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.