No Perfect People Allowed: Creating a Come-as-You-Are Culture in the Church

340 Pages·2007·3.32 MB·English

by  John Burke

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“The story of Gateway Community Church gives us an anchor point amid the
waves of concern, confusion, and conjecture about the future of the church.
Here is an honest, inspiring, and helpful account of a church that shows us how
to embrace people far from God in the arms of Jesus and his church.”
—Dieter Zander
Pastor of Arts and Spiritual Formation,
Bay Marin Community Church, San Rafael, California
“John Burke has written a groundbreaking book for pastors and church lead-
ers who actually want to love the post-Christian, twenty-something generation.
The content is excellent—and has the additional advantage of being true.”
—Keith Miller
Author of Taste of New Wineand Hunger for Healing
“I got to work alongside John for several years, and I saw his heart for ‘imper-
fect people’ firsthand. He has written a road map for people who want to travel
to Christian community through the lands of brokenness and questions.”
—John Ortberg
Teaching Pastor, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church
“The church world is full of spin doctors who offer more opportunity to escape
from reality than a liquor store. Often the truth about life takes a Sabbath on
Sundays, leaving the people of God looking for passion and reality elsewhere.
John Burke wisely understands what is required in a more cynical, indulgent
day to invite a heart to a more honest, compelling gospel. His willingness to
reinvent a culturally compelling, soul honest, and Bible-based engagement with
reality offers anyone committed to the church a picture of what we could
become if we were to give up spin for true substance. What a glorious book.”
—Dan B. Allender, PhD
President of Mars Hill Graduate School
“Here are three reasons to buy, read, and widely distribute John Burke’s won-
derful new book. First, Chapter 7 alone is worth twice the price of the book.
Second, so are Chapters 8 and 9. Third, we need thousands of churches to fol-
low the example of Gateway Community Church in creating a grace- and
gospel-friendly church culture. This book is a treasure—fresh, intelligent, prac-
tical, deep, and wise.”
—Brian McLaren
Pastor (crcc.org) and Author (anewkindofchristian.com)
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No Perfect People Allowed
Copyright © 2005 by John Burke
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the
required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of
this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse
engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by
any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express
written permission of Zondervan.
AER Edition January 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-31481-3(cid:13)(cid:10)
Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Burke, John, 1963 –
No perfect people allowed : creating a come-as-you-are culture in the church / John Burke.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: “Discusses ways church leaders and congregations can reach out to and connect with
postmodern, post-Christian society” — Provided by publisher.
ISBN-10: 0-310-27501-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-310-27501-5
1. Pastoral theology. 2. Postmodernism — Religious aspects — Christianity. I. Title.
BV4011.3.B87 2005
253 — dc22 2005000359
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Ver-
sion®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan.
All rights reserved.
The quotations from the writings and interviews with Mark Laaser are used with his permission.
The Twelve Steps are reprinted with permission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. (AAWS).
Permission to reprint the Twelve Steps does not mean that AAWS has reviewed or approved the contents
of this publication or that AAWS necessarily agrees with the views expressed herein. AA is a program of
recovery from alcoholism only — use of the Twelve Steps in connection with programs and activities that are
patterned after AA but address other problems, or in any other non-AA context, does not imply otherwise.
Additionally, while AA is a spiritual program, AA is not a religious program. Thus, AA is not affiliated or allied
with any sect, denomination, or specific religious belief.
The website addresses recommended throughout this book are offered as a resource to you. These web-
sites are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement on the part of Zondervan, nor do we vouch
for their content for the life of this book.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmit-
ted in any form or by any means — electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other — except for
brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.
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CONTENTS
Introduction: God’s Story in Our Stories 9
Part One: The Struggle for Emerging Generations
1 The First Corinthian Church ofAmerica 15
2 Cynical and Jaded:Results ofthe Postmodern Experiment 29
Part Two: The Struggle with Trust
3 Doubters Wanted:Creating a Culture ofDialogue 51
4 Losing My Need to Pretend:Creating a Culture ofAuthenticity 69
Part Three: The Struggle with Tolerance
5 Come as You Are:Creating a Culture ofAcceptance 87
6 But Don’t Stay That Way:Creating a Culture ofGrowth 105
7 What about Other Religions? The Tolerance Litmus Test—Q1 125
8 How Do You Feel about Gays? The Tolerance Litmus Test—Q2 147
Part Four: The Struggle with Truth
9 The Humble Truth about Truth:Creating a Culture ofTruth-Telling
Humility 167
10 Tribal Truth:Creating the Culture ofIncarnational Truth 185
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Part Five: The Struggle with Brokenness
11 All God Intended You to Be:Creating a Culture ofHope 205
12 Mental Monogamy:Creating a Culture ofSexual Wholeness 223
13 Recovering an Addicted Generation:Creating a Culture ofHealing 243
Part Six: The Struggle with Aloneness
14 Nobody Stands Alone:Creating a Culture ofConnection 267
15 The Family I Never Had:Creating a Culture ofFamily 285
Part Seven: The Struggle Forward
16 Life or Death? Creating a Culture for Emerging Leaders 303
Acknowledgments 315
Notes 317
About the Publisher 337
Share Your Thoughts 338
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I dedicate this book
to the core group ofGateway.
You dreamed ofwhat God might do in our city.
Through your prayers,sacrifice,and service
you created a culture
where God made that dream a reality.
You are my heroes offaith.
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Artist: Patrick Shinn
All artwork has been contributed by artists at Gateway Community Church.