Chapter 1: Two Rooms: The Best Picture to Expose the North American Church's Greatest Challenge
There's no doubt that people attach to a church because of place, personality, programs and people. I think it's especially true in the large church with all that is offered. But the title Faking Disciples? Ouch. What did you think of the description of the Upper Room and the Lower Room?
from: Steve Shaffer
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the section subtitle, "Faking Christians," I am, at first, a little ticked off. Not knowing, exactly, where Mancini is going with this ( we must read on), I feel a bit "accused." Then again, maybe I should feel that way. I am fairly confident that while we, SLLCS, are not intentional in "faking Christians," we likely do produce our fair share. It will be interesting to see where Mancini takes this section of his book.
I do like his use of the Lower and Upper Rooms to set the tone of his book and lay the foundation for building our Upper Room. It is brilliant his drawing from Jesus' use of the Upper Room in Luke and John, both before His death and after His resurrection. While we, as leaders, in modern language, might be stretching to say Jesus laid out His Vision for The Church in that Upper Room, I willing to make the stretch.
One thing that seems clear to me, already, is that we, the BOD, must get to the Upper Room, with Christ, and focus on setting the Vision/Mission, and, equally important, figure out how to draw our members up, as well. That, in my opinion, will require, clear direction, communication to our members, and story sharing. With that, and the staff's further development and execution of the "Four P's"=," we can move SLLCS into the future. Communicating to the members, "drawing them up," will allow necessary change to occur in a less daunting manner.
God's Blessings to all!
I agree with your thought that we must first grow in our own experiences in the Upper Room, and leading by example, encourage others to experience it as well. Direction, communication, and story sharing will indeed be important in that process.
DeleteI like the upper and lower room analogy in that it acknowledges that the lower room is not insignificant or irrelevant to our discipleship. That it programs and worship cannot be the end all and be all of what we are trying to accomplishes is true and accepted.
ReplyDeleteAgain, let's be careful not to create classes of disciples - lazy lower room ones and true upper room ones.
The goal is drawing every person into a closer relationship with Jesus that demonstrates itself in every area of their lives - family, school, work, neighborhood.
There were a couple of things that came together in my mind as I read this chapter. "...Upper Room people truly identify with the church's Vision Frame." "If we can just say it well, say it together, say it often, and say it with feeling, surely people will catch the vision; surely they will taste and see the biggest ideas of God!" I'm finding a common thread of communication (which Stephen also identified).
ReplyDeleteI think that we, at the Board level, have evolved our meetings and our language to be more centered on the Vision Frame, but have we done a good job of communicating with the congregation in the same manner? If we want to "draw them up" as Stephen says above, shouldn't we be communicating with them through the lens of the Vision Frame? I wonder if there is an opportunity with this process to take a look at how we communicate and if we're being effective.
I second Pastor Arp's comment in that I like how the book doesn't try to minimize the Lower Room. It's a necessary part, but it's only a stepping stone.
Additionally, it is imperative that as we adapt and grow our practice of the upper room, we are sensitive to the process of change. As the authors point out, “People don’t resist change; they resist loss.” This connects with me. I have been a part of a church that experienced massive change, failed to acknowledge the loss, and suffered because of it. Something that convicted me more than a little was the quote, “...we have helped people appreciate and even personalize the disciple-making words of Jesus, but that has not automatically propelled them into the disciple-making works of Jesus.” Generally speaking, I believe the Lutheran church excels at teaching about Jesus, but struggles to promote lifestyles of vocational ministry that reflects the life of Jesus. We learn, but do we do?
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