If you haven’t already, be sure to read part 1 and part 2 before this one so we’re all on the same page 
There are two biggies I want to address in Part 3:
- ‘One-size-fits-all’ Church, and
- Loss of individual = loss of vision
One size does NOT fit all
God has created us for:
- Community
- Diversity
- The Great Commission
Diversely Created for Commissioned Community
In The West, we like BIG stuff. And I’m not just talking about The States or even Texas. I’m also talking about the UK and other ‘1st world’ countries – Japan, Canada, etc. On top of that, we like to organise things. To be fair, organisation is an inherently creative attribute of Humans. God spoke, matter organised itself into being. Organisation is creative. But alas…
In a fallen world, these attributes end up stacking against us, rather than for us. We’ve twisted our Godly desire for organisation into something human, and we’ve dumped everything together so it’s BIG. This is the Modern Western Church Organisation. Big, Organised. That’s how we like it.
As mentioned in Part 2, everyone is unique. I know we’ve heard this before on an audio disc about self-improvement, or maybe during prayer, but it’s actually true. God doesn’t like sameness. If He did, we’d all look like Brad & Gwenyth. But He didn’t, and He doesn’t, and (however unfortunately) we don’t. We all look differently, talk differently, feel differently, think differently and live differently. As far as I know for myself, I also relate to God differently. Same God, but different people. One God, 6.53 billion humans, 6.53 billion different ways to know Him (and that’s if we each only get one
So why the heck are we settling for this one, stodgy set of methods!?
The answer is probably because it’s the only way to get us all in one room, agreeing upon the same thing. In order to maintain the structure of modern church, we need to please as many as possible, and offend as few a possible.
Community is good, but in speaking of the popular mega-churches, we’ve got it all wrong. Actually, it’s about the programme. It’s about what we do together – it’s limits and it’s scope. It’s about how comfortable we’ve become within it, and how that has narrowed our view. It’s about how it makes everyone feel, and about the vision it oppresses. In the end, it’s always all about God – but it’s about knowing Him personally. That’s hard to do when everyone’s doing the same thing, subscribing to the same model, suppressing what God has put inside of them.
Good community is supporting each Christian individually, and the unique vision which God has placed within them.
Good community is supporting each Christian individually, and the unique vision which God has placed within them. Bad community is prioritising The Flock above that one sheep. Because the fact is, any community is made up of individuals.
Would Jesus come to church?
Perhaps it’s a silly question, but I think it’s a good one. Based upon what you know about who Jesus is, would He come to your Sunday church? Would that be a good use of His time? Would He leave and say to each of us individually Well done, good and faithful servant?
Where there is no vision, the people perish
If the Church is a body, then the Visionaries are the veins– responsible for circulating and regenerating the blood which keeps the body alive. They have an important package to deliver, and if this ‘blood’ is not delivered, the entire body slows and eventually dies. I believe this important package is not regularly being delivered.
- God gives vision to the Visionary
- The Visionary passes on this lifeblood to the Body
- The body is revitalised and sometimes changed through growth by the blood
- The blood/vision runs it’s course
- The Body is in need of new blood
This is a distillation of how this cycle is supposed to work. But the Visionaries are stopping at Step 2. The Vision is never being delivered. It’s not being delivered because it’s being refused. The Body doesn’t want change, it wants control and safety, so it rejects new vision. This also has effects upon the Visionary, but I won’t get into that now.
The end result is that the entire body suffers into stagnation and spiritual death because the essential blood is not being delivered throughout the Body.
Where there is no vision, the people perish…
Proverbs 29:18 KJV
I see with this post a bit more what you are saying with this series. You might want to read Deitrich Bonhoeffer’s “Life Together” Part of your post reminded me of a quote of his, ” He who loves his idea of community will kill community, but he who loves the people around him will create community” Vision is so key, and I think the same principle applies, a vision should serve the poeple by creating a context and outlet to develop and grow and to use their strengths. However often times it is easy to fall into the trap of having the people serve the vision. It becomes about the organzation rather than the people. A vision ( in the context of church) should be a conduit through which to direct people towards deeper relationship with and and each other, and the community at large, but often times it can become a conduit that directs people towards the primary goal of establishing a “successful organization” which isn’t always mutually exclusive from the previously stated thought, but can become a hindrance when it becomes about the structure, or organzation. This leads to a dscussion which I’ll save for later on Organization vs Organixm.
Wow, thanks for the comment, bro.
I read “Life Together” a few years back, but perhaps I should go through it again.
It’s funny- because all these things I’m saying are really just observations. I think I notice them because I naturally have a certain set of values for Community, but I think in (probably) ANY organisation it’s very difficult to overcome the Capitalistic social value of being the ‘biggest and best’ of everything… but I think that’s one value that community members struggle to overcome.
I believe that change can only come from The Spirit working through individuals, and in-turn, those individuals working together, in community, to realise a truer set of ‘Kingdom’ values as we move further down the road of discovery of the social Kingdom Culture.
hello
another response.
heres some ideas;
don’t put anything up there on the (inner spiritual) platform except Jesus (especailly not ‘the church’ or ‘being a Christian’).
control = repression of the individual: In churches, seeds of control are sown by the anti-Christ. All influence should be from the Holy Spirit.
A spirit or desire to control something or anything – like a church – is, according to Derek Prince who provides scriptural evidence, always rooted in witchcraft and from this come manipulative tactics. Thsi is what we’re dealing with in our society today, especaially in adverts – emotional blackmail etc.
There is no condemnation in Christ. We are saved by grace, not works.
I have been acused of being ‘too spiritual’ about everyday things but this is my defence;
we live in a humanistic very unspiritual age (think of the medieval times!) and there is a balance to re-dress. Also;
‘My heart departed from the Lord and I trusted in the arm of flesh, and dwelt in a salt land ‘ for many years. Now my heart is with the Lord, and I have a presonal balance to re-dress and maintian.’The arm of the Lord is not too short to save’. We do not need to trust in our own strength and schemes but fall at his feet and love Him. (Mary and Martha). then as ‘God makes things grow’ we will be shown the miracle that will happen – the seed that becomes an oak tree (in peoples hearts, then over flowing into the community).
I have used the word ‘clone’ in the past. I am trying not to become a ‘Christian clone’ of everyone else and many church leaders find this irritating and difficult – but the Lord is the head of the church – the leaders are just ‘head sheep’ not the Shepherd himself. I have a personal balance to re-dress – that is my responsibility and more important to me than their church functioning smoothly. Jesus was/is the sacrifice, not me.
hope this is interesting for you
Daphne
PS Great web site – have really enjoyed reading your thoughts on all this – thank you for posting them.
@Daphne
Thanks for your comments Daphne.
I think that the human idea of the church ‘running smoothly’ is incorrect. As with so many things, we’ve misunderstood what God meant and instead replaced it with our own wisdom.
I actually do believe that it is Godly for a church body to ‘run smoothly’ – but under His definition of ’smoothly’ rathe than the human definition.
Amen – we are saved by grace.
I’m 100% devoted to Jesus (during the 1% of the time when I’m not focused on myself). So I’m not a great role model in many cases. But the way I see it is that I only have to answer to God – not anyone else. That’s why I write these things. In fact, that’s exactly why this site was created – to present a platform for ideas exactly like this one.
One trick I’ve been learning lately is to seek His timing, and be on-track with His plan – as opposed to my own. This keeps my from stupid decisions, and ultimately leads me exactly where I ought to be – in His footsteps.
Disregard the terrible cliche.