Thursday, February 22, 2007
Building The Church
making disciples must be the first priority -- it is more important than worship, education, fellowship or denominational principles....not talking about increase in number of members...but making disciples out of those who were previously not Christians.AMEN TO THAT! Then she makes a few points in support of that
- Too many churches are designed and structured to remain small and ineffective. We think too small.
- Too often peace is a higher value than mission, or anything else.
- Most pastors don't know how to effect transformation because they've never been trained to do it.
- Fellowship and shepherding must be programmed because making friends is far more important than being friendly.
- Congregations that are declining will not change until they become focused outward.
- If a church wants to grow it must staff and behave as if it were larger than it is.
I feel like I am missing something. Why does "small" equate to "ineffective"? If the goal is to make disciples, not increase numbers, why would size be mandatory for effectiveness? Secondly, why so much staff? If the model is disciple building, why not build slowly through making disciples that make disciples?
There is a serious fault in the model as it appears to be presented here. It seems like as we advance in discipleship, we advance onto staffing. If we do the job well, won't we eventually run out of people to fill the pews, and thus the collection plate?
I agree with the goals as stated here, but when it comes to the how's it strikes me we are trying to serve two masters. We are trying to feed the institutional beast while doing the "real" ministry. I continue to be bothered by this. The institution is tool, not product. Size frankly shouldn't matter. There was nothing big about the first century church and yet it changed the world. Size can and may happen, but I do not see where it is necessary for effectiveness.
Christ said:
Matt 6:24a - No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other.There is but a single product the church is there to make and that is disciples. The only tool that is necessary to do so is one other disciple. Everything else is periphery.
Related Tags: discipleship, church growth, size, effectiveness
