Transformed or Imposed Upon | of Farms and Factories

At a recent Resurgence R12 Conference, Greg Laurie commented that Christians and church leaders have to be transformed so they can be culturally relevant and authentically connect with the world. Living much of my life in West Michigan, I had to look back at my own journey to faith, and grapple with why his casual transition between point four and five of his notes arrested my attention. Growing up in West Michigan, I have to confess that I grew up feeling religiously imposed upon, not challenged to transform into something or become like Someone.

Josh McDowell says, “Rules without relationship breeds rebellion.” I wish I would have understood what he meant. Without a lot of solid relationship models as a child, it took decades to unravel some of my aversion to relationships, and put into practice McDowell’s advice. Today, I look back at my rebellion against organized religion that God used to lead me to a real relationship with Christ. I have the odd perspective of someone who felt imposed upon, found out that Jesus taught about a promised transformation, and now work to connect the dots.

I’m learning to look at discipleship and personal transformation through the metaphor of my garden. Growing crops is organic, while operating an assembly line is organized and systematic. Like farming, transformation follows principles that govern, but don’t guarantee results. Like manufacturing, imposition manages resources, puts in place policies, and tracks results. These steps are also essential for the farmer, but the manufacturer loses the personal connection somewhere along the way.

Let me bridge how this applies to the local church. Here are four key ideas that churches have to address to grow a transparent, authentic, culturally relevant, life changing church.

1. Culturally relevancy is anchored in God’s word. I don’t know how He did it, but the writers and lessons from thousands of years ago are still relevant to the heart of man and the condition of the mankind. Since God’s Word and Holy Spirit are the only powers that can change a heart, a transformationally relevant church has to start grounded in God’s word.
2. If a church focuses on culturally relevancy, the latest church trends, methods of popular or effective teachers or traditions ahead of God’s Word, they lose the mooring lines to the pier of culturally relevant transformation and Truth. The gospel is socially active, but becoming socially active isn’t the purpose of the church. The gospel is culturally relevant, but becoming like the world on the outside and not carrying the life changing message of Jesus, and results in the Laodicean “luke warm” and powerless church.  A socially relevant church isn’t necessarily connected to the truth of the gospel that will change a life.
3. In a response or reaction to a social gospel, church leaders swing the pendulum to the other extreme, and build an internally relevant, but externally exclusive culture. Within the doors of the building, everyone is connected and relevant because all the rules and known and taught, (sometimes for generations) but the church loses its transformational power on the community because the community is always changing. Unexpected catalysts, like technology, media, education, poverty, war, etc., affect our culture metamorphically in every generation. A transformational, relevant church has to adapt its methods while staying anchored to the unchanging message. When we reverse this order, churches quickly become a place where the message is lost under our cold, stale approach.
4. Seasons of success, whether they are years or decades, can lead to the desire to replace the farm with a factory. Churches learn the principles, and the success leads to a models, methods, methodologies, and then rules and doctrine. As faithful stewards, pastors train their people to duplicate the success. However, in the midst of this process, the culture evolves again. Churches can be in the midst of building a factory when God’s Spirit whispers they should be plowing the ground. Unwilling to change from what worked previously, we risk becoming irrelevant again

The gospel requires transformation, and transformation is messy, unpredictable and requires the power of the Holy Spirit. In addition to wanting to be faithful stewards of our resources and the influence God entrusts to us, we dislike change and disorder. We want to be useful and used, but we want also want to control and have safety. It’s easy to justify building a factory to manage our resources. The inspiration of growth and creativity through a life surrendered to the Holy Spirit reflects God’s nature. The heart of Jesus’ message wasn’t to manage resources. Jesus calls us to become like Him.