Rick Warren said, “God has not promised to bless your agenda; He invites you to join Him in His agenda. God's agenda is the church. It's not anything else, it's the church.”

I don't know how people can get it so wrong. God's agenda is the church, the bride of Christ, the body which He both acts and speaks! Its the church.

Jesus is building a church that thinks like Him, feels like Him and acts like Him in reaching out to the lost. Jesus is building a church that speaks like Him, sounds like him and loves the lost like Him.

Jesus is extending His energies to build this kind of church – He has promised to build this kind of church in an atmosphere of war and the Hell’s gates will not prevail. Jesus is building a 21^st century Church with a heart for the lost.

Ephesians 1:23 says it all; “The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ's body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.”

His church was always meant to be a contemporary outwardly focused church – it was always meant to be externally focused on the needs of the world. As Christians we need to embark on the mission of Christ, serve the purposes of God and join Him in His journey through this world and in the process we need to learn how to resource ourselves and live in maturity. 

We need to get out more:
What was Paul doing in Athens anyway? He had been run out of the last town he was speaking in and was waiting for his mates to come and get him. In the mean time he was out walking the city, tourist map in one hand and a digital camera in the other. He was waiting for his friends and in the process he was out finding coffee shops, wine bars and restaurants for lunch. He was doing the tourist thing in Athens!

So many of us stay home or hang out with other Christians, the more we do this the more our passion for the lost is blunted. Our zeal to see people connect with eternity is dulled and our fervor to reach the lost is reduced and our voice to the world becomes muted!

We need to get out more and see people walking around; we need to start conversations with people and connect with them. [Random acts of generosity to show Jesus is alive]

We somehow feel that religious convictions are a personal issue and never to be shared in public. We’ve been taught it’s not polite talk if we mention our faith or our relationship with Jesus. How demonic is that?

Many in the church live in another world, another time and another century. They speak another language, dress in a fashion that no longer relates. I am not talking about a “trendier than thou church” but the church has remained helplessly immobile because they have failed to shift it communications paradigms and as a result has been made redundant to the predominance of society today; they are relegated to the past, boring, irrelevant, meaningless and extraneous to today!

I admit that communication in a 21^st Century context is elaborate, if we seek to truly touch our world we will need to understand the world we live in so we can speak to them.

Craig Detweiler and Barry Taylor wrote in their new book “A matrix of meaning: Finding God in Popular Culture,” these startling words;

“We embrace pop culturebecause we believe it offers a refreshing, alternative route to a Jesus who for many has been domesticated, declawed, and kept under wraps. As the Christian church has often adopted the role of moral policeman, pop culture has assumed the role of spiritual revolutionary, subverting and frustrating those religious authorities who desperately cling to black-and-white answers in an increasingly gray world…We believe a bold, ancient, radical Christ stands on the sidelines of the culture wars, waiting "with arms wide open," eager to engage our hearts, our minds, and our culture.”
[A Matrix of Meanings: Finding God in Popular Culture]

I believe that you can’t reach a world whose culture you hate, abhor  and separate yourself from it – Richard Leonard is a Jesuit priest with a PhD in Film and Theology and he writes in his book, “Movies that Matter: Reading Film Through the Lens of Faith”:

"Given the power of media, becoming conversant with its mixed messages is an essential tool for Christian life. This involves the process of enculturation—discovering where Christ is already active within a given culture. Enculturation has traditionally been about uncovering Christian resonances in faraway places and exotic rituals. Yet the risen Christ sends us out to our media-saturated culture [of the 21^st Century] as well, and in it we labor with Christ to expose the signs of God’s saving love already present there.”

He continues; “We cannot speak to a culture we do not know or one we despise… [or one we are afraid of] we have to learn its language and discover how Christ has already gone ahead of us, enculturated in some of media’s values, stories and style."

Here is the crux of the 21^st Century church; Jesus has already gone ahead of us into the world and there are many signs of His presence there. There are present in this world tens of thousands of indications He has gone before us preparing hearts to respond to the message of salvation.

He is the same yesterday today and forever. 

His intent is that NOW through the church the wisdom and love of God should be made known!

Paul picked out a statue dedicated to “The Unknown God” and begins to preach.

