{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Shock Absorber","title":"Stop making church more like the world. Build this instead...","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3841,"description":"Most churches have spent the last sixty years trying to lower the cultural barriers to Christianity. Clean car parks. Professional music. Seeker-sensitive services. The logic made sense at the time. But has making church more like the world actually worked and is it still the right strategy?\nJoel and Stu work through the tension between institutional and organic church structures, unpack the history of the attractional church model from Donald McGavran to Willow Creek, and explain why Soul Revival has deliberately gone the other direction — building a countercultural, intergenerational Yellow Submarine that goes beneath the surface of daily life.\nThey also answer two great listener questions from Julie about Bonhoeffer's friendship circles: whether they include non-Christians, and how kids and youth factor into church numbers.\nTimestamps\n00:00 Sharks gear, Sheffield Wednesday at Wembley and tribal fan culture\n05:30 The AGM and the juxtaposition of formal polity in a time of crisis\n08:30 Organic vs institutional structures: what's the difference and why it matters\n15:00 The attractional church model — McGavran, Willow Creek and the homogeneous unit principle\n22:00 The Yellow Submarine: Soul Revival's countercultural intergenerational alternative\n29:00 How Soul Revival's governance actually works\n43:30 Listener questions from Julie: Bonhoeffer's friendship circles and non-Christians\n51:30 At what stage do kids and youth count in your numbers?\n54:00 The Blitz, the fuel crisis and the Christian response to economic pressure\nDiscussed on this episode\nStu Crawshaw - The Yellow Submarine\nSkip Bell — What is Wrong with the Homogeneous Unit Principle?\nKarina Koremsky — The Fallacy of the Homogeneous Unit Principle\nBill Hybels — Becoming a Contagious Christian\nMark Senter — The Four Views of Youth Ministry\nKendra Creasy Dean — Practicing Passion\nDonald McGavran — homogeneous unit principle overview\n\nJump in at shockabsorber.com.au — and send your thoughts to...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/Xefvzfzzrkbs1GjU01qCch0kUaJzwBthG2qO_sgqCm8/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/Lzg4NjYvMTU4NTEz/OTEyOS1hcnR3b3Jr/LmpwZw.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}