Adapted by permission from The Quest for Character (Multnomah, 1987).
I phoned a pastor because I’d heard he was leaving his church (a false rumor) and wanted to encourage him. But I had no trouble finding myself in the story.
He has been my friend for almost a decade. A sensitive, caring, tender man-maybe too tender- he’s in a church that is strong and respected in the community. Though seasoned in years, he is quickly losing heart. His words: “I want to quit.”
Why? He hit a thick wall of resistance. He began a creative program that broke with the past. It would ruffle hardly any feathers in a place where innovation is welcomed and effectiveness appreciated, but because several people in his flock were neither innovative nor open, the man encountered the wrath of Khan.
I hurt for him, but there was little I could do to help. Mainly, he needed a listening ear and the reassurance that somebody, even though many miles away, still believed in him. I hope he felt affirmed. I am praying he won’t toss in the towel, but I respect him too much to preach to him.
Any leadership position, including ministry, has its occupational hazards. But there are a few tests that can be endured only so long. One of them is rigidity.
I don’t know a better word for it. It’s tough enough to deal with folks who choose to live that way themselves, but when they require it of us, ultimately restricting our vision for ministry, it becomes unbearable. Perhaps it is the closest we get to feeling suffocated.
Why is rigidity so difficult for us to deal with? Why does it have such a tyrannical effect on churches? Three reasons come to mind.
First, rigidity is seldom prompted by love. True love is “patient . . . kind . . . does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own.” In other words, love lets go of its own way. It releases. It isn’t demanding or possessive.
Second, rigidity restrains creativity, thus blocking progress. Threatened by risk and the possibility of failure, it clips the future’s wings, then later criticizes it for not flying.
Third, rigidity is the trademark of legalism, the archenemy of any church on the move. Let legalism have enough rope, and there will be a lynching of all new ideas and fresh thinking. Yes, all. Freedom requires room to roam and space to stretch, leading to the excitement of exploration. Remove freedom, and we wave enthusiasm good-by.
In Traveling Light Eugene Peterson minces no words urging those who are free to be vigilant:
“There are people who do not want us to be free before God, accepted just as we are by his grace. They don’t want us to be free to express our faith originally and creatively in the world. They want to control us; they want to use us for their own purposes. They themselves refuse to live arduously and openly in faith, but huddle together with a few others and try to get a sense of approval by insisting that all look alike, talk alike, and act alike, thus validating one another’s worth. They try to enlarge their numbers only on the condition that new members act and talk and behave the way they do.
“These people infiltrate communities of faith ‘to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus’ and not infrequently find ways to control, restrict, and reduce the lives of free Christians. Without being aware of it, we become anxious about what others will say about us. We no longer live the good news but anxiously try to memorize and recite the script that someone else has assigned to us. In such an event we may be secure, but we will not be free. We may survive as a religious community, but we will not experience what it means to be human, alive in love and faith, expansive in hope.”
In the end, rigidity puts dreams to death. Without dreams, life becomes dull, cautious, inhibited. Instead of launching into new ventures, we hold back in fear. Rigidity and risk cannot coexist.
On May 24, 1965, a thirteen-and-a-half-foot boat quietly slipped out of the marina at Falmouth, Massachusetts. Its destination? England. It would be the smallest craft ever to make the voyage. Its name? Tinkerbelle. Its pilot? Robert Manry, a copy editor for The Cleveland Plain Dealer, who felt ten years at the desk was enough boredom for a while, so he took a leave of absence to fulfill his secret dream.
Manry was afraid, not of the ocean, but of all those people who would try to talk him out of the trip. So he didn’t share it with many, just some relatives and especially his wife, Virginia. She was his greatest source of support.
The trip? Anything but pleasant. He spent sleepless nights trying to cross shipping lanes without getting run down and sunk. Weeks at sea caused his food to become tasteless. Loneliness, that age-old monster of the deep, led to terrifying hallucinations. His rudder broke three times. Storms swept him overboard, and had it not been for the rope he had knotted around his waist, he would never have been able to pull himself back on board. Finally, after seventy-eight days alone at sea, he sailed into Falmouth, England.
During those nights at the tiller, he had fantasized about what he would do once he arrived. He expected simply to check into a hotel, eat dinner alone, then the next morning see if, perhaps, the Associated Press might be interested in his story. Was he in for a surprise!
Word of his approach had spread far and wide. To his amazement, three hundred vessels, with horns blasting, escorted Tinkerbelle into port. Forty thousand people stood screaming and cheering him to shore. Robert Manry, copy editor turned dreamer, became on overnight hero.
His story has been told around the world. But Robert couldn’t have done it alone. Standing on the dock was an even greater hero: Virginia. Refusing to be rigid when Robert’s dream was taking shape, she allowed him freedom to pursue his dream.
Ministries cannot become great without dreamers who weary of only maintenance year in, year out. We need more Roberts who have the creativity and tenacity to break with boredom and try the unusual. But even more, we need the Virginias who won’t allow rigidity to rule the roost.
-Charles R. Swindoll
First Evangelical Free Church
Fullerton, California
Copyright © 1987 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
