Once in a while I’ll get a blast of clarity. Usually when I’m driving. Like today when I was driving to the hospital to visit my good friend Kurt. He hurt his back and is in a lot of pain. I was thinking how I do what many pastors do: study, pray, visit, counsel… simple things. But while I was thinking these thoughts I immediately felt myself arguing with something. I don’t want to be burdened with an agenda. I don’t want to burden our church community with an agenda. Not even lofty and noble ones. We are a society of friends, a community gathered together around Jesus. That’s it. I encourage and nurture that. Simple as that. I don’t spend time in my study figuring out how to save the world, how to grow the church, how to get more money out of people’s pockets, how to promote this church’s ministry, how to enthrall our people more with sexy worship music, how to make myself more awesome before my people, how to get more people to hear about and come to our church. In fact, I reject the “how-to” disease altogether. Well, except maybe one: how to guard the church from all that crap.
Again, I use the analogy of a relationship. Lisa and I don’t have an agenda. We live fully every moment and the rest takes care of itself. You may try to convince me otherwise, but give up before you start. We have never once sat down and planned our future. We haven’t even planned out the future of our children. Many of you might say, “Well, that’s obviously your problem!” So be it! Just keep those nagging agendas away! We don’t want anything to do with it. We truly believe we are healthier for it. I truly believe our church is healthier for it. It makes for better Christians, better people, and a more biblical existence. I know too many pastors, myself included, who have burned themselves out to keep up with a fantastic vision. My suspicions are getting stronger all the time: vision kills.
The fine art photograph is the creation of my friend Jorgen Klausen.
My name is David Hayward, and I am the nakedpastor. I am a graffiti artist on the walls of religion.
I’ve been convinced over the last year or two that God has been really, really good to me by guiding me to very excellent churches. My reaction to your posts and in talking with some other people has been “There are really churches like that?! Are you serious?!” God bless you for helping to bring such church abuses to light and fighting against them.
I very much agree with what you say, but be cautious that in your very proper rejection of having “big plans” and “agendas” and “how-to promotions” that you not go diving off the opposite edge. Don’t cut off all planning, preparation, schedules or regular services. Planning to make a point of visiting people in the hospital at least once a week (or more often) is not a bad plan. Even the Apostles set up a plan for making sure the poor and widows were taken care of fairly and not purposefully or accidentally ignored.
Not everything that is planned out ahead of time is an “agenda”. The western church, as a whole, is so very agenda-ized that it may never have to worry about becoming HARMFULLY unplanned, but people should realize that the error opposite of being agenda-ized is out there somewhere too.
I thought this excerpt from the e-book “So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore” related well to many of the recent posts. It’s a little long…hope you find it worth it.
“No institutional arrangement will ever contain all that the church is. Don’t look for it
institutionally; look for it relationally. Certainly the New Testament talks about the
priorities of that church—Jesus as its sole head and focus, daily encouragement among
believers, plural and lateral leadership, open participation, and an environment of freedom
so people can grow in him.â€
“Like what I have with Jake?â€
“And there will be others God will give you as you simply follow him,†John added.
“Some for a time will help you on your journey, others you will help on theirs but mostly
you will find yourself mutually sharing his life together. â€
“But if we structured around that passion…,“ Bryce’s voice faded away as he tried to
figure out how to finish that question. Finally his head cocked to one side, “Are structure
and passion polar opposites?â€
“No, they’re not. Not all structure is wrong. Simple structures that facilitate sharing his
life together can be incredibly positive. The problem comes when structures take on a life
of their own and provide a substitute for our dependence upon Jesus.â€
“So I don’t need to look for the perfect church, or try to put one together?â€
“How you mean that, I’d say, no. But Jesus is putting together a church without spot or
wrinkle. It includes everyone in this community and around the world who lives in a
growing relationship with him. It’s okay for you to look at how that church expresses
itself every day in the people and events around you. Just don’t try to corral it into
something you control. It just won’t work. Jesus saw the church as a reality, not an
assignment for his followers to construct. She is growing, all around you. You just can’t
see it now because your focal point is far short of her beauty and immensity.â€
“How can I change that?â€
“There’s only one way—stay focused on him. Where Jesus is given first place the church
simply emerges in wonderful ways. He will place you in the body exactly as he desires.
And as those relationships grow, you may find yourself surrounded by a group of people
who want to walk in more intentional community together. That’s an amazing thing
when it happens, but still you have to keep your focus on him. Even groups that start out
centered on him are easily and quickly tempted to organize themselves to death very
quickly. When Jesus ceases to be the object of our pursuit, our touch with his body will
fade into emptiness.â€
hi webmonk… np’s definition of ‘vision’ as i understand it is the corporate idea of vision… so planning a hospital visit is fine because it doesn’t enslave the people to a self serving agenda. i hope i got that right… by this definition, vision surely kills.
