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Slide Notes
We just spent time watching and responding to Simon Sinek's TED Talk where he talked about the importance of knowing your "why." In Tim Soerens' book, Everywhere you look: discovering the church right where you are, one of several important things he talks about is the need to rethink that "why" when we are looking at how we approach change in the church.
Rethinking the “Why”
Published on May 07, 2023
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Rethinking the "Why"
Tim Soerens
We just spent time watching and responding to Simon Sinek's TED Talk where he talked about the importance of knowing your "why." In Tim Soerens' book, Everywhere you look: discovering the church right where you are, one of several important things he talks about is the need to rethink that "why" when we are looking at how we approach change in the church.
Photo by UNDP in Europe and Central Asia
Movement Or Meltdown?
Before the movement there are sustained moments when all feels lost, when something feels impossibly broken, when confusion and fragmentation seem to be the norm….We want to know if we’re the only ones asking these questions, having these doubts, longing for reasons to hope.
In this era of confusion many of our institutions are tempted by former glories of the past rather than risking a bold new future.
In this era of confusion many of our institutions are tempted by former glories of the past rather than risking a bold new future.
Photo by Pikaluk
Prelude to most movements:
- People are afraid to ask out loud big, important questions.
- Polarization and a sense of nostalgia escalate.
- Disconnected grassroots experiments take place on the margins.
Movements happen when people
who thought they were alone discover they are not
The reason we don’t believe change can happen is not that we don’t want it and usually not because we fear something new, but because we believe that we are alone. Most of the time it feels like our families, our institutions, or even our circle of friends don’t quite get it. But we carry on until one of two options presents itself. The first is to simply give up. But sometimes when we are pushing toward something new we receive the gift of a new connection, and it changes everything. When we meet them, it feels like magic. Maybe we aren’t so crazy after all.
The Big Why
What is the point of church? What is church FOR?
Underneath the massive downfall of church attendance, we’ve missed the mark—the question—so severely that we are at risk of losing millions more people, perhaps an entire generation or two. So the real question is, Why are we doing this? What is the church for? What is it really all about? What’s the point of it? Is being a part of a church community necessary to be a follower of Jesus, or is it optional?
Photo by Vincent Albanese
Question 1
- How do we fix the church?
- mostly asked by religious professionals
- points toward clergy to fix it somehow
The most pervasive question I hear is, How do we fix the church?
Question 2
- What is the church for?
- mostly asked by everyday people
- points towards listening to others in a context
Sinek's Model
Simon Sinek - People don’t buy what we are selling, they buy why we are selling it.
“whats are important—they provide the tangible proof of the why—but why must come first. The why provides the context for everything else.”
Without meaning to, I kept asking about the church before asking about God. I kept putting the church in the center, and that is not where it belongs.
“whats are important—they provide the tangible proof of the why—but why must come first. The why provides the context for everything else.”
Without meaning to, I kept asking about the church before asking about God. I kept putting the church in the center, and that is not where it belongs.
The Root Problem
We think the "why" is the church
In so many of the conversations about the church, we are almost pathologically talking about what we do on Sundays. The programs we offer. What we do for kids. The time of our service. Our church or denominational tradition. Without meaning to, these conversations reinforce the idea that the purpose of the church is the church itself.
Photo by Etrusia UK
God's Dream
What is the desire of God?
When we ask what the church is for, we begin with answers about God, not just ourselves.
If we are going to experience a breakthrough, we need to have the courage to ask what God wants. To ask, “What is the desire of God?” cuts to the chase in regard to what we believe about God. Then, in the next breath we must ask, “What do we really want?” This questions gets to the heart of discipleship.
If we are going to experience a breakthrough, we need to have the courage to ask what God wants. To ask, “What is the desire of God?” cuts to the chase in regard to what we believe about God. Then, in the next breath we must ask, “What do we really want?” This questions gets to the heart of discipleship.
Photo by Greg Rakozy
Paying Attention
To what the Holy Spirit is already doing
While there may be thousands of strategies for pursuing God’s dream in all of our diverse contexts, there is really only one way forward in regard to how we do it—and that pathway is to listen intently and pay attention to the Holy Spirit, who is already at work.
Photo by JackAZ Photo
Be Curious
Don't Be Helpful
It might be helpful to take a step back and think about how our inability to pay attention to the Spirit at work has been our default. We have been meticulously trained and rewarded to be helpful rather than curious, and this gets us in trouble.
One of the quickest ways to flip the script of me-centered existence is to look out our front door and realize that God is already active.
To become the kind of church we dream of becoming will mean we make a pact with friends that we will resist the dominant narrative that we are the agents of change.
One of the quickest ways to flip the script of me-centered existence is to look out our front door and realize that God is already active.
To become the kind of church we dream of becoming will mean we make a pact with friends that we will resist the dominant narrative that we are the agents of change.
Photo by Jeremiah Lawrence
Common Ground
A Focused Place to Listen, Discern & Act
While we have noted the importance of paying attention, we haven’t focused on where we need to focus our attention.
In order to do this with others, we need a literal common ground.
I trust that you are an amazing human being, but on your own, you can never be the church. It requires a team of listeners.
Unless we have a focused place to listen, we cannot have a focused place to discern and act on what the Spirit is doing in that place. This turns out to be good news.
In order to do this with others, we need a literal common ground.
I trust that you are an amazing human being, but on your own, you can never be the church. It requires a team of listeners.
Unless we have a focused place to listen, we cannot have a focused place to discern and act on what the Spirit is doing in that place. This turns out to be good news.
Photo by OER Africa
Soerens' Model
Historic Experience of the Church
- a community of people
- joining in God’s dream
- in a particular place
- with their everyday lives
…whether we tend to orient our churches on the skills of the preacher, the execution of the programs, or any of the cool offerings of the church itself, it’s a telltale sign that we are flipping the "what" of our church programs with the "why" of God’s dream in our context.
Current Experience of the Church
- individual consumers together
- pursuing the American Dream
- wherever it suits them
- reinforced by a local Sunday event or online
There has to be a way to be the church in our everyday lives that doesn’t demand the center of our collective life together hinging on the production quality of our gatherings. When we mistakenly turn the church itself into the big why, we get caught up in a competition to see who can get more people.
Just Another Product
We Don't Need Church to be
When we equate the church with the event, the message is that we are consumers. If the church is just another optional consumer choice, it’s just too small of a story to give our lives to. There has to be something more.
I believe this is the primary reason why millennials, who have uniquely been shaped to sniff out agendas and inauthenticity, are saying no thank you to the church. It isn’t that it’s not cool enough or tech savvy enough but that we don’t need another product.
We need an integrative vision that points to how we can live together. We need a vision that addresses the unraveling of society and the injustices we see playing out all around us. We need a story that everyone can belong to, a story we can receive as a gift as opposed to earning the American Dream.
I believe this is the primary reason why millennials, who have uniquely been shaped to sniff out agendas and inauthenticity, are saying no thank you to the church. It isn’t that it’s not cool enough or tech savvy enough but that we don’t need another product.
We need an integrative vision that points to how we can live together. We need a vision that addresses the unraveling of society and the injustices we see playing out all around us. We need a story that everyone can belong to, a story we can receive as a gift as opposed to earning the American Dream.
Photo by Stefan Cosma
Parish Model
In the remainder of the book, Soerens creates another 3-ring circle model for how to engage this work. It is similar to the Critical Mass/Shape of the Parish model that we used in CDI. He provides some good questions and ideas for getting started, and I highly encourage you to consider diving deeper into it if this resonates with you.
Thoughts? Questions?
Photo by Marco Nürnberger
