly dot doctrinal "i's" and "t's," and to rarely, if ever, lift a finger to go out into the world where lost sinners are and seek to win them to Christ. It is fair to say that some of what goes on in the churchapreneur, seeker sensitive church world, is a reaction to the laziness and indolence of the conservative Reformed and Presbyterian church which decided to retreat behind church walls rather than to vigorously engage unbelievers with the gospel. The sad fact is, by doing this, not only have the lost not been reached out to by us, we have made it more difficult to reach the lost because we have allowed the churchapreneur segment of evangelicalism to be the public face of Christianity in North America, and due to the slick, business oriented packaging of the Christian faith, a vast segment of unchurched people in the United States have grown wary of Christianity and are turning a deaf ear toward its message because of the hypocritical, unscrupulous methods of the churchapreneur model. We can counteract this though, if we recommit not only to embodying, at the local church level, the nature of the church as described in scripture, by worshiping and conducting church government and church life according to the regulative principle, and also by mounting a vigorous campaign to go out into the world, and live among unbelievers, love them, pray for them, and seek intentionally to win them to Jesus Christ.
That's my Reformed response to churchapreneurs: recover the Biblical concept of the nature and function of the church, carefully and scrupulously follow the regulative principle both in worship, in church government and in church life, and aggressively pursue the Great Commission. I HOPE YOU WILL ENGAGE ME IN CONVERSATION ABOUT THIS MODEL.
With that brief overview in mind, my purpose now is to offer a way forward that is Biblical and CONFESSIONAL. My aim is not to rehash critiques of broader evangelicalism, but to propose a model for confessionally Reformed churches to follow in order to counteract the devastating effects of the churchapreneur model upon the image of the church today.
First, Reformed churches need to stress the nature of church. One of the most significant questions that has to be answered in order to offset the business model of church is, what is a church? That's really the nub of the debate; if scripture did not include any teaching on the nature of the church, if it did not condemn using the church and Christianity to get rich and acquire influence and power, we would have no quarrel with churchapreneurs. The fact is however, scripture forbids using the ministry and the church as a means of financial gain, and it does give explicit teaching about the nature of the church. Over against the the business model of church, scripture teaches that the visible church is the covenant people of God and exists to be a word and sacrament institution governed by duly called and appointed elders. The church consists of believers and their children, and is authorized to worship collectively and Biblically, shepherd the saints lovingly, and evangelize the lost relentlessly. The primary way all three of these objectives is accomplished is through the public preaching of the word by a lawfully ordained minister of the word; and then secondly, that public, verbal ministry of the word is publicly reinforced through the proper administration of the sacraments, which are designed to visibly signify the gospel, and to seal and intesify our union with Christ. So, the first way for Reformed churches to work to counteract the unbiblical, churchapreneur business model is to identify the nature and function of the church, and then to faithfully implement that at the local church level. The visible church is not a business and it is not a social organization, it is the covenant people of God, believers and their children, and it exists to preach the word, administer the sacraments, and lovingly shepherd God's people.
Second, the Reformed church needs to recommit to the regulative principle. The regulative principle, as stated in our Reformed confessions, is that we may worship God in no other way than he has commanded in His word. That means, that the church, when it gathers for worship, may only do what God has commanded in scripture. This is a very challenging principle, because it is so clear cut: it does not permit good intentions, people's preferences, or church traditions to determine what is done in worship; it only permits what is commanded either explicitly or what is deduced by good and necessary inference. Just because some people find certain things "meaningful" or "enjoyable" does not mean that its warranted to have in worship. Additionally, just because we think certain practices or styles of music might attract unbelievers to church, that, of itself, does not authorize the church to worship in that manner. God is worshipped only in the way He has commanded. If you think about that, it makes perfect sense. God knows Himself and what glorifies Him better than we know Him and what glorifies Him; and therefore, we must not presume to be wiser than God by offering worship to Him that seems fitting, proper, and even satisfying to us, if He did not command it. To do so is to put ourselves above God and dictate to Him what He should like.
If the church submitted to this principle, much of what passes for worship, in the name of "innovation" or "creativity" or "seeker sensitivity," would be eliminated from worship since it is included in the service purely for human consumption, and, is not commanded by God. Its what Paul called "self-made religion" in Colossians 2:23; it has the appearance of a religious experience, makes people "feel good," might even attract a crowd, but it is of no value because God did not command it. The Reformed church could do much to counteract the churchapreneur phenomenon by conforming its own worship to the regulative principle which it confesses, and then call other Protestant churches to do the same thing.
Beyond conforming its worship to what scripture commands, the Reformed church needs to conform its church life to what God commands. The regulative principle extends not only to worship but also to church governement and by extension to church life. I say this in connection with the churchapreneur "program" approach to luring people to church. We talked about the "cutting edge" programs churches utilize in order to attract customers to church. These programs are designed to offer some sort of religious experience in a casual, attractive atmosphere. The problem with this approach is that it seeks to offer something that God did not command the church to do. Christ has instituted the means of grace, the preaching of the word and the sacraments, as the two means by which he communicates himself with his grace to believers. There is no other way, ordinarily, to receive the grace of Jesus Christ than the preaching of the word and the sacraments. Yet, the modern Protestant church has multiplied sacraments, far beyond Roman Catholicism, through instituting numerlous programs, as new and "fresh" ways to access the grace of Jesus. The church does not exist to be a social club, to hold karaoke meetings, to be a place to pursue personal hobbies with fellow believers, or to be a glorified recreational facility or amusement park; the church is a word and sacrament institution where believers may access the grace of Christ by making use of the means which Christ has appointed to receive his grace, and be shepherded through this life under the watchful care of the elders of the church; THAT'S IT! If Reformed churches are to please God and to counter the destructive influence of churchapreneurs they must recommit themselves to this regulative principle, remove from their worship and church life what is contrary to it, and seek to access the grace of Christ only in the ways which he has ordained: the preaching of the word and the administration of the two sacraments, Holy Baptism and the Holy Supper.
