Keith has been kind enough to help me try to figure that out for a while now. I accused him of trying to make me do hard work that I didn't really have to do when he asked me the question recently:
"If your organization ceased to exist, who would it affect and how?"
This was difficult because step one was to figure out: what is it that we do?
Is there one common goal that our entire organization ascribes to?
It's discipleship, right?
What does that mean, though?
Is the group that meets once a week to do needlepoint really trying to accomplish the same thing that the group that meets once a week to talk over the Bible and what it means to them?
The people who find the church a convenient place to take their kids for dance and soccer: do they even care what we are trying to accomplish? What's the next most convenient place that they would have to go to if they couldn't come to our place?
Peter Drucker claims that not only are the needlepointers and the bible studyers and the soccer moms trying to accomplish the same thing, but that every non-profit (faith based and otherwise) is trying to do the same thing.
He says, in Managing the Non-Profit Organization that the one mission we all have in common is "to satisfy the needs of the American people for self-realization, for living out our ideals, our beliefs, our best opinion of ourselves." p. xvii. And that is just in the preface of the book! He continues to say that the non-profit organization exists "to bring about a change in individuals and in society." (p3)
Now, here's the thing. I have pondered the question "If your organization ceased to exist, who would it affect and how?" and have thought about it from a few angles.
And here is what I'm wondering with a somewhat troubled sense:
Do you suppose that the people who would miss it the most are the folks who want to change the least?
And, for me, here's the most important thing about this thought:
If that is true, who's fault is it?
Mine.
And since your reading:
Yours.
So. What are we going to do about it?
2 comments:
Thank you for the shout out, my friend. I wonder if we "do church" wrong. If we really thought of church as a body of people and not a place, how would it change us. If the church building ceased to exist, what would our church body do? Would members disperse to others church places (i.e. is church about them?)? Or would they meet in homes and work in the world (i.e. is church about God?)? I struggle with this. I struggle with what church is for me and how I use it.
I suppose: both isn't acceptable is it?
I think most of us would find the next best alternative and "go there".
Others would go to the trails.
Others would find a deeper level of commitment, purpose, and desire.
And most likely change the world.
What I struggle with is: which group would I go with?
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