Which version are you on?

There is an addiction sweeping our nation few other than parents talk about.

That’s because they have seen their children overcome by it, they have watched as it possessed the minds of their kids, they have witnessed the scattered ravages caused by it.

The American Psychological Association hasn’t yet developed a formal diagnosis for it, but an entire entity has been created in southern California in acknowledgement of the pervasiveness of this addiction.

The place? LEGOLAND.

The addiction? Legos.

That’s right, these plastic toy bricks have become such a playtime addiction for children that about 19 billion are made each year! That stunning number may sound quite right to those parents who have hundreds (or thousands) of Lego pieces scattered throughout their homes.

Kids love them because they can use their creativity to build anything they’re capable of picturing in their minds. Then, using those short attention spans that become bored quickly, children can just as easily unsnap the plastic bricks and make something entirely different. What can be made with these plastic toys is limited only by a child’s imagination.

Do you sometimes wonder if some church leaders mistake the church for being their own personal legos? Many seem to constantly be taking the church apart and recreating it according to their latest imagination of what would make for a good church. Some treat the church as a lab for their personal creativity, persistently reinventing it according to the latest great idea or cultural fit. Next year might see a whole new model, if the latest creative spree lasts that long.

But the church isn’t a toy to be played with.

The church isn’t ours to re-purpose or reshape.

The church is Christ’s. He is fashioning it according to His perfect knowledge, His perfect plan, His perfect purpose. Jesus lets us take an active part in putting the pieces together, but He provides the direction.

“Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything,” Colossians 1:18.

Does your local church look anything like what Christ has designed it to be? Or have you been playing with it?

Scotty