Paul was able to spot the Christian resonance in the midst of all the idolatry, he was insightful enough to see that God had gone before him and prepared an intelligent platform from which to speak about God the maker of Heaven and Earth.

The world around us is full of such resonance; we just need to find it. I believe that Christ has gone before us into all the world and we just need to hear Him and see Him. Yet many Christians and churches have retreated from today’s culture. Instead of incarnating themselves into the this exciting world they become defensive and hurl abuse, get angry at people, picket institutions or worse still go into hiding, have prayer meetings and keep separate from the vulgar herd. They spend more time rebuking the Devil than they do exalting Christ in the midst of popular culture.

Many simply lose the ability to relate to people around us. Others feel intimidated by people and don’t know what to do much less what to say. The challenge is to not only ACT like Christians but to REACT like Christians becoming Christ to our modern 21st Century world.

A shocking reality is that this retreat from TODAY has led to the stagnation of churches so much so that many of them have lost their relevance and appeal to a world in desperate need for a Savior! Their Jesus is scared of the big bad world. Their brand of religion has no answers for the world today; this church has become silent, sullen, reactionary and angry.

Remember pop culture is indisputably the most extensive and influential theological training system in the world today! Engage with TODAY, Jesus promised to be with us even until the end of the ages. Believe to see His presence, search for His resonance and check out His finger prints all over today's culture.

Find the "unknown god" in the midst of your world, communicate and engage with people; start a conversation. Jesus is there and simply needs to be found by us so we can lead others to HIM!

Paul was asked to speak to everyone assembled on Mars Hill. He began with absolute brilliance; Acts 17:22-23, “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.”

As Paul addressed the Athenians he didn’t begin with criticism, he wasn’t judgmental, he didn’t stand and berate them for being idol worshippers, no personal attacks, he didn’t mock them, there were no picket lines, he didn’t appear angry at them. He wasn’t telling them to repent or they would burn in Hell.

He began by complementing them! This was no clever trick used by a savvy public speaker to get people on board either. It’s all about the grace of God! The same grace of God extended to us is also extended to the world around us! Did you get that? God’s grace is extended to all because all have sinned! It is not right for us then to condemn the world because of its sin!  I have a proving text from scripture too!

John 3:17-18, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.”

God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world because of its sin! This comes as such a shock to many! He came into the world so He could save the world! He came with grace and truth. The world stands condemned already why? Because they have not believed in the name of the God’s Son Jesus.

Jesus came to save. This is our mission too; not to bring condemnation and criticize their way of life or to make judgmental remarks! I know this will take some by surprise but it is true.

Jesus came to save not condemn!

Why, why & why?
Why do Christians appear to be so angry, negative, and so full of rules?
Why do so many regard the church as self righteous and hypocritical?
Why is the church almost always known by what it is against?
Why is the church portrayed as people with so many rules and regulations? 
Why is the church always taking an nonconstructive stance against issues, people and their sin?

Because we’ve lost sight of Jesus and forget God’s great love for people. Joseph Prince calls this the “scandal of GRACE!” I agree and believe the 21st Century Church in Europe is operating out of this scandelous grace. The practice of this grace is radical, impacting and powerful; just like Jesus was.

Acts 17:16, “… [Paul] was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.”

We are often times distressed by what we see in our world today. Separating ourselves from the world is though is not a choice we can make. In fact it is opposite to the words of Jesus, who said,

John 17:15, “My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one.” And again He says John 17:18, “As You sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world”.

God is not calling us to a monastic life of silence and separation from our fast paced and ever changing world. We are not called to be so busy that we miss opportunities to engage with our fellow travelers. Church is not a place for us to retreat to from the “big bad ooga boogga” world around us. In fact the church was never designed to become a refuge from the world.

The desire of Jesus the Master Builder and Architect of the church is exactly the opposite! His design is that we find ourselves right smack in the middle of society, our generation and the world at large!

When it comes to feeling distressed … I think it is actually good for us to feel this kind of distress and allow our hearts to be moved by what moves God’s heart.

Look at the word “distressed;” In the Greek this word implies that Paul was stirred, sharpened or stimulated. It is an old verb used only once here in the book of Acts. What Paul saw stirred him, and sharpened his ability to speak. It was in fact an irritation that moved him to action.

