Matt Casper is an outsider. Jim Henderson invited Matt Casper to visit a bunch of churches with him and they wrote a book about it called, Jim and Casper Go to Church. Once you get to know Matt Casper you will think of outsiders differently. Matt has an infectious laugh and loves to make inflammatory comments. Read on and you’ll either be laughing or inflamed by what he has to say!

Elizabeth: What inspires you to participate in the Born Again Church Tour 2008?

Matt: Jim pays me. Naw, naw, it’s way more than that. JK, as the kids say…

I dig talking to people about their beliefs and my lack thereof. And I like teaming with Jim and his whole crew to show people that, yes, we can all get along.

Also, I like the chance to humanize the word atheist. I think that’s important…

Elizabeth: Why do you care what outsiders think about Christianity, Christians, The Church?

Matt: Because I am one…? The answer should be obvious: because the church/ the faith/the call-it-what-you-will is based on attracting outsiders. Jesus did not say, “Pssst… god is great. Now don’t tell anyone!”

Elizabeth: If you have a MySpace or Facebook account, how many not-yet-Christians would I find in your group of friends compared to Christians? (Obviously this number will be skewed by the number of people who ask to be your friend because you are a public figure, but this ratio is still of interest.)

Matt: You would find a robust mix of believers and non-believers. Until I started this project with Jim, I didn’t know which of my friends were which. Now, I have a pretty good idea. Of course, who actually walks the walk comprises a teeny, tiny amount of people.

Elizabeth: Tell me briefly about one significant relationship you have with someone who does not self-identify as a Christian?

Matt: Well, there’s my relationship with me (that’s a biggie). But Jim and Jason Evans are my significant faith-based friends. I have some Catholic friends, too, but they are much, much, much, much, much, much harder to talk to about their faith as “it’s not up for discussion.”

Elizabeth: In what ways do you think people who are not Christ-followers care about the work you are doing?

Matt: As a “not Christ-follower” myself, I can say that I enjoy what OTM and other “money/method/means where your mouth is” Christians are doing - it’s something the country needs to hear more about.

As I often say, if everyone in America who SAYS they’re Christian actually DID what Jesus said, we’d have no homeless, no poverty, no healthcare crisis, no income disparity, no “pre-emptive wars,” and on and on and on.

Elizabeth: Dan Kimball in They Like Jesus but Not the Church writes about life in the christian bubble, what are your thoughts on this concept and can you tell me about any experiences you have had with such a phenomena?

Matt: I think Dan himself is a bubble boy of sorts. After all, he hides what he does from his non-Christian friends (blowing his own bubble as it were). But I think most evangelical Christians I have met–Southern Baptists as a prime example–purposely live in a bubble.

Rather than exploring and enjoying our vast and varied culture, they segment and restrict it. It’s too bad because I find that you learn a boatload more from people who are different from you than from people who are exactly the same as you.

Analogy: GW Bush lived in a bubble–didn’t want to hear opinions he didn’t share, didn’t want to learn about other countries and their practices, didn’t explore all the options… and he made a HUGE mess of our economy, our military, and our status as a world leader.

Elizabeth: Please share some of your thoughts on diversity and tolerance in relation to Christianity, Christians, The Church?

Matt: Christians need to do so much work on tolerance and embracing diversity, I don’t know where to begin. Sexist and racist are accurate descriptions for many of the practices of today’s Christians and Christian organizations, and I think one guy had it right when he asked, “Is this what Jesus told you do?” (r) 2008, intellectual property of Matt Casper and Associates.

Elizabeth: Gregory Boyd in The Myth of a Christian Nation thinks the quest for a Christian nation undermines the kingdom of God, what are your thoughts on this?

Matt: Hell yeah. Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s. Caesar was a nation builder; Jesus was a relationship builder.

Elizabeth: Describe some of your hopes and dreams for the local expression of the body of Christ that you are connected with as well as the body of Christ in America and the world?

Matt: I simply want to see Christians do what Jesus asked them to do. I know I cannot change anyone’s beliefs, so in the meantime, I’ll just continue to hold their feet to the fire.

Elizabeth: Is there anything else you’d like to say about The Born Again Church Tour 2008?

Matt: Everyone should go to it and buy that Casper guy a drink or two afterward.

Get your tickets today to The Born Again Church Tour 2008 nearest you!

