...And so he sat them down and explained to them what the kingdom of church is like:
There was a boy named Lyle, who worked at Blockbuster. Lyle loved being around movies, talking about movies, and helping others find movies. He liked being with his fellow co-workers and movie loving customers. He was well liked and looked forward to going to work every day. One day he got promoted to store manager but as he quickly learned this required a whole lot of knowledge about Blockbuster and he was not prepared. Lyle was forced to resign. After leaving Blockbuster, Lyle longed to be among movie goers again. How much he missed his job and all of the great customers. Lyle loved helping customers find just the right movie. Lyle dreamed of those wonderful Tuesday mornings when the new movies would arrive and he got to see them first! Lyle was so sad and would spend most of his nights alone watching old movies while eating Toaster Strudels.
Around this time, Lyle began seeking advice from other store managers. Lyle wanted so badly to be among all the new movies again and hoped he could someday return to Blockbuster. Over and over again, the manager's advice was the same.
"Go get your Masters of Blockbuster. Then you'll be ready to manage your very own store," They would say.
"But a Masters of Blockbuster takes three years," Lyle would protest.
The managers kept saying the same thing, "Go get your Masters of Blockbuster!"
"But a Masters of Blockbuster costs over $30,000!" Lyle would plead.
The managers began to shout, "Go get your Masters of Blockbuster!"
"But Blockbuster stores are closing all over the country and the entire company is nearly bankrupt!" Lyle tried to reason.
The managers shouted louder, "Go get your Masters of Blockbuster!"
"But this model is becoming obsolete and people don't get their new movies at Blockbuster anymore!" Lyle responded.
The managers shouted all the louder, "Go get your Masters of Blockbuster!!"
Finally, Lyle stopped trying to argue. A Masters of Blockbuster just didn't make any sense. For awhile he wondered if he would be helpful among movie goers ever again. Lyle had been an employee at Blockbuster for so long, he nearly forgot of any other way to find a new movie. Then, Lyle remembered back to when he watched his first movie. Long before he had gotten a job at Blockbuster. The movie was an action-adventure flick full of adrenaline pumping, pulse pounding twists and turns. It had romance and tragedy, and a surprise ending that left Lyle in tears. He had never seen anything like it before. It stirred him deep within his soul and left him seeing the world a little more clearly. Just then a thought popped into Lyle's brain,
"New movies are coming out all of the time, I just need to find a new place to find them!" He realized.
And so Lyle set off on his journey to find new movies in new places. It felt dangerous and exciting all at once to Lyle. He wasn't even sure if this was possible but the desire to find new movies drove him onward. It almost felt like he was making a new movie himself but that would be presumptuous to think. Some of the Blockbuster employees occasionally heard of Lyle's journey and accused him of liking foreign films but Lyle just let them talk. Besides, he knew the subtitles on those movies bugged him anyway.
The End.
huh? i dont really get the point
ReplyDeleteIt's a parable (or an allegory) about loving Jesus more than a particular church model. The masters of Blockbuster is symbolic of the MDiv, which is a degree most people get to become ministers, where they learn all about how to start a church and develop a philosophy of ministry.
ReplyDeleteIt's not just for pastors though, this parable is really for the average person who doesn't necessarily want to lead a church (manage a Blockbuster) but still wants to experience the vibrancy of a Jesus community even if it means a different type of church experience.
How's my analysis Kyle?
I like this blog post, and I like some of the things it brings up. I do think it's over-simplifying something that could be potentially more complex though, and that bums me out a bit.
ReplyDeleteIt's true that getting a Masters in Blockbuster may be a somewhat archaic (by todays standards) expectation, yet it doesn't negate the fact that for some people the very best thing they could possibly do is get that MBlk. If thats the missing people in a unique individuals life and the wise counsel that speaks into their life continuously repeats it, it's very possible that what they should be doing is getting a Masters in Blockbuster.
In the same vein, if this isn't the case (which is entirely possible) then that person should probably find better mentors who take more time to get to know a situation and a person instead of spouting out a knee-jerk reaction to get more schooling.
