Thursday, 20 September 2007
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Currently Listening
Scribbled in Chalk
By Karine Polwart
see relatedwin-win churches
This is an emergency blog for when my others are not working. This post would normally appear on www.geoffreybaines.voxtropolis.com.
Welcome to the conversation.
I'm reading Stephen Covey's The 8th Habit at the moment and have been reminded of the habit of Win-Win he's identified and defined. Basically it means that both sides in any interaction, win.
The other alternatives are (1) Win-Lose: I win, you lose; (2) Lose-Win: you win but I lose; (3) Lose-Lose: you've got the idea; (4) No Deal: we can't find a Win-Win alternative at the moment but we'll keep searching.
It made me wonder about how many of our churches are set up.
Some churches are Win-Lose, calling all the shots, as it were - time of meeting, what happens, where, and those who are "in" determine how things are for those who are "out". I think that Win-Lose eventually becomes Lose-Lose: no-one wants to join.
Other churches are Lose-Win, the church simply conforming to the culture, compromising or redefining its calling. Initially there's something very comfortable and popular because anything goes but eventually it becomes Lose-Lose because "life in all its fullness" is missing because Jesus says it can only be entered through sacrifice and death.
But what does a Win-Win community look like? Is it not about becoming a community of faith, love, and hope in all sorts of ways and places and times.
In his book Stand Against the Wind, Erwin McManus makes the delicious point -surely a testing for our churches: 'Jesus is our best example of 100 percent - a person whose entire life was given to giving. Jesus always gave more than He took, He still does. Everyone who genuinely engages Jesus in a relationship receives far more than they ever give.' I love that.
If you're part of a church, would it best be described as Win-Lose, Lose-Win, Lose-Lose, or even Win-Win?
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