Mistakes I Have Made

I would not be writing this blog if I had gone a different way not too long ago.  I could have been what I call a corporate Christian.  Now by corporate, I’m obviously not talking about into the gathering as a whole.  What I mean by corporate Christian is viewing the whole thing as a business opportunity.  I’m sure there are some principles that are transferable from the one arena to the other.  I’m not one to think that the Christian walk has nothing to learn from others.  The problem comes in when you try and compromise values to get some sort of hodge-podge version of Christianity that would be palatable to the Sir Alan Sugar types of the world.

It’s one of those things that I look back on now and know I made a big mistake, but from that I learnt critical lessons about listening to the voice of God.  I was in a choir and really enjoyed it, to the point of getting involved in some aspects of its administration.  Now I am a believer in having good ideas that are not God ideas.  I’m an idealistic type of person and realise my strength lies more in thinking and expressing thoughts in word.  I also appreciate that the hard work of taking people with you to realise that which you’ve written takes more than people consider.  Especially when the culture is concerned and it requires mind-set changes and sacrifices, you have to be prepared either to go through the long process of change, or the shorter process of amending your ideas so that it fits where people are.  Sadly I had not considered such factors and ended up frustrating myself through no fault of anyone else’s, I just never paid the price.

Likewise I didn’t pay the price for the level of investment it costs to be involved in projects that you may not have a sufficient understanding and personal commitment to.  That is a big mistake and can end up costing your dearly.  The call of God is so important that looking to be helpful and just fill in a gap in the meantime can be very tricky and heart-consuming.  It’s so much better to know where you are called and work there doing that which you can give a good level of personal commitment.  I left those things behind and although I’m sad to have in some ways wasted time doing it, I can imagine how bad things might have turned out if I’d have stuck around.

Corporate Christians, you see, believe that we should be aspiring for success as the world would acknowledge it – look at the size of our congregation, look at the great facilities that God has blessed us with, look at the figures we get in tithes and offering weekly, look at the level of attention and crowd attendance at our concerts and conferences, look at the big names we’ve attracted for our events.  Consider all this and agree with us that indeed we’re succeeding.  Surely God is with us.

This picture has church life and the Christian walk as something that can be measured solely by worldly standards and it’s all about effective project management and that’s what brings results.  I’m glad I jumped off that ship mentally when I had to because that would be forever frustrating.  I’m enjoying more the messy issue of how relationships are going in terms of being informed about the gospel in word and deed and how as a result my life becomes more conformed into Christ’s image.  I like that.  I prefer that.  I get the impression from what I’ve read in scripture, that I’m not the only one.

And all that from some of the mistakes I have made.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

dmcd