For years, the mega churches, seeker-sensitive churches, and the gigantic lecture hall arenas of our day have all targeted “the unchurched.” Many of these evangelical churches have performed surveys and research asking their surrounding target market “why don’t you go to church?” As a result, many of these churches have been accused of marketing the gospel and/or changing church to appeal to the unchurched. Amidst all the criticism, these churches have countered, “We have attracted the unchurched into a place where they could receive the gospel.” But could they actually be doing something else?

I have no doubt that many people outside of the gospel have been introduced to salvation in Christ through the various mega churches. I have no doubt a lot of people have been introduced to the gospel who other wise probably would have not. But alongside this activity to His glory, I think I can make the case that something else has ALSO been going on which is falling short of the mission of Christ and may help us understand the way forward for the missional emerging churches of the future?

What is this something else that is happening that falls short of the mission of Christ which might yet also provide a way forward for missional churches of the future? Well, alongside these good things happening at the mega-church centers, I contend they are also “de-churching” people in N. America. I know the term “de-churched” has been used to label the people who have left the church to seek Christian life outside organized church structures. I know it has been used in various other ways. But I would like to propose another more ironic meaning for this term, i.e. a de-churched person is someone who is taken from a church context in some way or another and attracted to a large mega church whereby he/she is trained into practices that are not church yet the person is somehow led to believe this indeed is church. The person is “de-churched” in the sense that he or she is trained out of any habits or practices that were transforming practices of the Body of Christ. The person now goes to an activity which they believe to be church. But now they no longer live in and participate in “the mission” of the church. The person in other words has been de-churched.

Now, I know this is not true of large percentage of people who have come to the mega church. Yet according to Barna and Stark and others, large numbers of people have come to the mega church from small churches attracted to the glamour and production values of the large church. Or they were “catechesized” in the smaller church, haven’t gone to church for a long time, and then they come back to “going to church” through the mega church. These were people formally participating in some ways in “being known” by other people in a church, in liturgical worship or traditional worship where the pastor knew you and you participated. There were a lot of things wrong but at least they were part of something that participated in some of the “marks” of the life of a Body of Christ. There was mission going on at the former small church where you could not help but be part of in one way or another. Now many of these same people, and sons and daughters of these people, have become habituated into coming only to a morning seeker service or “information-bearing” service, which entails little participation in the Kingdom of God. They passively observe the Kingdom sitting in their seats as a member of the audience. There is little getting to know one another, little if any participation in the Kingdom of God. Now they sit uninvolved, unknown, segregated, isolated, and living a life unto themselves. Yet they have grown to understand that this is church. They once (perhaps subliminally) knew what church was, even if they rejected it at age 12. Now they have been linguistically and habitually trained to think something is church, which is not. This phenomenon I would like to define as “the de-churching” of America.

G. A. Pritchard in his 1996 study of Willowcreek referred to these de-churched people as “the Churched Larry problem.” He said this about Willowcreek:

An average of 13,220 individuals attended each weekend service during the year that I studied. Children attending “promiseland” comprised 2,074 of this number. Thus, an average of 11,146 adults attended each weekend service. Over the course of this same year, an average of 3,828 adults attended the weekday (midweek) New Community service. The gap between these two totals is a huge 7,318 adults who attended weekend services but did not attend weekday services.
The bulk of this two-thirds majority is what I would call “churched Larrys,” since 91 per cent of those attending the weekend service state that their highest value is a “deep relationship with God.” … This group of churched Larrys affirms their deepest commitment is to God and yet they do not attend the weekday services, substantially give of their finances, volunteer their rime in serving at the church, or have strong relationships in the church. (page 268-269)

Pritchard goes on to detail that the astounding evidence suggests only a third of the people who attend Willow actually do much more than attend a seeker-oriented service. That was 1996. Is that still true today?

What I contend is that surely we must not discount that WillowCreek and other mega churches have a great ministry of evangelism and even discipleship to many. But that in the process there are large numbers of people, 1/3-2/3rds of th4ese congregations that are being habituated into thinking church is something akin to tuning in, or attending a large mass gathering and that is it. Could it be that these de-churched be the ones the missional church might reach out to? Many of the emerging church peoples are no other than the sons and daughters of the “de-churched” seeing through the hollowness of this practice that their parents now call church. Could it be that the de-churched be people that the missional church movement could reclaim for the founding of true missional communities?

At our church, in the shadow of two of the largest mega churches in the country nevermind the mid-west, we commonly hear a few phrases from people who join in with our community. They are phrases like - “I went there for ten years and did not know anyone … I wanted to go to a church where I knew someone.” “I went there month after month, and what I got was more “to do” list application points for my Christian life … I wanted to worship where I could participate in an engagement with the living God.” And oh yes BTW, we have also heard, “I did not know you could be an evangelical and not vote Republican.” These are maybe all signs of people resisting being “de-churched.”

