I recognize that many well-intentioned religion club leaders will read my criticisms of the club system and say, "Well, but our group is not like that." To them, I say, you may be right. Here is some anti-traditional advice that you might consider. Every suggestion is designed to unwind some bad habit or negative result commonly found in the average religion club. If you find you can recognize the value here and seriously consider these things, perhaps you are not "like everyone else". But the rubber meets the road at actually doing some of these things.
Leaders! Go ye therefore and...
Attend various other local churches’ activities and services, including Sunday morning services. Do this at least twice a month. This especially applies to those who are called to be shepherds of God’s people. The elders lead by example, either modeling unity or division. Leadership is never neutral.
Find and invite gifted people from other local groups to lead or teach in your activities and services at least twice a month. If you do not know very many such people, it is a sign that you have become isolated from the rest of the Body.
When you hear that another church is doing a ministry in the community similar to what God has called you into, go to them and ask to be a part of that work. Do not go back and recreate that ministry in your own building.
Establish personal, accountable relationships between individual shepherds and individual sheep. People are never shepherded by organizations, but by individuals to whom God has joined them.
Release less-mature people to minister, in tandem with more-proven believers. Place weight on more mature Christians to pray for and mentor them as they minister.
Elders: Develop relationships with other church leaders. Call them and ask if your group can come to their services. Dismiss your own Sunday morning services at least four times a year and meet with other groups en masse. Do this strictly for the purpose of fellowship. Bring them a large offering.
Open your homes at least once a week and share a meal with someone. If you don’t have time for this, cancel a church activity and free up the time. Elders must be “given to hospitality”, so on them this requirement is even greater.
In lieu of organizing a “visitor visitation” program, invite strangers to your home for lunch after church every Sunday.
Mark out special parking places for the church leaders… farthest from the building.
Take the church building budget. Pay a contractor to repair widows’ houses and fix the church building yourself with what’s left.
Give to and serve in community projects. Insist that your church’s name not appear on the credits.
Schedule church activities at different times than everyone else does. If everyone else has Wednesday night services, meet on Thursday. In this way you will add to, and not compete with, what God is doing elsewhere, and you will create opportunity for fellowship.
Team children with adults to minister to the needs of others, even adults. Children move into intercession easily when encouraged to do so.
Have parents minister to children rather than trying to “take this burden off them”. (In that tradition lie the seeds of the destruction of spiritual inheritance.)
If you are doing any of the following, STOP. If you are not doing it, do not start:
Taking attendance or counting heads. A true shepherd cannot depend on Sunday morning meetings to look after the sheep. And one who counts sheep is not a shepherd, but a herdsman.
Asking people to “place membership” with your group. If they are born again, they are members of the body of Christ. If “membership” requires more than Jesus required, it is not Jesus’ church they are joining.
Making attendance at your services a requirement for any other part of the spiritual relationship. Accountable relationships and ministry joints are the important things.
Making church programs out of God’s callings. If a person is called to make bread for the needy, buy him flour instead of starting a First Church Bakery Ministry. If a person is called to minister to the sick, pray, support and encourage him. Do not make him the Chairman of the Hospital Visitation Committee.
Making ministries that require you to find people to fill slots. This leads immature people to follow the slots rather than the Lord.
What think ye?
2 comments:
Charles,
Are you reading Reggie McNeal's "The Present Future"? He addresses much of what you wrote, in the context of 6 trends that will impact the church in the future. Those into organizational and membership services stuff will be left behind, as these trends unfold.
I'll have to check that out.
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