Third, the Reformed church needs to counter the churchapreneur paradigm by aggressively and relentlessly pursuing its mission, the Great Commission. The Great Commission is Christ's command to the church to make disciples by going, teaching, and baptizing. Its aim is to win converts to Christ by His grace, not to simply attract great numbers of people to church in order to have a big building, make lots of money, and acquire access to power and influence. The aim is not numbers, its CONVERTS to Christ. We don't know how many the Lord has determined to effectually call; but, we do know He has chosen to call His elect to himself through the preaching of the gospel by the church and therefore we must be busy pursuing that commission. Just as the churchapreneur paradigm is unbiblical in so far as it conceives of the church as a business and aims at acquiring wealth and access to power and influence, so it is wrong for the Reformed church to sequester itself behind the safety of the church walls, turning the church into a social club for personal enrichment and mutual admiration, to endlessly dot doctrinal "i's" and "t's," and to rarely, if ever, lift a finger to go out into the world where lost sinners are and seek to win them to Christ. It is fair to say that some of what goes on in the churchapreneur, seeker sensitive church world, is a reaction to the laziness and indolence of the conservative Reformed and Presbyterian church which decided to retreat behind church walls rather than to vigorously engage unbelievers with the gospel. The sad fact is, by doing this, not only have the lost not been reached out to by us, we have made it more difficult to reach the lost because we have allowed the churchapreneur segment of evangelicalism to be the public face of Christianity in North America, and due to the slick, business oriented packaging of the Christian faith, a vast segment of unchurched people in the United States have grown wary of Christianity and are turning a deaf ear toward its message because of the hypocritical, unscrupulous methods of the churchapreneur model. We can counteract this though, if we recommit not only to embodying, at the local church level, the nature of the church as described in scripture, by worshiping and conducting church government and church life according to the regulative principle, and also by mounting a vigorous campaign to go out into the world, and live among unbelievers, love them, pray for them, and seek intentionally to win them to Jesus Christ.
That's my Reformed response to churchapreneurs: recover the Biblical concept of the nature and function of the church, carefully and scrupulously follow the regulative principle both in worship, in church government and in church life, and aggressively pursue the Great Commission. I HOPE YOU WILL ENGAGE ME IN CONVERSATION ABOUT THIS MODEL.
Monday, January 19, 2009
churchapreneurs: they are killing the church
From a certain view-point churchapreneurs seem to be experiencing great success. Mark Chaves, of the University of Arizona, comments on the churchapreneur, mega church phenomenon saying, "Something is happening that is leading more and more people to shift from smaller to bigger congregations within all denominations, liberal and conservative." http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0206/p13s01-lire.html What substantiates that observation is the whopping number of new mega churches that have sprung up in the U.S. over the past 18 years. In 1990, there were approximately 350 mega churches and as of 2008 there are more than 1250. http://hirr.hartsem.edu/megachurch/megachurches_research.html Not only are there more mega churches, the average weekly attendance at these churches is steadily increasing, to the tune of over 2,000 attendees on average per church. Not only are the church numbers great, but book sales are off the charts as well. From the Purpose Driven Life to Your Best Life Now, churchapreneurs are selling more non-fiction books than anyone else. High profile schmoozing is on the rise as well. Disgraced former New Life pastor Ted Haggard was courted for weekly phone-conference calls with President Bush, and now, Rick Warren is giving the invocation at the presidential inauguration, T.D. Jakes (openly modalistic heretic, but man can he grow a business, err church) is preaching private sermons to the Obama's on inauguration day, while Joel Osteen has been drafted by team Obama to write more speeches on "hope and change."(okay,I made that last one up) So, from a numbers point of view, business seems to be booming; from a sales point of view, the cash is flowing; and, from a cultural reach point of view, churchapreneurs are in the spotlight. Business couldn't be better!
From another view-point however, things are not as glowing as they seem:
First, churchapreneurs are literally killing the church numerically. Though at first glance the numbers seem to indicate real kingdom growth is occurring as the number of mega churches increases and attendees climbs, on a second look, the numerical growth is not actual kingdom growth. The so-called growth is not by conversion, but transfer. A couple of different sets of data confirm that. One, George Barna points out that at the same time the mega churches have been been experiencing a meteoric rise, there has been an overall net loss in Christianity since the late 1980's. http://www.leadercall.com/opinion/local_story_204145242.html?keyword=topstory Two, a recent USA Today article, claims that the number of the number of "unchurched" continues to hover around 30% (a number which is unchanged from the early 90's), while the number of people who say they never go to church is on the rise and varies anywhere from 16% in Gallup surveys to as high as 32% in an Ellison Research survey conducted this year. http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-09-08-megachurches-numbers_N.htm The numbers indicate that these growing businesses are not expanding the Christian market base at all, rather, they are simply stealing customers from other churches as Philip Goff, director of the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University in Indianapolis concludes, "The mega church story is not really about growth, it's about shifting allegiances." (same article) If trends continue, the success of the churchapreneurs will actually be, that though their own businesses grow, there will actually be fewer churches, and fewer Christians in the U.S.
Secondly, churchapreneurs are killing the church by destroying divine standards for worship. Thumma and Bird, in a recently released survey of mega churches entitled Changes in American Mega churches:Tracing Eight Years of Growth and Innovation argue that one of the hallmarks of churchapreneur churches that makes them so spectacularly successful is their commitment to high standards for worship. But high standards for worship are not measured by greater conformity to Biblical requirements for worship, rather, they are measured by man-made standards such as "worship teams and bands characterized by electric guitars, drums, and keyboards" and "willingness to experiment and innovate with worship and the style of presentation." http://hirr.hartsem.edu/megachurch/megachurches_research.html Just how critical conforming to human standards of worship excellence is for growth, is confirmed by the fact that 93% of mega churches incorporate contemporary worship and include electric guitars and drums. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0206/p13s01-lire.html Apparently, market research available to these churchapreneurs indicates that they can steal the affections of a whole group of customers who are currently in churches where only a piano and hymn-books are used; and they are wasting no time tapping into these frustrated church members whose musical tastes are more suited to Anne Murray than to 19th century revivalist Fannie Crosby tunes, by hauling out guitars, drums, and projectors to facilitate singing lyrics off of a wall. Make no mistake about it though, this change in worship style is a calculated business decision, not a principled change in style based upon careful investigation of God's commands for worship. When this generation of Anne Murray music lovers passes off the scene, heaven help us, because who knows what new style will replace it; but you can bet, a new generation of savvy churchapreneurs will be there to identify the trend and to capitalize on it.
Thirdly, churchapreneurs are killing the church by destroying its credibility. Even from within their own church growth ranks, critics are now nervously pointing out the degradation that is occurring as slick salesmen are dominating the ranks of mega church world. In his newly released book, Stealing Sheep: The Church's Hidden Problems of Transfer Growth, William Chadwick, with biting cynicism parodies the principles of churchapreneurs:
The McChurch has replaced the traditional home church and its relational values. Fast-food Christians pull up to ecclesiastical drive-through windows, order their McGroups, consume the experience and then drive off, discarding relationships like burger wrappers on the highway of life. Savvy church growth pastors quickly learned that significant growth can occur if a church learns how to market its burgers to capture the appetite of this roving crowd.
