The Form of the Next Church is not

There’s a lot of duscussion about the failures of the institutional church.  However, most of the discussion is about why the church of the 1950s has failed, and why their approach is the new definitive way to turn around the church.

One model ”proves” it’s point with a 3-column chart.  Column one is their description of the first thru third century church.  Column two is their assessment of “mid-twentieth century”  church.  Column three is their approach.  It should come as no surprise that their approach matches the early church description in column one, almost word-for-word.

I don’t buy it.  Neither should you. 

It’s a false dichotamy. 

Very few congregations have a “member benefit” mindset.  And by calling it “member benefit” they’ve used a loaded catch-phrase.  Didn’t Jesus define the standard of authentic faith as when the congregation loved one another in visible ways?  Didn’t the Jerusalem church in Acts 2 spend a lot of time feeding and teaching the church members?  Sounds like it was beneficial to be a member.

There’s been a lot of study about what the new church model ought to be.  I’m not convinced there’s anything wrong with the model, though there needs to be some adjustments.  The complaints in this model are valid in some cases.  There are some church leaders that act unbiblical in their dictatorial domination of the congregation.  But that’s not the norm.

Most congregations are led by men and women who love God and love His people.  Most congregations are filled with people doing church the best they know how.  They’re not resistent to change. Most of them have color TVs, microwaves, and cell phones.  They get new cars every few years, try new restaurants, even use the computer.   They faithfully take miracle medicines, read their Bibles and give their tithes.  Most pray for the lost and the missionaries.

The task for the 21st century church leader is not to make the modern church look like a 2d century congregation, but to organize culturally-relevant congregations to worship God, care for one another and spread the Gospel, updating the methods without compromising the core.  And without having to create a paper enemy to joust at.

 

The Essential Church Jobs

In yesterday’s post, I wondered how small a church could be and still function.  Today, I went to class with guest lecturer David Garrison, teaching about Church Planting Movements.

According to Dr Garrison (actually, he goes by David), it’s not the size that matters, but the intentionality of being a functioning church.  You can do all five purposes of the church (Worship, Fellowship, Ministry, Discipleship, and Evangelism/Missions) as a group that gathers occasionally in a holy huddle, but not really be a fully functioning church.  

Garrison says the church becomes church when key leaders are chosen.  He says there should be a pastor/overseer, deacons and a treasurer.

The deacons should be the minsitry leaders of the five purposes.  Remember that the original seven were chosen to minister with food distribution, and Steven was an evangelist.  One person may do multiple jobs in this arrangement, but there must be an acknowledgement that they are doing the jobs of a church and that they should hand off the extra duties as soon as practically possible.

Garrison says the actions of the deacons are coordinated by an overseer or a spiritually mature elder.  This is the job normally held by the senior pastor. 

The third key position is the treasurer.  Having a  treasurer who is unrelated to the senior pastor / overseer will help keep scandal away.  Note that while Jesus was accused of many things, misappropriation of money was not one of them.  He had a treasurer (Judas).  And when the early church failed to use a treasurer and instead gifts were given to the Apostles, it caused jealousy and the death of Annias and Sophira.

When a church has these seven positions functioning, led by people gifted and trained for those positions, they will be functioning as a church should.  And if the doing is properly done, it should cause a growth in both maturity and numbers.

 

The Benefit of the Doubt

In Seth Godin’s daily blog last Saturday, he told us to give people the benefit of the doubt.

What he said was that our language is imperfect, especially in a multicultural place like America, or on the web.  We mean one thing and the other interprets it different.  (example:  what my wife meant for me to do and what I thought she wanted.)

Godin suggests that with friends, we give them the benefit of the doubt that what they did was what they thought we wanted, and we excuse reasonable misunderstandings.  Or we take time to clarify what they asked us to do.  But with strangers or casual interactions, “we assume the worst.”

People will come to your church, not knowing your language, not responding the way you’d expect them to.  Or someone misunderstands during a church business meeting.  Or they come at a passage with a different interpretation based on a different background set of circumstances.  Your job, as a member of the body of Christ, is to treat them like a friend and give them the benefit of the doubt.

Assume they don’t know they’ve offended you, and be less easily offended.  It will go a long way toward creating unity in the body.

 

How Small is Too Small?

