"Edison Churches: Learning to Ask Better Questions" by Greg Arthur for Monday, 18 December 2017 What if we are getting the right answers but they are for the wrong questions?
The more self aware I become the more I wonder how God accomplishes anything through me! I have significant problems that I bring to my role as a pastor. These difficulties are painful and frustrating in that they are generally rooted in my strengths. Let me give you an example.
I am a big picture thinker. It allows me to live my ministry in constant tension between what is and what can be. Like a kite flying high above the ground yet tethered to the earth by a string, I love to dance above the ground trying to understand not just this moment, but all that is coming. Sounds like a wonderful gift for pastoring doesn't it? It causes me heartache all the time. In my frustration I often wonder if having "faith like a child" is an invitation to not think beyond the next 10 minutes, because the more I work to see into the future the more I struggle to ask the right questions.
Never was this more evident than in the four and a half years that Josh Broward (one my my Edison Churches co-authors) and I worked together at Duneland. Josh is wired like I am but to even bigger extremes. His brain works so fast and he sees the 10,000 view so quickly that by the time most people are beginning to understand the question he is already franchising the answer and finding ways, in his mind, to turn it into a worldwide phenomena. Together, we were constantly coming up with elegant, creative, and well put together answers to all the wrong questions. We could create beautiful works of failure together!
Wired like we are, we would quickly jump from seeing a problem or an opportunity to trying to find a solution. We trusted in our own intellect and experience to problem solve any ministry situation we encountered. The fatal flaw of all of our planning, however, was that we were always skipping the most important question. The first question in every situation, always needs to be, "What is God saying to me?"
Most of our failures in ministry began with asking the wrong question. The first question to ask isn't, "How do we fix this problem?" When we start with that question we end up answering our question with our own ideas, strengths, and experiences. If we are smart, well educated, and experienced, doing so will make us somewhat successful. We can skate by and feel pretty good about what we create. What we won't do, is experience breakthrough.
Breakthrough begins with God moving in the world. Joining in with God's work requires a different starting point, we have to listen. We don't start with the solution in mind, instead we start by listening. Obedience, even if it doesn't make sense to us and we don't know where it will end up, leads to breakthrough and innovation. Our ability to listen well, and create a culture within our churches where others are listening well, is vital to experiencing kingdom breakthrough.
In Edison Churches there are examples, within every story, of people learning to listen better. They change the questions they are asking and get different answers. May their stories help you ask the right questions as well.
Monday, December 18, 2017
Categories: Scripture and Discipleship
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