Tony Morgan thread
June 11, 2008
No complaints.
I have read Tony Morgan’s blog for a long time — you can find it here. Tony is a pastor and chief strategic officer at New Spring Church in Anderson, SC. I love that job title. Some of his posts on leadership and strategy are paradigm changing!
Tony wrote an introductory post about the wide back door of the American Church. While I find his response to the back door dilemma methodologically anemic, there’s nothing wrong with it (and it’s only one post and it’s Tony Morgan). A church is allowed to decide how to interpret its call. If you only want to save the lost then that’s an authentic biblical focus. If your leaders are equipped to disciple then what a great way for the Church to work together, to welcome those who exit the back door of their conversion church and find your front door, or at least your porch. What about those who are called to church plant? You need mature Christians to partner with you, rather than lost souls (although many would argue that point in favor of replacing “mature” with “willing”). Like I said, there’s nothing wrong with Tony’s post. I agree, we should stop worrying about the back door and tend to the fire in the kitchen.
That said, one of the commenters submitted a response that is, in my opinion, the whole problem. This response is the reason the back door is open and Christians are leaking not only out of the building, but out of the faith. This response is like a “find the errors” exercise. This post is so, so American. I posted this here, rather than on Tony’s site, because I don’t want to disparage the author, but I’ll quote it in its entirety:
I tend to agree that if we are going to err in any way, it should be in showing people THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE, so that they can experience freedom in Christ. In that context, those who already follow Christ can learn and relearn even the most basic ways to live like Him. Depth is overrated, especially when we generally don’t even get the easy stuff. For those who have mastered the basics, the responsibility is really on them (not the church) to go deeper in their faith.
How many faith/doctrinal/ecclesiological/theological/soteriological issues does this one brief post bring out for you? I won’t submit my thoughts…yet, EXCEPT there are literally hundreds of books that have been written about this.
On your mark, get set, go.
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June 12th, 2008 at 7:13 am
Okay — clearly I come at this from a different perspective, but I agree with you. In general, I think any faith community should serve first and foremost — the people who already belong to it. It doesn’t mean you should try to keep people from leaving, but if the primary focus is on finding new people what’s the point?
I realize Christianity (in general) has far greater focus on saving souls and bringing in new people than my path, so that’s one main difference here.
To me, my job as leader of spiritual community is to first serve those who have committed themselves to the community. Part of that is ensuring that the community continues to grow. Part of that is leaving the door open so they can leave if they feel we’re not meeting their needs anymore.
Seems like the idea of balance is key. It’s not a yes/no situation.
June 12th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Thanks for the comment Ketz! I agree with you. With Evangelical Christianity there is a premium we place on…well…evangelism. But I couldn’t agree more…”It’s not a yes/no situation.”
The hard work of the faith is hard work.
Sharing that faith is even harder. The rubber hits the road where the hard work of being meets the hard work of sharing. After a while it’s not so hard…it’s just being and sharing. Sounds like a pretty good life, no?