Simple Church

Some books are good because they give you information on something which you had never thought about before. Every once in a while, however, you come across a book that is good because expresses a view which you have had for a long time without knowing it. A book which says something which you have wanted to say for a while, and which says it better than you could have said it yourself. 

"Simple Church" is, for me, one such book. The basic premise is, stagnant churches are too complicated, while churches that are vibrant and growing tend to be simple. Stagnant churches tend to have a super-abundance of weekly programs and special events with no clear, over-arching purpose to them, each competing with each other for time, space and volunteers, and these programs tend to see very little spiritual growth. Simple churches have clear, concise purpose statements, and each ministry of the church has a specific role in the sequential process of moving people forward in their spiritual growth. Ministries aren't holding tanks, they are designed to grow people and move them along in a process. The goal isn't to run programs, but to make disciples. 


And therein lies the rub: churches, I think, suffer from running programs as ends in themselves - as if running a program was a guarantee that people are growing spiritually: we run a youth group, therefore the youth are being reached for Christ and growing in their faith. I've been in worship ministries and sunday school and youth groups and I can say from experience that just because a ministry exists doesn't make it effective. A bad youth group does not help reach the youth - it may very well hurt. 


In addition, churches tend to suffer from a lack of participation and ownership from congregants. I personally think that churches should constantly be asking more of the people who fill the pews on Sundays. If they aren't Christians, the church should ask them to become Christians. If they aren't baptized, they should be asked to be baptized. If they aren't members despite having attended the church faithfully for years, they should be asked to become members. If they aren't giving their money or time to the church, they should be asked to. People should be drawn into greater commitment to their local church. This "simple church" idea helps with that. The church should be structured in order to move people forward, not simply keep them at their current level of commitment to God, to other believers, and to ministry.


As my church transitions into a new building, we have a unique opportunity to begin everything from scratch and ensure that we structure the entire ministry of the church in such a way that we make disciples. I pray that the leaders of my church cast a clear vision and purpose for ministry, and that the entire congregation joins in the process by letting themselves be led to a deeper level of spiritual maturity, while helping to lead those who are behind them. 

And the Results are In...

Yesterday my grades for this past term at university were released. As I clicked the link to take me to the online report, I experienced something I had never experienced before when checking my grades - a slight tinge of nervousness.

This term was entirely uncharted territory, in that I had struggled in several courses. I've never struggled in anything academic before. This was especially true in my Music History class (which attempts to condense several millenia of history into 4 months of coursework). Some people who had already taken the class called it "easy marks". Others were less optimistic. Looking back, the latter group was right.

Not only was the course difficult, but it offered yet another new experience for me. I totally bombed the final exam. I have never done that before either. I had intentions of studying vigourously, acing the final and getting stellar final marks in the course despite my early struggles. Somehow, and I'm not quite sure how it happened, I ended up staying up almost the whole night right before the exam trying to cram, wrote the thing while operating on 2 hours sleep and a cup of coffee, and finally made a glum calculation of a final score of 60%. A pass, yes, but I've never been content with just passing.

Perhaps this is a humility lesson for me - a chance to further distance myself from my default mode of the fear of failure, and perfectionism which refuses to settle for being second best. Dealing with failure is probably something God has to work on the most with me. On the other hand, I've heard from some people that the second year of university is always the hardest, so perhaps I'm a helpless victim of circumstance. In any case, I didn't have the greatest term, but there's nothing I can do about it now.

Actually not all my marks were bad. I rattled off A's in Choir and Aural Skills (a class on sight reading music), and I was pleasantly surprised to see an A- for my Voice mark. I had received a good mark last term, but this term I had felt sick or tired most of the time, and I hadn't expected to be marked so generously.

So it wasn't a model term, but I did learn some valuable lessons, and I'm ready to move on.