Kevin posted a couple thoughts on “one shotters” and the natural vs. supernatural over the past few days and I thought I would add a little to those thoughts. It seems that we receive a lot of criticism because we plan like crazy and implement systems to make sure those plans can be carried out as smoothly as possible. The common complaint is that we are not allowing God to have a say in what is done. We pray and plan and sure enough someone will speak up and say, but what if God wants to do something that Sunday? What? Of course He wants to do something that Sunday, that’s the whole reason we are doing this. If God wasn’t planning on doing something either would I.
Because we are meeting at a movie theater we have certain time constraints and one of the things that I hear rather regularly is the question, how can we only have 60 minute services? What if God wants to do something more that doesn’t fit in that neat little package? Well, I guess He’s going to have to save it for next week is my usual response. I know someone is going to object to my last remark but my point is God knows what arrangements were made and God wants us to be respectful to the owners of the theater. If God wants to do more He is not confined to our 60 minute program nor is He confined to Sunday morning. Those against the church that plans seem to miss that God is a part of the planning process. God isn’t waiting until Sunday morning to spring it on us. That isn’t to say that God doesn’t mix it up occasionally to demonstrate something to us, it’s just that God wants us to work together for a “common” goal instead of just throwing a bunch of unrelated elements into the pile and make him sort it out.
If you are a part of the process of a Sunday morning service have you ever walked away going, “That was really cool how God made the music and the message fit together and we didn’t even plan it.”? I can hear God now saying, “PLAN IT! Stop leaving it all to me. You do your part and then allow me to make it actually work.” My point is that we do not entertain for one moment that all of our planning can accomplish anything without the hand of God. That is why we work with Him and not against Him on the planning, process and implementation of His great commission. There is a video that I believe illustrates this perfectly. As you watch it remember that with all our planning, we are simply the instruments but God is the composer.
[youtube]JzqumbhfxRo[/youtube]
I would say there’s certainly nothing wrong in any of this. However, be aware that some people (like myself) will choose to go to a church where the precise sequence of events/message/etc. is often rearranged by the Spirit and the end time is open-ended and people in the congregation can share stuff at times if appropriate. Obviously, the flip side is also true — some people will choose to go a church where the theme and the schedule is more closely adhered to and the end time is generally written in stone. Some people will want some kind of mixture of both. That’s why we have different church families, right? 🙂
So keep pursuing the vision God has given you, and just tell people who criticize that they’re welcome to go to or start a church that does things differently. As Mark Batterson likes to say, criticize by creating. 🙂
Jared, I agree with you. It takes all kind of churches to reach all kinds of people.