growth

Disciplined Flexibility

Posted in discipline, flexibility, growth on October 8th, 2008 by Steve Bradley – Be the first to comment

I’ve realized recently I own quite a number of books I’ve never read. In the interest of good stewardship, I’ve decided to go back through some of these books prior to buying new ones I’ve had my eye on…

One of these books is “The Disciplined Life” by Richard Shelley Taylor, circa 1962. While some of the illustrations are out of date (e.g., Russian Cold War references that ironically may be coming back into style), there’s a lot of thought provoking stuff to be found.

This earlier post was inspired by some of what I’ve read here. Consider as well this quote (p. 44):
It admittedly takes high discipline to develop certain basic habits which safefuard the soul. But once the habits are established it takes just as much discipline to see that they do not become tyrants. Habit must be kept to the role of servant; otherwise it becomes the master, and the personality begins to vegetate.

A growing soul is ever changing. The kind of discipline desired is not that which embeds the life in a concrete block of fixed routine, so that the new shoots of fresh ideas and new undertakings and exciting discoveries cannot get through; but the kind which exists only to shed the old forms of death, and exclude the unproductive suckers, in order that life’s new challenges can be seized and exploited to the full. The discipline of the Pharisees was too rigid; it was indeed the old wineskin which was incapable of holding the new wine of the Kingdom. So the Pharisees were betrayed by their very virtue–their discipline. That which should have best fitted them for the kingdom of God kept them out. A higher form of discipline is that which grows and adjusts and expands with life itself; it is only the lower discipline which congeals into a static perfection. Therefore it is well to give some thought to the discipline of discipline. It too must be subordinate.

What is your experience? Does discipline tend to make you grow more or less flexible?

Megachurches and Church Growth

Posted in North Point, church stuff, growth, megachurches, mission measure, numbers on September 12th, 2008 by Steve Bradley – 1 Comment

Here’s an interesting article from USA Today earlier this week on Megachurches.

Not surprisingly, the article equates “growth” with attendance numbers, suggesting that such growth “may be stalled.” Not sure how they actually arrived at that conclusion, given the numbers they cite. Apparently slight declines by “some of the biggest” warrant a trend that the numbers actually don’t seem to support. Case in point, North Point’s attendance figures have increased by over 15% since last year, with 3 of the top 5 showing increases, not decreases (if you’re interested in North Point, you might want to check out my earlier posts here and here).

The focus on attendance numbers misses the point, however, in my estimation. Which begs the question, how do you measure the health or growth of a church?

I have my opinions, but I’d like to hear yours. What measures does your church use to define success or failure? How do you measure your own spiritual growth?