Red Rover Red Rover send SAFE CHURCH right over!!!
To ignite a movement of authenticity among all generations of Christians that morphs the face of the evangelical church into a place of disturbing and disrupting for the sake of seeing Christ’s face fresh
This is my heartbeat. My ethos. My Sir William Wallace on a horse sermon.
When I spent the better part of 6 weeks coming up with that statement I remember thinking…
“The church is gonna embrace this and run into battle with me!”
Little did I know the opposite would occur.
A giant Red Rover game.
You remember. It was a fantastic game up until around 7th grade.
When the fat kids got REALLY fat and the skinny kids were never picked to be on your team.
Why did it start sucking around 7th grade?
Because of pain.
When you are in 2nd grade and you call Chandra right over, she bounces off your arms like relationships to Paris Hilton.
It’s easy. It’s fun. When the links of arms would break it was a giggle.
And you always would study the opposing team for that weak link.
The Culver twins who were preemies and now a bit smaller than the rest of the crew.
Now when playing with adults.
Not only do links break, but arms break.
I’ve noticed ALL this still applies in this giant game of Red Rover that I am playing with the Evangelical Church Of Safe.
They have some HUGE dudes on their side.
Red Rover Red Rover send Cover/Secular Opening Song over!!!
Me and my team flex. We clasp our arms with the vow not to break.
And we try with all our might to not let Church Opening Cover Song break us. If we succeed then they are now on our team. They have become disturbed and disrupted and no longer grace that churches stage on a weekly basis.
Their turn…
Red Rover Red Rover send Women Pastors right over!!!
So we look at Women Pastors. Hope with all her might that she breaks through and gets to bring one of them back to our side.
Our turn…
Red Rover Red Rover send Firing Pastors Cause They Looked At Porn right over!!!!
Little does that player know that they would have to fire their entire staff if they really implemented that rule.
Their turn…
Red Rover Red Rover send Sloppy Wet Kiss right over!
Our turn…
Red Rover Red Rover send Two Upbeat Songs Then One Slow Song Then Announcements Then Cool Sermon Bumper Video Then Sermon Then Closing Song right over!!!!
Their turn…
Red Rover Red Rover send Letting The Church Know You Are On Paxil right over!!!
Cause we don’t want the people following us to know that we are as crazy if not crazier than they are.
Our turn…
Red Rover Red Rover send God Is A Conservative Republican right over!!!
Their turn…
Red Rover Red Rover send Catholics right over!!!
Back and forth and back and forth.
And you know what.
I only play this game with churches that WANT to play.
And I think it is GREAT to play this game of Red Rover.
I NEED TO BE CHALLENGED ON MY WAY.
YOU NEED TO BE CHALLENGED ON YOUR WAY.
It is healthy.
It is healthy to invite disruption into any organization.
Yours, or mine.
Because if your church isn’t playing and asking the hard questions…
Well then they are becoming that non social kid in the corner of the playground that your parents don’t want you to hang out with and only plays with his imaginary friend.
And let’s be honest…
We have a far too many churches only playing with their imaginary friends.
Share your thoughts…
“Red Rover Red Rover send _____ right over!”
Los
RAIN IT DOWN
Interesting… I think you’re wrong about a lot of things, but at least you get me thinking.
Of’course I am wrong about a lot of things!
Tis why I open comments…
Or else I would just have comments closed so I can be a megaphone…
And I appreciate that.
ty.
You mean like talk radio? Where if you agree you can speak, but if you disagree you get five seconds.
saying you want all people then ostersising someone & taking all work from them becuse a emosional issue popped up
Wow. That is a popping one…
GOOOOOD STUFFFFFF.
Send your church politics right over.
Send the popularity contest right over.
What side of the politics?
The side that does not reflect Christ and leads to hate, division, distraction from our call, etc.
