A
Dog Sled Race
The
professional term for a dog sled race is Iditarod. These days this race is even
broadcast on TV. Before
the race begins, the history of the race is explained in detail as a bonus. It
is amazing that there are a variety of dog sled races, and that there are
audiences who travel to arenas to watch the dog sled traditions and races.
According to their explanation, there are short 10-mile races, 100-mile races,
and the longest 1,000 mile race. The number of dogs used for these races
varies: odd number, even number, and four to sixteen dogs. Snow sleds are used
in places where there is snow, but where there is no snow, wheeled sleds are
used. They naturally adapt to the conditions.
The
way they run these races doesn¡¯t seem that complicated and different from the
way other races are run. Yet the way they start the race was comparatively
unique, although this unique reason was also the result of adapting to the
given conditions. Let us imagine. Ten teams with each team made up of ten dogs that
tend to be overwhelmed with nervousness and competitiveness before the race.
Let¡¯s say ten teams compete, and if a hundred dogs begin to bark, it will turn
into complete chaos. It is obvious that it will turn into a disaster. In order
to minimize this chaos, each team takes off at different intervals. The order
of the teams is determined by the time it took for them to finish the race.
This dog sled race is not about competing against other teams but about competing
against themselves, and against the severe nature. They fight against time
instead of how much I won over others. The order of the competitors is
determined by each team doing its best. While listening to this explanation, I
couldn¡¯t shake off the thought that the way they run the dog sled race can be
reflected in our churches or society.
When
I look at the Korean community where I live, churches are sprouting up here and
there. In order to fill the empty pews, all the church members including
pastors work very hard. There is a variety of services such as seeker-sensitive
services that are relevant to the current times, traditional services, music
services, Korean services, English services, bilingual services, services with
simultaneous interpretations, etc. The common denominator of these churches is
competitiveness. Healthy competitiveness is recommendable, but when it gets
mixed up with a sense of comparison with others, they would end up comparing
themselves with neighboring churches as to how much they grew, how many church
members they have, etc. They demonstrate an unhealthy aspect of playing with
numbers. Besides that, churches accelerate their church growth in various ways
such as Korean school, school for the elderly,
Even
when I do the easy math by calculating the number of existing Korean churches
and the number of English-speaking Korean-American second generation ministers,
there is a huge gap. The conclusion is that all the Korean churches can¡¯t be worthy
of English ministry. However, because churches are unconditionally crying out
for English ministry, they are busy dragging even the few ministers from other
churches. If not, they are simply busy giving out positions and titles to unprepared
ministers, who are not prepared yet because they speak fluent English. Apart
from these reckless competitive ministries, if younger pastors attempt to plant
churches, older pastors show unhealthy, irrational competitiveness by saying to
them things such as ¡°Go see other places, since churches are saturated here,¡±
or ¡°If you want to start a church, you have to plant it at least 50 miles away
from here.¡± Even in
Likewise,
we should do the ministries entrusted to each church faithfully, doing our best
instead of comparing or competing against one another. For instance, if a
neighboring church does English ministry well, we could send English-speaking
students to that church voluntarily after sharing the dream of ministry
cooperation with the ministers of the church, and focus on our own ministries.
Churches that are doing well must work together with smaller churches and
encourage them with the ministries that the small churches are excelling in,
and help them out in any way. They shouldn¡¯t begin the same ministries small
churches are doing in order to increase the number of their own church members.
It would be stealing church members from small churches. Whether survival of
the fittest theory or the principle of WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) would be
applied to a church is the home assignment of home assignments which each
church pastor and its leaders must decide on.
What
problem will there be when I am working hard and committed to my ministry?
However, God has given us limited time and resources. I am concerned that this
precious time, opportunities, and resources might be wasted while churches are
trying to read one another¡¯s mind and engage in a good competition which is
only a nominal one. The race against the world is a hard one, even when we
mobilize all our resources. It becomes even harder when we are fighting against
the forces of evil. When it¡¯s hard to do even the entrusted ministries, it¡¯s so
dismal for the churches to waste their strength like that.
A
unique, inevitable method is adopted to avoid a dog-like chaos in dog sled races.
However, churches must recognize the fact that the goal of the race among
churches shouldn¡¯t be to win over other churches, but it lies somewhere else. I
hope that churches will join forces and do the race in collaboration with one
another as they fight against society, culture, and the forces of darkness.