Several years ago I attended a conference in California made
up of people who had an interest in what has come to be called “the emerging church.” One session featured the pastor of a church
that was known to be committed to reaching young adults. One of the participants asked, “How long does
it take to get a new ministry going in your church?” The pastor, visibly uncomfortable and embarrassed,
fumbled around without answering the question directly. Evidently his congregation had a number of “hoops”
one had to jump through in order to begin something innovative or unusual.
In each church, there are systems that can either encourage innovation
or smother it in the crib. Very often
these are formal systems—committees, deacons, elders, or the session—that are
concerned about accountability, liability, and expense. Sometimes they are more informal entities—staff
members, entrenched leaders, or influential persons—who are concerned about
prestige, “turf,” or power.
There are no quick or easy ways to overcoming some of these
barriers. Too many churches have adopted
the perspective of the gate keeper who is concerned about keeping people out
rather than inviting them in, a desire to control rather than to bless. Very subtly our organizations can come to
believe that their primary mission is to protect and defend. Think about the major change in perspective
that would occur if the church came to see its structures as permission-giving
in nature, blessing and empowering church members to try something new and
innovative.
This is one reason that many Christian leaders, especially
young adults, have adopted an entrepreneurial mindset and established
ministries that have not been blessed by churches or denominational
judicatories and operate outside of traditional channels. They got tired of running into gate keepers
rather than permission givers.
Whenever we say to a person, “We can’t do that because . . .”
we may well be squelching the leadership of the Spirit in a person’s life and
robbing ourselves of the opportunity to see God move in an unusual way. The loss is ours because the Spirit will
prevail.
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