Monday, May 22, 2006
Getting Organized
Think about the most spectacular man-made thing you have ever seen. Hoover Dam - the Pyramids of Egypt - The Great Wall of China - whatever it is for you. Now, ask yourself, "How did it get built"?
In American we love the individual and we admire the accomplishment of great individuals, but large projects are never the work on one person. One person may lead the project, but it takes an army of people to do the kinds of projects in the paragraph above, to do pretty much any great thing. And while that leader may inspire and present vision, guide and motivate, even that leader cannot and does not keep that army working effectively - that job belongs to the bureaucracy.
In a nation that loves the individual like we do, probably nothing is more loathed than a bureaucracy, from the apparent inefficiency to the grossly dehumanizing atmosphere, we just hate 'em. And yet they are absolutely necessary for the operation of this nation. From moving the mail, to building the infrastructure, from holding elections to operating the courts, we simply have to have them, and they are useful.
Consider these selected and scattered quotes from the last two chapters of Hugh Hewitt's latest book Painting The Map Red
Jollyblogger recently ran across a quote from George Barna in which he seems to back off a little from his book Revolution which as David previously contended
You see, we as Christians are charged with some pretty big things to accomplish. Yes, we are to first be sanctified, but we are also called to
Cross-posted on How To Be A Christian And Still Go To Church
Related Tags: call, charge, bureaucracy, organization, church, Christianity
In American we love the individual and we admire the accomplishment of great individuals, but large projects are never the work on one person. One person may lead the project, but it takes an army of people to do the kinds of projects in the paragraph above, to do pretty much any great thing. And while that leader may inspire and present vision, guide and motivate, even that leader cannot and does not keep that army working effectively - that job belongs to the bureaucracy.
In a nation that loves the individual like we do, probably nothing is more loathed than a bureaucracy, from the apparent inefficiency to the grossly dehumanizing atmosphere, we just hate 'em. And yet they are absolutely necessary for the operation of this nation. From moving the mail, to building the infrastructure, from holding elections to operating the courts, we simply have to have them, and they are useful.
Consider these selected and scattered quotes from the last two chapters of Hugh Hewitt's latest book Painting The Map Red
It is an era of rote celebration of individualism and an automatic assignment of virtue and intellectual sophistication to "independent" voters and thinkers...."Party politics" is MSM code for disreputable politics. Party loyalists are "hacks" who drink "kool aid," their arguements not even worthy of rebuttal....Congress is run by one of two parties. All the libertarian and Greens, all the socialists and independents...they are just the crowds at the sporting event....all the committees and all the subcommittees are run by one party and all the executive departments are run by one party....If the GOP throws up a nominee for the presidency or for a Senate seat who is not "orthodix" on all the big issues, the question will not be how to throw him or her overboard, but how to assure that the party rallies to their aid.Do you see what Hugh is saying here? If you want to do something big, like in government you have to have a group and you have to organize the group.
Jollyblogger recently ran across a quote from George Barna in which he seems to back off a little from his book Revolution which as David previously contended
My biggest gripe about the book was that, in my mind, it destroyed the covenantal and communal character of the church.What Barna said was
Am I defining mere relationships as "church"? No, as you know, the Greek word ekklesia, from which we derive the English term church is not clear to most scholars but most of them agree that it generally has to do with the gathering of called-out people. So my notion of "being the church" requires that you be not only engaged in such passionate endeavors but that you also be connected to other believers in some type of faith-oriented, regular meeting for the purposes of emulating and honoring Christ. Christianity is not an isolationist experience; it is covenantal and communal.While this thought does indeed solve some of the problems with Barna's book as posited, I don't think it goes near far enough.
You see, we as Christians are charged with some pretty big things to accomplish. Yes, we are to first be sanctified, but we are also called to
Matt 28:19-20 - "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."That, my friends is a tall order, perhaps the tallest of all. If it takes an organization, if it takes bureaucracy, to accomplish a task as relatively minor as building Hoover Dam, certainly it will to meet the charged that Christ has left us.
Cross-posted on How To Be A Christian And Still Go To Church
Related Tags: call, charge, bureaucracy, organization, church, Christianity
