Is This My Church?

Check out this blog entry from C. Michael Patton. I wonder how much of this we have at Hope? The description of the production value of the worship time sounds familiar. Fortunately, our children's ministry still seems like it is focused on Jesus.

Like other churches in the Willow Creek Association, we have been doing a survey to say what we think about our church. Apparently Hybels & Co were surprised to find that the way they were doing things wasn't helping people grow. It turns out that the old traditional practices of Bible study, memorization, etc did more for people than another program at the church.

We're getting ready to start a 6 week study on transformation. The cornerstone to this is an inductive study of the Sermon on the Mount. All small groups are going to work on this together. The past two sermons have been extolling the virtues of Scripture. This has got me thinking.

I wonder if we make a big enough deal about Scripture from the pulpit? The messages are pretty good, but they aren't really teaching a whole lot. It's clear that our pastor is capable of good expository preaching. I think he handles the text he uses faithfully. However, I also know that I would prefer if he got a little deeper into the text. It seems like he finds passages that relate to what he wants to discuss rather than discussing what he finds from going through a text. I guess if this worked for Charles Spurgeon it is OK for Mike Lee too, but I still would like more exposition.

The answer to this problem is always "small groups." We are supposed to get deeper in our study in small groups. However, there are limits there too. I have been told not to get into what I'm learning in seminary. The groups are supposed to be open and it's supposed to feel like anyone could potentially lead one.

Maybe I'm getting a bias from seminary, but I think that there is value in education. I also think that our leaders should be equipped beyond being simple "facilitators." How are we supposed to really grow in grace and knowledge (2 Pet 3:18) without someone teaching us?

That being written, I know some small group leaders and they do a good job. There is nothing that says you need formal training as long as you have good materials. I've been out of the small group leader role for a while so I can't speak to how it is now, but I don't recall much formal training on how to rightly handle the Word of God. This makes me wonder just how important it is to the church.

I guess that there has to be a balance between making the small groups just about community and "what do you think the text means?" and the strict Sunday School structure of a Colonial Baptist. I'm not sure what the right answer is there.