I spent a week at the Exponential Conference, a church planting conference in Orlando FL. It pushed me and challenged me in ways I had never considered. One of the things I came away with is a quote from Alan Hirsch, he said “the church doesn’t innovate”. The more I think about that, the more i think it’s true.
Think about it, we have only had one part of the service change much, that’s the music and it’s caused huge divisions. We call it the “worship wars” over organs vs guitars. One change and we take sides, arm ourselves and begin the warfare. While the rest of the world speeds to destruction, we still fight over hymns and power point.
We spend time arguing about the building, I don’t know how we have time to invite anyone in the building. We design spaces that we like and we enjoy and then unlock the doors and wait for the people to stream in. Then we act shocked when they don’t.
We still put all of our eggs in one basket, the Sunday morning Worship Service. We haven’t changed, we haven’t innovated. I can see why, you change one part of it and it almost divides the denomination. Makes you stop and wonder what is wrong with us.
Until we figure out that the priority is making disciples, and not growing our Sunday Morning service in our brick and mortar building, we are doomed.