Dr House on church-planting
Andrew Dowsett, who has recently arrived in Perth, has drawn some church planting lessons from one of my favorite TV shows.
“What Dr House taught me about church-planting…
- sometimes received procedure fails to address the - critical - issue;
- an intuitive approach ultimately might be more effective…
- don’t worry overly about “getting it wrong” (the church might die if you act, but it will die if you don’t act)
- “getting it right” comes by degrees, through trial and error, experiment; each stage of the process is provisional.
- an effective team needs a visionary leader; and an effective leader builds a team, whose breakthroughs are collective…
- being primarily pastoral (as we’ve inherited pastoral) is not necessarily the best way to invest in the members of your team…
I could probably keep going…Okay, the exercise is a limited one. Don’t take it too far; don’t trash the exercise on the basis of its limitations. But if God can speak to first-century pre-modern Jews through the agrarian landscape, He can speak to twenty-first century post-modern Gentiles through our own popular culture. “
I love that last bit. Opening our eyes to what God’s is saying to us through our culture is a lesson we seem to have missed from first century pre-modern Jewish brothers and sisters.
By the way, House is a great show!
Let him know what you think over here
October 21st, 2005 at 2:25 pm
agreed house is a great show.
you simply preach the gospel.
sometimes you will be blessed by God and there will be many at other times there will be few.
A successful church plant is not measured by the number of people who become members.
October 21st, 2005 at 3:11 pm
I love “House”…he is calls it as he sees it, is abrasive, rude and has all the diplomacy of a train wreck.
I think we would get along just fine.
October 21st, 2005 at 3:32 pm
I’ll never watch an episode of House the same way again…thanks!!!!
October 21st, 2005 at 4:01 pm
nice to be cited, even if my surname is mis-spelt! (D-O-W-S-E-T-T)
re “you simply preach the gospel”…the thing is, if you haven’t connected with the person/culture, you haven’t actually preached the gospel at all; simply made noises.
The gospel, for any given individual or culture, is always contextual - because it is Jesus coming into a particular context and the kingdom transforming the circumstances of that context. I don’t mean that the gospel is something relative; but, if you look at Jesus, the good news in one situation is, you are healed; in another, you are fed. Then comes the challenge: in the light of your experience of the kingdom breaking in, how are you going to respond?
October 21st, 2005 at 4:14 pm
Sorry, Andrew, spelling has been duly amended.
October 23rd, 2005 at 9:03 pm
chris judd!!!
what a legend!!!
and definitely not gonna be in zebra skin anytime soon
October 24th, 2005 at 8:15 am
easy peasy as my son would say.
It was Baba O’Riley by the WHo.
It is my and my 8 year old son’s favourite WHO track.
It is the opening music to CSI NY as well apparently.
Andrew,
Paul preached the gospel to people who understand the torah and of course in Athens to people who didn’t.
He still preached the Gospel.
October 24th, 2005 at 12:30 pm
homer
thanks for that info - i was getting frustrated trying to remember