Week 6 - or have I missed it?
I think maybe I have.
I think this is Week 7.
Where did week 6 go to?
Yep, often I fail on the leadership level because I let days/weeks slip and I can't account for what's happened during that time! I just get busy. On a day to day basis I would say that I worked hard and it was all about serving as a church leader/teacher; I would say it's all about the Kingdom of God; at the end of every day I would say I worked really hard towards the vision of our church and our lives -but then I get to my blog and I've missed a week due to "being busy" and I makes me take a personal audit on was my busy really serving God and intentional in outworking the building and extending of the Kingdom of God.
So - welcome to Week 7.
I'm sitting in Stockton, CA listening to the story of Jeff Kristenson who has led exciting transformation in South Valley Community Church, Lemoore, CA.
As I listen to the classic story of moving an inward focused, politic playing, committee led church existing for itself to an outward focused, church existing for lost people, Kingdom of God extending healthy church.
Brilliant story and brilliant leadership.
But as I sit and listen what excites me is the ongoing vision to see more growth. Jeff is not plateauing. Jeff is not content with the 1000 people they have attending (it was 117 ten years ago when Jeff arrived); Jeff and his team yearn for greater impact for the Kingdom of God.
This is true leadership.
This is exciting.
"The appetite grows with the eating" .....might be a French proverb, but it reflects the heart and reality of effective leaders.
As you eat growth - through all the hard work, sweat, praying, thinking that goes with this - your appetite for more growth only grows. As you eat growth, you desire more.
Jesus beat the French to this proverb. Regularly Jesus spoke about to those who have more more will be asked of - or ....to those who grow their talents - more talents will be given to them, or ....Luke 6 "Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap."
Is this not the same.
So, forgive me losing of Week 6. May Week 7 inspire you to eat growth, kingdom, Gospel growth.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Week 5 - a pastors' EDGE.
Sorry folks that I missed week 4 - Africa, no internet and jet-lag.
Week 5 ..... and it revolves around the idea of EDGE.
Jack Welch and Noel Tichy write about this idea.
All leaders possess ideas undergird by values creating energy in people around them -but winning leaders bring EDGE to their leading.
EDGE is defined as "the ability to make tough decisions and the willingness to sacrifice the security of today for the sake of a better future".
EDGE.
Let me talk about our children's global charity called When I Grow Up.
Presently we help four global partnerships with the most developed partnership the one I've just returned from in Nairobi, Kenya called Furaha Community Centre. For the past few years we've helped this centre. We've seen our help grow but in truth it has remained at a fairly doable level - we can remain at this level and not hurt other growth we need to work on within our own church and within our other global partnerships.
But now as I return from another visit, I'm challenged with the reality of EDGE. Am I willing to make the tough decision? A tough decision not to stop helping, but to take our helping to the next level - a level that moves us beyond the comfortable security of what we can afford today for the sake of tomorrow.
This is an EDGE decision.
I guess Welch and Tichy call it EDGE, but Christian leaders call it FAITH!
Can we take the next step - can we take this next step along with every other next step our church and our charity are needing to take.
Growth requires EDGE / FAITH.
Growth always requires more growth. In fact the fuel of growth is more growth.
The challenge of every growth leader is the boldness, the edge, the FAITH to not settle at the level of initial growth, but push deeper beyond settledness.
This is exactly where we are at in Redeemer's Church. 800 attending, front door working, global ministry happening, healthy ministries, healthy financials, good programming. BUT - FAITH says we need to now go to the next level - the next step for our overall vision, the next step in our When I Grow Up charity, the next step in our Growth Engines ....and these three mission critical next steps will require the next step in our financials, our leadership, our strategies. This is EDGE, or better put, this is FAITH.
Do I have it?
Do you have it?
Growth requires it.
The Kingdom of God breathes it.
Week 5 ..... and it revolves around the idea of EDGE.
Jack Welch and Noel Tichy write about this idea.