Yes. That side sucks…
This made me laugh a bit. And it also got me thinking. As always, I appreciate your honesty Carlos. I will say that as we ask questions, abandon “old” ways of doing things and continually reshape and reframe church…that we will necessarily run the risk of throwing baby Jesus out with the bathwater (sorry, bad joke). But that is to say…we’ve gotta be careful in our zeal not to abandon the core things about church and about pursuing God that are actually really important, even if some of those core things make us look a bit strange or outdated to the world.
Love this.
Look.
Salvation.
Jesus.
Worship.
However we do those things…
Let’s keep them
I like the picture:)
Me too… Looks like a cool band picture.
I am laughing. and laughing. and want to sell tickets and popcorn so people will watch this Red Rover game.
hahaha. Please do. I will make you official sponsor.
OH. MY. GOSH.
You got me with the “God Is A Conservative Republican” — between the eyes.
And I don’t necessarily feel this way completely, but I do wonder a lot about Christians who are Liberal. But the church (little “c”) doesn’t want to talk about that ‘cuz it’s disruptive. But I want to know. I want to understand the why and the how and why my how could be tweaked.
These things are also what have caused us to leave the church “family” we once belonged to and have created a sense of loss and confusion. But I now attribute it to shaking what can be shaken and looking to see what settles in the dust. And, as it always is, God’s sitting there waiting.
You know what is scary?
You’re right…
Not sure why me being right is scary, but I’ll assume the best! {wink wink}
lol
I am with ya. Sometimes I see the church in a sick cycle. Someone does something new and fresh, a billion other churches reproduce it. The new and fresh gets systemized and becomes tradition and ritual. And now new and fresh church is now predictable and stagnant because nothing changes. But the world and people change and the church plays catch up because we are afraid to fail. In our minds, failure means losing half of our membership and their tithes = we can’t pay the bills. I dream of a church without walls or a business plan. It is scary and risky, but I am a man of Faith. Still dreaming this one up and looking to connect with others who are dreaming of similar things.
I just know that when we are numb and staring we don’t see Christ fresh.
It is so easy to go there too.
Love the pic! Diversity is important. God created us a diverse people. He knows the people he created will respond to him differently. His church is diverse for a reason! God is not really interested in the games we play but in the hearts that are touched. Some hearts require “safe” at least for a season and some for a lifetime. Others…..need to chase God with all their might! This too is put in our hearts by God himself. Red Rover Red Rover is a game all about capturing as many as you can for your side. The family of God has only one side. Diverse, yes! Most important, be in it!!
Well looky here Karyn! That was the most politically correct comment yet.
And I actually appreciate it. I can see truth in it.
Los
I like this, Karyn!!
Amen!
oh that makes me so happy! yes!
Dang. That’s all.
“gulp”…
This right here made me smile.
Thought of another one to send over:
Send Giving Your Tithe Directly to the Widows and Orphans right over. {sheesh}
bomb…splash…
Just the other day I got unfriended, blocked and unfollowed by a fellow church member for daring to challenge their way of thinking in regards to alcohol. It wasn’t even about whether or Christians should drink. It was about whether alcohol should be banned all together.
The next day some of this person’s “co-horts” were spouting off about unity. I looked up unity in the dictionary and one of the definitions is “a condition of harmony.” Those of us that are musically minded understand that harmony is made up of different sounds coming together to make one sound. In a choir it’s not three people singing the same note, it’s three people singing three different notes that make this beautiful harmony!
So, I say all of that to say… I agree with what Karyn said about diversity. Unity is not all of us seeing eye to eye. Unity is agreeing to disagree on the things that when you look at the big picture don’t really matter.
I don’t always agree with what you say Los, but I respect you for being willing to speak what you’re thinking and what you believe. Others in your position of influence would often shy away from that in fear of loosing support, or fans, or whatever. Keep up the good work man! Thanks for making us all think!
I love your harmony reference! Its a beautiful description of the body of Christ. We may all be singing different notes but we are all in the same choir and it sounds beautiful!
This harmony picture is very good. I may steal it in the future.
