Obsession with Formulas

A few years ago, I was talking through a church matter with one of my best friends, and he accused me, rightly, of being too rigid in the way I approached work and service. That was the first time I heard the phrase “divergent thinking,” and it later helped me understand why creative people so often struggle to fit inside square systems.

We humans are obsessed with formulas. They give us a sense of security and control. Most of us feel comfortable when everything is clearly defined, and we feel threatened the moment things change. “We’ve always done it this way” is a favorite phrase in leadership. Even worse is “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” repeated even when the method is already falling apart. It is easier to defend a method than to improve it.

Something similar happens in church and ministry. Those who work with people on the street criticize those who do not. Those in the music ministry consider themselves better worshippers than the people “down there.” Those with formal education look down on those who learned by doing. We forget that God’s work has to be seen as a whole: integrated, varied, many-sided, and wide. It is far wider than any structure invented by human hands.

1 Corinthians 12:4-6 (NIV) says, “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.” We cannot expect everyone to do the same thing. Each of us has a different set of strengths, a different reach, a different context. The place where I serve lets me serve God in ways others cannot, and that is part of why He put me there. But it gives me no right to belittle or criticize those serving in a different sphere. They have a mission of their own.

Continuing in 1 Corinthians 12:17-21 (NIV): “If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’” This makes it clear: the Kingdom of God needs each of us to be useful in our own context, with the specific tools He has given us, tools that differ from one another yet complement each other. We have to resist obsessing over our personal formula for service as if it were the only method that works, because even the most successful approach is only one part of God’s grand design.

We all share the same Great Commission, but each of us carries it out differently. The church as a body must go “to the nations,” and yet it also carries a local responsibility it cannot neglect. Some are made for street preaching; others shine at teaching and discipling in small groups. Some lead revolutionary movements, while others kneel down to comfort those who stumble along the way. We must not let anyone shrink our place in God’s plan, and we must never belittle anyone else’s.

Neither I, nor my church, nor my ministry holds a monopoly on the Holy Spirit. We have to learn to respect one another as members of the same body. When we read 1 Corinthians 12 and 13 (NIV) together, we watch Paul move from diversity in service to “a more excellent way”: love. Respect is a form of love. Honoring people who serve God differently than we do is love as well.

So from my little corner of the internet, I send a hug of honor to all my brothers and sisters serving God in places and ways different from mine. To those who venture where I cannot, my deepest respect.