That's why we love movies so much. One of the more common script formulas involves a hero (or group of heroes) who are living life as usual. Just an average Joe. When out of nowhere, they encounter something that turns their average live into something worth telling a story about. Circumstances dictate this amazing plot that we become engrossed watching.
I've spent a lot of time talking to people about how to start a revolution. How can we intintionally create a situation where peoples lives will be affected. It's a tough question and one that can't be answered half heartedly. Most of the time, when you throw people into a situation that you have hand-crafted and expect their lives to be redicaly different after the fact, nothing happens. Why is that? I mean, we are putting in the work right? It's not like we are just throwing these things together without a thought.
You see this so much with churches. Pastors and church staff spend so much time trying to make the environment that people worship in just right. Often they obsess over the minute details. Why is that? Could that time be used more wisely?
My experience is this: Those pastors have to behave this way. They have to becau e most people walk away from a worship service unaffected. Aren't we supposed to be experiencing God during these events? And if we believe in a God that is all powerful and loving, then what kind of conclusions are drawn when you are meant to experience the presence of God the Almighty and you leave with a better understanding of boredom and it's effects on your artistic talents? These pastors focus on the details of atmosphere because if something goes wrong then it could have a profound impact on someones ability to see God. That's a lot of resonsibility.
When discussing this idea with frustrated church goers and church leaders, I almost always get a similar response. "We need to look at the church in Acts and get back to the basics of what they did," or something like that. It's hard to argue with that statement but I would like to put forth a counter to that line of thought. Maybe we do need to be more like the church in Acts but rather than imitating exactly what they did, perhaps we need to place ourselves in a similar situation to them.
Through my study of the book, the Acts church was largely influenced by two things:
They were responding to the circumstances that surrounded them such as persecution and religious outcry.
The disciples of Jesus started by following Christ's direction. They went to a house together to wait and pray for direction. And they stayed there until God moved. See, the disciples didn't start the Jesus movement. They put themselves in a mindset to hear from God and Acts 2 says that the Holy Spirit came down like fire and they went out into the streets to tell people about Jesus. Like fire. There was no planning meeting. No marketing campaign. No formal gathering of any kind. Just fire.
From here, the story is about Jesus's disciples moving from place to place based on God's leading and their reponse to the volitile world around them. Whether that meant they were arrested and thrown in jail, shipwrecked as Paul often was, or they were forced to go to a different city due to religious persecution in the area. Each time they encountered a situation, God moved and the plot thickened.
So at this point you are probably drawing your own conclusions, so allow me to share a few more thoughts. I'm not saying that we should sit around and do nothing, waiting for God to show up and have His way. Planning and discussing the works of God are an act of worship in themsleves. I think it would be foolish to approach any situation blindly. However, I think we need to spend less time obsessing over the details and trying to create the perfect place for people to encounter God. I also think we should stop trying to force these situations into existance.
God is moving and He is interested in connecting with each of us. Maybe we should create events that put people in a situation where God has the freedom to show up. We should be open to hearing from God and be willing to go when He asks us to move. During the most successful events we have hosted, our team simply scheduled an event that was structured enough that people knew where to be and what they should be doing when they got there, but loose enough that the event could go any number of directions. We never knew what was going to happen, but always knew that somebody would leave seeing who God is.
So, I encourage you to listen to God's leading when planning your events or when attending these events. Be patient and wait for God to move. He will move. Don't force it and let it come to you.
