Russell on seeking quick fixes for the church

When we were kids we had a taunt-rhyme that went something like that, "copy cat, kiss the rat, go home let your mother slap..."

I remember back in Poly when I went to Central School of Speech of Drama for a three week summer school. I kept asking the guest lecturers/practitioners for a list of how-to steps, to the point when my courses would go "SHAUN..." because clearly I had missed the point. I had been part of a consumerist civilisation that preferred a quick fix rather than understanding the principle of how a method worked in a different cultural context. It was not meant to be a cut-and-paste application. Now hopefully, I understand this principle a little bit better.


From Page 6 of When God Builds a Church :

"Many church leaders go to conferences... hoping to discover some fresh program, some unique gimmick that will jump-start their church... but what works in one culture... may not work in another. What one church adapts as positive change may be a source of division in another... You cant fight Goliath wearing Saul's armour. You cant minister with someone else's style. You have to be yourself and adapt to the culture around you... remember that the secret ingredients are the principles themselves, not the applications."