Purpose Driven Church - Intro

One thing that gets me interested in this book right from the start is the concept of "Spiritual Waves". Author Rick Warren compares church builders to swimmers - a swimmer does not make the wave, he simply rides it! And similarly, the Church builder won't be able to PRODUCE a wave of God's Spirit, no matter how hard he or she may try. Catchy programs and great techniques are all very well, but in order to be truly effective, church growth has to come from God. A church leader isn't trying to build waves; rather, he or she is an experienced surfer, surfing God's waves and teaching others to do the same.
Before we go any further into the book, let's tease this wave metaphor out a little more deeply.

• Waves happen all the time. There's never a time when waves aren't happening. So too, God never stops working. This is important, because whilst we may miss an individual opportunity - just like a surfer sometimes fails to catch a particularly big wave - we can never get to a point where there ARE no waves, unless we get out of the water!



• Some waves are larger than others. Similarly, there are moments when a church has an opportunity to do something which will make a particularly large impact for God if they are ready in the right time, in the right place, with the right attitude.



• A wave can be ridden in many ways. A person can ride a wave with nothing more than their body (body surfing), or they can use a purpose-designed board. So too, we can approach waves of God's Spirit in many ways. We can work simply or we can use more complicated programs. Either can be appropriate; either way, if we catch God's wave, it will be effective. So whilst a church can (and should!) use whatever programs and resources it has at its disposal, it matters little whether the church has a membership of thousands or a few individuals, and it doesn't matter whether the church meets in the local community hall or has its own building.



• Some methods of surfing are good for a particular kind of wave. In the same way, certain methods will fit a particular wave of God's spirit better than others.

It's rather good as metaphors go - there's a lot of depth there (hur hur)!

Anyway, let's move along.

The problem is not that God isn't moving. In fact, Warren says, "Due to a plethora of problems in our world, more people seem to be open to the Good News of Christ than at any time this century[1]." I believe my own experience confirms Warren's statement here - there is no shortage of people who want to hear the Good News, who NEED to hear it.

The problem is that for whatever reason, we're not CATCHING the waves. I like what Warren says here - "Church leaders need to stop praying 'Lord, please bless what I'm doing,' and instead pray 'Lord, help me to do what you're blessing!'"

Something concerning follows - that a church, being an organism (rather than an organisation!), should naturally grow; and if it's not growing, there is a disease within it. And therefore, the role of the church leader is to discover and treat the diseases that are preventing the "spontaneous expansion of the Church".

One thing Rick Warren writes which I find very encouraging is this: he takes time to recognise the work done by "Bivocational pastors" - people who don't get paid to work in their church, but support themselves by working in some other ways. People who are (say) teachers, salesmen, uni students or lecturers, Aircon fitters, doctors, practise managers, psychologists, full-time parents (Sanctuarians, have I left anyone out? :) ). I love hearing that. It reminds me that somewhere in this world God still has a role for me, for my small but caring church. And most importantly, he comments that there will be wipeouts along the way; but a church leader needs to be PERSISTENT.

That's good, then. We've had our share of wipeouts, but we're still surfing. So we're where we should be.

[1] Noting, of course, that this book was written last century; but the relevance of this statement has changed little.