It is my observation that no matter how big or how small, every church has two churches.
This happens in small tiny country churches, and this happens in big mega churches in the suburbs and city.
For years, nay, centuries, if not thousands of years, there is a strange disconnect that exists in the church.
Platform and Pews
What’s happening up front, on the platform, behind the pulpit, and among the leaders, is often very different than what’s happening in the pews and back home.
The 20% of the church leading the show attends an entirely different church than the other 80%.
The other 80% may show up regularly, participate, and even finance everything the 20% is doing.
But the two churches rarely connect, in spite of all the energy and efforts to do so.
And nothing ever changes, in spite of all the different models employed.
It’s as if we’ve reached a stalemate. The 20% are happy to keep the show going. The 80% are happy to watch and applaud as the 20% put on their show.
Our Stalemate
It’s as if we are playing a staring contest with one another to see who will blink first.
I believe something about this needs to desperately change.
What that is, and what we need to do, and what does all this needs to become?
I don’t exactly know.
But that’s okay.
Asking Questions, Struggling For Answers
It’s okay for us to ask questions that we don’t have the answers to yet, and to ask these questions out loud.
It’s okay to take some rather uncertain steps forward… to feel your way through something difficult, where you dont quite know where you are going.
To ask questions with others.
And to find those answers together.
As brothers and sisters in Christ.
Not as the 20% running the show, and the 80% applauding from the pews.
But together.
An “Only God” Story
Today’s podcast has been perhaps a bit vague. Its much less pronounced than I normally am. And I’m okay with that.
In spite of my vagueness, I think I’m saying something louder and more precise than what words can actually describe. At least, for now.
I think this message will be heard by a few, and stir up something deep. I want it to be deliberately vauge, so we can make room for the work of the Holy Spirit.
I want something to be birthed that is an “only God” story, but not the type that comes in some sorta top-down organizational vision.
But something that is birthed out of all of us together, as the family of God.
I want it to be something that comes out of the unity that Christ prayed we would share with Him and the Triune God, and to participate in their Divine dance as a community, with the Godhead, together.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this matter. Comment below, or participate through Facebook and Twitter. What is God stirring up in you?
