Goodbye Frantic Church
by Mark Tidsworth, Team Leader
How’s the detoxing process been for you? Are you to the other side yet?
For those highly invested in their local churches, this Coronavirus-imposed church withdrawal experience has been tough. Who knew the busy-ness of church could be so intoxicating; so addictive, we might say. When it all came to a halt and worship was all we did, many of us got the spiritual shakes, along with other withdrawal symptoms. Some were an emotional mess, feeling guilty for not being in church meetings each evening or not running the programs or drawing crowds to events. It took a while to detox from church busy-ness, leaving us with spiritual recognition opportunities.
The big insight I’m leading up to here is about the frantic nature of church; pre-covid church, that is. Due to our covid-induced frantic church detox, many of us are recognizing church had become like an extended binge. Like we Americans tend to do, we lapsed into evaluating our church experience by our level of activity. We liked to call ourselves 24/7 churches, meaning we were open and active all the time. The busier the better. American consumerism combined with a strong desire to achieve were major drivers resulting in a frantic pace to church life. Just ask anyone who served on the lay leadership team while also chairing a committee…most were burnt to a crisp by the end of their three year terms. I remember one middle-aged man who decided not to join his Baptist church at the end of the inquirer’s class. When asked why not, he replied, “After looking at the activities required I realized I just didn’t have the energy.” Church, for many of us, ramped up life to a frantic pace.
Now, after this detox, many of us are hesitant about returning to frantic church. When we imagine doing so, our blood pressure rises and we get that anxiety knot in the stomach. Withdrawing from the drivenness and frantic pace of church brings such relief, when we move beyond the secret guilt for daring to feel this way. We find ourselves whispering to our spouses and friends, “I don’t want to go back to the crazy grind.”
Fortunately, there are disciples and churches who are paying attention to this interruption in the frantic pace. There are disciples and churches who are listening to God and each other, waiting for guidance on how to reshape their churches toward more sustainable and purposeful expression. Watching them, here are four suggestions you might consider for saying goodbye to frantic church.
Revisit your church’s purpose. Why do you exist? What’s your essential mission? What’s a one-sentence description of your church’s primary purpose for existence? Answer this and you are on the way to clarity and actionable purpose.
Identify what you must do. Given your church’s purpose, what must you do to live this out in real life? If your purpose is to make disciples of Jesus, then what are the primary activities you must do to achieve this aspiration? In my ReShape book, we identify the five core functions of churches: worship, disciple development, disciple care, serving neighbors, and managing assets. Use these if they fit or develop your list of core functions for your church.
Make a commitment to what you must do. Your core church functions are where you don’t want to skimp on quality, commitment, or effort. Go all in with what you must do.
Clear away leftover baggage. It’s so difficult to stop programs or ministries which have run their course. We grow attached to them, thinking they must persist way beyond their life cycle. Since you stopped doing most of these during the Coronavirus, how do you feel when you consider restarting them? When your primary feeling is dread, perhaps they are leftover baggage from frantic church. Knowing what you must do frees you to let go of peripheral or outdated activities, simplifying church.
Goodbye frantic church. We don’t want to get to that level of exhaustion again. The Bible describes following Jesus as life-giving (abundant life) rather than life-draining. Yes, we are eager to robustly engage in our churches, just not frantically. Surely God doesn’t need frantic disciples or churches. Instead, God wants to give the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5). So let’s say our goodbyes, doing our leave taking well. Goodbye frantic church.