A few months ago I watched a Bill Moyers interview with Steve Fraser. Fraser has written about the second Gilded Age. The first Gilded Age took place in the late 19th Century when railroad and oil barons made lavish profits while the poor got poorer. On the political front – Congress and the aforementioned business tycoons were essentially in bed together (sound familiar?)

What caught my attention were Fraser’s comments about the part evangelical Christians played in that cultural drama. According to Fraser during the first Gilded Age, evangelicals actually agitated against the rich and advocated for the poor.  He even quotes William Jennings Bryant (of Scopes Monkey Trial fame) as saying “we will not allow them (hedge fund operators?) to crucify us on a cross of gold”

The second Gilded Age is WAMU, Bear Stearns, the Bridge to Nowhere, Goldman Sachs, Presidential Debates and Barney Franks. In case you didn’t get the memo, the latest installment payment for the second Gilded Age came due this past week to the tune of $700 Billion.

The difference Fraser notes is that this time Evangelicals are silent. He calls it The Great Silence. If that weren’t enough of an indictment, he also notices that we’re quick to moralize and slow advocate for those who are truly marginalized. Outsiders like Fraser look on and wonder why we’re so busy grabbing power for ourselves. They assume Dr. Dobson speaks for most of us.

Why are we so silent? We come across as being passionately committed to the unborn but practically silent about the living.

As a trained historian, Steve Fraser knows how to read and has discovered that evangelicals have not always been this way. Well known followers of Jesus like William Wilberforce and Dorothy Day blurred the lines between personal and public piety. When it came to practicing what they preached -they knew how to walk and chew gum.

Here’s why we need to be born again - when we (insiders) refuse to critique ourselves God will raise up outsiders to criticize us.

If our own consultants won’t tell us the truth then God will raise up insultants who will.

If we won’t cry out then God will make the rocks cry out.

Learn more at the Born Again Church Tour in Seattle and Denver.

Elizabeth: Todd, why do you care what outsiders think about Christianity, Christians, The Church?

Todd: In a conversation, it is always important to be empathetic, to care about the other; what they think or feel, etc. Just because empathy has been manipulated and misused by marketers and others, and in so doing made it seem dishonest or cheesy, does not mean that seeking genuine understanding is a bad thing.

Elizabeth: Tell me briefly about one significant relationship you have with someone who does not self-identify as a Christian?

Todd: My friends are at golf. They love to tease me and call me “preacher”, etc. This has always been true for me. From racquetball 30 years ago to golf today, I have always enjoyed my sporting friends. Other than that, there has been the occasional friendship associated with office space or neighbors. I am not an aggressive evangelist. I just enjoy their company and serve or talk as appropriate.

Elizabeth: In what ways do you think people who are not Christ-followers care about the work you are doing?

Todd: I am not sure; sometimes it seems cynical about religion and church. Other times it seems as if they hold out hope that the church might after all be a source of goodness, healing and mercy in the world.

Elizabeth: Dan Kimball in They Like Jesus but Not the Church writes about life in the christian bubble, what are your thoughts on this concept and can you tell me about any experiences you have had with such a phenomena?

Todd: As a lifelong pastor, I have lived way too much time in the Christian bubble. Not because I thought it was the right thing to do, and not because I was afraid of the world or down on it. There is just a huge gravitational pull toward church and the things of church when you work there. I am not a victim—I could have made choices to have done better.

Elizabeth: Please share some of your thoughts on diversity and tolerance in relation to Christianity, Christians, The Church?

Todd: Diversity is simply a part of the globalization that is been happening for the last few decades. If we could see the future, we would have known that diversity and tolerance were going to be issues as soon as CNN aired its first television program; if not then, then certainly at the invention of the web. It is impossible to know what we know today and not be a lot more open to other people, cultures and worldviews. That is not to day that they are all the same and all equally valuable, sane or godly. Call me crazy, but I think that there is a difference between Mother Teresa and those who mutilate women or practice human trafficking! Tolerance and diversity are good, but they will never cause humans to stop having opinions.

Elizabeth: Gregory Boyd in The Myth of a Christian Nation thinks the quest for a Christian nation undermines the kingdom of God, what are your thoughts on this?

