Instant Gratification Sold Separately

Here is another insight from The Incomparable Christ by J. Oswald Sanders, from the Moody Classics series.

Sanders writes, "...our divine Lord spent six times as long working at the carpenter's bench as He did in His world-shaking ministry" (p. 69, emphasis mine). 


I have noticed that being in the "formal ministry" (associated with pastoral work in an organized church, which I did for about a decade) is not much different from working in another business setting in our society in one particular way. Instant success, or impact, is desired just as much. It is tempting to want to see a great move of God (people saved, numerical growth, a new ministry launched, etc.) after just a couple prayers or attending "that one conference."

If God is almighty and can work so powerfully, so quickly, then why wait? Why does He put us through the "trial" of preparing for so long? 

If there was one time when we would think God would speed up the process, then it would be when Jesus was on earth getting ready for His public ministry. The work of a carpenter was important and respected in those days, but couldn't God have fast-forwarded to the "Messiah miracles" part of the show?

This lesson is yet another, perhaps the most vivid, reminder that God is not on our timetable. If it was important for the Christ to put in His hours as a carpenter and to go through the process as a Rabbi, then we should expect no less.

It turns out that in God's way of doing things, the time of preparing us spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially is of major significance. Just as college or job training is necessary for certain vocations, spiritual preparation is equally necessary for disciple making and ministry. (This is not to be confused with building a case for seminary. While study may indeed be part of the preparation process, to automatically equate God's preparation in a person's life with man-made training systems misses the point, and has very little scriptural support.)

Moreover, the preparation is usually some form of "wilderness wandering" that involves testing and character building. God takes the time to rid us of ourselves until we are to the point of dependence upon His Spirit. In fact, I have thought that I was ready only to find times when God causes me to return to that uncomfortable prep work again. The wilderness may not be fun, but it is an essential prerequisite before entering a "promised land."

Sanders sums it up in one simple sentence: "Preparatory years are important years."
Well, I guess so!

What Needs to Change About Education

(I was wrong. I actually do have one more post for this year.)

What the organized Church and public education have in common is that there are several shifts that need to take place in both institutions to most radically and substantially bring about a "much greater" environment for the young people within them. 

Throughout this blog, I have written about some of the shifts needed in organized Christianity in our part of the world. Things like...

• From Emphasis on big events one day a week to Emphasis on making disciples 24/7
• From Measuring seating capacity to draw crowds to Measuring sending capacity to serve others
• From Professional pastors (staff-driven leadership) to Reproducible practices (where every member functions)
• From Publicizing what we are Against to Promoting what we are FOR
• From Ministry (works) done for Jesus to Ministry (miracles) done BY Jesus
• From "GO TO church" (as in a place and time) to BE the church (as an identity)

But what about our schools? Are there fundamental shifts that could make dramatic change for the better in education? I believe there are. Here are a few, in my opinion.

• From Giving grades (that generally offer no information on how to improve) to Providing feedback (that feeds forward to further learning)
• From Time as the constant (prescribed scope and sequence for all students) to Learning as the constant (asynchronous, self-paced)
• From Focus on teaching to Focus on learning
• From Career orientation to Calling orientation (more to come on this in a future post, but you can get a glimpse of this shift here thanks to the work of Adam Saenz) 

This is clearly not meant to be an exhaustive list, but these are examples of the biggest "bang for your buck" transitions that we can make in public schools. The only disclaimer is that they are not easy.

Measuring Success - Is it time to change the scorecard?

There is a basic premise at work in our American society that is worth considering when it comes even to our expression of the church. The principle is, what gets measured, gets done! We love keeping count of things. We feel it is important to track progress and performance. We follow the stats of athletes. We receive paychecks and job evaluations in the workplace. And, as other teachers could also attest, one of the favorite questions of students in our public schools is, "Is this for a grade?" We simply want to know what will be used to measure our success.

