How tight is our net?
A few weeks ago I wrote an entry entitled "You are welcome, but not too welcome." The article was about the tight cliques that are prevalent in our churches. Unless one belongs to the "inner circle" you are only a spectator and a dispenser of money at offering time. I have been thinking about this phenomenon a lot and have wondered what this does to the effectiveness of the church body.
Before I reflect on this problem in our churches I want to say that Ruth and I spent 5 months working with a church in Louisianna this past winter which does not have the problem that I talk about in this blog. A wonderful church where people have the opportunity to grow and are expected to grow.
Ruth and I have spent a lot of time in the past 25 years near the oceans of the world where people make their living from the sea. We have seen lots of fishing nets of various shapes and sizes. They all have one thing in common, they are made of, in some cases, miles of string or rope and these cords are attached together with knots. The knots are tied tight to create a mesh strong enough so fish and other animals can't slip through the holes.
When the disciples were called away from their nets to follow Jesus, he told them, "from now on you will become fishers of men." These men made their living by catching fish and the technique used included the use of nets.
As members of the body come together to form a local church body or congregation, they knit themselves together; tie themselves together with knots of relationships. When a local body is made up of a tight clique, you have a string of people tied together with a few tight knots. Can you imagine a fisherman going out to catch fish with a piece of rope that has several short pieces of rope fastened to it with tight knots. It doesn't look like that kind of net would be very effective in catching fish.
But, isn't that what we have in those churches where a small clique of "the chosen" have taken ownership of the church?
Then, the other question is how effective are they at catching fish? There seems to be a relationship between the quality of the net, namely the integrity of the knots and rope, and the amount of fish that are caught.
A little persecution would take care of these problems and put the priorities back in proper order.
If that is what is takes, "bring it on."
A few weeks ago I wrote an entry entitled "You are welcome, but not too welcome." The article was about the tight cliques that are prevalent in our churches. Unless one belongs to the "inner circle" you are only a spectator and a dispenser of money at offering time. I have been thinking about this phenomenon a lot and have wondered what this does to the effectiveness of the church body.
Before I reflect on this problem in our churches I want to say that Ruth and I spent 5 months working with a church in Louisianna this past winter which does not have the problem that I talk about in this blog. A wonderful church where people have the opportunity to grow and are expected to grow.
Ruth and I have spent a lot of time in the past 25 years near the oceans of the world where people make their living from the sea. We have seen lots of fishing nets of various shapes and sizes. They all have one thing in common, they are made of, in some cases, miles of string or rope and these cords are attached together with knots. The knots are tied tight to create a mesh strong enough so fish and other animals can't slip through the holes.
When the disciples were called away from their nets to follow Jesus, he told them, "from now on you will become fishers of men." These men made their living by catching fish and the technique used included the use of nets.
As members of the body come together to form a local church body or congregation, they knit themselves together; tie themselves together with knots of relationships. When a local body is made up of a tight clique, you have a string of people tied together with a few tight knots. Can you imagine a fisherman going out to catch fish with a piece of rope that has several short pieces of rope fastened to it with tight knots. It doesn't look like that kind of net would be very effective in catching fish.
But, isn't that what we have in those churches where a small clique of "the chosen" have taken ownership of the church?
Then, the other question is how effective are they at catching fish? There seems to be a relationship between the quality of the net, namely the integrity of the knots and rope, and the amount of fish that are caught.
A little persecution would take care of these problems and put the priorities back in proper order.
If that is what is takes, "bring it on."
posted by Jim Burton at 8:06 AM
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