Todd: Before there were nation states there were tribes, ethnic groups, religious groupings and the like. All of these are okay—nothing intrinsically bad about them. Here is the key: they derive their most powerful and positive identity as creations of, and ambassadors of the Kingdom. When they don’t act that way they can go real bad—as can persons, families, corporations, etc.

Elizabeth: Describe some of your hopes and dreams for the local expression of the body of Christ that you are connected with as well as the body of Christ in America and the world?

Todd: That we would re-hear our story beginning with the pre-creation intention of God for humanity and ending with its fulfillment in the new heavens and the new earth; that that story would cause us to organize our lives and be God’s cooperative friends, living in creativity by the power of the Spirit for the sake of others.

Elizabeth: Is there anything else you’d like to say about The Born Again Church Tour 2008?

Todd: May I be the first to be born again!

Get your tickets today to The Born Again Church Tour 2008 nearest you!

Elizabeth: Why do you care what outsiders think about Christianity, Christians, The Church?

Randy: It’s hard to get about the business of helping outsiders connect with Jesus when we insiders have made such a mess of ourselves.  We are, after all, the primary means by which outsiders can see Jesus today (especially our relationships with each other, per Jn. 17).  I suppose the easiest way out would be simply to abandon the word Christian (and Christianity) and abandon the church and just talk about Jesus, and I suppose it could be argued that Jesus wouldn’t have much to do with either if he were to show up today anyway.  But at the very least, if outsiders are our “customer” then we have some kind of responsibility to know our market and how we are doing at connecting with them.  To not care about their opinion of how we’re doing seems reckless and irresponsible to me.  Plus it sort of implies their opinions don’t count or matter, which I have a real problem with from not only a marketing/evangelism vantage point, but also a biblical one.

If there is something we can do as a family (the Christian one) or a community (the Church) to reduce the size of the obstacles between outsiders and Jesus, well, it would seem imperative that we do something.  It’s challenging enough these days to get people to consider following Jesus without creating barriers ourselves.

Elizabeth: If you have a MySpace or Facebook account, how many not-yet-Christians would I find in your group of friends compared to Christians? (Obviously this number will be skewed by the number of people who ask to be your friend because you are a public figure, but this ratio is still of interest.)

Randy: I have a Facebook page, but I confess that I am totally FB challenged.  I don’t know how to use it really, so I just hope people who want to connect with me find me!  I only have (as of today) 135 “friends”, and I just scrolled through them to see if I could count any not-yets.  I think there are at least five, not counting Helen Mildenhall and several other recovering fundamentalists who would not identify themselves as Christians.  I also have a slew of people that Christians would say are not Christians, but I think they are following Jesus so I didn’t count them either.

Elizabeth: Tell me briefly about one significant relationship you have with someone who does not self-identify as a Christian?

Randy: One of my best friends is Patrick North.  He is an admitted atheist, married to a former Catholic.  Patrick used to be my next door neighbor. We’ve moved (twice) but we have continued to hang out together.  We formed a Monday Night Football group, made up mostly of guys who Patrick knows, and almost exclusively of guys who don’t do religion of any brand.  We’ve gathered every season now for six years, picking a different sports bar each week.  Patrick and I have shared our lives together, both of us having oldest sons (about the same age) who have been “challenging”.  We’ve cried together and he’s been quite honest with me about myself and how I come across to people.  We’ve spent a LOT of time talking about Jesus, and he and his wife even took a class on marriage from our church (seemed to help some).  I had to help him with his homework once, though…had to find stuff in the bible, which he wasn’t very familiar with.  Anyway, Patrick is one of my best friends, one of my Doable Evangelism donors, and a guy I could call in the middle of the night if I needed someone.

Elizabeth: In what ways do you think people who are not Christ-followers care about the work you are doing?

Randy: Well, as I mentioned, Patrick is supporting me financially.  He thinks it is a really good idea to help Christians become more normal.  In fact, some of my biggest fans are outsiders, frankly.  They think my job is noble and huge and somewhat impossible, but they are glad I’m doing it.

Elizabeth: Dan Kimball in They Like Jesus but Not the Church writes about life in the Christian bubble, what are your thoughts on this concept and can you tell me about any experiences you have had with such a phenomena?

Randy: I was a pastor for nine years.  It’s really quite easy to get into a Christian bubble, even in the kind of church I was working for (about 40% of our attendees were “outsiders”).  The church can keep your life pretty busy, and part of the reason I quit was because it was consuming me and keeping me locked up in the building all week.  I needed to get out.

