This is a Good Thing

We thought we could do it. Our activism and proactive planning bore that out.

No longer.

Our ability and freedom to act as we think we should in order to build the Kingdom of God (or our own kingdoms?) has been severely curtailed.  The way to the future is now murky.  Attempts are being made by leaders to get back to what was, but those attempts aren’t bearing fruit.  They likely never will.

Perhaps this is a good thing. A gift from God.

We were reduced to digital reaches and initially were giddy at the potential.  However, the stats around actual engagement are dubious at best.  We could still connect personally, but that was reduced to small circles of family, neighbours and co-workers as pandemic rules allowed.  Our reach narrowed.  It was simplified.

Perhaps this is a good thing. A gift from God.

Previously our actions and even our prayers were a means of putting us in charge of the growth and the affairs of God’s Kingdom.  We planned, executed, made policy and processes, developed seminars, services and studies.  Activism. I dare say that even our prayers accompanying all those plans were assertive and even demanding of God.  Activist prayers.  And now, control is no longer in our hands.

Perhaps this is a good thing. A gift from God.

Could this be a time, now that so much of our previous power, control and freedom has been taken away from us, to reconnect with our identity as God’s servants, and begin to pray as Mary  - “let it be done to me (us) according to your word”.  That is a servant’s prayer, not that of the activist.  A prayer that asks God to make us the person(s) through whom He can reveal Himself and bring His will into being in this world.

Pray.

Wait.

Move when He prompts.

Sit when He is silent.

Be present in the moment.

Accept the daily bread as enough provision for the day, the moment.

Surrender control.

Like a servant.

A god we can use.

Poor god.

These days everyone is making a claim on 'god'.  He/She is popular because people find that eliciting the support of a deity gives legitimacy and even power to their particular point of view.  Religious groups, terrorists, healers, political parties and just about anyone seeking a way to justify their position, often brings 'god' into the equation.

What or who is this 'god', this popular Purveyor of Power, this Authority on Anything, this Collaborator on Convictions?  Whomever He/She is, I wonder what they think about the attention they are getting in this world?

A god without a name, without a self-defined identity is a very convenient god.  That is a god we can use according to our own personal needs. You can mold that god into anything you want as you sort out your existence & 'place' with neighbours, politics, morality, lifestyles, economics, community and yes, even vaccinations.  A god like that is just so useful!

But what if this god has a name?  What if they are self-defined?  A name means something.  Your own name identifies you.  It's not merely a label as though it was an impersonal number.  Your name comes to represent YOU - your character, convictions, loves, dreams and a host of other qualities.

God has a Name.  But what a name!  God Self-revealed as Yawheh/Jehovah, which was a name deemed too sacred to even be spoken, so other names (dozens and dozens) were used to help paint the picture.    This is important, because a name means something.  If the name of God is too sacred to be spoken and takes multiple other descriptors to define, that in itself should keep us from turning God into whatever thing we want to use God for. He is not for us to define.

Yet even we who follow Gods incarnate Christ often make God into a thing we use.  Allow me to unpack an example by turning my attention to myself and my peers who lead other followers of this God.

It is baffling to understand how the institutional church, the gathering that is meant to reflect God to the world, can ignore or minimize the Creators' omnipresence in the nooks and crannies of life on this planet, and virtually ignore how the ways and presence of Yahweh has everything to do with community life, creation care, social and political well-being, economic structures, treatment of the marginalized - I could go on.  The institutionalized church does this by concentrating almost exclusively on how to ensure the activity of the congregation preserves and adds to the longevity of the organization.  The intention and rhetoric may be 'missional', but the reality is that too often God is used to justify the efforts to perpetuate the organization.