Tom, pretty close.
ReplyDeleteJace, I agree it is over simplifying things. Most blogs do I guess.
I suppose I wanted to point out how ridiculous it is that we pursue church and education in church, and invite people to church when church is simply not working. National polls suggest churches are closing faster than Blockbusters. The model is obsolete all while the movie industry is booming. "New movies" from my parable represents the new things God is doing.
Another way to put it is my wife was a teacher for a year and quickly realized that our education system teaches kids to be successful in school by taking tests and passing exams. However, these same kids are just regurgitating information and not actually learning anything.
Have we accidentally created a standardized test for Christianity and taught people how to be churched instead of how to love God?
Luckily, this problem will solve itself rather soon. 3500 churches are closing each year. I'm just trying to figure out what our Netflix will look like.
Also, I wrote this really late at night so I realize it's a bit random. Thanks for the comments though.
Kyle, I wrote a fairly large response to your post but the internet ate it. Because I'm too lazy to write it all out again I'll just highlight the main points and I can flesh any of them out more later if needed.
ReplyDeleteI think you use a poor metaphor. Blockbuster isn't closing because video rentals are outdated, they are closing because their model has become irrelevant. Video rentals are in demand as seen by companies like Redbox and Netflix. Blockbuster refused to conform to culture, that is their problem.
In that same vein, church is not outdated or obsolete. You can figure that out by looking in your own back yard.
Yes, nationally churches are closing, but locally not only is the Seattle area one of the few places in America where the church is growing, its actually one of the fastest growing churched places in America.
The question then becomes what is the model difference between Seattle and the rest of America. The answer to that is a focus on the foundations of Christianity, cultural relevance, and a challenge to the status quo.
As a guy who grew up in the American heartland, midwest, and eastcoast I can tell you from personal experience that for every Seattle area church that is pushing hard towards being innovative and progressive while maintaining good biblical teaching I can easily name 20+ churches in the midwest that force their volunteer staff to wear their Sunday best, are afraid to turn the volume up during worship services, and have their members sign covenant membership forms where they promise to tithe, stop watching rated-R movies, and completely abstain from alcohol use of all forms.
That is why American churches are dying and Seattle churches are growing. Take a look around, you're already looking at your Netflix.
Same page Kyle, same page! Sometimes I wonder if the church knows that the church is not working. It can definitely be more comfortable to "Do Church" than to get out there and do something that encourages connections with God. Figuring out what God is doing then aligning yourself and your life with Him is really really really risky. Thanks for your contribution. It was interesting. Made me think.
ReplyDeleteJace,
ReplyDeleteI would never claim my metaphor is perfect although I think it highlights well that movies (God's work) are great but Blockbusters (churches) are closing.
And with all respect, if you don't think church is outdated and obsolete, you are kidding yourself. I have 12 years of full time experience in the church and I can tell you no one is scratching the surface. Furthermore, check out The American Church In Crisis by Dave Olson for some shocking statistics.
Sure, we've seen some impressive growth in the Pacific Northwest but you're not taking into account overall population growth and immigration. When you factor these numbers in the "church growth" we're seeing isn't even keeping pace. To sum it up, the church is losing ground, and fast.
Yes, some churches have managed to build some impressive buildings but how many smaller churches down the road had to close in order to fill those buildings? it's mostly all transfer growth. The church is like one of those elderly vans shipping overweight people to a new buffet lunch each week and going where ever they have a coupon.
And this is coming from someone who deeply loves the church. Believe me. We just can no longer afford to brag about how great our Blockbuster is doing compared to others across the country when in reality, we desperately need to reinvent ourselves. It's an uncomfortable thing to say, but it is the truth.
To say that "the church" as an institution is outdated and obsolete is highly persumptious at best.
ReplyDeleteI could give a flying flip about buildings and transfer growth. The fact is that there are local churches, meeting in glorified warehouses, that are growing quickly and with a majority of new "never-been-to-church-before" people. If churches were obsolete, than that wouldn't be happening.