I find at our seminars that it is rare to run into a Christian who actually has friends who are not.  We in church keep telling them to bring their friends to services or events, but all of their friends are already Christians (some from other churches).  Doable Evangelism is helpful in training people how to get connected to people right around you who may also be outsiders, but I don’t know of any other practical training or help in doing this in the church world.

Elizabeth: Gregory Boyd in The Myth of a Christian Nation thinks the quest for a Christian nation undermines the kingdom of God, what are your thoughts on this?

Randy: Seems like Constantine tried this in the late 300’s, right?  That didn’t work out so well, as I recall.  I don’t think it’s possible for a nation to be ‘christian’, at least not in the same way that a person can be. A nation can subscribe to Christian ideals and morality in terms of legislation and justice issues, but unless everyone in the nation is yielding to the authority of Christ you end up with faith by oppression, which hardly seems like what Jesus was hoping for.

So yes, I do think that a political system that claims it’s authority from God, Jesus, the bible, etc. would undermine the more transformational agenda of the Kingdom of God.  I doubt very much that a theocracy is possible anymore…not a true one, anyway.

Elizabeth: Describe some of your hopes and dreams for the local expression of the body of Christ that you are connected with as well as the body of Christ in America and the world?

Randy: Wow.  Right now I’m pretty disillusioned, discouraged, and un-hopeful for the local expression of the Body of Christ.  I still go to the building I worked at as a pastor (I call it the building, rather than the church) now and then, but it’s increasingly more painful for me.  I look for reasons not to go, frankly.  That’s partly my own issues with that particular expression, but also partly my issues with church in a box in general.  I don’t have any answers at this point, but I’m hearing a lot of others out there, across the world, who are going through similar dissonance.

Elizabeth: Is there anything else you’d like to say about The Born Again Church Tour 2008?

Randy: I hope we can figure out what it would look like for the Church to be born again.  It sure seems to me like if that kind of dramatic transformation was possible on a corporate scale, that just might be the ticket of hope for the Church.  The alternative seems more likely to me, however, so I remain skeptical.

I do think it is more important than ever to dialogue about this issue of the church.  It is not enough to study the statistics, read the books and blog in the recesses of cyberspace.  We need to be face to face, in rooms with other concerned citizens of the Kingdom of God, talking and LISTENING to each other about our struggles and hopes and fears.  This kind of event feels like a triage event to me.  Maybe, just maybe, we can determine where the most critical problems are and determine the next course of action for some of those.  We can’t save them all, but we can save some.

Do what’s doable.

Get your tickets today to The Born Again Church Tour 2008 nearest you - it’s doable - REALLY!

As we get ready to launch the The Born Again Church Tour 2008 in less than a month, here are some questions for discussion:

Is there a place for evangelistic tracts to be useful and effective in this day and age?

Would you/do you have tracts available for use in your ministry context?

Do you have a favorite evangelistic tract that you’ve seen? How about a least favorite?

What do you think about web-tracts, like The Kristo?

Do outsiders want to hear what we have to say in this way?

You have heard it said, you must be born again. But I say to you, WE must be born again.

Join us on The Born Again Church Tour 2008

Buy Your Ticket Here

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Three Cities

Elizabeth: Rose, what inspires you to participate in the Born Again Church Tour 2008?

Rose: First off, I don’t know that I have missed many OTM Live Events. The events are not only a ton of fun but stretch my thinking. The good thing about being stretched is you end up somewhere you haven’t been before and that’s a good thing. I think this particular Tour is going to do just that–stretch our thinking about the things we (the church) focus on, and how to look at the issues we face as followers of Christ at the dawn of the 21st Century both here in the U.S. and globally. I am constantly challenged to reflect on the state of Christianity in the context of our world and ask the question, “what does it mean to be faithful during this time?”

Elizabeth: Why do you care what outsiders think about Christianity, Christians, The Church?

