{"id":1423,"date":"2010-02-08T09:37:47","date_gmt":"2010-02-08T15:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"1235293134"},"modified":"2010-02-08T09:37:47","modified_gmt":"2010-02-08T15:37:47","slug":"the-state-of-the-american-church-the-narcissism-of-minor-differences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/the-state-of-the-american-church-the-narcissism-of-minor-differences\/","title":{"rendered":"The State of the American Church: The Narcissism of Minor Differences"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"With the coming of 2010 I\u2019ve made a commitment to take a decidedly different turn in the focus of my future efforts.\u00a0 It\u2019s a focus toward something and away from something else.\u00a0 Let me explain.<\/p>\n

For 37 years, I\u2019ve focused on the church as a movement.\u00a0 Leadership in particular has been one of my favorite subjects; and the practice of leadership, an art with which I\u2019ve been fascinated.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had the privilege to live through some true revolutions in the way church is done in America.\u00a0 And yet today, with all of the tools we have available to us, I feel somewhat bored with the whole movement.<\/p>\n

I wondered why and thought, \u201cmaybe it\u2019s me, maybe it\u2019s my age, maybe it\u2019s what I\u2019ve been through with bumps and bruises along the way.\u201d<\/em> But I\u2019ve come to realize it\u2019s none of these.\u00a0 It\u2019s my assessment, and remember it\u2019s only mine, one little opinion that what we\u2019re stuck in today is not revolution but evolution<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I know that\u2019s a dirty word for most Christians but that really is what\u2019s going on in the American church leadership scene.\u00a0 We really have no revolutionaries, just people re-saying old things in (at least sometimes) interesting ways.<\/p>\n

With blogs and social media, with all the tools available to us, every person can become their own authority.\u00a0 And some can even attempt to become a rock star.\u00a0 It\u2019s easier than ever to produce CD\u2019s, DVD\u2019s, books, have tours, networks.\u00a0 It seems like everyday a new coaching network pops up.\u00a0 And when you dig down below the surface, basically you have someone trying to build a clientele.\u00a0 And I\u2019d be the first one to admit that there is nothing wrong with that.<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve gone to conferences and perused the ones that are available that I\u2019ve decided to forego, I\u2019ve come to this conclusion:\u00a0 Leadership in the American church right now seems to be mildly to strongly narcissistic. <\/strong> It really is all about the coolest, hippest, hottest, new, semi-super star on the scene.\u00a0 I could tell you that there are a few super-stars out there.\u00a0 I won\u2019t name them because you\u2019ll shoot down the list.\u00a0 But they\u2019re there; truly great men and women who have led revolution.\u00a0 But most of the up and coming leadership, as smart and bright as it is, are imitators.\u00a0 I call it the narcissism of minor differences.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s why I\u2019m turning my focus away from the subject of leadership.\u00a0 It\u2019s because we do have some truly great leaders; a lot of great things are being said.\u00a0 But it\u2019s the old things being said again, which teaches me this: it\u2019s very easy to get lost in the art of leadership and forget what and why we\u2019re leading.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The church of Jesus Christ is not an institution, as much as we\u2019d like for it to be.\u00a0 As much as we try to master the skills of organizational building, of finance, of public relations, of marketing and advertising.\u00a0 The church as a spiritual movement cannot be contained. <\/strong> It breaks out where it will.\u00a0 It grows where it will.\u00a0 Most of the pastors of the great growing churches today really have no idea why they are growing other than a simple commitment to the deep and profound truth that God loves us as we are and not as we ought to be; that He has sent His Son and created a massive, worldwide movement of redemption, restoration, and reconciliation.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying \u201cI\u2019m done\u201d to leadership.\u00a0 I\u2019m just done with making the subject of leadership more important than it is.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to begin to focus on people, the effect the gospel has: the three R\u2019s – redemption, restoration, and reconciliation.\u00a0 The truth of the matter is, it\u2019s all about relationships; connecting people to God and each other for the purpose of changing the world. <\/strong> Not studying the latest book, or worshiping at the altar of the latest guru, or reading the latest blog, or being fascinated by the latest twitter of some really cool something that someone has done.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow I\u2019ll tell you about what my new passion is and how that focus is going to change everything I do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the coming of 2010 I\u2019ve made a commitment to take a decidedly different turn in the focus of my future efforts.\u00a0 It\u2019s a focus toward something and away from something else.\u00a0 Let me explain. For 37 years, I\u2019ve focused on the church as a movement.\u00a0 Leadership in particular has been one of my favorite … Continue reading “The State of the American Church: The Narcissism of Minor Differences”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,17],"tags":[],"series":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1423"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=1423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}