Google is up to its old tricks again. This time its Google Insights for Search, a nifty tool that reveals who is searching for what, where.  I typed in “Jesus” and here are the results:

(click to expand the image if its too small)

El Salvador nabs the number 1 spot for Jesus, making them the nation God will bless…Ahem.  This kinda gives you a shift in thinking to know that the United States didn’t even make the top ten list in regional interest!  FYI, when I searched for “Jesus Christ” the top country was Eritrea in East Africa.  America is not the hub of the Christian faith, the global south is.

Just for fun, I searched by city, and Chicago came up as #10 worldwide - way to go you spiritual seekers (or searchers) you!  In a city where there is the lowest proportions of evangelical Christians of any US city and a church attendance of just 11% county-wide, (the city is only 8%), there is a lot of interest in the man Jesus!  What might these people be like?  How can we befriend them, and in a natural way, present to them this Jesus in their own context and language?

It was also interesting to see WHEN people search for Jesus - as predicted, its always around December and April.  Why then do some churches down play the Christian calendar, when it is obviously the time when most people are “searching for Christ?”

Just thinking…

Two kinds of “attractional style” churches that have very different methods for doing so:

I’d love feedback on each of these - which appeals to you more? Is one wrong? Are they both necessary?

Things are heating up around ACU - we are having our annual “Summit” which is sorta like a wannabe Lectureship in the Spring.  Richard Hays is coming to speak which should bring on some interesting thoughts.  And I’m really looking foward to my good friends Chadd Schroeder, Ben Cheek and others are presenting their discoveries on the Pathways Project - a multi-year, multi-continental conversation on incarnational community.

Their ongoing question: how do we bring someone to a commitment in Jesus Christ (many churches have become effacious in this regard in American history), and then how do we move them past a simple decision for Christ to a healthy leader in an incarnational community - fully capable of reproducing his own missional leadership in others?  This second question has been entirely neglected by most churches in our age.

You can find times/places for this here.  And some written thoughts from Ben here.

Is it even possible to “move them” at all?  I believe it is something we can do, since Jesus told us (not to make converts or church goers, but) to make disciples of all the peoples by baptizing AND by teaching them all the ways He showed us.

But have we ever taken this command seriously?  What is it like to do this?  How do we “teach” in a way that people will actually learn?  What kind/whose of a disciple are we making?  Many have tried to ask this question, and many have gone down unhealthy roads.

But the question must be asked.

I’m looking forward to hearing what God has shown them.

This is an intriguing video that only reveals about fleas what we already know about humanity - that over time we find ourselves accustomed to the limits that have been set around us, and are rarely if ever able to break free from our own prisons.

In many ways, this video, as well as a similarly symbolic movie, the Matrix, is an allegory of the human condition - that we are slaves to our own “Matrix” or “flea jar” and we will never escape, even if all restrictions are taken away. Much like the Matrix’s character Cypher, we would rather return to the Matrix power grid and live an illusion than live in a world without controls or limits.

What is really possible for followers of Christ who are not restrained by limitations the Evil One has placed on them? What might new believers, who have never been caught up in the trappings of a system that is designed to suppress them, be free to do or become?!?

It is these sorts of questions that reminds me that the organic church movement must remain out among the lost and the “unchurched”, rather than just sheep-transfer. Otherwise our homes will simply become a new place for us to erect our steeples. The “Matrix” will have found a new way to suppress the freedom of humanity.

I recently read a story (I’ll post it here if I ever find a link for it!) about a woman named Jinger. She was walking down a road in Boise, and a woman named Patty, who had felt prompted by God to stop, picked her up and drove her into town. Patty told Jinger about the love of Jesus Christ at a Bible Study she was headed to. Jinger accepted Christ that evening.

Later in the conversation at that Bible Study, they all began talking about starting simple churches. Jinger was facinated and asked a lot of questions. “Do we need a clergy for this? (no) Could she do this? (yes!) Would it be alright to start with her non-Christian family? (of course!). The next evening she had done just that. There was no formal training - only unbridled freedom to be the transformed light of Christ that she was created to be! Does she still have a lot to learn? Sure! But think about it; she didn’t think. She just took the joy and freedom she had and applied it to the best of her ability. She went from new Christian to church planter in just 36 hours.

And there are thousands more Jingers in this country already doing the same thing…but there are millions more who just keep getting passed on the highway - maybe because too many of us are stuck in our jars.

“When is salt not salty?”

That question has been floating through my mind the last several days. Of course, it comes from Jesus’ perplexing question found in Matthew 5:13, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”
My only question is, HOW can salt loose its saltiness? There’s absolutely no way! It’s chemically impossible for salt to become unsalty unless its bonds are broken…but then it isn’t salt anymore, it is sodium and chloride. This has got to be one of the dumbest statements Jesus ever makes!

This past weekend I went to the World Missions Workshop in Lubbock, TX. What an amazing time to meet new people; so many of whom are interested in God’s Mission! Specifically, I was able to bump into Marvin Crowson, Harding University’s point man for organic church, (a good Q&A with him here). He introduced me to a team who are looking at moving to Chicago in a year and a half to begin living missionally (they will all have day jobs) but they will live their Christian vocation out as missionaries to the city - planting simple churches in apartments, coffee shops, parks, and yes, even Sears Tower. You can imagine my excitement, meeting a whole team that is assembling (a mix from Harding and Lubbock Christian University) who have such a similar vision.
Beyond meeting cool cats, I found myself bouncing from conversation to conversation, discussing dreams different folks had regarding what the church could look like outside the traditional walls. More and more people are beginning to see this way of living as a legitimate option for church; and that makes me truly excited. Missionaries who have seen organic church as a means for spreading the gospel all over the world are “clicking” as they realize that if it can work around the world, and it works in the New Testament, maybe it can work in North America too.

So when is salt not salty? What about this salt shaker seen here? Is the salt in it salty? How do you know? How can you prove it? Truly, no one really knows if salt is salty unless they taste it. So why does Jesus talk to us about salt loosing its saltiness? Because it is our nature to hang out in the salt shaker! We’d rather sit pretty with all the other salt, bickering over who is the “purest” salt crystal of the bunch, while the world dies of hunger. The world is hungry for something that tastes good - something that awakens their appetite for God. When we fight and complain over meaningless arguments (find one here), we totally lose sight of where Jesus wants his Church - out of the salt shaker and into the world!  If we stay inside the church - we are GOOD FOR NOTHING.
Maybe that’s why I liked going to WMW so much - it reminded me that for too much of my life I have stayed inside the salt shaker, moaning about how all the rest of the salt doesn’t look tasty enough.  Maybe I should get out of this “bubble” and start meeting people I can “get salty” with.