A Lack of Ownership

February 12th, 2008

I just read at a church members blog that a couple from our church told her they were leaving. She didn’t say who they were but that doesn’t matter. This is very sad and I hate to hear things like this but it happens. This couple has felt left out in their time of need and is disappointed that no one from the church has come to visit them. Not cool. The blogger telling the story asked the question should we start a ministry to prevent things like this from happening. Here was my response to the bloggers query.

“This is a problem with all churches. And the first response is to develop some sort of ministry that will solve the problem. But the presenting issue is not the problem. Yes, it is sad that no one has checked in with your friend (and if it’s who I think it is , this is very sad) but the real issue is why people don’t care about people. This is something that people should do because they have been loved by Christ and in return they love His sheep (people). We could set up a ministry but that doesn’t get people to love their neighbor. How do we get people to own their faith and make a difference in the lives of people around them with out having to provide a official ministry for them? Even if we did have a ministry, you know how difficult it is to get people to commit and follow through with what is expected. There is an overall lack of ownership of the Church and their faith by the people in our church. Not everyone but obviously a overwhelming majority.”

After the Deep Shift conference this past weekend I have a new perspective on what is important. What do people need? Are we as a church being the conduit that people need to become what Christ has called them to be? Sometimes I feel like we are too focused on making something cool and hip like TREK our quarterly magazine, having a cool website, and having video and other media in our services. It seems like we have way to much fluff and not very much substance. There is a term that I learned in my design classes that I feel applies to all of life.

K.I.S.S or Keep It Simple Stupid. Simple elegance is so much more effective than flashy, hip, and trendy ideas. I’ve been encouraged to have cool motion backgrounds and colorful lighting in our Sunday morning worship times but I personally don’t think it’s all that effective. Not more than singing songs of substance and meaning. The psalms of the Bible are full of complaints and arguments with God they are not all praise songs telling God how awesome He is. Are we afraid to sing about and talk frankly about the issues our world faces? Can we not take responsibility for our neighbors and love more? Can we not discuss openly the need for social awareness of disease, poverty, and justice? These are the issues that are plaguing our world, and in my opinion it all boils down to people loving their neighbor.

I have some ambitious dreams and plans for our church but I’m willing to put them on the back burner to back to the basics and help people fall madly in love with Jesus. As good as our plans, goals and ideas may be, without a solid foundation they will crumble. We need to have an root level ownership of our faith and our church. The Church does not exist for those inside the church but for those on the outside. How do we go about getting people to own this idea and live by it? I don’t have any ideas right now but I’m going to keep processing this. Even if I do have an idea I don’t know if I will be able to implement it at our church (senior leadership would have to agree) but I’ll try.

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