It’s safe to say that the traditional expression of church has varied little in the Western world. This form worked well when the dominant culture was agrarian, most people were uneducated and illiterate, and books were either unavailable or very expensive. Information and stories were spread by people who had dedicated their lives to learning, reading, and teaching. Many of these were pastors who received more schooling than most before going out into the world to build a church. Farmers from miles around would put on their “Sunday best” and walk, pile into wagons, or ride to church each Sunday morning. Together they’d sing and then sit and listen to the minister or priest teach from the Bible and his brand of theology. Afterward, they’d catch up on how life was going, learn how they could help each other, and perhaps even share a meal.

WHAT WAS THE APPEAL OF CHURCH?

It still sounds appealing in many ways, doesn’t it? There’s a simplicity to it that makes me feel a little nostalgic. And there’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, there are three important things we can learn from this model:

1. The people who came to church were drawn together by a COMMON faith experience. In rural settings, commonality just happened because there were very few, if any, choices in denomination or Bible translation. As society transitioned from being rural to urban, commonality was still important—we were just able to decide which church we felt most comfortable in ethnically, denominationally, and geographically.
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2. Because most people were either illiterate or didn’t have the resources to educate themselves, Christians needed a dedicated person — a pastor — TEACHING them in a dedicated, centralized place—a church building. This hasn’t changed much in recent times. Even as American movements from the Big Tent Revivals through the Emergent Church introduced metaphors and stories as the dominant mode of evangelism and discipleship, teaching remained the main attraction for church-goers.
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3. Since people were drawn together each Sunday often from many miles away, they had the opportunity to experience COMMUNITY — loving and supporting each other, sharing meals and sacred rituals, before going their separate ways again for another week. This too survived into contemporary times as suburban churches flourished and people poured in from miles around.

POST TEACHING-CENTRIC CHURCHES

These elements are the core of what we call the teaching-centric church, and they were an important part of life for hundreds and hundreds of years.

But times have changed. Most people in the Western world are no longer illiterate. Books have become inexpensive and easy to get, information can now be accessed and transmitted even more cheaply via audiobooks and podcasts, live events and TV programs, websites and Internet videos; those who cannot read can still find the information they want. We no longer need someone to read the Bible to us, but as we read for ourselves, we also decide which translation we like best. Pastors are still educated in a broad range of subjects, but they are no longer the sole source of wisdom — for example, a marriage and family counselor would have greater insight and understanding into relationships, a small business owner would have more insight into the nature and use of money, and the average person might have a deeper grasp of a book of the Bible after doing their own intensive study.

THE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH HAS RADICALLY SHIFTED

It shouldn’t be surprising to us, then, that attendance in teaching-centric churches has been rapidly declining. But we are still training our ministers and church leaders how to perform in jobs that are rapidly disappearing in an industry that has radically shifted. We still need leaders and ministers to rally and organize people, but they need to learn how to lead in church environments that are becoming increasingly service-centric. What are the elements of a service-centric church?  And how does a church transition from a Common Teaching Community to a Common Cause Community.

This is a conversation we’re having at the Hatchery. Hope you’ll join us.

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
— Matthew 5:14-16 (NIV)

I think it’s safe to say that when we read this verse, our imagination paints a nostalgic, beautiful picture—warm light shining through a cabin, flickering candles, cheerful flame in the fireplace, a beautiful little lake outside. Right? The language of the verse encourages this: “ . . . light a lamp . . . put it on its stand . . .” And so this is the only way many of us are willing to think about it. But there are other ways of creating light—most of us, at least in the Western world, don’t even use fire anymore. So, as people leave the traditional church—the keeper of the flame—by the tens of thousands, perhaps it’s time to reinterpret what it means to be the light of today’s world.

THERE ARE THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO GENERATE LIGHT

1. a source or ignition,
2. some kind of fuel, and
3. a suitable environment.

To ignite a flame, you need a flintlock or match—something that creates a spark. Your fuel substance would most likely be something made from oil or wood. If you need a brighter light, you use more fuel—more wood, more oil, more of a non-renewable resource. (Of course, as you toss more wood on a fire, you’re not just creating a brighter light, you’re also making the fire hotter and hotter, which may or may not be helpful.) To keep the flame going, the environment must have plenty of oxygen.

Fire has been the light source for humans for thousands of years, so it’s no surprise that we have built our churches in this paradigm. Traditional churches, whether small or mega, want to light their flames and put them on stands—and in a “dark world” the brighter the better, right? Which means they need bigger and bigger fires consuming more and more fuel, more and more resources.

