Saturday, June 09, 2007

Good post at "Out of Ur"

Just thought i'd mention that the most recent post at the Out of Ur blog is really good - it's titled "Success Covers a Multitude of Sins" It talks about how character formation is slow, so a lot of pastors avoid it because it slows them down in the pursuit of tangible outcomes from their ministries. It made a lot of sense, but my question as i read was whether inner character development and external, tangible results can or should be separated. I've thought for a long time that some "results" can be generated by human effort, but that true character transformation will always result in visible, noticeable transformation of the person, the church, and the community. So, will a focus on character transformation really slow us down in seeing results in our ministries, or will it just slow us down temporarily before resulting in even more dramatic "results"? Or are we really meaning "attendance numbers" when whe say "results"? In that case, of course "results" will come slower, but it seems to me that there'll be more fruit in the orchard, even if it's a smaller grove.

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