Last night I started thinking about scrambled eggs, one of my favorite ways to eat eggs, especially with ketchup. I wasn't hungry, so it was an interesting series of thoughts.  I thought about the process of how eggs become scrambled, and realized there is a few lessons here for us in the church world.  So here we go...

Start out with an egg, which sits in it's shell.  In order to become part of a greater purpose, the shell has to be broken, and the egg needs to be added to other eggs that have had their shell broken into a bowl.  We don't expect to have much go on with the eggs if all we do is put them in the bowl, shell unbroken and stir them around.  In fact this could actually ruin the process, especially if the stirring got strong enough to break some of the eggs.  The shells would mix up in the mess created and be good for nothing until through a very slow process, all the shells were removed.  No, we are careful to separate the shell from the egg after the shell is broken.  Now we see a group of eggs without shells sitting in a bowl.  There is still a since of individuality, because the process of mixing hasn't begun.  But that is about to change.  Soon we won't be seeing yokes clearly surrounded by transparent egg whites.  That will all change.  Let's mix it up, and we see something happening that changes the appearance, the consistency, and the expectation of what will happen when it is cooked and served up.  Soon we have a mixture of pale yellow.

Did we loose any of the eggs?  Are they at all diminished in providing nutrition? No, but we did loose something.  We loss the shells that keep the eggs separate.  We loss the individual borders of yokes and whites, and we loss the ability to see where one egg stands out more than another.  

What did we gain?  Something better than the single egg approach (that is if you happen to like scrambled eggs, but even if you don't follow along for a moment with me), we gained a mixture that is flowing together in a greater whole for a greater purpose.  We gained the value of seeing and being part of something bigger than one egg or a group of one eggs could be a part of.  We gained a breakdown and breakaway of shells that keep the eggs isolated and self contained.  

So can you see any applications to this process and the process of growing a great church culture?  I can.  Here are some of what I see.

1. Shells are like personal defenses and fears that keep us isolated and separated from what we are called to be a part of.
2. Egg shells have to be broken before we can be a real part of one another in any meaningful purpose.
3. Egg shells need to be removed from the mixture, even as we need to be diligent to separate soulish reactions and motivations from the mind of Christ in our relationships.
4. We need to be willing to loose ourselves to a greater vision than just what we are doing by ourselves.
5. The stirring of the Holy Spirit will always mix us up into the purpose of God together with one another, providing means to do greater things than we could do by ourselves.
6. Our personal identity and strength becomes one with the identity of the whole body, as we learn to flow together in the goodness of the Lord.
7. Our personal agendas are no longer our passion, but the purpose of the Lord for the church and what the church is called to do in this world becomes our consuming passion.  
8. We need one another to fulfill the plans of God for our lives.

I am looking forward to my next scrambled egg meal so that I can think on these things some more.