A Vision for the Church

            In recent days and decades many churches have clamored for warm bodies to fill pews and fill the church coffers by “buying” into the “Consumer Mentality of Church,” but at what cost.

            Large Churches (the term mega-church is relative) have the means, resources and manpower many times over to create a program driven church, meeting every age group's wants and desires.  Books have been written by convention leaders expounding on the greatness of these programs in bringing in and bringing up numbers.  Leaders create research groups and sales teams to study and package what large churches are doing and then sell the concepts to smaller churches who seem to be plateauing or declining.  “If you will just do this, then God will bless you and everything will be okay.”

            But, not everything is okay. When you look deeper into the issue, are we meeting the people’s needs or are we meeting the people’s wants?  What people need isn’t always what they want.

            The Church since its inception at Pentecost thrived and grew without a “40 days to a better you” or “12 steps to a deeper meaning of life” program.  It simply did church, simply.  The Preaching of the Word was paramount, Discipleship was all consuming and Evangelism was a part of every ones daily activity.  It was not enough to do church, it was everything to be the Church.  This isn't to say everyone matured into "super-Christians,"  always growing and always obedient to the Word, all Believers in all times have struggled with complacency and the dangers of compromise.  

            The Church has been given a Great Commandment, to love God and to Love your neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40) and a Great Commission, to worship Jesus and as we are living life in this world we are to make disciples, baptize them in the name of the Holy Trinity and to teach them all that we have been commanded (Matthew 28: 16-20).  This is what God has commanded, if we do not do these things we have no right as a church to exist.  To ignore this is to be disobedient to our God and partial obedience is still disobedience.

            Church has become far too complicated and we have lost our Love for Christ and our love for one another.  We have segregated ourselves from one another in the common time of worship by creating artificial divisions within our church by creating programs that separate us from one another.  A Professor of mine in Seminary once explained the tragedy of breaking up our Worship of God by segregating our Youth from our adults.  The Youth bring fire with their enthusiasm and boldness. Our Maturing believers in Age bring stability and groundedness in faith.  One without the other brings tragedy to the Body of Christ.  Without the Stability of faith of the older congregation our Youth will burn out quickly and leave.  Without the fire of the youth the older will simply smolder out and grow cold.  We need both to thrive as a body of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.    

 

            I believe a vision for the Church is one where the body on the Lord’s Day celebrates together in common worship.  Sunday Mornings the Children remain with their parents until the last special song is sung, then they are released to Children’ Church.  The Children will learn reverence for a Holy God and how to Worship Him in the presence of God’s People.  The Youth should be involved where ever possible within the Worship service to assure them the Church is as much theirs as anyone else’s.  Sunday evening Worship, is to be family time; parents with their children and youth and Mentors alongside the Mentored, a Common body in Worship together.  Sunday is to be a day of Family Worship and rest. 

            Wednesday Night services would be open for Children and Youth Bible studies.  Adults not serving the children or youth will be in prayer and preaching service.

            I believe that people can be saved and make commitments to the Lord regarding Baptism and Church Membership just as much on Sunday and Wednesday evening as Sunday Morning.   I have an invitation to respond to God’s Message at all three services.

            I believe every Church Member should have one Primary Ministry that their greatest efforts are poured into because they know this is what God has assigned for them.  They should have a Secondary Ministry in which they step into and/or assist someone else’s Primary Ministry when needed and a Third Ministry could be to help set up, take down or clean up with others when needed.   Statistically 20% of the people in Church are doing 80% of the work done in the Church.  I believe this is being far too generous and more than likely it is closer to a 10% of people to a 90% work ratio in many Churches.  This often leads to burn out and members quitting all their ministries and fading away right out the back door of the Church in frustration.  We must ask ourselves is it better to do a few things well and for the glory of God or do a whole lot and accomplish little. What is more valuable in the economy of God? 

I believe in these Last Days we need more Worship, more Fellowship, and more Church.