When I read about the shower thing I tried to change the process and I found it very humorous. I had to really think about what I was doing. It actually messed my day up because I was not able to just think about what was going on that day while I was showering. I have since experimented with this but find it much easier to just let process of the shower happen. How many time have you drove to work and it was like an auto pilot was driving, you arrive at work to almost a surprise jolt when you come to a stop in your “normal” parking spot. I have sometimes been heading in the same direction I go to work going someplace completely different only to make the turn to go to work anyway like it was CALLING ME.
Process is not a bad thing. We live in a world of processes. We pay our bills on or by and given date (hopefully). We have set time to get oil changes on our cars. We go to work, eat, and sleep based on processes. It starts in childhood and goes through school years everything is done in process. I mean even God set up day and night design. So why do I say we are addicted when it seem totally normal? The main reason is our culture is shifting they are trying to stop the process of things while many especially in the church are not willing to let go of their processed ways.
The generation of running the rat race ended with the boomer generation (apx. 1950 to 1960) as they went in to society they wanted things processed they needed to have control over every aspect of their life including there faith. Life was set to a schedule and change was only good if you planned it. Then Gen-X comes along and we lived in modern process but we start asking if there is any reason that we had to follow the processes? We start teaching our children think for your self, discover your own paths and truths. Yes, we still have a very processed world but it is changing fast.
To illustrate what I mean lets look at work dress codes. In the past it was suite and tie for men and dresses and blouses for woman. Then the ties with no jacket for men and dress pants made it in for women. Then polo shirts and Dockers for the guys and a wide verity of dress for women was the rule. Now we have business casual. “In general, business casual means dressing professionally, looking relaxed yet neat and pulled together”1 this according to Monster.com is the correct way now to dress. Times and processes change that is a fact but can we stop being addicted to process.
In over all life I would argue no, but the post-modern generation and those with that mind set are trying to do just that. If we look at the world around us it has become a place full of Relativity, everything is relativity to the moment in which it happens. If a man steals a TV in this time of relativity we have to look at all the factors around the moment not just the robbery. What was the “true” motive, was there a psychological issue, was the home owner at fault for being in the careless? Gone are the days of the robber is guilty, period.
To have absolute answers you must have absolute truth and in an age of relativity that seems imposable. I heard the head of Rush Communication, which owns a massive media empire reaching the post-modern generation, on TV last night saying the all we have to do is see that we are all the same and no matter what religion we are we are all finding “God” in our own way. He said that anyone that says their religion is better than another is out of touch with the world and needs to let go and expand their view to a higher consciousness.
You see we boomers, busters and even early Gen-Xer’s have pushed the process in religion so far that we have by accident alienated people. We say, and so we should say, that Jesus is the only way to heaven. The thing is many think that for this message to get across we have to have a church building and a seminary trained preacher to tell people why we say that. We need to have the work of the kingdom done by “trained” or processed people. They are the ones the “know” how to lead people to God. Our churches are set up for 1hr to 1:15 minutes and it is choreographed most of the time in perfect process. I head my fifteen year old niece say “church is like fast food it taste ok but nothing last with you.” That is scary to ME!!
Now no matter how unprocessed we get there will always be underlying processes but I think a couple of the keys to see things change is:
1 - We must stop thinking that only people who are “trained” can work for God. We each have our own sphere of influence ---
With in these spheres WE are the ones that can make a difference. We can not wait until we can bring a processed trained person in to our individual world. We must believe that God has each one of us here and now to be His representatives to those we can influence. You see I think it is a mistake that we treat the church as a “self” and that IT has a sphere of influence. The individual is what makes the church and it is the individuals that will impact the world around us with the truth of the Gospel in a relativity based world.
2 – The second key I believe in is releasing the “absolute” process out of the church. This means being much more organic in the flow of a gathering or service which ever word you like better. We know we will have music and we know we will hear a word from the “pastor” and we know we will have prayer in it. We know that normally we run about an hour(ish). However, we must also let it be known that at any given time music could be the whole gathering, or maybe the word takes most of the time, maybe prayer will be the call of the day. It is the flowing non-absolute process that we must embrace in order to teach truth to a world that is relative.
Our gatherings must also be relative in that we must allow God to work in the moment how God wants to. The bible says that our path of salvation is individual and that we must work it out for ourselves. It is our over all job to be God to people and then allow each moment to be “relative” to the person(s) on how he wants to work not how we like to Him to work based on our process.
The easiest way for us to lose the prepackaged processed God is to learn to LOVE and converse with people that think in relativity. If we can influence people and talk with them about what we believe is “truth” then every conversation becomes a opportunity for God truth to get into a person and His truth is what will being change not our process. Relative people still hunger for something to believe in but when nothing seems real than nothing will be real. That is our challenge, to be real and loving until God works in His own relative way (which brings them to the truth in Him) to the person whom we are friends with and love right where they are.
Reference : 1 - http://content.monster.com/articles/3491/18152/1/default.aspx
No comments:
Post a Comment