Fort intéressant David ~> You care deeply for the community that has formed around you and the relationships within it. I think the only agenda that is necessary is for us to follow Christ and continue to exercise our faith in Him alone. Possibly one of the agendas for those of us who have been in any leadership position is to remember that we don’t necessarily have to guard the church ourselves. The Church has a Shepherd that is capable to guard people. People have to rely on Him to guard them, but quite often people turn to man for that guarding or covering or authority. It’s hard when we’ve been put in a position within the Church to fulfil a responsibility. However, that obligation that is thrust upon us by man can overwhelm us and make us feel that we have the sole responsibility. It’s difficult to step out of the way and let people decide if they want to let Christ the Great Shepherd guard them. What many do is to look back to man and expect man to guard them. Then they will also end up having their agendas for how we should guard them, cover them, teach them, preach to them, perform for them, counsel them. So the agendas that people have when they don’t completely rely on Christ and when they have more faith in man gets slapped into other people’s laps.
Let Christ be the head – let Him guard His Sheep. If they want to turn to you with their agendas for you to guard them and do for them than we would have to wonder why they don’t want to get what they want from Christ. Develop relationships, care for the sheep around you, feed those who are needing spiritual food. But, don’t let them force you into a position of having to fulfil their agendas. Yes, they need a Shepherd – they could have one if they want to put their faith in Him.
your post made me laugh. you’re brave mate. vision kills? thats the opposite to what most other prechers would preach but i agree that vision can put people under big pressure and lead to failures and confusion. canada is hot.
You know who has an agenda? God…”who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. ” (1 Timothy 2:4)
I thought this excerpt from the e-book “So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore” fit well with this and many other recent posts:
“No institutional arrangement will ever contain all that the church is. Don’t look for it
institutionally; look for it relationally. Certainly the New Testament talks about the
priorities of that church—Jesus as its sole head and focus, daily encouragement among
believers, plural and lateral leadership, open participation, and an environment of freedom
so people can grow in him.â€
“Like what I have with Jake?â€
“And there will be others God will give you as you simply follow him,†John added.
“Some for a time will help you on your journey, others you will help on theirs but mostly
you will find yourself mutually sharing his life together. â€
“But if we structured around that passion…,“ Bryce’s voice faded away as he tried to
figure out how to finish that question. Finally his head cocked to one side, “Are structure
and passion polar opposites?â€
“No, they’re not. Not all structure is wrong. Simple structures that facilitate sharing his
life together can be incredibly positive. The problem comes when structures take on a life
of their own and provide a substitute for our dependence upon Jesus.â€
“So I don’t need to look for the perfect church, or try to put one together?â€
“How you mean that, I’d say, no. But Jesus is putting together a church without spot or
wrinkle. It includes everyone in this community and around the world who lives in a
growing relationship with him. It’s okay for you to look at how that church expresses
itself every day in the people and events around you. Just don’t try to corral it into
something you control. It just won’t work. Jesus saw the church as a reality, not an
assignment for his followers to construct. She is growing, all around you. You just can’t
see it now because your focal point is far short of her beauty and immensity.â€
“How can I change that?â€
“There’s only one way—stay focused on him. Where Jesus is given first place the church
simply emerges in wonderful ways. He will place you in the body exactly as he desires.
And as those relationships grow, you may find yourself surrounded by a group of people
who want to walk in more intentional community together. That’s an amazing thing
when it happens, but still you have to keep your focus on him. Even groups that start out
centered on him are easily and quickly tempted to organize themselves to death very
quickly. When Jesus ceases to be the object of our pursuit, our touch with his body will
fade into emptiness.â€
Abundant Blessing–very cool quote. Thanks.
Abundant that is great thanks for sharing it. Relational is extremely important and not just for the purpose of being a social gathering. I also like the ideas of intentional community – that’s what I desire.
Is it possible to be “free” from burdens and still be connected in a community? I would say no. I understand not wanting to “have-to” do things all the time, but relationships and community do mean obligation, in some ways.
I am “burdened” by my kids sometimes, but I would rather have that “burden” than be “free” from them.
terri ~> Good question. Maybe it all depends on what we are burdened about. Jesus said His yoke was easy and to cast our burdens on Him. Possibly in our community life we are carrying burdens of ministry which He wants to carry.
I’m enjoying reading “small giants” a secular business book that argues againt the “grow or die” received wisdom through a study of businesses that turned down opportunites to grow in size and profits in order to be great at quality (http://www.anglicancelluk.org/blog/p,12/). Seems to me like your church becoming a small giant. nice!