If one can get to the crisis, whether you're walking to Christ or away, you can usually find the reasons why things went down the way they did. - a paraphrase
McKnight contends that if you look at this whether it's walk to or away from Jesus, you can learn about why churches work. He calls it ecclesi-ology, or the study of 'church.'
My question?
Do we, as a church, stand to learn more about the function of church (or community) when it doesn't work rather than when it does? Do we learn more from our failings, the failings of the church's function for people, than when our churches are growing and 'healthy?'
How quickly do we try to frantically gather those leaving and try to get them to come back using the same, psuedo-tired rationales that probably made them leave in the first place?
We probably need to understand the 'crisis' and go from there-for those entering or exiting our worshipping communities-and find the truth both of the struggle and in the struggle.
What do you think?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I think I could go either way.
Health and growth teaches you alot... but so does crisis and failure.
I think - you are never 100% healthy or failing 100% so it's impossible to choose one or another.
However, having said that, I believe the soil [hearts/souls] are at it's best for the seed [the gospel] when it's in crisis. In crisis, hope is the greatest desire.
I prefer the mess [crisis and failure] because its where health [a life lived in the way of Jesus] grows best.
I'm not sure, if I addressed the question correctly, but it's my best shot.
It would be nice if we could always learn from something that works. That would mean that the church is always healthy...
but then I think about how the church has sometimes become stale because it finds something that "works" and rolls with it... for a long time, never adapting, never flexing, and then the church starts to fail...
so we inevitably learn from our mistakes anyway...
... am I being too cynical?
I like what kez said about how the soil is best for the seed when it is in crisis. I think we are at the best place in our lives for regrowth when we experience death (metaphorically speaking).
Post a Comment