21^st Century church people are also distressed and stirred by the hardship they see in their community. 21^st Century Christians are vitally aware of the desperate needs of people around them and regard their journey as a mission. The 21^st Century Church are a people motivated by the very cause of Christ.

A prayer …
May our lives, our intellect and our emotions be stirred and distressed. May our communication skills be sharpened and our attention to the world around us be stimulated so we see and hear as Christ sees and hears.

May we become irritated with church baggage from decades and centuries ago and be stimulated by the Spirit of God to reach out in genuine love accompanied by authentic actions.

May we be galvanized into radical love to touch and impact people around us who are worshiping unknown gods and introduce them to the God of all ages Maker of Heaven and Earth. 

Film, TV and music are powerful forces that have created the 21^st Century. 21^st century Christians believe that God who invades both time and space has also gone before us and has prepared the hearts of people to receive the good news about Christ.

Rather than fearing modern culture – instead of taking a steady retreat from pop-culture should we not become the timeless church of the 21^st Century of today and see that modern thoughts and philosophies present an opportunity for us to speak of Jesus Christ?

Allow me to quote Terry Mattingly from his book Pop Goes Religion... “If you study the statistics, the typical modern [European] is much more likely to be exposed to a new religious insight or doctrine at the mall or the movie multiplex than in a traditional sanctuary. This is how modern [Europeans] spend their time, spend their money and make their decisions. Day by day, they have evolved into mass-media disciples.”

Should we not feel comfortable walking the malls and movie theatres invading today and bring grace and truth? As we walk our cities should we not have a sense that Christ has gone before us? Should we not actually be searching for those moments of divine connection?

Let me quote George Barna & Mark Hatch in their book Boiling Point... “The world of entertainment and mass communications through television, radio, contemporary music, movies, magazines, art, video games and pop literature is indisputably the most extensive and influential theological training system in the world.”

Should we not see the multifaceted world of communications as our world and isn’t it time we stepped up to the plate and become the story tellers of our day – the translators of our day? Rather than retreating from this world should we not seek to become the articulators of truth and theology – should we not see the resonance and boldly convey God’s truth?

Christ has gone before us. If we closely look around us we will see that there is Christian resonance. There are distinct signs that Christ has prepared a platform for us to communicate – if we are going to touch our 21^st Century world as a 21^st Century Church we must recognize where Christ has gone before us – we need to see the signs of His presence.

The 21^st Century church in Europe is no longer a snapshot of black and white on paper, it’s not even a buy one get one print free deal. The 21^st Century Church is a cinematic extravaganza that blows people’s minds away just like it did on the day of Pentecost.

The 21st Century Church is not mono chrome its techno color, its 3D, full graphic 128 bit color. 21^st Century church is extreme sports not golf, its MTV not Songs of Praise.

The 21st Century church in Europe is visual, ocular, explicit, and more than realistic. It’s no longer the pulpit or the alter in the sanctuary it is now the catwalk, the big screen and the main stages of society. The church is no longer hidden in obscurity but now out and shining, going public on the front pages of the press.

The 21^st century church is no longer liturgical and ritualistic but overflowing with creativity, innovation and passion! The 21st Century church is alive, adaptable, edible, touchable and flexible! It is original, imaginative, inspiring, artistic, inventive and resourceful. It is ingenious, clever and resourceful. It is relentless in hearing the heartbeat of a culture and doing all it can to touch that world.

The 21^st Century Church is loud, dynamic, vibrant and full of vocal passion, it not just stereo but defined, Spirit enabled, spirit impacting vivid Dolby digital surround sound with heart thrumming THX technology.

The 21^st Century church is not a devotional, internally looking community with monastic

tendency desperately afraid or suspicious of today’s culture but an incredible externally focused agency seeking and finding Christian resonance in the most remarkable of places.

I close with this, Paul the Apostle was an expert at touching his world and he said these words; 1 Corinthians 9:22-23, “To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel that I may share in its blessings.”

The church in Europe is alive an well. The church in Europe is growing; numerically, in influence and is beginning to impact culture, business, the arts and education.

