Craig Groeschel posted “Working with God’s Seasons.” One point says:

If you had a singles ministry that worked for 9 years, but is no longer effective, celebrate the 9 years of success. Close it down and do something different. Don’t keep something on life support once its season has passed.

That applies to so many things whose time may have passed.

Most churches I know don’t hold a traditional Sunday night service–and maybe none at all (including mine). I grew up with that format, but since changing churches in 1989, haven’t attended a Sunday night service since. At my previous church, we did small groups, which were more effective. At Anchor we’ve never done anything on Sunday night. I wouldn’t call that “effective”…yet I don’t begrudge having the night free.

From my denominational perch, I see churches all the time that need to choose a different future, before one is forced on them. In most cases, they should merge with a nearby church, or just close. We were talking yesterday about churches in two different states that would be better off–the people would, and the cause of Christ in those communities–if they went this route.

There are many other things that need to turn out the lights. Christian organizations. Church traditions that mean nothing to current generations. Staid service orders. Women’s mission groups (okay, now I’m in trouble). Various church committees. 

On the other hand…in today’s society, we tend to treat as changeable some things that shouldn’t change.

• If your marriage loses its spark, move on. Its “season” has ended, so admit it. Start a new season with somebody else. Wedding vows now sometimes replace “I will love and cherish you, til death do us part” with “I will love and cherish you as long as we are together.”
• If you’re unhappy with something at church, take your toys and go elsewhere. Loyalty is outmoded. Go where your needs will be met, not where you can be used by God to meet other people’s needs. 
• If a biblical teaching just doesn’t seem to work in today’s culture, or otherwise seems unnecessary to you, discard it. Watch whatever you want on TV and at the theatre. Engage in whatever sexual behavior society considers okay. Pile up debt as you pursue materialistic mirages. Don’t get too attached to biblical absolutes.
• Tithing? Treat this quaint practice as optional. You’ve got too many financial needs to part with 10% of your income.
• Smoking, drinking, pot–these are harmless. Everybody’s using them. We need to relate to our culture, so feel free to indulge.
• If you experience any doubts or turbulence in your faith, hang it up. Maybe somewhere down the road you’ll want to rediscover God, but for now, if God just doesn’t seem to be pulling his weight, say good riddance. No sense clinging to something that doesn’t work for you. Because after all, it’s not about Jesus, it’s about you. 

A few days ago I wrote about the book “A Contrarian’s Guide to Spirituality.” Today I came across an article by the author, Larry Osborne, on Catalystspace.com. It’s basically a rewrite of one chapter from that book, “Is It a Sin to be Average?” That chapter was very thought-provoking, and I’m glad it’s getting a little more play and discussion in Christian circles.

Osborne says leaders want to make everyone into a leader, a hard-charging Christian warrior who will conquer the strongholds for Jesus. But not everyone is made that way, or can be remade that way. Osborne says that in trying to make everyone in his church into a leader, “It overwhelmed my congregation and non-leader types with unrealistic and unreachable standards of spirituality. And I’m pretty sure it ticked God off…

“Like many leaders, I believed there was something seriously wrong with low-drive Christians. I tended to project my own passion and calling onto everyone else. Since I’d heard my call so clearly, I assumed anyone who didn’t share the same vision and fervor must not be listening to what God had to say.”

But he was confused by two parishioners. “Both were as godly in character as anyone I’ve ever met, and neither had a leadership bone in them….That caused me to start wondering if perhaps my definition of sold-out Christianity was seriously flawed…if there was room in the kingdom for mediocrity.” 

On the one side are driven, passionate leaders filled with a sense of urgency. “On the other side are lots of good and godly folks left to lick the wounds of countless well-intentioned but spiritually hurtful sermons, books, and seminars calling them to be something they know in their heart of hearts they can never be–and have no desire to be, if truth be known.”

Osborne concluded that churches must provide “pathways of spirituality that work for everyone,” not just for leader types. And stop making the low-drive people feel inferior and inadequate and guilt-ridden. Let them lead the totally biblical kind of life stated in 1 Thess. 4:11-12:

“Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”

When Elijah complained that he was the only real God-follower left, God told him, “No, there are 7000 other faithful people.” I suspect God included in that number a lot of people who weren’t charging the heights, but were simply living a quiet life of faithfulness. Elijah was charging up San Juan Hill. But these other 7000 were no less pleasing to God.

We do this to laypersons, castigating the “pew-sitter” for not going out and changing the world for Christ. 

We do this to churches, expecting every church to aspire to be Willow Creek. 

We do this to pastors, trying to make them all fit a particular leadership mold, rather than allowing them to be who God has called and gifted them to be. Whether you pastor a church of 50, 100, 200, or 1000, you fall short of persons pastoring churches at the next level. Is there room to value a person who our sovereign God personally selected (called), and gifted, to be a great pastor to 100 people? 

Osborne raises important issues. They resonated with me when I first read that chapter in his book over a year ago. And they resonated with me again as I read the same thoughts on Catalystspace.com.

Wanna be stretched?

An Alabama pastor, while attending the Innovate Conference in Granger, Ind., felt it was important to baptize one of his parishioners NOW. Not to wait until he returned to Alabama. So he conducted a baptism over the internet, with live video. Five days later, that girl died suddenly of an aortic aneurysm.

Tim Stevens, a pastor at Granger Community Church, tells about the baptism on his blog, and you can watch a video of the baptism. It gave me goosebumps.

Get used to this kind of thing happening. Imagine:

• A pastor conducting a wedding over the internet, though he and the couple are in different states (or continents!).
• Using the internet to dedicate the child of missionaries from your church who are serving overseas (as the entire congregation watches on a big screen).
• Accepting new members into your church over the internet.

I’m sure the advent of radio preaching drew criticisms that people were substituting the radio for actual church attendance. Likewise with TV preaching. While we can agree that gathering with other believers is what God fully desires, it’s also true that radio and TV have reached a lot of people for Christ–people who, otherwise, might never have heard the Gospel.

Now we have podcasts and video streaming of church services, so people can “attend church” at their convenience. Nurses and policemen who work Sunday mornings can download a video of the service and watch it when they can. This is a good thing.

We also have multicasting–a pastor’s message is beamed to churches in several other locations. Last October, Pam and I attended a church where the message was being seen in several locations in that facility (including their own coffee cafe).

You can argue all you want about how “This isn’t what God intended.” But though I’ll always prefer the face-to-face, I have difficulty seeing technological tools as being anti-biblical.

The Apostle Paul himself was high-tech, for his day. He used letters to instruct, admonish, and encourage. He couldn’t be there in person, so he wrote letters. Letters which were multicasted from town to town, millennium to millennium. Jesus never wrote letters (that we know of). But we believe Paul’s letters were divinely inspired.

So why can’t God, likewise, be totally present in that internet baptism?