Growing Church Congregations

 

I just mentioned in my previous post that I attend worship services of a church that's attempting to figure out how to "grow."

 

They are looking for input.

 

I have a lot of thoughts, but I'm not sure which ones they'll think are "helpful."

 

  • Look around. We have more "churches" in this U.S. towns than restaurants. Is there a reason we're not all on the same page? How hard would it be to remove barriers to being ONE community "church?" Too hard? Then we aren't loving as Jesus loved.
  • It's OK if the idea of Sunday "worship services" dies.
  • It's OK if the idea of formal congregations/members/structure dies.
  • As I've said in other posts, unless we have purposes outside of a "worship service" a church is nothing more than either a(n)
    • social club
    • mini-Jesus-concert
    • Christ-centered TED talk
    • attempt to manipulate a feeling of spiritual well-being
                or
    •  business that "works" something akin to a Multi-level marketing, pyramid-scheme.
  • It's OK to keep going with the gatherings as they are, if you are HONEST about the fact that they fit one or more of the above definitions.
  • Jesus called people to go and love. Churches seem to think that means "go and get."
  • There was a time when churches were the center of a community and therefore just an extension of the community. Now they seem to serve as a location in which an unnatural, ethnocentric, exclusionary, and comfortable bubble of a family/community is maintained.  This is damaging to the mission of Jesus.
  • "Church" should seek to be relevant to its community. Sadly, the most they often accomplish is being contemporary to community styling - presenting a "relatable" Ted-talk/Jesus show.

 

I have already said a few times, a "Worship Service is the least meaningful thing we do for Jesus."

I hope to convince them further; that maybe we could begin to drop the "worship" from our service.

(I have heard of churches that, especially during summer months, skip at least one Sunday gathering a month and tell there congregants to go do something in their community. I could see some church groups in our area easily just setting up free food at local parks.)


A church that seeks to serve its community; to love by any means the community needs - this is the heaven Jesus preached. If we can do that without expecting to "gain members," we may get somewhere. If we can serve without passing a donation plate, we can escape the MLM schema. If we can love, without planning to preach, we can be the Jesus we were called to be.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Turn the Other Cheek

Today we were asked to "remember the tragic events of September 11th, 2001."   Every year I am reminded that the REACTION to this event was part of a turning point for me.  I had, like a "good Evangelical Christian," voted for George Bush. I was raised to believe that Christians should vote Republicans because Republicans would behave like Christians. Then I heard Mr. Bush say we would "get them." My first thought was, "Wait. Did Jesus teach retribution and revenge?" I heard many of my fellow church family saying it was important to fight back against the "evil Muslim extremists." I penned and sent an open letter to George Bush, begging he reconsider lashing out at whoever we deemed was the obvious aggressor.  In our own wisdom, we automatically assume that retaliation is best, for it shows strength. Retaliation shows more than strength. Retaliation shows that we our proud of our values. Retaliation proclaims that these values are
Read more

psst. God Didn't Say "Sin"

When God found Adam and Eve after eating the fruit... Did He say anything about sin? Did He say anything about hell? Did He say anything about needing to offer sacrifices as penance? Did He establish any system for "corrective action?" Nope. He just made sure to remove them from the garden before they ate from the tree of eternal life and lived forever in shame. Sin and punishment are not God's idea. They are man's.
Read more

The Business of Church

If the title of this post didn't make you cringe, read on. If it made you cringe a bit, you can probably stop reading now. We likely already feel the same way. In my recent post , I lamented about "the Mission" of the church. In that post I was primarily concerned with the focus many churches seem to have of growing their membership. Let's also think a minute about the role of a church "service." Why do we meet for "worship services?" It is this focus that causes "church splits" and why those outside organized religion often shake their heads.  Churches spend time tweaking, debating, and lamenting changes to make "the best worship experience." I would ask that church organizations pause and ask, "What is the purpose of a church worship service?" If your purpose is to entertain or "invite everyone to experience God," then, by all means, keep tweaking and debating.  If your goal is to create a weekly experience
Read more