The Hsu’s Views

…is what the opposite of leading from the center would be. I resonated with Drew Goodmanson’s post entitled, “You Can’t Program the Gospel.” He comments,

“If church leadership creates a program and tells people they should attend, it is not the gospel.”

Religion thrives on the notion of “oughta.”  At times it can feel as though our churches expect our participation in its various programs.  Our participation in frequency and fervor is an example of our maturity in Christ. The Gospel is more of a “wanta” deal. Our experience of God’s grace drives us wacky with a desire to serve him.

Drew comments that program driven churches lead from the center. And with that approach, you wind up with people that have to execute the “program” that the pastor feels led to do (”oughta”). This can deaden the ability for people to hear and follow the leading of the Spirit in people’s lives. If however, we foster, encourage and support the people who have a passion for a particular ministry, we release them to the ministry that they are burdened with (”wanta”).

I bet church works better this way.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 18th, 2007 at 6:46 am and is filed under Leadership, Mercy, Organizational Theory, Social Concern. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.