YAHWEH, JEHOVAH, CREATOR, acted and spoke though a people in history as told in Scripture, although He Himself is beyond Scripture.  Yet we have used those same inspired words and stories as talismans and tools so we can use God for our purposes.  It was/is Christian leaders who have found theological justification to align with political despots, to support and service anti-human programs of government (residential schools), and to hide sinful and illegal behaviour within their congregations from the law  - all to preserve the institution. Less onerous but just as relevant is how we connect alignment to the denomination or local church with a persons identity in Christ.  It's wrong, but it is a convenient way to use God for our purposes. 

And we have become addicted to it.  

As Elijah encountered in his various confrontations with Baal worshipers (former Yawheh worshippers by the way) that culminated in that grand spectacle on Mt. Carmel, there's an addictive quality to worshiping a convenient god you can use, conjured up as needed to fulfill a need or want.  That was Israels' relationship with Baal.  How about us - do we have a convenient Baal-like image of God?

To give up our image of God is to give up our control of, and influence over, God.  We no longer can have our way with Him in order to keep the church in order.  Even in the face of the true God's power, Ahab & Jezebel (and many others) maintained their addiction.  Do we?  Eugene Petersen reminds us all that even in the face of God's Truth, it's very hard to "let go of the comforting illusions that allow us to live with guilt-free dishonesty". (The Jesus Way, p 125.)  That guilt free dishonesty by the way plagues our relationship with indigenous peoples in Canada, even in the face of Gods' truth that all humans are equally made in God's image.

This is a call to you to seek and submit to the God with a Name, who is not, and will not be defined by your constitution, tradition, dogma or your forms for worshiping Him. This is a call for you to pay attention to the living and active voice of God Himself, to examine the ties that bind your obedience to convenience, pragmatism, dogma, denomination or religion. Stay alert and knowledgeable that the rituals of your so-called faith may be more a religion of useful convenience than they are expressions of submission and obedience to a living and active God.

Who is this God?  

Who are we before Him?

Harv Matchullis

You're not gonna change the world

Not everyone needs to read this, but you know who you are if you do. 

• You think about the state of the world, often.  It bears down hard on your mind, heart and soul.
• You cry out to God, to politicians, to your organization, to the court room of your mind for justice and equity, and change and peace. 
  
• You often feel that "If only we could get this initiative up and running" or "If we just redesigned this process or system, we could upset the order of things and make a real difference".
• You regularly ask "Why?" and "Why not?".
  

You want to change the WORLD. But you can't.  Hear me out. 

A world changing perspective can sometimes...

• ...place too much emphasis on you and your vision.
• ...remove you from the truth (and trust) that only God is sovereign to change the world.  Only He can bring his Kingdom to earth.  
• ...cause a lot of grief in your own soul (anxiousness, driven-ness) because you believe the change depends on you.
• ...can cause you to motivate by shame and guilt when people don't 'get with the program'.
  
• ...turn you into an activist who makes claims on God, and for God that He doesn't subscribe to in order to advance your vision.  (God far too often ends up with a bad rap in the world, and it's not His fault. Tragically in the over-zealous effort to advance the Kingdom of God we can turn the world away from ever wanting what we put out there on offer)
  

Global and societal change rarely comes through any single individual or organizations' efforts. I can barely change my own eating habits, let alone my organization. How will my idea ever change the world?  Answer:  It won't and I can't.  The sooner I get to that conclusion and rest in another reality, the greater my impact can actually be.  

 

Ironically we will have more impact on the world when we let go of our sense of importance and power to change it and grab hold of this truth:

The Creator God is the only One with the power to transform this world into His Kingdom 

Unless we believe that God is actively at work in individuals and groups to do what He has set out to do, we will forever be wrapped up in our angst over what to do and how to do it.  What often happens is we (especially us dreamers), often miss the forest for the trees.  Our superpower may be as "Tomorrow-Man/Woman", but we miss the opportunity to live and act in today, to act locally, and to trust that the 'daily bread' Jesus taught us to ask for, is in the end all we really need.

So, take whatever He gives you in this day and embrace it: the person you meet, the opportunity you have, the thoughts and prayers that come across your mind.  Those acts are enough to change the world. 

