Church Models

It seems like every Christian book on leadership advocates some model we are to follow. (I guess there are a few who advocate no model at all but that is another issue.) We all see it to some extent but I'm not sure we realize how pervasive it is.

Do any of these sound familiar: the fortune 500 company model, the mom and pop model, the school model, the retail model, the shopping mall model, the restaurant model, the community center model, the music/comedian concert model, the pyramid marketing model, the franchise model, the PAC model, the military model, the local government model. I'm sure I've forgotten several more.

Our denomination is now pushing what I call the NFL model. The owner(s) hire a coach who puts together a staff to coach the players to play the game. The key is for the the owners to set boundaries for the coach but then stay out of his way so he and his staff can do the work of turning the team into a winner. We all know what happens when the owner starts telling the coach he wants the second string quarterback to start.

I can find a lot of good things to say about most of these models. I can also probably find a few bad things to say about all of them. I think looking at models is useful but sometimes we get carried away with it. I think it is funny how the most ardent proponents of most of these models can find a way to claim that their's is the biblical model. (And yes, there is also the "hang out with about 12 guys for 3 years" model.)

It all makes interesting conversation and we can learn a lot from the different models. But models usually only help people conceptualize what is expected of them. They help people by giving them a picture of what the church might look like.

When I coached soccer we would use a specific formation that was denominated by a number system that soccer players knew. If I told the team we were going to play a 4-4-2 they would know that there would be 4 defenders, 4 midfielders and 2 strikers. If I then told a player they were going to be one of the strikers they had a pretty good idea of what was expected of them. The interesting think is that every players particular personality, style, ability and aptitude affected how the overall formation actually look. The formation was basically a framework that allowed a lot of individualization.

That is how I look at all these models we have for churches. I just wish there wasn't so many people insisting that there is only one biblical way of running a church. It's obnoxious.

Dominion

I saw a headline the other day about "evangelical leaders" complaining to the NAE that one of its lobbyist was working too hard at promoting environmentalism. I think their complaint had something to do with a feeling that the organization didn't have the expertise to make claims regarding global warming and should stick with its anti-abortion, anti-homosexual platform. I cringed when I saw the headline because I was expecting another sermon on how we didn't need to be environmentally conscious.

To be sure their are some questions regarding global warning being caused by man but they are few and far between. And while I am sure that there are indeed a multitude of scientists who believe man is the cause of global warming I also know that it is big business and provides a good living for its most ardent proponents.

Equally irritating is the opinion that we can run roughshod over the earth with no worries. After all we have been given dominion over the earth so we can do what we want they say. Some have tried to counter this with the claim that we are to live in cooperation with the earth. I don't understand the need to do this.

I think being given dominion is enough of an argument in and of itself to cause Christians to take care of the environment. If someone gives you a gift don't you feel an obligation to take care of it? If you mistreat the gift doesn't it reflect your attitude toward the giver?

Whether you believe man is the cause of global warming or not a Christian should be very concerned about the environment simply because it is God's creation. I also think it is disingenuous to claim protecting the environment hurts poor people who are more valuable in God's eyes. I might buy into that argument if there weren't so many of us Christians who, judging by our lifestyles, apparently don't see those same poor people as more valuable than our comfort. Like so many other things in life our failure to care for the environment really comes down to our own selfishness.

Smaller or Not

Technology is great. It lets me communicate with people all over the world almost instantly. News from the far corners of the world is available at the push of a button. When a major event happens on the other side of the world I hear about it almost instantly rather than weeks later as was the case with my parents when they were young. The world is getting smaller.

On the other hand, I recently read an interview with a guy who feels just the opposite. To him our world is expanding, not getting smaller. (He rarely sees a need to cite references in his writing so I won't site him here.) Now that I think about it, he may be right.

My parents gave me a watch when I was in the 7th grade. It was a small simple watch but I couldn't figure out how to get the back off of it. (I had a disease when I was younger that led me to believe that a watch would run better if I cleaned it, no matter how new it was.) It took me weeks before I figured out the right place to lever the back off that watch. With the simple act of removing that cover the watch went from something that seemed small and simple to a marvel of never ending complexity.

Perhaps our world is like that. Maybe our technology hasn't made our world smaller, it has just helped us peal back its cover a little bit more. With each question we answer we seem to reveal ten new questions.What we end up with is a marvelous world of ever expanding complexity. And to think, some people say there is no God.

I should mention that my watch never ran right after I opened the cover. Somehow I think we can do the same with our world if we are not careful. Even so I am glad I experienced the spinning wonders of that watch back then. It inspired my mind and somehow caused me to dream about possibilities. I need to approach this expanding world we live in with that kind of enthusiasm.

Tom the Unicyclist

I tried to learn how to ride a unicycle once. I was probably in 7th or 8th grade and worked at it for a few weeks. The best I could do was probably 50 feet and that was if everything was perfect and I didn't stop. I have no idea how those guys who juggle or play basketball on a unicycle can do it.

I gave up trying when my progress slowed down to a discouraging level. I sometimes wonder if I would have gotten the hang of it if I had kept at it. Probably not and I seemed to have gotten along just fine without this essential skill.

Oh well, cheers to everyone who can ride a unicycle.

I Wish I Was a Guitar Player

I was watching a guy play guitar today on a video and got extremely jealous. I wish I was guitar player. Instead I'm just someone who plays guitar.

If you don't know the difference, I'm putting it in the same context of when I used to coach soccer. I had soccer players and people who played soccer. Soccer players live and breathe the sport. They are almost always good. People who play soccer also do tons of other things and aren't usually that good at soccer.

I learned to play guitar when I was in 7th grade in boarding school. My specialty is cheating, cutting corners and using bad technique to get the job done. (Whoever invented B and Bb should be shot.) I sincerely wish I would have been taught (and made) to play correctly.

In case you were wondering, that is why kids love metal. Loud (and distortion) covers a multitude of sins. Come to think of it, I was made for metal. Too bad I don't really care for it.

I love to play guitar. Especially by myself. I just wish I could make "beautiful" music with it.

Tom the Monk

There are times when the thought of being a monk is very appealing to me. It seems that everything I have been reading lately has something to do with monks and monasteries and I'm sure that is what has gotten me thinking this way. I romanticize about living a lonely life in a small cloister, clinging precariously to the edge of a cliff, overlooking the Aegean Sea. I would live in solitude contemplating prayer, devotion to God, meditation of the Word and growing vegetables.

Sometimes I imagine being in a monastery so that I would have time to study all of the things I want to study but have no time for. At other times I feel like chucking all the academic pursuits and simply doing manual labor day after day. You know, some of the best known wines we have today were developed by monks.

After thinking wistfully about becoming a monk for a few moments I get jerked back to reality. I wouldn't be any good as a monk. In spite of my enjoyment of being alone I would miss people to much. Fellow monks just wouldn't cut it. I know I would grow restless couped up in a monastery after about a week or two. The world is just too big of an adventure to miss. After all, God created it for a reason. I just need to enjoy it the way He intended.