(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.
Ironic - considering the nature of crashes of late, all the pre-flight advisories in the world have been useless. They would have been better off to ask: "How is it with your soul?"
ReplyDeleteTrust in learning to trust that what the instruments are telling you is the truth - so that you can follow their direction and get out of or stay out of trouble. Faith is trust that the instruments have been calibrated on the ground to the correct specs, so that you can TRUST when the altimeter says you are 100 feet above the ground, you are in fact, 100 feet above the ground, and not 250 or more.
Randy Kanipe - Pilot and Pastor. But been a pilot longer than I been a pastor.
Spoken like a true pilot. Thanks for your insights Randy.
ReplyDelete