June 29, 2007
End of Discussion
I read an online reprinted article in Christianity Today International/Leadership Journal written by Andy Stanley, Pastor of North Point Community Church in Atlanta, Georgia. The article was written July 1, 2003 and titled ‘The Uncertain Leader’. The theme is leadership and it addresses the decision of the church leadership group to build adult education around small groups and discard the traditional adult Sunday school model. After a year of trying to implement the small group strategy, questions from membership continued. Commenting on one woman’s concern Mr. Stanley answered the woman’s question and then said, “After tonight we are not going to discuss ‘if’ anymore.” He continued, “Feel free to question our implementation, but not our direction.” Excuse me? I’d like to know the chapter and verse that says we can’t question our leaders on the direction they are taking the church.
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2 comments:
Gail;
-----I used to be fanatical about drag racing. It was injected into my bloodstream the first time I attended a drag race in 1966. In those days the tire technology was not as good as today’s. The extreme top fuel cars would explode from a dead stop into a booming thunder of smoking tires throwing up a white contrail as thick as a rocket’s - a rooster tail of smoke - as it shot to the finish line a quarter mile away. The thunder of the engine could be felt as much as heard - in the air and through the ground. Tiny stings of tire rubber and asphalt particles pelting the face introduced the pungency of the burnt nitro methane/burnt rubber smoke that soon rolled over the spectators. The force of power unleashed in that 7 second event (4 smokeless seconds today) laid in my mind an awesome respect for those machines and the men who made them. They poured all they had into that one unleashed sprint.
-----On top of that mystique was the battle to control the force. Getting it into the ground to launch the machine forward are treadless tires ten, eighteen, even twenty four inches wide filled with only a few pounds of air pressure putting as much rubber against the ground as possible. Still those tires snap into an instant thousand revolutions per minute and more against the pavement as the vehicle jumps into motion. Sometimes they fishtail and have to shut down. Sometimes they develop a rhythmic lurching, always they struggle to keep the front end down and the car going straight. But sometimes they go out of control, slamming into the guardrail, or skittering into the opposite lane. In 1971, Pat Foster’s red top fuel Mustang launched into the side of a Cougar that had lost control and spun into his lane. The Cougar pilot died.
-----Of these are what church leaders remind me. They pour all they have into their understanding of service to God. They feel so full of the “power of God”. But they often are not diligent in seeking the control of the Spirit through turning the wisdom of the Word into experience. They lurch forward in rhythmic bounds, fishtailing and careening out of control, damaging the guardrails of the Christian community, spinning sideways into the paths of their brethren, and causing wreckage where they should not even be. Yet they are full of the awesome sensation of power from making the ground shake by their authority and filling their congregation with smoke. They hold mirrors high for everyone else to look into. Yet, they themselves are full-throttle sure of their course - no retrospection necessary. No time for it! Too bad, so sad.
Great illustration.
Gail
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