Pardon the Interruption: Your Church Needs It

Will you pause your Monday morning routine for five minutes to do this exercise with me?

Really stop to think.

When is the last time you experienced interruption?

I bet a person pops into your mind (a person pops into mine). Maybe it’s something else though… a signal drop while you’re navigating somewhere new, or a weather alert on TV at a critical moment in a football game, for example.  

How do you personally tend to respond to interruption?

Now, when was the last time your church experienced interruption?

Not a baby crying during a sermon or technology glitch during worship — an interruption on your current course. Something that stopped the flow of Sunday’s-always-coming.

Interruptions are woven into the fabric of Scripture:

• Moses saw a bush burning.
• Joseph had a dream.
• Esther was chosen as queen.
• Jesus halted a funeral procession.
• An angel disrupted the grieving at a tomb.
• The Holy Spirit flooded Pentecost.
• Ananias hosted a blinded murderer.
• Paul confronted Peter on thousands of years of tradition.
• And so on…

We need interruptions. But to put it mildly, most of us dislike interruptions because they jolt us. They upset the equilibrium. They force a reaction.

Ultimately, interruptions provoke us to act. They challenge us to pause and assess what’s happening, and plan a response. I’ve been sharing this for months, but without interruption, every church has the potential to go through a very similar life cycle.

I feel the urgency of this, probably because my team and I are in so many churches in any given month. Too many churches are sliding down the right side of that life cycle because they won’t allow themselves to really experience an interruption. They build high, thick walls to insulate themselves against shock and setback. They cover their ears when culture shouts back, and they close their eyes to their changing communities.

We must learn to be thankful for interruptions. God uses them to direct our hearts towards Him, to invite His scrutiny of how we spend our energy in His name.

If your church hasn’t experienced an interruption recently, there’s a good chance you need one. That’s the reason I wrote The Unstuck Church. I want your church to experience a disruption and respond as God leads you.

Are you willing to be the interrupter?