church

Please Don’t Start another Non-Profit

January 16, 2012 By Tony Jones 5 Comments

Chris Heuertz, who has been faithfully running an anti-trafficking organization for two decades, has some advice for young, social justice-minded Christians who want to start a organization that will do good in the world: Don’t.

Chris Heuertz

About 8-10 times a year I get random calls from sincere 20-somethings asking me for advice about the non-profit organization they want to start. Usually these new, innovative ideas are cause-driven organizations that aim to help victims of human trafficking or women and children caught up in the commercial sex industry.

I don’t want to be a dream-killer, but in nearly every one of these scenarios my advice sounds something like this, “Please do not start another non-profit.”

Seriously.

Here’s why:
[Read more...]

Filed Under: christianity in america, church Tagged With: chris heuertz 5 Comments

Should Churches Be Able to Build Anywhere?

December 30, 2011 By Tony Jones 14 Comments

The current home of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Minnetonka, in Wayzata.

According to a federal law passed in 2000, the answer is basically yes. To wit, a Unitarian Universalist church in Wayzata, Minnesota has won an out-of-court settlement to build a new church in the middle of a residential neighborhood, against the objections of the City of Wayzata:

In a church-state dispute with echoes across the country, a Wayzata congregation has won its battle to build a new church in a residential neighborhood.

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Minnetonka will be allowed to tear down a house and build a church and parking lot in its place, according to a federal court-mediated settlement reached last week between the church and the city of Wayzata.

To underscore the church’s victory, the settlement also requires the city and its insurer to pay the church $500,000 in damages and attorney’s fees.

The 2000 federal law under which the church sued Wayzata, which effectively allows religious projects to trump local zoning restrictions, is being tested in a growing number of communities around the country. Cases resulting in victories for congregations have cropped up in California, Maryland, Colorado and elsewhere.

In its 2010 federal suit, the Unitarian church also charged Wayzata with violating its First Amendment rights to free speech and religious worship.

My question is this: In this day and age, is it appropriate for churches to be built in residential neighborhoods? There is so much commercially-zoned property these days, it seems to me that churches should be built in those areas.

In other words, isn’t it more neighborly for a church to build in a commercial zone than in the middle of a residential neighborhood?

Filed Under: christianity in america, church, minnesota 14 Comments

A Christmas Song from Solomon’s Porch

December 24, 2011 By Tony Jones 1 Comment

Filed Under: church Tagged With: christmas 1 Comment

The Bible Made Impossible: Part Three – The Fatal Flaw

December 9, 2011 By Tony Jones 46 Comments

This post is part of a three-part series on The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture by Christian Smith

The Ailment – The Cure – The Fatal Flaw

This is an extremely difficult post to write, primarily because I consider Christian Smith a friend. I am a huge fan of his work, and I have admiringly cited him in almost all of my academic work. Both his research and his theory are, I think, the very best in the sociology of American religion these days.

Also, I have stood in solidarity with him in the past as he struggled with the theology and policies of Young Life. In fact, knowing something of his struggle in that regard, I am tempted to think that his struggles there led directly to this book. And possibly to what I consider its fatal flaw.

Further, I think this is a very, very good book, and I’m glad that Brazos published it. It is both well-written and well-researched, as are all of Smith’s books.

To summarize the posts of the last two days, Smith argues that biblicism, practiced by a large number of conservative evangelical Protestants in America, is an untenable position to hold. It is, he argues, ultimately unreasonable. For instance, biblicists claim that the Bible is without error, yet they seem unable to account for the myriad evangelical interpretations of a particular passage or issue in the text.

Instead, Smith proposes a christological hermeneutic, which he borrows from Karl Barth (by way of Jeff McSwain, who was at the center of the Young Life controversy). In this reading, Christ is the key – Christ renders unimportant the contradictions in the Bible; Christ makes the archaic prohibitions in the Bible inapplicable (e.g., women should wear head coverings and stay silent in church); Christ and his salvific acts supersede all arguments about ancillary biblical issues and texts.

So far, so good.

But here’s the paragraph from the introduction where this all comes undone for me, and herein lies the reason that this post is so difficult to write:

[Read more...]

Filed Under: books, christianity in america, church Tagged With: catholic church, christian smith 46 Comments

Tom Arthur: Denominations Are Like Multi-Site Churches

November 29, 2011 By Tony Jones 4 Comments

Tom Arthur, pastor of a small UMC church, is “haunted” by the foreclosure of the Crystal Cathedral. They weren’t diversified enough, he posits, and he wonders how many mega-churches are. He also wonders how his church compares to Mars Hill:

But what if I thought about comparing the West Michigan Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church to Willow Creek? Or how about just the Lansing District of the West Michigan Annual Conference? Suddenly the perspective changes. Now we’re talking about a church with fifty-two campuses in the greater Lansing area and some seriously well-trained campus pastors, and while the conference and district are in decline and losing members and attendance every year, it’s highly unlikely that they will have such a dramatic disappearing act as a megachurch like the Crystal Cathedral. We’re way too diversified for that.

via Duke Divinity Call & Response Blog | Faith & Leadership | Tom Arthur: Ego cathedral.