 

In the Western church, we have adopted this attitude fully. It becomes a matter of emphasis to measure attendance at worship services, meetings, and Sunday School classes. I have sat in my share of board meetings that almost exclusively look at budget details. Pastors are often judged by their denominational authorities using numbers - how many people professed faith, how many people were baptized, how many people attended Sunday morning services, how many programs were started, how many classes were held, how much money was raised, how many buildings were constructed, how much staff was hired, how many kids went to youth camp, how many children came to VBS, and on and on.  If we are not careful, we can easily get caught up in a numbers game that has little to do with the Kingdom of God.

Because this premise - what gets measured is what gets done - is at work, we must be careful and intentional about the metrics we are using. In the words of Reggie McNeal, we need to change the scorecard. The table below identifies some distinct ways we might measure success differently in the simple church. These new metrics end up becoming the practical expression of all the philosophies and principles that I often bring up. In other words, this is where the "rubber meets the road" so to speak. If you don't change how and what you measure, then all your theory about what should be church will remain only theory and be left expressionless and without any fruit to show.

¶ MEASURING SUCCESS

Keep in mind the motive behind this blog is to create a church that is much greater for our children. Changing how and what we define and measure as success here and now will impact the next generation’s practice of Christianity.

Conventional model	Simple/organic approach
Seating Capacity	Sending Capacity
Money In (Funds Raised)	Money Out (Radical Generosity)
Building Churches	Making Disciples
Professions of Faith (Altar Calls, Invitations)	Baptisms
Publicizing What We Are Against	Promoting What We Are For
Ministry Done FOR Jesus	Ministry Done BY Jesus

 

Radical Reform Without the Radical?

 

As I strive to promote radical reform in the Church, I often stress that "radical" actually means "of the root." In other words, radical is synonymous with original. Being radical is about returning to the original intent or purpose of something. So, it is important to ask questions like, "What did Jesus require of disciples from the start?" or "How did the church form and what does that term mean in the first century context?" Then, we can examine whether we have strayed from the root or maybe planted something new altogether.





 

I am aware that when most people hear the word radical they most likely equate it with extreme. The funny thing is that some changes that need to be made are, in fact, extreme when compared to our current practices only because we have gotten so far away from the "root." The result is that sometimes people think they are being radical and reforming the church substantively when, in reality, they are only tweaking things. People often claim to be radical, "outside the box," or new in their ways of doing things in the church while still leaving the overall structure of the church untouched. Today's topic is a prime example of this mentality.

 

In a fairly recent issue of Grace & Peace magazine, a "Dialogical Resource for Nazarene Clergy," the Executive Editor, Bryon McLaughlin, wrote a piece entitled "Charting a Course in the New Reality." This, in and of itself, gets to the point I am trying to make. While I have no problem with such an article or essay in a magazine for denominational leadership, it reveals the prevailing assumption that church reform must be directed by pastors. This would be an example of calling for major ("radical") reforms in church practices and attitudes while using the same old vehicle to bring about the change as always. In actuality, it is the hierarchical structure in place that can interfere with our ability to remain close to the root in the first place.

 

Now, to be clear, this is not a rant against organized pastoral leadership. I also am not slamming McLaughlin for his stance. In fact, as I stated earlier, it is appropriate to write about such things to pastors considering where we are now. It seems like a logical starting place in our current situation. It is just not how Jesus operated. That's all.

 

 

Jesus did not do leadership training. Jesus discipled followers to disciple more followers who, in turn, would disciple more, you guessed it, followers. Due to our mental pre-sets that view everything in society, including the church, in hierarchical manners, we have an obsession with the idea of becoming leaders because it inherently carrries with it the sense of progression. If we are becoming better leaders, than we are growing, improving, arriving, or so we say.

Jesus, on the other hand, was obsessed with shaping followers. The root of Christianity consists of obedience as a follower of the Head of the church. If we are not careful, then we replace the root with a desire to mold more leaders to become "heads" of the church. We convince ourselves that this is what spiritual maturity is all about. This road may be paved with good intentions, but make no mistake, it is a road that leads away from the root. It is not the path of radicals.