Last Sunday we had two homeless people come to our service. The first guy talked to TJ and asked him to give him money for a bus ticket. We are not inclined to, or in the habit of, giving money to strangers, but we try to help in any way we can. So TJ told him that not only would he buy the guy a bus ticket, but he would drive him over and purchase it himself. Of course, the guy didn’t really want a bus ticket, he just wanted the money (he forgets that he’s asked us that before).

The second guy asked for money to buy gas for his car. I told him that we were about to get started with our service, but I would be happy to take him to the gas station afterwards if he wanted to stay and worship with us. He actually stayed and listened (though he had his hand up during the sermon almost the whole time).

After the service, I went up to him and said I would be happy to go ahead and take him over to the gas station. He replied and said that he never said he needed any gas. He said, “I said I sleep on a COT, I never said anything about a car.” I know that he did, but again, I’ve experienced this enough times to know that he never wanted gas, he just wanted the money.

Through the whole time, he would make comments to try to get on our nerves. One of our girls came over and he started making racial remarks to her. She came over with a big smile and a warm greeting and was greeted in return with a racial slur. It was uncalled for, but she really did “turn the other cheek”. At every turn, he was met with warmth, love and respect. No one (that I know of) patronized him or looked down on him. He sat in the back and one of our church members went and sat with him.

Before he left, he started getting mad and upset (I think because none of his comments were riling us). He went in to a long story about how he had had bad experiences with churches. He referred to churches that don’t do anything (meaning that they don’t do anything for him) as “church light” and then he insinuated that we were one of those churches. Finally, he started to storm off and I chased after him and said, “So are you thinking that we are a “church light”. He said that we were. I said, “What could we have done differently to make you feel more welcome.” He said that if I had to ask that then I don’t get it. So, I said, “Well, I feel like we tried to help you and you refused us. What else could we do?” He grumbled something and said, “Forget it.” I said, “God bless” as he stormed down the stairs. He mumbled back something and then disappeared out the door.

I believe the whole experience was good for our church. Even in the face of insult, those who encountered this man were gracious and respectful. We say over and over again that we welcome anyone into our church. Sometimes it looks like it’s all college students, but in reality there are married couples, young working professionals, students. Youth, children and older couples, families and the elderly are all welcome at our church. People from all economic status and even religious backgrounds have (and in some cases, still do) come to our church.

I was proud of the way that our church responded to this test of their love and their faith. I am always amazed at how much of an example our church is setting among other believers. All of us are young, but we won’t let anyone look down on us for that.

I want to take a second and give a few of my impressions on reaching out to a postmodern culture. Since postmodernism is a worldview and not a generational thing, it is possible for an older person to have a postmodern worldview and for a young person to have a modern perspective. Keeping that in mind, we don’t have to throw out all modernistic approaches. There are still millions of people that have a modernistic worldview that need Jesus. The Church needs to once again be a shaper of culture, not just a responder to culture. We have to understand the worldviews of others so that we may know how to respond to each one of them.

Anyway, the first thing I would say about being relevant in a postmodern culture is to not try to be relevant to this culture. Be like Christ. Some will hate that, some will genuinely be drawn to that. We make much of Paul’s “I have become all things…” and make less of “deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me.” When it comes to the fitting in, we love to do what we can to make sure no one sees how different we really are. Some would say that to be postmodern, you need to be a pipe-smoking, poetry-loving, coffee-drinking free spirit who believes what he wants. Well, I never said I wanted to be postmodern, I want to bring Jesus to those who are postmodern. I don’t smoke a pipe because my body is a temple of God and I’m not ashamed to say it. When it comes to the self-denial and cross-taking and Christ-following, most emergent church leaders draw back in our fervor because if we really did that, we wouldn’t be “relevant” we wouldn’t be “all things to all people” now would we. If you ask me, many who call themselves emergent have a wrong idea of relevance and misunderstand Paul’s meaning of becoming all things to all men. Maybe they even have a misunderstanding of what the emerging church should be about.

