"Classroom churches" is an expression from Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Church. He describes the tendency of some fellowships to focus almost exclusively on knowledge as the key to spiritual maturity. Bible studies are conducted to increase congregants knowledge of biblical facts with an emphasis on correct beliefs and doctrinal positions.
By way of contrast, Warren suggests a greater emphasis on behavior as key to spiritual maturity. Many believers are rarely involved in sharing their experience of Christ with another, or personally involved in a service activity, or even actively engaged in worship services. Behavior is a greater indicator of spiritual maturity than is belief. "The last thing many church members need is another Bible study," Warren states for emphasis.
That for which we are striving is participation in the Kingdom of God, not simply knowledge of the Kingdom. On so many levels, participation makes all the difference!
If you buy in to Warren's approach to congregational organization, membership becomes synonymous with participant. It makes a lot of sense to me.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Belief and Behavior
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5 comments:
Sure makes sense to me too, Jason.
A person can know all about the bible and still live like a wild thing. It's only when we allow ourselves to live what the bible teaches, that we become true followers of Christ.
If we don't live it, then I suggest we change our names from Christian to something else.
Jennifer
When someone takes a vested interest in something, then they are more apt to become involved.
I enjoy bible classes, but they are a passive event. It doesn't matter how great the person teaching is, it is up to my ability to listen and learn and then the length of my attention span. But when I step forward and put myself on the line, then suddenly I am more likely to pay attention and become involved.
The problem is how do you find enough things to keep people feeling involved. So the question then becomes, do we not have enough opportunities for people to volunteer or not enough people volunteering?
Have a blessed day.
Aaron
I think the answer is NO! There are not enough opportunities for folks to "plug-in". To stick with Rick Warren, he notes the fundamental difference between congregations that are organized around institutional maintenance as opposed to being organized about the pursuit of the biblical purposes of the Church. The former lends itself to a passive membership, whereas the latter, calls for an active engagement of all.
I believe that we can take up the challenge of reaching the community- building relationships, serving needs, living meaningful lives before people starving for meaning. God can and will advance His Kingdom through us. By embracing this reality of our faith, our eyes can be opened to a multitude of opportunities for folks to get deeply involved.
Both of you guys and Jennifer are right on. Experience matters. In higher ed, we have spent countless hours of research on learning what makes a successful college student. After thousands of pages, and thousands of hours of studies. Success in college has been narrowed down to five key concepts of engagement. All five are either forms of or related heavily to one key term: involvement.
Graduation rates, student satisfaction levels, GPA's -- all of it is directly related to involvement. There's a lot of similarity here for the Church. We are all different and called to fill different roles in the body. Involvement is not an option neither is spectator Christianity. One great challenge however, with large congregations is that there are only so many involvement opportinities. But, it is also our duty as parts of the body to seek out opportunities where there are none and not merely use that as an excuse to be spectators.
Good post.
Eric
I would like to learn a bit more about the key concepts of engagement Eric mentioned.
I appreciate all the comments. I hope that discussions like this will impact the focus of our upcoming Leadership Retreat.
Thanks.
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