If I made a coloring book for my church vision…

Last updated on: July 17, 2014 at 1:58 pm by Morgan Guyton

If I made a coloring book for my church vision… 2014-07-17T13:58:27-05:00 Morgan Guyton

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

My friend Matthew Paul Turner shared a page from the coloring book Steven Furtick has used at his Elevation Church to share the church vision. I wanted to offer my own version, but I’m not very talented artistically, so I cheated and Photoshopped an actual photo from our worship service using the “Charcoal and Chalk” filter. It’s a photo of a kid serving communion because that’s what he wanted to do more than anything else so I let him. Some of you may be scandalized by the impropriety of it. But I would choose this picture for the first page in my church vision coloring book because I think church should be a place where all people, including children, are encouraged and empowered to seek their own visions from God that they are equipped by their pastor to live out.

So here’s the page from Elevation Church’s coloring book that shows Steven Furtick’s vision:

Some people have said that this coloring book is proof that Elevation Church is a cult and other stuff like that. I don’t think that’s completely fair. I think that Steven Furtick is genuinely trying to be faithful to the theology he was taught. His theology seems to say that people should not be trusted to seek their own visions for ministry because human nature is utterly wicked. Instead, they need a single strong leader who is well-studied in scripture to tell everybody else what the vision is. One thing that this theology gets right about human nature is that humans are more inclined to follow than to lead, especially when your leader is young, charismatic, and good-looking (which is not to make any underhanded dig on Steven; it’s just how he is).

Steven’s approach to ministry is an incredible success. I don’t think there’s any other church plant that has grown as astronomically in 7 years as Elevation Church has. Part of their growth does stem from the fact that they are incredibly market and tech-savvy. They brand everything according to their orange logo. Their church covenant is called “Code Orange.” Their volunteer community service work is called “the Orange Initiative.” As much as I want to knock them for being “inauthentic” since they’re “polished,” their branding and marketing has enabled them to help a lot of people in real material ways in Charlotte. It’s dishonest to act as if the Holy Spirit has been utterly absent from their midst. God has been at work in their midst both because of and in spite of Steven’s incredible skill at building a cult of personality around himself.

I’ll never forgot the most shocking thing I learned at church planter training. I asked the trainer, “How do we do all this without creating a cult of personality around ourselves?” He said to me, “You’re supposed to build a cult of personality. That’s the point. Attract them to you and once they’re attracted to you, take them to Jesus.” I don’t think the Methodists would be very wise to let me plant a church for them, because I would be unable to get through my sermon without vomiting if I looked out and saw my congregation saturated in orange t-shirts or mauve or ochre or whatever color we decided to make our logo.

I’m not judging Steven Furtick and Elevation Church for their incredibly effective marketing; I’m just recognizing that I’m too much of a hipster to ever be effective in that kind of way. Plus, I’m bald, my beard doesn’t grow evenly, and I have two crooked front teeth that are really obvious every time I talk in one of my sermon series promotion videos that gets three or four hits on youtube.

But there are some larger issues for me as well. My favorite part of the worship service is saying “Body of Christ broken for you” and looking into the eyes of someone whose history I know while addressing that person by name. I don’t think I have room in my head for more than a couple hundred names and life stories at a time, so that would probably be the biggest congregation I could be comfortable with.

Another problem is I’m not good at cutting people off during joys and concerns time when they start to kill the mood. I once let a very chatty homeless guy come up front and ramble for seven minutes of very joyful but completely incoherent testimony before someone from the congregation got up, gave him a big hug, and helped him back to his seat.

And then there’s my kid problem. I not only let kids help serve communion and pass the offering plate. Their favorite thing is dancing in the aisle for the last song after we take communion. I thought that this was going to be a huge marketing hit when they first started doing it. I was so sure that branding ourselves as the service “where a kid can be a kid” (wasn’t that a jingle in the eighties for something?) would make our attendance double after my first year. It actually makes the visitors not return. We’ve atrophied by about 10 people since I inherited the service. It seems like a great concept, but when kids dance in real life without caring what it looks like, they don’t exactly make stock photos with their bodies.

Perhaps my biggest problem is that I still don’t know what the hell “leadership” is. I’m stuck on Jesus’ statement about us needing to become like children and then telling his disciples in the same chapter not to lord it over each other like Gentile princes but to be servants first and foremost (he never added “leader” to the word servant; that was a later correction to the text). So I’m not very bold and decisive about decision-making. I believe that I’m supposed to listen carefully to what God tells me through his people and allow myself to be taught by them.

I’m not sure what “casting a vision” means either, though I’ve heard all the famous pastors like Steven Furtick, Andy Stanley, and Rick Warren talk about it. The closest I’ve come to it was when I was at a retreat workshop where we were talking about how to transition our churches from a culture of volunteerism to a culture of discipleship, and I thought I heard God say to me, “Every disciple needs a vision,” so I wrote it down. I took it to mean that the laypeople are supposed to have the vision and I’m just supposed to empower and equip them to live it out. Still trying to figure out if that’s what God meant or if I misunderstood him.

Anyway, my approach to ministry yields about 50 on a good Sunday evening. Steven Furtick has 15,000 each week at 10 different campuses after only 7 years. So it’s clear whose approach is working. Maybe I’m just carved out to be a crooked-toothed 50 person pastor instead of a captivating visionary with thousands of followers. But I wouldn’t trade places with Steven Furtick if it meant that kids wouldn’t be allowed to help me serve communion.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

February 19, 2014

Our Journey as a Celibate LGBT Christian Couple (a guest post by Sarah and Lindsey from A Queer Calling)

Next Post

February 21, 2014 Why my heart is torn between Russian Orthodoxy and Pussy Riot

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advent Beauty Will Save the World Bible Big Picture: Ephesians Bloggers Book Christian salvation and the Beautitudes Culture Daily Office Danceable Homiletics Deadly Sins Deep Roots: Genesis Devotions Dominican Republic May 2011 El Principio Misericordia (The Mercy Principle) Five verses God tattooed on my heart Fundraising FutureGospel Good Biblical Words Henri Nouwen Interview Jennings' Christian Imagination Jesus inside the beltway Jesus Is My Candidate Jesus vs the Pharisees Jesus vs. Plato Journey to Eternity Looking Back on 2012 Love Actually Monday Merton Monday Merton Music Occupy the manger On Earth As It Is In Heaven Original Sin Podcast Poetry Politics Prayer Psalm 119 Radical Jesus 101 Reviews Sermon on the Mount Sermons Spanish Bible study Special Series Spiritual but not religious Synchroblog Theology Things that made me think Thomas a Kempis Ugliness Into Beauty Uncategorized Viaje Dominicano 2013 Walking in the Valley (Lent) Welcome: It's More than a Mat Wild Goose 2013 Wrestling

Select a Month March 2022 January 2022 December 2021 September 2021 April 2021 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does 2 John emphasize believers should walk in?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Knowledge and power Love and truth Faith and law Fear and wisdom