In The Discipline of Grace: God’s Role and Our Role in the
Pursuit of Holiness, author Jerry Bridges compares two types of spiritual
obedience – cruise-control obedience and racing-car obedience.
“…We press the
accelerator pedal of obedience until we have brought our behavior up to a
certain level or ‘speed.’ The level of obedience is most often determined by
the behavior standard of the Christians around us. …We want to just comfortably
blend in with the level of obedience of those around us.” And then we hit
cruise control.
I know what it’s
like to be on cruise control.
Been there, done
that.
And often it’s less
than cruise control. Call it “cruising just enough to get by. Barely.”
I know what
happened, when it happened, and why it happened. You serve in a church for 15
years – children’s ministry, adult Sunday School, small church, prayer
commission, occasional teaching on Sunday night, greetings ministry, short term
missions trip. And then you watch the ground shift from underneath you, as a
handful of congregational and staff leaders decide they want the church to
become the next Willowcreek.
It didn’t work.
It nearly destroyed the church. We left for another church home, and I dragged
the decision out because I kept hoping something would change. It didn’t. We
stayed too long.
A new church,
with all the difficulties of finding new ministries to plug into, new people to
meet, new Sunday School class. It wasn’t easy, but we kept at it and had begun
to establish new friends, new networks, new ways to serve. I even became a
deacon.
And then – déjà
vu all over again. The change for “growth and relevance.” Our Sunday School
class was eliminated, and the one we switched to was eliminated. New programs
implemented. Big media emphasis. I raised a voice and was reprimanded.
I didn’t have it
in me to fight again. All the change eventually ended the same way as before –
upheaval, staff changes, people leaving. We stayed put. I didn’t have the
energy to change churches yet again. But something else happened. We stayed
put, but I withdrew.
My focus turned
away from the local church toward a para-church ministry. I got serious about
writing, and published two novels and a non-fiction book. We still attend
church regularly. The upheaval has calmed down. The teaching is good. Support
for missions is strong.
But I stayed on
cruise control. Or something less.
It’s not a good
place to be.
Of course, no
one ever said that faith was easy.
Led by Jason
Stasyszen and Sarah Salter, we’ve been reading The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges. To see what others had to
say on this chapter, “Obeying the Great Commandment,” please visit Jason at Connectingto Impact.
