3 Crimes this week in our Smyrna Community - Reason for Us to Pray and Act

Usually, when I/we hear bad news, I tend to think, “These are not ‘our problems’” and “They need to get their acts together.” I’m having a harder time thinking stuff like than this week.

Direct Connection to Students in our Church 

But in a week where our youth group, led by one of our students, Leo Rodriguez, a junior at Campbell HS, organized our CEC youth group to go out and prayer walk our city 10 times in the next 13 weeks and part of our discussion involved telling the Smyrna Police about it so there is no misunderstanding (Trayvon Martin case came up in discussion), I am more aware that this is OUR COMMUNITY.

The 3 problems I’ve copied out of news articles are our problems. Why?

·        Our covenant children go to school at Campbell HS. Even if you don’t live in Smyrna, these are OUR children. We make vows to help raise them.

·        We seek to reach people who are affected by and perpetrate violence on one another.

·        Only God can save souls. And those whose souls are saved are communally responsible and individually responsible to ask HIM to save, reconcile, bring justice, punish evil doers and have mercy.

If not us, then WHO IS GOING TO CARE ENOUGH TO PRAY?

Who, outside of us who have experienced God’s radical transformation, can offer true hope, powerful change?

The government? Cults? False religions up and down King Spring Road? Neighborhood Associations?

I’m not saying we are the solution alone. We are part of the solution though. We must pray. We must be willing to get involved so lives, families and our community are transformed.

That is what Mission Smyrna is ultimately about – transformed people, families and communities

____________________________________________________________

Did you know what happened in 6 days in our community?

1. Tuesday March 27 – multiple sources

Tendai Nhakairo, shot and killed late Tuesday night by Cobb County police was a wide receiver forCampbell High School and was set to graduate with Fabian Rodriguez in May. Shot at the Riverside House Apartment complex on Shadowood Road.

We prayed about this in our youth group on Wednesday night in our basement. Though he was apparently on something. Came at police naked and carrying knives, he was part of our community. Fabian is one of OURS.

His mother Blessing, goes to sister church Church of The Redeemer PCA in Dunwoody.

2. Last Sunday night March 25, AJC and Online Athens

Zach Gamble, age 34, was severely beaten on Sunday, March 25, 2012. He was found lying in a parking lot at Concord Crossings off Old Concord near where we sent a team to pray just hours before.

"His parents, Tina and Leon Robbins are hoping someone can help Cobb County Police find out who did it and why they did it. "We know that someone came up behind him and he took a terrific blow to the back of his neck," said Tina Robbins, his mother.

"She and her husband have been keeping vigil over their son's hospital bed at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital for five days. Gamble served two tours in Iraq. Now he is fighting for his life. "Being a mom, and this is my only son, and I'm just hoping that someone knows something," Robbins said.

"Gamble has a 7-year old son who has recorded messages that the Robbins play to their comatose in the hopes that it will awaken him. Cobb County Police say that Gamble was at a party at the Concord Crossing apartments. A taxi driver who thought she ran over Gamble called police. But police said the injuries Gamble suffered weren't from being run over, they were from a blow to his head."

3. Saturday March 31 The Associated Press and AJC

"Cobb County police say a high school teacher had sex with a 17-year-old student, who then threatened to tell if he didn’t pay her and give her a good grade.

"Both the teacher, 55-year-old Jonas Magdangal, and the student face charges. The tryst was reported to police by adult who found out from one of the student’s friends. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports (http://bit.ly/H4kvVX) police say the Campbell High School teacher and his student had sex at a Smyrna hotel Dec. 31. Police say the girl then demanded money and an “A’’ grade to keep quiet.

"The teacher was charged Friday with sexual assault. Smith said the girl is being charged with extortion." 

This happened in OUR SCHOOL.

4. Friday March 30, I got this email from Pastor Lionel Gantt, who is a pastor in a pastor of a historically black church in Cobb County. We met at the forum on immigration we hosted last year.

"To Pastor Moon and the Crosspoint Encuentro Church, I greet you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ the head of my life and ask His grace and blessing upon you and the family of God with you. May God's hand forever be upon you, I greet you in brotherly love.

"My Brother what affect one affects us all and the affects of poverty shows in the record numbers of incarceration due to violent crimes and crimes for money. It is here my Brother, in the fight against poverty, we proactively fight crime.

