We all want to work towards the health and vitality of our churches. This leads many of us to take a missional approach to our ecclesiology, wondering how to lead, and constantly asking ourselves, Where do we see God alive, well, and active in our communities? We ask this fundamental question so that we can better join the mission of God in our neighborhoods. But the troubling question that continues to emerge in our post-covid church world is this: How do we join God on mission if we aren’t sure where God is taking our church?
Skate To Where The Puck Is Going
I recently read a great article in Fuller Seminary Magazine on Renewing the Church by Tod Bolsinger. In it, he highlights the problem of being unable to see where God is taking the church using a hockey analogy. Wayne Gretzky, widely considered the greatest of all time, attributes some of his greatness to a maxim that his father taught him: “Don’t skate to where the puck is, skate to where it is going to be”. Leadership gurus all over the world have repeated this maxim, seeking to anticipate the direction and speed of the puck, and getting there first.
Bolsinger points out that the speed of change and disruption of these past years was unimaginable when Wayne Gretzky played hockey. He writes, “After two decades of technical acceleration, globalization, health crisis, geopolitical turmoil, racial turmoil, and deep cultural division, most leaders would admit that skating to where the puck is going feels pretty impossible–the game now seems to have fourteen pucks going in fourteen directions” (38).
It is hard enough for church leaders to understand the present moment, let alone predict the future, with so many variables at play. If we can’t see what God is up to around us, how do we join God on mission?
The Humble Leader
Bolsinger wisely points us to the story of Jehoshaphat, in 2 Chronicles 20, in which a huge army, made up of three different enemies, amassed against the king of Judah. He gathered the families of Judah together and they cried out to God for help. It is astonishing that Jehoshaphat stood before his people and publicly admitted that he didn’t know the way forward. In a unique moment of vulnerability, he admitted that he didn’t know what to do. The king wasn’t the expert, but rather the chief learner. He brought the people together, and together, they sought after God in order to be fit for the challenge that they faced.
I am inspired by this kind of leadership in an era where most leaders point the finger away from themselves, or pretend to have all the neatly packaged answers for seemingly unsolvable problems. What would it be like for us to embrace this sort of vulnerability and accept the truth that sometimes, we simply do not know?
Story of Transformation
One of the formative stories that shaped our church’s ecclesiology when first planted back in 2013 came from reading the historian Rodney Stark’s Triumph of Christianity. This story took place during a plague, which seems fitting for our season today.
One of the great innovations that helped Christianity spread like wildfire during this time was the simple, yet profound, idea of mercy. Rodney Stark says, “In the midst of the squalor, misery, illness, and anonymity of ancient cities, Christianity provided an island of mercy and security. Foremost was the Christian duty to alleviate want and suffering.”
In the pagan religious world, the idea of a merciful and caring God was unthinkable. No one knew how to treat the sick and dying, so most people fled. At the first sign of symptoms, victims were thrown onto the streets to fend for themselves. Dead bodies quickly piled up.
But when everyone else fled, the Christians stayed behind to care for the sick and dying. It’s said that they potentially reduced the mortality rate by as much as two thirds. This did not go unnoticed by their non-Christian neighbors. Stark notes that sometimes these Christians were even called “miracle workers.” Imagine that! This story gives me incredible hope for the church in our plagued days!
In times of great uncertainty, church leaders tend to focus inward on their own survival, when what is needed most, for the Church and the neighborhood, is a discipleship that forms us for today’s challenges. These early Christians listened to the pain of their neighbors and met it with mercy. Instead of blaming or pretending that they had all the answers, they went to work, secure in the knowledge that the answers would arrive along their journey.
Encouragement
Bolsinger says, “When we are unsure where God is taking the church, we can be confident that God is leading us to see our neighbor and respond to our neighbor in need” (42). Perhaps the only solution we really need is to turn to God and, in turn, our communities, in order to be formed for this challenge.
Questions for Reflection
- How clear are you about where your church is going?
- What makes “skating to where the puck will be” difficult in your church context?
- Look at 2 Chronicles 20. What can we learn about leadership in unpredictable times from king Jehoshaphat?
- Is your church more focused on its own survival or on meeting the needs of your neighbors with acts of love, generosity, kindness, and mercy?
- How is your church forming people for meeting your neighbors’ needs with love?
