Browsing Category: Church

Story Isn’t a Strategy

I love the concept of story. I believe in the power of story and would call myself a storyteller. Story based communication is often the most powerful and has the longest lasting impact and potential to incite transformation and action. Bottom line: story is good.

However, I think we (I’m including myself in that) get dangerously close to using story as the latest “technique” or “strategy.” And I think in the process we are going to ruin it. Story is powerful because it’s relational and God designed us to be relational beings. When we turn it into a strategy or technique we strip away that relational quality.

I think we’d see a greater impact if we stopped trying so hard to tell a good story and instead we focused on simply living a good story. Because if we live a good story I think communicating in story will naturally flow out of that. I think we need to find a way to be intentional without being strategic. When we become too strategic we quickly lose focus of why we are really doing what we’re doing in the first place.

How do we do that? Short answer: I don’t know. I think I know what it looks like when I see it, but I can’t yet define how to get there. And maybe I never will…maybe it looks different for each individual/organization.

What are your thoughts? Agree? Disagree?

7 Comments Church, Deep Thinking, Worship

The Problem with Church Isn’t Church

I mentioned in a post the other day that I’ve been struggling lately with corporate worship. Corporate worship settings often aren’t the place where I worship with complete abandon. They aren’t often the places where I am left in complete awe & wonder of God and my heart is without words as I consider His power and glory. Honestly, over the last several months I feel like I’ve had more powerful moments of worship driving down the road in my car. Something about this bothers me. Maybe it should, maybe it shouldn’t, but it does. I want to be able to worship completely and authentically with other believers on a Sunday morning.

For too long I’ve sat and blamed this fact on churches. I criticize what I see as “high production.” I get frustrated with the “noise” I feel some churches create. All the while I’m forgetting that there are hundreds of thousands of people who are worshipping with complete abandon in the very settings that I’m criticizing.

A couple of weeks ago the lightbulb went on…
Maybe it’s not so much the particular church or the worship setting or style that’s the problem…maybe it’s me.

I think oftentimes we get so busy critiquing or looking for an opportunity to throw punches from the sidelines that we don’t give our hearts a chance to simply worship. I know that’s been the case for me recently. The solution isn’t changing every church and corporate worship gathering in America to be what I think it should be. The solution is adjusting my focus and the mindset of my heart when I walk into those places to worship.

Comment Church, Worship

Same is Boring

I’ve been in Nashville over a week now and it’s safe to say that I’ve spent at least a third of that in a variety of coffee shops. Some local, some chains. I love the variety. If they were all exactly the same I would be bored. Each seems to attract a certain type of cliental to some degree. Each has a different vibe. And I haven’t yet heard anyone complain about the variety. I haven’t heard anyone say that all coffee shops should be the same or that there is a best or even better way to run a coffee shop. Yes, people have their favorite places but they recognize it’s a matter of personal preference.

We are okay with variety…in many cases demanding it…in so many areas of life. Why is it then that when it comes to churches so many have the idea that they should all be the same? Or that there has to be a best way or even a better way to be a church? Yes, there are guidelines laid out in Scripture but there are also a ton of details that we aren’t given a lot of direction about.

I’ll be the first to admit that I am just as guilty of this line of thinking as the next person. But, my prayer is that we can get to a place where we embrace variety, where we are able to distinguish between what must be the same based on Scripture, where it’s okay that each church is a little different, and where we don’t insist on a better or best way.

Thoughts? Am I totally off base or is variety something we need to embrace?

2 Comments Church, Deep Thinking