Ministry

rethinking church

kevinhaglund Leave a comment

Countless articles, books and papers have been written on the subject of “rethinking church.” In fact, when I typed those very words into Google, I got 3,520,000 results! Well, make that 3,520,001, because I’m about to add my 2 cents!

I guess you could say that rethinking church has been kind of a hobby of mine for the past 4 years or so. For starters, let me summarize the typical approach of churches for the past hundred or more years regardless of denomination, worship style or translation preference…

Get “those people out there” (lost, sinners, pagans, etc.) in “here” (to the church building) where hopefully they will hear the Gospel, give their lives to Christ and become faithful church members. How churches get the people into their facility differs greatly, but most churches try to lure people to their building with some sort of program–VBS, Awana, a concert, special speaker, revival services, contemporary (or traditional) worship services, fill in the blank. Its church members become the ambassadors for the church’s programs or services and are encouraged to invite people to events and services at the church.

This is not a bad approach and it has worked remarkably well for decades. The problem is that this is not what the church was designed for. It just happened to work because we lived in a culture that predominantly held to a Christian world view. As we all know, that is not the case anymore. It is no wonder that church attendance is rapidly declining and conversions often measured by number of baptisms is also declining.

You’re probably wondering, “So, what was the church designed for?” I’m glad you asked! First, it is important to understand that the Great Commission was not given to the Church. It was given to individual followers of Christ. The Church was designed to be a place of gathering for followers of Christ for teaching, training, encouragement and community as believers pursued carrying out the Great Commission where they live, work and play.

There is much talk about the “missional church” and “getting outside the walls of the church.” I applaud these efforts because at least it is a little bit of progress away from the mindset so many churches have that says “they know where to find us.” However, I would contend that churches aren’t missional–people are. A church that creates ministry opportunities for its members–even if it is outside of the church–can still miss the point. If churches are not equipping believers to live a missional lifestyle–living as a missionary where they live, work and play–it’s just another program. And it is likely that our programs extract people out of their own context and the ministry God wants them to have.

Now, I am in favor of churches that design externally focused ministries as long as it is with the goal of exposing and training its people to a missional lifestyle. I also believe that a local church should also band together to serve its community–feeding the poor, doing acts of service, etc., but it should always be done in the name of Jesus and not the name of a particular church (another subject entirely!).

The problem is that we have gauged the success of the church with bodies and bucks. So, if that is your measurement, the more bodies in the building and the more bucks in the collection plate, the better your church is doing. And, admittedly, the “attractional” approach is much more successful at supporting that type of bottom line. However, it fails abysmally at making disciples.

The slow, steady way of making disciples is the way of Jesus–He lived His life in deep community with 12 men who spread the Gospel to the entire world. Isn’t it mind boggling to think that you could actually trace the spread of the Gospel that penetrated your heart back to one of the 12 disciples? It is slow and steady, but could you imagine if every follower of Christ took seriously the Great Commission to make disciples where they live, work and play? The Gospel would spread virally around the world which is exactly what happened in the early church.

Until the Church shifts its focus from running programs to building missionaries, we will continue to see rapid decline. That’s why I think it’s time we rethink church.

tradition!

kevinhaglund Leave a comment

My wife and I love to watch musicals! Whether it’s an old, black & white Judy Garland flick or a newer movie with great music like Disney’s “Enchanted,” we really enjoy a good musical.

In the musical “Fiddler on the Roof,” the main character Tevye, the father of five daughters, attempts to maintain his family and Jewish religious traditions while outside influences encroach upon their lives. At the beginning of the movie even before the opening credits, he introduces a song aptly called “Tradition” (watch the song from the movie on YouTube here). The song recounts some of the things that define their roles within the family and society. Tevye humorously admits that he doesn’t have a clue how some of these traditions got started, but they are so important to their way of life!

This morning, I was reading Matthew 15, and this song came to mind. The Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus and asked him, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?” His disciples were not performing a special ceremonial washing of their hands before they ate. In their culture, it was believed that if you didn’t perform this ceremonial washing, you would defile yourself. Jesus turned the question back to the Pharisees, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?” The Pharisees were advocating a practice that what might have been used to help their father or mother is “devoted to God” and that they were not to “honor their father or mother” with it.

We do the same thing in the church today. Instead of following Jesus’ command to go into the world and make disciples, instead, we live a safe, middle-class life and attend church every time the doors are open–and they are open a lot especially where I live! And the church has essentially communicated that faithfulness to God equals church attendance. I really don’t know who started Sunday School, Sunday evening worship services or midweek prayer meetings. But I do know that for way too many Christians, it is TRADITION. And you don’t mess with tradition!

People here in southeast Kentucky are shocked when I tell that this is the first church I’ve served in over 12 years that still has Sunday night and Wednesday night programming. Now, please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that having Sunday night and Wednesday night programming is unspiritual or that those churches without Sunday night and Wednesday night programming are more spiritual. What I am saying is that gauging our spirituality by church attendance is WRONG!

My personal bias is that every Christian should have 1 corporate worship experience and 1 small group experience each week. This is not in any way to lower our commitment to God. Instead, it is to raise it! When we’re not in a corporate worship experience or in a small group Bible study, we are missionaries seeking to carry the Gospel with us into every nook and cranny of the surrounding culture.

But that is not what we have in the church today. We have people who consume religious goods and services like Doritos at a Superbowl party and then live like God doesn’t exist the rest of the time. It’s not necessarily that Christians live like the devil the rest of the time (although there are some who do). They simply don’t give God or His mission a thought throughout the week. Consequently, our churches are full of people who are having no greater impact for the Kingdom of God than before their “conversion.”

When this type of consumerism is allowed to continue unconfronted in the church, you get disunity because people are coming for what they can get from the church. This seems to work great as long as you are providing a “product or service” that people want or enjoy, but if you make a consumer mad–watch out! Paul warns Timothy that this would happen in 2 Timothy 4:3 “…the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions…”

I have a few questions for the church (my church) : “Why do we break the command of God–the Great Commission–for the sake of our tradition (programming)? Why must we run ourselves ragged filling all these man-made, traditional time slots with programs for every age group while we fail to live our lives as missionaries where God has planted us? Why do we continue to lift up as “faithful” those who attend church every time the doors are open but have little to no impact for the Kingdom of God? When will we understand that there is no such thing as a missional church and that only people can be missional? When will we spend more of our time, energy and resources equipping our people to live as missionaries and less trying to attract people to our building for programs, events or services?