Checking the Oil

For centuries the Church has operated like a well-oiled machine, but the oil is running low and the machine is running down. —Ilia Delio

The analogous message that churches are hearing everywhere is that it’s time to attend to the oil. And, if we’re realistic, to do a full analytic assessment of the machine itself.

We’re hearing doom and gloom stories about the future of the church – but that is focused on numerical assessment of an institution. The check-oil light.

This analogy might equally apply to our own spirituality: are we running on fumes, or unaware of rust, or low on oil?

Unless we do our own self-assessment, we won’t know.

This is the difference between self-care and self-maintenance.

Maintenance is the minimum required to get by. Care is the above-the-norm of giving, to ensure that our output is at ultimate performance.

Maintenance of self can include healthy food (nourishment), good grooming (physical needs), exercise (for body, mind, and spirit), interesting reading/viewing, showing up on Sundays.

Care of self goes beyond: it’s healthy nourishment but also willingness to try new meals; it’s our physical needs that extend beyond regular care, it’s exercise in ways that challenge and grow, it’s going outside our comfort zone, it’s embracing the enhancement and advancement that’s possible.

Our self-care is a growth mindset, rather than a good-enough mindset.

Not that good-enough isn’t good-enough; but as creatures of an amazing God, we (individually and corporately) are designed for constant increase in our spiritual experiences.

COVID’s lockdowns showed us that we’ve been in maintenance mode for a long time – when we couldn’t just do what we’ve always done. And as we emerge into the post-lockdown era, as the world has changed around us, we need to face the reality that our good-enough maintenance really isn’t the expression of church that God is calling us to be.

These comments are not criticisms; they come from a renewed awareness of our lack of awareness. And this is not just in the church: throughout society we’re starting to re-engage with activities and people and groupings with a different intentionality than what we did before.

Our challenge (and Pentecost is a perfect time for it!) is to consider our machine – as spiritual beings, as faith-filled families, as the church (community and institution) – and be honest about how to move forward into the future, maintaining AND caring for ourselves.