Google God

Our information-rich lives can fool us into thinking that information equals transformation. It doesn’t.

Photo by Shiwa ID on Unsplash

In 2010, when my family and I accepted the call to lead a community called Peace Church, I entered that new season of ministry with a hypothesis in mind. In fact, any time the Lord leads me to a new kind of ministry, there’s usually some form of hypothesis that helps guide my leadership. For me, every move is an opportunity to “try out” a big idea.

In the case of Peace, my hypothesis was: It’s possible to build a large and thriving church when the Word is clearly preached with passion and love. Very simple. But there was a lot going on behind that simple idea.

First, we were in an era of real “theological churn” throughout the evangelical world. Many leading voices had been, for some time, calling that hypothesis into question in different ways.

On one hand, there was the “Emergent Church” movement, which was redefining the very nature of Scripture and basic Christian convictions (including the atonement, human sexuality and social justice).

There was also the well-established “Church Growth” movement, which sought to bring wisdom from the business and marketing world into the church. This movement provided many insights that, in themselves, were potentially helpful.

But it also imported, in my opinion, a dangerous mindset: Treat the church members and potential attendees as a customer base. Create a well-packaged product that can serve as many people as possible. Market it with excellence. Deliver it on a consistent basis.

I had been around that world enough to see that approach lead to some unhealthy outcomes. At the time (2010), the one I found most disturbing was the “muzzle” it put on the voices of many preachers. Because Sunday morning (in this model) had become the main marketing event for the local church, it was important to be as invitational, warm and non-threatening as possible.

Every sermon had to be crafted with the first-time visitor in mind. Anything that might be confusing or off-putting should be cut or at least muted and covered in bubble wrap. Difficult topics should be avoided entirely. “We can teach those things in Adult Ed or Community Groups,” the reasoning went.

I didn’t buy it.

So, my 2010 hypothesis was rooted in a few things: 1) The Bible is God’s holy Word, without error. 2) If God has something to say, then it’s worth repeating. 3) Truth, however hard it might seem on first glance, is what sets people free. 4) If we attract people to our church by avoiding anything that appears challenging, then people will either remain comfortable in falsehood or feel like they’ve been given a false bill of goods when the truth is finally introduced.

Over the next ten years, I saw that hypothesis proven true again and again. We saw the church grow and thrive through the simple teaching of Scripture. It was amazing to see the power of God’s Word at work.

While the hypothesis was proven true, I came to believe that it wasn’t sufficient. Over a period of years, beginning in 2017, I realized that information does not produce transformation. Unless the Word goes into our hearts and is activated through faith, it never really comes alive. We just become someone who knows a lot.

Without discounting the good things God did in that season, I began realizing that the most important thing I could possibly teach a community was how to appropriate and activate truth through the power of the Holy Spirit.

I felt deeply convicted that I had not taught people how to do this. Like a typical teacher, I thought that “knowing the material” would automatically bring transformation. But I was wrong!

It’s a temptation to believe in the transformative power of information as people living in the West. We have a “Google-world,” with easy access to ideas and facts. I can sit in my living room and get the answer to so many questions by simply calling out, “Hey, Siri…”

But getting to know God isn’t achieved by compiling data about Him. Of course, the Word is irreplaceable as a source of absolute truth. But Jesus clearly taught us it would the Holy Spirit who would guide us, teach us and move us the same way He did Jesus. God wants us to have a close, responsive relationship with Him, not our ideas about him.

So, when we launched Inheritance, we had a new hypothesis to test (even as we continued to hold fast our trust in the Bible): I believe that the Church’s greatest resource is a Spirit-filled, activated believer operating in Real Truth, Real Power and Real Community.

Spoiler Alert: It’s working.