Evangelical churches must understand that making the Church relevant through trying to “meet people where they are” is a valid philosophy to attract numbers. But, it is a flawed approach when numbers become the end in and of itself. Relationship should take precedence over the spectacle.

(via RELEVANT Magazine – Church Shopping)

Apparently I saved this quote a while back so I could write about it. And now, here I am, writing about it, I guess.

Numbers don’t make for a good church. You can have a big church that is good, but it gets harder and harder as it grows. I’m a missionary’s kid, so I’ve been to my share of churches. And, let me tell you, the big ones where they buy up a city block to run all their programs and services were almost always the ones that frustrated me. And the small ones with a loyal, long-time congregation were the ones where you felt like a family.

I don’t know what the evangelical fascination with numbers is all about; especially with its lack of hierarchy, it only opens up the possibility for trouble once leadership is too small to manage everyone on a first-name basis.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

Once again, someone takes my opinion on art and how Christian culture has a distorted perception of how it is to be viewed:

What I take this to mean is this: it is the power of the creative medium, in creativity and ambiguity itself, to ask questions, to evoke thought, rather than just give answers. It is my fervent opinion that the ultimate role of the artist in culture is to provoke a response in the audience, to cause the listener, the viewer, to wrestle with concpets of life, love, regret, salvation, and eternity so that the author himself fades into the background of the work itself, thus leaving the greater question with the mind of said audience.

Andrew Schwab

I seem to be putting puzzle pieces up here, provided by others, that express what I believe in ways I am not yet capable. At some point I’ll make an attempt at putting the pieces together in hopes that someone else might identify with where I am.