This is an especially indicting critique as it comes not from a conservative fundamentalist, but from one who has been on the cutting edge of church growth since the 1970's. William Chadwick, by his own admission, has studied under the "who's who" of the churchapreneur world, including the likes of C. Peter Wagner, Lyle Schaller, John Wimber, Rick Warren, Charles Kraft, Eddie Gibbs, Roberta Hestenes and Bill Hybels. Yet, as Chadwick assesses the mega church scene he laments the fact that it has created a credibility crisis. Instead of being scene as sincere, Jesus-loving, soul-winning servants, mega church leaders are increasingly being perceived as businessmen lacking in principle and ecumenism. But its not just high profile insiders who are taking note of this lack of integrity, its now a topic of discussion among the secular academia. University of Colorado Historian, Paul Harvey, highlights the apparent lack of integrity inherent to the mega church phenomon when he says, mega-churches are “faith institutions reinventing themselves to meet the consumer-like demands of worshippers.” http://www.leadercall.com/opinion/local_story_204145242.html?keyword=topstory
As you pause and reflect upon the assessments presented above, its worth revisiting the definition of the term churchapreneur: a churchapreneur is a pastor of a local church who views his church as a product to be marketed and sold. Again, we trace this mentality back to its source, Bill Hybels, and to the poster hanging outside of his office at Willow Creek Church which aptly summarizes the churchapreneur mentality: What is our business? Who is our customer? What does the customer consider value? Churchapreneurs are businessmen, and the product they sell is not Christianity, but self-help spirituality and a bland religious experience. If the true church is to restore its credibility and to reverse the devastating consequences churchapreneurs have inflicted upon both the church world and upon the perceptions about the church maintained by the non-Christian public at large, we must repudiate their selfish, unbiblical, commercial impulses and practices, and submit our doctrine, practices, evangelism, and worship to the Lordship of Christ as mediated through the inspired word of God.
In our next article we will outline a Reformed response to churchapreneuers as we bring our series to conclusion.
From another view-point however, things are not as glowing as they seem:
First, churchapreneurs are literally killing the church numerically. Though at first glance the numbers seem to indicate real kingdom growth is occurring as the number of mega churches increases and attendees climbs, on a second look, the numerical growth is not actual kingdom growth. The so-called growth is not by conversion, but transfer. A couple of different sets of data confirm that. One, George Barna points out that at the same time the mega churches have been been experiencing a meteoric rise, there has been an overall net loss in Christianity since the late 1980's. http://www.leadercall.com/opinion/local_story_204145242.html?keyword=topstory Two, a recent USA Today article, claims that the number of the number of "unchurched" continues to hover around 30% (a number which is unchanged from the early 90's), while the number of people who say they never go to church is on the rise and varies anywhere from 16% in Gallup surveys to as high as 32% in an Ellison Research survey conducted this year. http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-09-08-megachurches-numbers_N.htm The numbers indicate that these growing businesses are not expanding the Christian market base at all, rather, they are simply stealing customers from other churches as Philip Goff, director of the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University in Indianapolis concludes, "The mega church story is not really about growth, it's about shifting allegiances." (same article) If trends continue, the success of the churchapreneurs will actually be, that though their own businesses grow, there will actually be fewer churches, and fewer Christians in the U.S.
Secondly, churchapreneurs are killing the church by destroying divine standards for worship. Thumma and Bird, in a recently released survey of mega churches entitled Changes in American Mega churches:Tracing Eight Years of Growth and Innovation argue that one of the hallmarks of churchapreneur churches that makes them so spectacularly successful is their commitment to high standards for worship. But high standards for worship are not measured by greater conformity to Biblical requirements for worship, rather, they are measured by man-made standards such as "worship teams and bands characterized by electric guitars, drums, and keyboards" and "willingness to experiment and innovate with worship and the style of presentation." http://hirr.hartsem.edu/megachurch/megachurches_research.html Just how critical conforming to human standards of worship excellence is for growth, is confirmed by the fact that 93% of mega churches incorporate contemporary worship and include electric guitars and drums. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0206/p13s01-lire.html Apparently, market research available to these churchapreneurs indicates that they can steal the affections of a whole group of customers who are currently in churches where only a piano and hymn-books are used; and they are wasting no time tapping into these frustrated church members whose musical tastes are more suited to Anne Murray than to 19th century revivalist Fannie Crosby tunes, by hauling out guitars, drums, and projectors to facilitate singing lyrics off of a wall. Make no mistake about it though, this change in worship style is a calculated business decision, not a principled change in style based upon careful investigation of God's commands for worship. When this generation of Anne Murray music lovers passes off the scene, heaven help us, because who knows what new style will replace it; but you can bet, a new generation of savvy churchapreneurs will be there to identify the trend and to capitalize on it.
Thirdly, churchapreneurs are killing the church by destroying its credibility. Even from within their own church growth ranks, critics are now nervously pointing out the degradation that is occurring as slick salesmen are dominating the ranks of mega church world. In his newly released book, Stealing Sheep: The Church's Hidden Problems of Transfer Growth, William Chadwick, with biting cynicism parodies the principles of churchapreneurs:
The McChurch has replaced the traditional home church and its relational values. Fast-food Christians pull up to ecclesiastical drive-through windows, order their McGroups, consume the experience and then drive off, discarding relationships like burger wrappers on the highway of life. Savvy church growth pastors quickly learned that significant growth can occur if a church learns how to market its burgers to capture the appetite of this roving crowd.
