Tony recently wrote a series of posts on just how predictable our churches have become. It received a strong response. If you missed those articles, check them out here:
- Predictable: It Feels Like I Am Attending the Same Worship Service Every Sunday
- Predictable: 9 Reasons Your Church Services Are Stuck in a Rut
- Predictable: 4 Biases to Promote Creativity and Make Services More Engaging
- Predictable: 9 Practical Challenges for Church Leaders
- Predictable: A Final Challenge to Youth Pastors
In closing, we felt it important to make sure a few points are clear:
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Becoming an unpredictable church doesn’t mean you have to become a “hype and shock” driven-church.
You can commit to making things regularly different without having to “one-up” yourself every time you gather. It’s more about building a culture that expects the unexpected and values creativity. Which leads to the second point…
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Predictability breeds apathy in a church.
This is so much more than an “entertainment value” problem. A dedication to prayer and creativity will lead to compelling experiences that attract people without the hype. Think about your own life. What happens when things become too predictable in a marriage, in a fitness routine, in your time with God, in your responsibilities at work? It becomes extremely tempting and all too easy to let our level of commitment slip, to stop giving our all and to find excuses. We start winging it, or worse, faking it.
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Jesus was unpredictable.
Our God has used a whale, a talking donkey, a burning bush, pillars of fire, parables, the cross, and more to connect with people. Jesus was completely unpredictable. He rubbed mud on a blind man’s eyes, had meals with religious leaders He also rebuked, and sometimes told people He healed to keep quiet about it. You could always count on Him to honor God, but you couldn’t really count on Him to ever do things the same way. He wasn’t married to a method or anyone’s expectations. He was intimately connected to the heart of His Father.
I love a statement I’ve been hearing a lot of church leaders use lately. I’m not sure where it originated but it goes something like this:
“We’ve got to fall in love with why we do Church instead of how we do Church.”
The why is beautiful and is rooted in the love of a creative God who will do whatever it takes to reach people where they are. Let’s allow Him to continue to challenge our conceptions of how to best love Him and love others. If we invite Him to be unpredictable in our lives as leaders, who knows what walls He will tear down in our churches.
