I read recently that studies show that church visitors make up their minds within the first seven minutes whether or not they would consider returning.  This means, of course, that there is a real possibility that the following conversation could have happened between visitors to our church recently:

9:58 – (driving down Main St, Glastonbury) Congregational Church…Episcopal Church… now where is this NewLife church again???  Wait, I think that little blue sign said “NewLife something-or-other…”  Turn around.

10:00 – (driving back up Main St) Okay, yeah – there’s the church.  Wait – they meet in a Mason’s Lodge???  What kind of church is this???
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When I was a junior at UConn, I co-led a small group Bible study with my friend Jen.  It was a great group, full of spiritually growing underclassmen that seemed poised to have thriving, lifelong relationships with Jesus.  At the end of the year, the group disbanded, and new groups were formed the following fall.  I distinctly remember watching that winter as a few of my ex-group members ceased participating in their new small groups.  When I asked one of the girls why she had stopped going, she said “It’s just not like Eric and Jen’s group.”  After I stopped patting myself on the back for apparently being the best small group leader ever, I realized that something was seriously wrong.  If all I was doing was leaving people dependent on me for their spiritual growth, what long-term good had I done?  If these students were going to cease pursuing God because nothing else compared to our small group, where had I gone wrong?
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 Happy anniversary!

It has been one year since we began the NewLife blog, which means that it’s a great time for reflection on how God has used the blog as well as an evaluation of the benefits of blogging for a church. 
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This one is for the little guy.  This is for the disqualified ones, the barely hanging on, the ones who don’t belong, the struggling but still faithful.

This is for my church.

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If Jesus were running our church, what would his priorities be?  What values would be at the top of the list if Jesus were running the show?  And how would our priorities compare to His?

Today, I’m wrapping up my study of Jesus’ criticisms of the religious leaders of his day in Matthew 23.  I’ve been shocked by the directness of his rebukes over the past few weeks, and today’s words are no less harsh.  In Matthew 23:23-24, he deals with the contrast between the priorities of the religious leaders of his day and those of God, and in the process I think Jesus has a lot to teach today’s church about what it means to follow God:

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices– mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law– justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.  You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.”

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“The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, and then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle.  That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable” – Brennan Manning

I am sure there are plenty of people in this world who look to philosophical and theological arguments to account for their rejection of God, but I believe that the biggest cause for people giving up on God, Jesus, or the church can be summed up in one word:  hypocrisy (with unjust suffering a close second).  There is no greater opponent to God than hypocritical Christians, no bigger turn-off to the world than a church who claims to follow Jesus but shows no love for their neighbor. 

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The controversial rapper Eminem and the Galilean carpenter/teacher Jesus may not seem to have much in common at first glance, but as I’ve been meditating on Jesus’ challenging words to the Pharisees in Matthew 23, it almost feels like I’m reading a first century Palestinian version of a freestyle rap battle.  In this jaw-dropping passage, Jesus slams the religious leaders and what they call spirituality in pointed putdown after putdown, and if you listen closely you can almost hear the crowd yelling “oh, snap!” (or whatever the Aramaic equivalent would be).

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Pop quiz:  What famous religious leader is quoted as calling the other religious leaders of his day the following:

“Hypocrites”
“Sons of Hell”
“Blind fools”
“Full of hypocrisy and wickedness”
“Snakes and a brood of vipers”

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One of the saddest and most embarrassing truths about Christianity is the staggering number of divisions and denominations which litter the religious landscape, with each group believing that it is the most accurate representation of what it means to follow Jesus.  Two thousand years ago Jesus launched a world-wide revolution, praying that his followers might “be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you… so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21), and two millennia later, thousands of denominations have split over everything from how churches should be governed to how baptism should be administered to whether or not women can be pastors (for a depressing list of denominations, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_denominations).  I strongly believe that it is time for the universal church to take a step back and pray again with conviction the words of Jesus – “May we be one, Father, just as Jesus and His Heavenly Father are one, so that the world might know that Jesus is the Savior.”

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One of the most difficult decisions for anyone giving birth, whether to a new child or new church, is what to name it.  Certainly, many parents or church planters want to avoid giving their child or church a name that everyone else’s child or church has (Jacob, Emily; Grace Church), but they also don’t want to stick their child/church with a name that will invite ridicule (Cletos, Apple (oh wait…); Grassy Butte United Methodist Church of Dickinson, ND).  Let’s consider naming a church for a second.  Certainly, many churches have found that the safest thing to do is to name your church after the town or area in which you are located – like Saddleback Community Church or Willow Creek Community Church.  Safe, of course, unless you happen to live in Devils Lake, ND (home of Devils Lake United Methodist Church) or Bourbon, IN (home of Bourbon United Pentecostal Church). 

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