Americans are avid motor sports fans! We enjoy watching people run in circles. What’s more, we maximize the thrill by pushing the speed envelope. No matter how fast you accelerate, however, you’re still just running in circles. Harder and faster doesn’t change the trajectory. Sooner or later, the laws of physics predominate and there’s a crash. Yes, these are the games we play. We like them!
HolmesThen there’s the modern definition of insanity. You know, doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result – like running in circles. Some people scoff at such a thought, a secular ideal superimposed over our concepts of church. But there are biblical precedents for evaluating progress and setting a new, forward course when mission inertia impedes kingdom progress. Circular motion, no matter how frantic or exciting, isn’t real movement. “Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” is.
In the Proverbs, Solomon referenced five different learning errors. The most prevalent example is the person who doesn’t learn from mistakes. This individual keeps making the same ones over and over again, running in the same circle all the time. Solomon taught the way of wisdom – the simple life management discipline of learning what God is teaching in our circumstances, factoring those lessons in the life plan, and moving forward to become fully functioning “God followers.” Running in circles doesn’t fit this model.
Then, there’s the example of the Israelites. They were camped at Horeb after 40 years of instruction in the wilderness. The Land of Promise was in front of them. God said, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Break camp and advance. – See, I have given you this land” (Deuteronomy 1:6-8). Certainly, there was comfort and security at the mountain. But God wanted them to thrust forward. The mountaintop experience had lasted long enough. It was time for some traction.
These may be defining hours for our denomination, even for our state convention. Stagnant statistics – baptisms, contributions, membership – indicate that something is amiss in our methodology. Surely we can’t blame these declines on the Word of God, His redemptive plan, or the work of His spirit, so evident globally. Our efforts to correct this direction, however, are tantamount to running in circles, maybe “chasing the wind,” the descriptive of the Teacher in Ecclesiastes. So, we keep doing the same old things and finding the same outcomes.
God beckons us to join Him. When His kingdom is foremost, He promises to provide whatever we need. When we give according to His generous and gracious plan, He promises blessings that will overflow our laps. Well, these promises are wrapped in the trust relationship that should define us anyway. Fear and timidity and power brokering and even our love for circular games just don’t figure into the biblical formula that propels us forward.
Our annual meeting is scheduled Nov. 15-16, in the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. Important matters will be discussed and decided, including the recommendation of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force. Please pray for this meeting and the many people who will lead it, and the decisions that will affect our future. Be informed about the issues under consideration by asking people who can provide accurate answers and not their personal sway. And attend the meeting with messengers from your church.
It’s going to be a time to celebrate the one “who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine – .”