Someone mentioned to me a book and an accompanying "primer" written by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay. There book is titled "The Tangible Kingdom" accompanied by "The Tangible Kingdom Primer."
So I looked them up on Amazon. As you may know Amazon often gives you the ability to take a peek inside many of the books they sale. This gives you the ability to more or less do what you would do at a bookstore when browsing for books - you can look at the table of contents and do a bit of reading...
I was digitally leafing through the table of contents and then started reading the Forward by Reggie McNeal. Now, I don't know any of these three fellows but I have at least heard the name, Reggie McNeal. And since he is writing the forward he must have some influence at least among those who would typically buy a book with the topic "The Tangible Kingdom" is addressing.
Here is an excerpt of what Reggie McNeal writes in his Forward:
Recently I walked by a "church" that was holding "services" on a Sunday in an upscale community in Northern California. Organ music drifted out of the open doors, spilling onto the streets where passersby made their way to coffee shops, art galleries, and antique stores, oblivious to the goings-on of the band of worshipers ensconced behind stucco walls.
Is this situation worrisome to that congregation? Apparently not. No one was outside to engage anyone on the street. Name tags were on the prominent display in the entry plaza next to the "sanctuary." The clear message was "Members only." If you wandered in on the activities absent a name tag, you'd stick out like a sore thumb.
Reggie goes on to make a comparison with the first century church which, in his words, describes something different than what he just described in the preceding paragraphs. I'm guessing the purpose of the Forward is to convince people to purchase the book which will help those who read it be more like the first century church - or at least Reggie's idealized vision of what the first century church was like - and less like the apparent aberration of church he just described.
However, Reggie seems to draw a lot of conclusions and make a number of assumptions from a, by his own admission, passing observation of this Northern California church.
First, his use of quotation marks. The way I take his placement of "'church,'" "'service'" and "'sanctuary'" in quotation marks indicates that he is suspicious of the use of these words to describe these folks and what and where they are doing whatever it is they are doing if they are not indeed somehow being and doing some aspect of church.
Second, did Reggie do more then pass by? If not, how can he even begin to imply this congregation is not engaged with their community in significant, missional and relevant ways? (I almost used quotation marks around significant, missional and relevant!). Did Reggie interview any of the members of this particular congregation? Did he take time to discover if what he heard that particular Sunday is indeed the only thing this particular congregation does as a church body? Did he take time to meet with the leadership of this congregation to discover how and where or if there is missional engagement with their neighbors and community? If this church is engaged with the community and if this congregation does have more going on then a Sunday morning service , did he take time to talk to those being served or who are being engaged to determine how this congregation is impacting them.
Third, is there indeed no New Testament first century precedence for followers of Jesus to turn aside form engagement with the community to gather for worship, fellowship, study and prayer? Jesus himself often took his disciples away from missional engagement for private exclusive time of teaching and fellowship. If there was a gathered community in the cities and towns he visited during his mission trips, Paul often started his preaching and teaching among such gathered communities and in the buildings they met in.
Fourth, what's wrong with name tags? I'm not for or against the use of name tags except that if they are used the same type of name tags should be available for all who want to wear one. By-the-way, did Reggie go into the gathering to see whether or not everyone there was wearing a name tag? If not, and I strongly suspect everyone was not wearing a name tag, then it wouldn't matter if one wore one or not - no "sore thumb" syndrome, in other words. Perhaps this congregation is so effective in community engagement that they have so many first time participants that the name tags are a courtesy for everyone to help learn names. Besides, I don't know about Reggie, but I have attended many conferences and seminars both religious and secular and I can't remember when the last time I attended some such event where we weren't asked to wear name tags. Perhaps Leadership Network conferences don't use name tags at their events.
As a result, I'm not sure how legitimate Reggie's critic of this anonymous church really is. That being the case, what got my goat, so to speak, is the attitude that so many of us adopt towards the other. This is indeed a case of one person stereotyping and dismissing out of hand a whole group of folks that are assumed to be less Christian, if Christian at all, simply because, in passing by, Reggie notices a certain kind of musical instrument in use, the presence of a table with name tags on it and people outside the gathering place who have other things on their mind.
How often do we do this to each other. How often do I assume that the other is less than me simply because I haven't taken the time to get to know them, or because there is some marker that indicates the other is not part of my group (thus "other")? The irony of all this is that the Forward to "The Tangible Kingdom" seems to contradict what I suppose the intent of the "Tangible Kingdom" indeed is - to make tangible in real acts of love that connect people to people and to not be judgmental of those outside the group. This grace doesn't extent to fellow followers of Jesus?
End of rant.
P.S. I'm still thinking about whether I want to invest in the book or not.
