One Solution for Information and Sensory Overload

        I have been discussing some of the cultural challenges that deeply impact Christianity in the U.S. I pointed to the impact of the huge technological advances that have created Information Overload and the affluence that has provided Sensory Overload. As I have been doing the weekly articles I have also been working on a discussion summary of Zach Eswine’s book The Imperfect Pastor. His book speaks to our current culture and the way that pastors and Christian leaders have fallen prey to unrealistic expectations. We are expected to know-it-all, fix-it-all, be everywhere-for-all, and do-it-all-today.

      As he describes his own pilgrimage as a pastor, he acknowledges that in the flesh we can easily become willing accomplices. Our need to be needed, pride, and insecurities are appeased when we conform to these cultural pressures. As he brings his reflections into focus in one of the final chapters, he suggests that we need to learn to make disciples and develop leaders at Game Speed. He wrote, “To practice at game speed is to run, catch, or kick the ball in practice at the same pace the game will require.” His basic point is that life transformation is not quick, so it can’t be done fast or in a hurry. It’s not that God can’t do it in an instant; it’s that He will only move as fast as we let Him.

      Let me take his term game speed in a slightly different direction. For those of us who played little league sports, we know that one really good athlete can create a winning team. When we played in high school, we discovered that it took two or three really good athletes to win a state championship. If you played college ball you discovered that those two or three really good athletes needed to be surrounded by other good athletes. By the time someone makes it to the professional sports level, they discover that everyone on the field is a really, really good athlete. At each level, the athletic skills and therefore the speed of the game increases.
     So what does doing ministry at game speed mean? Let me suggest the following:

• Technology and affluence are blessings that God has placed in our lives that make it easier to get the word of God and the gospel message before every tribe, tongue, nation, and ethnic group in the world. It means game speed has increased, but we need to realize that they cannot replicate the relational aspect of making disciples. Deep disciple-making requires a life-on-life process: “As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. (Proverbs 27:17). The Bible is filled with “one another” passages that speak to this reality: “Exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13) is just one of them. When we sacrifice relationships for speed the fruit is often a baby Christian that ends up in an orphanage.
• Spiritual maturity is neither a one-and-done nor a fast process. As such, I would suggest that game speed for spiritual life transformation is a lot like rock polishing: both are painfully slow. Growing up in a geologist’s paradise (the Black Hills), I was surrounded by rocks ripe for polishing. And I remember watching Reverend Barter; he was an old-fashioned Methodist preacher who was also an avid rock hound. He had a rock polisher. If you’ve never seen one, it uses a concrete mixer type of drum, but instead of having a reciprocating motion, it turns 360 degrees. You put in your rough, ugly rocks and add some grit to speed up the process. Then you turn on the polisher. And after only 7 days—with your tumbler running 24 hours a day—you can open it up, and you will find some beautifully polished rocks. The unfortunate reality is that most of us have harder heads and hearts than a typical rock, so the transformation is a life-long process. And even then, there are days when the “ugly rock” side is still visible.
• We need to stop making disciples using a little-league model where we expect one very mature individual to lead us all to victory. The game speed for spiritual development at the little-league level is painfully slow. And because it has become the preferred model in American Christianity, we’re losing the spiritual battle. What would happen if we began to be more intentional in identifying and equipping others so that in a few years we could play at the high school level? I have enjoyed watching my grandsons play football. They live in a small Oklahoma community where the school has won multiple state championships and this year’s team is leading their division. The school has done that by developing players beginning in middle school. Good high school coaches in smaller schools know that they have to develop the players they have because they can’t recruit them from other schools. My youngest grandson is learning techniques and plays that he will use and run in high school. Consistency and quality coaching (and disciple-making), over time, will generate opportunities for success.
• The problem with churches “doing spiritual development” in a college or pro model is that both levels rely on recruiting talent that someone else has developed. That works when a player (pastor/leader) comes in who was developed under a similar coaching style and philosophy, but with the diversity in American Christianity that is a challenge. Because most churches recruit their next pastor from another church instead of being able to look within their own church, I have personally prioritized working with search committees. I encourage them to use a process that helps them better understand themselves and their needs. Having done that, they can then more clearly communicate with candidates who they are and the unique qualities that they will need in their next pastor so he can succeed. But in the process, I also challenge them to do a better job of developing leaders so that when their new pastor retires in thirty or forty years, they will have developed men willing and capable of filling his shoes.

   
   What I hope you hear me saying is that game speed for disciple-making is slow and tedious. It calls for hard work and consistency. We have to be willing to do the right things year after year, knowing that disciple-making isn’t exciting or flashy, and it is actually very messy. The old sport’s cliché practice makes perfect is actually not true. You can practice doing something wrong and when push comes to shove you will generally do it wrong. The reality is that perfect practice makes perfect! In high school, I got tired of hearing my football coach say, “Run that play one more time.” We didn’t have a lot of plays, but the ones we ran were generally effective because we knew exactly what we were supposed to do.
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     The way to combat information and sensory overload is to get back to the basics: 1) Remember why we exist—live out the Great Commandments to love God and to love our neighbor as we are fulfilling the Great Commission to make disciples among every language and cultural group in the world. 2) Rely on time-proven principles that support doing spiritual development at game speed

Yours in Christ,
Mark R. Elliott, AMS