settling in or just settling?

I had a football coach once who preached against 'satisfaction'....

"Never be satisfied" was his mantra. And I get it... he wanted us to always be about getting better. He did not want us to rest for a second, even when we beat arch rival Harrison for the third straight year!

And as Christians, I suppose we need a bit of that as well... we should never be satisfied with 'just getting by' or 'the status quo' when we can improve.

I have always thought of it as a sort of healthy tension between satisfaction and complacency.

I know God wants us to have peace. I'm talking about His peace, not our definition: "the lack or opposite of war".

But I confess I struggle with knowing the difference between settling in or just settling...

With regard to churches, many church plants start with grand, God-filled, Spirit-led ideas; then a certain 'settling in' occurs; and I believe that's natural, and probably should not alarm us....

But what if the 'settling in' becomes 'settling for'?

When a church is first starting, there's a lot of chaos and excitement and 'noise'. Not all of the chaos and excitement and noise is good, but it is exhilarating! As a church finds its identity, there are certain natural steps which seem to occur... some are probably positive while others are neutral, and some seem to be not so positive.

Think of the 'life cycle' of most churches you have been involved in. (If you were blessed to be a part at the start, you know what I'm talking about.)

It seems to me that there are several 'pivot points' in this life cycle which set the course for a church... while there are numerous decisions that are made along the way, these pivot points - at least to me - almost inexorably "tie" a church to a specific direction...

and - again, my opinion - it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to return to a previous 'pivot point' and change the decision (that's why I call them pivot points :-))

let me know what you think of these as pivot points:

1. what is our purpose or mission statement?
2. where do we meet? (this one permeates the process several times during the cycle)
3. what is the name of our 'gathering of folks'?
4. do we hire a preacher or do we handle those duties? (see how presumptuous my mind is? I'm assuming - like most folks do - that our 'church' will behave like every other church with one 'speaker' and many 'listeners'... do you see how our habits and traditions can lead us down a path almost subconsciously?)
5. as (or if) we grow, how do we handle that growth? (do we form a committee and see about renting space for our activities - like worship, etc - or do we try to continue to meet in homes... or do we purchase a building... or do we buy land and build a building?)

those are just a few to begin.... can you see how, at each point, the 'direction' is firmly set?

so how do we guard against simply 'doing it' like it's always been done? and is it ok to do it like it's always been done? or do we need to consider that the way it's always been done is not in harmony with God and Jesus and the Biblical example?

just thinking...

Blessings!