Rose: I care deeply about what outsiders think of all of the above because I think Jesus is the best thing that could happen to anyone. How Christianity is perceived, how Christians live their lives and how the Church functions tell “a” story of Jesus.  Unfortunately, that is sometimes the only way the story of Jesus gets portrayed.  I think OTM (not sure about this) coined a phrase “free Jesus” which is part of the mission of OTM: to get another story out - about Christianity, Christians, and the Church - that looks a little more like the Jesus we follow. The Born Again Church Tour will help us look honestly at how we (Christianity, Christians, and the Church) are perceived by outsiders.  Walter Brueggemann in his book “The Prophetic Imagination” tells us the role of the prophet is to criticize and dismantle the human regimes that alter the story of God and then they are to energize toward the new reality that God wants to bring in. In this sense OTM has a prophetic voice to the church that is both criticizing and energizing.

Elizabeth: Tell me briefly about one significant relationship you have with someone who does not self-identify as a Christian?

Rose: I have a friend that I met two years ago. She leads a non-profit agency in the host community where our faith community is located. We have great conversations, she mentors me in non-profit work and she is struck by our faith community’s continued collaboration with her organization to serve and develop relationship with the under-served in our city. I have grown to love this woman. She is brilliant, she is a servant-leader and she is very spiritual. Unfortunately because of her own upbringing and many unfortunate experiences with Christians she is very suspect of Christianity.

Elizabeth: In what ways do you think people who are not Christ-followers care about the work you are doing?

Rose: We have found that by birthing a non-profit organization out of our faith community we have had many, many people interested in our work. They support the work with their time, talent and money. Many of these people care about giving and making the world a better place. I don’t know how many of them would have ever attended a church but they seem to not mind coming to our facility for different events that are geared toward serving the community.

Elizabeth: Please share some of your thoughts on diversity and tolerance in relation to Christianity, Christians, The Church?

Rose: I don’t know that I can speak to much of this.  Our faith community is not very ethnically diverse. Our diversity shows up more in socio-economics or conservative/liberal (don’t like that description but don’t have a better description of what I am trying to communicate) ways.  We have done a lot of talking about diversity.  We know we have not even put our toes in the water to begin the change that would need to take place for our faith community to be ethnically diverse. I do know that we strongly believe and try to live out a “centered set” way of belonging to our community. We have practiced and put into the very fiber of our community the reality that you can “belong before you believe” and I think we do a pretty good job of living that out.

Elizabeth: Describe some of your hopes and dreams for the local expression of the body of Christ that you are connected with as well as the body of Christ in America and the world?

Rose: I like Lesslie Newbigin’s statement that the best hermeneutic of the gospel is living, breathing local congregations that practice good deeds which creates goodwill which eventually leads to good news. (paraphrased)

I’m looking forward to hearing more from Rose Swetman. Get your tickets today to The Born Again Church Tour 2008 nearest you!

This article was originally sent out as an email to our mailing list. Some of the comments below were received as email responses to our mailing.

Young Pastor Fakes Cancer Hides Porn Addiction

The disgraced, former pastor of one of Australia’s biggest youth churches, Planetshakers, inspired hundreds of thousands of young Christians around the world as he performed with an oxygen tube in his nose.

The father of pastor Michael Guglielmucci has revealed his son has been addicted to pornography since the age of 12. Danny Guglielmucci – whose high-profile, preacher son, Michael last week admitted his two-year battle with cancer was fake – said the “severe addiction to pornography” was part of a bizarre double life his son had been leading.

Young Nationally Known Healer Admits Emotional Affair

An Abbotsford-based faith healer who has polarized North American evangelicals has agreed to step down as the head of Fresh Fire Ministries after it was discovered he had an “unhealthy relationship on an emotional level” with a female staff member .

Evangelist Todd Bentley, who led a Pentecostal revival in Lakeland from a modest beginning to near-historic proportions, has filed for separation from his wife, a former spokesperson said Monday, and will not return to the ongoing revival.

We need to be born again (again)

Someone once asked, if you have a problem with the Federal Government who do you blame? The President? Your Senator? The CIA, FBI, FEMA? You? Me?

The answer, it turns out is everyone! We’re all to blame.

As Pogo, the comic book character says: “We have met the enemy – and he is us”

These two young men (and many, many more like them) we’re invited into this Big Stage version of Christianity by “us”. You and I bear the major responsibility for allowing the Jesus Movement to be co opted by a consumerist religion-business that attracts, uses and ultimately spits out young people like Michael and Todd.

We need to be born again

Buy Your Ticket Here

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Three Cities

We owe them something better

Off The Map is making a place for the future. Young leaders like Kimberly George, Kathy Escobar, Tim Soerens, Sam Trujillo and Jen Wright will talk about what they are learning as on-the-ground practitioners of the way of Jesus.

