March 30, 2007
Is It Working Yet?
As well as the logo and motto, new leadership often changes the personality and direction of a church. For the last few years the focus of my church has been on the family unit. In promoting intergenerational activities, adult family members are now expected to accompany their children to Sunday school and youth group. Imagine the uproar if this scenario were reversed and children were required to attend adult classes with their parents. I’m not sure what criteria are used in determining success, but it’s ironic that in many cases, something purported to unify families is in fact causing separation. We are witnessing third and fourth generation church families splintering as some go window shopping at other churches. In my experience leaders rarely discontinue a program admitting that it isn’t working. In the mean time I guess we’ll just have to wait for their next vision.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----I think your first sentence said everything. I understand that the Lord works through leaders, and therefore, He actually changes the church. But that is the key, the fact that ultimately, it is He who is changing the church. I also understand that new leaders claim that their ideas, like you intimate in your last sentence, are visions from the Lord. But lots of people claim lots of things. So how do you tell the difference?
-----There is an interesting thing about where the Spirit moves. Godliness also seems to move there. Now, godliness is a visible activity. Its effects can be seen in the emotions it exudes from people touched by it. The New Testament speaks of these emotional states often -- joy, gladness, peacefulness, thankfulness, hopefulness, valor. Its effects can be seen in the activities that happen where it moves -- kindness, gentleness, thoughtfulness, sympathy, compassion, respect. Where the Spirit moves in people Biblical concepts begin to come to their surface that exude goodness.
-----Are these few concepts growing where your leaders have gone? Are the multitudes of other Biblical character treats springing up around their carefully conceived programs? Have these families then come together and are they bonding more tightly? I believe that the church which is led by godly men into godliness is the church where the leaders concern themselves with the character traits effervescing amongst the people, not their programs or the special focus of their programs. Like the old adage, “Give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and you will feed him for his life,” teach a man how to care for his family and you will have a good family man, teach a man godliness and you will have a good man.
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