Through education and economic empowerment we counter act the criminal behaviors of those who would use crime as a means of creating income. We change the hearts and minds of men. No other subject in the Bible was talked about more than money.

"It is here that we must reach back and educate our people to live economically spiritual lives as men and women of God walking in the full power of God.

"We must come outside our church walls to reach out to God’s hurting people of all races, colors, creeds, nationalities and yes, denominations.

"What will Heaven be like? A paradise of all races, all people from every nation in one Kingdom a Kingdom whose House is God’s. When we come together as one on Earth we are looking more like Heaven, the Kingdom of God a House not made with hands, we are the Church of a Living God.

"So I ask you to please come out and join us in this stop the violence crusade and join in with us in prayer for Cobb County. We the SCLC is the Southern Christian Leadership Conference so we believe in the power of prayer and in the unity of the Church. I ask you to please contact those Churches

"Come out and join in the fight. On 21st Apr at 6pm, at 1588 Willie Dr. Marietta, GA Cobb County SCLC/ Stop the Violence and Incarceration Campaign is asking all churches of Cobb Co. to all come together for Prayer and stop the violence crusade.

"Our children are dying in the streets and our sons are being buried alive in the GA Prison system, while GA is ranked 5th in the nation for poverty among children. Poverty is the leading cause for incarceration in America. We take a stand to say “No to Violence, No to Racial Profiling and we say "No to a government who cut unemployment, welfare and housing benefits/service to the poor, while giving tax credits to the rich. Taxation without due representation was the reason for the American Revolution. We are in the fight of our life, as our freedoms as a nation of people are under attack. This is your platform to take a stand and speak out, the violence must stop. We ask you to come and take part in this event."

So I disagree with some of Pastor Gantts solutions. So this problem will not be solved in one easy step. So should we all sell our houses and move to the suburbs? Wait, this is the suburbs y’all. Crime is everywhere.

Evil is pervasive. Sin runs and ruins. Our theology tells us so!!

We need to pray. We should consider praying with (more) other churches!

Graced

Pastor Jim Moon, Jr.

PS – I am so proud to be part of Crosspoint Encuentro because I KNOW you all will take this seriously!

PPS – This was a long rambling vent. I hope you will take it in the spirit I intended.

How The Help Helped Us Become (More) Bi-Cultural

On vacation in July, my wife and daughters all read The Help. and I'm man enough to say I read it too. Though all the main characters are women, it isn't 'just a chick book' but it's a rather a stimulating book about our recent past prior to and during the civil rights movement. Another pastor I respect wrote a great review I don't need to repeat.

I wanted to comment on the tag line for the movie. It's change begins with a whisper. But I think the result of 8 or 10 women in our English-speaking congregation reading and discussing The Help for their book club has revealed and spurred on some change. And it shows how we are making progress in our mission to be a justice-seeking, reconciling, bi-cultural, multi-ethnic church.


The Setting of Our Change
Sunday July 31, we got back from vacation to witness an historic Sunday for Crosspoint Encuentro Church. Our Pastor to Hispanics for the last few years, Hector Guzman, an immigrant from Mexico City, preached in Spanish to our English-speaking congregation for the first time. (He was translated by a 2nd generation Puerto Rican man in our church). He spoke as one who knows us well and who loves us crazy Americans but had some good corrections and some needed insight into our vision to be unified - one church two congregations. He was right on and we needed to hear from him!


The Background of Our Change
When we started 8 years ago, the vision was always for a multi-ethnic church. But, as you may know, I'm a white guy from Tennessee. I really had nothing in my family (except some racially-mixed adopted cousins but that is a whole other story) or in our staff to show visibly our desire to be not 'just another white church.' So we just kept holding the door open, telling all the people who visited (most of whom were white) that it's our vision and aspiration to be a church of many nations, races and languages.


So miraculously, three years into the church plant, God brought some bi-lingual people - the Mateos, Santiagos, Rodriguezes - and through them, six years in, the Lord sent us the Guzmans to start a second Spanish-speaking congregation.


