"Just do it" is the often appropriated strapline of Nike Inc, the world’s largest supplier of athletic shoes and apparel. If you’re a church leader, there are lots of "its" to "just do": sermons, books, blogs, podcasts, workshops on church growth, evangelism, and disciple-making will provide you with an overwhelming number of "its" you should "just do" in order for your church to fulfil the Great Commission. As we enter a new year, you’re probably feeling tired just thinking about all the "its" you are expected to "just do"!
Although it’s mentioned every week by most Anglicans, the one "it" that doesn’t get a lot of airtime is that dreaded r-word: repentance.
Merciful God… we have sinned against you… we have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbours as ourselves; we repent…
Or do we?
We doom ourselves to the hamster-wheel of more and more "its" we should "just do".
We’re wary of talking about repentance because it’s indissolubly linked with guilt—and the psychological morality of the moment suggests that guilt is intolerable and inducing it is unforgivable. So we quickly breeze over this section of the Sunday service. But in doing so we doom ourselves to the hamster-wheel of more and more "its" we should "just do".
Competitive athletes engage in repentance all the time. I’m a swimmer, and I make an ongoing effort to swim faster and further. I could just try harder, thrashing the water with poorly-formed strokes, ineffective kicks and mistimed breaths. But I would rather repent: identify flaws in my technique, think differently about my actions and seek to conform my movement to an efficient ideal. Sure, a coach correcting me is uncomfortable, especially when it’s for the umpteenth time. Changes to technique invoke new muscle-movements that initially leave me sore.
Follwers of Jesus and their churches can get caught in a self-defeating cycle of thrashing about, trying harder by adding more "its" to their "just do" lists. Taking some time to reflect on all of the "its" we’re "just doing" might be uncomfortable, but it might just lead to a season of fruitfulness in the new year ahead.
We’ve failed to love God with our whole heart.
Some of our "it’s" can flow from the first failing identified in the Anglican liturgy: we’ve failed to love God with our whole heart. I suspect this to be an underlying contributor to much or our mission malaise. This failing shows up most clearly when church members prioritise their own interests and aspirations over the effective enaction of the mission of Jesus.
Failing to love God with our whole heart sometimes takes the form of insisting on own preferences. For church leaders, that can manifest in budget priorities, clergy time allocation, service times, music, liturgy, and pews vs seats, and so on ad infinitum. Changing any of these in isolation is unlikely to spark a revival, but refusing to consider change speaks volumes about whether one is committed to Jesus or just the comforting reassurances associated with church-as-is.
Sometimes the "its" to drop from the "just do" list may lie outside the domain of church. When we argue that it’s not technically a "sin" to prioritise kids, family, holidays, career, or home renovations over time and money invested in the mission of Jesus, we’re likely nursing a heart divided. In this case the central issue becomes one of discipleship more than adopting new church growth techniques.
A healthy way forward is to (re)focus on the basic "its" to "just do" and if you are experiencing a drift away from those... repent!
Lightly edited from the original published by Pathways4Mission. Republished with permission.
Ken Morgan has worked as a consultant, trainer and coach to church planters, church ministers and denominational leaders in a wide variety of traditions across Australia and beyond since 1998. He’s currently the Head of Parish Mission Resourcing for the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne. A graduate of Tabor College and Victoria University, He makes his home in Melbourne. Ken is author of "Pathways: Local Mission for All Kinds of Churches" and "Like A Boss: the Process and Privilege of Supervising People".
