Organise or agonise

You do not  "organize" the kingdom of God; you "agonize" the kingdom of God.

Day-by-Day Jan 22nd

I remember Jim Collins saying the church should not be run like a business. His reason was that most businesses are mediocre and why would you want that for your church! Well, my thoughts are a little different. Although he had a lot to say that was pertinent and worth thinking about–his principles of greatness and focus are really interesting for example–it's not the whole story.

When you treat the kingdom as something to be organised, it becomes a project. But it's not a project. The kingdom of God is about transformation. When it's a project, if something goes wrong, you look for a way to fix it. 

It's all rather mechanical. But the kingdom of God is more like a garden than a machine. It needs to be nurtured, to be planted, watered and weeded. 

That of course is not the whole point of the difference between organise and agonise. Sometimes the lack of organisation gives rise to the agony of failure and mishaps. But as Paul might say, "If I have the gift of organisation and can plan all things to finest of detail and have not love, I can never feel the agony of the kingdom as God's heart searches for the lost and missing. 

Well he might have done!