god's power in community

In an interview with Talk (I found it at Allelon), Stan Grenz said;

Solid theological reflection is crucial in the practice of ministry, understood both narrowly as the work of ordained leaders and in the wider sense of being the whole life and mission of the people of God. Actually, today the chief rival to ministering from a theological base is engaging in the practice of “church” by means of a pragmatic outlook, that makes decisions largely if not solely on the basis of a consideration of what “works.” In the long run, however, the pragmatic approach is self-defeating, simply because it transforms the community of faith into an institution whose chief end is not the glory of God and the fulfillment of a divinely-given mandate, but survival. The long-term health and viability of the church demands that its leaders and people return again and again to the forming and informing vision of what the community of Christ is called, mandated, and empowered to be by the Lord of the church. Above all, I would add, we are called to be a people who embody in our life together and in our relationships to all humans and even to all creation the great narrative of the biblical God, the one who has come to us in Christ and now empowers us through the Holy Spirit poured out in our hearts and in our fellowship.

This was unknowingly summarized by my small group leader last night when he said, "God doesn't need managing". He was speaking in regard to future direction of our group and was encouraging us to take a decision only after a period of prayer.

Too often we look to past patterns that seem to work or our own intellect for decision making. While I reject the notion that we should not consider these things, I can agree that I often default to them without balancing them with prayer.

Rich Nathan recently used the following anecdote regarding his father. It seems that in WWII, his dad ran the engine room on some giant battleship. His dad also had a penchant for homemade ice cream. At some point he figured out how to connect hand-cranked ice cream maker to one of the giant engines on this war machine. This is clearly not making full use of the power of the engine.

As the Church powered by the Holy Spirit, it seems we are more like that ice cream maker than the battleship. We not only fail to take advantage of the power given us but we often reject or are not even aware of it. We need to reflect more on who we are connected to and who connects us. We need to consider more of what He wants to do through us and then we need to allow His power to bring about the change rather than our plans and efforts.

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