Somehow, I have found myself amongst a virtual (ha) “who’s who” of online movers and shakers that are the Cultivate 09 facilitators. (I’m still wondering just how I got on board with this amazing crew!) I’ll be facilitating a discussion at Cultivate entitled “What Would Luther Do?” Intrigued? Here’s the description:

Leveraging technology to further God’s kingdom. How a problem, a pastor and the printing press changed the face of Christianity.

Interested? Then make sure you shake on down to Cultivate next Tuesday and join me for the discussion. (I secretly confided to another facilitator that I fear

no one will show up to my session! It is the communicator’s version of dreaming that you’re in math class with nothing more than your undies!)

Either way, I have so enjoyed researching what God can do through a little bit of “positive deviancy”–even through a little German monk named Martin Luther! I can’t wait to share it.

This next week will be a blitzkrieg of creative communication within the church:

• Monday we’re headed to Chicago to get ready for Cultivate…
• Tuesday Cultivate goes live. You should be there. For realz.
• Wednesday it’s off to Aurora, IL for STORY hosted by the one, the only Ben Arment.
• Thursday it’s STORY workshops with so many talented creatives it will make your head spin.
• Friday I scrape my brain off the floor and hash through all the cool stuff I learned.

I truly hope to see you there. I will have a chance to meet face-to-face with so many friends that I’ve met online. That, alone, will be worth the whole trip. It will be a case study on whether online community “counts” as true community. (My bet is that it will. Just a hunch.)

So I hope to see some of you there. Martin Luther does to. His prophetic voice still echoes today. How? Well, you’ll just have to come to Cultivate and find out.

Alan Hirsch stated that “the Gospel is transmitted along relational lines.” In other words, people are introduced to the brilliance of Christ through relationships between people. These relationships can take on a few different forms:

• Wide. A pastor or preacher has a “wide” relationship with the people who come to hear her or him speak.
• Deep. Think of your best friend, a spouse, family member or roommate. You know more about this person than you probably should.
• Wading. These are people whom you interact with on a level that’s deeper than acquaintance: Your neighbor, personal trainer or a co-worker.

With some varying degree, almost all of our relationships fall into one of these categories.

Technological Relational Lines

Why is this important? Because it is through the bonds that God translates the reality of Christ to others. He utilizes our connections with other human beings to share something of himself: His light, truth and created reality.

Throughout the course of human history, communication in these relationships has morphed and integrated with the prevalent technology of the day: Written word, telegraph, telephone, radio, television and now, the Internet. The relational lines through which the Gospel can be transmitted continue to develop, becoming more comprehensive and complex as we evolve.

I believe the human race is experiencing one of the largest shifts in communication since the invention of the printing press. Perhaps even more so. As such, we need guides, early adopters and forerunners to navigate these new technologies and show us how to use them. Use them for:

1. Commerce
2. Education
3. Finance
4. Social Interaction
5. Religion

What’s Religion Got to do With It?

That last reason, religion, is why I believe your church’s next hire must be a digital pastor. A digital pastorate involves more than just opening a Twitter account and getting a Facebook fan page for your church. A digital pastor is someone who is forerunning the technological advances in communication and integrating them faithfully into the life of his or her local church. The digital pastor has a firm grasp on the abilities, possibilities and dangers of technology in communication. A digital pastor is someone who can establish, maintain and build relational lines in an online community setting.

It is doubtful that humanity will stop one day and say, “Gee, that Internet thing was sure a great little fad. Look how silly we all were! Time to move on.” The Internet will not go the way of bell-bottoms and perms. As the Internet becomes more integrated into everything we do, the Church will necessarily need to understand how to best leverage it for the Kingdom of God. This is the job of the digital pastor.

Ultimately, the digital pastor is not unlike the millions of other pastors throughout history: Their end game is always relationship–establishing relational lines through which the Gospel can transmit–but their methods are those of the 21st century.

We asked the question earlier this week, “what do young people want from a local church?” The answers were wide and varied, but a consistent theme througout most of the comments was community.

Community.

A term that is at once both tangible yet impossibly ambiguous. What exactly does community mean and why are young people craving it so much?

Here’s five quick predictions on what the 21st century church will look like when young adults step into positions of influence in churches:

1. Home groups, cell groups, mid-sized gatherings will move to the forefront as the primary evangelistic tool for churches.
2. Large group gatherings will still have a place in the local church, but they will be seen as “icing on the cake,” instead of the cake itself.
3. Because of the shift towards smaller communities, pastors will take on bi-vocational roles for A.) budgetary reasons, B.) evangelistic reasons.
4. Denominational seminaries will become a thing of the past. Most theological learning will move online or become highly contextualized and internalized by the local church itself.
5. “Sinner’s prayer” evangelism (i.e. “linear” evangelism) will give way to a more messy form of discipleship that includes dips and valleys; doubts and discussion.

Phew. All that from a desire for more community. Make no mistake about it, there is a seismic shift occuring in the Western church right now. The next 20-30 years will be some of the most interesting, exciting and challenging times in the Church.

