I spent most of my time on the treadmill this morning listening to a podcast from the National New Churches Conference. Riveting stuff, especially from Craig Groeschel, speaking to several thousand church planters.

One thing he said has been with me all day. He related the Scripture in Romans 12:2 – Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind – to church planting. He encouraged his audience to push the limits and  embrace originality.

Here’s what I have been thinking. Is it possible that churches are hindered from reaching their full potential because they lose sight of God’s plan for that particular congregation? I reckon there are two major pitfalls in this area -

1. A CHURCH CAN’T BE BUILT ON HISTORY

We value where we have come from, learn from it and adhere to its principles, but you can’t move forward looking in the rearview mirror. The past cannot provide the blueprint for the future.

Most of us have smiled as we repeated the last seven words of a dying church – We never did it this way before – but that phrase should be the mantra of a developing church too.

I sometimes feel a little lost in the world of the 21st century. It’s almost like I’ve lost many points of reference. Everything’s different – even John Wayne’s dead.

In this different world the church is going to look different too. We won’t get where God wants us to go by clinging onto the patterns and practices of a bygone era. History has it’s place, but it is what it is, the past.

2. A CHURCH CAN’T BE BUILT ON PARODY

Back in the 80′s a pastor in Texas built a large church with prayer as a huge part of his focus. He had hundreds of folks coming out to early morning prayer meetings every day and suddenly early morning prayer meetings were starting all over the country. Most of them didn’t last and when they did they were not the precursor to amazing growth. God told Larry Lee to pray, but way too many people tried to copy him.

At the risk of ticking some people off, I spent my early years in ministry wiith the Assemblies of God and it is my contention I can tell an AG church as soon as I walk in the door. They look the same and even smell the same (wild exaggeration, I know) – it’s the 70′s orange carpet that gives them away.

God doesn’t want our church to be like Lee’s in the 80′s, Saddleback, Willow Creek, Lifechurch, Smithtown Gospel Tabernacle or True North. He wants Church At The Movies to be Church At The Movies and if we try to copy someone else we will be a poor imitation of them and a dismal failure at who we  are meant to be.

God is creative and original. That’s how he wants every church to be too.

Let’s always be brave enough to be ourselves.