My friend LutheranHusker posted a Synod Vision thing over at his place yesterday. It was great. Some really helpful stuff there.
We're going to be heading into a vision process soon, and I like some of the questions the Synod asked LH and others. But one item I've been considering quite often is "authenticity." As in, "we don't try to BE contemporary/traditional/high church/low church/the frozen chosen of Lake Wobegon/people who 'just want to pray for' spiritual revival/what have you - we ARE what God makes us, right here, in many different ways." Sometimes I'm afraid that "visioning" takes us out of "who we are" in favor of "who can we be in order that we get as many people in the door as possible." 'Cause let's face it, the dark side of getting all those people in the door is our attraction to the money all those people will hopefully put in the offering plates. Rich churches are not by definition faithful churches!
Granted, stewardship and evangelism are important parts of being the church. So is being willing to try new things in order that others might feel drawn into a faith community. But the minute we hold up the mirror to ourselves and notice all the new, big, wonderful things we're trying, it becomes more about us and less about God. And that scares me.
This church stuff is messy. Sunday's texts, I think, are far more about identity than morality, but on the surface it sure seems like morality is what people really want today. I don't know what to think about all this, but it certainly has captured my attention over the past 24 hours: I've hardly been able to think about anything else.
I understand what you're saying, and resonate with much of it. Visioing done well can be transformative. Visioning done poorly can be disingenuous.
ReplyDeleteI think visioning done well first asks the question: Who are we? What is it, good and bad, that makes us, us? Only when you start from there can you remain true to who you are with any sort of vision--the vision then becomes a natural extension of how God created you and how best you can use the gifts He's given you to their utmost.
Visioning should never begin with the question, "where do we want to be?" That's where the temptation for inauthentic "ministry" that really is no more than self-glorification and kingdom-building creeps in.
At least I think that's what I think. =)
So, the question could be: Who has God made us to be, and how can we, knowing our gifts and faults, best use what Gad has given us?
ReplyDeleteI think you have to look ahead to where you want to be - how else do you grow?? I do agree though that looking ahead has to be done with the realization that it's not about ME or US, and about what we are doing because of what has been done for us.
Wish I could be there this weekend so we could talk about this more!
To clarify something I wrote...while visioning should never START with "where do we want to be?", that's certainly a question you need to address in the process. Otherwise there's no vision, no growth, like what Brian said.
ReplyDeleteYou just don't want to use it as a starting point, without laying the foundational question of "who are we?" first.