Last Saturday night, a good friend from Venture and I attended UFC 103 in Dallas. Like most sporting events, watching on TV can in no one replicate the experience of being there to hear, see and feel the event. One aspect of the experience I didn’t expect was the crowd, surprising the cage-fighting crowd isn’t the most sophisticated audience. Who would have thought? I feel safe to say that of the almost 20K there, I might have been the only clergy there. The large gentleman from Chicago next to me seemed to have been very dehydrated and tried to placate his thirst through copious amounts of Jack Daniels- a seemingly popular technique for many that evening. Fortunately for me, he was a happy drunk. He proudly pulled out his camera to show me a picture of two people that he partied with the night before, a former UFC Champion and the fighter’s adult film star girlfriend. I made conversation about the athlete, but ignored the girl, much to this guy’s dismay. So he turned to the stranger on the other side and finally got the reaction he wanted from the picture.
If I were a betting man, this guy would probably not feel too comfortable in a typical church service. He would probably prefer to get punched in the face by his new UFC friend than participate in a typical small group because the world that most church people live in and his world are so different. Many church people are so insulated from this lifestyle that we don’t have the ability to even speak the same language. Regardless of how right we are, if we cannot connect with him we have failed because if we are to be letters of recommendation and we don’t get our message to its intended destination then we are the lost ones not him.
If we are truly going to be missionally minded communities as God intends for us we have to find a way to make it easy for people like my new friend to connect with God through our Christian communities. So here’s the million-dollar question, how do we embody church in such a way that he can participate and wants to participate?
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4 comments:
We set up a cage on the stage for the second weekend in October and advertise that it's a free for all for anyone that wants to punch each other out. I bet it would draw quite the crowd. Then we pray afterwards. You've got both church and ufc all in one.
Browder- I like where your head is out, but let's flesh this out a bit more before we take it to press.
Great to have you back. Keep writing. As much as I enjoy your tweets, you expanding past the 140 characters is better for my soul.
Luke,
I echo the sentiment-glad you're back. We're working thru a number of things in our church right now, not the least of which is evangelism. Based on all our survey data and small group discussions...it comes down to 1/1 relationships being formed outside the church in order to make folks feel comfortable once they walk in the door. The job of the church is to teach its members to interact with the unchurched in a meaningful way.
hope your church is doing well.
Kurt
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