The Problem with Change
It is a challenge to start being a bi-cultural church after its always been a mono-cultural church! We had been somewhat multi-cultural and multi-racial in our first six years but adding a second language requires a significant amount of  work and sacrifice so that we can truly be ONE church, instead of two churches that like each other.


Over the years we have held combined worship services. I spent three weeks at language school improving my Spanish. I attend all the Encuentro worship services I possibly can. In our English worship services, we sing one song a week with Spanish. Some of our people are making friends slowly during our education hour when both congregations are in the building together. We send a van around to pick up families. But it seems like we have a long way to go to be unified like a family in Christ.


The Help is Helping Us Change 
We are beyond whispering now! When these ladies read and discussed this book, I was told it led to some deep and perhaps surprising discussion! When Lisa Payne spoke to me after hearing Hector preach, I was shocked at what they had discussed the night before at their The Help discussion.


She said it made them ask, 'Do we do this same sort of thing today? Are we prejudicial in our treatment of Hispanics? What is it like to raise children in a sub-dominant culture?' Wow. Wow!


Only the gospel could have prepared all these English-speaking women (who are quite diverse themselves) to look at themselves and ask such an honest and hard questions!


And only pressing into the Gospel and Scripture and each others' lives will lead us to further answers about the issues. I am deeply excited about how The Help discussion is helping us make progress!


We Aren't All Better Now - But We are Changing at Different Speeds
And now more people are investing themselves in the questions, the issues and the struggle to be united as a diverse church. As your pastor, it's so encouraging to see!

1. One Saturday after their The Help discussion, the ladies book club re-assembled to invite Hector and Cecy and me discuss issues immigrants face living under a dominant culture. The answers were not neat or easy. It makes us uncomfortable. But it was good. (more in future posts).
2. Pastor Jose Mateo (who is a 2nd generation Puerto Rican) just joined our pastoral staff as a volunteer to develop Outreach and Discipleship in our two congregations. Though he thinks and speaks English mostly, he can bridge both cultures in a way that neither Hector nor I can.
3. Sunday 4 people who's primary language is Spanish will lead 18 English-speakers in beginning to learn or improve their Spanish. Our hope is this will develop an appreciation for each other's lives, cultures, families, worship songs and maybe deeper friendships as we learn to obey the Lord together.
4. Next month, in our bi-monthly combined worship service, Hector will preach instead of me.
5. I posted a resolution some of us have made about welcoming immigrants into our church. Its posted here on this blog.

I wonder what else God will do with and through Crosspoint Encuentro as we continue following Him together?

A Resolution about Welcoming Immigrants into Our Church

Over the last few years as we have sought to become a truly bi-lingual and mulit-cultural church, it has come to our attention that there are few churches, in our denomination anyway, who have any official written statements that welcome Hispanics (yes, even people without documents) into their churches. There is a fertile and strategic mission field right here in our city!


I know we are stepping into a hornets nest, but since we have many immigrants in our church membership and we want to reach more, we realized we need to start thinking and writing about this issue from a pastoral perspective. The recent Georgia law House Bill 87 (HB87) and the heated argument about immigration and deportation has only sped up the process for us. 


Scripture has much to say about immigrants, sojourners or aliens. So this resolution starts with a 16-point summary of what the Bible says about immigrants. The nine resolutions are our attempt to address some key issues first in our church, Crosspoint Encuentro Church.


I would be interested in talking with others who have or want a similar statement about welcoming immigrants into their churches.
_______________________

