Yesterday, I came across an well written article from Michael Spencer at Internet Monk entitled The Coffeehouse: A Story that discusses an everyday story about an imaginary youth leader named Skip Towne (love the humor in that name) and his quest to open up a Christian coffee shop in the ‘cool spot’ of his city.
As I read Spencer’s article, I thought about the statement of:
Pastor Pat continued, “I see that aspect of it quite clearly. What I wonder, Skip, is if you’ve considered how the parents of the kids in our student ministry are going to see this. The junior high parents won’t let their kids go down to those neighborhoods, and the senior high parents are going to be ringing your phone and asking you about cigarettes, drugs and alcohol. I think our parents- who are very important in your ministry and in the success of this church- are going to feel that its too risky to take our kids into the communities that are full of the kind of people they don’t want their children being like.”
and how hypocritical the statement really is. We have these parents who are so afraid that little Jimmy and little Sara is going to turn into a drug addict or alcoholic if they cross the street but will spend countless amounts of energy selling Krispy-Kreme donuts, wash cars, yard sales, etc. to raise money to go halfway across the country (usually the hometown of the youth pastor) to perform ’service’ work in someone else’s neighborhood where the crime rate and types of crimes performed is worse than the section of town that little Jimmy and little Sara is prohibited from going into. We talk about missions work and show our video presentations of how we helped the metropolis across the country but will not drive through certain sections of the miniopolis where we live because ‘those people deserve the poverty’ they experience or we do not want to be ashamed and get out kids picked on when school starts back in September because their church went out and did a project and got local television exposure that their non-Christian friends saw on the six o’clock news. But it’s ok to get television exposure in another town on another town’s television station.
A Youth missions trip to another part of the country is another example of trend evangelism. It’s cool and trendy to go to some big city and do work but too shameful to do the same work in your own city.
However, in local missions relating to the actions of a church board, there is the unfortunate mentality of the ‘crapped if we did, crapped if we didn’t’ that is present. If the church decided to pursue the coffeehouse, then Billy ‘big bucks’ Businessman would take his large money elsewhere and his influence in local politics, property zoning, etc. elsewhere. If the church decided not to pursue the coffeehouse, then Skip would have left over time to do what he really wanted to do (usually in another town) and the majority of parents really close and in agreement with Skip would become the ‘Skip Faction” and perform the ‘Evangelical Exodus’ shortly thereafter.
The problem with ‘trendy evangelism’ such as Christian coffeeshops, etc. is that:
(1): Christians are usually too late in getting into the trend because they wasted too much time wondering if the coffeeshop was ‘of God’ or not and face stiff marketing competition already present that have survived via the product offered, entertainment value, etc. without the prosletyzing.
(2): These environments start out with a bang with instant success but over time hit the ‘brick wall’, become stagnant, the same people minister or the same musicians play every weekend, and eventually people start going somewhere else capitalizing on the next ‘craze’ place of social gathering. Much like the local nightclubs in every city.
(3): The trends start to die and become replaced by a new trend. However, the financial investment is so much in the dying trend that the only option is to try to stick it out and recoup what you can because the shift in trend has negatively affected resale value. The question becomes “Would it be worse to take the loss via the sell or take the loss that leads into being insolvent?”
(4): When the ‘word on the street’ gets out that the public coffeehouse is subvertly Christian, the sinners steer away from it like they do the church on Sunday mornings. If it is located in the college district, the only time sinners will come in is when they are wasted, have no money to buy a drink at another bar, and will listen long enough until the altar call when they will (when ‘all eyes are closed’) sneak off to the bathroom to relieve themselves of the alcohol turned urine consumed at the bar down the street an hour ago, and then leave.
(5): When the theological beliefs of the owners come out, other churches in slight disagreement will preach against it and condemn their own youth from going there.
I’ve seen the “Christian trend ministries’ come and eventually go away. The reasons why they go away are usually due to one (or a combination of) the five reasons above. This is not including the ones that fail due to lack of funds, mismanagement, or work/expenses above and beyond their expectations that were unforeseen.
From the failure due to stiff competion already present without the ‘witnessing’; stagnation / brickwall; the ‘overchurch’ ads on the cups and napkins combined with cheezy third-rate Christian music, posters of Switchfoot, and coffees named “Peter’s Perk”, “Malachi’s Mocha”, or “Jonah’s Java”; the ‘Christian sneak ambush attack’ was exposed and the word spread on the street; a failed attempt at refocusing the intended mission (based on the changing trend); a new trend takes over killing off the last trend; or differing theological practices of the proprietors; we grossly fail to realize that the foundation was more into the trend instead of the Faith in Jesus Christ.
The modern idea of relationship evangelism is a grand and novel concept, but it will not be found in trends where foundation was more into the trend instead of the Faith in Jesus Christ. When trends come and go, if the relationships made are founded within the trends, then that relationship will come and go also. The relationship needs to start off with the common interest but needs to grow above the surface level to where the welfare and well-being of the soul goes well and beyond the trend. In fact, the parable of the house built on the Rock versus the house built in the sand can explain this very well where:
24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
26 “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
28 And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, 29 for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
The foundation needs to be built on the Rock as described in Matthew 7:24-25
where it is solid and unmovable when rains, floods, and winds come and attack the house of the relationship. When the relationship evangelism is focused on the trend, it is very similar to the house built on the sand found in Matthew 7:26-29 where rains, floods, and winds came and the relations fell apart.
However, we fail to see the gross tragedy mentioned in the last part of verse 27 when relationship evangelism is built on trends where the verse states “And great was its fall”.
That is the aftermath we fail to foresee, calculate, or even imagine. When the relationship founded on trend evangelism, (you could even substitute phrases such as ‘hobby evangelism’, ‘party evangelism’, etc) falls apart to where the effect was so great that everyone noticed; the shame, embarrassment, hurt, and ridicule come out into the open as we mourn another failed attempt and people turn from being ‘a soul to care about’ into ‘another failed project’.
Somehow, after all of the trends, what do we do? We fail to learn and eventually repeat everything all over again when the next trend comes along.
