Are you a TED talk person???

I was at the Fort Worth Museume of Science and History recently with my wife and son.  While walking though one of the rooms where there are these very cool light drawing pads (I hope these are a precursor to the light saber), there is a four page print out of an article entitled "Are you a TED talk person?"

I always wondered as soon as I watched my first TED talk, "If the Church is supposed to be a culture making entity, then why can the Church not host or 'be' like TED?"

What if the Church gathered together occasionally and invited people in the congregation to give their own 18 minute talk?  Heck there are even "The TED 10 Commandments"!

People pack into TED, people talk about the ideas of TED, TED is open, TED is counter cultural, TED is not afraid of new and and what is being "called" out.  It seems to me the the vacuum for culture making the Church created when we began to focus on ourselves has been filled by a number of other culture creators.

Maybe the Church cannot reclaim that culture making position on a large scale ever again (maybe it should not have been that powerful to begin with?), but local individual churches can create culture in the communities in which they are embedded.

What culture do you see being made in your local church?

"Ya but"

"I am wondering if one of the reasons the Church is in decline in the traditional sense is that churches are very attractive to the "ya but" people of the world.

When an idea is pitched in the church, from my experience, we are really good at quickly going through all the reasons how or why that idea will not work:
"It will cost too much."
"It will anger people."
"It will be too polarizing."
"It is not thought out."
"It is too unclear."



I want to stand with other Christians in the community and the world to create an alternate culture in which the "Ya buts" of the world are not the dominate voice or culture.  I want to create and help foster a community culture of "Yes, and..."

"Yes, and..." culture creates an environment in which collaboration is fostered.  "Yes, and..." culture encourages people to share ideas without fear of being beat up for not having the idea totally set.  "Yes, and..." culture creates an environment that ideas quickly gain support.

I fear that the Church is dominated by "Yes but" which results in a dying culture and no one wants to join a dying culture.

Cul-da-sacs

I grew up in a cul-da-sac in Keller Texas.  It was great.

My friends and I could play street hockey without fear of cars driving through the game.

We had parties for the neighborhood and had tables of food right in the middle of the cul-da-sac.

We could have tons of basketball games at a full court with fathers and sons.

I learned to back up a vehicle in the broad space of the cul-da-sac without fear of hitting another vehicle.

Cul-da-sacs are amazing.

Sort of.

You can have an amazing lemonade stand, but there are only 3 people who are going to drive by it.

When you enter a cul-da-sac the only place you can go is home.

Cul-da-sacs can only sustain themselves for a short period of time before you have to leave it in order to go to the store.

Cul-da-sacs are "finished" in that what is built is all that there will ever be.  

Cul-da-sacs are insular and not open to new creations.

Is your life a cul-da-sac?  Is your job a cul-da-sac?  Is your church a cul-da-sac?

I am concerned that the UMC is fantastic at building cul-da-sacs and not avenues.  I find we in the church love to build cul-da-sacs because of the safety and security they provide.  But cul-da-sacs never go anywhere.

Cul-da-sac is really just a fancy name for a dead end.