More and more… the dechurched people of the mega churches are getting a sense of something wrong. These discontented de-churched get that the mass distribution of Christian life is not possible. Instead, Christian life is participation in worship, community, engagement of the poor, the hurting, the marginalized with the full salvation of Christ, the sharing of our respective burdens in Christ, the transformation of our souls towards an orientation towards God’s mission in the world, the participation in global holistic mission. Could these “de-churched” be the basis for the re-seeding of missional congregations by the Holy Spirit? Again, I have no doubt the mega churches in United States are doing many good evangelistic things. And one of those things may be the providing of the beginnings of missional congregations with the disenchanted “de-churched.” Maybe it could be time for missional congregations to openly invite “the de-churched” to be “re-churched” missionally speaking. Some may say this is sheep stealing. Some may say that this is an example of a small church being jealous of the big ones. I must confess, this very idea might encourage a competition between the mega churches and the missional congregations. I fear some may suggest going to the mega churches huge parking lots and putting flyers on car windows seeking the de-churched to become part of missional church. I steadfastly plead for the resistance of any “capitalistic competition” between churches in the new post-Christian, post modern contexts of N. America. It is key for our witness for Christ. Instead of all this, let us missional emerging congregations be persistent in pushing the missional issues in conversations with our Christian cohorts, and let us be patiently present, waiting for God to do what He is doing with the “de-churched.”

What is “bio-determinism”? The term "bio-determinism" has been used in various ways. For the purposes of this post, "bio-determinism" refers to the assumption that biology (and the various sciences derived there from) speaks a value neutral and thereby factual description of the world. The reports of such sciences are assumed true in our culture. What "is" therefore … "is." And there is nothing left to think about except how we must morally accommodate and live with such realities.

Such bio-determinism is insidious because it reifies the worst of our moral ills. It says the body is mere biology and therefore medicine becomes mere technology on our bodies. We are left with no room for the power of God to heal miraculously in our midst and change our very souls. It says character cannot change so we must best manage our character deficiencies through various medical and/or technique driven means. It says most of our moral maladies are the result of genetic disposition. Bio-determinism says causality always moves from physical to spiritual or from physical to social. It never considers that God may work in reverse of those terms. Stunningly, this bio-determinism may lie at the very foundation of racism, reifying in our consciousness that racial physical differences are a biological fact and that is just the way it is. Witness what Cornel West said in his “Genealogy of Racism”

"The initial basis of white supremacy is to be found in the classificatory categories and the descriptive, representational, order imposing aims of natural history (the beginnings of western science). The captivity of natural history to what I have called the normative gaze signifies the first stage of the emergence of the idea of white supremacy as an object of modern discourse." (p.55)

It seems for West, modern science and its determinism lie at the very root of racism in the West reifying social and physical differences into “facts” that separate us. Bio-determinism is the normative gaze of excessive capitalism, the muti-national corporation and it is rarely questioned by the evangelical church, which seems to be as enamored as ever with modern science.

This “normative gaze” however strips us of the reality of the life changing gospel, the power of the Holy Spirit to heal, change lives, and bring love, forgiveness and reconciliation and justice wherever we move as representatives of the living resurrected Christ. The gospel of Jesus Christ, the extension of His living resurrection presence, challenges everything that is … and subverts the forces of bio determinism.

This is why I believe church communities must become places of witness to the limits of bio-determinism, modern science and even modern medicine. Don't get me wrong. Science has its place. The medical doctor has a role to play under the Lordship of Christ in the healing of our bodies. But left alone, under the efficiencies of modern bureaucracy, the determinism of the bio-sciences become deadly. More and more I see society rebelling against the commodifying of medical care and the segregating of medical care from things religious. More and more I see society questioning the subtle segregating of the elderly into retirement communes, and the geneticizing/determining of character issues. More and more I see society raising an eye brow against the hegemony the drug companies are wielding over us as they try to train us that all things are solved through drug medication through their advertising and payola to doctors. Herein lies some of the value of the postmodern discourses (i.e. Foucault on "bio-power"). And I believe the churches emerging might be able to tap into this and become communities of resistance to the bio-determinism that is driving the post Christian cultures of N America. The emerging churches might be the kind of communities capable of witnessing by our way of life to the limits that there are to all things bio-science.