This is an especially indicting critique as it comes not from a conservative fundamentalist, but from one who has been on the cutting edge of church growth since the 1970's. William Chadwick, by his own admission, has studied under the "who's who" of the churchapreneur world, including the likes of C. Peter Wagner, Lyle Schaller, John Wimber, Rick Warren, Charles Kraft, Eddie Gibbs, Roberta Hestenes and Bill Hybels. Yet, as Chadwick assesses the mega church scene he laments the fact that it has created a credibility crisis. Instead of being scene as sincere, Jesus-loving, soul-winning servants, mega church leaders are increasingly being perceived as businessmen lacking in principle and ecumenism. But its not just high profile insiders who are taking note of this lack of integrity, its now a topic of discussion among the secular academia. University of Colorado Historian, Paul Harvey, highlights the apparent lack of integrity inherent to the mega church phenomon when he says, mega-churches are “faith institutions reinventing themselves to meet the consumer-like demands of worshippers.” http://www.leadercall.com/opinion/local_story_204145242.html?keyword=topstory
As you pause and reflect upon the assessments presented above, its worth revisiting the definition of the term churchapreneur: a churchapreneur is a pastor of a local church who views his church as a product to be marketed and sold. Again, we trace this mentality back to its source, Bill Hybels, and to the poster hanging outside of his office at Willow Creek Church which aptly summarizes the churchapreneur mentality: What is our business? Who is our customer? What does the customer consider value? Churchapreneurs are businessmen, and the product they sell is not Christianity, but self-help spirituality and a bland religious experience. If the true church is to restore its credibility and to reverse the devastating consequences churchapreneurs have inflicted upon both the church world and upon the perceptions about the church maintained by the non-Christian public at large, we must repudiate their selfish, unbiblical, commercial impulses and practices, and submit our doctrine, practices, evangelism, and worship to the Lordship of Christ as mediated through the inspired word of God.
In our next article we will outline a Reformed response to churchapreneuers as we bring our series to conclusion.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Churchapreneurs: get your programs!
(a churchapreneur is a pastor of a local church who views his church as a product to be marketed and sold for profit and influence)
Being a churchapreneur is fun for a whole lot of reasons: you get to build a big business, make lots of money, have all kinds of people worship you, and while you are at it have a whole lot of fun participating in cutting edge church programs. Any churchapreneur worth his salt knows Americans love to have fun; so one of the best ways to reel in the customers is to make church exciting and fun. Right along side having trendy music, which targets and caters to your particular demographic, you need to have fun programs for all ages in order attract those new customers, and to keep the current customers satisfied and coming back for more.
It used to be, about a generation ago, when “small groups” were the cool thing and churchapreneurs were just starting to carve out their niche in the evangelical world, that you could get away with having a hippie play Bible songs on an acoustic guitar while group members sat in a circle in a casual setting. You could have the group meetings in a cozy room at the church around a fire place – you know –to create that needed sense of atmosphere that made people feel comfy. Then after the music, the group would study the Bible by encouraging each person to “share” how they felt about the Bible passage or topic under discussion. A good small group meeting was usually capped off with a time of splitting up into prayer teams, getting vulnerable with each other, and praying over your neighbors problems.
Today, that just wont work. Having a souped up small group ministry just wont deliver the cache of customers it used to, because too many churches caught wind of the small group ministry idea and next thing you know, all the churches in town were doing it; so the only way a churchapreneur could create that competitive edge was to come up with some new kind of programs. Now it seems, the race is on to have new and cooler and more cutting edge programs. For the young ones there are "ministry specialists" who can help you learn the art and science of children's ministry. For instance, at Children's Ministry University Online, you can learn "the practical steps to Cultivating a Cutting-Edge Children's Church." http://www.cmuo.com/workshops/kidschurch/ Through this web cast you can learn from the "professionals" all you need to know to have that difference making children's program that is sure to entice those soccer moms to church. If its the teenage crowd you are after you could follow the model of G.A.P. Teen Church where they make " radical teenagers" and have "anointed worship, human videos, skits, and more. " http://www.gapteenchurch.org/Page_7.aspx?id=216749 If you want something really, really cool and on the true cutting edge of youth ministry programs you absolutely need to keep in touch with what is going on at Saddleback Church in Orange County, CA. After all, this is home to America's favorite pastor, Rick Warren, and located where they are, in the heart of Orange County, they just have a nose for what is cool. http://www.saddlebackfamily.com/blogs/hsm/index.html
There can be not doubt that children's programs are crucial for the churchapreneur because in our youth worshiping culture, if you can put together a program that kids really like, you can be sure one of the parents will be more than happy to drive Johnnie and Suzy down to the church for it. But, if you want to keep those parents entertained after they drop the kidz off or if you want to really burnish your credentials as a top notch businessman, you need to come up with something that will reach those parents. So if its moms that you are after and you really want to do something cool for the Botox babes who drive big SUV's and are always found packing a Starbucks cup, you cant afford to have the business as usual programs. You need to have women's programs that are "spiritual" yet at the same time also say "we're cool" and have the kind of star power quality that would entice all the suburban, upper middle income, into the cool, type mom's. Now to reach this finicky yet important target group you need look no further than the ultra cool woman's program of Mosaic church called "she". http://www.shecommunity.org/index.html A link on the web site gives you just a little taste of what "she" is all about:
SHE Connects, SHE Teaches, SHE Invests, SHE Nurtures, SHE Creates, SHE Rocks and so much more ... SHE was created to be a voice of hope. Our desire is to connect to you to a community of authenticity as you discover where you can most "come alive" and discover your unique voice.
Now, if that does not reach all the cool mom's out there, I don't know what will. Churchapreneur, you might as well throw out all of your half-baked women's program ideas and make a b-line for Mosaic and figure out how to do "she" because once you figure it out, or come up with something similar, you are on your way to an expanding business.
I want to treat men's programs in a separate category here, primarily because every churchapreneur knows just how hard it is to carve out a growing customer base in this demographic. Let's face it, men are the tough nuts to crack because they tend to be suspicious of the gimmicky and don't like all that emotional, touchy feely stuff that churches are often into. After all, what man wants to get vulnerable and be transparent and cry? That is just not what we are in to. So the challenge of the churchapreneur is to come up with a men's program which says up front to the would be inquirer that there will be no Kleenex at this men's meeting, just surfacy male-bonding type stuff. For years, and for obvious reasons, church softball teams have been the staple of men's ministries. Lately churcharpreneurs have been coming up with more innovative approaches however. One approach we have already blogged about here on calvinontap is the so-called "GUY CHURCH." This is that movement where church buildings are designed to look like hunting lodges inside and where the guys get together, beat on their chests, and get their primal instinct on over meals which consist of game harvested out in the wilds. These are called "beast feasts" (of course) and the only paper products found there are going to be extra large Bounty paper towels for wiping off greasy hands that have been wrapped around a rack of ribs (natures finest!). But if you want to really learn how to reach the truly masculine men you need to go to GUTS Church. http://gutschurch.com/ This churchapreneur really has a handle on how to reach those hard to reach guys. Their headline event for men is called "Tougher Than Hell" which is an annual biker rally aimed at reaching you know who. For more details you can consult the ministry web site. http://www.tougherthanhell.com/ So there you have it, just a few idea starters for programs to help reel in the tough-guys.
