Magic bullet: Or, sometimes, silver bullet. 1. The perfect drug
to cure disease with no danger of side effects.
The term magic bullet was first used in this sense by the German
scientist Paul Ehrlich to describe antibody and later the drug Salvarsan that
he created to treat syphilis. 2. In general, a magical solution to any
vexing problem that one thing that will solve the problem. The cure for what ails you or for the
troubling situation that has to be over come.
The church has its fair share of supposed
magic bullets. They seem to range across
all the spectrums. Left to right,
Bible-based to humanistic, enduring to faddish, sober to goofy. Every so often, someone latches on to a new
idea, or more creatively repackages and re-markets an old idea, and heralds it
as the fix for what ails the church.
These packages, programing, publications or proposals hit the church
market, sell like hot cakes (for a while) and then end up on the top shelf of
the church’s library or the back corner of a storage closet. But sadly, the congregation, the Church, and
the world are by and large unchanged.
At one church I served, I went
through the library, storage closets and educational resource area to find a
total of 43 different programs, all of which in their day were touted as having
the ability to set the church on the right course. Most came with a three ringed binder filled
with outlines and A.V. materials (some were transparencies [and, yes, we still
had the over head projector], others held cassettes, some VHS tapes, the newer
ones had CD’s and there were even a few DVDs).
When I took time to dig all these programs out, the church was the same
size it had been for the 20 years prior to my arrival-the date of one the earliest
programs I dug out. If we assume that
each program with all the workbooks and other paraphilia cost about $200 those
43 programs represent nearly $9,000 with nothing to show for it.
That does not take into account
the cost in sending leaders to conferences to be trained. There is no accounting of the human effort
and labor of staff and volunteers to learn the material and then teach it to
the congregation. We can make no
calculation of the hours given by the congregants to come to the church building
and learn the material.
I am not opposed to helpful
resources. Over the years I have bought
and used more than a few of these; some to great affect, others were
useless. I am not opposed to Christian leaders
sharing their thoughts and how to be more effective in ministry. But let’s be honest, over the last 50 years
the church in America has spent a lot of time, effort, and resources to do
church better and the condition of the church is not improved. I know of no one who believes the condition
of the church in America today is strong and healthy.
I do read, study, and try to be a
more informed disciple. I try to add new
tools to my toolbox on a regular basis.
But I have given up any hope for finding a magic bullet.
In contrast, here is what I have
found. The Lord doesn’t call us to do
many things. He calls us to do one
thing-to make disciples. It is so weird,
that as I read the Great Commission and the Great Commandment in Matthew 10 and
Acts, and the New Testament in general, there is a beautiful and powerful
simplicity to what we are to be about.
As we go, we make disciples.
I become frustrated with the hype
and promise of the latest and the greatest programmatic answer to the problem
of static and declining churches. In my
travels I see churches that have layers and layers of infrastructure and
operations, but appear to lack any urgency for making disciples. We do not need another nationally marketed
program. I’m not sure that there is a
program that will solve the church’s problems.
What I do know is, if I love God more and love people the way Jesus did,
I will be compelled by that love to tell them about God’s amazing grace. Then
I’ll be heading in the right direction.
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