the big splash

The Big Splash

I am a little late writing this blog entry so you will have to forgive me. I was at the pool this summer watching my 10 year old son at the time (he is now 11). He was with his cousin and they were having this contest. You know things do not change over the years especially in East Tennessee where it all stays the same and that is a big cultural value. A place where most consversation have to do with the past tense. I remember when ...

Anyway we are at the pool and I am listening to Southern Rock music which also stays the same over the years. It is like I have never left. Lynard Skynard( I think I forgot how to spell their name) , Blacksnake, Molly Hatchet are all still popular in the South. Sweet Home Alabama is still the national anthem or atleast the people in Alabama think so. But I digress. I was actually watching my son participate in a game that I remember quite well. It goes like this. Each person has a turn on the board and you see who can make the biggest splash.

You have the cannonball
You have the Belly Buster
You have the can opener
You have the can opener with a twist

I am sure the list could go on. Perhaps you remember some from your day in the pool.

Each time the participant runs and jumps off of the board in hopes of making a big splash. The other kids are the ones who judges how well he / she has done though I do not remember girls doing that as much but it is 2006 you know. Times change even in East Tennessee.

It made me think a little of churches in a way. Not that churches jump off of diving boards to make a splash literally. I know churches sometimes flop but I am not thinking of that as well. I am thinking of our tendency sometimes as leaders to make a big splash. It is almost like we are running off of the board and taking a jump and seeing how big of a splash we can make. We see who can come up with the most creative program, sermon, church building, name of a church or even a blog.

I think these is a desire in many of us for recognition and we want the attention and we want the alloclades that go along with being successful. We want the boys to talk about the can opener that we just did that got water on most of the people sitting around the pool. We would rarely admit this. We would not strive to do this but some times the way I feel or perceive it is that we are trying to make the splash. Perhaps so I can write a cool blog about it. Or someone can write about me.

I guess where I am going with this is what drives me? Is it the recognition? Is it people saying WOW? “He really is creative”. “He is on the cutting edge”. Or is it about seeing people come to faith. We justify our coolness a lot of times by saying we do this for the lost people of the world but I do know if I trust myself on that all of the time. How’s that for honesty. Sometimes I wonder if my motives do not get a little mixed up with the idea that a little attention would be nice.

What about churches? Is there a sense amongst some churches that we have to do something that makes a bigger splash then the other churches so that people will want to come to our church since we make a bigger splash. I do not think we plan intentionally to do this but when I hear or read pastors or church leaders say we want to have the biggest and best ….(you fill in the blank) then I now scratch my head and say but why? What is that about? What is the real reason behind that? When I hear someone say “ I think that our church is so good that I do not think anyone should even think of going to another church in our city.” I just don’t get it any more or I should say I don’t buy that any more. We are not about making big splashes I think we are about seeing lives changed and that usually happens one at a time in a relational context rather in some BIG SPLASH context.

Before I leave this we also do this on the m. field. We try to make splashes overseas as well. We want the coolest way to do something. We want to be on the “best practices” list. We want to get written up by our organizations. We want to be invited to speak at the conferences on … ( you fill in the blank ). We want to write articles or books or blogs (this one of course does not count) about our adventures. But why ???? Again, I return to motive and what is my motive in be recognized or to make a splash.

But… I am a recovering Big Splasher. I still have my days in the pool where I take off my shirt and suck in my stomach and take a jump off of the board to see what kind of splash (= “impact” in Christian Leader language) I CAN MAKE. You see what I think I am learning is that it is about the kingdom and how He must increase and how I must decrease (John 3:30) .