They say the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” That’s not exactly the definition of crazy but it is a crazy thing to try to do.
They also say “Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.” In short, if you look at what you are producing and you examine the system you will understand why. If your system is crazy, you will get crazy results. If you are getting crazy results, your system is crazy.
If we hand over ministry to professionals…
If we have a corporate view of leadership and authority…
If we give up on evangelism…
If we give up on discipleship…
If we lose focus from Jesus..
If we ignore or explain away the Holy Spirit…
If we don’t expect God to be up to much…
If we lead by complaint avoidance…
If we keep doing all of the things we have always done our system will keep cranking out the exact same thing it has been turning out.
If we keep doing all of the things we have always been doing,
Our young people will keep leaving…
Our worship will continue to suffer…
Our churches will continue to decline…
Ministers will continue to burn out…
What would a new system look like? What would define it?
It would be Jesus focused and centered…
Church would be the gathering, not the purpose…
Not everything would be of the same level of importance…
The Holy Spirit would be emphasized…
Grace would be preached…
People would be encouraged to use their gifts…
We would step out boldly, in faith
We would talk openly about our failures and weaknesses of our doctrine…
The fruit of the Spirit would be obvious…
There are many other things on this list but I think these are extremely important as a start. What would you add to any of these lists?
3 Responses
We would not need to support a building and a staff, therefore our donations can go directly to supporting needy causes. Or no collection would be required. Jesus had no building to preach from and depended on the kindness of strangers (sent by God) for worldly goods like food and clothing. I know Paul and company occasionally took jobs to provide for their needs. A totally different model than the Catholic model we still basically follow.
“We would step out boldly, in faith” – in other words, faith instead of fear! That would be a big step!
To the first list, I’d add, “we’ll keep experiencing splits at an alarming rate.” I recently realized we’ve had about 5-10 splits in just the last 20 years at Churches of Christ in my hometown alone. Church culture has a lot to do with it.
To the second, I might add, “We would need each other instead of being only useful to teach other.” Because of the lack of discipleship, there’s a lack of deep spiritual bonds, which I think lends in part to my previous point.
The religious part would be separated from the secular part of the congregation. Elders could still handle the religious part but would not be allowed to self-perpetuate. The congregation would form a board with rotating terms, term limits, and no marital or parental status and gender restrictions to handle the secular side utilizing people’s talents. This would go a long way into allowing for participation by people who are otherwise unwanted even when they have offered their skills for free and been told that someone with no expertise will be handling it.