May 25, 2011

A Resolution from Concerned Pastors and Elders of Crosspoint Encuentro Church

Regarding Welcoming Immigrants into our Church

Whereas 

1. God is the Sovereign King over all the earth and all governmental authority is subject to His authority and rule,God, after the Fall, subjected Adam and Eve to an immigrant status upon removal from Eden, (Genesis 3:23) and,
2. God sent Abram to be an immigrant with his family (Gen. 12:2) sojourning in a strange land, then made His covenant with Abraham while he was an alien (Genesis 17:9),
3.  the children of Israel, through God’s divine providence, were immigrants in Egypt for generations (Gen. 50:22-26), were led out of Egypt by Moses, an immigrant (Ex. 2:22) and celebrated the first Passover in Egypt with converted strangers and sojourners (Ex. 12:43ff) who were led out of Egypt with Israel.
4.  God audibly and repeatedly commanded His people to give aliens/sojourners with them Sabbath rest (Ex. 20:10; 23:9, 12), identified them as former aliens and commanded His people to not mistreat or oppress sojourners/aliens among them (Ex. 23:9),
5.  God commanded His people to maintain the same regulations for non-native born people as native-born (Num. 9:14 and Num. 15) and required equanimity in temple worship (Lev. 17 and 19),
6.  God charged the courts of His people to judge righteously between fellow countrymen and aliens living among them (Deut. 1:16) and promises to defend aliens along with the fatherless and widow because He loves the alien and provides for them through the generosity of His people both directly and through the tithes of His people (Deut. 10:18, 24:14-21, 26:12-13),
7.  God curses the man who withholds justice from the sojourner, as well as the fatherless and widow (Deut. 27:19),
8.  Christ Jesus immigrated to earth from heaven,
9.  in His humanity Christ was an immigrant, persecuted by his fellow countrymen,
10.  we were all alienated from God and strangers to the covenants of promise without hope except through God’s grace by faith alone (Eph. 2:12)
11.  through Christ’s sacrifice in our place, He became our peace, made all believers one, broke down the dividing wall of hostility, created in Himself one new man, and by His reconciling work on the cross will make all things new in heaven and on earth by His blood (Eph 2: 14ff, Col. 1:20-22)
12.  his people are and will be from every nation, tribe, tongue and people united in Him, heirs and sons – neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female (Gal. 3:26-29),
13.  all of God’s people are citizens of heaven first and citizens of a nation on earth second (Phil. 3:20)
14.  there is no human governmental authority outside of God’s sovereign will and all government is established by God (Rom. 13:1-7) but does not supersede the government of God,
15.  legal status is not a requirement for salvation or church membership,
16. ministers and elders of God’s church have a moral duty to speak against injustice.

We Resolve…

1.      We resolve to pray for immigrants and their families out of concern for their souls and well-being. We will pray as well for our US governing authorities – local, state & federal – who are responsible to God for their personal, legislative, executive (including enforcement) and judicial decisions in regard to justice and mercy for all people.  We will urge people to pray for the US electorate to consider immigration issues according to God’s Word so that His Word is exalted and obeyed as US immigration policy is debated and decided.  And equally important, we will pray for other nations’ governing authorities who will also one day answer to God.        

2.      We resolve to welcome all immigrants into our church for relief, assistance, development and the hearing of the gospel.

3.      We resolve to accept anyone who meets the requirements of faith in Christ alone by faith alone, they shall be welcomed into full membership in our church, regardless of legal status before the US government or any state in the Union.

4.      We resolve to disciple and train immigrants to ‘glorify God and enjoy Him forever’ and treat them with dignity as image bearers of God.

5.      We resolve to prepare all church members and attenders, whether immigrants with status or without, or citizens of the US, to live as missionaries wherever God may, in His divine providence, send them to live, work and worship Him.

6.      We resolve to protect and teach all children, regardless of status or citizenship, to love God, receive Christ by faith and follow the doctrines of our holy religion.

7.      We resolve to work for the protection of the weak, oppressed and alien during legal proceedings and to urge our political representatives to develop a just and equitable means for immigrants whose status has expired to be reconciled and/or acquire legal status according to the laws of the USA.

8.      We resolve to educate English-speakers in our church about the issues, challenges, problems and struggles for immigrants and to educate Spanish-speaking congregants about their rights and duties as a sojourner in the USA.

9.      We resolve to prepare any immigrants under our care who are not currently under proper status to comply with the laws of the US and if they are unable to rectify their status, prepare them for the potential return to their home nation and accept these consequences peaceably and with grace.

Under the Grace of God and to His Glory Among All Nations,

Jim Moon, Jr. – Pastor, Crosspoint Encuentro Church Smyrna GA

Hector Guzman – Pastor, Crosspoint  Encuentro Church Smyrna GA

Jim Payne – Pastor, Crosspoint Encuentro Church Smyrna GA

Gordon Hwang – Elder, Crosspoint Encuentro Church Smyrna GA

Easy Mac Trend Toward Insta-Spirituality

Macaroni in minutes. Just add water. A vacuum-seal package. Insta-food is normal. Speed is king.