What would this look like? Healing services would be a regular occurance at these churches. These services would regularly call together those who have faith to pray & lay hands on the sick one anointed with oil. I believe such community rituals are paradygmatic of the postmodern defying hyper modernity's tendency to strip us of the supernatural. I am not one who believes that divine healing excludes all medical care. But we should become communities that minister prayer, submission and discernment at the time of medical need. Here we display the limits of modern medicine. Likewise we would instill places of monastic practice in our communities to give us ways towards orienting our souls towards God and His life, so as to defeat the ways our culture trains us to be blind to God’s work. These communties would take renewed care of our elderly blessing them and nurturing them so that we might receive wisdom and love from them, which we so sorely need. We would have places of worship that in symbol, word and art point to and lead us to the transcendent mysterious all mighty God who rules over all other causality. We might gather in co-op's to participate and support organic farming. And last but not the least, we would gather together, as a diverse people, with many cultures. We would come together in our allegiance to Christ and His work and learn how to live and love together. This last one especially requires an all out assault on those who say … “but this is the way we are,” another sign of bio determinism. I admit, we’ve got a long way to go in our church. And I am already exhausted. Nonetheless, a healing service is coming this Sunday at 9:30 a.m. around the altar. Praise God…

And oh yeah, to add more fuel on the fire, … we might rethink the way we name the subject that has become so hot in evangelical circles, “bio-ethics.” Let us avoid the suggestion that we can base ethics in biology. And we also might rethink whether “intelligent design” is worth spending so much time on. I am sure there is a place for engaging the issues of defending the nature of our faith in relation to science. But we must be careful not to join up in the same game. Let us become communities of resistance to bio determinism. Let us become living witnesses to the limits of modern science, modern medicine and all things bio-deterministic.

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I’m in Stratford Ontario with Rae Ann and Max. Doing a little R&R and loving it. (I needed it). Tomorrow I am at Resonate Echo in Hamilton Ontario to talk and discuss a few things emerging, the challenges of pastoring in the hyper-modern post Christian cultures we find ourselves in. Hope to see some of you there.

Our church is preaching the texts retelling the post resurrection appearances of our Lord. We fit the texts within the lectionary and it has been a great challenge to us all to live new life in the Christ’s post-resurrection reality. Yesterday we preached Luke 24:36-53. This text is a magnificent unfolding of what “the gatherings” of post Easter believers would be in the early church. This text describes what I earnestly seek for our gatherings at Life on the Vine church.

Notice the development of the meeting. It is Sunday … first day of the week … The text says … they gathered (vs 33). Then our Lord .. shared the “peace” saying “peace be with you” (vs 36)… before they even know the depth of what this now means, He shares the new and deep fellowship binding one together in the peace made possible in the forgiveness of sin and new life in Christ’s now accomplished work on the cross. Then they are invited “to see” Him for themselves, to touch, and Jesus eats some food “amidst them” (vs 38). This suggests the Lord’s Table and His presence once again in the fellowship meal. He then opens Scripture … and teaches them and “their minds are opened” (vs45) … Something happens here by His Spirit that illumines things they had not seen or been convinced of. As a result, they see things totally differently. He then pronounces them “witnesses”(vs 48) and tells them to wait for the Holy Spirit.(vs 49). He sends them out for mission.

Something marvelous happens here to the disciples in the presence of the resurrected Lord. Somehow, these disheveled disciples go from “startled and frightened” (vs37), to “doubting and amazement” (vs41) to “worshipping Him with great joy” (vs52) being sent out into the world for mission. A true transformation beyond belief has taken place. They have come, seen, touched and eaten, their minds have been opened by the Word, and they are changed. They leave from this place, in the power of the Holy Spirit, into the Mission of God in the World. This pattern of worship is old as the first centuries. Yet amid the glamour of the mega lecture halls and the pep rally concert halls of evangelical worship, is this not a model for the gatherings of the churches emerging for mission?

I have said in the Great Giveaway, that worship in the modern evangelical church often resembles either a “lecture hall” or a “feel-good pep rally.” That neither one can measure up to what we see here going on in Luke 24:36-53. We must go beyond “information distribution” and/or “feel good self expression” to the recovery of the encounter with the historical reality of Jesus’ continuing resurrected presence in the gathering. It must be a worship that invites us to come, see, touch, eat, open our minds to God’s Word in Christ and be changed for Mission. It requires for evangelicals a reinvigoration of the Lord’s Table, a preaching that unfolds the new reality of the resurrected Lord, a recovery of the sense of supernatural mystery in worship and the supernatural empowerment from the Holy Spirit from which we are transformed and sent out for Mission. The disciples went forward from here proclaiming the saving gospel, busting up prisons, healing the sick, defying the governments, reordering how the world must think about money and justice (think Ananias for instance). Our worship gatherings must likewise be encounters with the living Christ that transform us for missional engagement.

Instead of grand lecture halls, pep talks about what Jesus can do for you, instead of pep rallies which give us an experiential buzz but leave our character untouched, we must instead come, gather, see, touch and eat, open our minds to the Word, and be changed to go out from our sacred places, in the Holy Spirit, into the Mission of God in the World