God's wonderful Kingdom is happening. He is making it come into being, not you.  So each day be content and happy to take what He gives you and simply play your part.  

The world will change.

Fine Speech - Now What Do We Do?

William Wallace worked hard to inspire his fellow Scots to fight the English with his famous 'freedom speech'  in the 1995 movie Braveheart.  A classic speech. He even put on make-up to deliver it.  But THE best line came from one of his inner circle in their leadership huddle immediately after: Fine speech.  Now what do we do? 

I wrote a provocative blog titled The Pandemic Pruning of the Church on June 2.  It was about the state of the church and how I view its future as we emerge from the pandemic.  Those who know me, have worked with me and who have read my blogs know that it wasn't a one-off rant that came out of nowhere.  I have talked and written much on the topic of the diminishing effectiveness of the church and it's opportunity to re-invent and re-focus.  I write to raise awareness and to provoke thought.  On other occasions I have proposed ideas, implemented experimental ideas and offered coaching questions to leaders to help them discern answers to the "now what do we do?" question.

I write this to follow up the last blog and say that I don't stir up thinking without being committed to be part of the solution.  I am not without answers, but neither do I have answers for others.  What I mean by that is there is no silver bullet model or approach.  But I do have ideas.  Perhaps they will inspire thinking.  And more importantly, we have the Holy Spirit who will guide us into all truth about our tasks and the means by which we hope to accomplish those tasks. 

Honestly let's not be cognitively lazy and spiritually comforted by the system we have all known.  For the sake of a task that is totally beyond us and that is fully in the hands of a sovereign God to accomplish, let's be sure to always ask the questions of HOW the models we use are serving God's purposes.

I offer these coaching questions for you personally, and for you as church leadership teams, to help jump-start conversations about true transformational change.  These are adapted (and added to) from a previous blog I wrote called: Current Church Models: Railroads in the Age of Airplanes

• What are the purposes of God for the world?  How does the way our church practice 'church' align or misalign? (*NB - this is not about your mission or vision statements.  Its about your practices)
• The task of church leadership is to equip the saints for the 'works of service' (Eph 4).  What constitutes 'works of service'?  Knowing this, how then are we organized to equip for that?
  
• What does a church staffing model look like if we were configuring it for reaching our current context? What do we really know about our current context?  How can we know? If we started over, what needs to be different?
• To what extent should we continue to foster an institutional model for our church?  What benefit is it bringing (or can it bring) to God's Kingdom purposes for our world?  What are it's liabilities to the mission?
  
• How would we exist if we moved away from a worship service focus? What if the service took the lower priority for budget, staffing and corporate energy?  What's the alternative?  Where else would we prioritize energy|? How would that change our budget, staffing and use of the building?
  
• How could we who have buildings re-envision how they are used to integrate with and serve our surrounding communities? Where could we find examples of how to do that?
  
• For a fascinating look at how foundations, and even governments, are encouraging the re-purposing of church buildings, see this article on community hubs.  
• Also, I'd be happy to chat with you about my previous experience as Executive Director of Encompass Partnerships, an entity originally designed and delivered as a multiple-use church, mission and community hub.
  
• Are buildings a necessary element for our mission? If so, how could that building be used in light of our mission to the world (vs. a support for internal activities).
• Staffing implies salaries, which implies a system to collect funds to pay those salaries which requires maintaining group loyalty to the institution so that salaries can be paid. What could a church on mission look like without dependence on a salary-based system?  What if it were lead from a more co-vocational model?
  
• How does a Christian community identify & release all the gifts into the world where it's people live and work?  How will it exist organizationally when callings, gifts and skills move it far beyond its current programming model or staff capacity?  How will we cope coaching new mission efforts?  
• What is our risk tolerance for true innovation?  How much does our structure rely on control vs. empowerment?
  