I’ve been considering when a strugglng church becomes too small to effectively turn around. Not that God can’t do miracles when only “two or three” are gathered, but there should be a general rule of thumb for when a church comes into being and when it should be laid to rest.

This is a concern because the average size for a church in North America is 75 attending. It is less in some other countries – or even this country – where the house church is the model; you are limited to how many people can fit in your living room or garage.

But in general, have the churches are less than 20 families, and many are a lot smaller: 35, 25, 15.

Which brings me to my question. How small can a church get before it’s not economically viable to keep it open?

With a congregational style church, part of the answer depends on whether the pastor and staff are full-time, part-time or unpaid. If your congregation is 5 families, making about $35k a year each, a tithe of the gross only nets the church $18 grand. What pastor can support a family on that?

If the church is in a denomination where the diocese or synod pays the salary, the congregation can get smaller, because someone else is frontloading the expenses to maintain a presence in that neighborhood. But that also means the local congregation is at the whim of someone else on whether to keep the building open or not. (I remember the furror when a local Catholic diocese tried to close an underperforming facility. Ten times the number that ever attended protested the closure of “their” church, the one they wanted standing when they needed to be married or buried!)

What I’ve been considering is the concept of a minyan. In Jewish practice, the minimum for a synagogue is 10 men. Similarly, in Islam, it takes 10 men at prayers to sustain the mosque. Jesus had his 12, but “one was a devil” and another a betrayer.

With 10 men, that’s probably 30 people: the men, their wives, one or two children for half of them, plus a few widows. Perhaps you can get as small as 10 family units, counting the Singles / single parents and widows, meaning about 15 adults.

In my opinion, if the church gets below 15 and stays below 15 for several weeks, it’s time to consider closing the church. God can still raise up dry bones, but only if the leadership is committed to nurturing the new growth.

 

Deadly Sins of a Dying Church

Stephen Gray at Church Central posted hsi review of essential Church? by Thom and Sam Rainer by taking the book’s “7 deadly sins” and adding 3 more. 

I’m not going to copy the whole article – you need to read it and the Rainers’ book yourself.  But the topic headings are worth mentioning:

1. Doctrinal Drift – watering down the Gospel
2. Evangelism Atrophy – a loss of passion to win the lost
3. Failure To Be Relevant – not contextualizing the content of our message
4. Inwardly Focused – most of the money and effort is on doing stuff in the church, for the church
5. Personal Conflict – power struggles
6. A Priority Of Comfort – this refers to doing the same things over and over, instead of new ventures
7. Biblical Illiteracy – preachers who ignore vast sections of the Bible and parishoners who don’t know the difference.
8. Hording – Gray is talking about dormant savings accounts, but I’d add the lack of openness to use the church building for anything that doesn’t drive the bottom line (see #4)
9. Failure to Follow – not respecting congregational leaders
10. Idolatry – worshipping anything but God, including the building, the schedule, the agenda, or the stuff of our lifestyle.

http://churchcentral.com/blog/Ten-Deadly-Sins-Of-A-Dying-Church

 

money or missions?

What is the end result of a struggle for control?  Is it a process of cleaning the weeds so the garden can flourish?  Or is it more like topping the tree in an attempt at keeping it from overtaking the landscaping – to keep in under control?

In the early 1980s, the Southern Baptist Convention began to come apart.  The argument was couched in spiritual terms – that teachers in the colleges weren’t doctrinally pure enough.  There were even heresy investigations of some who challenged their students’ faith in the classroom to give them tools to counter opposition in the real world.  The result was an intellectional split in the theological direction, and a physical split in some parts of the convention.  Texas and Virginia now have two theologically different Southern Baptist Conventions.  Some who consider themselves historical Southern Baptist now belong to a new Cooperative Baptist Convention.

At the time, there was a charge that it was a grab for money.  The SBC had become the largest Protestant denomination in the country and the largest Baptist convention in the world, with billion dollar budgets.  It sponsored 5 national seminaries and sub-convention associations supported dozens of colleges, hospitals and orphanages.

As it happened, the SBC, formerly the fastest growing provider of the Gospel in the world, stopped growing.

Except for the years following the Civil War, an analysis of growth trends show a 3%-5% year-to-year growth rate that tapered off after 1980 and began to top out in the mid 90s, turning to actual declines in total membership in 2005.