David Kinnaman is a 33 year old researcher and President of The Barna Group who did the hard work of finding out what The Outsiders really think of Christianity. What he heard may not excite you but it will give you a much clearer view of the current reality the church is trying to navigate.

Along the way, David also met young Christians who, it turns out, often agree with their non Christian counterparts about how the church has drifted away from Jesus’ original intention.

These Christian Outside/Insiders will provide you with insights you won’t hear anywhere else.

If you’re a Pastor, Youth Leader, College Worker or a concerned/confused Parent you must come to the Born Again Church Tour.

We owe young people something better than this.

Buy Your Ticket Here

Great Group Rates

Three Cities

In a covert conversation in the middle of the night, Jesus, in John 3, shares with Nicodemus what it means to be born again. I love this imagery—a religious ruler sneaking out of his house so no one would see him because somehow this wild & crazy guy named Jesus had gotten under his skin. Jesus’ response to Nicodemus has become pivotal words in the history of evangelical Christianity—“no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (v. 3). I remember the day that I was “born again” in Christ. The day will be etched in my brain & heart forever. But it didn’t stop there. It wasn’t a one-time experience where I “sealed the deal and then was done with it.” Rather, it was the beginning of many more spirit-led experiences where I knew I needed to shift, change, grow in my relationship with Jesus. I believe a huge piece of our personal spiritual journey is the ability to continually be born again, to be willing to readjust our thinking, our actions, all kinds of things, as the Holy Spirit moves & changes us. Life experiences change. Cultures shift. We grow up and out and into places we never expected. And with each twist & turn we are required to re-examine our faith, listen for God’s spirit, and be willing to be “born again”.

The same thing applies corporately to “the church”, the messy & beautiful body of Christ. I believe the church is in the midst of a major, history-making “born again” experience that is creating a wide range of responses from its people. Some are resistant to change, satisfied with the status quo, and probably can relate to the religious order of Jesus’ time that said “Hey, we have got this buttoned down, what do you mean we need to be born again? We’ve been doing this for a long, long time, and it is so working for us, don’t mess with it!” But there was a whole other group of people that got a stirring in their heart they couldn’t ignore, a taste of Jesus’ ways that they were desperate to live out. And who could have imagined that little wacky band of misfits would end up being part of changing the course of history forever? I think a lot of us reading this blog would consider ourselves in this category. A little like Nicodemus, many have found ourselves sneaking off to have covert conversations with other people about the stirring in our hearts. Our dreams for the kingdom of God keep us up at night & we can’t seem to shake it.

So what will it mean for the church to be “born again”? I know there are opinions all over the place on this one, but here are a few of my essentials of a radical shift in the church’s heart, way of thinking, actions.

• Recognize that it’s not really working for a lot of other people (even if it’s still working for us). Let’s face it, Christianity has a bad reputation. People are tired of our judgmentalism and lack of compassion & care for the poor and marginalized. While some churches are still growing, we need to remember that many many others are dying. People are leaving the “system” by the droves, and the new generation of young people isn’t too keen on joining into the existing monster. The old methods & rules just won’t work anymore.

• Continually humble ourselves & admit our mistakes. I think the world is waiting for this. They do not see Christianity as a reflection of Christ. They see Christianity as a reflection of power & control. Something is wrong with that picture. Corporately, we have a lot of work to do to demonstrate our humility, our heart for justice, peace, equality & diversity in actions not just words. This will take a long time to shift, but I believe it’s possible if we, as the body of Christ, draw back to the sermon on the mount as a guiding text for our faith.

• Be willing to be uncomfortable & let go of what we have always known. Jesus made it oh so clear that the ways of following him would require giving up what we held dear. The only hope for the church, in my opinion, is for its people to be willing to give up what we have conveniently relied on to make us feel comfortable & safe. We will have to shed things that hinder our ability to love our neighbor the way Christ calls us to. We will have to get honest about really tough questions: What is God asking us to consider that we really don’t want to do? What needs to change? What do we need to let go of? What do we have to risk? How can the true heart of Jesus be expressed through us, individually & as communities? What’s holding us back? What are we afraid of?

