Violating God's Principles of Growth

Even the human body grows by division

Once upon a time there was a church leader who decided that the way things had been done were old and boring. So he decided to do things a little differently…actually a lot differently. He actually believed that would result in more participation and reaching more people for Christ.

Whereas for years the church had had a thriving Bible Study ministry that followed all of the principles God made for His creation, the church leader took steps to violate those principles, thinking, “Surely God make allowances for old and boring.”

But as the weeks after the change came and went, the group got smaller and smaller. Although the change was supposed to promote togetherness, it actually resulted in division and separation.

Panic began to set into the church leader’s heart. Not wanting to admit he could have made a mistake, he removed from the group the members who seemed the most incompatible. The group that was left continued to decrease in number. Several of its attendees decided to find another church home.

When asked what was going on, the church leader reminded the questioners that way back at the beginning of the “great experiment” that it would be for only a few months.

Only in those few months the large group continued to deteriorate and the church lost more members to other churches.

Unable to accept that his idea might be wrong (even though it had been tried many times before, unsuccessfully and seemed very intellectual), he pressed on. The class continued to dwindle and the members were less and less satisfied with the sophomoric activities disguised as learning.

When the time to get back to the way things used to be came, classes were a skeleton of their former selves and the teachers had to start all over from scratch.

There are a lot of “new methods” bandied about. Most of them are virtually useless. Nevertheless, leaders, especially inexperienced leaders, continue to try them. They no doubt think there must be something better than what they had. They certainly don’t want to be taught by someone who has “been there, done that.”

That’s the trouble with so-called “new ideas.” Most of them are not new at all. They have been tried and failed because they run contrary to the very principles of creation established by God.

Way too many Christian leaders think that because they thought of something or read it somewhere it must be the leadership of the Holy Spirit. God never changes, though, and His principles remain the same. They always have and always will.

Some day, perhaps prospective leaders will be taught that division is the best unifier. Nothing in God’s creation lives without it. The wheel does not need to be reinvented, and Jesus’ message is sufficient.