Source: “Red Box by .stocker, on Flickr”
Earlier tonight I tweeted the following:
Do churches try to “think outside the box” because they are dissatisfied with the box God gave them?
This thought was sparked during a conversation with Stephen Proctor (@worshipVJ, WorshipVJ blog) over dinner. We got around to this question after talking about using technology in church, what does “excellence” mean, and a variety of other topics. Before I put this question in context, here are the Twitter replies that were sparked by my question:
(via @glohiatt) do you think God put us in a box?
(via @brianfalexander) @glohiatt what I think @chrisrouse is referring to is the life that God has given them, not sure though. God does give us restrictions..
(via @glohiatt) well if we are in a box, then so is the whole world. we were sent out to all corners of the earth, right?
Here is the context: a couple of months ago Church Production Magazine published an article on Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC. In the article, Wes Watson, Elevation’s lead producer, is quoted as saying:
“Pastor [Furtick] leads us to think inside the box vs. outside the box. We’ve learned that as we think inside the box, it forces the box to get bigger. Let’s be honest, the box is there (nothing is free), so quit thinking outside the box and get creative on what the inside of your box looks like.
So now you have the context of my tweet. It has nothing to do with the life we as Christians live or anything like that. It has to do with how the church responds creatively to technology and physical things. Sure, there may be a church down the street that is bigger and has fancy lights and concert-quality production, and your church may have some conventional light fixtures and a single projector.
We’re trained out whole lives to “think outside the box”. To do something no one else has thought of. In marketing, it’s referred to as “guerrilla marketing.” In the church, thinking outside the box tends to mean doing something that your individual church hasn’t done, but that has been done by other churches. Many churches defer to Willow Creek, North Point, LifeChurch.tv, Saddleback, etc for their ideas.
(I’m struggling to keep this topic focused already. I want to go some many directions with it, but I don’t have time.)
When we think inside the box, inside the restrictive budgets we’ve been given, inside the style of worship our church has, inside the spiritual and emotional space our church members are living in, we learn to do more with less. And as we learn to do more with less, we realize how to expand what we can do.
Think about it, Jesus fed a lot of people on some fish and bread. Small box, big results. Granted, He did have a bit of a bonus on His side being God and all, but still, the lesson exhibited in that story is to trust God to do more with what we have. He didn’t have any doubt that the small ration he had would go a long way. He knew it would.
The same goes for the church. Proctor expanded on my initial thought by asking if the reason we try to think outside the box so often is because we are dissatisfied with the box God has given us to work in. But I think if we constantly strive to think outside the box, we’ll never get there. We’ll always want bigger and better and shinier. If we think INSIDE the box, we find creative ways to use our limited resources to create environments and experiences far greater than we imagined. If we simply trust God to do more with what He has given us, our box will grow. If we try to force the box to grow by thinking outside of it all the time, the box will eventually catch up to our great ideas and suddenly be inside the box again.
Don’t be so concerned about being better than “that” church. Focus on being the best church for your members and guests. Church is not a competition. We’re all in this together. God never called us to do more than we can. He called us to do more with what He has given us. And what He has given us fits into a pretty spectacular box.
The box is a test of faith. Trust God inside the box and He’ll provide you with the resources to have a bigger box when you need it. Just don’t put God in the box.
I will expand on my tweet about this. I think it's a matter of possible vs. practical. What is possible isn't always practical (living beyond our resources). That being said, we have to remember that God is MUCH bigger than practical. If we limit ourselves to the practical without dreaming about the possible we will end up putting God in a box. I think we start with the possible (anything with God, outside of our box) and then move to the practical (the box, limitations God has placed around us)
I also think we have to ask ourselves why something isn't practical, or maybe how we evaluate if something is practical. When Noah built the ark he was living in the means God had given him but it wasn't practical by human standards because there was no water. However, he was living out the call God had placed on his life so it didn't matter. Do we judge practical by our standards or God's standards? Then I guess we could ask the same about possible, huh?
Maybe when we say "think outside the box" what we mean is simply don't forget that you serve the Creator to of the universe for whom nothing is impossible. We reminding ourselves that He is a God that is bigger than resistance to change and the "way we've always done it" mindsets.
Thanks for clearing things up.
also, i know we're not supposed to put "God in a box" and that's not what anyone is implying.
however, i DO believe He has placed us in a box.
a box is a structure with walls…or limitations…or weaknesses.
look at our human bodies.
we are constantly growing, but we're still bound to this body. we have limitations and weaknesses.
same goes with our church families…buildings…resources.
None of us are infinite….but the Infinite works THROUGH us.
and that's a mystery… one no blog post or tweet could ever solve. ever.
i had to move quick on this one or i knew i'd lose the thought or you'd beat me to it. and now that that's out of my head, on to programming.
glad I could. what are your thoughts on this?
great post, Chris! wow. and just an hour after dinner! remember, you still have some programming for Ricky Skaggs to do!
to the general viewing public:
i obviously agree with Chris, and here's the deal, we both know that "the box" can be viewed and defined so many ways. We're taking a cliche statement that is very generic and used ….OVER USED all the time…especially in the Church world. (if i hear a pastor or creative leader say "out of the box" or "it's a God thing" one more time….. #imjustsayin')
But what i fear is that many of us say things like "outside of the box" and "excellence" and great innovative trendy things like that to justify our flesh's longing for lesser gods in our worship services.
you know what i'm talking about. I'm not the first person to want that iPhone more than anything… or to want that new software upgrade with the latest HD loops and the cool spanned screen… or to wish i had more twitter followers …. all of this…. more than Jesus.
oh it's all 'for the Kingdom" and it's all in the name of "excellence"…. but is it REALLY?
God has entrusted each of us with a very specific set of talents and gifts and resources for TODAY… call it a "box" or don't call it a "box"…that's not the point here.
don't get focused on the semantics.
That fact is is that He trusts us with the small things… and He won't give us "bigger" things of the Kingdom unless we are faithful with the small things first.
however, in this media/production/consumer culture we live in, we don't have to wait on God…we can just BUY our way into the "bigger and better".
We trade God for a lesser god.
and all we're doing is taking ourselves out of one box into another one (to me, a lot of big popular churches all look like another box…and it doesn't look very freeing to me)
If we think and focus ourselves inside the "box" He has us in today, He can perform some really awesome miracles and give us experiences we'll never forget.
He also tends to work through the weaker things than in the smaller ones.
i could name SO many examples.
That's why guys like Camron Ware inspire me…. look at Environmental Projection. Small box (resources), BIG result.
Look at the simple "names of God" clips camron's produced…. small "box", huge results.
wow Chris, thanks for posting this.
I think some of us as Christians may get afraid that if we strive to only fill the box, then we are not living up to the potential we were given. We're afraid of either filing our box or failing by not filling it at all. I agree with what you said about God providing the resources when a bigger box is needed, though. It's a carpe diem sort of idea, but instead of seizing the day, we seize the box.