On occasion I ponder whether we, as individual believers and as the church universally, can instinctively be our own worst enemy. The very strengths that make us influential and life impacting, when taken to the extreme, can also be the weaknesses that cause us to repel people.
We possess diversity, liberty, spirituality, unity, generosity, and opportunity, just to name a few things, and yet one way or another we find a means to muddle them all up and turn them into negatives instead of the tremendous positives that they could be.
Somehow our diversity turns into disagreement, our liberty looks more like law, our spirituality becomes spooky, our unity is perceived as cult like behavior, our generosity is cautiously viewed as conditional, and our opportunities appear self indulgent or even on occasion excessively ambitious and ego driven.
We possess diversity, liberty, spirituality, unity, generosity, and opportunity, just to name a few things, and yet one way or another we find a means to muddle them all up and turn them into negatives instead of the tremendous positives that they could be.
Somehow our diversity turns into disagreement, our liberty looks more like law, our spirituality becomes spooky, our unity is perceived as cult like behavior, our generosity is cautiously viewed as conditional, and our opportunities appear self indulgent or even on occasion excessively ambitious and ego driven.
I do not seriously consider that we deliberately set out to do this yet somehow we unconsciously continue to do so.
Why do you think this happens????
Even though it is not the result we are hoping and believing for?
© Book excerpt from 'Church, Relevant! What?' by Andrew Schaper (to be released in 2011)