I love this! All too often whenever two Christians disagree, someone falls back on “we just need to live in unity.” But we can disagree on peripheral things and still be in unity. I love your point about harmony
i would like someone to send some black, latino and maybe some poor people on over to my church.
hahahahahahaha. yes. I’m on my way
i’m laughing and crying at the same time! you keep hitting the nail on the proverbial head. ah…this strain, tension, spiritual awkwardness, whatever, etc KILLS my soul. i wonder if it kills Jesus’ soul, too.
or if that’s even possible?
maybe?
Maybe we can take a break and play twister for a while… or go really crazy and play truth or dare!
What about 7 seconds in heaven?!!!
best game ever!
Man, don’t take this the wrong way, but you are a much needed laugh sometimes. I read so many deep thinkers on a regular basis that my head starts spinning.
Not that you’re not a deep thinker. You just take the stuff we all think and verbalize it in a way we all get.
And sometimes after I laugh, the stuff you write makes me think even harder than all the deep guys do.
That is the ragamuffin goal…
wait…i mean…my answer is “Red Rover Red Rover, send Conversation About Women and Pornography on over.
also, Conversation About Being Uncomfy In Church And How That’s Okay a’this a’way..
Amen.
Send worship leaders with funky embroidered shirts, skinny jeans, scarves, and guy-liner right over!
Ha! There’s always something. (I’m the short chubby Pastor with a goatee and Gap shirt type for the record… Helps me fit in with the others at conferences.)
LOVE
Love you too!
Details. All these things are details. I think we need to get our eyes off the details, and put them on God. If all of us loved the Lord our God with our hearts, souls and minds, and our neighbors as ourselves, none of it would matter.
if the details didn’t matter than the bible would only be verse long.
one verse long.
Send your church’s ‘unwritten non-compete membership agreement that says you can’t leave said church to attend another for any reason without being seen as walking away from the only place God moves’ policy right over…
Great post. We should be challenged on everything that is extra-Biblical!
Did you just say “we have far too many churches only playing with their imaginary friends”?
Yep…I think you did.
I really like one… You deep thinker you.
Send your outreaches that only attrack church people over.
Send your Picketing Parishioner over.
Send your Mosaic Music that Mutes all Desire to go Deeper over.
I don’t know if you meant to say “attrack” or not, but it’s spot on. We attack other Christians with our “outreach” ideas to attract them away from their churches and to ours way too often in the USA.
I can’t for the life of me remember all the rules to Red Rover, so I’m a little confused…but I’m a recovering codependent/food addict married to a recovering sex addict and we have a killer story of grace and miracles that we’re living! We go to a church that preaches ‘authentic christianity’ and loving subversively and all that, but we broken folk have found them to be *much safer* than the talk they talk. We stay there because we figure that they need us. We aren’t afraid to be ugly for the sake of sharing the gospel grace that has happened to us. Plus, they have good coffee
Red Rover Red Rover send Khaki pants right over!
Red Rover Red Rover, let “Let’s just be different/traditional just for the sake of being different/traditional” right over!
When we’re following God’s leading, the end result should be the same- souls saved and lives changed! However, when asked “why” we should NEVER EVER answer with “Because different/tradition is better”.
Also-
Red Rover Red Rover, let “anyone who does things different than us isn’t in God’s will” right over.
When will the church realize that we’re not supposed to be fighting against other churches? When we focus our battle on the church down the street that does things differently, THE ENEMY HAS WON!
like
Love this! We recently had a wednesday evening series called “Unplugged” where we allowed people to submit any questions about faith, the Bible, etc. anonymously to the staff/volunteer leadership of the church in the hopes that we could tackle some of these difficult questions in a casual, open-forum, environment. To our dismay, however, we only had a few questions submitted. The leadership had to integrate the questions we were hoping to be asked on our own. That has me wondering, is it that people are stubborn in their extra-scriptural, antiquated cultural views/beliefs…or is it that they just don’t care enough to involve themselves in discourse? If it’s the latter, I fear we have an even bigger problem on our hands as The Church!
