I sometimes get the feeling that we could be doing better in church, than we do, and it is easy for me to go off to the extreme if I see something that looks “cool”.

I have been tempering that as of late. I’m trying to moderate my initial enthusiasm for a program or speaker so that I can say how could this help improve what we are doing, and not this is the new way.

Josh Griffin who’s the High School Ministry pastor at Saddleback church pointed to a video about missional churches. The the link to Tony Morgan’s blog about either/or thinking, when we should probably be both/and thinking. Either/or thinking, when it comes to church, usually leads to somebody else is doing it wrong. He gives this as the reason:

The problem, of course, is that we like to worship our methods. Our preferences are the priority. In fact, we shape religion around our preferences even if it means sacrificing the broader impact of our ministry. Why help other people when it might make us uncomfortable?

via “And” Instead of “Or” | TonyMorganLive.com.

That has been my experience in my own life as well as churches that I have attended. We try to worship our methods at worshipping God rather than God himself. Kind of like what Paul says in Romans 1:25.

Embracing the both/and way of doing things, both ways of worship/discipleship/evangelism/mission will work in the context of the culture that they are immersed in. In that way, we all do church together.