Practicals of Change: An Exercise in Honesty

In my last post, I shared three keys to creating positive change in your church. Over the next several posts, I want to address practical steps, starting with the first key: Focus on the right thing.

The call of Christ is to build the Kingdom by making disciples, not to fill a church building.  It should go without saying that those are not the same thing.  However, as churches, our focus is usually on the ABC’s- attendance, building, and cash. That may get people in the building, but that does not lead to the Big D: discipleship.

What we measure and where we spend our time indicates what is important to us. For example, when someone looks at your bulletin or newsletter, what is being communicated as important? Weekly attendance numbers? Programs? Cash receipts?

Looking beyond what we measure, to what extent is church attendance viewed as the primary expression of the Christian life? While worship is essential to discipleship, worshipping at a church building should not represent the vast majority of one’s faith expression. Yet, so much of what we do as churches encourages that. Just consider the vast resources dedicated to running the building. We pay for worship supplies, lighting, sound equipment, videos, grounds maintenance, and so on. We spend countless hours planning Sunday morning services.  We recruit greeters, ushers, Sunday School teachers, altar guilds, sound techs, and camera operators.

If we are honest, our philosophy of ministry looks more like Old Testament, building-centric temple worship then the radical Kingdom expansion seen in Acts.

There is nothing wrong with wanting excellence in worship.  God is certainly worthy of that, but Micah 6:6-8 communicates that the desire of God’s heart is far more than our cozy Sunday worship in our comfortable, well-maintained buildings. Micah speaks of worship, but then says:

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
    and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
    and to walk humbly with your God?

So, how can you begin to shift resources in such a way that it will reflect a more holistic view of discipleship within your church, a view that does promote intimate worship but also community and mission? While we may have our hearts set on the right things, much of what we do and say can communicate something quite different. Here is an exercise in honesty for you:

Make a list of all the ways in which your church is communicating the value of attendance, building, and cash. Then, make a list of all the ways your church is communicating the value of discipleship. What can you eliminate from the former? What can you add to the latter? What can you shift from one list to the other? Some things may teeter between the two lists. How can you weight them towards a clear discipleship bias?

Making this kind of list can lead to some overwhelming conclusions.  The next key is to start small, and we will address this in the next post.