I was a principal--I delegated at work; wasn't it time to delegate ownership of laundry to three teenagers?
I lasted a week.
I took it back, discovering I had no patience for their learning curve.
Thankfully, God was much more patient with our learning curve for delegating to him the ownership of our church.
Two strategic events precipitated the invitation for God to take over our church and do with it as he pleased, with that posture continuing to this day.
1) The first pastor I knew at this church had a heart for what God wanted. He was surviving in a cauldron of invisible leaders who believed the church belonged to them. When two deacons set out to get rid of him, we read a letter to the congregation on a Sunday morning, crediting the pastor and his wife with a unique commitment to find and follow God's agenda for our church. Incredibly, the two deacons and their families walked out at that moment and never returned.
2) When this pastor knew he had braved all the waters of change that were his to make (including a step toward major change in the style of worship music), he left. I was part of the pastor search committee that interviewed a large church in a neighboring city, asking how they sought new leadership. Their first step was to ask their congregation what they wanted in a pastor. I posed a different question to our committee: "Why don't we ask God who he wants and disregard what we want?"God's agenda. Whom and what God wants. Total disregard for what we want.
Some churches, I am convinced, never seek these terms of ownership.
Warning: Hell doesn't sit back and take lightly a change in church ownership. I suspect the enemy of God is rather content with churches who have a preponderance of prickly; they are less inviting and fewer unbelievers are drawn into an investigation of God.
Tomorrow: the fallout.
