God to His Church?

I've been reflecting on this experiential and subjective truth for a little while: for me, it usually takes about 3 years or so before I feel like I have a good handle on where I'm at and what I'm doing and how I fit into it all. It also takes about 3 years or so for people to feel the same way about me: like they have a pretty good handle on who I am, what I am equipped to do, and how I fit. It generally takes about 3 years for a healthy amount of credibility to be built, such that I can operate freely and appropriately.

So after just under a year at my present location, I am hesitant to come to any sort of firm conclusions about this place. Nevertheless, the "data" that I've collected so far pushes me toward 4 initial and interrelated impressions of my current church:

1. We forsake the "now" for the "later." Be it in the name of "planning for growth," or in the name of "being a good steward of where God wants to 'take' us," we are always looking ahead... often times at the expense of what is happening right now. Maybe more accurately, we do not gather data from the "now" and use it to help determine where God is "taking" us.

2. We fail to critique our own culture. Pragmatism and "relevance" are often our main standards; other standards we use to critique what we are doing and who we are submit to those two. Do people seem to be coming? Do they "like" it? Did we like the look and feel? Does it look like what we'd see on TV, or at a big church, or in a magazine? To be sure, these are all fair and necessary considerations... but they should not be primary. They should be secondary. But when they are primary, the result is dissonance. We have given our people as many looks and feels to a weekend worship experience as there are weekends in a year, namely because our standards are anything but static and grounded in long-proven and life-giving goals. When you critique first by pragmatism and relevance, your goals--and not just your expressions of them--will be everchanging.

3. We forsake going on our own journey, and choose instead to imitate where others have gone. This is another fine line, but a line it is indeed. I'm glad that it is possible and that we are encouraged to look at what other churches are doing; we are indeed one church, and it is both edifying and helpful to see what God is doing in other local expressions of his unity. Nevertheless, each local expression is unique, and requires a unique and authentic connection with God and his unique desires for that church's unique setting and people. Again, it's a matter of order--the connection to God and what He has for this local setting should be primary, and all ideas from other churches--no matter how successful they might be in their own respective locations--should be secondary. It might very well be the case that what is considered personal in a city of 5 million is considered impersonal in a community of 150,000. This is just one example of how important it is for local pastors to have a healthy connection to what God's unique heart is for their particular setting, and for those pastors to protect and use it as the standard by which they evaluate and incorporate new ideas.

4. We fail to be present in the moment. Everything is about "the next step." Even in relationships. Most often there is little room for mess or weakness, which means there is little room for vulnerability and authenticity, which means there is little room for real relationship. We are do-ers, and we are driven to succeed, and doggone it, we can't let our weaknesses as people get in the way. Trouble is, we usually lose connection with how God is present in weakness, even working to bring it about, in the hopes of saving our souls as we grow in our awareness of our dependence on him. And so, in the name of soul-saving, we lose our own.

And that's what I think, at this time, God is saying to his church here.