We live in an age that demands instant, painless solutions to everything. Speed is everything. Rather than diet and exercise we crave the injection or pill that will solve our obesity problems. Hours are spent examining the off-the-shelf quick fixes to financial woes. Give me pre-digested, analysed and interpreted news, so I can know what to think without thinking. If the supplier cannot provide the immediate, painless answer then someone else will, and I'll take my business there.
Christians and the church are not immune to this attitude of our age. I see it in the demise of the church weekend away. We have gone from a weekend away, to a weekend away where we stay at home and meet in the church building, to a day together, and finally a morning event. Conference preferences have moved from long weekends to normal weekends, to day conferences.
The problem with the quick fix, instant solution is that the transformation that God is doing in His people is a lifelong activity. We are commanded to take up our cross daily. The effect of being an example to others takes time. There is no simple inoculation or activity that makes growing in godliness immediate and painless.
What are we to do about it as partners in God's activity in His church? Do we go with the flow; assume that we must give the consumer what they desire? To do that is to devalue the benefit of perseverance and to assist people in distorting priorities. And yet we must be realistic. It is getting harder and harder to accommodate long term, time consuming tasks in our busy lives.
A possible way forward is to think about how we are helping each other grow over time. It is thinking process rather than event. Let me explain.
If we are having a one day conference at church on the topic of church, it is usual to think about the event we are conducting on that day. But what if we were to be involved in the process. Bible study groups in the weeks leading up to the conference could look at what the Scriptures say on church. Some people with artistic flair could produce a vox pop on what people think about church. We could brainstorm all the concepts that are associated with the idea of church and examine their interactions. Every ministry in the church could work out what they contribute to congregational life. After the event, some of these issues can be revisited and sharpened up as a result of teaching. Every person and group could think through what they will do as a result of the teaching day, and then the next few months could be spent preparing for and training in serving others as a result of thinking about church.
I have noticed the extraordinary changes that occur in people who have returned from church missions in places like India and Africa. The event has a huge effect upon them, but the effect is intensified by the planning, preparation, praying and training that occurs before the mission, and the on-going ministry that the group engages in after the mission.
Jim Ramsay tells of the way the men's ministry at MBM Rooty Hill recently organised a men's breakfast for the Woodville Road parish, and as result Woodville Road will soon be conducting their own men's breakfast. I am sure the preparation that the MBM men put into the event was not only a great blessing, but something which strengthened the faith and ministry of those men. Maybe your church should look at conducting some form of ministry in another church?
What I am suggesting is that we think through how we can best use an event for long term change in our lives. There are many ways to do this, but one thing I am sure of is that every event should be thought of in terms of how we can be best prepared for the event and how what we have learnt from the event can be put into practise immediately.
We live in the day "fast turn arounds" and "instant gratification". Let us think through the process before and after the fast turn around, instant gratification event to help people to greater maturity.
By way of a shameless plug, I chair the KC+ convention over the long weekend in October. Our goal is to use this event to enable congregation members to more and better involved in ministry as soon as they return home from the event. For more information on this convention visit [url=http://www.kcplus.kcc.org.au]http://www.kcplus.kcc.org.au[/url]
