Day 135 - a little more on entropy.

Day 135 and I'm coming back to last nights blog and "Scott's" comments.

Last night we commented that Redeemer's Church sitting around 800 people has to watch out because often churches of this size plateau and then decline.
Not always, but often - sadly too often.
Church guru's and consultants and have written on this stuff significantly over the last decade. from examining hundreds of churches of this size (perhaps not having reached this size in the short time Redeemer's have), and repeatedly something happens that stops the growth.

Why?

I'm not big into always looking to general management literature to examine the church. Although Augustine reportedly said "all truth is God's truth", and if there's something in that, listen to the 'truth' written by two management guru's :

"The entropic process is a universal law of nature in which all forms of organization move toward disorganization or death." [written by R.L. Kahn & D. Katz]

A leaders role is to lead a church/an organization away from this lurking entropy.

Now probably this topic is better explored under the other weekly leadership blog I write [www.clanofissachar.blogspot.com] but for me, as a leader, this is about my daily intentional following of Christ.

I grew up with a theology that preached 'small things', especially small things in these the last of the last days. It was a branch of pretty firm dispensationalism. I found that this 'small things' philosophy sometimes excused poor leadership and/or discipleship. Old fashioned and ineffective methodology was covered over by a theology that said 'we're not called to be fruitful but faithful and in the end days most will turn from God and only a remnant, a few will hold on.'
Subtly underneath this theology lay an excuse for no church growth, in fact, underneath it lay an excuse for entropy and decline.
The local church I grew up in reached a peak of 200 back when I was a teenager, and today that local church sits around about 40 people, and the group of churches they belonged to which at their peak had 25,000 participants today has around 10,000 participants.

Was their theology correct, and yet/or, was it cover for poor leadership.

God does call us to be faithful, but God also calls us to be fruitful.

So where am I going?

A leaders job is to define reality. As I read, reflect, watch other local churches and follow the journey of Western Christianity from the 19th, 20th into 21st century - decline is the constant.
Rather than turn to a theology that could be seen to justify such, I turn to philosophy if not anthropology to explain what's happening.

Entropy is universal.
We naturally move towards decline.
Death behooves us.

But God specialises in taking death and through death bringing life.
While entropy may be natural, resurrection is biblical.
while entropy sits within the laws of a fallen world, dying to self to bring forth new life sits within the law of the Spirit.

therefore, if a church, a christian, a Christian leader walks the way of the Spirit - that church, that Christian that leadership can lead something away from entropy towards life - renewed life, but still life.

My intentional following as a local church pastor is to be aware of the natural law of entropy and lead away from it through resurrection and renewal.
This implies if not signifies change ...change of vision, change of method.

Does this help?