Struggling with church

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The unexpected value of friendship

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The unexpected value of friendship

Today I met with two very good friends. The meeting had a point. Both of these men are committed to helping us practically in our mission to extend the kingdom in the way we feel God is calling us to do. We are not on the same leadership team, or even part of the same church. Our link is simply the personal relationship our friendship in Christ has given us. That friendship led these men to place their creative resources at our disposal, for which we are extremely grateful. In fact, God has given us friends all over the place, each of whom has helped us in various ways, and without whom we could do little or nothing.

Church often works on the basis of organization. We do a job assigned to us within an organizational framework, and access resources that are provided to us by that framework. Without the organization, however, we are lost. I don’t think that’s right. I think church should operate on the basis of friendship, not function. Function isn’t wrong, but it should flow out of friendship.

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Challenged by change

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Challenged by change

Youth With A Mission is an amazing movement in which there’s rarely a dull moment. In fact, its motto was once described as constant change is here to stay.

We’ve been in the English city of Newcastle upon Tyne this week, working with South African friends planting a great church here. Elaine grew up nearby, and used to work in the city centre. She made the observation that while some things were the same, most things had changed, and some things were unrecognizable. And that’s always a bit of a shock - because we don’t like change.

For the most part, we understand that what we believe does not change. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

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How to deal with your non-perfect church

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How to deal with your non-perfect church

People get disgruntled. I’ve had a number of conversations in the last few weeks with people from different churches. All of them appreciated their church, but all were struggling with deficiencies. Some of the folk were in leadership positions and others weren’t.

At one level, dealing with this kind of thing is a no-brainer. As the old saying goes, if you ever find a perfect church, you’ll ruin it as soon as you join it.

But we need to start asking ourselves a number of questions when doubts arise as to whether we’re in the right place.

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Can Christianity survive in a churched culture?

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Can Christianity survive in a churched culture?

We are on the road in Holland, Michigan. This is church country. 

Holland is a pretty and very upmarket tourist community with heated sidewalks to ward off the winter snow, and open gas fireplaces on the street to counter the chill wind. You can buy Christian-themed merchandise in almost every shop. Plaques and mugs are only the beginning. We even saw a plaque with a quotation from the Heidelberg Catechism. The window of the ladies’ wear store was festooned with verses between the dresses. “Fearfully and wonderfully made” was one of them. The toy shop had childrens’ devotionals. And the conversation was similar. In the art store, both conversations we overheard were on local church topics. We did not visit the craft brewery to see whether there were Bible verses on the beer mugs, but being Reformed country, it is possible there were. 

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Why do we lose vision?

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Why do we lose vision?

Most leaders start off as visionaries but wind up as managers. Or worse, as drop-outs.

I realize that’s a sweeping statement. And maybe one made to catch your attention. But I believe there is truth in it.

As a young man, I had an enormous vision for God. It propelled me to do all sorts of things that were way beyond my comfort zone and my ability. Some of those things were more successful than others, but at least I got out of the boat and headed out onto the water.

And then the waves hit, just like they did with Peter. We criticize Peter for getting his eyes off the Lord and beginning to sink, but at least he got out of the boat! The others sat in their seats and watched.