All leaders possess ideas undergird by values creating energy in people around them -but winning leaders bring EDGE to their leading.
EDGE is defined as "the ability to make tough decisions and the willingness to sacrifice the security of today for the sake of a better future".
EDGE.
Let me talk about our children's global charity called When I Grow Up.
Presently we help four global partnerships with the most developed partnership the one I've just returned from in Nairobi, Kenya called Furaha Community Centre. For the past few years we've helped this centre. We've seen our help grow but in truth it has remained at a fairly doable level - we can remain at this level and not hurt other growth we need to work on within our own church and within our other global partnerships.
But now as I return from another visit, I'm challenged with the reality of EDGE. Am I willing to make the tough decision? A tough decision not to stop helping, but to take our helping to the next level - a level that moves us beyond the comfortable security of what we can afford today for the sake of tomorrow.
This is an EDGE decision.
I guess Welch and Tichy call it EDGE, but Christian leaders call it FAITH!
Can we take the next step - can we take this next step along with every other next step our church and our charity are needing to take.
Growth requires EDGE / FAITH.
Growth always requires more growth. In fact the fuel of growth is more growth.
The challenge of every growth leader is the boldness, the edge, the FAITH to not settle at the level of initial growth, but push deeper beyond settledness.
This is exactly where we are at in Redeemer's Church. 800 attending, front door working, global ministry happening, healthy ministries, healthy financials, good programming. BUT - FAITH says we need to now go to the next level - the next step for our overall vision, the next step in our When I Grow Up charity, the next step in our Growth Engines ....and these three mission critical next steps will require the next step in our financials, our leadership, our strategies. This is EDGE, or better put, this is FAITH.
Do I have it?
Do you have it?
Growth requires it.
The Kingdom of God breathes it.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Week 3 - Leaders do what isn't natural to do
Week 3 - and I'm about to head to Kenya, Africa.
I've been to Kenya several times. We have some incredible partners there who we link with to help a slum that is around half a million people. Our Kenya partners run a feeding program, AIDS clinic, school for over 500 kids, a community centre, a justice program - and all of them weave Jesus through it.
But here's the truth - I've never really fallen in love with Africa.
You read reports of people going and they fall in love with Africa. Whenever they leave to return to the West they say things like "I left a part of my heart/soul there!"
But not me.
I think the guys we work alongside are modern day heroes. I think the face of every child is the face of the most precious child there is. Each of them. I think Christ is with the poor way beyond how He's with us.
But every trip to Kenya doesn't come naturally. Every trip to Kenya takes a lot out of me.
But here's the leadership point - I know that if I don't go and lead the way ...how can I get others to follow us into doing what Christ undoubtedly wants His Church to be doing.
Despite how uneasy it is for me to go, and return and go again ....a leader has to go where he/she wants others to go.
Leadership simply is leading.
That's week 3 .....heading 11,000 uneasy/unnatural miles to help others come as well and catch the vision of God and His amazing Gospel.
I've been to Kenya several times. We have some incredible partners there who we link with to help a slum that is around half a million people. Our Kenya partners run a feeding program, AIDS clinic, school for over 500 kids, a community centre, a justice program - and all of them weave Jesus through it.
But here's the truth - I've never really fallen in love with Africa.
You read reports of people going and they fall in love with Africa. Whenever they leave to return to the West they say things like "I left a part of my heart/soul there!"
But not me.
I think the guys we work alongside are modern day heroes. I think the face of every child is the face of the most precious child there is. Each of them. I think Christ is with the poor way beyond how He's with us.
But every trip to Kenya doesn't come naturally. Every trip to Kenya takes a lot out of me.
But here's the leadership point - I know that if I don't go and lead the way ...how can I get others to follow us into doing what Christ undoubtedly wants His Church to be doing.
Despite how uneasy it is for me to go, and return and go again ....a leader has to go where he/she wants others to go.
