Pre-Flight safety talk, and the church.

(This is part three of a three part series about the catastrophe that might be coming for the American church.)

Speaking when no one wants to listen.

The worst speaking job in the world has to be that of the chief flight attendant on a commercial airline flight.  This poor person is required by federal law to give a pre-flight speech before every takeoff.  This is the worst speaking job in America for these three reasons: 1) this presentation is generally ignored 2) it never has any deviation and 3) worst of all, it is always talking about the possibility of bad news or the worst-case scenario.   The message can be summed up thus: “If things go bad, really, really bad then here is what might be of help.”  The following words are kind of like that preflight speech.  I do not offer these as mandates for anyone else.  Each of us must work out our discipleship, but this is where my heart leads me and what I cam trying to live out.  If things go really bad for and with the church in America, here are four mindsets that might help us as church leaders in a worse case scenario:

“Walk away from your fishing nets.”  When Jesus called Peter, Andrew, James and John to come and follow Him he called them from what was apparently a successful and profitable livelihood in Capernaum, which was a hub of the Galilean fishing business.   For James and John the business was successful enough that their dad had hired staff to help.  The call of Jesus was to walk away from a well-paying, lucrative career.  Many ministers enjoy reasonably good compensation, between salary, tax benefits, gifts (such as pastor appreciation Sunday), to name a few examples.  Being a full time, vocational minister can provide an adequate living.  There is nothing wrong with that unless the career gets in the way of being a disciple.  One of the questions we must face is, “Is fulfilling the expectations of this congregation, fellowship, denomination keeping me from being and doing what Jesus wants me to be and do?”  I know a number of ministers that are bound by golden (or at least silver) handcuffs live in spiritual frustration.  They do the work because they are so invested in a retirement/pension program, feel they can’t make a living doing something else, or they have a job that because of experience is easy and a new start would be too difficult.  If a ‘job’, even a ministry job, keeps us from following Christ we need to walk away.  The call of the Lord away from dead-end ministry may include a call away from the security of the fishing nets. 

“Get ready for a trip to Babylon.”  When Solomon’s temple was destroyed and Judah went into exile the existing structure for the spiritual life of the Jewish people was shattered.  They had to develop new ways to learn, live and love their faith.  There was no way for them to predict what it would look like, so they had to develop it on the fly.  If the church structure in part or in whole collapses we will need to rethink what it means to be a disciple in a community of other disciples and what it means to be a believer in the world at large.   If, because of economic, political or social factors, your church lost all its financial assets how would you operate?  What if, as happens around the world, it lost most of its leadership?  How would it survive?  If your church lost its tax-exempt status and could no longer afford to hold its property where would you go and what would you do for gathering space?  This could be a bumpy trip.   How do we prepare for such a trip?  In some ways, it is impossible to prepare.  But here are some principles.  Travel light, get in good shape ahead of time, hold lightly that which is non-essential, and tighten the grip on that which is essential. 

“Think small, really, really small.”  American culture adores the grand and great and big.  We have given almost mythic status to those individuals and groups that have built great empires or dynasties in business, sports or churches.  From a log cabin to the White House, from the mailroom to the CEO’s corner office, from two families in a living room to a multi-site, mega-church we love and buy into the stories of the rags to riches.  In fact, we have been told that almost anyone with the right technique, location and resources can build a mega-church.  We just need commitment, vision, and hard work.    We have been told that each of us can begin a movement.  When we are really honest we tend to think of ourselves or want to be leaders of great movements.  What we say in our vision statements for a life changing ministry and history changing movements may be little more than our ego expressing itself.  Don’t worry about being the next Martin Luther, Jonathan Edwards, or (insert the name of your church hero).  Rather than think a movement, perhaps we should think in terms of one. The great movements of church history are often almost accidents that develop out of one disciple following faithfully.  We need to focus on being one disciple of one Lord.

“Do more, with less.”  I once served a congregation that despite all its advantages was consistently stagnate.  It had a well-established pattern of growth, crisis, minister departure, rapid-decline, new minister, which started the cycle over again.  One day I was exploring the church’s library (which was in reality a storage room in a back corner upstairs) and I discovered a number of “Wonder Kits”.  A Wonder Kit is a prepackaged program that will work wonders for your church.  They generally consist of a book by a mega church pastor, a series of hand outs/lessons, a set of DVD’s or VHS tapes and the implied promise that if you will run this program your church will grow wonderfully.  From a life driven by purpose to becoming a contagion as a Christian, to knowing how to master your mammon there is a “Wonder Kit” for you.  In fact, this congregation had 35 such kits but was still pretty ineffective.  I am afraid that Wonder Kits give us an illusion that we are accomplishing something; while in reality we are simply doing busywork.  Perhaps instead of “Wonder Kits” we need to do more of those things we find in the church in the New Testament.  Returning to scripture and the relationship in the community of faith and avoiding hiding behind the wonder kits, and stop trying to be wonder kids.  In the world today where the church is growing the disciples have only the Lord, each other and the Word of God.  Where the church has the most stuff (Wonder Kits, Seminars, Programs, hip worship bands, cool buildings, sports complexes, A/V presentation, etc.) the church is in decline.  I don’t think this is a coincidence. 

The church that is personally appealing but dead represents a troublesome dichotomy.   We enjoy the company of people whom we like who like us.  We are loved, accepted and respected and our time together is warm and friendly.  For those of us who want affirmation, the cozy warmth of the church is very desirable.  But some where along the way we did something that caused us to loose our first love.  We are, at times, in danger of became consumed by other things and in so doing we became lukewarm to our Lord. But the very lukewarmness is the food poisoning that makes the Lord vomit. 

I am far from settled in my own heart and mind.  But I know that I must in some way prepare for the possibility of a crash.