What is fast? I think I know because God has given me a gauge, an internal and irrefutable indicator of too much speed. It’s called the constricting sphincter. I remember riding with my friend who believed he could “feel the road,” so 67 mph around one lane mountain passes made all the sense in the world. I chewed a hole in his seat. I understand that speed is inherently a subjective and biased opinion. “Hey, I think we need to slow down” can be heard in planes, board rooms, back seats, athletic fields. But what about churches and God?
I was reflecting recently on the one year anniversary of my departure from mega-church employment and what is different now. The question arose, “what has been the biggest shift in what you believe?” It is about speed. I was pre-disposed to think that people change very quickly. A single sermon, or at the least a series, is all it takes to get things moving in the proper direction. One or two weeks of being stuck, just add a little spiritual fiber (prayer, Bible reading, and solid preaching, the evangelical elixir) and presto, unstuck. A few years of being stuck, you might need to throw in a few extra scoops of godly Metamucil—extra time with me as your pastor offering my eloquent wisdom and maybe a good book to read about your ailment, and voila! Ahh, movement. My apologies, I seem to be a bit stuck in the lower hemisphere for my analogies today. Suffice it to say the expectations in mega- church world are that people should very quickly resolve what it is that ails them.
One of the issues that lead to my demise of employment was I have some unresolved childhood stuff. I am insecure, frightened at times, a compulsive people pleaser and so on. But way more grievous is that I thought it should be talked about. I will give you a quote upon my departure “you need to go away with God and get this resolved before you are qualified to preach.” Get ‘er done! What is funny, is that the powers that be would think I had never tried that! Trust me, I would take an instant, miraculous healing in a second.
The shift in my perception and ability to pastor that has become the most noticeable this past year: take what you or your church believe to be the proper amount of time to experience change and simply multiply that number by 100. Change is a factor of 100 times slower than what you thought. Churches are in danger of subtly communicating the opposite, especially when all of our stories are of the victories we have and the quickly resolved issues. We begin to create communities of people who believe they are spiritual freaks, they are not like others because although they love Jesus and have begged for change, it still seems so far away. Real change takes time, and time isn’t all that glamorous. Let’s face it, The Refuge, it ain’t all that glamorous. It is sometimes ugly, frustrating to see a lot of pain and have it not be resolved quick enough for us to feel comfortable. I feel the same way about my journey of change, too. I want it to be neater, cleaner, and certainly more triumphant.
So we continue to hope for the simple fix. Just think for a moment how many times you have sat in church and you heard this preface to what it is that plagues us: “well, all you need to do is….” One problem, one solution, and fast!
When I hear that sentence, I start to cramp up, way too fast.
Karl
There are areas in them there hills where the winds are very violent. Because of this, the roots of a spruce tree spread out. When it happens (and it does) and a tree is blown over, the roots are often left in tact. Now that fallen, old log has issues and a lot of time to think about it because it has nothing better to do than rot. But just when the other trees in the forest have it convinced it needs to be tall, green, and filled with cones to be a tree, God’s amazing grace becomes visible to the whole forest. Low and behold when the tree fell, the limbs now pointed up like trees. There was just enough root support to nuroish two limbs. Those limbs become trees. No kidding, it is common for the two limbs in the middle of fallen, old, spruce logs to become trees. We will never look like the kids who have no childhoold “issues”, but God never said we had too to have purpose in life.
Ahh, the old sphincter-o-meter.
Once again I thought it was just me, and once again you help me see that although I may get ‘backed up’(often), it’s still just good to know “…that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.”
“Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.”
I know, one of those quotes is from the Bible and one from Casablanca, but they both bring comfort, no?
Hoping all your movements this week are “… neater, cleaner, and certainly more triumphant.” !!