Nightmarish church leadership meetings!

Recently, I endured a four-hour meeting of our church’s leadership team. It’s a monthly nightmare where everyone on this twelve-person team puts forward their ideas to “improve” the church by adding programs, fixing potential problems, tweaking this and that, disbursing financial support, and discussing the merits of strange new pursuits that might be the magic bullet to revitalize the church’s health. I am not exaggerating when I say that I think this group is the closest thing to a perpetual motion machine ever developed! It could go for days, as long as someone would put food/drink on the table and allow time for bathroom breaks.

I will be so glad when I’m off this ridiculous leadership treadmill. But this is what happens when “the church” moves beyond the New Testament model of intimate, relational gatherings for food and encouragement; and pursues life in the fast lane, with buildings, large weekly gatherings, massive programs, and the necessary infrastructure to manage it all with the attention these sort of things require.

Earlier that day, I met up with a brother in Christ who is pursuing the same like-minded journey that will eventually lead us “outside the box.” We didn’t have to “open in prayer,” conduct a devotional reading from the Scripture, attend to “old business,” follow a carefully-prescribed agenda, vote on whether we should sit inside or enjoy the sun on my patio. We just met together and encouraged one another in the Lord. The time flew without fighting sleep or counting ceiling tiles.