Einstein was right when he said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” So why do we think that doing the same approaches to church over and over will suddenly produce  different results?  Probably for a mix of reasons:

1. Perhaps someone convinced us that what we’re doing should work for us, and so we just keep doing the same thing expecting better results.  What adds to the insanity is that we might have seen it work in a different place, and so the assumption is that it should work here too!

2.  Perhaps what we’re doing used to work for us, and so it makes sense to us that we just must be doing something wrong or it would work for us once again.  What further clutters our thinking is that we might be able to point out how our model (that used to work for us) is now working down the street, and so it’s perplexing to us why it doesn’t work now for us!

3.  Perhaps there’s the struggle because what we’re doing is the thing we’ve always done! On some level our methodology has become part of the history that defines us–our methods have become enshrined and are on some level, sacred to us. Regardless, it is the human tendency to hold on to the familiar thing in our lives, even if the familiar thing no longer works for us.

4. Perhaps we experienced a negative backlash when we tried something different.  As a result there were complaints from the constituency, withdrawal of financial support, and an outcry of resistance to change.  The point is that people can make it too painful to make the change and we are pressured to revert back to what we’ve always done, with the same miserable results.

5. Perhaps we are just stuck doing what we’ve always done because we just can’t see a better alternative.  Maybe we’ve just not seen a better model that makes sense to us, so we have nothing different to go to!

So what happens to you when you keep doing the same thing with the same poor results?  After awhile it can demoralize, dismantle, and discourage you to the point of just wanting to give up!   Does this describe you or your ministry?  You’re not alone!  Many of us are asking some very hard questions about church right now and we are not convinced that the models we’ve seen are really the Church that God has in mind.  What are your thoughts…I’d love to hear what you are thinking!