Saturday, December 13, 2008

More of The Runaway Pastor: Part Four--Parable of the Gym

Well, here is another section of Trent's parable. Thanks for the comments on the last one. This one is a little more edgy than the last, yet, I think it has a lot of truth in it. Trent was hurting when he wrote this, so I guess we can expect him to be a bit to-the-point.

So let me know what you think.

Peace.

4 comments:

Rich Schmidt said...

It doesn't sound that edgy to me, David. Just true. :(

The only part that didn't ring true was the reason for franchising: "They would build another gym in a nearby town, find some thin people and charge them dues to pay for the new place." I've never heard of a church plant that was started with the intention of just gathering already-saved people. Every church plant I'm familiar with was started to help people become "newly healthy." Even if the reality of the situation ends up being that the new church is made up mostly of already-saved folks, the intention was to reach the unreached and help them find transformation.

I'm not sure I'd lay so much blame on the franchise fees, either... though I'm sure I've echoed Trent's thoughts in the past.

david said...

Really good point Rich. And I absolutely agree. Intentions, and even accomplishments in these new starts are much more genuine. I'll do some editing on this one.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry I have been away from this discussion for a while. I have often been frustrated by the time and effort it takes to do administrative work when my heart has always been in shepherding, and discipling. I have heard the various presentations that talk about leadership in the pastoral role, and how one has to go from shepherding to ranching, etc. But, having been in churches of all sizes (new start to large) I have been able to observe, as well as be actively involved as a staff member, the difficulties of being so large no one knows who is and who isn't attending on any given Sunday. It may just be my own preference or mentality, but I prefer to work in a medium size church where people cannot "slip through the cracks" and stop coming without anyone knowing. I guess it would be easier if we could be like an exercise gym where everyone has to register at the front desk every visit. Obviously that would be cumbersome and impersonal.

Anonymous said...

Wow! I've been away for a bit too and am catching up and I have to say....BRAVO DAVID!!!

I think organization in a church is an important fundamental but not at the expense of the 'obese'. My own opinion is that we are all in some part still 'obese'. That might sound a bit negative but even in the Parable of the Gym, even though Tammy had beat the weight problem she still had other issues such as her attitude and 'new' outlook that, in my mind, keeps her in the 'obese' stage of her helping others. She resorted to only wanting to help the others who weren't outwardly obese, something that is very easy to do as a church family. We get comfortable w/people we think 'look' like us and forget the pains of those that don't. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this Parable! Thank you David for putting this out there, taking us out of the box & pushing us to think beyond our safety zone. I hope this all makes sense, it did in my mind :)