Great Ideas about the church

I wanted to pass this along. Check out Carey’s blog about some interesting ideas from Reggie Joiner about church. My comments are below.

Carey Nieuwhof: Great Ideas

Just a couple thoughts to add to the discussion.

About the small vs. large church. I love what Carey said last in the comments about needing movement in a church regardless of your size. That is spot on!

A thought or two about not resolving the tension:

This is something that I have struggled with for a while. Here is a glimpse from my perspective. In working with teens I have noticed students have been completely unimpressed by scripture. Many of them tell me they have heard it all before – honestly because they have. Don't you just love when teens say that. However many times it seems as if they truly can break down the story word for word, give me all the application points, and even match it to illustration they heard. OK maybe not all that but it often seems that way to them. So they get bored going to church and hearing the same things, the same scripture over and over again because they believe they have already been told all it means (application.) So what more can you learn unless you change the whole interpretation which I have always thought was a valid observation.

To be fair I would say that it's not just students who struggle, but I see it so prevalent among adults as well - an overall lack of interest and captivation. It all seems to be lacking.

Of course I am sure there are several people who can attribute it to this or that but here is at least one observation that I am wading through.

I think not resolving the tension allows some mystery back into the church. And hopefully in time it opens the church to allow God to Capture the Imagination of the people - which is part of what I believe is missing in many of our church environments.

It's like reading a book vs. going to a movie. I hate reading a book after I watch a movie - because now I have a fixed picture of Harry Potter and the whole scene. Hollywood has some great effects but nothing compares to the imagination. I find it so much more fulfilling to engage in a story reading between the lines of the pages and being caught up in lives of the characters...letting my imagination sweep me away to another place and time!

All this, and though I do read, I wouldn't consider myself a reader. I just love it when my mind and heart – my Imagination is Captured!

I think the fear I've heard most often is that we leave the individual or family to now wrestle with this tension. "What if" they come out with a different conclusion or idea from what we were trying to communicate in the first place. Or what if their conclusion is total off base and wrong! So in order to make sure that doesn’t happen we HAVE to tell them , right?

I've had many conversations and debates with some of my closest friends about this. My thoughts have come to this - if I believe the Holy Spirit resides in us to bring us to overflowing with Christ and if I truly believe that He has our best intentions and knows us better than we know ourselves -

Then I personally conclude that I have to trust that as people wrestle and struggle through the difficult that God will be their guide and will do His work in them. Now this causes me to re-examine my role as a leader. I'm still working on it but here is a quick overview - to equip people with tools and relationships that will encourage questions and healthy discussions about life and faith. That’s pretty close.

I'm still in process with much of this but I thought I would share.

As for the significant aspect - I still need to chew on it but it is right in line with some other discussions we have been having over a book called "Do Hard Things" by Alex and Brett Harris. Some great things to chew on.

Thanks so much!