Musings on Spiritual Matters

All congregations are built on the Lord Jesus Christ.  All congregations seem to desire to follow the Bible.  The interesting part is that most congregations have defining values.  These defining values come from experiences from the past.  A congregation can be removed fifty years from a painful or life-giving event, but the value has been rooted into the culture.  The value is a foundational attitude that runs through the congregation at a unconscious level but is seen in a practical expression.  People do not have the ability to see the value that is hidden belong the ground but this value effects almost all that the congregation does.  Often these values or a reaction or a desire to a situation that might not be present any longer but still carries weight in the focus and work of the church.  Often these values begin at the start of a congregation.  If a congregation starts because of a split the value of unity or conflict will run throughout the church.  If the congregation was started as a evangelistic work the value will be on outreach.  If the congregation was established because of one family taking the lead in a church plant, the value will be on being a family focused and inclusive group.  Most churches of Christ will look the same on the surface, but under neath there will be great diversity in the underlining values in the congregation.  Often these underlining values will dictate the future direction and growth of the church.  These values seem to never change because they are never expressed.  They are part of the fabric of the church that is so woven into the identity that people assume there is no baggage that is helping or holding the church back.  Part of being a great church leader is having the ability to look belong the surface to see the hidden currents of the church.

Related posts:

1. Values Influence Choices
2. The Future of the Largest Congregations
3. Wished All Congregations Were Like This
4. Unhealthy Congregations
5. Excluded Instrumental Congregations

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This entry was posted by Matthew on Thursday, May 21st, 2009 at 12:44 pm and is filed under Church News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.