Leadership simply is leading.
That's week 3 .....heading 11,000 uneasy/unnatural miles to help others come as well and catch the vision of God and His amazing Gospel.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Week 2: To deconstruct or not.
Week 2 of 2010 and some thoughts on churches and leadership within such.
Been introducing a group of new leaders within our church to the postmodern/modern debate. For some people the debate and its pro's and con's are old hat, but for many its a new issue.
My group was an eclectic group of differing ages, gender and ethnicity. But here's what was interesting - the idea of "deconstruction" resonated with them all. They all described aspects of the way they had been raised in churches, and/or the emphasis that they had all experienced that they knew needed to be deconstructed.
Now while many of us think the postmodern movement needs time, but only so much time, to deconstruct before they head to construction - what became even clearer to me in leading the conversation was that careful deconstruction is a key component of not only philosophical leadership but all leadership.
Deconstruction is the taking apart of the existing structure not to destroy it or demolish it, but to ensure the right bricks stay in place and the wrong bricks are removed ....to enable the structure to be stronger and have a effective future.
Deconstruction is not to destroy - but to improve.
There was not one person in the group last night who did not value deeply the Church and its mission and purpose. And because of that value they wnated to see the Church be all that the Church could be and needs to be.
Leaders should not fear deconstruction.
The question that we then raised was the question of whether or not a generation from now - removed from any postmodern/modernity debate - would the next generation see what we've built as needing to be deconstructed also?
Or, to put that question in a better way "how do we build something now that does not need deconstructed in the future?"
Is that possible?
The answer we came away with is yes. It is possible if leaders stay fluid, organic, flexible. There is a way to lead that will see what is built last and not need deconstructing. But it will require constant reading, researching, morphing.
Entropy remains a big enemy. We can experience entropy in our theology (we should be reformed and always reforming); entropy in our methods (we veer to comfort and familiar when we need to veer to courage and adventure); entropy in our practices (when we need to adapt and constantly modernise).
If we fail to battle entropy - we will see the next generation deconstruct what we are building, but if we attack entropy ......the next generation will not need to firstly deconstruct before they can build, but they can quickly stand on our shoulders and build even bigger.
Been introducing a group of new leaders within our church to the postmodern/modern debate. For some people the debate and its pro's and con's are old hat, but for many its a new issue.
My group was an eclectic group of differing ages, gender and ethnicity. But here's what was interesting - the idea of "deconstruction" resonated with them all. They all described aspects of the way they had been raised in churches, and/or the emphasis that they had all experienced that they knew needed to be deconstructed.
Now while many of us think the postmodern movement needs time, but only so much time, to deconstruct before they head to construction - what became even clearer to me in leading the conversation was that careful deconstruction is a key component of not only philosophical leadership but all leadership.
Deconstruction is the taking apart of the existing structure not to destroy it or demolish it, but to ensure the right bricks stay in place and the wrong bricks are removed ....to enable the structure to be stronger and have a effective future.
Deconstruction is not to destroy - but to improve.
There was not one person in the group last night who did not value deeply the Church and its mission and purpose. And because of that value they wnated to see the Church be all that the Church could be and needs to be.
Leaders should not fear deconstruction.
The question that we then raised was the question of whether or not a generation from now - removed from any postmodern/modernity debate - would the next generation see what we've built as needing to be deconstructed also?
Or, to put that question in a better way "how do we build something now that does not need deconstructed in the future?"
Is that possible?
The answer we came away with is yes. It is possible if leaders stay fluid, organic, flexible. There is a way to lead that will see what is built last and not need deconstructing. But it will require constant reading, researching, morphing.
Entropy remains a big enemy. We can experience entropy in our theology (we should be reformed and always reforming); entropy in our methods (we veer to comfort and familiar when we need to veer to courage and adventure); entropy in our practices (when we need to adapt and constantly modernise).
