Two interesting quotes

I'm in the debt of another blogger for these two quotes from GK Chesterton. Thanks Jeff (Notes from the Trail).


"Reform implies form. It implies that we are trying to shape the world in a particular image; to make it something that we see already in our minds. Evolution is a metaphor from mere automatic unrolling. Progress is a metaphor from merely walking along a road - very likely the wrong road. But reform is a metaphor for reasonable and determined men; it means that we see a certain thing out of shape and we mean to put it into shape. And we know what shape."

"The modern young man will never change his environment because he will always change his mind."

I find the first quote challenging when it comes to reshaping the church for the purposes of God in our generation. As we sing I want to serve the purpose of God in my generation, we have to ask the question: What shape of church will do this? I remember hearing Nigel Wright talk about the probability that you could you make any model of church work, because the model is not the important thing.

But more challenging is the need to know what it is you're trying to transform or reform the church to be.

The second quote is a challenge to avoid jumping between new ideas or programmes as the solution to the problem. As we are bombarded by an ever increasing amount of analysis about what needs to change and how, we can find ourselves paralysed about what to do. Should we become more seeker sensitive? Should we become Purpose Driven? Should we set goals or not set goals? (Jack Hayford wrote a chapter in a recent book that was reprinted as an article on the Christianity Today website about "Why I don't set goals") Are we looking for a new orthodoxy or an old tradition?

This is why these times of prayer that we have set aside are so important. Not just for addressing the current needs of the church, important as they are, but keeping our focus on what it is that God has called us to be. Let's pray that God will release more than just the finances to get through, but all the resources (finance, people, homes, hearts) that will reform the church into the active Christ-centred community we long to be.