13/05/2026
I recently read this post in an email from Anthony Hilder. I thought I would share its wisdom.
I’ve noticed churches can get very busy at exactly the moment they’ve quietly run out of momentum. Which is awkward. Busy looks impressive. Stuck does not.
After the First World War, France decided it was never going to be caught out like that again. Sensible enough. So through the 1930s, under André Maginot, it built this enormous defensive line along its border: forts, tunnels, rail systems, gun emplacements, underground barracks — the lot.
It was serious. Expensive. Reassuring. The sort of project that makes officials feel calm and engineers feel appreciated, which is lovely for both of them.
And to be fair, it looked brilliant.
Then May 1940 arrived, and Germany simply went round it.
Not entirely, obviously. But the main thrust came through Belgium and the Ardennes, where France had assumed a large attack would be slower and less likely. So all that effort, all that planning, all that concrete confidence, ended up defending the wrong problem. The Maginot Line did not fail because France was lazy. It failed because France was preparing brilliantly for yesterday.
Church leaders do this all the time.
We keep things going. We fill rotas. We protect familiar formats. We hold meetings about the next meeting. We tweak things that already exist because tweaking feels holier than admitting something has lost its life. And because everyone is tired, we baptise the whole thing as faithfulness.
But busyness is often what stagnation looks like when nobody wants to name it.
That is what makes it dangerous. It feels responsible. It even feels sacrificial. Yet noise is not life. Activity is not movement.
A full calendar can hide a shrinking soul remarkably well.
The Kingdom is less like a bunker and more like a sail. A bunker stays put and feels safe. A sail has to keep adjusting to the wind. One is about reinforcement. The other is about responsiveness.
Scripture keeps poking at this.
Israel moved for forty years and got nowhere.
Ephesus worked hard and still drifted from love.
Martha’s decisions are contrasted with Mary’s.
So no, the issue is not effort. Ministry is work. The issue is whether our work is still alive with obedience, or just loud with habit.
There is a difference between serving the work of the Lord, and the Lord of the work.
So before you add one more thing this week, stop. Sit with the Lord for twenty quiet minutes. Look honestly at what is bearing fruit and what is merely eating time while making a nice amount of noise. Then cut one thing. Name one truth. Take one braver step.
And ask yourself this:
What is one ministry habit you may need to stop protecting so you can lead with fresh obedience this season?