If we fail to battle entropy - we will see the next generation deconstruct what we are building, but if we attack entropy ......the next generation will not need to firstly deconstruct before they can build, but they can quickly stand on our shoulders and build even bigger.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Week 1 of 2010
So the new year has begun.
My Musings of a Scottish Pastor blog (http://www.scottishpastormusings.blogspot.com) tells you what I've decided to do with that blog for the next 365 days ......everyday blog on what intentional act that day I have done to help me live as a follower of Jesus Christ.
A daily blog - yikes!
But it got me thinking about my leadership blog and 2010.
Could I blog weekly on what leadership activity and/or learning I've done to lead more effectively in 2010.
52 blogs with 52 learnings or actions in leading a local church in extending the Kingdom of God.
So let's start.
My first learning of 2010: "health in a church is gained slowly but lost quickly."
Its gained slowly. Health often is. I'm not long over 40 - but boy its a slow hard process to keep myself healthy .....hard work, daily effort, constant wise choices - but can be lost with one bad day of eating, or stop working out for a week and boom ....its gone!
In church life - you are constantly battling against values and behaviors that remain self focused. The push to be Kingdom focused and Christ centered is a constant battle. It can take years to break old DNA's and habits.
But slowly and surely with constant teaching, modeling, challenging and coaching movement can happen and safe ground be secured.
But it can all be lost quickly - a foolish decision, a maverick leader, a reckless action, a scandal.
This means that in church leadership we are more marathon runners than sprinters. We are more like artists and poets allowing decisions and actions to perculate slowly and rise over time to maturity than a quick microwave of an idea.
Week 1: health in your church is gained slowly but lost quickly.
My Musings of a Scottish Pastor blog (http://www.scottishpastormusings.blogspot.com) tells you what I've decided to do with that blog for the next 365 days ......everyday blog on what intentional act that day I have done to help me live as a follower of Jesus Christ.
A daily blog - yikes!
But it got me thinking about my leadership blog and 2010.
Could I blog weekly on what leadership activity and/or learning I've done to lead more effectively in 2010.
52 blogs with 52 learnings or actions in leading a local church in extending the Kingdom of God.
So let's start.
My first learning of 2010: "health in a church is gained slowly but lost quickly."
Its gained slowly. Health often is. I'm not long over 40 - but boy its a slow hard process to keep myself healthy .....hard work, daily effort, constant wise choices - but can be lost with one bad day of eating, or stop working out for a week and boom ....its gone!
In church life - you are constantly battling against values and behaviors that remain self focused. The push to be Kingdom focused and Christ centered is a constant battle. It can take years to break old DNA's and habits.
But slowly and surely with constant teaching, modeling, challenging and coaching movement can happen and safe ground be secured.
But it can all be lost quickly - a foolish decision, a maverick leader, a reckless action, a scandal.
This means that in church leadership we are more marathon runners than sprinters. We are more like artists and poets allowing decisions and actions to perculate slowly and rise over time to maturity than a quick microwave of an idea.
Week 1: health in your church is gained slowly but lost quickly.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
My top 10 reads of 2009.
So here’s my best ten reads of 2009.
The Sacredness of Questioning Everything @ David Dark
When Eugene Peterson endorsed this book by saying “David Dark is my favorite critic of the people’s culture of America and the Christian faith”, I knew I’d like this book.
Read it on a flight to Miami and had fun talking about it with the couple sitting next to me. Multiple pages turned down by me that will require a second read to engage with further. Brought depth to my thinking that can sometimes due to everyday living can become too surface.
Three Cups of Tea @ Greg Mortenson
This crept up nearer the top of my list than I imagined. Struggled with first 50 pages – but then it gripped me. Perhaps it was where I was at and what I was thinking, but this book inspired me to believe that any ordinary guy in any ordinary church could do something global that was extraordinary.
