What’s Your Operating System

I get calls all the time from people who are discontented with consumer church.  They’ve tried everything that doesn’t work but don’t want to give up.  They know Jesus is real, and true, and came for something more.  But they don’t understand why it’s just not clicking.

Believe me when I say, “I get that.”

But my answer is pretty much the same.  Try a different operating system.

The current model of church is designed to create a passive consumer of information.  People show up and passively consume what the pastor teaches them.  They feel fed when they leave and don’t really have to do much in the way of engaging God’s mission.  It’s done for them.  They can participate in small groups but these quickly center around social environments and the right answer.  This is essentially an operating system.  Underlying what we do is a set of assumptions that create a way of doing church.  It’s the way we’ve been operating as a church for a long, long time.  And the system is designed to produce the same thing every time.

Thrive is essentially an entirely different operating system.  To continue the metaphor, we’re the Mac version of the operating system.  We’re so different that it’s kind of hard sometimes to get what we do.  And the only way to really get it, is to experience it.

Fundamentally we’re designed to practice what it means to engage God’s mission of restoration and reconciliation.  We’re asking what it means to follow Jesus.  And this different operating system is designed to create participants who know what it means to love and trust, to bring reconciliation and renewal to the world around them.  Using a new operating system takes time to get used to.  It meand relearning some of the steps that we’re used to, and taking on a different way of being.  It not easy, but it’s good.

If your looking for a different way of operating, we can help.  Contact us today to get a free digital copy of our leadership manual.