Well, that is it, the churchapreneurs one-two punch: music and programs. The successful churchapreneur always has both. Worship music is bound to only reach a certain segment of the target audience, but worship music combined with fun, cutting edge programs definitely helps carve out that big slice of market pie that every businessman is hungry for. Stop and think about it, what could be better, a place where you can get a little religion, meet a few new people, and have a whole lot of fun while you are doing it; now that's an incredible business concept!
Being a churchapreneur is fun for a whole lot of reasons: you get to build a big business, make lots of money, have all kinds of people worship you, and while you are at it have a whole lot of fun participating in cutting edge church programs. Any churchapreneur worth his salt knows Americans love to have fun; so one of the best ways to reel in the customers is to make church exciting and fun. Right along side having trendy music, which targets and caters to your particular demographic, you need to have fun programs for all ages in order attract those new customers, and to keep the current customers satisfied and coming back for more.
It used to be, about a generation ago, when “small groups” were the cool thing and churchapreneurs were just starting to carve out their niche in the evangelical world, that you could get away with having a hippie play Bible songs on an acoustic guitar while group members sat in a circle in a casual setting. You could have the group meetings in a cozy room at the church around a fire place – you know –to create that needed sense of atmosphere that made people feel comfy. Then after the music, the group would study the Bible by encouraging each person to “share” how they felt about the Bible passage or topic under discussion. A good small group meeting was usually capped off with a time of splitting up into prayer teams, getting vulnerable with each other, and praying over your neighbors problems.
Today, that just wont work. Having a souped up small group ministry just wont deliver the cache of customers it used to, because too many churches caught wind of the small group ministry idea and next thing you know, all the churches in town were doing it; so the only way a churchapreneur could create that competitive edge was to come up with some new kind of programs. Now it seems, the race is on to have new and cooler and more cutting edge programs. For the young ones there are "ministry specialists" who can help you learn the art and science of children's ministry. For instance, at Children's Ministry University Online, you can learn "the practical steps to Cultivating a Cutting-Edge Children's Church." http://www.cmuo.com/workshops/kidschurch/ Through this web cast you can learn from the "professionals" all you need to know to have that difference making children's program that is sure to entice those soccer moms to church. If its the teenage crowd you are after you could follow the model of G.A.P. Teen Church where they make " radical teenagers" and have "anointed worship, human videos, skits, and more. " http://www.gapteenchurch.org/Page_7.aspx?id=216749 If you want something really, really cool and on the true cutting edge of youth ministry programs you absolutely need to keep in touch with what is going on at Saddleback Church in Orange County, CA. After all, this is home to America's favorite pastor, Rick Warren, and located where they are, in the heart of Orange County, they just have a nose for what is cool. http://www.saddlebackfamily.com/blogs/hsm/index.html
There can be not doubt that children's programs are crucial for the churchapreneur because in our youth worshiping culture, if you can put together a program that kids really like, you can be sure one of the parents will be more than happy to drive Johnnie and Suzy down to the church for it. But, if you want to keep those parents entertained after they drop the kidz off or if you want to really burnish your credentials as a top notch businessman, you need to come up with something that will reach those parents. So if its moms that you are after and you really want to do something cool for the Botox babes who drive big SUV's and are always found packing a Starbucks cup, you cant afford to have the business as usual programs. You need to have women's programs that are "spiritual" yet at the same time also say "we're cool" and have the kind of star power quality that would entice all the suburban, upper middle income, into the cool, type mom's. Now to reach this finicky yet important target group you need look no further than the ultra cool woman's program of Mosaic church called "she". http://www.shecommunity.org/index.html A link on the web site gives you just a little taste of what "she" is all about:
SHE Connects, SHE Teaches, SHE Invests, SHE Nurtures, SHE Creates, SHE Rocks and so much more ... SHE was created to be a voice of hope. Our desire is to connect to you to a community of authenticity as you discover where you can most "come alive" and discover your unique voice.
Now, if that does not reach all the cool mom's out there, I don't know what will. Churchapreneur, you might as well throw out all of your half-baked women's program ideas and make a b-line for Mosaic and figure out how to do "she" because once you figure it out, or come up with something similar, you are on your way to an expanding business.
I want to treat men's programs in a separate category here, primarily because every churchapreneur knows just how hard it is to carve out a growing customer base in this demographic. Let's face it, men are the tough nuts to crack because they tend to be suspicious of the gimmicky and don't like all that emotional, touchy feely stuff that churches are often into. After all, what man wants to get vulnerable and be transparent and cry? That is just not what we are in to. So the challenge of the churchapreneur is to come up with a men's program which says up front to the would be inquirer that there will be no Kleenex at this men's meeting, just surfacy male-bonding type stuff. For years, and for obvious reasons, church softball teams have been the staple of men's ministries. Lately churcharpreneurs have been coming up with more innovative approaches however. One approach we have already blogged about here on calvinontap is the so-called "GUY CHURCH." This is that movement where church buildings are designed to look like hunting lodges inside and where the guys get together, beat on their chests, and get their primal instinct on over meals which consist of game harvested out in the wilds. These are called "beast feasts" (of course) and the only paper products found there are going to be extra large Bounty paper towels for wiping off greasy hands that have been wrapped around a rack of ribs (natures finest!). But if you want to really learn how to reach the truly masculine men you need to go to GUTS Church. http://gutschurch.com/ This churchapreneur really has a handle on how to reach those hard to reach guys. Their headline event for men is called "Tougher Than Hell" which is an annual biker rally aimed at reaching you know who. For more details you can consult the ministry web site. http://www.tougherthanhell.com/ So there you have it, just a few idea starters for programs to help reel in the tough-guys.
Well, that is it, the churchapreneurs one-two punch: music and programs. The successful churchapreneur always has both. Worship music is bound to only reach a certain segment of the target audience, but worship music combined with fun, cutting edge programs definitely helps carve out that big slice of market pie that every businessman is hungry for. Stop and think about it, what could be better, a place where you can get a little religion, meet a few new people, and have a whole lot of fun while you are doing it; now that's an incredible business concept!
