For anyone who has been a parent you can probably tell stories of when your children broke or damaged something at the most inopportune time. I was that child. I can remember being told so many stories about me as a child and only now do I realize how much money I cost my parents. Like once when I was four years old I thought I was helping my dad rebuild his Volkswagen Bug engine. Rather than helping, I added hours of work because I left a small screwdriver in the engine when he was not looking. I did this kind of stuff all the time. The most effective way for me to learn something has always been to reverse-engineer things that already work or tools that need to be repaired. To take something apart and see how and why it works is so fulfilling to me. I think it’s because it gives me the opportunity to appreciate the person who created it and it also gives me the opportunity to make it better. I understand that not everyone thinks this way but that’s part of what makes me…me. At times this quality is my greatest strength and is sometimes my greatest weakness. It can be a weakness when, rather than enjoying the moment with others around me, my mind is constantly thinking about why and how the moment is occurring. Other times it is a strength, because reversing the simplest outputs can reveal the complexity of what makes it simple. This process often reveals the intentionality and the purpose behind what was created. This is what keeps me constantly in awe of our God. He reveals Himself in simple ways, but my mind can never comprehend the complexity of an eternal, omniscient, and omnipresent God that creates something from nothing. I believe that many churches in America are facing a self-imposed dilemma. We have stopped teaching the simplicity of the Gospel and made it all seem so complex. This is especially true in our young adults. And I do not know what is worse, growing up listening to leaders like Carl Lentz, Ravi Zacharias, or Mark Driscoll and then seeing the dark side of who they really are, or current leaders that never acknowledge or call out wrongdoing by their peers for the fear of being left out. I have talked with pastors who are willing to speak candidly with me about their view of the topics shared in Honest Conversations, yet hesitant to speak publicly knowing this could lead to them being ostracized from the “influential pastors” groups. In today’s Honest Conversation I would like to discuss my journey of reverse-engineering everything about the church.
1 Peter 3:15 says, “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.” If churches are not careful about keeping the gospel simple and giving defense for our faith, we will give legs to a movement that will say it’s okay for a person to pick and choose what they like about the gospel. There has been a mass exodus from our churches, just like the hordes of people moving out of your state to go to Arizona. Why is this happening? Let’s reverse-engineer this point. For many years I worked at a church where the lead pastor’s main passion was to keep morale and momentum constantly moving. To accomplish this, the focus was always to buy, to build, and to give attendees the impression that they were part of something that made their church different from all other churches. This was a common approach that many neighboring churches used as well. It can become like a high school rivalry, “My church plays better cowbell than your church.” More cowbell! To some degree this formula works. It is transactional and gives consumer Christians the identity that they need to be a part of that church’s brand. What is shortchanged in this model is the investment in people’s lives, where believers learn and grow together in the gospel. Instead, these transactional churches often present click-bait, three bullet-point sermons that no one will remember. I was a part of an $8.4 million church budget where .002 percent of the money was spent on benevolence and barely anything was spent on content writing, pastoral care, discipleship, or ongoing missions. Why? If you reverse-engineer the objectives of many churches, the real purpose of their existence is similar to the purpose of a movie theater. You choose your favorite theater based on which one has the best reclining seats, good coffee, great music, a charismatic showman, a safe place for your children, and you get to meet your friends in the lobby. If your church is going to spend millions of dollars on a building, it will very likely be solely focused on delivering the gospel within those four walls. Just remember that the theater business is not just in the business of movies but it’s all about real-estate. Have you ever asked yourself the simple question: Why are there so many extension campuses now-a-days? We have all heard the slogan, “One church many locations.” You mean to tell me that we can’t find other lead pastors to shepherd these other churches? If opening a new campus is all about expanding the kingdom influence, why not start and build these churches and make them autonomous to their communities? Why? Let’s go deeper. In most of these multiple campus models, all of the financial giving goes to one place, under the control of the lead pastor. Rather than building new independent local churches, this model builds a bigger and bigger brand for its primary leader, as well as a bigger and bigger bank account. One of the most important questions that everyone should be asking (because many church/board members do not)… if there was a fire sale and your church’s properties were sold, where would all the money go? If your board does not know that answer and it isn’t written in the bylaws, that should be a concern.
I am reverse-engineering everything when it comes to church and leadership these days, and I have hope that good leadership will change the trend of the current church. If we don’t correct these things, we will lose the younger generation because of their exposure to these kind of unscrupulous churches. They have started to deconstruct everything about the beauty of the church because of these empty gimmicks that are no substitute for the simple gospel. Rather than choosing to reconstruct, this generation is willing to just blow it up and give up on church altogether. Data shows this trend, and we continue to ignore it. This is the ultimate scheme of the enemy. We are told to be loyal to the church rather than being encouraged to devote ourselves to the power of the gospel.
When we are not willing to reverse-engineer things, it’s often because we have stopped asking missional and accountable questions. When we stop asking the tough questions it’s so easy to get distracted by the work of maintaining momentum and keeping morale high. Remember that when there is constant pressure to create momentum there are always short cuts that leaders are willing to take. The gospel does not do that, there is always an eternal purpose for what God wants to do in His people. Just remember that God does not care about our towers or our sacrifices, and He has a lot to say about religious leaders taking advantage of the less fortunate. It’s not my story to tell but I have seen this happen, and it will never be worth the short cut just to build another church building. What good is it to write scriptures on the walls while constructing your new building unless you are willing to use the truth of those Scriptures to repent, restore, and rebuild the lives of those who have been run over by their church leaders or “dropped off at the train station”. Most likely this kind of repentance will never happen because these kinds of leaders know that people have short memories and that if they dig their heels in long enough people will forget about past wrongs and just move on to the next thing. Reverse-engineering is not deconstruction. It is worth doing. It’s necessary for a leader to be willing to look at what they’ve participated in creating and perpetuating. It’s good to look back and ask oneself, “What was my intention? Did I take any shortcuts? How have I treated people? Did I keep it simple?” And just like we see in 1 Peter 3:15 honoring God by presenting the gospel with gentleness and respect.
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