• How do we really equip and release the saints for the work of service God called them to do - vs. the positions the church needs filled to advance its particular mission? 
• I personally believe the gifts God gives to a church community is what is to define & drive its agenda, not the corporate leadership 'vision'.  For a model of how a community designed it's life & structure around the gifts of it's people, watch this great documentary video of the Tampa Underground church.
• What does community life look like that actually embraces people from any lifestyle, culture, economic situation, habit etc. so they can experience the way of Jesus in community and perhaps come to know Him?
• If believers were too busy in neighborhoods and vocational pursuits living out the values and ways of the Kingdom of God to attend church activities on a regular, sustained basis, how would you reconfigure 'church'?  How would you coach & support that person?  How would it change staffing?

Innovation is easy to talk about. Too easy.  Leaders sometimes have the habit of believing their rhetoric IS the reality, when they are actually barely out of the gate. It's also easy to be deluded into thinking that if you tweak at the edges of the existing system, you have innovated towards a transformational change.  Tweaking is not innovation.  What we need to become will cost more than we think.  So count the cost.

I'm on a journey into this.  By the time you read this I will have moved into a historic, old, eclectic neighborhood in Calgary.  As I embed myself into my new neighborhood, my relationship with the corporate church expression as it is today will diminish.  My role in this world is to bring the Way of Jesus into my world - my new neighbourhood and it's people, systems, values and relationships.  It is not to bring my world into the church model.  If and when there can be a useful, mission focused integration, won't that be wonderful. 

Harv

 

The Pandemic Pruning of the Church

No one has the foresight to know, but I believe the Church as it was pre-pandemic won't survive once this is over. (Frankly I hope I am right).

We are being pruned.

The gift of God to the Church via this pandemic just may be that we are learning what it means to remain in Christ beyond the structures of corporate church.  Attendees whose faith was dependent on, or held together by 'church-life' rituals and habits have either:

1. Fallen away because the structures were removed, or
   
2. Matured into a deeper life with Christ apart from those structures

It's a pruning of individuals as well as the church corporate.  Individuals held together only by hackneyed rituals and habits have had their foundation torn away.  They're most likely already lost to the church's ranks, never to return.  Churches dependent on their structures have had those challenged, and it seems rather than learn & discover something new in this pruning time, they are falling all over themselves to return to what was.

"Unfortunately church leaders invest everything they have in making that ineffective model work.  Why?  Because their security,  identity and purpose are intertwined with that model's function.  Those who have the best opportunity to make it change are the very people most motivated to keep it the same.  As Upton Sinclair once quipped: 'It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!'  Our leadership is invested in holding up a model that is incapable of accomplishing what God asks of it.  This model has been in place for one and a half millennia, so it now has become our very definition of church.  It is a challenge to imagine anything else, but we must if we are to make a difference in this generation." (Neil Cole: Rising Tides; Pg 8)

The Church as it is structured now is NOT able to impact it's world.  The sheer escalation in human population over the last two centuries, VS. the capacity of the current limiting structures of the Church to reach the world is enough to prove the model is inadequate, outdated and a totally ineffective tool for Kingdom expansion.  

Tools are amoral.  You can use a hammer to build or to destroy.  You can also drop one tool and use another that is more effective, simply because it is better.  The corporate church model & structure, developed post-Constantine, is no longer useful.  The once organic expression of Kingdom life that overtook and actually defeated the Roman Empire morphed into a corporate, fixed structure that has been built upon to this day. It has become old, tired, too accommodating to power (think of the collusion with governments over slavery, residential schools, political wedge issues...) and simply too rigid to zig or zag.

And please, none of this nonsense guilt-tripping from pastors saying that "you can't love Jesus and not love the church".  That's nothing but a ruse to ensure you keep your job and structure intact.  I dare say that this pandemic pruning is proving you wrong.  Many Christians are discovering they continue to love Christ, even more deeply, WITHOUT the corporate church connection.  Perhaps there is something there to pay attention to.  Will you pay attention or simply interpret it only in reference to your ability to perpetuate your model?