It's the models that can be bad, not the institution. It's popular to hate on the church, it has been for a few years, all the cool kids are doing it. Heck, I'm all for constructive criticism. What bums me out is when people are standing around with their hands in their pockets not offering new ideas on how they could be doing things better.
I won't say it's impossible, but it is very difficult to work towards the mission that Christ gave the church without using an actual church community or institution.
A couple of guys meeting in a coffee house talking about a really cool verse they read doesn't cut it, and unless you can find a way that Christians can share the gospel with non-Christians, disciple Christians, maintain accountability, and develop community without actually attending a church or service of any type please let me know. I love great and innovative ideas.
Jace what I am hearing you saying is that how things are, are good enough and that we should just serve what ever church they are around and go to another if they dont like the one they are at.
ReplyDelete"What bums me out is when people are standing around with their hands in their pockets not offering new ideas on how they could be doing things better." This doesnt even make sense, no one here is doing this. We are asking questions that hopefully make people think about how they are doing thing and how they could be doing them better.
Jace from your definition of a church this blog would count...
share the gospel with non-Christians... Check
disciple Christians... Check
maintain accountability... Check
develop community... Check
However none of the items listed above are the purpose of the church. The purpose is to love God and celebrate Him. We do that by sharing the gospel with non-Christians because God loves them and wants them to be apart of our community, by discipling Christians to develop a stronger/intimate/better (whatever catchy word you want) with God, and etc...
I have to agree with Kyle, the way things are going are not cutting it. There needs to be something better and its not going to be another model from a mega for other churches to copy. It going to come from a love of Jesus and nothing else.
A few notes of clarification:
ReplyDeleteChurch in this blog (blockbuster) is church with a lower case 'c'. Meaning it's 5 songs, a three point message, and coffee on the way out.
Church with an upper case 'C' is the fellowship of believers and something I love deeply and Jesus died for. I am NOT saying this Church is obsolete or irrelevant.
Also, I agree with you Jace it is much easier to point out problems then create answers. I'm just fearful many don't comprehend there is a problem and my blog was a way helping people to wake up.
Finally, the facts are very clear. There is a glaring problem in the American church and if not fixed quickly, it will cease to exist. Do some research and see for yourself. Just because my parents still get there movies at Blockbuster doesn't mean I'm going to be buying stock from them anytime soon.
I supposed my next blog should be communicating some of this research.
I'm about to feed my youngest her bottle but I'm going to shoot out a couple of really quick replies.
ReplyDeleteGreg- I'm not saying the status quo is good enough, and to clarify that let me suggest a paradigm shift.
Kyle suggests that Blockbuster symbolizes the church and that just as Blockbuster is going out of business, so is the local church, but that video rentals (Loving God) is where we need to be innovative because it is timeless.
I suggest that the better metaphor is that video rentals (which are still relevant and in demand) should symbolize church because statistics (released by organizations like Lifeway, Church Insights, and Barna research group) show that people are going to church now more than ever, they just aren't staying in church, nor the majority of time being properly discipled, etc.
Blockbuster shouldn't symbolize the church, it should symbolize the model of how church has been done in the past (pointing to why the status quo isn't sufficient) and that these new churches growing with non-belivers and effective discipleship should be seen as the Netflix or Redbox of video rentals (churches).
Next point: I think you're confusing the purpose of the church with the chief purpose of man/Christians, and I think it's vitally important to not do that.
I agree with you in that it is the role of the Christian to love God and celebrate him. This has been the opinion of the historic church for many many years. When you look at historical church mandates like the Westminster Catechism you'll see a lot of this sort of language, for example they state the the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. At an individual these themes are continuously put before us in the Bible from creation, through the ten commandments (which we all know can be summed up by loving God and loving people), to every aspect of the life of one who follows God.
This, however, is not the purpose of the Church.
The purpose of the Church is given to us by Jesus himself through the Great Commission.