Filed Under: christianity in america, church Tagged With: crystal cathedral, mars hill 4 Comments

St Paul’s Full for Noon Eucharist

October 28, 2011 By Tony Jones Leave a Comment

Ushers stand as the Rt Rev Graeme Knowles conducts the first service after St Paul's reopens its doors. Photograph: Paul Hackett/Reuters

If you’ve been following the ups and downs of Occupy London at St. Paul’s Cathedral, including the sad resignation of Giles Fraser as canon chancellor, this is a somewhat happy turn of events:

St Paul’s Cathedral reopened at midday in time for its normal daily lunchtime eucharist service, but this time with a congregation swelled by tourists, the curious and serried ranks of the media to number several hundred.

No special security measures were apparent, nor any obvious signs of health and safety concerns. Asked whether this was a normal-sized congregation for the service, staff giggled and shook their heads. The same question to the embattled dean, the Rt Rev Graeme Knowles, produced the reply that all was perfectly normal and they often had congregations this size.

via St Paul’s congregation swells to hundreds for first lunchtime service | UK news | guardian.co.uk.

Filed Under: church Leave a Comment

Women Bishops Coming to Church of England?

October 24, 2011 By Tony Jones 4 Comments

Alternate headline: “Church of England Edges Closer to 20th Century“:

The Church of England cleared another legislative hurdle to appointing women bishops, but traditionalist opponents warned on Monday the move was not a foregone conclusion. Some Anglican provinces already have women bishops, including Australia, the United States and Canada, but the ordination of women and homosexuals as bishops as well as same-sex marriages remain the most divisive issues facing the Anglican Communion, which has 77 million members worldwide. [via Church of England edges nearer to allowing women bishops | FaithWorld]

Meanwhile, Italian police detained a group of Catholics who were attempting to deliver a petition in favor of women clergy to the Vatican:

A group of Roman Catholic activists who think women should be ordained priests tried to deliver a petition to the Vatican on Monday but were blocked from entering St Peter’s Square and some were detailed by police. Witnesses said plainclothes Italian police stopped the group of about 15 demonstrators, including several women dressed in priest’s robes, and confiscated a banner reading “God is calling women to be priests.” [READ THE REST]

Filed Under: church 4 Comments

More Bad News for the (Mainline) Church

October 10, 2011 By Tony Jones 37 Comments

I spent some time last week with a group of mainline clergy. They were truly great people who really wanted to change their churches. I was speaking about preaching, and they wanted their preaching to be more relevant and contemporary. But, they reported to me, they are handcuffed. Their aging congregations simply will not abide change of any kind.

These clergy were in a predicament: their congregations are so small that to lose any of the old-timers virtually ensures closing the doors to the church, but without dramatic changes, the congregations are bound to continue their decline. The question is, can these clergy both satisfy the elderly members and also reach out to new, younger members?

The answer seems to be no.

Hartford Seminary, an authoritative voice regarding trends in the American Church, has released a study about what happened in the forst decade of the millennium. The news all around is not good, and it’s particularly bad for the mainline church. In fact, the report, “A Decade of Change in American Congregations, 2000-2010” (PDF), suggests that the phrase to describe these congregations should be changed to oldline Christianity.

As seen in the above graphs, innovation in worship directly correlates to congregational health and vitality.

White churches in general, and oldline churches particularly are doing a horrible job at keep young adults interested in faith: [Read more...]

Filed Under: christianity in america, church Tagged With: evangelicalism, hartford seminary, mainline 37 Comments

Working on Your Sermon?

October 1, 2011 By Tony Jones Leave a Comment

If you’re preaching tomorrow, you might be looking for a little inspiration. Well, let me recommend The Hardest Question, a lectionary-based website that I curate, along with my friends Russell Rathbun and David Schoenknecht. This week’s posts are by Russell, on the week’s lectionary texts in the Gospel and the Psalm. Plus, as always, Russell and I have video musings on the Gospel text:

Filed Under: church Tagged With: lectionary, preaching Leave a Comment

Will Church Plants Be Banned from Public Schools?

September 29, 2011 By Tony Jones 3 Comments

It has been common practice among church planters to start their churches in public schools: they’re cheap, empty on Sundays, have good parking, and have auditoriums with PA systems built in. It’s everything an erstwhile church planter could want. I’ve been to many services in public schools, including a couple in NYC. Now it looks like the Supreme Court may be ruling on whether this practice is a violation of church and state:

A New York City church is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to assert its right to hold religious services in public schools.

Lawyers for the Bronx Household of Faith, an evangelical congregation, filed a petition Tuesday asking the Supreme Court to review a June appeals-court ruling that would bar churches from holding worship services on school property.

About 60 churches currently use New York City public-school auditoriums and classrooms for worship activities after school hours and on weekends. The arrangement has allowed small, cash-strapped churches to avoid the city’s high rents, as the schools charge a nominal fee to cover the costs of custodians and security staff.

via Bronx Household of Faith Church Asks Supreme Court to Rule on Worship in Schools – WSJ.com.