The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism @ Timothy Keller
If you have gone through 2009 without some Timothy Keller wisdom spoken into your life – duh!!! The new John Stott of the next generation. Wisdom, insight, solidly biblical and orthodox. A reformed teacher, mentor and preacher and listening to him will only strengthen your faith, keep you well established and yet live in the real world of building the church and extending the Kingdom of God.
ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church @ Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch
This is either my number 1 or my number 2. Came at the right time with enough substance to draw me in. Will become a staff read for our team in 2010 as we make sure the church remains true to its Bride and Head. Often a good book whimpers to a close – the last two chapters helped me as much as the good stuff in the opening chapters.
How (Not) To Speak of God @ Peter RollinsThe purest form of postmodern theology I’ve read since Reforming the Doctrines of God @ Shults. Only this time, unlike Shults, you could make sense of it and it wasn’t 400 pages. This one makes your head spin ….but you know why it’s spinning. While many people have differing views on Peter Rollins and what he’s doing with the Ikon Community in Northern Ireland, his blend of philosophy and theology helps you see the new face of an emerging theology.
His book The Orthodox Heretic is perhaps better ….but you need to start here to appreciate it.
I like a thinker. May not stand with him always, but I like a thinker.
The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible @ A J Jacobs
How a secular New York Jew made me laugh a lot. This was a good book. You often wondered what part of the Bible is he's going to try and take literally today …like the stoning of an adulterer in Central Park. Funny ….but it makes a point.
The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture @ Shane Hipps
This one came to me from our Media Arts Director who takes ‘the sacredness of questioning everything’ literally!! Our staff team read it and talked it through (nearly).
An important read. A necessary read. A challenging read.
Killing Cockroaches @ Tony Morgan
A collection of Tony’s blog articles and hence each chapter goes somewhere else and is a circular more than linear book. Appeals to me. Very practical. Neither profound nor theological but a little punchy number on many topics of church leadership. Helps keep focus and diligence in the practical of leadership.
Contrarians Guide to Knowing God: Spirituality for the Rest of Us @ Larry Osborne
It felt a little like this was a retake of Messy Spirituality by the ‘well done good and faithful servant’ Mike Yaconelli. And it is but like Mike’s book it is helpful. It helps us be honest …despite being a pastor and teacher ….praying is hard, and I so often miss what God is saying!! A great book ….average writing, but good material.
The Hole in our Gospel @ Richard Stearns
A great read. The story of Richard Stearns’ journey to becoming the President of World Vision. This was the book that Bill Hybels gave to all his church last year.
My leadership small group went through this book together. Some lines stab you and you know its God behind the stabbing. It didn’t have the feel of a book that laid out the huge problem of world poverty and then made you feel guilty about not doing enough, it more inspired us to make sure our church kept poverty at the front of the line and not pushed further down.
The Sacredness of Questioning Everything @ David Dark
When Eugene Peterson endorsed this book by saying “David Dark is my favorite critic of the people’s culture of America and the Christian faith”, I knew I’d like this book.
Read it on a flight to Miami and had fun talking about it with the couple sitting next to me. Multiple pages turned down by me that will require a second read to engage with further. Brought depth to my thinking that can sometimes due to everyday living can become too surface.
Three Cups of Tea @ Greg Mortenson
This crept up nearer the top of my list than I imagined. Struggled with first 50 pages – but then it gripped me. Perhaps it was where I was at and what I was thinking, but this book inspired me to believe that any ordinary guy in any ordinary church could do something global that was extraordinary.
The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism @ Timothy Keller
If you have gone through 2009 without some Timothy Keller wisdom spoken into your life – duh!!! The new John Stott of the next generation. Wisdom, insight, solidly biblical and orthodox. A reformed teacher, mentor and preacher and listening to him will only strengthen your faith, keep you well established and yet live in the real world of building the church and extending the Kingdom of God.
ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church @ Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch
This is either my number 1 or my number 2. Came at the right time with enough substance to draw me in. Will become a staff read for our team in 2010 as we make sure the church remains true to its Bride and Head. Often a good book whimpers to a close – the last two chapters helped me as much as the good stuff in the opening chapters.