I’ve spent most of my adult life on the road as a musician performing in churches, but never see the politics and struggles like your all talking about here. When I’m home on Sundays I attend a church that wouldn’t cause me to be aware of any of this stuff. Reading these posts makes me feel really blessed and also really sad at the same time. I remember some of this stuff from the church I grew up in but am really ignorant that a lot of these types of division still exist. For example, it’s not my reality that there are still adults in the church who think having a drink is actually a sin, let alone cutting fellow Christians off for it. Or that people can’t lovingly restored when they fall. I thought that stuff ended after youth group. I guess I should get to know my family better, and work harder at honestly and lovingly engaging my brothers and sisters wherever I go.
Put it this way. I was told to go home months ago from a church because of a picture of a beer on Facebook
Last time I checked it was okay for a grown man to drink beer, right…?
Right?
Or are the laws different in the US? Is there a special clause that means those involved in church can’t drink at all?
I lived with a family from my church for a little while, until I could find an apartment to move into. I kept a Guinness in the fridge, for when I was in the mood to drink it – and immediately got asked if church workers were allowed to drink alcohol.
BAH.
/end rant
Red Rover Red Rover send don’t be rebellious or question or disrupt the status quo or you might be demonized right over…
Heck yes, friend! Send it right over.
Few random thoughts on this:
- I appreciate your posts. Thanks for doing what you do.
- I think your blog does a good job of disturbing and disrupting – but I feel like you tend to push against the status quo, but only to a certain point.
All sorts of controversial, not-talked-about stuff in the church – all your Red Rover’s – (homosexuality, mental illness, etc)? A-okay!
Fundamental nature of the church, as in:
who leads the church?
church-as-business? good? bad? really bad? inevitable with giant-sized churches?
pastors- what do they do? where do they either take or have forced-upon-them a role that Christ should be doing for the church? should they be paid?
who leads worship – a worship leader? the Holy Spirit? what the heck does it even mean for the Holy Spirit to lead worship?
(commenter’s note: I’d happily be proven wrong on these points – I’ve only been reading your blog for a year-ish, so I obviously could have missed some posts speaking to this stuff).
Keep in mind, I’m just “house church guy”, so anything I say is either taken as crazy or not worthy of consideration (at least that’s how it feels). I only say all of this because if you want ignition of a movement of authenticity/being real with all/seeing Christ’s face fresh – the only place I found that was when the structure of how we did church was fundamentally changed. Through the course of growing up, I tried big, small, mega, liberal, conservative, etc, etc, etc, and only when we tried a more organic expression of church* – even with the SAME folks I knew in previous churches – did I start to see the life your trying to ignite.
Does that mean everyone has to do that? Maybe not.
Does it at least make it worthy of consideration and discussion occasionally? I think so, especially if the stated goal of this blog is what it say it is.
So I guess is what I’m saying is – I like your blog, but I wish you’d be more radical and deal with deeper stuff, as funny as that is to say
.
footnote: *- organic expression meaning: smaller gatherings (40 or less), no clear worship leader or pastor, trying to let Holy Spirit lead meeting by allowing anyone in church to hear from the Spirit and speak up with what should or shouldn’t happen next, no prepared sermon, radically close/communal living w/ the church.
I’m confused…
Deeper meaning…?
I’m glad you have found a unique format for fellowship with other believers that you are comfortable with! If I’m right, what you are describing sounds like what I’ve heard referred to as “home churches.” I think that these are a great form of group worship, and I love that so many people who have been disappointed with traditional westernized corporate worship have found a place to worship with others! However, I do believe home churches should be careful not to completely disregard scriptural order & Biblical forms of accountability. Paul, in Ephesians does reference different forms of ministry (pastors, teachers, evangelists, etc.) and the Bible often times refers to Elders…a specific example is in Acts 15 at what is commonly known as the “Jerusalem Council” when the apostles & elders came together to discuss major church issues. Also, we can’t ignore the fact that Paul was a clear leader of the early church, guiding young pastors in his letters both to Timothy & Titus, who in turn were leading groups of believers in some format.
