ministry schizophrenia

This morning I was out at Kirkliston again.

Touching base with the new minister there. It was great to see her again. And great, as well, to hear how things are going.

Five new folk professing faith in a few weeks' time. Some up in years, some younger ones as well.

People coming to know Jesus. And all that just in the space of the first few months.

So I ended up longer out there than I'd thought I'd be. Partly because her brother arrived, and I hadn't seen him for a while, and the chance to catch up and to chat for a while was too good by far to miss.

But partly as well through discussing at length all the issues she's having to face.

She's very realistic, despite the expectations people have. Which are sometimes a bit too high.

She doesn't try to do too much. Which is wise. And a thing I have to learn.

In fact, I think it's a thing that we have to learn in the whole of our congregational life. We do - or try to do - too much. I'm more and more persuaded of that fact.

We had a meeting of our leadership team at night. And that sort of thing came up. Well, it certainly became apparent again.

There's an Italian proverb I came across some time ago which cleverly said it all.

Often he who does too much does too little.

It probably sounds a bit better in the original. Especially if spoken with a good Italian accent. But you get the drift, even in translation.

We're probably 'doing too little' because we're doing too much.

I read a book a few months back where the author said he'd met a man with a church of 400 people: and the man had said he had 187 different ministries in his church.

"I didn't know if he was bragging, asking me to pray for him, or making the case for a frontal lobotomy."

187 ministries. That's a pretty impressive statistic!

But not good for the health at all.

Too much. And as a result the poor guy's church is doing too little.

They're hoping to start some more ministries: and all the while the church is getting smaller.

"To me," said the writer, "this doesn't sound like a focused vision. It sounds like ministry schizophrenia..."

I don't know a lot about schizophrenia. I don't know if there's an 'early stages' sort of schizophrenia.

But we're at least in danger of succumbing to this, I fear.

Becacuse we don't really have a vision as such. We have about ... well, probably about 187 visions. And the ministries to go with them.

It can look quite impressive, as I say.

But it sure isn't good for the health.

For all I know, we've maybe got a growing dose of this ministry schizophrenia ourselves.