OUTSIDE
What if we approached ministry outside of the modern American Consumer Church mindset? What would we do different?
Our focus would not be on making good church members.
The qualifications of a good church member are faithful event attendance and financial input to maintain the staff and facility. The qualifications of a Christian are to be born again and live, everyday, a life that follows the principles of Christ. The bottom line is you can be a good church member and not even be a Christian because the qualifications are not the same.
We should focus on helping people see the significance of Christ in their everyday life. Let me give you an analogy.
Let’s say your child develops crooked teeth. There are a couple of different methods of correcting this problem, the event method and the process method.
The event method is to take the child, have him smile real big and hit him in the mouth with a 2 x 4 or other heavy object. There will definitely be a rearranging of teeth, but the risk is high that the teeth will not reattach straight.
The process method is called braces. It’s a slow process of small changes that affect the teeth everyday until they are straight. The results are intentional, effective and measurable. Braces are still painful and the process can be long and frustrating and many times requires a life long retainer to help maintain the change, but it works!
We would see the church as a spiritual entity not as a possibly lucrative business proposition.
I’m often asked, “Whose church do you go to?”
Of course they want to know what congregation or local assembly I attend, but they see the church as a business and the pastor as the CEO and/or owner of the church, which has no Biblical basis. So, where, if not from the Bible, does this concept come from? It comes from the consumer culture around us and our own misconceptions about Biblical government.
Another danger of seeing the church as a financial opportunity is that pastors and leaders can easily begin to see the church as a herd instead of a flock. It’s easy for the pastors and leaders of churches to shift into the mode of cattle baron, which is completely contrary to Christ’s nature, instead of thinking as a shepherd.
The pastor is not the king of the church, he is an over seer of God’s kingdom. Truthfully he is more like the royal gardener who is advised not to see the lucrative possibilities of the kingdom for himself or to lord over the people of God, but to care for the kingdom like a garden and treat the individuals with the care of a shepherd for his sheep. (See 1 Peter 5.)
We would recognize the church as a Body of individuals that each has an equally significant place in ministering to the world around them.
A shepherd is never concerned that one of his sheep is going to take over his position, it’s not possible. Not anymore than a flower displacing a gardener.
We would see the church as a group of diverse individuals and teach them at their depth level instead of according to their age bracket.
Discipleship is not nor can it be an age appropriated process. In other words, there are twelve year old children that have the mental and spiritual capacity to understand deep theological concepts as well or better than adults and we have some 40 year old men and women that need a simple style of discipleship that they can grasp.
