Why is it so difficult for churches to adapt to new approaches to ministry, even when those activities are clearly biblical and fruitful for the sake of Christ’s kingdom? This question has perplexed multiplied thousands of church leaders and is one I contemplated again recently in a conversation with a young man I am mentoring.
With a desire to bring a fresh work of prayer to his church, this young pastor in a small rural church changed the Sunday evening service from a teaching time to a Fresh Encounter prayer service. He did so with the full support of his church board. His heart was thrilled over the prospect of a fresh work of renewal in the hearts of the people. The prayer services seemed to be going well with fairly solid attendance.
A couple of months later, a few of the leaders asked him to discontinue the prayer times and return to the previous format. They said the people did not want to do it anymore. The pastor questioned the reasoning behind the opposition. The leaders simply said that they wanted to have a service they were “used to.” It was not that the service was not being well attended. They agreed that it was meaningful. They just wanted to keep things inside the box of another teaching service (although they already have two other teaching services during the week).
As the disappointed young leader and I talked about it, we concluded that these good church folks just wanted a predictable weekly worship routine and were content with the way things had always been.
It occurred to me that this attitude of predictability is not, and cannot be, truly spiritual. In fact, in many ways, predictability is the polar opposite of spirituality.
When I speak of predictability, I am not minimizing the need for planning or orderliness. The Bible commands, “Let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40). Even our planning, however, needs to factor in flexibility. Proverbs 16:9 tells us, “A man’s heart plans his way but the Lord directs his steps.”
The predictability I speak of leaves little room for the Lord to truly direct the next step. Instead, it gives lip service to the Lord’s real leadership, speaking of the Lord’s leadership but not wanting or allowing Him to change anything. Predictability locks in to a comfortable, mechanical approach to life and ministry that leaves little room for deviation, disruption, or change.
Three observations come to my mind as I think about the plight of predictability that tends to kill many needful, biblical, and spiritual initiatives.
Predictability is contrary to the character of the Holy Spirit – John 3:8 explains, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit." The character and work of the Spirit is not predictable. Those who are born again ought to be fully surrendered to the Spirit, yielding their human need for a predictable life.
When Acts 2:2 described the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, it says, “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.” This “sudden” (unplanned, unscripted) coming of the Spirit initiated the reality of the church that day. The entire book is best described as “The Acts of the Holy Spirit,” and is void of anything too predictable.
Romans 8:14 reminds us, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” Too many believers have settled into a predictable system of religion rather than an expectant, flexible, and biblical spirit of submission to the real leadership of the Holy Spirit in their lives, homes, and churches. The Christian life is an adventure in the Spirit, wherein our security is not found in the status quo traditions of Christian activity but in the joy of living in obedience to the Kingdom-oriented call of our living, creative, and all-sufficient Lord.
Predictability is contrary to the exercise of faith – Hebrews 11:1 offers this powerful definition: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” There’s not much that is very predictable about that description. In fact, Hebrews 11 is full of examples of “heroes of faith” who lived unpredictable lives for God’s glory. At the end of the chapter, this spirit of unpredictable obedience is captured in these words: “They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth” (Hebrews 11:38). Admittedly, that is not what most of us had in mind when we obeyed the salvation call to follow Christ – but it does speak of the need for a flexible, open-handed, and open-hearted readiness to walk in the Spirit anytime, anywhere, and any way.
Predictability is contrary to the advancement of Christ’s Kingdom – If we just take time to consider the lifestyle, yieldedness, and journeys of the great people of God in biblical history and in church history, we will find the common denominator of many unpredictable turns and tests that shaped them into real world-changers. Christ’s Kingdom advances very often, and most powerfully, in an environment of surrender to the immediate but trustworthy leadership of the Spirit.
“We’ve never done it that way before” is not a complaint heard on the lips of those who understand the leadership of the Spirit, the nature of faith, and the priority of the Kingdom of Christ. “Here am I, Lord, send me” is the cry of a trusting, Spirit-sensitive heart. May the latter be the daily default drive of our hearts and lives.
A.W. Tozer wrote that the essence of true Christianity is "spontaneity, the sovereign moving of the Holy Spirit upon and in the free spirit of redeemed men. This has through the years of human history been the hallmark of spiritual excellence, the evidence of reality in a world of unreality." He goes on to note that when our faith "loses its sovereign character and becomes mere form, this spontaneity is lost also, and in its place come precedence, propriety, system…the belief that spirituality can be organized…numbers, statistics, the law of averages, and other such natural human things. And creeping death always follows… Nothing but an internal spiritual revolution can deliver the victim from his fate." ("Beware the File Card Mentality" from the book Of God and Men.)
My prayer today is this: “Oh God, give this revolution to the congregation my young friend leads. Give it to me each day. Give it to all of us as we continue in the unpredictable adventure of following Christ.”