But we’re finding that these resources are, like wood and oil, non-renewable. Lay and professional ministers are burning out, money is scarce, and the people the light was meant to attract are repelled by the wastefulness and the excess energy—the heat—that is no longer cozy or even useful for life.

But in the same way that our most common source of light has moved from the flame to electrical light, we’re seeing a migration in what it means for us to be the light of the world.

An electrical light has the same three requirements a flame does, but these are met in a very different way. First, the source is either an alternating or direct current. Unlike a match or flintlock, electricity is unseen most of the time . . . it’s kind of magical. You flip a switch and the light turns on whether you understand the physics behind it or not, whether you accept it or fear and shun it.

Second, the fuel we used first were filaments before we moved on to gasses. Here we discovered different kinds of light, like neon and all these colors that were bright and cool. As we worked on generating brighter and more efficient light, we discovered halogen and now LEDs, which are very bright, power efficient, safe to touch, and if you hook them up to solar panels, completely renewable.

What is really mind-blowing is that the environment in which these new sources of light work is the direct opposite of flame. Rather than the air-filled oxygenated environment that fire needs, electrical lights operate in a vacuum.

What a drastic change in a relatively short period of time! We have moved away from the traditional, age old flame to a technology that is at once more mysterious and more useful while achieving the exact same goal—lighting up dark places.

So this change will be different, strange, perhaps a little threatening to people who think of fire as the only or proper way to generate light. But it will be very natural, logical, and appealing for someone who has grown up flipping a switch to generate light in a brighter, cooler, more efficient way.

For someone in the new world, they can look back and say to someone in the traditional world, “You’re wrong! Building bigger and bigger fires doesn’t make any sense and is a unwise waste of resources!” And for those coming from a traditional world view, looking into the new world might also call what they don’t understand heresy or unbiblical. But both would be rude, and we don’t want to ever insult or disparage each other because that behavior is like a wet blanket or flicking a switch—either way, the light is extinguished.

To have either a traditional or a cultural way of interpreting what it means to be the light of the world does not mean that either is the only way to interpret Jesus’ words—we are merely looking at what he said in a different fashion. And as the church moves from being teaching-centric to service-centric, we need the next generation to lead us, discovering new, more efficient ways to shine the light more brightly than ever before.

If you will provide health care for the people who work for you.

I’ll pay 11 cents,

To make sure a single mom does not have to take on a 2nd or 3rd job for the needed medical care of her children.

I’ll pay 11 cents,

To make sure that all of your work force – regardless of pre-existing conditions will be guaranteed the same care as their co-workers.

I’ll pay 11 cents,

For the family that has a college student who can barely pay tuition – but now can be covered at no extra charge till she is 25.

I’ll pay 11 cents,

To relieve the emergency rooms and personnel that are being used for primary care for the uninsured.

I’ll pay 11 cents,

So that a father will never have to choose again between the life of his child or a life of overwhelming medical debt.

I’ll pay 11 cents,

And I hope you would be willing to pay 11 cents for me and my family too…

My daughter was born 1 lb. 13 oz. and spent her first hundred days of life in a little plastic box at Hoag hospital. The medical bills totaled over $500, 000. We as a family would have been doubly devastated – the pre-mature birth of Grace at 27 weeks and a mountain of medical debit that we would probably never be able to repay.

This is a response / support for Papa John’s report that I may have to pay as much as 11 – 15 cents more per pizza for them to be able to provide health care for their work force.

I know this has become a very politically charged topic. My intent is to personalize the issue for you, me and my neighbor.

So no matter what your party affiliation or income bracket – let’s begin to talk to each other. Papa John’s has quantified what it will cost to provide health care for their workers. And that cost may need to be passed on to us. All I am trying to say – if you need me to pay a little more and you will take care of those who work for you – then I am in.

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Spencer Burke is the creator of www.TheOOZE.com, host of ThinkFWD and the author of many books including: Making Sense of Church and A Heretic’s Guide to Eternity.

I do not think there is a modern church, emerging church or whatever comes after that. What we are trying to “Brand” or label is a transitory state the Church goes through all the time. It has just been fashionable (and maybe profitable for publishers and critics alike) to name it.

In reality I think we will look back at this period in time and see it is the IMPACT of the “Emerging/Postmodern” time/technology/theology/etc. that has had a great effect on the Church. Just like there were “Emerging Businesses” that came out of the transitions of the ’80″s, it would be hard to imagine working without a computer or the internet. It has become business as usual.

Rather than looking for what we disagree on – perhaps we can find ways to hear each other, learn from each other, challenge each other, and join each other in the way of Jesus.