• Practice being more flexible & fluid. The church was always meant to be about relationship, not structure. To survive, I believe the body of Christ has to learn that its strength is in its heart not its skeleton. The more fluid we become, the more we can permeate & penetrate our neighborhoods, our cities, the world, one relationship at a time. We humans have a default mechanism to organize & build. I am not against that, I think some structure can be very helpful & productive, but I think we will have to become more adept at flexibility & fluidity, which means giving up mortgage payments, egos attached to org-chart positions, and programs that perpetuate the status quo & distract us from love.

• Learn how to do relationship, relationship & more relationship. This may be the part that is the hardest for us & is the most critical moving ahead. Yeah, we talk about loving God & loving our neighbors, but when the rubber meets the road, real relationships are tricky especially when God is asking us to love people we aren’t used to loving. Our greatest hope is to learn to love like Jesus loved. Sacrificial love. crazy-in-the-trenches love. Nonjudgmental love. We won’t hit it right, we are human, not God, but I do believe as we stretch & learn & try, more and more people will be touched by Jesus through us and the “church” will come alive in beautiful & powerful ways.

I realize this is barely scratching the surface, but they were the ones at the top of my head. I’d love to hear your additions & reactions, too.

I have so much hope for the church if we will stay the course & allow ourselves to go through the pains of re-birth over & over & over again so we can become a better reflection of Jesus in a changing world. It will be hard on us personally. It will be hard on us corporately. But I strongly believe it’s possible. God, please help us to be born again. and again. and again.

P.S. Want to be part of intentional, challenging conversations about the church’s re-birth? Join Off The Map Live’s “The Born Again Church Tour” in Seattle, Denver, or Los Angeles this fall, featuring Dave Kinnaman, author of Unchristian, Jim Henderson, co-author of Jim & Casper Go to Church, and more. Off The Map is dedicated to exploring new ways of thinking about and practicing what it means to follow in the ways of Jesus.

If the recent Saddleback Special with Barack Obama and John McCain tells us anything it’s that the evangelical wing of Christianity is in search of its soul. As I see it Rick Warren held his theologically conservative credentials masterfully in check the entire time and refused himself the pleasure of comparing Barack’s best with McCain’s worst and vice versa. I vote for Rick to become Billy Gs heir apparent as America’s pastor.

The Evangelical church is looking for its heart. Now that everyone knows we’re here what shall we do with all the attention? Like it or not if you fancy yourself a follower of Jesus, care about scripture and think church matters - America basically thinks you’re an evangelical. And while my good friend George Barna may have the ability to parse the difference I still find myself unable to distinguish between an evangelical and a born again. Nor do I think that Outsiders really know the difference either. For better or worse (and usually it’s the latter) we are called by both names. And as they say in the marketplace of ideas - perception is reality. Check out our recent blog post Saddleback Showdown: What happened to religion being a private matter? for more on this.

Speaking of The Barna Group - Their new thirty three year old President David Kinnaman is making quite the splash by selling over 100,000 copies of UnChristian What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity in less than a year. Fortunately David will be speaking at all three Born Again Church Tour conferences.

Which reminds me - some have asked why we are calling this the Born Again Church Tour. Well first off it just sounds cool doesn’t it and secondly we like to use self deprecating humor as part of our spiritual practice. And since we’ve done such a bang up job of selling being Born Again to our culture I think they have a right to ask us to return the favor, especially when we fail to live up to the very standards we so loudly advise them to adhere to.

It seems to me that this is one of those times when repentance needs to begin with us! We have to find our soul again. We have to locate the heart of what Jesus really wants us to be about. Before we attempt to remove the splinter from the Outsiders eyes we think we should spend some time pulling the log out of our own.

We think that young followers of Jesus and young Outsiders deserve a much better effort from those of us who have gone down the road a ways. We need to tell them the truth about our struggles. We need to stop the spiritual cover ups - using religion as a cover for our personal insecurities and as a way to gain power and control.

Our Lord and Master said and lived this saying. “If you lose your life you’ll find it”.

We need to be born again.

Bring a group of young people to the Born Again Church Tour.

Young people bring your pastors, youth group leaders and parents.

It will change something inside of you.

In the video he says, “Why do the evangelicals have so much power? We shouldn’t give them this power.” The Born Again Church Tour asks, “What do they think about our involvement in politics?” Well, this young man thinks evangelicals have too much power. Others agree. What about you?