I’m not a fan of bureaucracy.
During my teaching career I consistently chafed against rules designed (I thought) mostly to sustain the organization. It all begins with good intentions and before you know what happened you’ve got committees, meetings, org charts, and lists of rules. And when you ask “Why?” they say something about consistency, making sure everyone does it the same way.
I thought about my resistance when I read this quote from Bob Goff’s wonderful book EVERYBODY ALWAYS.
“We don’t need to call everything we do “ministry.” Just call it Tuesday. That’s what people who are becoming love do.”
People often tell me what a wonderful “ministry” the FREEDOM TOUR has become. I think it’s just Tuesday, or Saturday, or whatever. I think we’re just friends riding bikes, trying to follow Jesus. We met some kids who were rescued from a tough spot, and we get to help them.
Call it a “ministry” and you need a board of directors and titles, because somebody’s gotta be in charge, right? And then committees, and rules…
Of course there’s a difference between “being an organization” and “being organized.” Certainly we want to do what we do as well as possible. We have a DREAM TEAM, a group of folks who caught the vision of this crazy thing. We gather to talk about what’s possible and how to make it happen. Nobody owns it, nobody’s “in charge.”
We operate as a team of servant leaders – everyone shares the chores and the leadership. If people show up expecting “polished and slick,” expecting to be served, they might be a bit disappointed.
I don’t think Jesus worried about creating a ministry. I think He was just doing His Father’s work, loving and hanging out with His friends on Tuesday or Saturday, learning about being servant leaders.
I’m a guy following a God-sized dream. God brought other folks into a circle around that dream, and it grew into the FREEDOM TOUR. It’s that remarkable…and that simple.
One question, though…if we made it a ministry, would I get an assistant? I’ve always thought it would be cool to have an assistant.