Once you can safely say you are trying to live a sold-out life for Christ, you can move on to other things to reach out to our current culture, like telling your story. Those with a postmodern worldview thrive on metaphors and stories. They are experiential. Don’t just tell it to them, describe it for them. Let them know your experience with Christ. Use a situation that is familiar to them to tell the story of Christ. The PM worldview responds to things like the narratives and the parables that we find in the Bible. Jesus told stories using common elements. Do that.

Another thing you can do is invest relationally. Use every opportunity to sacrifice for someone so that you can build a relationship. There are a couple of people I have been investing in for more than a year now in Boston and we are just now getting to the point where we can talk about spirituality. You won’t start out with a PM with them trusting you. You earn their trust over time.

Those are just a couple of quick things that I’ve discovered, not because it was in some book, but because it is what we are told to do in Scripture. Too often, the emergent church is just a rebellion against all things traditional and structured. Most emerging church leaders had a bad experience with church and so they are starting their own. Rebellion against the status quo shouldn’t be our motivation for starting a church. Doing things differently for the sake of difference and change never helped anyone. The emerging church should be one that desires to follow the teachings of God’s Word and the leading of the Holy Spirit. That’s all any church should ever be. We aren’t going to reach PM’s with anything new if it’s new just for the sake of being new. We are going to reach PM’s because of our passionate pursuit of God, our authentic relationships with our church fellowship, and our energetic desire to reach the world for Christ. Loving God and loving people. As much as the emerging church would say things have changed, there’s not much different about loving God and loving people.

Should a church have an official membership? Too often membership is like paying your dues to be in a club. Someone who is a member may not give of their time and money sacrificially because it isn’t expected of them. Just give a certain percentage and you’re in. Come on Sundays and you are in. Volunteer in the nursery or teach a Bible study and you are really committed. I think most of our time and money needs to be spent reaching out to the world and in growing disciples. The typical member of a church may not invest more because they feel their money is being wasted on so much excess. It seems to me that only about 5 or 10% (made up statistic) are really doing anything in the church. When we ask people to subscribe to a minimum standard, there is no motivation to invest their lives in a cause. Imagine if a commander of an army said, we strongly desire for you to give your lives if necessary, but really all we want is about 10%. The ones who give their lives in service to the cause of Christ can’t be commanded by church leadership to do it. The Christian soldier must value the ministry and enjoy sacrificing and giving their life for “the cause”.

A church should give people a chance to be invested in by the church as a part of the Family. They should also give people a chance to invest in the church with their time and money and talents. We should talk about our “members” as family and our “visitors” as friends. So, literally, the church should desire to be a caring community to family and friends. Those who desire to grow as followers of Christ often desire to do that through small groups and one on one discipleship. Others can’t commit as much time during the week, but that doesn’t make them any less a part of the Family. Everyone should do what they can and what they believe God is calling them to do. A pastor should desire to mobilize as many people as possible to be productive and effective for the kingdom of God.

As a result, churches will have “members” who value the body of Christ and who are using and developing their spiritual gifts to bring about unity, love and the knowledge of God in the church and the surrounding community. People don’t want to give their tithe to a cause, they want to give their lives to a cause. They can then be called “members” because of the imagery in the New Testament of being members of God’s household, of being members of the Body, and of being members of God’s family. They aren’t members because they filled out a card, went through the initiation process, and paid their dues. So a person came three Sundays in a row and made 6 contacts? Does that tell me anything about the spiritual life of the “member”? In order to get more members should I get organized and have a system where I call a new person after the first visit, visit them after their second visit, send a card on their birthday, and have a person from the leadership team take them to lunch in the first month? No, instead people in the church should be ready to reach out to people because of the love they have for God and for others. Today’s society won’t put up with scheduled relationships. Membership in a church must be organic and relational calling for complete surrender to Christ and a willingness to abandon all for God, for the Church, and for the culture around us.