One more excellent article in Next-Wave, by Malcolm Hawker, deals with the topic of structure. He writes:
I was reading this morning where once again someone was crying out NO STRUCTURE!
It is as if "structure" in church life is in some way restrictive and bad even to the point of being evil…all possibly true. Some say, "Because it is bad, let’s just do away with it." But we can’t. This world exists on structure and it is part of God’s design. Everything has structure without it there is nothing. Animals, insects, buildings, bridges,planes, cars, mountains,the universe, in fact everything has some structure.
While I think I understand the heart from which these "NO STRUCTURE"words are spoken, the problem with structure in Church life comes when the people end up serving the structures rather than the structures serving the people.
Malcolm raises some excellent issues here:
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You can’t do away with structure. Only random chaos remains without some form of structure. I know Christians who run as soon as a second gathering time is decided on because it is starting to look like a traditionally structured church setting. But some form of structure does support everything we do.
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People end up serving structures… and this is always the problem. The structures become more important than the people and take on requirements of their own.
My conclusion on this is that, first of all, simplicity is the key. The simpler, the better… in most cases. Simplicity means that structure remains flexible and disposable. Simple structures are easy to change, mold, modify, or do away with when the time comes.
Secondly, structure must be re-shaped when it no longer serves its purpose. This keeps people and relationships at the forefront and structure as a backfroungd tool that serves. Schedule the next gathering time… or two or three… Or plan a regular weekly time… But be ready to change it when it no longer serves the community.
We need a new mentality to do this. It’s amazing how often simple structures form and, before long, people begin to mindlessly accept that "that’s the way we do things." That’s where problems begin. We must continually challenge everything we are doing… Is it serving the community and the Spirit or are we just doing what we’ve been doing without thinking about it?
Comments
6 responses to “Structure: Good, Bad, or ??”
Yeah, structure just is. It exists and we can’t get away from it. I would like for us to deal with super-structure though. The spiritual and supernatural reality of God that also really exists. Do we realize that the physical world is truly built on a chaotic “order”? Chaos theory (James Gleick) shows that much of the physical world is chaotic rather than “ordered”. Weather, coastlines, turbulence in fluid dynamics even mathematics all behave or are characterized by a chaotic dynamic that is found throughout the natural world. Just look at economics, sociology, political science – very unpredictable also, yet they are “systems”. (Have you ever watched the flight of a butterfly?) Where am I going with this? It’s about the Creator, not the created. Why do we get so caught up in the way things appear? Yes, the structure must serve a purpose and the purpose is for all to fellowship, disciple, worship and live in unity – all for the glory of God. God created us for family life. That’s the structure that works, (yet is very chaotic).
House Church can function and is designed to function as a family. But it also might not. It might be dysfunctional because we are dysfunctional. And I must say that, from my perspective, American Christianity is very screwed up. So now we all come to a new structure and find that… we’re still screwed up. We are carrying baggage from our “structured” experiences. Are we afraid of a less structured approach, a more natural approach, a more real approach…?
Roger, this is a good topic. Simple does seem to be better. From a visual arts perspective this is true in determining the authenticity of the work of a Master. I once visited a museum where there had been some doubt whether one of their paintings was a Rembrandt, or the work of one of his students or contemporaries. A comparison between it and an authentic Rembrandt revealed the answer. In painting a hand, Rembrandt was able to masterfully achieve stunning success using just a few brush strokes, while the other painting took many more strokes and achieved less successful results. Can Jesus, as a master builder, build his church without the extra work and clutter we have been so used to?
John, your comments remind me of the book “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain”. It explores how our brains are split into the right and left hemispheres and how the left side is more mathematical and analytical, while the right side is more creative and free-form (chaotic and unstructured?).
One of the recommended exercises for stimulating right-brain thinking is to draw an object by first picking a starting point. Then, draw the outline of the object all the way around it until you make your way back to the beginning. Did I mention that this is done without looking at your paper?
This exercise is called a blind-contour drawing and its purpose is to lead the artist away from thinking in symbols and structure of an object and towards seeing it in a fresh light. The idea is that we normally tend to draw what we see using a patchwork of symbols that we recognize as representing the object we’re drawing – i.e.: “this is how I draw a nose”. This activity also encourages the artist to depart from the method of drawing a lightly drawn underlying structure of an object and then connecting the pieces together. An example would be using a transparent, 3-D box, and triangles as the underlying structure of a house, and then refining it with more detail until the object is represented. This learning activity is not meant to be an end in itself. The drawings that come from this exercise many times bear little resemblance to the object used for reference. It is good, however, in enabling the artist to think and draw with a greater freedom.
Stimulating our more creative hemisphere is a good way to see things with a new and “in-the-moment” viewpoint. Perhaps we should use the right side of the mind of Christ in viewing the church Jesus is building, instead of relying on our left-over structures where we simply connect the dots. (I just had to use these obvious puns. Sorry!).
Our structure is hidden in god himself. It’s not a matter of structure or non-structure. Its a matter of obedience, costly obedience of course. He gives us structure and he takes structure from us. Just as he wants it. For shure, if we are walking on the hard trail, crossing everey desert we have to, taking every challenge god calls us to, if we are dying to ourselves, we don’t have to ask for stupid structures. They come and go exactly as we need it.
Interesting comment by Chris. I get the feeling you were trying to tell me something. Yeah, read the book over 15 years ago, helped me greatly in my drawing. Today I do more writing, which also is a creative exercise, except in writing I try to make a clear and relevent point. As far as the mind of Christ, I know it is not divided.
Once again. If you think in matters of structure or non-structure, you are making a fundamental mistake. In both cases the thing is in your own hands and you think, you can handle it, but you don’t. Chaos theory may be nice, but you take it with your own hands. You do so in both cases. May be it’s the American disease, that you believe in your pride, that you can hanlde it. It’s our German disease, that only bad expectations are good expectations. Seems much worse to me. I appreciate what Roger says. I only miss one very thing. Structure follows humility, meekness and obedience. If God calls us, we have to go. Every single day, every single second. We have to face our enemies. And even if it tears us to pieces, we have to obey. If you can’t hear God’s voice, don’t look out for structures, look out for Him.
I agree that the mind of Christ isn’t divided. The great thing about the “drawing on the right side of the brain” exercises is that they enable the artist to see things with fresh eyes. Its purpose isn’t to replace structured drawing but to take us out of the rut of seeing things in the same old way.
John, what message were you getting from me – looking to get back into drawing?