church gravity pulls both ways
I have a good friend who leads a church close by. He sees his role as a calling and loves seeing the fruit of changed lives as people engage in the story of Jesus. He is also saddened and frustrated by what he calls ‘church gravity'. He often gets caught up — or slowed down — by keeping things running. When the desire to respond to societal injustice or human isolation is overwhelmed by the pressure to maintain week-in week-out operations, he identifies it as church gravity. Church gravity crowds out meaningful community. Church gravity blocks out the margin for spontaneity. Church gravity suffocates innovation and creativity. Round and round we go. When church people succumb to church gravity, movement in the work of God grinds to a halt. People become caught up in the perpetuation of what they are accustomed to. Stuck in a cycle of what might become an exercise in justifying the existence of what they call church. But this pull doesn’t just impact those i...