I know I have had my fair share of heretical moments and I live by the motto “If I am not a little embarrassed about what I said yesterday, then I probably didn’t learn anything today”.

But it is also important to hear the words of Arthur Schopenhauer who said, “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident”.

Someday those who are defending the church today will realize that it was the loss of modernity that they were grieving. And those who are so eager to be the torch bearers for the emerging church will be left with a new institution to feed. But for some, the Church will always be the Church and she will continue to surprise us…

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Spencer Burke is the creator of www.TheOOZE.com, host of ThinkFWD and the author of many books including: Making Sense of Church and A Heretic’s Guide to Eternity.

When the “rapture” prediction, bill boards and post-apocalyptic-pet-care-businesses started popping up everywhere, I began to wonder, why am I so ready to escape rather than serve? It feels like placards,  amendments and full page ads are arms-length solutions to hands-on problems.

For some reason I can see Jesus fighting off the body snatching beam of light offering a “skip ahead 2 spaces while everyone else loses a turn” proposal. Why would I leave at the moment Jesus would show up? It is in times like these that I get to be love, light, salt, a sweet aroma (fill in your favorite biblical metaphor here _____________________ ).

I watch my children and I see the gospel in action. If a kid is new, left out or forgotten – they are the ones to invite them in. If someone is lost or seems confused or is carrying a burden too heavy – they take the time to help. If a friend did not have a lunch or needed a place to stay that afternoon or could not pay for group activity – my kids would find a way to share. I forget that a dollar to a kid who has two…is still half of what they have.

This childlike faith inspires me to see the opportunities right in front of me, no matter what the date.

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Spencer Burke is the creator of www.TheOOZE.com, host of ThinkFWD and the author of many books including: Making Sense of Church and A Heretic’s Guide to Eternity.

It was great being with you a couple of weeks ago – before the entire media stir. If it is not too presumptuous of me, I would like to encourage you with a few thoughts that have guided me through times of critique…

As people voice their opinions, remember you can only control your own words. In the new media world there are no “take backs” and the permanent record stands forever. Our children’s children will know more about us by our Internet foot print than another generation’s “Kodak moments.”

We also live in a very connected world, where those who have wielded power by control and intimidation are watching their empires crumble. An awareness of how big, diverse and beautiful our future really is has severely squelched those who limit others. To call another’s faith into question (you are unchristian or not biblical), just because it does not aligned with one particular dogma or hermeneutic, is to miss the amazing metaphor of the Body of Christ.

I would like to pass along a life learning, it goes like this – “if I am not a little bit embarrassed about what I said yesterday, then I have probably not learned anything today…”

With this in mind, I want to learn more about what it means that “God is Love;” that the greatest commandment is to “Love God and my neighbor as myself;” and that the mark of a Christ-follower is our “Love one for another.”

If I speak in the tongues of popularity or of authority, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of speaking absolute Truth and can understand every secret God has concealed and conquer every doubt, and if I have a faith that can move trending topics on twitter, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I say I am only looking out for those who cannot look out for themselves and stake my reputation on the line that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are absolute Truths, they will cease; where there are persuasive arguments, they will be stilled; where there is no doubt in any theological position I take, it will pass away. For we know in part and we try our best to make sense of our world, ourselves and God, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put away the childish thought that I could know as God. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Or as a friend of mine likes to say “Love Wins, ”
Spencer

The italicized words are mine in 1 Cor. 13

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Spencer is the Founder and Editor of – a trusted source of information and experiences regarding evolving spirituality that was relaunched in new and fantastic fashion in December 2010. He is the author of three books: Making Sense of Church, , and A Heretic’s Guide to Eternity. Spencer is married to Lisa, his wife of 24 years, and has a son Alden who is 12 and a daughter Grace who is eight. They have lived in the same “beachshack” in Newport Beach, CA for the past 20 years.

January 12 marks the one year anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Haiti that killed more than 230, 000 people. In addition to that initial loss of life, there has been dealing with the aftermath. One million people in Port-au-Prince remain homeless a year later. A health crisis due to cholera is underway, with tens of thousands infected and more than 2, 500 who have died. The country is also in the middle of a political crisis. All this in a country of 9 million people that is just a 90-minute flight from Miami.

But with devastation comes the possibility of hope. I Interview Kent Annan from Haiti Partners and he shares stories of beauty and tribulation, pain and love, darkness and compassion. In this OOZEcast you can hear about some of the amazing work that has been done over the past year and find out simple ways you can continue to help out. Many of the stories Kent shares are from his latest book “After Shock” (which he is donating his earnings to educational programs in Haiti).

Click here to listen to the full interview with Kent Annan