In thinking about mottos last week, it occurred to me how easily we come to focus on the wrong things. We start out with good intentions (serve/please God, reach people, engage culture, use the tools and media available to us, etc.), but part of being human is getting it wrong sometimes. In COLLIDE’s relatively short lifespan we’ve gotten it wrong several times and goals as magazine publishers are much less ambitious, complicated, and involved as your goals as a church leader. All that to say, we all make mistakes. If you agree, let’s proceed.
As we talk about all of the media resources and technology at the disposal of churches around the world, it’s your responsibility as a church leader to constantly evaluate and discern the value of these tools and resources as they relate to your ministry and mission. For instance, the leader of a missional, urban community in downtown Los Angeles might have a personal interest in the technology behind Internet church campuses, but to invest his church’s resources in a technology that doesn’t fit with the church’s ministry and mission in downtown LA would be a mistake on that pastor’s part, right? His noble commitment to innovative ministry resulted in a poor leadership decision.
Sometimes our desire to relevant/innovative/cutting edge/current can result in church services that embody all of those characteristics (woohoo!) and yet don’t connect people with God in any meaningful way (d’oh!). We are groundbreaking but not life-changing. We achieve the wrong verbs. What, you may ask, are the right verbs? I have a few ideas (some of which have a cool alliteration thing going on).
Demonstrate, don’t demand.
Reveal, don’t distract.
Engage, don’t entertain.
Proclaim, don’t produce.
Invite, don’t invade.
Lead, don’t lag.
Teach, don’t tell.
That’s my quick list. What right verbs (and wrong verbs) can you add to it?