The Useful Church.
When people look at your church on the corner what do they think of it? What has your church done for its neighborhood? Throughout history people have had many opinions about what church is about. Here are a few: irrelevant, disconnected, out for the cash(how else did they build those amazing buildings), caring, loving, concerned with outward appearances, etc.
As I read about Jesus and the early church I see a group of people who took care of the widows, orphans, feeding the poor, etc. These days the church has let the government do it’s job. We are more concerned about paying staff, bills, and making a name for our church with the big shots in our denominations.
When was the last time your church sponsored an event in the community that had nothing to do with “Jesus”, with no other motivation except to connect and help the community. When did the church give money away to another church in your town that was struggling. If you have every experienced a disaster in your area was the church prepared to house and feed people. What better place to gather than in God’s house during a time of uncertainty. Why not have your church sponsor a sports team in your community and have church people serve those athletes with no strings attached.
I believe when people see the church being useful for a change they will want to begin to have a conversation with people from your church in the locker room, street, PTA, about why you are doing what you are doing. You will have a chance to build that relationship and be a light in their lives.
1 comment:
I agree, especially with your closing statement. There are several factors that have removed the church from it's active participation within its own community and caused her to lose her purpose.
One of these I believe is the influence of the business paradigm on church leadership. Words such as cost-effective, functional, statistics, are replacing mercy, grace and servitude. Along with this increasing acceptance of the business paradigm is it's focus on finances. The tension between with being a good steward and pursuing the bottom line has been lost and the pendulum has swung in the wrong direction.
Secondly, there seems to be an influx of specialized ministries (everything from music to evangelism to exorcisms.) As the church sends out it's members, (or they just leave) to work within these specialized ministries, the body loses a bit of it's potential each time. How can the church have great fellowship, when all those gifted with fellowship and evangelism have been recruited by a plethora of specialized ministries?
The church unequivocally needs to become more involved in local ministry. In fact I wonder if the local mission has become secondary to "missions"? Outside of Matthew 28:20, there is a greater scriptural call to minister within our own setting than there is to go to Africa.
Until the church stops seeking its purpose it will continue to make it far more complicated than it needs to be.
Post a Comment