You must check out Mark Hadfield’s blog at Made To Praise Him
This article is exactly where the majority of the American church is…and where it needs to go to!
You must check out Mark Hadfield’s blog at Made To Praise Him
This article is exactly where the majority of the American church is…and where it needs to go to!
Thanks David
I think it’s pretty plain to see, so I don’t claim to be prophetic on this one! Neither do I claim to be someone whose sorted it all out and is finger-wagging at others. I was praying with some folks last night and when someone prayed for the church to wake up from it’s slumber I agreed with “yeh, Lord, I’m only just coming to myself”.
We’re what most would call a pretty progressive church. We love Holy Spirit. But this maintenance-focussed thing HAD so got it’s claws into us. It’s what the members expected when Sue and I were handed leadership. We were new at leadership, very under-confident, and nearly all the members had been Christians far longer than us, and we’d come in from outside, so we bought into it too. We’re considered to be whacky and intense by most of the folks and theologically shallow by some. Don’t get me wrong, we love them all, but facts are facts. We just so want to help people break out of theory and intellectual theology, and into authenticity.
p.s. when I say “HAD” I mean that we’ve recognised it and we’re in the process of killing it. Some way to go yet
This maintenance mentality is driving many truly anointed men and women from the ministry at an alarming rate! It is the very thing that help me make up my mind to finally do what God had called me to do at 16 years of age (travel).
The unrealistic expectations, or co-dependancy sheep have with leadership feed the ego in those of us who have been insecure in our calling but eventually as we grow in our calling, we begin to see Jesus and the Holy Spirit is wanting to release all God’s people to be ministers of the Gospel!
This is how I’ve been thinking recently. I think it’s God
There are sheep, and there are ground-takers. Feed and care for the sheep, but hang out with the ground-takers. Go take some ground with them. Find more ground-takers in the process. Move the sheep onto the new ground once it’s taken. Just keep doing it!
It’s both simple and it takes away all my excuses
Hey David,
Couldn’t help but add a comment here. One thing I sense the Holy Spirit directing us to do is go from denominational to Kingdom minded. When we let go of doing things like the denomination or coorporate fellowship wants us to and become Kingdom focus and do what the King as ask us to do we will see the kingdom prosper in greater intensity. Maintance churches I am experiencing will take all of your time as well as keep you from getting in the presence of the Holy Spirit and hearing the voice of the King. In the kingdom citizens take care of each other through relationship; the king is not bothered by eveything that went wrong that week. Citizens of the kingdom know that the king takes care of their every need, as long as they live by the kingdom law. Just some thoughts.
Jack