Sequels

I think I've decided that I'm not a big fan of sequels. I watched National Treasure 2 a couple of nights ago. I liked National Treasure 1. National Treasure 2 was pretty much the same movie. They tried to capitalize on past success and it may have made for a profitable movie, but it made for a horrible plot. Seriously, Ed Harris as a bad guy trying to kill them just so he gets credit for an archealogical discovery. Come on, are you kidding me? They should have stuck with the Euro esque bad guy that we see in movies like Die Hard, Clear and Present Danger, etc etc. . America loves the Euro bad guy. Sequels never seem to live up to the hype. But somewhere the producer saw the original as successful so rather than trying to come up with a new story line, they just copy past successes.

The church does the same thing. Years ago someone went to a conference and decided that the way so and so church was doing church was working so maybe they should do a sequel. Rather than relying on the vision God had given them to place new wine in new wineskins, they simply replicated someone elses vision. The result became what we know as the traditional church of today.

The crazy thing is that as many folks are fleeing the traditional church scene to start new churches, the same thing is happening all over again. Guys will go to a conference and see such and such church reaching 2000 people in their first two years and instead of relying on the vision that God has given them for the people in the area God has called them to, they will go back and launch Sequel Church. Then pops up Sequel Church 3, Sequel Church 4-Church of Secrets, and before you know it the same thing has happened all over again.

The question I have is this, what is the Vision God has given you? Not what is the vision God has given Mega Church Conference leader guy but what has God called you to do? Go be original. Otherwise, in twenty years another group will flee the then traditional Faux Hawk Pastor, Multi Site Video Fed, Frappamochachino, Church of Today.

This post is not meant to be offensive to faux hawk wearing preachers. After all, the faux hawk is the new comb over. Also, I believe some churches can do video successfully, but don't do it just because you saw someone else do it and thought it'd be cool. As far as the Frappamochachino comment, I meant that with all the disrepect in the world. It's not Coke.