So you want to be “A New Kind of Christian…

Or have “A New Kind of Church

 

 

An open letter to former students discontent with “the way things are” in the church

 

Many of my former students—no, most of them—are discontent with “the way things are” in the church.  They aren’t impressed much with the way their boomer parents do church.  They don’t like the worship, the business side of the church, or the hokey way we do PR.  They despise the church’s shallowness, narrowness, the way it does “evangelism” and its arrogance about methods.  Many think the existing church has an attitude of spiritual superiority complex and shows a judgmental spirit, treats the church like a business trying to get market share and the church is rejecting God’s call for non-denominational unity.  They want to be a “New kind of Christian” and they want to have a “new kind of church.”

 

So they write and ask “what shall I do?”  They wonder if it is wrong to stay in a church that you despise and work under a senior pastor you secretly scorn for their methods and values.  They give me lengthy lists of complaints about the church and by the end of their emails they are saying things like, “Maybe I wasn’t called at all?’ or “I feel so much more comfortable with people of the world than these people in this church.”

 

Here is the challenge I often give to them—“ go plant a church.”  Really.  That’s my standard answer.  I don’t know if God is behind this “new kind of Christian/new kind of church thing or not.  If He is behind it I doubt it will get much traction in existing churches—now movements almost always require new wineskins. And if He isn’t behind it then the churches planted on this model will fizzle and disappear. 

 

So “I call.”  Are you discontented with the church today?  Do you have complaints a mile long about how things are done wrong?  Do you yearn for a new kind of church?  Then, “I call.”   Show ‘em or fold ‘em.  Put your life on the table and go start one of these “new kind of churches for new kinds of Christians.”   I dare you.  Put your life where your vision is.  Vision is cheap—what costs is putting your life on the line to make a vision happen.  Do it!  If you really want to see change then walk away from your boomer-supported dole in the traditional church that you despise and go out and get a job at Starbucks® and start one of these new kinds of churches.  Build it up so that you can be supported by it.  If there really are so many people in the world hungering for this new kind of church—go reach them and disciple them and get them to support this new kind of church—maybe even you’ll be able to quit your Starbucks® job and go full time.  Do it!  I challenge you!  You could!

 

This is exactly what was done by hundreds of boomers before you.  They disliked their parents way of “doing church” and so they went out and rented movie theaters or schools and built up a churches from scratch.  You may not like the churches they made but you’ve got to respect their guts don’t you.  Do you have this kind of guts?  Do you believe in your own vision this much?  You seem so sure about what’s wrong with the traditional church and you seem so sure of what sort of “new kind of church” we ought to be.  Why not bet on your hand?   Why not go and plant this new kind of church?   As long as you keep your cards in your hand you can’t win… go ahead and bet your life and lay ‘em down.  Let’s see what you got.

 

“I call.” 

 

You going to play ‘em

or fold?

 

The question for you is this:  What keeps you from betting your life on your vision?

 

Keith Drury

April 19, 2005