By Beau Crosetto
Not all things modeled should be copied.
My wife and I were laughing about this as we watched our daughter who is 20 months trying to pee standing up because our 3 year old is now doing that.
Great idea for Noah, bad idea for Sophie.
But this funny example got us thinking about the church today and many organizations for that matter.
Many of us tend to copy straight across the board what we see modeled.
We are asking “What” are you doing instead of “Why” are you doing that?
When we ask why, hopefully we get the reasoning – the contextualization behind the idea and activity. Some great ideas work in one place but not at all in another. When we ask “why” instead of “how” we get the reason behind the practice and not just the idea.
What does this have to do with the apostolic, prophetic or evangelistic?
When it comes to being creative about mission and learning to reach people with the gospel in our ever-changing culture, we need to be better at asking “why” if we want to be effective. Some models of church have worked great for the last twenty years, but are not going to be effective moving forward. We need to examine why they worked, not just what they did.
[Note: I am not saying that we shouldn’t learn from thousands of years of history. We definitely should. I am also not saying we should always create new models. We need to be asking why and that hopefully will lead us to the right practice whether new or old.]
Stop Copying that Church
We need to stop copying across the board the way church has been done. Many of us are not thinking critically about “why” certain practices are done and how they best help us reach people in today’s culture.
What kind of church is being primarily modeled in America today? What is the model that is inspiring most people?
- Primarily centralized (everyone gathers in one place)
- Large (it better be 500 people or more or your failing)
- A charismatic leader who is great up front and can teach well
- A loud and powerful band that is very cool and hip
- A place for people to come and feel comfortable and welcome
Look, the point of this post is not to bash that model and I am not doing this. But it is important to stop and realize that this kind of church model is generally the one that is capturing our imagination. This is not necessarily bad. But what is bad is when we just copy that model across the board by running from conference to conference, book to book, asking “What are they doing? I want to do that too!” We need to stop and ask “why? Why are they doing that model and why would that work for my context or not?” That why may lead you to the right kinds of what.
Some Helpful Questions to Ask
Instead of just asking, “what is that church or leader doing?” trying asking these questions as you read about and observe different models.
- Why is that kind of church service effective in reaching neighborhoods around them? How is this church reaching the different sub-cultures and ethnic groups around them and why does this model they choose work or not?
- Why does this church use the leadership style they use? How is that effective or not in activating all people into the mission of God around them where they work, live and play?
- Why do they meet when they do and where they do? Why in that kind of building or space? How does this resemble the way that communities in the neighborhood are already naturally gathering?
So I guess this is my attempt to say, “just because your brother is standing up to pee doesn’t mean you should too.” Think about why not just what!
What “why” questions are you asking in your mission context?
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