Verbosity

Church Planting Series, Part eighteen

During a recent worship experience, I found myself lost in a cascade of words. So many words were coming my way, I couldn’t think anymore. I couldn’t focus. I became distracted. The words droned on. They swirled around me. They ran together and formed a washed out, blank screen. I was in a wilderness of words, a desert where every grain of sand was another noun, verb, participle, or adjective. I lost all focus on God, His will and His Word. There was way too much talking.

Verbosity. Too many words.

I’ve encountered the fire hose blast of verbal overload in a variety of worship settings. Repetitive and overdone liturgies, litanies, and responses have numbed my brain. Droning verbal transitions between praise songs have lulled me into inattentiveness.

I’ve encountered verbosity in small groups and Bible studies. Leaders dominated the agenda, answered their own questions, and prevented any interaction between group members. No relationships could be formed. We were alone in a crowd, insulated from each other by the wash of words from the leader.

This is a problem. Words can get in the way of THE WORD. Jesus highlighted this issue in Matthew 6:7-8, “When you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” In verse seven, Jesus uses Greek words that paint the picture of verbal overflow: the verb “Battalogeo,” and the noun “polulogia.” Both words sound like a babbling overflow of verbiage. Jesus noted that verbosity is connected with pagan desperation—-a reliance upon self instead of trust in the true God.

Across the centuries, pagans have flooded the culture with word overflow. The Babylonian creation epic, Enuma Elish, contains over 6000 words in a poetic form. Today’s media-saturated world keep the verbosity flowing steadily into our lives. Contrast that with the Biblical creation account. It is a Hebrew historical narrative of only 786 words. God is the God of few words. Instead of leaving us an encyclopedia of do’s and don’ts, God gave us a book, a short book that we can carry with us, as His Word of life.

Why doesn’t God have to flood us with verbosity? His Word is living and active. His Word has power. His Word works! His Word can tolerate silence, thought and reflection because the Spirit works through the Word, “dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). One Word of God can do what our many words can never accomplish. The Word made flesh, Jesus, gives life.

Please understand me. I’m not speaking against communication. I’m simply asking that we choose words wisely and sparingly. I’m asking that we give God a chance to speak—that we pause enough to let Him get through. Perhaps we need to think about the proliferation of words that we send into the gathering of God’s people. What are we accomplishing? What needs to change? Is there room for the Living Word of God to work in the midst of our many words? Are we overloading people or are we giving a simple, clear, and Christ-centered message?

Less is more. Jesus showed us that. Let’s not let verbosity get in the way of the Word that will not return empty, but will accomplish that for which God sent it.

A New Generation

Church Planting Series, Part seventeen

I was hanging out with some young ministry leaders over the weekend. These college students and recent graduates were fired up in their faith and ready to reach the world for Christ. But they were thinking differently about ministry.

I asked one person what ministry path he was thinking about. He responded, “My life is my ministry.” He is forging ahead to become a math teacher, making every moment of his life outreach for Christ and using every opportunity to serve inside and outside the church.

Another young leader heard me make the comment, “The church is not a building; it’s the people.” He let out a loud “Amen” and proceeded to talk about the small group he is in and how they serve and reach the lost.

A young woman told me how she came to know Jesus and how she started reaching her young classmates who were on the fringes of the mainstream.

My friend told me about his college student daughter who is looking for a church while she’s away at school. One front-runner was a “church under the bridge” that met with and served the homeless.

A seminarian getting ready to graduate told me about his desire to partner with a friend to become “worker-priests” and simply live with inner-city residents to see how Jesus might open doors for life transformation with the Gospel.

There is a new generation of young ministry leaders. This generation is not thinking as much about career in ministry as they are about contributing to the expansion of the Kingdom. These leaders are not thinking as much about mega-church building as they are about making Christ’s difference in the world. These Christ-followers are thinking not as much about stardom as they are about sacrifice. These servants are not thinking as much about charging into the world with a big impact as they are about changing the world one person at a time.

How can we be good stewards of these new generation leaders? Shall we funnel them into old systems of training and church structure? Shall we tell them that they are idealists who need to get real and get with the old, established programs? Or shall we let these leaders soar by giving them permission, training, mentoring, support, and maximum flexibility to allow for a new movement of transformational ministry for Jesus?

Church is moving outside the walls. A new generation of leaders wants to bring Jesus to the world in a powerful way. Can we join them? Can we contribute to this new movement? Can we be part of a decentralized, smaller, servant-oriented, fluid network of faith communities that infiltrate neighborhoods and cities with Jesus? What will that look like? What steps must we take to get there?