How do you see the need for community shaping the church around you?

Well?

Today’s an open forum kind of a day. An “open mic night” at BeDeviant.com, if you will.

If it’s one thing that’s perpetually on my mind, it’s asking the question, “what does your average 20-something want from a local church?”

I have some ideas. But I want to hear yours.

Ready? Go.

I think the immigration laws of this country need to change.

I’m for health care reform.

I think the Bible is accurate in the message it conveys, but I don’t believe in the modern notion of inerrancy. In the words of a friend, “subjectivity is all there is.”

However, the ELCA just took one step further than I could ever go. As of Friday last week, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America now allows people in committed, same-sex monogamous relationships to be ordained as clergy. Further, the ELCA will now allow its churches to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies for couples seeking to married.

This vote ultimately wasn’t about sexuality. It was about Scripture and what place we allow it, as individuals and as a denomination, in our lives. Will it be at the head of the table or underneath our feet? Will it be the prime rib on our plate, or the place mat our plate sits on? The ELCA, sadly, has decided it will be the authority to God’s Word, not the other way around.

Scripture makes us uncomfortable at times, either in its silence or in its clarity. To my conviction (and to many others), Scripture is clear regarding homosexuality. I have been persuaded by the word of God, by thousands of years of faithful interpretation and by the sweet voice of Spirit. In the words of Martin Luther, “Here I stand, I can do no other.” As uncomfortable as this may make me personally, I cannot “unconvict” myself. I know many people–many good-hearted people–who are gay or lesbian and at times, it is hard for me to reconcile my affection for them and the teachings of Scripture. “If they are loving each other well,” I think to myself, “how can that be wrong?” But my emotions are not the authority. God’s word is.

It is clear from Scripture that God’s intent for human sexuality is between a man and a woman in the freedom of a covenant relationship. It is affirmed and held up as the standard from Genesis to Revelation by Yahweh, the Prophets, Jesus himself, St. Paul and St. John. Contrary to the popular argument, there is no “progressive truth” to behold here. This is not the same as eating pork or wearing a cotton-poly t-shirt. The original language does not affirm homosexuality no matter how it’s (poorly) translated. Jonathan and David were not lovers. We cannot make God’s word say something it does not, no matter how hard we might try.

I am frustrated that this had to come to a “vote.” Certainly because of the outcome, yes, but also because I feel we are “beating a dead horse,” that being the moral status of homosexuality. Even though my position is firm, I believe many years of faithful reconciliatory work between the gay and lesbian community and the Church is now strained. That community, to some degree, is saying, “We know where you stand. We get it. You think it’s sinful. Enough already.” While someone may hold the conviction that homosexuality is less than God’s best, one does not need to rub it in others’ faces mercilessly. It is much like a scab that is never allowed to heal: It is picked at for so long that the body is not allowed to do its job and effect healing. The wound is never permitted to close and healing, truly, never takes places. All that’s left is an ugly scar. That scar is on us as the Church. Simply put, you can hold a conviction while maintaining civility. One does not need to be a jerk in order to be “right.”

This isn’t about being “inclusive” or “accepting” or “welcoming.” God does not hate homosexuals. I don’t hate people who are gay and lesbian. Far from it. But I do believe the Bible is clear. This is my standard, no matter how hard it is for me to grasp at times. But even in my conviction, this does not mean I must hate people who disagree. I refuse to do that. Will you offer me the same courtesy?

The ELCA took an immeasurable step backwards last week, regardless of how progressive it believes itself to be. Being a lifelong Lutheran, it pains me to see the fracturing of this once great denomination. The ELCA will lose the support of many congregations. It will lose support from Lutheran partner churches in Africa, Asia and Europe. It will lose members like never before because it has lost its soul. I believe if Martin Luther himself were alive today, he wouldn’t recognize the denomination that claims his name, either in the spirit or the letter of the law.

Perhaps I am wrong. Hopefully I am. May God have mercy on the ELCA in this time of tribulation, even if that mercy means dissolution.

This is a running post which will be updated as these resolutions come up for debate and vote. Check back often for the most recent updates.

1. The ELCA will make decisions so that all in this church bear the burdens of the other, and respect the bound consciences of all. PASSED: 771 Yes, 230 No.

2. The ELCA is committed to finding ways to allow congregations that choose to do so to recognize, support and hold publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships. PASSED: 619 Yes, 402 No.

3. The ELCA is committed to finding a way for people in such publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships to serve as professional leaders of this church. PASSED: 559 Yes, 451 No.

4. The ELCA agrees to remove the blanket ban on partnered gay clergy. PASSED: 667 Yes, 307 No.

You can read the rest of the results of everything that was considered, passed, or not passed here. A special thanks to the ELCA web team for making the live webcast possible!

This is the cross on top of the steeple at Central Lutheran in downtown Minneapolis. Central is an ELCA church that is across the street from the assembly hall where the ELCA this week.

In short, a tornado hit the church and left the cross on the steeple hanging upside-down. That is what you’re seeing. It begs for a caption.

(If you want to read why some believe this to be significant, go here.)