Resistance is Futile

"We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."

I'm not a big Star Trek fan but I LOVE the Borg. The idea of a race so technologically advanced that they go around the universe assimilating other worlds into their race is very cool. Nothing can stop them. This notion of assimilating hit me the other night as I was thinking about part of my role here at the church.

My official title here at Woodside is "Pastor Integration & Discipleship". As the title implies, I have three parts to my job. The first is being an associate pastor. That part is easy... I just do the things that the senior pastor asks me to do :) Another part is Discipleship. I'm responsible for the different ministries which have to do with adult discipleship, like Small Groups, Men's Ministry, and stuff like that. This is area is really up my alley and were I have the most experience and get the most joy. I love working with the other leaders in all these ministries to see how we can do a better job of leading people to Jesus, equipping them to serve Jesus and then sending them out to work for Jesus.

The one part that is the biggest challenge in my role is the whole "Integration" area. We are blessed here at Woodside with new families showing up at our door all the time. I spend a lot of nights awake thinking about how we can ensure that these families just don't end up walking right out the back door or falling through the cracks.

So what does this have to do with the Borg??? Well... I've just been thinking about the whole difference between integration and assimilation. Assimilation means to take a person and make them change into us. On the other hand, integration is helping a person become a part of us and both of us change for the better because of this! Late one night I asked myself the question "How are we as a church in this area? Are we expecting people to assimilate to us or are we open to integrating them?"

I think we're doing okay with this despite the actual lack of planning and organization in the area of integration. But I'm sure we can be a lot better at it. My passion is to find new and relevant ways to help guests became a part of the Woodside family (especially this time of year when so many of the ministries are shutting down for the summer!) and then have that become part of our culture here at Woodside. Unlike the Borg, I don't want our guests to feel like we are trying to take their biological and technological distinctiveness just so that they can service us. We want to be a church that, through the grace and love of God, we service them!

If anyone has some suggestions or good books to read in this area PLEASE let me know about them.

"Resistance is futile". :-)

Comments

Robin said…
Good insight into the difference between assimilation and integration. Too bad all churches don't see that; I've actually head the title "pastor of assimilation" before. Gives me the willies.
3:20 PM
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