How (Not) To Speak of God @ Peter RollinsThe purest form of postmodern theology I’ve read since Reforming the Doctrines of God @ Shults. Only this time, unlike Shults, you could make sense of it and it wasn’t 400 pages. This one makes your head spin ….but you know why it’s spinning. While many people have differing views on Peter Rollins and what he’s doing with the Ikon Community in Northern Ireland, his blend of philosophy and theology helps you see the new face of an emerging theology.
His book The Orthodox Heretic is perhaps better ….but you need to start here to appreciate it.
I like a thinker. May not stand with him always, but I like a thinker.
The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible @ A J Jacobs
How a secular New York Jew made me laugh a lot. This was a good book. You often wondered what part of the Bible is he's going to try and take literally today …like the stoning of an adulterer in Central Park. Funny ….but it makes a point.
The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture @ Shane Hipps
This one came to me from our Media Arts Director who takes ‘the sacredness of questioning everything’ literally!! Our staff team read it and talked it through (nearly).
An important read. A necessary read. A challenging read.
Killing Cockroaches @ Tony Morgan
A collection of Tony’s blog articles and hence each chapter goes somewhere else and is a circular more than linear book. Appeals to me. Very practical. Neither profound nor theological but a little punchy number on many topics of church leadership. Helps keep focus and diligence in the practical of leadership.
Contrarians Guide to Knowing God: Spirituality for the Rest of Us @ Larry Osborne
It felt a little like this was a retake of Messy Spirituality by the ‘well done good and faithful servant’ Mike Yaconelli. And it is but like Mike’s book it is helpful. It helps us be honest …despite being a pastor and teacher ….praying is hard, and I so often miss what God is saying!! A great book ….average writing, but good material.
The Hole in our Gospel @ Richard Stearns
A great read. The story of Richard Stearns’ journey to becoming the President of World Vision. This was the book that Bill Hybels gave to all his church last year.
My leadership small group went through this book together. Some lines stab you and you know its God behind the stabbing. It didn’t have the feel of a book that laid out the huge problem of world poverty and then made you feel guilty about not doing enough, it more inspired us to make sure our church kept poverty at the front of the line and not pushed further down.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Too Trivial To Be Truth!
The writings of Dallas Willard are poignant if not pointed. Sharp words, kindly written, that cause even the most mature Christ follower to re-examine their discipleship. His most piercing words, at least for me, were not written but heard in an interview he gave. His quiet voice clandestinely hit me hard and remains the most haunting leadership words I have heard in 2009. Here’s the comment he softly spoke: “Maybe people are not coming to your church because they see it as too trivial to be truth.”
Too trivial to be truth.
Of course there is no church out there that thinks it’s not about the truth.
From the staunch bastions of Conservatism to the dogged Liberal landmark congregations; from the swaying Charismatics to the most staid Dispensationalists; from the solidly Reformed to the fluid Emergents – there’s no congregation and no pastor who does no think that what they are about, what they stand for and the shape of what they hold isn’t about the truth.
But the comment hit on perception by others of us trivializing the truth.
Do we trivialize the truth when we wrap it in three points each beginning with the letter “P”?
Do we trivialize the truth when we bumper sticker our theology?
Do we trivialize the truth when we Daily Bread our Scripture reading?
Do we trivialize the truth when we give 7 steps to a healthy family sermons?
Do we trivialize the truth when we tell God how great he makes us feel in our worship songs?
Do we trivialize the truth when our worship songs talk about me instead of Him?
Do we trivialize the truth when we stick it into a formula – say this and you’re saved?
Too trivial to be truth.
Do we trivialize the truth when we suggest that we have the truth all worked out??
Do we trivialize the truth when we keep the truth irrelevant to how we live and nothing in our lives has been changed for the past 10 years!