But it's not 'simple'. It's someone else's highly-polished complexity in a serving-sized container. Someone else's hard work you ingest.


Insta-spirituality is similar. Tastes good, fills up  but isn't good. Trends toward pre-packaged spirituality isn't spiritual growth at all. Barna describes the problem like this:

Growing numbers of people are less interested in spiritual principles and more desirous of learning pragmatic solutions for life. When asked what matters most, teenagers prioritize education, career development, friendships, and travel. Faith is significant to them, but it takes a back seat to life accomplishments and is not necessarily perceived to affect their ability to achieve their dreams.

Among adults the areas of growing importance are lifestyle comfort, success, and personal achievements. Those dimensions have risen at the expense of investment in both faith and family. The turbo-charged pace of society leaves people with little time for reflection.

The deeper thinking that occurs typically relates to economic concerns or relational pressures. Spiritual practices like contemplation, solitude, silence, and simplicity are rare. (It is ironic that more than four out of five adults claim to live a simple life.)

Practical to a fault, Americans consider survival in the present to be much more significant than eternal security and spiritual possibilities. Because we continue to separate our spirituality from other dimensions of life through compartmentalization, a relatively superficial approach to faith has become a central means of optimizing our life experience.

Not biblical faith. It's faith in something other than the God of the Bible. It's idolatry of pragmatism, trusting in one's ability to work the American system. It will lead you straight to spiritual illness and death as clearly as living on McDonalds will Super-size you. Judgment is built into the experience. 


If easy-made insta-spirituality is your faith in God, you are in deep trouble.


Counter the trend? With a Real Bad News/Good News Gospel. 
'Insta-spirituality says the foundational problem goes like this, "I need to overcome inconveniences and discomfort and God will help me."  


God says in the Scriptures the fundamental problem is much worse. God has a problem with you. It's your own personal sin. 


At Crosspoint/Encuentro we say this: you are a sinner just like everybody else. A sinner like a prostitute, pimp, alcoholic, corporate raider or murderer. Isn't that what Jesus meant when He said lust is adultery and calling somebody an 'idiot' is murder?


Sin is much worse than the sanitized versions we hear from I'm-trying-to-be-happy religious or spiritual people, right? And I am (the pastor) more sinful than I imagined too.


The Problem Needs to be Felt and Seen as Severe
The Law of God points out to us the depth and severity of our sin. That is a good thing in the long run.


Why? Because as we see the depth and severity of our own sin, we realize we need a stronger, bigger Savior.


Good News is Severely Good Gospel (Gospel means 'Good News')
Put personally, Jesus volunteered to become a man, lived the life I should have lived and allowed himself to be arrested, tried, convicted and crucified. And while He was dying, hanging on a cross as my substitute, God took all my severe sin - past, present and future - and put in on Him and punished Him in my place.


He died as my substitute and three days later was raised from the dead.


It took a severe price to redeem this severe sinner. It's the only real solution. It isn't cheap. It wasn't easy and it isn't instant. He's bigger than my convenience and my comfort.


And good news is offered to all who turn and trust what Jesus did for them.


How do we grow in the Gospel? Cosmic restoration.
Restoration means real effort, practical help, spiritual discipline and fighting emotionally challenging idolatry. Challenging presumptions about American life.


We aren't wasting our lives on nice. Or happy. Or comfort, retirement, successful careers. There's more.


- We worship. Weekly we put real effort into worship each Sunday. Our church will not take a Sunday off for convenience. Sunday's designated for worship. It's the way He designed us.
- We serve. Our Redeemer was extremely practical. He asks us to do practical, inconvenient, hard actions on His behalf. We practically help folks who aren't like us, welcome people of other races, cultures, legal status, ability and class. We serve without alerting the media.
All people are made in the image of God. So dignity is big. Help without hurting. No matter how the world treats them, with us they are honored.
- We pray. Twice a year we devote ourselves to prayer. Our intercession team prays weekly. Families and individuals pray together in our vocations and as we go.
- We observe the disciplines of historic Christianity. We give, read/study God's Word, meditate, observe silence and cekebrate. We repent and forgive each other. We learn our gifts and serve accordingly.
- Our eyes on the nations. Our mission takes 'real' Christianity to Smyrna, Atlanta and all the nations. Crosspoint/Encuentro plays a role in a world-wide enterprise.


