This morning Derrick and I were talking about a song we had heard… It has a line saying, “I would rather be 10 people’s favorite thing than than 100 people’s 10th favorite thing.
Hmm. I wonder if this was the problem we ran into at the church. Derrick had the vision of bringing real relationship with God to the people. He wanted to help them want God to be their favorite thing.
Tom wanted 100 people to have God be in the top ten list of favorites.
The elders, as the ones leading the church, had to decide which methodology to embrace. It was not a moral question. It was not a debate of theology. It was a decision of methodology. But the elders did not want to decide on that. Instead they decided to get rid of Derrick and Tom both.
Theoretically, they can wrestle with the methodology over the years and come to it piece by piece. But, what kind of damage was done by the approach they took? I look at my dad, a skeptic of Christianity. And by looking at my experiences with the church, why would my dad ever embrace the church at any level?
I see my mom who is without a church home. Looking at my church experience, why would she want to bother finding a church? Why would she see it as a worthwhile ?endeavor?
And finally, I think about my girls. They have been raised in the church with great value and love for the Church. And now they see parents who are disillusioned, tired, and trying hard to be faithful despite the questions.
So the elders were afraid or too lazy to work through their philosophy of outreach; favorite of many, or many exposed to God. They made a decision that left many reeling and disillusioned. And I think their decision about outreach became irrelevant. Instead of the decision being about being a light unto the world, they succeeded in turning people away from the Kingdom. They demonstrated why one would want to never be associated… not being a favorite of any, let alone hundreds.