Labyrinth
The inefficiency of the labyrinth walk mirrors the inefficiency of God's grace. (Photo courtesy of Jason Valendy)
The allure of the Silicon Valley approach to life is that we can eradicate the inefficiencies of life, moving us to a friction-less society. They build apps and technologies that make things as efficient as possible. You don’t have to go to a bank to get cash to pay someone, just use the app to transfer money. There is no need to go to call an order in, just use the delivery service app. There is no need to answer the door, just look at your phone when the visitor presses the doorbell.
The stereotype of the socially awkward computer person who would dream of a world where you don’t have to engage with people, but only with a computer is not very fair to many computer people to bring us together. However, there is something to a world that values efficiency to such a high degree that we ought to consider why this is.
One can easily imagine that if the rest of our world places such a value on efficiency, it is not a wonder that we would desire the same for the Church.
In the Church the primary justification to work on efficiencies is a matter of being a good steward of resources. And of course the Church needs to be faithful stewards of resources given to the Church. These are noble efforts to be sure. However, being efficient runs directly into another value in the Church: Grace.
Grace is anything but efficient. God’s grace is prodigal. It is abundant. It overflows. It gluts the market, if you will. This amazing grace is not measured out in efficient doses. Grace is messy and gums up the wheels of the efficient.
The temptation to eradicate inefficiency in the Church is a temptation to limit grace.
Church people often say we want to become more understanding, more patient, more forgiving. The things you find inefficient in the Church are opportunities to practice the very virtues we claim we want.
Communication is slow? Patience.
Too many meetings? Understanding.
Too much conflict? Forgiveness.
Being inefficient is not an excuse to neglect communication or a reason to remain opaque. Churches need to be clear in communication and as transparent as morally possible. Be careful of the temptation to eradicate inefficiency in the Church for we may unintentionally erase the inefficient Grace of God.
Valendy Thumb
Rev. Jason Valendy
The Rev. Jason Valendy, together with his wife the Rev. Estee Valendy, serves as co-pastor of Saginaw United Methodist Church in Saginaw, Texas. This post is republished with permission from his blog, JasonValendy.net.