Today the bishop re-taught 21 (or so) characteristics he saw in 'transformational multiplying' churches. I had a quick discussion about this with a friend (let's call him Bob) who also heard the same talk. We ended up in a quick disagreement. There was no conclusion to our pseudo-argument, because he was driving and he had to drop me off. I barely had any time to voice my main point..
I agree with every point Bishop Matt Thomas made. It was eye-opening. Same for Bob. He said he was convicted because his church fit the description of a non-transformational church. He said he needed to take immediate action and change his bible study. Bob was referring to point 13 which was a warning of the dangers of a bible study. The bishop said a bible study in itself is not bad, but when the Word does not bring application, it is harmful to the group. I agree with this. Bishop Thomas continued and stated that intellect is not good (point 18), if it is not accompanied with action. I agree with this too.
Bob wanted to restructure his bible study to make it more application focused. I told him, this is not what the Bishop was hoping to achieve from his talk... and if the Bishop was, then I completely disagree with his entire talk today (gulp... am I allowed to disagree with the bishop?)
Here's my reasoning:
The list of 21 characteristics is not a list we are called to mimic. It is merely a list of observations. I think there is a danger in trying to copy fruit. I need to explain this because at first read, it may not make any sense..
If Val and I went to watch the World of Color at California Adventure for our anniversary, and the show was so beautiful that we ended up embracing each other and kissing during the show... and a teenage couple saw us doing that... they would say, "awww... let's do the same." However, they're just trying to reproduce the fruit of our relationship. They're missing out on the commitment we made, the trials we overcame together, the affection we developed, etc. They're just mimicking a kiss, but missed everything beneath it. My kiss was an overflow of the days, months, years of love we have developed for each other. Their kiss is just a kiss.
Or, its seeing a ripe banana, comparing it to your rotten banana... and then painting yours yellow so it looks ripe. The yellowness of the banana is not the point... its the inside of the peel. If the inside is ripe, then the peel will naturally be yellow.
In the same way, when we try to replicate a successful church's fruit, we face the danger of missing everything else. Shouldn't application in a bible study come from an overflow of the Holy Spirit speaking through Scripture? Shouldn't we engage in compelling love because we have an overflow of God's love in our lives, and not because the successful church down the street loves others (point 2)? Shouldn't prayer be spontaneous because we believe in the power of prayer... and not because the Bishop told us to have spontaneous prayer times at church (which isn't really spontaneous...) (point 8)?
What I got out of the Bishop's talk is, let's focus on becoming healthy Christians. If we are growing in the Holy Spirit, we'll begin to show these signs of a transformational church.
If there is one point that sums up my thoughts, it would be point 3 - "Can't-Help-It". This means, God is doing such an amazing work in my life, I can't help but share it with my friends. Or, we're so in love with Jesus, we can't help but to be unified... or we can't help but engage in compelling love. We love our community so much, we can't help but be more outreach oriented. We are so in touch with the Holy Spirit that when we study the Scriptures, I can't help but stick to a certain passage until I live it out.
If the inside is healthy, the banana peel will naturally be yellow. The transformation of the church will happen when Christians begin to transform, not when we coat it new tricks.
Hey Kats. Makito here. Enjoying your thoughts. Thanks for sharing them.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you about mimicking only the fruits of a successful ministry. I sometimes feel like church seminars and conferences held in Japan only encourage them to bear the same fruits as successful mega/giga-churches while not instilling in them the kind of faith in God and reliance on the Holy Spirit that allowed other pastors/leaders to achieve such success. In other words, their vision is big, but they haven't allowed God to enlarge their cup so that they can be prepared to receive all that God is willing to pour on them.
It reminds me of a John Maxwell quote: "The Law of Priorities: Leaders understand that activity is not necessarily accomplishment."
Yes, fruits should not be made priority over conditions of the heart. It is just like how Paul always prayed for the cause (gain wisdom in the knowledge of God, etc.) rather than for the result (become stronger Christians, etc.)
On the other hand, I do strongly believe that, when done appropriately, actions can influence the heart. I believe this can be done more effectively when a group of people make a commitment to begin behaving differently. I made that an underlying concept when I began leading the youth group... from "This is where we are now. This is how we behave now." to "This is our vision. This is where we want to be. In order to get from here to there, we the leaders must collective decide to begin behaving in this way." When we did that, the leaders became a mini-culture within the culture of the youth group, and slowly but surely the behaviors and the mindset of the mini-culture began to spread to and influence the youth group. I believe the same principle can influence the entire church as well.
I can only speak from my own limited experience and observations, but your post prompted me to share some of my thoughts on this subject. Thanks for letting me stop by!
I'd definitely like to have more of these conversations with you : )