So when the US economy hit a bump in 2009, that decline in membershp began to take a financial hit.

And so comes a realization from denominational leaders that, just perhaps, they overdid their zealous enforcement of their brand of orthodoxy.  The realization reminded leaders of ousted Southern Seminary faculty member  Bill Leonard, who had predicted that once the conservatives took control of the SBC’s massive infrastructure, they would soon turn on one another.   And so they have. 

In a bid to shore up funding of missions agencies, the central funding organism, called the Cooperative Program -an innovative approach to pool voluntary church contributions to accomplish common activies, is now at risk.  Churches are beginning to fund individual missions and missionaries, or reserving funds for local actions.  There is also suspicion that most money is going for maintenance. (One trusted source said that an estimated 60% of weekly tithes goes to repay loans on buildings.)

This is an intersting object lesson for individual churches.  If you drive off your most passionate dissenters, does it change your core message?  Are you still focused on reaching your whole community for the Gospel, or are you seen as only after their money?  Are you inclusive or exclusive?  Choose wisely; you will have to live with the future you create.  

—

sources:
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/04/24/southernbaptists_0424.html

http://baptistmessenger.com/editors-journal-our-ominous-future/

 

The Motivation for Worship

On a facebook post today, pastor/teacher/student leader Alvin Reid quoted Jim Elliff’s call to worship leaders to “Raise the believers’ understanding of the beauty & power of God, & let emotions follow, not lead.”

In reply John Guetterman wrote:

Amen! singers singing the beauty and power of God from the place of divine revelation. This is the glory of corporate worship when we see Him as He is and we are invited into the realm if the spirit through the open door. We need singers who sing from encounter! We need preachers who preach from encounter! This is our hope for our nation to change… Read More… That God would raise up burning and shining lamps leading many to Jesus in this hour! People who have stood in the council of the Lord who speak from the place of knowledge that transcends understanding… We need the Spirit of Revelation. We need the Spirit of Prayer… We NEED GOD!!!

I remember attending a church that led our denomination in baptisms, a supposed indication of the power of their preacher as an evangelist.  However, when I got to know some of the members, I learned there was little followup, little understanding of what the Christian life was all about.  They were led by the emotion of the moment, and a number of those were rebaptisms (“The first 3 times weren’t real, but this time I know I’m saved!”)

You can’t sustain a church on emotion.  People wear out and quit if they live on the evangelism sugar high.  Teaching the congregation the truth of God, leading them to full understanding of their salvation, helping them see the beauty & power of God is what will set them afire and send them out as witnesses.  Their worship will remain beyond the benediction, their testimony will resonate at the restaurant, and their service will be sustainable, because it is all for the glory of God.

 

Fasting for a Purpose

Ruth Moon at Christianity Today has started a discussion on whether Christians should show affinity with Muslims and fast during Ramadan. (“Should Christians Fast During Ramadan With Muslims? ” – CT 26 Oct 09) 

Beyond the responses from the 10 church leaders contacted for their opinion, there is discussion on the topic in the blogosphere, as there is every year during this annual fast.  What should the proper response be?

The answer seems to be:  “It depends.”

Proponents of religious tolerance say we should make accomodation, especially for Eid, the celebration that ends Ramadan.  Some even offer an ecumenical solution, that we join with them as a sign of solidarity and frinedship, out of respect for their religion.

At the other end of the ideological spectrum, responses include:

• Not in a western country. On the contrary, they should pretend to eat so as not to offend me.
• Let’s fast when the Saudi’s do, which is 10pm – 6am our time.
• No. This would indicate solidarity and some sort of compatibility with Christianity.
• No. Christians should only observe Biblical fasts, such as Yom Kippur.

I come down somewhere in the middle, and always with a motivation qualifier.  What is the purpose of the fast, and are you strategic about it?

The Muslims I knew fasted out of duty, abstaining from food and tobacco and caffeine during the day, but partying hard at night.  Then they’d go to bed late and have an even harder time functioning at work the next morning, with no coffee or breakfast to ease the headache, and no cigarette to calm the nerves.  Fasting that way, as a ritual, is not effective.

But if you observe fasting the way the moderate Imams suggest, spending time reading the Scriptures, doing acts of kindness, etc, then it is appropriate to match them, so long as you either engage them in spiritual discussions on the meaning of the Quran, especially the person of Issa (Jesus), assurance of Paradise, and the need for personal peace.

