The reason for this meander in the muddy waters of 70s pop is this: ‘keep on ‘doin’ what you’re doin’’ sums up the life of many churches. What shall we do this year? What we did last year … plus some tweaks. There are two problems with that approach: first, the world around us is changing at a rate of knots and second, it’s madness to do the same thing and expect a different result. If we keep on doin’ what we’re doin’, we’re gonna get … exactly the same as we’ve always had.

This is true for every church all around the world, and it’s true for us too. It’s not that what we’ve been doing is bad, but we have to do some new things. We have to reshape how we do church in order to fulfil the Great Commission in our community and beyond. We have to both think and plan strategically and act decisively with commitment. That’s the real heart of our vision: not slick words, but a renewed urgency to be a church where lives are transformed, a church that really impacts the community together as a body.

But the starting place for all this, the true fountainhead from which it all springs is the love of Jesus. “If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. (1 Corinthians 13:3 Msg)

I’m reminded of a story about a priest and a curate in the sleepiest little village on the West Coast of Ireland. One day the curate rushed in to the priest and said, “Father, I’ve just seen Jesus in the church. What should we do?” The priest replied, “Look busy!” We smile, but that approach is not so far from many of us.

We’re not called to just look busy. A transformational, impacting church never arises out of guilty drivenness, the true fountainhead is a love relationship with Jesus. That’s why we worship: to fall in love with Jesus again, because the heart of the whole church is the love of Jesus.