Friday, November 21, 2008
Churchapreneurs: worship is the key to success
YouTube - Mars Hill Worship Service Seattle
If you are really, really cool, and on the cutting edge of churchapreneuriship, this is what worship will look like. This clip of course, is taken from the "calvinistic" churchapreneur franchise of Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church. Driscoll is "calvinistic," with a small "c" for Calvinism, because he, like the typical churchapreneur, is too arrogant to subscribe to any historically Reformed confession, since, after his extensive study, he cannot find one he entirely agrees with (surprise), so instead, he crafted his own Driscoll creed which maintains elements of Protestant orthodoxy while remaining consumer friendly. His real genius however, lies not in his doctrinal acumen, rather, it is in his ability to define his target demographic and provide them with just the right worship ambiance he knows they are searching for.
Driscoll, in his Confessions of A Reformission Rev., describes some of his struggles as an early churchapreneur in finding the right worship leader and worship band. In one place (p.63), he relates the day that confirmed to him that Mars Hill Church would not be a place where everyone was welcome. Apparently, a family with a troop of children, skilled in the lost art of playing handbells, wanted to have a prominent role in the worship service. After watching them rehearse once, he realized he did not want them playing, or even coming to his church. The interesting thing about this episode, understood from the broader context of the book, is that Driscoll understood that if he was to reach a young adult target audience, he had to find hip, cool music, that would connect with them, in order to both attract and keep them. This is a classic churchapreneur move: find the people, find out what the people want, and then give it to them. That does not necessarily mean you find out what the people who are currently at church want; rather, it means, find out what the target audience, the potential church wants and then make sure its in place if and when they do show up.
That last thought leads us back to churchapreneur basics: goal, strategy, and tactics. The goal is an enthusiastic and expanding customer base; the strategy is to maintain a culturally relevant worship ambiance; and the tactic is worship and programs that really connect with the target audience. Churchapreneurs are very calculating businessmen. They understand that you cannot be successful by targeting everyone, because not everyone is useful for your purposes. So, the savvy and successful churchapreneur finds his target audience first: young and cool, thirty-somethings with growing families, or baby-boomers with empty nests. Once that target audience has been established, then he will be able figure out the precise worship ambiance and tactics that are needed in order to start reeling the new customers in.
Just work with this principle for a moment and you will be able to better understand the churchapreneur around the corner from you. For instance, if the franchise has either a piano, keyboard and acoustic guitar along with a middle aged worship leader, and sings songs out of a song book that sound soft, nice, and inspiring to Ann Murray or Barry Manilow sounding tunes, you know that the target audience is primarily baby boomers with an empty nest. This could be the target because the community is located in a sunbelt area and is inhabited by retirees and AARP members. It could also be this way because the church was once "traditional" in its worship (used an organ, piano, hymnbook, and had no worship leader) but has made the risky decision to become "more attractive" to the younger crowd, so the target audience is really older people, but the ambiance says "hey, we are youth friendly too," or so it thinks. However, if the church uses multiple instruments (guitars, drums, keyboard, etc.,), projects lyrics on multiple large screens (you know, the kind people who still have good eyesight can see), and has a cool looking, fun, spontaneous, light footed guy leading the worship, you are definitely in a franchise that is targeting thirty-somethings with kids. These people are still "young at heart" but worship cannot have the mayhem of a concert because that would set a bad example for the kids. The larger band with the peppy worship leader attracts the younger people (obviously), but maintains the order and consistency that young families need, without all the stuffy formality and traditionalism of the church they grew up in.
HOWEVER, if the franchise has a concert look and feel during worship, as in the example above from the Mars Hill Church, the target audience is clearly the 18-34 demographic. In this case, the churchapreneur knows his target audience is "edgy" and wants no part of the conservative, predictable, half-cool, out of touch and out of style worship that the thirty-somethings with families want. Here, what is unpredictable, trendy (in various sub-cultures), artistic, and creative is what's going to be on tap. This sort of style appeals effectively to the college educated, organically grown coffee-drinking, young adult crowd. Of course, that is not to say that older folk wont be found here, though the ones who do gravitate toward this tend to be the life-long hippie, anti-establishment types or the mid-life crisis types searching for some venue to re-live their younger but all too tame years.
So, what is churchapreneur worship like? Easy, its whatever the target is like; taste the style and you will find the target. That is the genius of the churchapreneur, and the key to growing the business. See, for churchapreneurs, building a business is "as easy as one, two, three." Remember how the original churchapreneur Billy Hybels put it: What is our business? Who is the customer? What does the customer consider value?. If we tweak this pithy little phrase by changing the last question to "what worship style does the customer want?" we will understand how to make it as the next big churchapreneur.
For more information on churchapreneurs and worship, consult the following:
http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5705037&nav=1TjD
http://www.christianitytoday.com/yc/2004/004/7.64.html
http://www.called2music.com/articles/954/1/How-to-Grow-As-A-Worship-Leader/Page1.html
http://www.kybaptist.org/kbc/welcome.nsf/pages/churchchs2comtemporary
http://www.discoveryworshipcenter.org/
http://spiritusworship.org/
If you are really, really cool, and on the cutting edge of churchapreneuriship, this is what worship will look like. This clip of course, is taken from the "calvinistic" churchapreneur franchise of Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church. Driscoll is "calvinistic," with a small "c" for Calvinism, because he, like the typical churchapreneur, is too arrogant to subscribe to any historically Reformed confession, since, after his extensive study, he cannot find one he entirely agrees with (surprise), so instead, he crafted his own Driscoll creed which maintains elements of Protestant orthodoxy while remaining consumer friendly. His real genius however, lies not in his doctrinal acumen, rather, it is in his ability to define his target demographic and provide them with just the right worship ambiance he knows they are searching for.
Driscoll, in his Confessions of A Reformission Rev., describes some of his struggles as an early churchapreneur in finding the right worship leader and worship band. In one place (p.63), he relates the day that confirmed to him that Mars Hill Church would not be a place where everyone was welcome. Apparently, a family with a troop of children, skilled in the lost art of playing handbells, wanted to have a prominent role in the worship service. After watching them rehearse once, he realized he did not want them playing, or even coming to his church. The interesting thing about this episode, understood from the broader context of the book, is that Driscoll understood that if he was to reach a young adult target audience, he had to find hip, cool music, that would connect with them, in order to both attract and keep them. This is a classic churchapreneur move: find the people, find out what the people want, and then give it to them. That does not necessarily mean you find out what the people who are currently at church want; rather, it means, find out what the target audience, the potential church wants and then make sure its in place if and when they do show up.
