I recently had a good exchange with my pastor over a new on-line service that he is experimenting with. In a nutshell, a church can subscribe to this website that makes popular teaching and teachers available to the congregation on video. Need a how-to on evangelism? Let Bill Hybels tell you how to do it, complete with handy illustrations that you can sketch on a napkin. Need some help on your marriage? The Family Life staff will be glad to give you more than you want. Planning a VBS? Why don't you invite Max Lucado into the room to tell your stories for you. Feeling the need to follow Jesus more fervently? Francis Chan has just what you need. Ready to start small groups in your church? Well there's two dozen people who will tell you the secret for success.
The core of my comments to the pastor had to do with the fact that we are starting to turn our churches over to the professionals, the experts, and even to the Christian celebrities. Why listen to your pastor when you can listen to Chuck Swindoll or John MacArthur or Alistair Begg, or R.C. Sproul? My concern with the professionals is that their materials, however sound and good they may be, are productions with everything just right, edits and final proofs buffed clean, and study notes appended at the end. Somehow I just never get the warm and fuzzies when a video is speaking or preaching to me as I get when I hear a pastor who knows me for who I am preach a heart-felt sermon face to face and force me to confront the grace of God. It may not be perfect, it may not always be dynamic, the church pews are certainly not as comfortable as my easy chair, but it is the order and method that Jesus ordained for His Church to be instructed in all godliness and holiness. The church, above all, is local first. It is a body, not a corporation. It is in the local church that we see the face of God and handle the word of life. And that fellowship cannot be packaged and marketed.
Two other quick thoughts on this. The first is about the marketing that always accompanies such productions. These materials are billed as just what you need to help you in your walk with Jesus. But why can't Jesus help us in our walk with Him? Why can't we take Him at His word and seek how it applies to our life situations? Why can't the brothers and sisters that are on the same spiritual pilgrimage as us in our congregations help us in our walk with Him? Sometimes I think we are just to quick to reach for the all inclusive package rather than put the sweat equity into developing something ourselves that may not be as slick but that does meets the exact needs of our church, It's sort of the concept of not trying to buy the latest square peg no matter how well it's packaged and how much it promises to do, and then try and jam it forcefully into our round hole congregation.
The second thought is this. Over dependence on the experts, the professionals, will ultimately cripple our ability to develop our congregational members in their giftings. Why raise up dedicated, trained Christian educators who develop their own materials to grab the hearts of the next generation? Just grab the latest eye-candy for kids and put it up on the screen. We are too quick to avoid the struggle to bring forth our own materials that convey the truth of God for the particular people of God of which we are a part. We use other materials because they are glossy, they are efficient, they are less work and more convenient. But as I said earlier, one size does not fit all.
For the time being I reserve my final judgment for two reasons. First, I have been known to be completely out in left field when everyone else is in the dugout, but second, and more important, I trust my pastor's judgment in this time and I am content to see how this all plays out and whether it leaves our church stronger for its presence or just less-equipped to handle the word of God for ourselves.
Monday, March 17, 2014
The Spirit of God is Upon Me
They say that the Eastern Orthodox Church prides itself on having not substantively changed since the fourth and fifth centuries in which the great creeds were hammered out and doctrines laid fast line upon line. When confronted with challenge, they appeal to the primitive faith. To that I want to say, "And how's that working out for you?" People change, society changes, culture changes, history changes, our own stories change, and yet we expect the faith to be delivered once to the saints and to stand the test of time. But I think when we demands this, we confuse foundational truth with dogma, God Himself, with our understanding of God. By their very nature some things must never change, can never change; but also by their very nature, some things must continuously change.
Now I am not a big fan of innovation, I do not wear the label of "enthusiast" very well. And I am well aware of the opposite side of the spectrum within the church that wants to throw out everything that smacks of tradition and bring everything up to date with the contemporary. I once likened the two extremes in this way.
The traditionalists are like petrified logs. They have the appearance of life, they have the stuff of life etched into their form and shape, but they are, as we say, cast in concrete. They will never change, but they do not live. The enthusiasts are like inflated balloons that will soar upwards if you let them go, but they lack substance. They are, as we say, a membrane stretched thin over a lot of hot air. So how do we find the balance between our churches turning into relics under glass on the one hand, and a whirling dervish of change for the sake of change on the other hand?
Good question. I wish I had a good answer. But as I was thinking on this all I did have a picture form in my mind that comes from two scriptural passage. The first is John 3:8, "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." And the second is Hebrews 6:19 "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain." My feeling is that it is time to cast off into the deep for a catch, to raise the sail and let the wind of the Spirit drive us before Him. And if, or when, we enter those waters where it is apparent that shoals are present or that the way is uncertain for a time, then drop anchor and hold fast in the sanctuary of God until the time comes to move on. We must not become so set in our ways that we become an idol of stone rather than the temple of the living God, and we must not be so quick to throw out our history and tradition for the sake of relevance that we lose all sense of our mooring in the Kingdom.
Now I am not a big fan of innovation, I do not wear the label of "enthusiast" very well. And I am well aware of the opposite side of the spectrum within the church that wants to throw out everything that smacks of tradition and bring everything up to date with the contemporary. I once likened the two extremes in this way.
The traditionalists are like petrified logs. They have the appearance of life, they have the stuff of life etched into their form and shape, but they are, as we say, cast in concrete. They will never change, but they do not live. The enthusiasts are like inflated balloons that will soar upwards if you let them go, but they lack substance. They are, as we say, a membrane stretched thin over a lot of hot air. So how do we find the balance between our churches turning into relics under glass on the one hand, and a whirling dervish of change for the sake of change on the other hand?
Good question. I wish I had a good answer. But as I was thinking on this all I did have a picture form in my mind that comes from two scriptural passage. The first is John 3:8, "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." And the second is Hebrews 6:19 "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain." My feeling is that it is time to cast off into the deep for a catch, to raise the sail and let the wind of the Spirit drive us before Him. And if, or when, we enter those waters where it is apparent that shoals are present or that the way is uncertain for a time, then drop anchor and hold fast in the sanctuary of God until the time comes to move on. We must not become so set in our ways that we become an idol of stone rather than the temple of the living God, and we must not be so quick to throw out our history and tradition for the sake of relevance that we lose all sense of our mooring in the Kingdom.
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