The Wrong Question?

Today I post the Pastor’s Letter I wrote this morning that will go out in tomorrow’s church newsletter for Knox Presbyterian Church. HT to two different sources of inspiration for today’s post go to Makeesha for the brilliant list of questions and to Carol for her insightful post this morning.

Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of reading and studying, some of it with fellow pastors, looking at our churches and asking the question, “How do churches today, in our society grow?”

Looking at statistics the “Church” in the US has not grown percentage wise in more than 100 years! Today, churches that think they can just implement a program, or change the way they do worship, or even attract the ‘right’ pastor are simply being pushed to the margins.

So how do churches grow? Do you want to know what I think the best and surprising answer to that question? Churches grow by not being concerned about their own growth.

You see, if a church is only concerned with its own growth, then the church is asking the wrong questions. Instead, the types of questions that churches should be asking are:

• How are you touching lives of others outside the church?

• How are you doing as a church in showing people the tangible love of Jesus?

• How often as a church have you seen Jesus in the poor, marginalized, confused, hurting, sick, and dying?

• Is your church being hospitable, generous and kind, to those in the community who do not attend?

• How have you invested in your neighborhood recently?

If you look carefully at those five questions you will notice a basic orientation difference in them. The questions are not focused inward on the church as an institution instead they are focused outward on the world and community around it.

The real question the church needs to ask is not “What can we do to attract more members?” Instead it should ask, “How is God calling us to be engaged and involved in the world, both locally and globally, around us?”

God is on a mission. Tim Dearborn has said “The Church of God does not have a mission in the world. The God of mission has a Church in the world.” Mission is not a program or a committee of the church. It is its essence and its calling.

It’s my hope that God will renew our eyes, hearts, and spirits so that we can start asking the right questions; questions that will ultimately lead us out into the world to join Christ in his mission of love and reconciliation throughout the world.