Please Go Away…Please Come And Stay…
If I could make one thing appear and one thing disappear in my church it would be…
Be anonymous if need be.
Los
If I could make one thing appear and one thing disappear in my church it would be…
Be anonymous if need be.
Los
RAIN IT DOWN
Go: Unshakeable certainty
Come: Mystery & humility
Passion… Apathy.
Appear: Support for those in abusive relationships – they are in every congregation. Disappear: Assumption that those less educated are less connected to God, or should be.
Go: Putting on faces
Come: Real community
Appear: A cross or two, a finite representation of who we are. Disappear: The over the top-ness.
Go: Fear – of whatever it may be for each person
Come: Boldness – To do waht we have never done before
appear: community within the congregation (that’s hard in a megachurch)
go away: church buzz words and phrases that take sincerity out of conversation.
Go: territorial churches
Come: Kingdom focus.
Disappear: Leaders in power b/c they want power
Appear: A vision for our church & the passion to pursue it
go:baseless
go: trying to figure out the formula for success.
come: commitment to hearing God’s heart for each new day.
Carlos…rather than looking at the church for one thing to appear and one thing to disappear, I would submit to you that I need to change the focus. I need to look hard at myself. Appear within myself – Love of Christ. Disappear – Love of the World.
love and relationship would appear and ego maniac pastors would disappear
Go: Pride
Come: Humility
Disappear: Leaders who run the church as a business first.
Appear: Leadership who seek God before getting down to ‘business.’
Come (again): Los
Go: Fear
Appear: Hospital mentality – there’s someone in need – find out where they are hurting and go help them, whatever it takes
Disappear: Country-club mentality/exclusivity – make sure you’re clean and refined (or just pretend), before you come in
money. that’s for both come and go.
Thanks for saying what we all were thinking Anne!
Brian M Childers: “I need to look hard at myself. Appear within myself – Love of Christ. Disappear – Love of the World.” Awesome. We don’t spend enough time looking inside to what we could get rid of to make room for what God wants to put in its place. Can you imagine if every single person in your church did this? It would be an entirely new church.
Go: the “badass pastor” mentality
Come: open hands to God
Go: All the talking and no doing
Come: Kingdom work mindsets
Our financial debt! YIKES!!!!!!!
GO: LEGALISM
STAY: HEART TO SERVE
GO: people in leadership who don’t/won’t keep their word
STAY: humility & service borne of a passion for God alone, no other reason.
I go to an open and affirming church now…but in my home church, the church I grew up in, I would wish to see homophobia / anti-gay theology go and acceptance, affirmation, and love come.
GO: traditional Sunday night services
STAY: the great leaders I work with
COME: the Holy Spirit – fire, wind, the whole Acts 2 scene
GO: banal attempts to mimic ?
Come: risk taking love
Go: even less of me
Go: Topical teaching
Stay: Biblical teaching
and could you parents please keep your sick kids home when they are sick… you won’t go to hell for missing 1 Sunday… seriously… please.
A little more emphasis on, oh, perhaps Jesus…and a litlle less emphasis on building wells et al. And if the organ imploded, I would smile.
Appear: Young, college aged people full of passion, energy, creativity and boldness for furthering God’s kingdom. But any young, collegeagers would be fine.
Disappear: Fear of embracing one identity and running with it. The myth that we have to be everything to everybody.
Ditto @mikeraburn.
Go: hierarchy, 5 min worship sets, Christian buzz words, religion . . .
Appear: longer worship sets (perhaps even stripped down sets), real relationship, passion . . .
Disappear – Christians (esp those who think church is for them)
Appear – Pretty obvious! “those who are heavy-laden” – me included
GO: Politics & Religiousness
Appear: A heart for following the TRUE Jesus, not a Jesus that we have made in OUR image, but the real Jesus. A heart for truly being the church that he calls us to be.
The keyboard playing at the beginning of EVERY sermon AND at the end. Lord, help us it drives me stinkin crazy! Who started that? Why can’t worship end, flow and announcements start and end, and the preacher come up and preach without the keys playing some mood music at the beginning of the sermon? The entire time I am thinking “give the keys guy the nod, or the “thank you” something so I can concentrate on what your saying instead of that noise. Yes, I’m bad. I know. I love music, love keys, but I just so do not get that thing my church is stuck doing. ugh! BUT actually, the campus I serve at, doesn’t always do it, SO I do have some relief now..except when I visit the main campus
As far as what to add, Break dancers before the start of each service.
Go: Large praise team that is directed as a choir and calls itself “contemporary” but really is just a choir.
Come: Openness to new ideas and visions