I’ve actually shared this one in several conversations over the past couple of years but if there’s one thing I continue to learn about the church it is this: “we are not that smart.” Yeah, I know, big shock to those of you who don’t fancy yourselves “paid church staff.” You know us pastor-types well and know this one is true! In all seriousness, what I see too often is [church] staff trying to plan, strategize and “figure it out” to death, failing to call on the most powerful and wise force in the universe. Scripture teaches us that “as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God’s ways higher than man’s ways and God’s thoughts than man’s thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9. The sun is roughly 92,955,887.6 miles from the earth and it is the CLOSEST star to the earth in our galaxy. So, I guess God’s thoughts are like 93 million times better than ours…hmmm.
I’m not saying that church staff shouldn’t plan, strategize and use their God-given intellectual capacity to do God’s work (He did give us flesh, blood and a brain, after all) but what I am saying is that when we forget to involve God’s thoughts, we are toast. This manifests itself in every part of church from programming, to staffing, to the Sunday morning message. I have seen many pastors work tirelessly on a message, full of video clips, interviews, and dances and yet I leave wondering what it was really about. Often the pastor feels like he has to connect every dot for every person forgetting that there are well-adjusted, educated people in the audience that are capable of following along. That is not meant as a shot at preachers (I’m very guilty of this one!) but I think much can be learned from teaching the Bible directly and just weaving your story into the story of God. That can often be more difficult and it takes more transparency, but it is honest and honesty and God’s Word can go a long way to impacting a life…
So church staff, remember, we aren’t that smart. Oh, and for the record, you non-church staff people, you aren’t that smart either. : – ) . God’s ways are always higher and better. Let’s lean into that first.
Tomorrow, the second part of this post: We aren’t that smart and we aren’t that ______ either. Come back tomorrow and I’ll fill in the blank.
Well one of the things that I’ve seen most often that show pastors aren’t that smart (your phrase, not mine) is that they try to talk to people about getting along in worlds that the pastors themselves rarely operate in. Like how many pastors come in contact with non-Christians on a regular basis for significant amounts of time? How many of them know about life outside of “church world”?
Well…thanks for stopping by and for pointing out something critical for pastors to do…stay in touch with what the world is doing/saying/thinking/learning…etc.
while i can certainly grow in this area, one thing i love to do and will continue to do is to teach at a local university. i get to have meaningful conversations and discussions with people every week who don’t share my world view. It is very very good for my spiritual development and growth. I’ve often said that if we as followers of Christ are not having conversations with non-Christians often then we are NOT experiencing the life Christ has for us…it just isn’t possible to life a full life if we aren’t engaging the world.
thanks again for the comment and the insight!
My father tried to teach me at a young age that the best way to learn was to not pretend that I already knew it all… It took way too long for the Wisdom of his words to sink in. God gave us two ears, two eyes and one mouth for a reason. Unfortunately, we don’t always learn why until the bile backs up to our tonsils, but sometimes we get an early reprieve from our own foolishness, or misdirection. Pastors live in the same world, they have just made the choice to ‘lead’, hoping some will follow.