Alrighty people, I know it’s been a long time since I’ve been here. Mostly because I am lazy and also because I am busy, busy, busy. It’s funny how I have more to do with no job than I did when I had one….go figure. I won’t make any promises but I will be writing more often. I have some things we need to talk about and I would like to go to sleep at night… The thoughts that bombard my head in the wee hours of the morning have been keeping me awake for weeks. I choose to ignore them and toss and turn instead of just doing what I needed to do so I could sleep. Ok, ok enough of me rambling…
For months, in every meeting, every training, and almost every sermon at my church we have been hearing about the Five Paradigms of Transformation. A paradigm is a pattern or a model. These models are the guidelines or stepping stones of a change brewing on the horizon of our faith. We have heard stories of extraordinary things going on all over the world. Ordinary people are doing extraordinary things that are radically transforming schools, corporations, governments, prisons, cities, and even nations. There is a change on the horizon. The winds of change are starting to gather strength and a storm is coming…change is on the way. All over our nation there is a quiet movement of the Spirit of God that is causing believers to re-examine how they “do church.” Churches are abandoning the old measures of success and adopting new models of operation. It’s no longer about size, spiritual gifts, church health, nor the number of small groups. It’s about making a significant and sustainable difference in the lives of people around us—in our communities and in our cities. There is a growing awareness that we cannot continue to do the same old things and expect a different result. If we want to be what we were called to be, what we as the church were created to be, we have to do something different…we have to be something different!
A paradigm shift is that “aha!” moment when you see things in such a new light that you can never go back to the old ways again. Each paradigm shift should take us from an old model of thinking that we must discard, to a new model that we must embrace. A new paradigm is the new wineskins that will be needed to hold the new assumptions about what is true. To maximize our impact on our communities–urban, suburban or rural, we need to change how we currently view church. So, my next few posts will be about the 5 Paradigms of Transformation.
A sneak peak….
5 Paradigms of Transformation
1. We are called to disciple nations.
2. We must recaim the Marketplace.
3. Worship is labor.
4. We must invade the kingdom of darkness.
5. We must eliminate systemic poverty.
I hope you stay tuned in. These guidelines are becoming a way of life for me. And I hope they will for you too. Be blessed and until next time Godspeed.
