Waiting for God's New Thing: Why Better Isn't Good Enough

In his monograph Gil Rendle talks about the difference between improving and creating and the need for the Church to do both simultaneously. The Church has to improve practices, become more efficient, streamline in order to address the needs of those who are "affiliated" with the Church. At the same time the Church must also change the way we are working, do things differently and do new things in order to address the needs of those who are "unaffiliated" with the Church. 

If you consider this paradox you will quickly see that the process to improve something is different from the process to create something new. It would be like asking Apple to create a new iPhone while at the same time create a automobile. Every local congregation that I have served in is able to do one or the other - we can either improve or create - but we are unequipped to do both at the same time. And this leads the the heart of the problem the Church faces: 

"You can't lead efforts of creating without being credentials as a leader. At the same time, it is hard for credentials credentialed leaders to see the need for the deep change of creating."

It is a feedback loop that leaves the Church stagnate. I do not know the way forward. All I know to do is wait for God's new thing and hope that I am of The Way but never in the way. 

The Cracks are a Feature Not a Fault

In 2011 Will Ferrell was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Here is the first two minutes of his acceptance speech and it is greatness.

There is a story within the Jewish tradition in which God creates the world by taking in a breath in order to contract God's self in order to make room for creation. Then the divine light was put into ten vessels and sent to creation but the vessels broke the light got out. Some of the light returned to the Source and other parts fell all over creation. We see the divine lights in stars, grains of sand and in the sparkle in the eyes of others. Human beings were created with the task to "repair the world" - Tikkum Olam. 

While it was part of a bit, when Will Ferrell dropped the award his instinct is what our instinct would be. Pick up the pieces and try to repair it. 

The Gospel is the story that says, the cracks in the world are important. When Jesus was resurrected his hands and feet were still cracked. The self-help industry see cracks as a fault. The Good News sees cracks as a feature. Jesus did not cover up the cracks in his body, rather it was the cracks that became the conduit for others to believe it all to be real. The cracks in our lives are what make us real. As it was said by Leonard Cohen, "There is a crack in everything, that is how the light gets in." 

You see, when we repair the world the self-help world will teach us that we need to eradicate the cracks, mask over them, repair them so they are gone. The Gospel says that when we do that, when we hid the cracks, we also hide the light. Repairing the world with God is about exposing light, it is about embracing the cracks and trusting that God uses the cracks to heal the world.

The cracks are a feature not a fault.

Preacher of the Month - July

In a new and ongoing effort to highlight the different voices around the United Methodist world that I live in, I would like to introduce you to Rev. Casey Orr, the Preacher of the Month (July 2015).

I invite you to also spend time to learn more about her in the full write up here.

Rev. Casey Orr