A Labyrinthine Journey: Soon Coming in 3-D

I was checking out my blogroll and saw that Richard Hall quoted Darryl Dash. Here is a taste.

connexions » Something is Wrong

As I listen to people, I get the sense that almost everyone agrees something is wrong in the church.

A must read!

I must say that I have been struggling with that myself for quite a while. As I discuss things with people, I think this sense that something is wrong lies at the heart of my lingering depression and spiritual ennui. I love God and I believe God has called me to love the church, but I cannot get excited about “doing” church the same way anymore.

This is along the same lines as my recent writing about spiritual gluttony. We are program obese Christians who have become focused on producing results in the only way we know how: multiplying programs. I am sometimes frustrated, sometimes confused and mostly saddened when I think about what we are about and how we are the church. When we had to come up with our ministry goals for next year I proposed scrapping them all and having one goal for next year: spend the first 6 months learning and experiencing prayer as individuals and as a congregation. That’s it. Sure the normal things will happen, but I am hoping something different comes out of it.

The difficulty is that this is uncharted territory for me (us). All I know now is that I have a lot of questions and the sands of our journey show no path.

• How can we make true disciples of Jesus without just making people who have attended programs on disciple-making?
• How can we learn to pray without just involving people in another program on prayer, but where persons are led into a place to live the loving presence of God?
• How can we invite people who grew up in the church because that was the thing to do to be open to a new reason for involvement: falling in love with our Creator/Savior? How can we do that gently yet persistently while trusting the Holy Spirit to work in Divine Time?
• How can we be faithful in building individual disciples in the face of the pressure of a program-oriented church structure (at all levels, council, district, annual/general conference)? In other words, how can we avoid being sabotaged by the push to create structure when we are called to nurture relationships?
• How can we do that, while recognizing the importance of the structure to nurture accountability and responsibility at all levels?

I know there are many more questions in this struggle. I also believe that there are many people who are able to live within that tension. I have not found the way to do that yet. I keep looking and praying and waiting.