It's not what you know (Part 2of 3)

Relationally dysfunctional people are the wrong ones to lead the church into the new era and many many pastors are relationally dysfunctional. In the past, a good Bible teacher was sufficient to build a church around. Knowledge was king and people who were good at Bible knowledge could grow a church.

The new era of the church is about community. It’s about discipleship the way Jesus did it; in the context of life. Today’s seekers are not looking for more information. The information age is fading with the modern age. People today are looking for relationships that are genuine and life lessons that are taught OTJ and not in a sanctuary.

Unfortunately, many churches are trying to “do” relationships through having small group programs to “meet that need.” “Doing” small groups in a church is not relationship. It’s the equivalent to putting a cat, a dog, a monkey and a dolphin all in the same room and assuming that they will all relate well together because they are mammals. They don’t know the first thing about how to communicate with each other. People are the same way. People don’t know good relationship skills because they don’t have good relationships. The church lectures about the need for small groups, but does not model it well.

Christ’s model of multiplication was not lecture, but life. His method of Christian growth training was not rhetoric, but relationship. Christ’s classroom was the community, not the temple.

We have institutionalized a faith that was meant to be lived outside the walls of religion. We have organized people into categories and then we artificially put them in small gatherings and expect them to connect. Small groups breaks down the larger dysfunction, but does not fix it. In the next installment, I will address the solution.