Proper Order

It has been rightfully said that God's only obsession is order. Nothing is more common than people out of place in this world.  Primarily everyone was ultimately created to be in relationship with God. Thus, until a person gets saved and develops a personal relationship with God thru Jesus, nothing else in their life can ever truly come into it's ultimate proper alignment.

Then we turn our attention to the church and let me first say that this is not another of the many "here's what is wrong with the church" blogs as those are out there by the thousands and if you haven't figured me out enough yet to know, I m nothing if not original and unique.  :)

No, this isn't about the church as a structure, it's about each of us taking a hard look at ourselves and seeing just exactly WHERE we are supposed to be.  Being in the wrong place can be extremely detrimental to not only you but also to many others around you.  Of course, when you look into the modern church, there are perhaps millions of folks who  should be doing one thing but instead for a potential litany of reasons they are doing something else. The Kingdom of God comes when proper order of people is established. Let me say that again and let it drip down into your heart as you re-read it. The Kingdom of God comes when proper order of people is established.

I'll give you a hypothetical yet practical example that fits a lot of churches today. The budget committee approves let's say $50,000 for a brand new church sound system and they appoint the current worship leader to oversee and be in charge of the running and operation of said sound system.  The system is installed and the well meaning worship leader puts a team of volunteers together that have graciously stepped forward because the church bulletin asked for volunteers. For those who don't understand the dynamics of running sound, as a musician on stage you are basically completely powerless and at the complete mercy of whomever is running your sound.  If the sound person doesn't know what they are doing, forgive my bluntness but you are absolutely screwed.

So in our example here, the feedback swells, the singer who is singing doesn't get turned up so anyone can hear them, everyone hears way too much guitar and absolutely no piano and the weakest singer on the team who is consistently flat is the loudest in the mix.   This goes on for weeks on end until finally a meeting is held where the worship leader is asked to explain why the church's $50,000 investment has not done what they thought it should.   Perhaps the worship leader gets put on probation or in some cases even fired, after all, $50,000 is a lot of money and services sound just as bad now if not worse than they ever have.  

So what is wrong with the above example? What is missing?  Proper Kingdom Order is missing. 

Let's assume for the sake of our example that the members of the budget committee are supposed to be there. That is rare in the churches that I have been a part of because usually budget committees are friends and family of whomever started the church instead of men and women anointed for business and money management but let's assume they are.  Let's also assume the worship leader is indeed called to be and is in fact a worship leader instead of just a song leader which is much more common these days...  

What got missed was that the 17 year old kid who is sitting in the back row with earbuds plugged into the iPhone in his pocket that is not even paying attention to the service because his parents threatened him to get him to church in the first place IS THE ONE that is anointed in Kingdom order to run your brand new $50,000 sound system. He would completely love the idea of the challenge and would gladly submit to the authority in place in trade for the opportunity to be in charge of running the new system. In fact, he even knows a few friends just as passionate about sound and music as he is that he could invite to come.  He knows what every single little knob does, he understands the dynamics of signal path, the structure of building a proper mix, and he hates musical things that aren't arranged as they should be. After all, he's the only one unwilling to listen to the current mess coming out of the sound system you just bought opting instead for his own personal music.

Most would overlook such a young person for their youth or the fact that they appear rebellious but despite the fact that aunt Polly and Uncle Buck volunteered, they make true the old sound attage, "heart of gold, ear of tin" and it is painfully obvious they simply do not know what they are doing.  So lets say for our example here that a Prophet comes in and prophesies over the 17 year old God has a call to serve on His life.  Most old school church leaders assume that means once he gets into his 30s or 40s he may be mature enough to step into something and no one ever reaches out to ask for his help so he turns 18, moves out, stops coming to church and the church attendance dwindles because after all, only the most diehard faithful will come and sit thru the painful sound mixes of Aunt Polly and Uncle Buck.  Eventually the church goes under and some variation of this story has played itself out in some form tens of thousands of times in the last few decades.

Obviously i have taken some liberty in our story here today and I hope everyone gets that just because I talked about sound, you could apply it across the board into any area of skill or leadership. Some things are obvious like not taking the blind woman and putting her in charge of mowing the grass.  Other things however take real and true discernment from The Holy Spirit.

Is something wrong in your church? Do you have an issue in a given area that just doesn't seem to be able to be fixed or ever completely work itself out?  Start to look around at your people with different eyes. Now in your case, you probably aren't looking for an actual 17 year old boy with earbuds in ignoring the service, but if you have problems that are just not able to be resolved, you likely just have people out of their proper place so begin to ask the Lord to give you His eyes and His understanding about who to put where because remember again, The Kingdom of God comes when proper order of people is established.

One last note today, in addition to my other skills and talents, I do run professional sound on a small to medium scale and I can tell you that your sound person is the second most important person in your church. After all, if you bring the best word from the Lord you have ever brought and no one hears it, did you really bring the best word you have ever brought? Remember, The Kingdom of God comes when proper order of people is established.

M-

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