The Church Flywheel

From an object lesson that our family shared in this weekend while we were in Pigeon Forge TN.

Think about the big things that you do to further His kingdom.  Big things like go on mission trips, donate a large sum of money, visit someone in prison.  These things are great, however too many times the big thing opportunities never seem to come our way.   So, how about the small things that we could do, I mean the really small things.  You probably have some ideas.   Think about those, and then later, we can share what those items are as we contemplate the church flywheel.

Everyone or anyone know what a flywheel is?

A flywheel has mass or weight, and when it is spun, or rotated, it stores energy. 

Some of us were near a large flywheel in Pigeon Forge when we ate dinner Thursday night.   Do you know where I’m talking about?  Yes, the Old Mill.  At the Old Mill,  the paddlewheel is a flywheel.

The water flows from a higher elevation to a lower one, and when it does it hits a paddle, and causes the wheel to rotate. 

When you design a mill, or grist mill, you want the wheel that’s turning to have some weight, so that as the wheel turns, it has momentum, and can actually do work, like grind corn.

The flywheel stores energy and it has momentum. 

At the Old Mill if you turned the water off,  the wheel would continue to turn, at least for a while, because of the momentum.

Also at the Old Mill, if you turned the water off for a minute, then on for a minute, then off, the weight of the flywheel would allow the mill to keep grinding corn.   Once the wheel is turning, it has momentum, and so it takes a lot of resistance to stop the wheel.

Really God’s church, his movement, can be thought off as a flywheel.  The wheel was put in motion by Jesus and his followers more than 2000 years ago.

Think about what Jesus did.   Through his acts of service, his teaching, his leadership, and sacrifice, people were drawn to him, and they became part of the wheel, the church flywheel.

The people that add momentum to the church are called disciples.  They believe, commit thereby attaching themselves to the church flywheel and through service, teaching, leadership and sacrifice add to the momentum of goodness that Jesus started.  

Matthew 25:

³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. ³² All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

   ³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

Above, Jesus spoke of some pretty big things, and obviously those are good things.  When he started the church, his disciples were doing some big things, like healing, and trying to walk on water.  As they joined him, and did those things the flywheel of the church began to turn.

Demo the church flywheel.

Choose someone to be the center of the flywheel, and instruct them to slowly rotate (otherwise they will get dizzy, slowly) - you need an area at least 10 feet in diameter to do this.  The first person in the center represents when Jesus started the church.  Now call on someone to attach to the center person, and continue to rotate with the center person.  By attach I mean join, not just put a hand on a shoulder - like both hands on the shoulders or a side hug.   The second person, and the next 4 or 5 represent the first disciples.  They attach such that they form a concentric circle around the center person, connected to each other and if possible to the center.   As each person is added, the group continues to rotate.   Call each person by name, and have them represent a first disciple.   Now after 5 or 6 folks, let the addition of each person represent the smallest act you can think of that adds to the momentum of the church - like a facebook post, or a text message, or a note, or a smile of encourage.   As each person adds to the rotating mass of people, the momentum grows.   Now just for fun, let someone represent resistance to the church and see if they can grab a single person, and stop the rotation - they can't.  The momentum of the church will not allow someone to stop its momentum.

Keep rotating the flywheel until reasonably, the entire group is slowly turning, demonstration a large flywheel.

We closed with these thoughts.

When you make a call of encouragement, you further the church flywheel and his kingdom.  When you send a text, inviting someone to meet you in an act of service, you spin the flywheel.    When you put a verse on facebook, you add energy to the church flywheel.  When you come together and share the Lord in his Supper, you turn the flywheel.    When you go to your aunt’s house to change a lightbulb, you add to the energy.   When you obey honor your children, or honor your parents you add to the energy.  When you preach, or teach, or visit you add to the momentum.

Finally, have everyone stop, squeeze in closer and close with a prayer of recognizing the power of the little things that we do that adds to the momentum of the church flywheel - thereby furthering His kingdom.

My thanks!

My thanks to Ray Palmer for sharing a lesson a few months ago on how each little thing we do furthers the church.  My thanks also to Jim Collins, the author of "Good to Great" - therein the flywheel is used to represent the growth of a company.   My thanks to Honda for it's use of a counter rotating flywheel in the Goldwing motorcycledesign - it's there in 1977 that I first learned what a flywheel was.  My thanks to my family, we had a blast and enjoyed rotating and pondering His church and thinking about the little things we do that add to the church.