Also, I think home churches need to be careful that they are abiding by the scriptural guidelines laid out for the church in 1 Cor. regarding the Holy Spirit & order in services, as a means to protect those who may not be as versed in the scriptures. Someone can say anything & state that it comes from the Spirit, but if a person is still growing in their knowledge of the scriptures, it could easily lead someone astray.
Christ is the head of the church, but I think we need to be weary of not having any earthly spiritual leadership, whatever the worship format. It should be scriptural, yes, and will be unique to each church setting, but what can start out as unified and well-intentioned can turn ugly quickly if there is no spiritual authority. But, I do know it is difficult when so many spiritual leaders have disappointed.
All that being said, I love the idea of home…or organic
…worship, and I wish you & your group all the best in furthering the cause of Christ!
Laura, thanks for your reply.
The short answer is – our group (and the groups started to be planted by folks in our group) has elders, has dealt with issues of outsiders bringing false doctrine in, has dealt with discipline of members living in sin, has elders that were selected after they had already been operating in that role for a time. We have pastors, prophets, apostles, evangelists, teachers, all in different people.
I can’t speak for other groups, I just know that we have done this for several years now, and it bears the most amazing, sustaining spiritual fruit I’ve seen. And that’s not because we did something special, it’s because Christ has lordship over our group, and we love each other.
Los, I’m confused by your confused reply. There’s no underlying meaning of what I was saying – at least I didn’t intend for there to be!
Thanks for making me laugh so it would not hurt so much. Such truth in what you say. Thanks for being you
Red Rover, Red Rover send your “Christian-ese” language over. If everything done is “life-changing”; then nothing is truly life changing. Christian-ese becomes a language of exclusion for those who aren’t “in the Christian club”.
YES.
Better late than ever:
A few nights ago I watched this film on the modern day church. It was a negative piece of work on the church which I do not agree with , but your post today reminded me of some of the finer points of this video. The unsavory side of the church today at so many venues includes high tech marketing campaigns customized for just 1 goal, $$$. These campaigns take advantage of peoples basic earthly weaknesses: fear and guilt in order to fill seats and promote an expensive facade of the good life through Jesus Christ. I think the true church, the one Jesus Christ envisioned is so much different than this. It starts from the inside of every person. It’s about our soul first and the basic understand of true love. Without true love we all are lost souls, off balance for life. True love is what gives us purpose and center.
I heart this post!
This post is ridiculous. Quit blogging about the different teams we’re all on as Christians and start challenging some folks to embrace the unity in Christ’s death and resurrection.
I understand that we don’t all agree about certain issues, but every time we toss flippant analogies regarding our personal preferences into the public forum, we only benefit in proving to the world that the church truly is as devisive as they assume we are.
I think there needs to be more discussion. I think we should all be humble enough to understand each other more. And I think this is a bigger issue than a Red Rover game.
Rob Bell couldn’t write a book that hadn’t even been read before others in the church chastised him. (And of course I’m not picking sides on that issue b/c then I’d be labeled for my own brand of Red Rover game.)
I honestly believe that it’s time for the church to at least begin to figure out ways to cross the boundaries we’ve created, bit while you’re still frustrated about a secular opening song and dividing the lines even more, maybe some folks could take a stand and embrace all the God-fearing, Jesus loving, sloppy wet kissing churches no matter what brand of Sunday morning they choose to attend; Catholics or Protestant, liturgy or story, hymns or electric guitars or both.
Red Rover is just the type of painful, dichotomous analogy that we don’t need right now. Let’s love everyone. I’m with you. But no one needs to pick any sides.
Nah.
“Let’s love anyone” is a lot more painful than you think.
And I think by having these hard conversations we ARE just loving each other.
Ah Red Rover. Love it, except when you put it that way.
I’m a pastor on a 6 week break and I’m only 30. You know what made me tired. The game.
I LOVE the Church. I believe in the Church. But the game of church and the planning of church… What I love is when we experience that pure community centered on Jesus and then we engage in a mission together.
Why is that so hard to do?
Send anyone who doesn’t agree with my neo-calvinist theology is a heretic right over.
red rover red rover send kings of leon right over.