If you are not near any Muslims, then take the time during Ramadan to fast and pray for missionaries that are, and that the work of the gospel not be hindered. 

Fasting for the sake of fasting is empty religion.  Fasting for the purpose of strengthening your prayers for the salvation of the Muslims is however a commendable goal.

 

 

Move the church past its past

One of the challenges in turning around a church is overcoming the community’s “bad feelings” about the church.  Some is that a church is by nature often at odds with the world. But in many cases it’s because of bad choices by previous pastors or members.  These need to be addressed.

Pastor Horst Bittner of Tubingen, Germany noticed a spirit of darkness in the town when he was first posted there to take over the church.  It was everywhere, even in the church.  During a period of prayer, it was revealed to him that Tubingen had a long history of anti-semitism, and many Nazis – even Gestapo – had attended Tubingen University. Some of his church memers were the children and grandchildren of concentration camp guards.  Since ”the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children”,  pastor Bittner led his congregation to repent for the sin of oppression of the Jews.  They repented for their own families, and for their neighbors.  They took prayer walks around the community to fight against the spirits of darkness there.  When they did this, revival broke out.  He is now organizing marches of Germans from the cities out to the concentration camp sites and leading inprayers of repentance.  In some cases, the marches include former prisoners and former guards, and they are able to be reconciled.

Your church’s past is probably less dramatic.  But think of your own history.  Was the church started as a mission or church plant, or was it the remnant that left during a church split to form a new congregation?  In that case, the church should repent of the division.  There are times a division is necessary – the reformation involved disagreements between the established church heirarchy and the new congregations.  But when the honest theological differences give rise to anger and bitterness, the people slip into sin; that sin – however old – needs to be repented from.

Sometimes the issues are more recent.  Did the church allow sin to go unchecked and merely breathed a collective sigh of relief when the person(persons) involved left?  The stain of the sin remains, and should be dealt with.  Is there lingering anger between members?  Get over it and repent. 

This is not the only action needed to turn around a church, but will certainly hinder the restoration.

 

The One Thing to Do to Change Your Church

Everyone wants the secret to keeping their church vibrant and growing.  What one thing to add to their program that will amp up the return on time investment and send visitors crowding into the sanctuary?

Those whose congregations are dwindling will settle for a moment of triage to stop the bleeding, to stabilize the outflow of members and attract fresh members.

For both cases, one simple answer is to stop focusing on yourself.  Packing the pews or gaining a big donor is not the answer.  The answer lies in the geography of Israel.

There are two main lakes large enough to be called seas: Galilee and the Dead Sea.  The first is a vibrant body of water, with vital fishing and irrigation industry.  The second will not support life.  Both have an incoming source.  Only one has an exit.

What keeps Galilee productive is the constant outflow of water.    The outflow is not the result of water coming in; water leaving drops the level of the lake, creating an imbalance, an opening for new water to rush in from upstream to correct for the drop. 

What the church needs is a viable outflow.  Note I said viable.  This is spirit-filled activity that engages the congregation in ministry and evangelism in ways that expend physical, spiritual and financial energy, without having to sever membership ties. 

For some, it is taking on a social cause:  a soup kitchen, a thrift store, an after-school program, a kids’ athletic league.  While good to do, they will generally not achieve a level of spiritual return commensurate with the energy expended.  The Return on Investment isn’t strong enough.

I’d suggest more purely spiritual tasks.  If you want a spiritual – and not jsut social – return, you need a spiritual investment.  The easiest is prayer walking.  Walk through the neighborhood and pray for each household.  Go door to door and offer to pray about needs they might have. (Write the need down, but don’t leave without praying on the spot.)

Missions is also a good approach.  Adopt a missionary or unreached people group and commit to specific, focused prayers for a substantial time (daily for a month, weekly for a year, etc.)  Pray for spiritual victories, for salvation of the people, for protection of the missionary.  Make contact with a missions representative about the region and learn what to pray for, and then be super-specific.

In praying this way, you will model Jesus to them, the way His disciples asked to be taught to pray.  They will grow spiritually.  The congregation will grow in unity of purpose.  The church will develop spiritually mature leaders.  And the drop in available spiritual energy will allow God to refill the reservoir with fresh resources.