Tonight I was struck by a thought... are we bound or shackled by routine or tradition? There are many things we could do as a church that would stretch us and cause us to grow. What prevents these changes from taking place? I would say that we protect our personal preferences and we guard our traditions, especially from preceived criticism.
I don't get hung up on routine or tradition. In fact, I guess I like to look for new ways to make things work. I like the statement "Work smart, not hard." I use this at work and home all the time. Why is it that when it comes to our religious traditions, we seem to do the opposite? It appears that we work hard, not smart. How do we change this mentality?
When thinking about the above statement, why do we meet 3 times a week and have bible study during two of those meetings? (Hard not smart?) The bible doesn't state that the first century church met on those days. Why couldn't we change it up? Why not do service projects on Wednesday night? Aren't we smart enough to know that part of being a Christian is doing what we learn? Isn't it called practicing what we preach? James 1 states "just do it!" (Well, I think it might be a loose translation of the Contemporary English version. ) We need to "take it in, and live it out!" We can "take it in" on Sunday morning and "live it out" on Wednesday night. Better yet, why not take the Life Groups and let them meet on a weekly basis? Use the time to outreach in our neighborhoods? During the month we could spend one mid-week night studying, one night fellowshipping (with food of course) and two nights in service? We would draw closer to each other in the small groups and also reach some of our friends and neighbors.
As you can tell.... the Queen has been observing, and thoughfully questioning, many aspects of church life. If you have any suggestions to working smart not hard, please feel free to comment.
1 comment:
Queen,
This sounds very familiar . . . you might need to watch who you are hanging out with and listening to. :)
My parents' church is going to have one adult class on Wed. nights, and everything else will be service to the community.
This service could be varied, with groups of 2-3, small groups of 8-10 (like our Starbucks group), or larger, church-wide type service or outreach venues. And yes, flexibility on this is key. We don't need to harden or "institutionalize" service times, but should make these flexible based upon the doors of opportunity that the Spirit opens for us.
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