That last thought leads us back to churchapreneur basics: goal, strategy, and tactics. The goal is an enthusiastic and expanding customer base; the strategy is to maintain a culturally relevant worship ambiance; and the tactic is worship and programs that really connect with the target audience. Churchapreneurs are very calculating businessmen. They understand that you cannot be successful by targeting everyone, because not everyone is useful for your purposes. So, the savvy and successful churchapreneur finds his target audience first: young and cool, thirty-somethings with growing families, or baby-boomers with empty nests. Once that target audience has been established, then he will be able figure out the precise worship ambiance and tactics that are needed in order to start reeling the new customers in.
Just work with this principle for a moment and you will be able to better understand the churchapreneur around the corner from you. For instance, if the franchise has either a piano, keyboard and acoustic guitar along with a middle aged worship leader, and sings songs out of a song book that sound soft, nice, and inspiring to Ann Murray or Barry Manilow sounding tunes, you know that the target audience is primarily baby boomers with an empty nest. This could be the target because the community is located in a sunbelt area and is inhabited by retirees and AARP members. It could also be this way because the church was once "traditional" in its worship (used an organ, piano, hymnbook, and had no worship leader) but has made the risky decision to become "more attractive" to the younger crowd, so the target audience is really older people, but the ambiance says "hey, we are youth friendly too," or so it thinks. However, if the church uses multiple instruments (guitars, drums, keyboard, etc.,), projects lyrics on multiple large screens (you know, the kind people who still have good eyesight can see), and has a cool looking, fun, spontaneous, light footed guy leading the worship, you are definitely in a franchise that is targeting thirty-somethings with kids. These people are still "young at heart" but worship cannot have the mayhem of a concert because that would set a bad example for the kids. The larger band with the peppy worship leader attracts the younger people (obviously), but maintains the order and consistency that young families need, without all the stuffy formality and traditionalism of the church they grew up in.
HOWEVER, if the franchise has a concert look and feel during worship, as in the example above from the Mars Hill Church, the target audience is clearly the 18-34 demographic. In this case, the churchapreneur knows his target audience is "edgy" and wants no part of the conservative, predictable, half-cool, out of touch and out of style worship that the thirty-somethings with families want. Here, what is unpredictable, trendy (in various sub-cultures), artistic, and creative is what's going to be on tap. This sort of style appeals effectively to the college educated, organically grown coffee-drinking, young adult crowd. Of course, that is not to say that older folk wont be found here, though the ones who do gravitate toward this tend to be the life-long hippie, anti-establishment types or the mid-life crisis types searching for some venue to re-live their younger but all too tame years.
So, what is churchapreneur worship like? Easy, its whatever the target is like; taste the style and you will find the target. That is the genius of the churchapreneur, and the key to growing the business. See, for churchapreneurs, building a business is "as easy as one, two, three." Remember how the original churchapreneur Billy Hybels put it: What is our business? Who is the customer? What does the customer consider value?. If we tweak this pithy little phrase by changing the last question to "what worship style does the customer want?" we will understand how to make it as the next big churchapreneur.
For more information on churchapreneurs and worship, consult the following:
http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5705037&nav=1TjD
http://www.christianitytoday.com/yc/2004/004/7.64.html
http://www.called2music.com/articles/954/1/How-to-Grow-As-A-Worship-Leader/Page1.html
http://www.kybaptist.org/kbc/welcome.nsf/pages/churchchs2comtemporary
http://www.discoveryworshipcenter.org/
http://spiritusworship.org/
Saturday, November 15, 2008
UFC 91: Couture v. Lesnar
In reading the predictions by the experts about this fight, it looks like a majority side with Randy, but all give Brock a chance based on his size, strength, and wrestling ability. As much as I am a fan of Randy, and think he is all-around the best guy (not best fighter) in the sport, I am going against the majority and am picking Brock. First of all, this is a bad match up at a bad time for Randy. I was watching the UFC 91 preview the other night and they were showing old Randy, you know, before he was old. That Randy was thicker and more powerful, and on account of that, he was able to hang in the heavyweight division against guys who had the mass and size of a Kevin Randleman. Today, Randy is much leaner and lighter, and he just does not have the thickness and strength to keep up with a guy as powerful and massive as Brock. I know Randy has fought guys like Tim Sylvia since moving back up to heavyweight at this lighter, leaner weight, but Tim Sylvia is no comparison to Brock. He is not as strong or mobile, and his base is nowhere near as solid as Brock's, so Randy was able to keep him off balance, tie him up, and use that to get some good strikes and takedowns. That wont happen with Brock though. Second, Randy's clinch game is not going to work on Brock. Brock will be able to shuck the clinch off with his power and keep out of it with his speed. But, if Randy does get a clinch lockup, I think Brock will just use it to ram Randy into the cage, either breaking the clinch or then use it to take Randy down once he has him up against the fence. Third, Randy must be very careful with trying to engage in a striking match up. Yes, Brock has not been tested here. We don't know what kind of a chin he has, and we don't know if is able to allude and block punches and kicks. However, we do know that when guys get close enough for him to connect, he can send them flying across the ring with a short, snappy blow, like he did with Heath Herring. Randy must be very careful if he wants to try to keep this thing standing up. Besides having to fear a counter-strike, he also has to worry about being taken down by Brock if he chooses to stand and trade. So a striking game is going to be difficult to pull off. I think the best striking game plan Randy could come up with is the one Marco Ruas pulled off on a much larger Paul Varelin. but Randy has never shown that kind of game or skill before. If he has developed it in preparation, then hats off to Randy. Fourth, when this fight hits the ground, its not a great place for Randy simply because Brock's size and wrestling skill neutralize Randy's greatest strength. I just don't seem him pulling off a submission, and I don't see him riding a top position and just wearing Brock out. So even on the ground, where on paper, Randy has an edge, I still don't see it working out for him.
I call this fight for Brock somewhere before the end of the fourth round. At some point Brock's size is going to be too much even for a cardio freak like Randy to push around, he will get tired and Brock will secure a stoppage via strikes. I seek the night ending with an interim belt around Brock's waist and hopefully looking forward to a rematch with Frank Mir after he beats Nogueira.
