Cautions for the Church in Transition

The Church across America is in transition. There are so many ideas of what makes an effective church. It makes you dizzy. In a given day, two people may share a thought with me about how we could really make our church what it should be. It‘s not uncommon for those thoughts to be diametrically opposed. My eyes and ears are open to people who speak out of a Biblical world view, are Spirit directed, but also recognize that the culture has changed. Therefore, the way we do ministry must stay fresh, and will need to be altered. But yellow lights should flash for us when we travel down that road. As more and more is thrown our way, leaders must navigate the pulls in all directions. How do we effectively balance transitions, and find the Spirit’s direction?

Recently I caught some thoughts from Wayne Cordiero, from New Hope Community Church in Hawaii. Those thoughts appeared on the "Currents" page (page 11) of the Summer 2005 issue of Leadership magazine, published by Christianity Today. Wayne Cordiero’s thoughts capture the careful balances so needed in our run-to-a-new-idea culture, that has slipped into the Church.

Leadership called them "A Leader’s Oxymorons".
>> To stay current, stay ancient.
>> To move forward, remain anchored.
>> To serve more people, get alone more.
>> To accomplish more, do less.
>> To be more fruitful, prune.

Now, that’s helpful.