One of the things I think church world needs to learn is that there are actually VERY few experts in the world today…especially in ours.
We love the experts…the ones who can tell us WHAT to do and HOW to do it (even if they’ve never darkened the doors of our church) and we will buy whatever they are selling because; after all, they are the experts.
(BTW…NEVER trust an “expert” that is “pimping” an untested philosophy that they don’t have the stones to try out…but they are absolutely positive it will work in your environment.)
Don’t misunderstand…I am NOT saying that there is never a time for outside opinions and/or some sort of consulting…but the problem develops when we depend on THEM way more than HIM. (You know, the One who called, equipped and will sustain us!)
He has an incredible track record of using non-experts…
- Joseph was not an expert statesman…but God used him to preserve a nation.
- Moses was not an expert leader…but God used him to lead His people to the place of promise.
- David was not an expert soldier…but God used him to bring down the biggest problem the Israelite army had ever seen.
- The Apostles were not experts…but God used them to plant the church (see Acts 4:13.)
When it comes to HOW to do church…there simply are no experts. There is not one type of church that works at every place at any given time. If there was a formula for doing church then why in the world did Jesus address seven different churches in seven different ways in Revelation 2-3?
Too many times pastors/church leaders want the easy answer rather than committing themselves to doing the hard work and actually seeking the face of God and begging for His wisdom and guidance…talking to the “experts” is easy…just plug in the formula and BAM…double your attendance. AND after years of watching this chaos happen I think we can all admit…this does not work…
Which is why I cannot wait until tomorrow at Unleash…
News flash…NONE of us are “experts” here at NewSpring Church. Our hope and prayer is NOT for churches to be more like us…but rather for churches to get a white hot vision from Jesus and become exactly who HE called them to be.
Tomorrow will be wheels off…intense…challenging…and extremely humbling for every single staff member and volunteer that is here. We can’t believe that people are actually making the pilgrimage to Anderson…and our prayer is NOT that people see an “expert” way of doing church…but rather just a bunch of “unschooled, ordinary men and women” who are desperately trying to hear God’s voice and do what He says.