Matt "Machoo" Mewhorter

Hack, hack. Cough, cough!

  I'm home sick for the third day in a row! It of course had to fall on our first most beautiful days of the year! The whole time, I just want to be outside, playing some football or something with my clients (I work as a counselor). So yeah, I was running a high fever last night before bed, and I woke up not much better. So yep, I now need to see the doctor. But just think of me, cooped up in my house watching the beautiful world outside. May you think of me and take advantage of the warm, beautiful weather!

An old comic of mine...

I just got done with this slam dunk political cartoon, and my computer somehow erased all my progress! It may be a day or two before I work at it again! In the meantime, here's an old comic I did awhile back.

Props For Gary!

I made a post that seems to have come across as a little sharp regarding Gary Lamb, a well known church planter in Atlanta, Georgia. Some have said that I was a little judgemental, and perhaps I was. Actually, Gary was in my line of fire as I was searching church websites and such. I personally read Gary's site often and enjoy it. But his one post on the 25th of February was the hair on the camel's back for that day. If anything, Gary was more of an example than inspiration.

But anyhow, by word of mouth, I heard that Gary read my post and said that he agreed with it! I thought it was awesome-not because he agreed with me or that I 'got him'. I thought it was great that the guy has enough humility to read something like my post, take some nuggets of truth out of it and grow.

Thumbs up for you, Gary!  I now agree with your friend, Chris Elrod. You are an outstanding guy! Please accept my apologies for any cheap shots I made.

A Pastor you should recognize...

I wish I could link you to this guy's website, but his church has no website that I have found and he doesn't blog that I know of. Pastor Brad Hales is one of the most awe inspiring ministers that I have ever come across. He is a Lutheran pastor in the town that I live in. He is something of a local spectacle, having a number of articles written about him, because his ability to give you a glimpse of Jesus is overpowering.  People here are naturally drawn to him, including myself. I am happy to say he is my friend and I get to spend time with this guy from time to time.

Most of you of you have never heard of him, and why would you? He isn't headlining a fast growing or cutting edge type of church. His congregation isn't much over a hundred. Many of them are seniors and the church is traditional. He honestly couldn't be trendy if he tried. He is of impish height, has a silly grin and an atrocious lisp. Yet, this man holds my respect as a man of God.

He's only been in this church for a year and a half, and in that time the church has totally transformed. Just a year and a half ago, the church was getting ready to shut its doors. They were bitter, that is until a highly eccentric and overly enthusiastic baby-boomer stepped in. He spent his first year there just teaching people to fall in love with Jesus, love the community and each other before any real business was handled. He instantly catapulted his congregants into the communtiy, feeding and clothing the hungry as well as being a comfort to the sick and elderly. He makes an astounding number of visits per month with congregants and non-congregants, sharing coffee and his time. He is only in his office twice a week. Guarantee also that he will always remeber your name after meeting you once-even you never go to his church.  Every week, you will see him out in front of his church on Main Street, waving genuinely at every driver passing by. Everyone gets a hug and a smile, regardless of who you are. The church of course is growing steadily, and more and more people of my generation are attending. More broken and disheveled people are appearing there also.

The church operates on what Brad calls "spirited tradition". Through the whole service, you follow a pamphlet to the letter. There are no vidoes and only a piano is used for music. But I have never ceased to leave there without tears. The traditions and rituals are done with such meaning, cheering and joy, that I now see why responsive reading or responsive singing was created. Imagine people cheerfully reading scripture back to the pastor. Every Sunday, the traditions are put on hold until every prayer need is expressed and every birthday is recognized and celebrated.

He makes it all about Jesus and all about people. He told me that numbers are the least of his worries; and agreed with me that impacting the community doesn't mean having all those people in your seats on Sunday. By most, he is mainly identified as a guy who "really loves Jesus". I often overhear people talking about him in a state of awe. One person said that they actually believe him when he says that he will pray for them. I heard later on that he actually came from another church-that he grew from 12 to over 300! Doesn't sound like much to some, until you learn that this church was in the middle of nowhere where a large church would have had about 80.  At this time, Brad shows no anxiousness to blow up this church. Why should he? God is already blessing it.

Since he will probably never be asked to headline a major conference, I give him props. In my opinion, this guy has a great handle on where the church should be heading.

No more "cool dude" pastor talk, PLEASE!

I found this guy, and I don't mean to sound unkind...but to people like myself who weren't raised in church-or in his words, 'unchurched', it seems like he's trying WAY too hard. This is kind of an example of what I was talking about in my last couple of posts, in regards to being relevant to the 'unchurched' as he really seems to go for. Although I'm sure he's great and has impacted many lives-even non-Christians- his approach would have rubbed me the wrong way growing up not going to church. His blog inspired a few suggestions for pastors who are trying to impact this generation.

For one: if you are clearly over 35 and a pastor, using words like 'freakin' and 'jacked' is the cool equivelent of your parents doing a rap about staying off drugs.

Secondly: Bragging about cussing at Christian events may make you seem 'edgy' to hip people who grew up in church, but I would have seen you as a hypocrite. I wanted to see a shining example of a person when I didn't know God, and that stuff discouraged me.

Thirdly: If you really want to be 'relevant', they normally like to be called 'teenagers'...not 'youth'. When I was a teen, I knew to avoid an event like the plague if 'youth' was printed anywhere on the flyer.

Lastly: Just food for thought (and this goes for me too) is calling people who aren't Christians 'unchurched' appropriate? Would you want to be called that if you weren't raised in a Christian home?

Thoughts on reaching the 'unchurched'

For some of you who might not know, I am a minister.

You may also not know that I was not raised in church. My entire young life was spent 'unchurched'. I have found myself to be a little on the rare end when it comes actually becoming a pastor without a church background. I believe I have the perspective of the outsider that could be beneficial.

Having said that, I'd like to say that I get tired of so many models and strategies and fool proof plans that churches brag about in reaching people like I was. I see all this stuff on being this generation's "next innovative and relevant leader". And all the "cool" stuff was thrown my way as well. I tossed most of it out the window growing up. The only people that I observed that even liked it were already Christians, or former Christians that accept the "cool" things because they 'so hated' the old stuff. It seems like Christian leaders are so focused on being relevant and hip, when most of those that occupy thier congregation are people who were already preconditioned enough to want the same thing in a shinier package. All the while, the lost or unchurched are sitting by the sidelines watching the Christians having a blast being relevant and cool in thier culture-talking for hours about how real church should be.

This is just my opinion (though I do feel that I have a sense of authority in this area, I think), but I really think that there isn't a 'magic bullet' out there to bring in 'unchurched people'. There's not going to be this strategy so brilliant and cool that the lost are going to flock in droves to come to church.  Honestly, very, very few people like myself will ever come to your church because its 'cool'.

You'll honestly have to go them, be in thier environment where they are, loving them even if they never ever convert. Don't get me wrong, there is some innovative stuff out there that I really think non-Christians would like if it was put into thier hands; but so much emphasis should not be placed on it. Most could care less if your website has a podcast every week. When I was the outsider, all I wanted was for someone to love and accept me, and point me in the direction of God. "Cool" Christian strategies and technology only made me yawn. I had plenty of entertainment at home.

As far as I'm concerned, loving people the way Jesus loved them and living the way Jesus teaches us to live is as cool and relevant as you'll ever get.