Note: We also interact with friends and family, culture, art, music, movies, parties and have fun. Pretty normal people who aren't settling for the American dream.


Different than nominal Christianity
By faith in Christ's redemption we stand forgiven, cleaned, guilt-free and adopted in His radical family. 


God is shaping us into ambassadors and freedom fighters for His kingdom here on earth as it is in Heaven.   


Our hope and prayer is that Americans can think further ahead than the present. This return to historic Christianity is far more robust, significant and vital than this small present American situation.


If you would like to talk about what you can do to encourage real, vital, winsome historic Christianity, leave a comment. 

The L O S T Trend in Outreach

Who's on an island with a Shepherd, a bunch of Others and wants to be rescued? Wrecked, hard luck passengers from Oceanic flight 815? No.


Apparently much of the church in the US is wrecked on an island.


Outreach appears to be fading along with theological literacy. So in this second of six discussions of Barna's Megatrends in the US Church, I want to show you how the vision and mission of Crosspoint and Encuentro engages this problem and suggest ways to grow a healthy church that fight the trends.   


Outreach isn't a program, its the fruit of a healthy gospel-centered church. As a student and Jr Hi pastor in the 70s, 80s and 90s, it seems to me, the American church emphasized skill development, programs and motivational speeches to get the faithful to reach out to its primarily homogeneous neighborhood. 


Skills are important but its sort of like training with a knife when you're going into a sword fight. The outcome is a church in the 21st century withdrawing rather than advancing.

Barna notes: Despite technological advances that make communications instant and far-reaching, Christians are becoming more spiritually isolated from non-Christians than was true a decade ago. Examples of this tendency include the fact that 

• less than one-third of born again Christians planned to invite anyone to join them at a church event during the Easter season; 

• teenagers are less inclined to discuss Christianity with their friends than was true in the past; 

• most of the people who become Christians these days do so in response to a personal crisis or the fear of death (particularly among older Americans); 

• and most Americans are unimpressed with the contributions Christians and churches have made to society over the past few years. 

As young adults have children, the prospect of them seeking a Christian church is diminishing--especially given the absence of faith talk in their conversations with the people they most trust. With atheists becoming more strategic in championing their godless worldview, as well as the increased religious plurality driven by education and immigration, the increasing reticence of Christians to engage in faith-oriented conversations assumes heightened significance.

It is challenging to reach out so are church attenders giving up? Changes challenge 70s-90s modern outreach strategies:

• Our neighborhoods are more diverse socially, racially, economically and spiritually here in the greater Smyrna area. Myriad options get plenty of screen time.
• The gospel contains Bad News few want to admit. Even fewer want to hear it even from a kind and concerned person. The potential for a social snub is way higher now. 
• Societal norms demand privatization of religion and tolerance of all viewpoints. No matter how contradictory or down-right stupid. 
• Attractional mega-churches, Mass, TV preachers and my Grandma's old church color most people's presuppositions about what people think they are being invited to.
• The internet removes all mystery and makes everyone a psuedo-expert on religious matters. So why actually go to a church? "I can download whatever I need if/when I need it."
• Professional Christians on the internet inundate theologically weak Christians with piles of resources. The regular guys don't have to learn anything because they can (wrongly) assume their friends will find faith in Jesus via a Google search. 

It appears no one really 'needs' to do awkward personal outreach anymore, right?

People's exposure to church in most cases isn't good news. But can a living faith in God be transferred without personal real-life interaction? A living faith in Christ can not happen outside connection to the real-life body of Christ. Anything other else in my opinion, is manipulation based on legalism, moralism, therapy or a circus atmosphere. 

So do we Christians throw up our hands and all escape to comfy mega-churches? No. 


Crosspoint/Encuentro and other church plants are lean, not-so-mean humility machines. Okay, so machine isn't the right word, but 'family of humbled sinners saved by grace alone by faith alone in Christ alone' doesn't rhyme with lean and mean. 


Seriously, our 'outreach program' is interpersonal humble interaction among sinners, dependently praying (only God saves, remember?) and patiently answering good questions with good answers about the bad news and good news of the gospel. 


Our lives together become outreach. Our words and actions are one of many presentations of the gospel.