The church in Europe is alive! I can hear the sound of a generation rising!

Europe 2010

A new decade is almost upon us filled with new hope, new possibilities and new ventures and new dreams. The challenge of Europe is palatable and powerful. As Europe enters this new decade remember this; there are over 250,000 cities, towns and villages in Europe today with no evangelical church presence. What a marvelous challenge for the church today.

Europe once the hotbed of revivals that spanned the globe has now become to the New China – the New Africa – the New India! Europe has become the greatest mission field in the world today! 

Europe is the most secular, the most progressive, and the most godless of any country blocks in the world today! The people of Europe are awesome; they are post –modern, urbane, sophisticated, and trendy. Paris Milan and Rome are some of the capitals of fashion around the world. The people are open, ready to receive, facinated with Jesus and searching for purpose, meaning and destiny.

Europe needs a church in tune and in touch with TODAY's Europeans. The good news is were already here! Ready to go; ready to expand; ready to reach out and be the tangible presence of God upon the earth. We are fresh, exciting, passionate and willing to be touched by the needs of Europeans; we are attentive, annointed and motived by the cause of Christ; we are relevant, original and not perifieral to the world around us.

Welcome to the 21st century Church thriving in Europe!

The Timeless Church:

Ephesians 3:10-11, “His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

It is through the agency of His church that we become His hands and feet. It is through the church he both acts and speaks. It is through the church that He invades every generation and is incarnate through His church to every time.

We know that Jesus has the ability to meet a person in time – in the present continuum of time which is called today. He does this because His presence is unremitting through the activity of the Holy Spirit. His church is a timeless church called to always be connected to today.

And God has created this agency called the church to fulfil His purpose in the world. The church is a vehicle that is called to keep pace with Him as He invades today. He is looking for His church to shine as a bride, to stay close to Him, to live devoted to Him so they can touch the lives of people. The church is the agency of God on earth; called to stay fresh, relevant, contemporary, accessible, touchable and to not only keep pace with a world but to invade every second of every new day. The church is timeless.

Jesus said, “I am the Alpha and Omega – WHO IS, and was and is to come! I am the First and the Last; I am the beginning and the end!” He dwells outside time, was the creator of time and now through His church has embedded Himself into every new day.

21^st Century Church: Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

This new blog is designed to stimulate our thought on being the kind of people Christ so needs us to be in the world today! For us to be the effective people of God in a rapidly changing world! To recognize that being a 21^st Century Church is not a model of church but is what the church is constantly being called to be!

I am challenged by what I hear about Hillsong Church London – they meet in the Dominion Theatre – one of London’s most prominent stages. They are on the Broadway of London in the show district of Soho filling the Dominion four times on a Sunday! Accomplishing something that is quite unthinkable on a Sunday – and they are doing church! They are doing it “Main Stage” – they are right where the church should be – highlighting Jesus Christ – lifting Him up in the Centre of one of Europe’s greatest cities!

The Message of Jesus rings in my ears – “Let me tell you why you’re! You’re here to shine like a city on a Hill!” Paul writing to the Ephesians church said this, “The church you see is not peripheral to the world but the world is peripheral to the church."

The church is the central, pivotal, strategic and most dynamic plan of God for all the ages! It is the church where Jesus both acts and speaks!” It is the church; we are the people of God who attract people to Christ. Every one of us should have that Heavenly quality that attracts people – it’s Jesus that calls us to be “fishers of men”

The message of Jesus Christ has never changed! In fact Jesus has never changed. He is still the good news of God coming to earth like a man and living and dying as the ultimate sacrifice for all mankind! This message is still the message of transformation, forgiveness and salvation! It is a story about the grace and mercy of God being poured out upon a people so undeserving.

Paul put it this way, Romans 1:16, says “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” This message remains constant – it is the same message the early church preached 2,000 years ago and every day 1,000’s are still being transformed by its power! It is the power of God!

Though this message has never changed – the packaging this message comes in has got to change for each successive generation, for every culture and people group! The way we package this timeless message needs to be memorable, vital and powerful; it needs to be unpredictable, surprising, and fresh. It must be fast paced recruiting the language of the day! It needs to have resonance and personal significance as it interacts with today.

This world needs a 21st Century church.