Sabbatical Insight #2

Churches Don't Outgrow Challenges

Sometimes, in a church the size of Grandview, I feel like if we only got a little bigger this or that problem would go away. If we were a little bigger we could get lots people to show up early and greet and ush and teach children. If only we were a little bigger we could accomplish more in the community.

Occasionally I would be chatting with a minister of a smaller church, though, and he would say things like, "Well, Grandview is big enough that they don't have these kinds of problems." That always made me chuckle.

This past year I visited some huge churches and realized that they each had huge challenges. Some of them needed more money to keep things running. One had plenty of money, but had just come through a tough year in which the leadership had decided that the rock band was too 80s and tried to update the music to something more contemporary--the rank and file got angry. It was a bizarre fight by the formerly avant-guard to keep the music from becoming avant-guard. One church was reaching unbelievers left and right, but they were trying to find ways to deepen a huge influx of new Christians--no easy task.

I was visiting one church in the Lexington area when I saw, in the middle of the worship service, a girl speeding back and forth through to the restroom (one presumes that was the urgency, anyway) in her new Heelies (see pic below, shoes with wheels in the heels). I remember thinking, "At least I haven't had to deal with that."You get the idea. The best we can do as a church is be faithful, tend to our own issues and refuse to pine for the problems of another church. Each day has enough worry. The next time I start to feel envious of another church that seems to "have it all together" I'll be careful to remember that the leadership of that church is probably locked in a meeting somewhere agonizing over the answer to a problem I haven't had to face yet.