I call this fight for Brock somewhere before the end of the fourth round. At some point Brock's size is going to be too much even for a cardio freak like Randy to push around, he will get tired and Brock will secure a stoppage via strikes. I seek the night ending with an interim belt around Brock's waist and hopefully looking forward to a rematch with Frank Mir after he beats Nogueira.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Churchapreneurs: the marks of your local franchise (church)
Given what we have said to this point about churchapreneurs, what we are going to say about the marks of a churchapreneur church won’t come as much of a surprise. What it may do however is explain to you why your church looks and feels like it does. For many Christians, that I meet, they have one of two backgrounds: Roman Catholic or non-denominational Protestant. Those backgrounds leave a profound and lasting impression upon them. The Roman Catholic, though he or she rarely goes to church, knows that church is supposed to be formal, and that all the action in worship is objective and centers around the priest up front who performs the ritual of the Mass, while the non-denominational worshiper knows church is supposed to be casual and all the action in worship is supposed to leave them emotionally charged after the experience. Whether it’s the music, the lighting, the sound system, the skit, or the pastors extra “powerful” message, everything is crafted to make an emotional impact upon the non-denominational worshiper. Beyond that, if you dig deeper with either of these worshipers you will find that for the Roman Catholic they see that church gives them an identity that transcends themselves and their culture, uniting them in identity both with believers in other cultures stretching around the world and with believers in the past; while on the other hand, the non-denominational worshiper finds no such identity in his or her church, save only the shared emotional experience they have with others.
Now, this brief and anecdotal orientation to the two most common worshipers in contemporary North American Christianity is useful background for getting at what one can expect to find at your local franchise (church) and may help some of you understand your religious experience in a way you have not thought of it before. Going back to Chuck Smith, the head of the Calvary Chapel franchise and pioneer churchapreneur, non-denominational churches have been carefully crafted to optimize sales volume and enhance customer satisfaction. Given that aim, it is understandable that these churches are characterized by these three marks:
http://www.newspring.cc/
http://www.marinerschurch.org/
true churches:
http://www.allsaintsreformed.org/
http://lasvegasurc.org/
http://www.oceansideurc.org/
http://www.christreformeddc.org/URC-DC/Home.html
Now, this brief and anecdotal orientation to the two most common worshipers in contemporary North American Christianity is useful background for getting at what one can expect to find at your local franchise (church) and may help some of you understand your religious experience in a way you have not thought of it before. Going back to Chuck Smith, the head of the Calvary Chapel franchise and pioneer churchapreneur, non-denominational churches have been carefully crafted to optimize sales volume and enhance customer satisfaction. Given that aim, it is understandable that these churches are characterized by these three marks:
- First, churchapreneur churches are personality driven. That is no surprise given the profile of the churchapreneur. He is usually a "type A" personality, gregarious, and highly verbal. This choice to make the churchapreneur church personality driven kills two birds with one stone. On the one hand it helps the person with a Roman Catholic past identify with their new found church. Remember, their past worship experience revolved around the action of the priest up front, who was busy mumbling out the liturgy of the Mass. Whether they understood it all or not, or were even that captivated by it, they still tended to identify their religious experience with the guy up front. So churchapreneurs tapped into that, only with a twist. Instead of mumbling out the liturgy of the Mass, they have replaced the priest with a multitasking pastor who is all at once a cheerleader, coach, and practicing stand-up comedian. On the other hand, the guy with the big presence up front is just good for business. He is the face of the company. Whatever people’s felt needs are, he has anticipated them and knows just how to pitch his product so as to touch a heart in order to close a sale. If tears are needed, he can cry. If laughter is what you like, he can joke. If being vulnerable is what you are after, he can be transparent like nobody’s business. This really “connects” with people, helps them feel like they have finally found that church where people understand them. And hey, after all, Paul said to be all things to all men, right? They are just trying be like Paul. The key to bringing in customers from both target areas of Roman Catholicicm and broad evangelicalism is a big personality up front, so that is exactly what you will find.
- Second, you will find a church that does not believe in much. They don’t subscribe to any creeds or confessions, and if you bring that up to any body you will be quickly informed that that kind of thing is just traditionalism. If pressed to give any answers about doctrinal basics, you will find that most of these churches have doctrinal statements buried somewhere. But this lack of doctrinal precision is considered a virtue in these churches; after all, Jesus and the apostles did not recite the Apostle’s or Nicene Creed, besides that, if you get too specific in your doctrine, customers are likely to get offended. In that event, “no creed but Christ” works quite well. This of course, is a long way away from historic Christianity as practiced in any major form of its expression, whether that be Roman Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant. That is kind of the point though. Churchapreneur churches are intentionally designed not to be churchly; they are businesses which need to keep expanding customer bases, and doctrinal faithfulness or expressing unity with the historic Christian churches through confessing the creeds of old is irrelevant to their mission.
- Third, you will find that these churches are radically independent. This follows from their refusal to confess the faith as Protestants have historically, and beyond that, the great ecumenical creeds of the Christian church. Independence primarily flows from the ethos of the churchapreneur concept. Just review for a moment: Churchapreneurs are businessmen who have been given a divine business plan from God called their “vision.” These “visions” are the result of some conversation with God, an unverified prophecy, dream, or some mystical experience. Such experiences are so highly personal and subjective that its hard to reproduce churches in other places after a similar fashion and to get other pastors to buy into your particular franchise and business plan. Further, the kind of guys who are attracted to churchapreneurship are too independent/arrogant to allow themselves to be cast in someone else’s mold. Calvary Chapel is a notable exception, but I firmly believe the facade of this “movement” will shatter into a thousand pieces as soon as papa Chuck fades off the scene.
So there are the three leading marks of a churchapreneur church: personality driven, non-confessional, and independent. Now, contrast these three marks with the marks of the true church as outlined in Belgic Confession article 29: the preaching of the gospel, the proper administration of the sacraments, and Christian discipline. My challenge to you, if you are in a churchapreneur church, is to think about the three marks of your church. Perhaps you have not thought in this way before. Maybe you just did not know better, or maybe you were a Roman Catholic by background and you were told that formalism and institutionalism was the problem with the Catholics and what you really needed was a simple Jesus and heart-warming worship. Well, that is not true, what you need for your spiritual well-being is a true church, which confesses and proclaims the Biblical Christ, and not a commercial enterprise. Compare the marks of your current church over against the marks of a true church as outlined in the Belgic Confession and see for yourself, from the word of God, which one is Biblical.
More churchapreneur websites:
http://senecacreek.webnode.com/
http://www.freedomlive.net/http://www.newspring.cc/
http://www.marinerschurch.org/
true churches:
http://www.allsaintsreformed.org/
http://lasvegasurc.org/
http://www.oceansideurc.org/
http://www.christreformeddc.org/URC-DC/Home.html
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