I just got back from a three-week vacation, during which time I decided to take a break from blogging too. To any of you who have been following along...sorry for the delay.
Our church-wide process of vision discernment is still underway, and I'm really looking forward to our listening groups. I'll probably blog some more about that in the next few days. Today I just want to say something brief about a book that I read yesterday, Growing and Engaged Church by Albert Winseman. Other than sometimes feeling a bit like an advertisement for Gallup Research (it was published by Gallup Press), it was a very engaging (!) book.
What I have to say about the book, however, is really something that I've been thinking about all throughout this process. I am being reminded that the Great Commission of Jesus is to make disciples. That sounds obvious, and it is. But what I've been seeing more and more clearly is that there is no equation between "make disciples" and "make big churches." They might be related, and often they are. As a church succeeds in helping people who don't follow Jesus become followers of Jesus, there will often naturally be an increase in that church's membership or attendance. But so many churches and church leaders have seen church growth as being nearly equal to making disciples that we have sometimes confused the symptom for the cause.
As we discern more clearly the kind of calling that God has for us at First Lutheran, I know it will remain important for us to make and nurture disciples of Jesus and not necessarily to pursue numerical growth. We will preach the good news of the Kingdom of God and teach the Bible and help people discover their individual giftedness and help them to grow and mature in their relationship with God.
I do hope that God will help us reach more and more people and that more and more people will join in the work to which God calls us, but those results are more symptoms of faithfulness on our part than they are goals in themselves. They are vital signs, not actual congregational or spiritual health. I'd rather pursue health than the signs of it.
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3 comments:
When I enter a church and see waterfalls, fountains, escalators, LED televisions every ten feet, marble floors, and even fancy children's areas it makes me nervous (and no I don't have a specific church in mind). I know that a church may do this because they feel God has called them to be that kind of church and they want to be excellent in all things, but I always wonder if anyone piped up and said, "You know, with the money we'd spend on this...we could have thrown our neighbors a huge party, we could have bought wells for a whole country, we could have stocked our local food pantry and much more, we could have hired someone to write a solid curriculum, we could have made disciples." These churches appear to have it all together and some do, but often they don't. They're playing church. They're like people. Sometimes in our society the people who look the most together are the ones who are falling apart inside. Unless a church building has orange carpet and a leaky roof, why should the building be a top priority as the recipient of millions of dollars? Is there nothing better for these churches to spend their money on? Where does a building fit into "Make Disciples". I think it simply become HARD to truly make disciples when a church is so big the pastor can only be seen on the big screen! People can come in and out without ever being engaged. They don't have anyone to challenge them and say "Hey, Bob, we missed you last week. What has God been telling you recently?" Sure, there are small groups and ways to remedy that if Bob would join one, but it is difficult. Good luck First Lutheran. I think you have a good foundation.
BP, thanks for chiming in. Your post reminded me of two books I've read that might interest you. Both offer well-meaning challenges to Willow Creek's decision to build their awesome new building a few years ago. (Let me be clear that I'm not a Willow basher and have lots of respect for them. Being a leader will always get you criticized by somebody.) Shane Claiborne's book _The Irresistible Revolution_ has some interesting accounts of his time working on staff at Willow and challenging their decision to spend that money on an incredible worship facility. Then, even more recently, I read _Jim and Caspar Go to Church_ by Jim Henderson and Matt Caspar. Caspar is an atheist who visited a number of churches, including Willow, and he was wondering basically the same thing.
What this makes me ask is, "If chuches spend TONS of money to build buildings that will make the unchurched feel welcome and comfortable and thus ultimately, I assume, help reach them with the gospel, might that purpose not be better accomplished by investing those huge sums of money in something that's really an effective witness, e.g. radical care for the poor.
Sounds good. I'll pick it up at the library...with a 12 hour plane ride ahead of me I might actually read a book! Maybe two! :-O
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