The number one reason churches plateau and decline is that they’ve lost their outward focus. Church can easily become about what the existing congregation wants, instead of thinking about and serving people beyond the church walls. To combat this, church members must remember what originally made their church great. Was it the music, the programs, the schedule, the dramas, the preaching, or the kids ministry that made their church great? Those things were inspiring, excellent and fun, but they are not what made the church great. The thing that made the truly remarkable was the mission.
The mission of the church can be summed up in two key parts:
1. Reaching people for Christ.
2. Leading them to be fully devoted to him.
Let us remember that our churches do not exist for us. Our churches exists for the lost. Our churches are not here to make us (the believers) happy, meet our needs, satisfy our desires, or affirm our opinions. Our churches are here to reach people who are desperately far from God.
As church members we must all ask ourselves some tough questions. What do I not like about my church? What if the very thing I don’t like is the thing that will reach people for Jesus? What do I love most about my church? What if the very thing I like most is the thing that is a barrier to reaching people for Christ? Am I willing to support changes that I don’t like? Am I willing to lay down my preferences and opinions for the sake of people who are lost?
I’m not saying that our own desires automatically contradict our mission. I’m saying that we must be diligent to never allow our desires to supercede the mission. What should we want more than seeing people come to faith in Christ? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Let all of us lay our wants, desires, opinions, and preferences on the altar. Let us continually sacrifice the notion that church is here to “meet my needs.” Let us give our all for the sake of those who need Christ’s love.
Alan,
For many churches in America this is a wake up call. I know for our church it is. We have to ask those hard honest questions like “What at our church is actually geared toward those not in our church?”. Two outreach projects a year wont cut it. While in New Orleans the mission we work with tossed moon pies and beads to those walking to Mardi Gras or into French Quarters. I thought it was a great way to meet people where they are and start discussions on the street. A handful of churched people commented while walking by “Thats wrong”.
A year ago our church went through a visioning process. It was the best thing for this church since it was never begun as a missional church. It was an immigrant church — a whole bunch of Reformed people from the Netherlands settled that area and needed a church. Having grown up in this denomination, this is the story for most of the churches. Immigrant churches tend not to have “missional” in their DNA.
One of the reasons I took this church on was because they really desired to be an outreaching and missional church. Having been here two years now, I am not convinced yet that this church can make the jump. I believe it will be the deciding factor whether or not they can survive.
There are a handful of folks who are getting it, but my wife and I are the only ones bringing in new people. That brings with it a whole bunch of other issues since this church is over 100 years old and most people are related in some way.
I think whether or not the church can truly make the missional jump will determine if they will be here in 15 years.