Some Dudes.

You can't start a church with just some dudes. I mean, you probably could, but it probably won't turn out right and in all liklihood, the church will just end up another statistic in the "failed church plant" column. Just some dudes are going to cause frustration, no matter how organized they are unless they have "heard" the voice of God and taken the time to think things through.

Have you seen the "you think of everything" commercials for Smirnoff Ice? Some dudes are at a poolside bar, and in one of the commercials, a gigantic catapult is in the background containing a equally gigantic tennis ball. Dude 1 says, "What's with the catapult?" Suddenly a HUGE dog steps over the fence and sweeps a person up in its mouth. Dude 2 hits a button and the catapult launches the tennis ball. The dog drops the person in the pool and chases the ball. Clearly, Dude 2 thinks of EVERYTHING.

The Boy Scouts taught me a thing or two before I got "too cool" for them. The Boy Scouts' motto is "Be Prepared." My wife sometimes jokes me about my desire for preparedness. I LOVE sponteneity, but I want to be prepared for it. I want to have back-ups and people who can take care of my dogs if I want to hit the road out of the blue.

So...Let me advance the situation. Eventually some dudes are going to listen carefully and hear the calling God has placed on their life. This kind of falls into the Tension category from the blog below. How do you prepare for a church while still leaving space for the Holy Spirit to move?

Let's be honest. No dudes can prepare for every eventuality, but a lot of us will try to control everything. How does this work in an environment where God is supposed to be in control?

When some dudes try to control every aspect of the church and sanitize things, what will people think? I've seen first-hand peoples' reactions to a church that makes no bones about life being easy with Jesus. Life isn't easy. Living is easier with Jesus because you have hope. You have purpose. Hardship, however, isn't going to automatically disappear. Most people latch onto this, but some people don't. Some people want church to look like Joel Osteen's church; clean, well-dressed, HUGE.

I think if some dudes want to start a church, they need to make the transition from some dude to servitude (it rhymes, that's why it's cool). They need to prepare for the things they can prepare for (which are too numerous to list here). They need to get on the same page. Then they need to get out of the boat and live on faith.

How can a pastor teach people about faith without living it out himself? Part of faith is mystery and certainty in God beyond the conventional, worldly view of certainty that is based on the promises of fallen men. Pastors have accepted a calling which requires them to be role models in and teachers of what it means to be faithful.

People are looking up to CEOs, sports-stars, musicians, actors, and politicians; role models who are inherently incomplete and lead to a path that won't necessarily help find completeness. This is across racial boundaries. Stereotypically, persons of different races look up to different people, and this is just a barrier that needs to be addressed (prepared for), then broken down. Like I've said many many times, people want something to fight for, but they need to have an example of what that looks like. It looks like Jesus, and that is where the prepared, yet living by faith, pastor comes in. It is is that dude's job to live in servitude, faithfulness.

The tension is learning to be a prepared Boy Scout while walking on water.






I have posted a brief description of my trip so far from some dude to servitude in the comments section of this post.

-Matthew-F-Murphy-