Clergy Leadership: I Want it Fixed - NOW!
4/15/02

Have you ever been impatient with the slow pace of change in the church?  Have you battled through some transformative new concept, seen it light up in people's minds, trusted that it truly is the leading of the Spirit - only to have it swept aside by suspicious, fearful persons who cling to the old?  Have you ever prayed in frustration and dismay, "Lord, I want it fixed - Now!"?

If you have, read on.  You're part of the problem.

I'm sorry to have to say it like that.  If we are serious about transformation we need to let the pace as well as the product of transformation be God's business. We pray the prayers, hold up the "Good News!" banner, point the way into a future and then leave it to God to grow the crop. Jesus was born, "in the fullness of time."  Paul notes that all creation groans while we wait for adoption.  We don't know when the bridegroom comes. That is God's business.

While there is much that is wrong, the church is God's to fix.  God can fix things when we quit trying and get out of the way.  When we give up plotting strategies, managing programs and controlling the congregation God begins working miracles even in our own lives and ministries.
 
Should we feel impatient?  Of course we shouldn't.  It's the Lord's church, his body, a spiritual community.  We are called to be faithful at the post, alert and watchful.  Our fretting, fussing and feuding lead neither to peace nor joy.  Indeed, they distract us from the Lord's "better things."
 
Should we feel impatient?  Of course we should.  No matter how closely we follow Jesus we remain at a distance.  There is always more growth fermenting below the surface, more opportunities for service than we have noticed, more wisdom yet to be mined as we journey in the Spirit's walk.  The Spirit disturbs our slumber with unsettled dreams and makes us restless with unnamed yearnings.  The Spirit's impatience shields us against complacency and malaise.
 
We are left then, hopping first on one foot and then the other, encouraging people to come to the waters, imploring the Lord to hasten, and, all the while, trusting God who is orchestrating the whole symphony at just the right tempo, adjusting and aligning all the parts into the exact harmony which comes together at the right moment redounding to glory.
 
David Digby
First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Ames, Iowa