Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Who Do We Serve?
About a month ago Monday Morning Insight published a list of questions that "growing" churches should ask:
I wonder if it has dawned on all the church growth consultants and people like that that when we cater to the community to draw them in, we cater to the fallen, to the sinful, to the broken. It seems to me that if we take our theology seriously, that if we believe in original sin as we say we do, we understand that we should appeal tot he higher, not the lower.
It's an oft-quoted, almost to the point of triteness, scripture, but I think Joshua said it best:
- Is your ministry strategy creating a ?buzz? in your community?
- Do volunteers ?own? the ministry of our church?
- Do we exceed the expectations of our first-time guests?
- Are people having fun?
- Do people accept change as normal?
- Are we addressing the REAL issues of REAL life?
- Are we building a church of ?leaders??
Is anybody besides me just a bit horrified by this list of questions? Particularly that they are asked without context of any sort other than "growing church." These questions beg the question, "What precisely are we building?" These are the same kinds of questions one would ask if one was building a community center of some sort. Where are the questions like:
- Are people encountering Christ and His Spirit when they come to our church?
- Are we leading people to deeper levels of discipleship?
- Is the love of Christ evident in all we do?
- Do the people that come to this church experience the transformative power of the Holy Spirit?
- Are we a beacon of Christ in the community?
I could keep going, but I'll spare you. The questions asked and the questions I propose come from two very different perspectives that can be summed up in one simple question: Who does the church serve?
With all the talk of attracting people to the church, I wonder if this very fundamental question gets asked, do we serve the public or do we serve the Lord? Consider:
Luke 11:23 - "He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters."In this passage, Christ challenges us that we must overtly and decidely pursue His causes and His ways, and if we do not, if we serve the church memebership and not the Lord, we are, by Christ's definition "against Him."
I wonder if it has dawned on all the church growth consultants and people like that that when we cater to the community to draw them in, we cater to the fallen, to the sinful, to the broken. It seems to me that if we take our theology seriously, that if we believe in original sin as we say we do, we understand that we should appeal tot he higher, not the lower.
It's an oft-quoted, almost to the point of triteness, scripture, but I think Joshua said it best:
Josh 24:15 - "And if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."Related Tags: Lord, service, church, building, questions
