Oct 1, 2020
By Carl Greene
Executive Director
If your answer to this inquiry about a “Questionable Life” is no, then your church may not be healthy. Really. A questionable life is necessary for a church to flourish, and we should be yearning for taking questionable actions. But developing a correct definition of “questionable” is a critical piece of church health. Let’s do that with a story.
Picture yourself alongside me at an outdoor fair, getting ready to watch the beginning of a high dive stunt show. The announcer is speaking through an overpowered speaker that crackles and pops with his shouted sales pitch. He announces that the platform people will be diving from is 80 feet in the air, and that we should prepare to watch people reach speeds of 55 miles per hour as they careen toward the undersized pool below. As the first diver steps out onto the diving platform, people start splashing the water in the pool so the diver can see where to aim for. The diver leaps off of the platform and…
At this point in the story, two questions pop into my mind. First, how is the diver able to do this? I do not mind heights—flying in airplanes, looking out of tall buildings, you name it, they are not a concern to me. However, I do not like the idea of falling—tree climbing, rock climbing, roof renovations—those are not my strong suits. Hence, I am amazed by someone who is able to do this, and it makes me wonder how they are able to do such a feat.
This invites my second question, why would the diver do this? There must be a compelling reason why someone would train and be prepared to undertake such a courageous action that I would not dream to do. So, I end up asking, why?
Let’s connect the dots to church health at this point. I am not advocating doing stunts to try to get people’s attention. Save that for a two-minute video. What I am advocating is that my church, your church, our churches should be engaging in missional kingdom work in a way that makes people ask questions. How does the church meet a community need that everyone else avoids or misses? Why does the church invest so much in her community and have the passion to speak boldly about what she believes?
The focus is not on grabbing attention with a stunt. The focus is on living with purposeful mission in a way that primarily honors God, and subsequently leads people to ask questions. In Surprise the World, author Michael Frost talks about individual believers being called to live questionable lives. After all, each one of us is called to live “questionable lives” in which people ask us questions because of how and why we are living out our faith in everyday life.
Here is the rub. When is the last time you and I were asked about our faith? When was the last time my church, your church, our churches were asked about how and why we do what we do? If it has been a long time, is it because we are not living a healthy life?
Want to learn more about living a questionable life? Certainly grab a copy of Surprise the World by Michael Frost to pick up some practical ideas—and it costs you less than 104 pages of reading. I came across this book thanks to Director Nick Kersten—he is a wealth of information and resource suggestions—please connect with him with further questions. For broader questions about church health, please connect with Director John Pethtel, who can introduce you to the SDB Pulse process and a pathway into intentional, questionable church life.
nkersten@seventhdaybaptist.org
jpethtel@seventhdaybaptist.org
