CCM's: Breaking Down Church Walls

Believe it or not there was a time when churches were at the center of community living. They were valued for their modesty and communal function. Churches had a more organic quality that made them accessible even to the common passer by. It was almost certain that a community with such a church was a tight knit community. Be that for better or for worse, the point is that modern day churches for some reason don’t have the same communal qualities and fail to appeal to the personal spirit. Somewhere along the line they became very introverted and impersonal. A wall was built up around them. How it got to that point, I don’t know exactly.

This past week I had several conversations with people who have made the same observation. We didn’t spend a lot of time talking about how it happened but one thing was pretty clear, we were frustrated and disappointed with it. One person, a good friend of mine and a respectable associate pastor, talked about her challenges in trying to create a sense of community and discipleship within her traditional church setting. She talked about how she encountered resistance among church clergy when it came to ideas that would help people build relationships and find personal meaning in their faith walk.

There could have been several factors contributing to the resistance (perhaps one being that she was a woman minister…oh no!) but I think that’s just a symptom of a deeper problem- the impersonal attitudes of today’s traditional churches. The problem is that the church leaders should have immediately recognized the value of a “personalized” ministry regardless of who suggested it and should have done everything in their power to embrace and support it. Personal ministry should be the number one priority of any church. It shouldn’t just be an idea or a suggestion it should be a principle on which every Christian church operates. But when churches are introverted and impersonal, personal ministry becomes just another good idea that’ll only see the light of day if a church department happens to find it useful. The value of personal ministry is just not easily recognized.

So what needs to happen? These church walls need to come down. But before you go and commit the heretical act of literally bulldozing the walls of your church just to get a glimpse of the outside world, remember it’s just a metaphor! (But you would definitely get people’s attention that way, hmm.) But in all seriousness, to bring down the walls that make a church seem impersonal, people have to make an effort to engage others on a personal level. They can start within their own spheres of influence. Mentoring and discipleship training can also help provide people with tools for building relationships with others. Talk to your church leaders about mentoring opportunities. Ministries like Tikva (read previous post) can also inspire ideas for how to live out Christianity where people live their lives. If you encounter resistance then build friendships with people in your church who might share your same ideas. They key is not to give up or give in. CCM’s, its time to bring down the church walls! Nicely please!

First Official CCM Serves Up Tik-Va

CCM’s are very rare at this point. So you can imagine my excitement when I learned about what one Pastor was doing to create a Christian culture in his community. I just had to visit with him and learn more about his ministry. So here’s the first official real life example of a CCM!

With nothing but a humble paycheck and a steady faith Pastor Mike Cauley and his family moved to the small town of Keller, Texas to start a church in hopes of building relationships and creating a meaningful Christian community.

Cauley is the pastor of a small Seventh - day Adventist church plant in Keller. But this church plant is unlike any church you might imagine. Pastor Mike and his small church family literally purchased a little house in Keller’s cultural district and named the place Tik-Va, the Hebrew word for hope. And in addition to their delicious biscotti snacks and exotic coffee drinks, hope is exactly what they’ve been serving up.

Thanks to Nadene, a volunteer church member and a great hostess (who gave me a refreshing glass of orange juice during my visit!), Tik-Va is open on weekdays and provides a very relaxing atmosphere perfect for anyone who just needs to break away from the toils of life for a while. Weather someone needs a quiet place to gather their thoughts, or needs to express themselves through art or music, or just needs someone to listen, Tik-Va is where they go. As a matter of fact, during my visit a couple of people stopped by just to chat with Pastor Mike and Nadene about how their day was going. That’s when I realized what this place was really about. It was about real people, with real lives, who wanted to know that someone cared. I can only imagine the kind of opportunities there are to share faith and love here!

Although this approach to church and ministry is certainly non-traditional and outside the box of what most people would even consider being “church” (which we like!), while others may call down the hell fire Pastor Mike and his church family firmly believe that they’re simply doing what Christ did, live with everyday people and show them the love of God. Pastor Mike captures the true spirit of the Christian Culture Maker.

Look out for a full-featured podcast interview with Pastor Mike.

CCM Podcast episode 1: 3 Ways to Engage the Post-Modern Culture

Jesse Sias and Pastor Tyler Bower talk about the challenges of engaging the post-modern culture from a traditional church mindset and 3 ways to begin to break down the barriers between traditional church culture and post-modernism.

Click on title to hear podcast.

CCM's: The Flip Side of the Culture Maker

The first time I came across the term “culture maker” was on the cover of the September 2008 issue of Christianity Today. The cover story was titled “The New Culture Makers” followed by this description, “From inner-city little leagues to modern art initiatives, more and more Christians are making something of the world.”

Andy Crouch is a Christian writer and author of the book “Culture Making: Recovering our creative calling.” In his book Crouch encourages Christians to engage their cultural surroundings by creating cultural goods. In other words Christians are called to use their resources and creative abilities to impact our broken culture in a positive way and make a difference in the world.

Crouch’s approach to the non-Christian culture made me think about the flip side of things. What about the Christian culture? Christian culture is just as vulnerable to decay as the world’s culture. Spiritualism, ecumenism, humanism, and other cultural “isms” can do a lot to break up Bible-based Christianity. Unfortunately the decay of Christian culture goes largely undetected. Much of the reason is the readily accepted belief that all Christianity is fundamentally the same and that Biblical differences are really minor and don’t matter.

But what if they do? What if those differences end up contributing to an overall weaker and less effective form of Christianity? I believe this would grieve the very heart of Christ who laid all on the line to give us an unblemished and uncompromised picture of the nature of God and His kingdom.

I love Crouch’s approach to the non-Christian culture because it passionately embraces one of the fundamental principles of Christianity- to reach out and make a difference. Just like a culture maker is someone who makes something of the world, a CCM is someone who looks out for the world around them but most importantly the spiritual kingdom they belong to.