"Grids" Part 1

A couple of weeks ago, I was talking with Pastor Tom about the church, the way we operate, and how that may have had an impact on people leaving. We both acknowledge there were a lot different reasons why people left.

However, I raised a question about our structure (or lack of it). We have little structure (and, therefore, little feedback) by which people can assess how they are "doing." I wondered if some people had left because they have felt like failures.

Most churches have various types of formal and informal methods of assessment: teaching Sunday school, various "outreach" ministries, titles of various sorts, membership in cliques, Bible studies, and various types of meetings from coffee klatsches to sewing circles to prayer meetings to whatever.

It is not that we have nothing. We do have house church leaders. And we do have cliques.

Not only do we have little structure, we insist on being Spirit-led (Romans 8:14). Being Spirit-led had implications on how we assess how we are doing.

One of the people who recently left said that he/she like the church that he was now attending because the pastor always concluded his teaching with a practical application. That is, what to do, rather than who to be. We emphasize being, especially being in Jesus. The problem with this is that we have to get our affirmation from Jesus, as we follow Him.

[Aside: ideally, we should be encouraging one another in order to fill in the gap here. however, our idea of encouragement is to tell people that there is more, to go "higher up and further in," and to "excel still more." In other words, that we are not doing good enough.]