Too trivial to be truth.
It pushes you into the deeper questions of substance, authenticity, realness, mystery and depth.
It’s not about whether you use modern songs or classic hymns; media and drama or choir and liturgy.
It’s about something that is greater, deeper, ‘more than us’, being packaged traditionally, modernly, or even postmodernly, in a box that is too human, too formulaic, too all worked out, too one dimensional, maybe two dimensional.
Searchers of faith, seekers – know that the God shaped void in their souls need to be filled with God not our ideas about God or our explanations of God.
Maybe Willard’s comments help us understand why Americans by the millions have walked away from the church – we sit at 12.7% US church attendance on a Sunday morning, a drop of millions in a 25 year period!
If Willard’s words have hit me hard, they’ve caused me to ask new questions.
Not surface questions.
Not easy questions.
How do we clearly present the Gospel yet honor its depth and profundity?
How does a preacher bring help but not appear to have all the answers – which we haven’t got but sometimes have suggested otherwise?
How do we teach our doctrines but leave room for mystery and the unknown?
How do we honor the Word and the Spirit.
How do we explain faith when its sometimes unexplainable?
I guess as the church moved West – it moved towards answers, solutions and systems.
Willard’s comments continue the push back East – to where tension is willingly held; where mystery remains; and where the journey is as important as the destination.
Too trivial to be truth – maybe wiser words than even Willard knows.
Too trivial to be truth.
Of course there is no church out there that thinks it’s not about the truth.
From the staunch bastions of Conservatism to the dogged Liberal landmark congregations; from the swaying Charismatics to the most staid Dispensationalists; from the solidly Reformed to the fluid Emergents – there’s no congregation and no pastor who does no think that what they are about, what they stand for and the shape of what they hold isn’t about the truth.
But the comment hit on perception by others of us trivializing the truth.
Do we trivialize the truth when we wrap it in three points each beginning with the letter “P”?
Do we trivialize the truth when we bumper sticker our theology?
Do we trivialize the truth when we Daily Bread our Scripture reading?
Do we trivialize the truth when we give 7 steps to a healthy family sermons?
Do we trivialize the truth when we tell God how great he makes us feel in our worship songs?
Do we trivialize the truth when our worship songs talk about me instead of Him?
Do we trivialize the truth when we stick it into a formula – say this and you’re saved?
Too trivial to be truth.
Do we trivialize the truth when we suggest that we have the truth all worked out??
Do we trivialize the truth when we keep the truth irrelevant to how we live and nothing in our lives has been changed for the past 10 years!
Too trivial to be truth.
It pushes you into the deeper questions of substance, authenticity, realness, mystery and depth.
It’s not about whether you use modern songs or classic hymns; media and drama or choir and liturgy.
It’s about something that is greater, deeper, ‘more than us’, being packaged traditionally, modernly, or even postmodernly, in a box that is too human, too formulaic, too all worked out, too one dimensional, maybe two dimensional.
Searchers of faith, seekers – know that the God shaped void in their souls need to be filled with God not our ideas about God or our explanations of God.
Maybe Willard’s comments help us understand why Americans by the millions have walked away from the church – we sit at 12.7% US church attendance on a Sunday morning, a drop of millions in a 25 year period!
If Willard’s words have hit me hard, they’ve caused me to ask new questions.
Not surface questions.
Not easy questions.
How do we clearly present the Gospel yet honor its depth and profundity?
How does a preacher bring help but not appear to have all the answers – which we haven’t got but sometimes have suggested otherwise?
How do we teach our doctrines but leave room for mystery and the unknown?
How do we honor the Word and the Spirit.
How do we explain faith when its sometimes unexplainable?
I guess as the church moved West – it moved towards answers, solutions and systems.
Willard’s comments continue the push back East – to where tension is willingly held; where mystery remains; and where the journey is as important as the destination.
Too trivial to be truth – maybe wiser words than even Willard knows.
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