Not An Academic Exercise

Turn of the year, days off, how will I start out on the right footing? I made the decision to jump into my cluttered office and dig to the bottom of the stacks laying around my desk and get a CLEAN and clutter free start. Actually, it was fun going through the voluminous notes, copies of emails, articles, etc. It was hard to finish the clean up because I had to scan each and every piece for its importance. I wouldn't have saved them if they had not been important, right?? What I found were numerous articles and materials on evangelism, leadership and congregational development. Scanning these documents helped me realize the huge effort that has gone into well written, academically researched and thoughtful tomes on these subjects. As I delved deeper into these papers, I wondered, if leaders and those who follow spent as much time actually doing the work of evangelism and development as the time that has been spent writing about these things might the church not be facing the decline in attendance it is experiencing?

Have we justified not doing evangelism by writing about evangelism? Psychology and behavioral sciences have helped us greatly understand leadership and the ways that our congregations work as organizations. This is worthy and important knowledge that informs us. But does it motivate us to act and to change our familiar and comfortable ways of doing things? Maybe. I sure hope it has helped some people. But I am afraid the academic exercise of writing and studying these things assuages too much of our guilt about not getting out there and doing something. Or perhaps these academic exercises have been frustration relief valves for those of us who have the knowledge but haven't found outlets for action or have deluded ourselves into thinking that we don't, when it is really about unwillingness to do something.

I believe God is calling us to act. I believe the Good News of God in Christ doesn't have to be overly intellectualized. Evanglism is not an academic exercise. It is about modeling. It is about living a life that demonstrates what we believe. It is about saying outloud that we have experienced God's transforming love and power in very personal ways and then sharing those stories. It is about leading in ways that we know are mature and faithful, building relationships and sharing Christ's love with those we lead. It is about leading congregations into mission and ministry like never before, radically inviting and welcoming others to join in.

We can continue to write and read about evangelism, leadership and congregational development. However, by the end of 2011 all of us who assume responsibility for leadership in the church need to be able to say, "I shared, I worked, I put into action alot about what I have learned and I trust God will use it for building up the Kingdom."

Put down the articles and books. Vow to put into practice what you know and help others to do the same. Are you ready as a leader to take this challenge in 2011?