Thursday 6 December 2007

Jesus' teachings are not complex & easy but simple and hard

So, it all feels a bit complex. I'm looking for easy solutions thinking 'how can I solve the problems I face'?
I've got a church with no building, a people who want to go but don't quite know where to go (hey, but wanting to go is half the battle). A vision and strategy that runs out in 2008 so a new vision needed! Many of the trappings of English church life and a mixture of forced change (building not suitable for worship) and chosen change (a decision to worship in HGS).
Oh, and there are people wondering if God is calling them to join us and others hearing God's call to 'go' and getting a vision and pursuing it. Then there is the issue of managing the change, supporting great things already happening... Oh and did I mention the other small matter of another church I have responsibility for and the need to lead them to a decision regarding their building and where and how they are to live and worship as a community in the meantime and into the future?
No wonder 2 months in I feel like collapsing in a corner and becoming an introvert for a while!
Well, lets resist the temptation of that corner for a moment. Things seem incredibly complex and our instinct is to hunt for the magic wand that will solve it all - that's the easy and frankly impossible way (mind you, I reach for that magic wand all the time!) The way of Jesus lets us off from seeking a magic wand to flourish at our complex problems. Instead we are called to the radical simplicity of the kingdom way which contains hard things (what could be more counter-cultural than simply living like Jesus?) and a simple approach - love like Jesus, live like Jesus and lead like Jesus.
There are many things that are complex, that present me with problems that come over as intractable. But I am actually called to a change of mind - to see the simple and knuckle down to the hard way but actually what amounts to the best way.

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