When it comes to church, I can’t tell you how often I’ve heard people tell me, “Don’t reinvent the wheel.”
I imagine back in cave-man history when they had square wheels, a certain caveman— we’ll call him Firestone—noticed that square wheels didn’t roll too well, and so started asking some “What if” questions. His first was probably, “Square wheels are easy to make, but those corners sure cause problems. What if we rounded them off?”
Probably the other cavemen came around and, through a series of grunts and club beatings, told Firestone, “Don’t reinvent the wheel.” He especially got grief from the wheel cutters, because they had been making wheels like this since their great, great grandfathers developed opposable thumbs. “Besides,” the stone cutters said, “if we have to round off the corners, it will take us a lot more time to make wheels. Right now, we can cut two square wheels a day. If we have to round off the corners, we can only make one wheel a day.”
For a while, Firestone was a little discouraged. But then one day, he came across a wheel cutter named Michelin who shared similar ideas. They sat for long hours into the night, talking about round wheels, and that even if it took longer to cut round wheels, it would save everybody a lot of time, because now the wheels could actually be used. “Why doesn’t everybody see this?” they wondered.
So one day, they stopped talking about it, and actually made a round wheel. At first, people made fun of them. Firestone and Michelin were scoffed at and ridiculed. “A round wheel,” they were told, “doesn’t look right on a square cart.” But then people noticed that the carts were actually moving and transporting things, and so the criticism shifted. “All that rolling,” they were told, “will cause the wheel to crack. Square wheels are better because they don’t roll, and so don’t crack.”
But Firestone and Michelin just kept making round wheels. After a while, they even had a few disagreements with each other on how to make the best wheel, and so agreed to go their separate ways. At first, the naysayers cheered, and said things like, “I won’t say ‘I told you so'” even though “I told you so” was exactly what they were saying. However, wheel production actually increased. Instead of one group making round wheels, there were now two. And the competition caused both cutters to continually refine and redesign their wheels.
Today, both Firestone and Michelin continue to “reinvent” the wheel, adding treading that sloughs off rain, traction that handles curves better, and studs for driving on ice and snow. A day may come when they will reinvent the wheel again, so that all of us can do life faster, smoother, and more efficiently. Maybe, eventually, they will get rid of wheels altogether, and we will ride on air.
I want to reinvent church. Why? A lot of it has become square and isn’t going anywhere. People come week after week, and work, and serve, and sweat, and teach, and give, and pray, and the church doesn’t go anywhere. There’s lots of lights and big, white-toothed smiles, warm handshakes, and media glitz, but the people aren’t going anywhere.
Don’t reinvent the wheel? Sorry. It needs to be reinvented.
the only thing worse than a warm handshake is a warm milkshake! i have always been a little grossed out by warm sweaty handshakes.
i hope you are doing well. you need to post some pictures of your family (or e-mail them). i am sure they all look a little different than the picture you have on your homepage.
we have a bun in the oven in case you didn’t know. august 7th…or thereabouts.
Hi Jeremy,
I’m with you here, and I’m interested where this is taking you. I think a lot about this, but I never seem to get too far. I’m skeptical of our surrounding culture, because I believe our faith is mostly counter-cultural, and that conforming to culture has provided more problems for us than solutions.
Church as we’ve come to know it has echoes of the medieval pattern – One elite professional over over an unlearned, amateur flock. Are we that different today? And the church growth movement seems like an unholy joining of Hollywood, Madison Avenue and a psychotherapist’s convention.
Honestly, I always seem to come back to the house church. Not a re-invention, I know, but something that seems adaptable to most cultural settings. If you have something that really works, it will grow. So what then? Reproduce, I believe.
I’m becoming more comfortable with saying that the American church is largely a failure, no matter how you measure it. I heard an interview with Michael Horton (I know, he’s LS.) in which he pointed out that most young people in the church don’t even think Jesus is the only Way, and that His primary role is help me be a better and happier person. These kids grew up in youth groups. The church has failed them. I’ve seen this type of a church in action, and I see the character of the people responsible and their attitudes: their failure is no surprise. So let’s not kid ourselves, it’s not a system or method alone that is to blame. It’s the shepherds. Few people want to say it, but it’s true.
Square wheel indeed. But its made of flesh, not stone.