So my daughter has been playing softball in our city's girls league. She plays in the "6-and-under" (6U) division -- which is both what you might imagine ("Okay, run to first base! No, that's third base!", "Great job, but next time, touch the base with your foot"), and much more than that ("Wow, did she just hit that line drive?", "They turned a double-play?").
What has really been impressive for me is the coaching. It would not have occurred to me that you can teach even 5-year-olds how to bat properly. If it were up to me, I would have been like "Just stick the bat out there!" Instead, our coaches have been impressing on these little girls the proper stance, the right mechanics, muscle focus, etc.. Seriously, these little girls swing -- and often hit! By the time they move up to 8U, or 12U, they look... 'pro.'
Here is where I am going with this. The coaches did not start the season by having the girls sit down and memorize all the rules of the game. Nor were they given a thorough instruction on the right way of batting versus the wrong way. Rather, the coaches kept it
simple, but kept on building, one piece at a time.
Simultaneously however, they never took short-cuts to the process, and they never taught them anything that the girls would have to
unlearn later if they were to progress further in the game (Stanford? ASU? CS-Long Beach?). In other words, they never made things
simplistic, in the name of 'fun'. The girls still found their 'fun', but it was in learning to do things the right way.
None of this surprising for anyone who has ever received good coaching in sports. In fact, you would expect nothing less.
But it seems to me that churches... when it comes to helping people grow, have gone the
simplistic route, instead of the
simple. We dumb down spiritual life left and right, and then blame the short attention span of our congregants. Or for the sake of "getting people in the church." (Like
what one church did recently raffling away a car, all in the getting people in the door. Uh, you think there might be a mixed message somewhere? "Do not store up your treasures on earth, unless it is to encourage people to come to church." Awful. Just awful.)
I am not for 'complicated.' But going the simple route does require patience -- both for those who lead, and are being led, as the 'simple' route, simple insofar as it is meant to build something deeper, sophisticated, more real. As Eugene Peterson emphasizes, "we don't get to ignore the how, for the sake of what." We cross the border into a simplistic faith, if our message/action compromises the message of Christ. We don't get to teach people something that people are going to have to unlearn later.
What are some examples of this? That's my next post. In the meanwhile, feel free to share your thoughts and experiences.
