I was interested to find out that they utilize bamboo scaffolding for construction in Hong Kong. It struck me as odd that they even use it for skyscrapers. As it turns out, bamboo is incredibly strong. In Oxford studies from the 1920’s they proved bamboo to be similar in strength to steel. Add to that the fact that bamboo plentiful, cheap, renewable and lightweight and it’s no wonder it’s used throughout Asia.
A new friend, Chris Weinand, used the metaphor bamboo scaffolding recently in a way that captured my attention: We need to use bamboo scaffolding to build our church structures.
Think about the life cycle of a church. A church typically begins with a vibrant, compelling story. The atmosphere is electric. There is excitement and sacrifice. People seek God’s wisdom and guidance through prayer and the scriptures. As the church grows there’s a need for the scaffolding of procedures, practices and processes. Unfortunately, somewhere down the road it starts to become about the procedures, practices and processes and not the ministry. If the story is not redeemed and retold, the scaffolding strangles the structure. The challenge for most churches is that their scaffolding is made of steel and becomes undistinguishable once it’s intertwined with the structure. That makes it very painful for churches when they realize they need to change the scaffolding to be true to the story. More often than not they don’t change, they slowly pass away.
But what if we built our procedures, practices and processes out of bamboo? What if we saw them as temporary from the beginning? Means to an end.
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