The How-To is stay simple and enter into (incarnate) people's lives. We remain lean. We focus on people, not programs. Our facility and budget reflect serving people where they live, work and play.


We are not-so-mean and humble. The single most compelling outreach tactic (if you can call it a tactic) is humility. We admit we are sinners. We ARE no better than anyone else. We aren't trying to impress anyone or prove anything first. We welcome folks no matter what. The worship services are not slick, personality-driven, video light shows - on purpose.


The main goal is not to get 'more butts in seats' but to introduce people to Christ's awesomeness. We want Jesus to be more famous than our worship service, our programs or our church or our pastor.


This means we all, from pastor to most successful businessperson to youngest teenager, approach our friends, neighbors and co-workers humbly. We lead into 'outreach' admitting out loud that they have every reason to be skeptical and unsure about us, our church and the message we purport to believe.


This approach is both an expression of freedom in the gospel and an invitation into the community of the gospel.

Homer Simpson Trend in Theology

(Thanks to Robin C in Alpharetta for this important link.)

"Doh!" appears to be the operative word in the Protestant church in the USA where theology is concerned.   Barna is reporting trends I saw early as a youth pastor to Baby Busters in the 90s.

In this first of six discussions of harmful and dangerous trends in the church, I'm going to let you know how the vision and mission of Crosspoint and Encuentro prepares to grow a healthy church, fight the trends and suggest these are ways other churches can too.

Theologically trained disciples led by theologically astute elders, deacons and leaders. The battle to be theologically literate starts and ends with church leadership. In this respect, we are purposefully counter-cultural and apparently rebels. Kinda funny. Theological training is retro? Oh well.

Crosspoint and Encuentro also value multi-generational ministry. We get a broader tapestry of wisdom, depth and knowledge as older men and women teach younger men and women. We aren't totally dependent on the charms of our photo-genetic pastor either. (Which is a good thing for more than one reason...)

Barna's report notes...

"What used to be basic, universally-known truths about Christianity are now unknown mysteries to a large and growing share of Americans--especially young adults. For instance, Barna Group studies in 2010 showed that while most people regard Easter as a religious holiday, only a minority of adults associate Easter with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Other examples include the finding that few adults believe that their faith is meant to be the focal point of their life or to be integrated into every aspect of their existence. 

Further, a growing majority believe the Holy Spirit is a symbol of God's presence or power, but not a living entity. As the two younger generations (Busters and Mosaics) ascend to numerical and positional supremacy in churches across the nation, the data suggest that biblical literacy is likely to decline significantly. The theological free-for-all that is encroaching in Protestant churches nationwide suggests the coming decade will be a time of unparalleled theological diversity and inconsistency."

Crosspoint/Encuentro bucks this trend other ways too. We preach through books of the Bible so the theological concepts get taught. Though we speak in everyday language, we use and explain those big, theologically rich words like 'justification' and 'sanctification' so people learn theology. Two of our seven elders learned theology through our Theology for Ministry training module taught in small groups.

Here's a surprise maybe. People who have been in churches that do not teach theology want to know the details! I'm finding folks are hungry to know how things fit together. Offering the training to hungry people in non-traditional formats requires some changes in delivery methods, but the outcome is tremendous.

We are not the only ones working for theological literacy by any stretch. Our denomination (PCA) vigorously plants churches that are theologically grounded. So does Acts 29. Seminaries we love, like Reformed Theological Seminary, Covenant, Westminster and even many of the Southern Baptist Seminaries teach men and women well. And I should not forget that several campus ministries are quite theologically robust. RUF (Reformed University Fellowship), CRU (Campus Crusade for Christ) and Campus Outreach graduate some sharp theologically trained students.

There is hope as leaders are trained that we can lead the church to theological literacy (and even vibrancy) in the future.

The question this raises in my mind isn't 'Are there enough theologically astute people in the Protestant churches in the USA?' The bigger question is this: Are there accountability structures that will weed out false teachers in the pulpits of our churches?

Trust me. If I (or any elder or pastor in our denomination) stray for orthodox Christian doctrines, I will be corrected and if I refuse to be corrected I'll be disciplined and removed from the ministry.

Accountability is the answer to this problem in the church. We don't need pastors who go free-lancing on theology.