Go and make disciples of all nations (share the gospel with non-Christians, disciple Christians, maintain accountability, develop community)
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Sona nd of the Holy Spirit (disciple Christians, develop community)
Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. (disciple Christians, maintain accountability, develop community)
Jesus effectively said "Hey folks, I'm going away for a while. While I'm gone, you need to do this." and it can't be done in a blog, thinking you can effectively do all of those things merely through a digital medium is narrowsighted.
Throughout this, Christians should continue loving, worshiping, glorifying, and celebrating God. In fact, all of this should come naturally to us.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kyle in that the way things have been and are being done traditionally aren't cutting it. I agree with him completely. I simply think that he's attacking symptoms and not the problem. He's misplacing the blame.
I also feel like you are getting the vibe that I'm pushing an attractional model of church on you. I want to assure you that I'm not. I've had enough discussions with you (Greg) to know that you prefer the organic church movement over the attractional model of church. I also know that organic church leaders like to write books hating on attractional churches, and attractional church leaders like to write books pissing on organic churches, with a few in the middle actually willing to talk about the merits of both.
I'm saying that you can be as organic or as attractional as you want, and your church wont amount to a hill of beans and you'll waste your and everyone elses time if you don't focus on the proper things. And sitting around in a drum circle talking about how much you love God isn't going to do that for you.
Where I disagree with Kyle is that it looks like he's saying "churches are dying, churches are irrelevant, there is no purpose for church as an instition in todays day and age." I violently disagree with that and I think I've made a decent case for it as well.
If this is about an organic vs traditional vs attractional vs whateverchurchyou attend debate, than this is going to get tedious, enough books have been written by enough brilliant people on both sides of the fence that this debate is about as annoying as the Calvinism vs Arminianism pissing contest.
Aaaaaaaand I'm terrible with writing "quick replies"
I guess we just have to agree to disagree Jace.
ReplyDeleteTo say that "the church" as an institution is outdated and obsolete is highly persumptious at best.
ReplyDeleteI could give a flying flip about buildings and transfer growth. The fact is that there are local churches, meeting in glorified warehouses, that are growing quickly and with a majority of new "never-been-to-church-before" people. If churches were obsolete, than that wouldn't be happening.
It's the models that can be bad, not the institution. It's popular to hate on the church, it has been for a few years, all the cool kids are doing it. Heck, I'm all for constructive criticism. What bums me out is when people are standing around with their hands in their pockets not offering new ideas on how they could be doing things better.
I won't say it's impossible, but it is very difficult to work towards the mission that Christ gave the church without using an actual church community or institution.
A couple of guys meeting in a coffee house talking about a really cool verse they read doesn't cut it, and unless you can find a way that Christians can share the gospel with non-Christians, disciple Christians, maintain accountability, and develop community without actually attending a church or service of any type please let me know. I love great and innovative ideas.
Jace,
ReplyDeleteI would never claim my metaphor is perfect although I think it highlights well that movies (God's work) are great but Blockbusters (churches) are closing.
And with all respect, if you don't think church is outdated and obsolete, you are kidding yourself. I have 12 years of full time experience in the church and I can tell you no one is scratching the surface. Furthermore, check out The American Church In Crisis by Dave Olson for some shocking statistics.
Sure, we've seen some impressive growth in the Pacific Northwest but you're not taking into account overall population growth and immigration. When you factor these numbers in the "church growth" we're seeing isn't even keeping pace. To sum it up, the church is losing ground, and fast.
Yes, some churches have managed to build some impressive buildings but how many smaller churches down the road had to close in order to fill those buildings? it's mostly all transfer growth. The church is like one of those elderly vans shipping overweight people to a new buffet lunch each week and going where ever they have a coupon.
And this is coming from someone who deeply loves the church. Believe me. We just can no longer afford to brag about how great our Blockbuster is doing compared to others across the country when in reality, we desperately need to reinvent ourselves. It's an uncomfortable thing to say, but it is the truth.