Many of us have been here. We've gone to a church all our lives, or maybe just for several years, and one day we are asked "Why?", and we have no answer. Or an answer comes, but it is canned and hollow. We may say things about good music, good preaching, good youth programs, location, etc. But this hardly illustrates why we go to a given church over, let's say, a good YMCA with a summer concert series and use podcasts to listen to our favorite preachers (or more honestly, TED talks).
Perhaps this feeling of something being not quite right shows up more when your leader asks everyone to invite your friends, and immediately you are paralyzed with fear, or a whole list of reasons not to invite them goes through your head, or you find yourself simply asking why you would ever invite your friends. It could be LCS.
Any of this sounding familiar?
There is a Masonic Temple meeting place a couple blocks away from my house. At least I think there is. There is an old sign, in the historic district, and really, I am not sure if it is hanging there long abandoned or if Masons still meet there. I don't know anyone who goes there. I'm not even sure exactly how one would go inside as it is in a multi-business building, with multiple floors. I think you have to be invited in the first place to even go, but I am not sure. They are picky about who they let in. At least that is what I am told. I also heard they have weird beliefs and strange rituals. I've seen some pretty crazy stuff on the History channel. Or maybe it was SyFy. Who knows? Anyway, I don't know and haven't gone out of my way to find out.
So... why share that about the Masonic Temple? Because, that is a good snap-shot about what people who don't go to church think about churches. Even I as a seasoned church goer worry what I will encounter when I visit new churches. (Food for thought: I haven't been invited to a church since I was 20. I am now 30.) Am I dressed right? Do they do that whole stand up, sit down, kneel, stand, kneel, stand, sit down, now everyone come to the front thing? Do I know anyone here? What do they do during the week? A good sign that your church has become too lethargic is that no one outside the church knows anything about it.
This leads me to...*
Dr. John O'Keefe's book is a defibrillator shot to the chest of a lethargic church.
What it is not:
This book is NOT another copy-and-paste book that attempts to reproduce the success of a church you have never visited that is on the other side of the country in a demographic you don't live in. This book is not about copying all of the author's past success with step-by-step guides on how to get your best church now. This book is not your average church-leadership book.
What it is:
This book is a great guide that does give you a how-to. That how-to is how to use creativity to learn to really reach out to the community around you. But, this is not about the typical creativity in a lot of church books that tell you to be "seeker sensitive", have relevant music, etc. It is awakening the creativity in the leaders and attenders in the church to re-think the way-they-always-do-things attitude and instead become something life-giving and engaging in their community. (Seriously, when was the last time someone described their church as life-giving? [no, I am not talking about salvation, nit-pickers]) Also, this book is great for leaders and for everyone else, too.
Some of the things you will learn in this book are; (Forget it. I was going to list some things here, but really it was boring and didn't do justice to the book. Suffice it to say you will learn the route to becoming a genuinely creative and engaged individual in your faith-gathering, and learn how to help move your entire gathering in the same direction. You will learn to think about, for instance, your church's worship space. No, the book does not tell you how to set up your church [boring], but it does tell you the right questions to ask to set up your church in ways that are intimately connected to the specific community you serve.) QUESTION EVERYTHING!**
Have you been feeling a little lethargic in your faith and/or church? O'Keefe's book is a great guide on your journey to revitalized faith, fellowship, and community.
*Total disclosure: I received a free .pdf file of the book to review. I was going to review another one of my friend's books, but he politely declined giving me a free copy. I politely declined to give him a free review. Actually, I don't think he asked for a review. So it goes...
** But do it in a productive, intelligent community building way. You'll be called annoying and perhaps a rabble-rouser at times, but it will be worth it.
*Total disclosure: I received a free .pdf file of the book to review. I was going to review another one of my friend's books, but he politely declined giving me a free copy. I politely declined to give him a free review. Actually, I don't think he asked for a review. So it goes...
** But do it in a productive, intelligent community building way. You'll be called annoying and perhaps a rabble-rouser at times, but it will be worth it.
