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a new future vs. the established past.
you know that feeling of helplessness and hopelessness that seemingly comes from nowhere overtaking your very being as you stare at a particular situation knowing that you are powerless to affect change…
i wonder if this is the reason why all of our dreamers die, why all of our idealogue’s fade into oblivion… the suppression of the visionary in favor of the status quo, the “proven”, the “workable”, until ultimately one of two things occur: conformity or burn-out.
this is the battle of our times, this is the biggest conflict taking shape within the church as the younger generations rise up to challenge the established structures and ecclesiology of the past striving to reignite the passionless church in the hopes of bringing about an impassioned church that’s heart beats to make a difference in the world on a large scale–not just a 25-mile radius surrounding a building.
too often our dreamers and visionaries are met with contempt, or with a judgmental shake of the head conceding a young naivete, or even with words resembling, “someday you’ll learn… someday you’ll get your head out of the clouds and back down to reality.”
it seems that the only “visionaries” alive in the established church are those that have been able to successfully install the cookie-cutter systems of church, whether the saddleback or willow creek model and add a touch of their own “flare” to the system. i wonder if this has been the trend because of fear… fear of failure. if the pressures of the leadership and of other peers in ministry have contributed to this atmosphere of “success” forcing pastors towards the “proven” methods and models of a “successful” church.
i wonder what would happen if leadership teams created an atmosphere of “allowed failure” so that visionaries could flourish. a place where failures were expected as massive risks were taken in order to further the kingdom of God. (side-note: are calculated risks really risks?) i wonder what would happen if visionairies and idealogues were allowed a voice in the established church… maybe then there wouldn’t be the schism that is occurring between the established church and the emerging church. maybe then the church could come together as a united movement instead of the sects and segments that continue to develop and form throughout the body… could you just imagine what a united church could do? (i think Jesus knew [John 17]…)
but then again, i’m just a dreamer, an idealogue striving for an idealist state for the church… so continue with your disdain, your shakes of disapproval, and your hopes that someday i’ll come down to reality–someday you might just win… but not today.
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