A Better Way to do Church?
I found the following post over at Lee Iwan's site. Lee often posts business related information that pertains to being more productive, increasing customer base, dealing with people in a work setting, etc.. I find this interesting because we often invoke the "business model" in the church. We want to measure our productivity by counting the number of new members we have, we try to increase the number of members by becoming "seeker friendly" which is just a rip off of user friendly, and we adopt all manner of crazy marketing strategies to get people in the door. Quite frankly, I'm sick of it. But, if we're going to keep the church in this paradigm, we may consider a few changes.
Lee suggests a new strategy for managing actual businesses and I wonder, if we are going to adopt the business model for the church, why can't we adopt innovative management strategies too? Do you think this method would work in the Church?
Please note: I have not read, nor do I recommend the book referenced below.
Successful managers should be breaking the rules September 14th, 2006
Hell, there are no rules here - we’re trying to accomplish something. Thomas A. Edison
I’ve found the most successful and exciting environments to work, study or play in are those with “no rules”. Environments that are open and flexible and not strictly controlled with things you can’t do. It’s exciting to be in these situations, inspiring, sometimes a bit scary, but always memorable.
Rosa Say has a brilliant read for all managers about how the use (or abuse) of rules often limits our creativity and enthusiasm. What are the Rules? Hopefully, none. “No rules” requires clear objectives and goals.
- “No rules” requires planning.
- “No rules” requires discipline and commitment.
- “No rules” demands responsibility for actions and outcomes.
- “No rules” is about inventing process. Creating and forming the process required, or desired, in order to get the job done and reach the objective.
- “No rules” is about allowing creativity and innovation into every decision that brings us closer to our objectives.
- “No rules” is about questioning the status quo in order to explore new and different solutions and methods.
- “No rules” is about accepting and integrating new ideas.
- “No rules” is about tolerance and examination of new concepts.
- “No rules” is about getting excited and energized by every life or work experience.
If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you’ll be amazed at the results. George S. Patton
What do you think? Would this work in the Church? Why or why not? Can Christians be trusted to live with "No Rules"? Is a life without rules biblical?
posted by Scott at 7:29 AM
7 Comments:
"...might the signs of our faith be the prosperity of others?"
hey scott- thanks for dropping by the northVUs site. your comment was engaging.
Ecclesiastical anarchy!! Yes! It's the only way to unleash creativity! Now the trick is to foster an environment for such chaos.
I love the Edison quote!
If a church would be a place where people could come together and encourage each other through open interaction, I'd be there all the time. But they don't have time for that, they're too busy singing songs and listening to someone tell them what to believe. I already know what I believe, now I would like to share it with others... not sit quietly while I am forced to be an audience to a christian performance.
What do you think? Would this work in the Church? Why or why not? Can Christians be trusted to live with "No Rules"? Is a life without rules biblical? (Scott)
I think it can work, in some aspect anyways...we still will need vision and a way to get there but we should be free and open in our idea's (not closed minded as church comes off these days). Some things have to be a background (ex: Jesus is the Messiah, we respect these teachings, etc) but I think how we develop in our communities doesn't have to be cookie-cutter (we should reflect the variety within our walls). By this I mean, we know what we believe but we need to express it the way we so choose, I personlly like rap in services and developing programs for the 'oppressed' in our communities. But let's develop in this current era as a functioning faith that can meet people where they exist.
The 'no rules' thing can't work because we'd be throwing out what we believe (morally) and no one does that, except business which I think is absolutely distasteful towards humanity. I think the business ideal needs to be scraped, to be brutally honest, since we are not a business nor do we sell our faith (or shouldn't be). I am disgusted with some business trends the church has adopted (capitalisitic) and I'll name a few specifics:
(a) I went to Keith Green's site to see if I could download his music (to peruse) and they want me to pay for it? I found all of Steve Taylor's music for free and he makes no qualms about it, but apparently if your message is real good (and can sell) then CMA will make you 'buy' it. Two words and I can't say them here.
(b) How come someone can be saved for free but a good bible costs like $30.00 or more? The better the message the more people will pay for it I guess. I read Gideon's bible's (since they are free) and I will never pay for a bible ever again...not even under gun-point! I think it's time to start turning over tables of people capitalizing on something they never wrote.
(c) The church is a weird and dis-proportionate power structure. You have the pastor (ceo), music team (entertainment), a board (business directors), and a crowd (customers). I see a seperation of church leadership and the people in the crowd...the crowd has little to no voice whatsoever. That's a business and that is not a church anymore (a collective whole). It's not cool and it is showing failures now.
So scrap business models and the idea our faith can be bought and sold, it's so un-Christian it hurts to watch it these days.
The 'no rules' thing can't work because we'd be throwing out what we believe (morally) and no one does that, except business which I think is absolutely distasteful towards humanity. (Societyvs)
Now this may be a semantic argument but why can't we live without rules? I tend to find rules ill equipped to accomplish the works that Christ encourages. I think Christ lived by principles. Principles are to love one’s neighbor. Rules are don’t let your dog crap on your neighbor’s grass. A principle might be to love God while a rule that imitates the principle might be that I must go to church on Sunday.
This is something I've been struggling with because I have recently gone through a time where I shunned rules and have really had to depend on Grace. This was a direct result of living a structured, legalistic existence for about five years. I hated it.
So, when I started to investigate the nature of grace, it led me to avoid rules and perhaps even do some things that weren't the right thing to do. C'est La Vie.
Nevertheless, one of the things that I’ve depended on during this period is that my life didn't need to show the "signs of a believer's life" as defined by a modern church. In fact, if I felt like it I was doing something “churchy,” as I call it, it was a first sign that it wasn’t right. However, I’m now starting to consider my behavior and actions in a different light. Not a “be good so god will love you” line of reasoning but a” god loves me what would he have me do” mentality. A point of caution here: I am very afraid of falling back into that old mentality and will forgo any semblance of churchiness in order to avoid it.
I guess this is long way to go to say that I don’t like rules, they suck! I do however have principles. Living according to those principles is a horse of a different color.
I guess I agree with you on the principles idea like 'loving your neighbor' can take many forms and not just a few. I actually agree with you more than you think, I have some of the same attitudes towards religious churchiness...a slight disgust for it and the 'show' of it. So I agree with you, how do you think I came to my viewpoints? By leaving church in the first place after I was indoctrinated to get undoctrinated. Now I am back to see a change for the better and I won't settle for the same things I see in church (that churchiness BS). I think you are doing the right thing by questioning, and your love for others will not allow you to leave them in the dark either.
Societyvs, thanks for the support. It's interesting how people go throught the church "grinder" and come out on the other end with a completely different perspective than we have.
It's clear that you and I have had a similar experience, I'm just not sure that I have the same hope for changing the church that you do, atleast not yet.
Sometimes I feel like Jesus's metaphor for his followers being sheep is true in more ways than intended. I often feel like I've been fleeced when I'm involved in church activities.
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