For a few years now I have wrestled with questions. Questions like How can I best serve the Lord? What can our church do to reach the greatest number of people with the gospel, without compromise? I have come to the conclusions that our structures weigh us down.
After thinking over these things I want to make a few statements:
First, I am traveling internationally in December and I have learned through experience and very good advice that the best thing to do is to travel light. I only took one suitcase and a small carry on. I finally decided that the church would do well to do the same. These are just some questions I have.
Why is that so many of are interested in building monuments and not participating in movements? Why so many of us program focused and not people fixated? Are we an organism or organization? Will our churches be led by chairpersons or by co-workers? Will we continue to believe that if a structure is not visible or rigid God just can’t be served or worshipped?
God is not hung up on structures. I think we place so much emphasis our structures because we place so little emphasis on the Holy Spirit. Structures must follow identity and mission but they must be light and flexible to liberate people.
We must be willing to dismantle without regret when something else more suited to the needs of the day comes along. These light and flexible structures can adapt to the changing need. Why are so many of God’s people more interested in keeping things the way we think they have always been rather than realizing that we live in a world different than did our ancestors, even our ancestors of 50 yrs ago? Why do so many cling to ways of doing things that may have been effective in another era but no longer works with reaching people with the gospel?
Would we be willing to give up a 9AM church service if you knew you could reach more people by having that church service at 4PM? Why are so many devoted to certain style of church music or preaching rather than to unceasing worship of God?
Why are so many committed to pleasing people and not ruffling feathers rather than being a people whose core value is pleasing God? We don't want to be a community departing from God’s word but we want to be a community trying to develop in light of biblical truths in order to carry out the great commission.
Is it possible that we as the Restoration Movement have ceased becoming a movement and have become a "church?"
Now a word of warning if you plan on challenging structures:It is dangerous. The greatest threat Jesus faced didn’t come from without but within. The first martyr in the life of the Church did not come at the hands of a Roman Sword but from Jews throwing Stones.
I close with this quote from a very peronal mentor of mine "
May God give us men and women who are alive to the times, who respect the past and yet are not blind to past mistakes or mired in deadly traditionalism, and who eagerly anticipate the future, desiring to go where God is going and already is—all so that people are reached with the gospel of Christ." Are we going to go where God is going and are we going to travel light?