Unless we are freed from understanding & relating to the Body of Christ as a structure, we simply won't be able to impact this world. It calls for a new way of perceiving and leading.  It calls for true releasing of control; a relinquishing of power and polity.

I'm not going back to the church as it was.  And I work for a denomination! (perhaps not for long). Not because it is wrong, but because it isn't working.  It isn't capable of truly becoming part of communities around the world in a transformational way.  It's polity, structure, layers of approval for this or that etc. all get in the way and assume too much control.  

Seth Godin once said "When you fall in love with the system you lose the ability to grow".  Christian leaders - let's focus our love on Christ and His Kingdom, not our church system.  The system, whatever it is for the future, must only exist if it serves God's purposes for the people of this world.

Be strong and courageous. And maybe, get a new job.

Harv Matchullis

 

I'm Not Passing the Torch

As leaders we are often told to 'pass the torch' to the next generation.  I don't think I'm going to do that. However, I do want to empower and make way for new leadership

How?

In the Bible there's a story about John, who came ahead of Jesus Christ to announce His coming.  When Jesus had come and was rising in His popularity, people asked John if they should now go follow Jesus.  John said YES, because he knew Jesus was to increase in importance.  John knew he was to concurrently decrease in focus and importance.

Be like John.

How?

Many factors influence (even drive) my focus to think and plan for the 'passing the torch' phase of life and career. My own ageing, the organizational/societal need for constant leadership development, the negative reality of ageism, and for me as a white male, the need to make space for others.  It is time to seek out and empower the next generation of leadership.  I should decrease and they should increase.

How?

I like what Gloria Steinhem said in 2018 at age 84: "I'm holding on to my torch.  I'll let other people light theirs from mine."

That's how I'll do it.  Keep my torch going and not give it up to another.  Keep that flame alive by being active, continually learning and hopefully inspiring others to light their own torches from mine.  Besides, my torch was uniquely mine, created by my historical context and through how I used and developed my personal gifts and skills to meet that context.  THAT torch isn't useful for what's next.  It won't carry the kind of light and heat the next generation needs for their context.  So NO, I wont pass it on - for their sake. New leaders need their own torch, lighting the way for their unique personal, cultural and historical context.  

May some of my fire inspire them, but they have their own torch to carry. 

I'm not going to pass the torch.

Leaderships' Appetite for the Past

Leaders are about the future, right?  Well, don't be surprised that they often have a strong appetite for the past.

I'm observing a 'leeks and onions' moment among Christian leadership during this pandemic.  After the initial major adjustments to deliver services online there was a lot of discussion and even excitement around this being a 'moment' to re-think and reconfigure the very nature and mission of the Christian community (read: church).  Vision & dreaming was flourishing.

Now, note the conversations.  Seems those visions & dreams are now morphing into a focus on returning to normal.  This is where leadership energy is now predominantly focused.  Looking in the rear-view mirror to the leeks and onions of the past are proving too tempting.

The context for my 'leeks and onions' reference is clear to most Christian leaders.  But let me review:  When God lead an entire national community (Israel) out of their slavery in Egypt for a promised new existence, among leaders and followers there was the usual excitement, fear and uncertainty that accompanies change.   Then came the long haul process of actually getting to the new thing.  That's where things started to break down.  (We all love the rhetoric of change.  It's the execution that kills us!).  It was tough.  It was boring. It was tedious.  Kind of like our pandemic existence.  The people started hankering for what was: "We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted.". (Book of Numbers 11:5)

When challenge came on the way to the future, and it wasn't yet clear what that future would look like, the default human reaction was to not only to reminisce, but to long for a re-creation of the past.

Most of what I read lately from church leaders are plans and promises for how to return to gathering. Gone are references to previous visioning & discussions that the pandemic was an unprecedented opportunity to re-shape the Church.  Now its really about how to get back to what we were.

Leaders - are you about preserving what was or persevering into the future?  Show yourself.  Lead or follow. 

It's a leeks and onions moment.