THE COMFORTABLE CHURCH
OR THE
The local church is a busy hub of ministry activity--from worship and Sunday School to missions projects and committee meetings. With so many activities and people going in countless directions, a church easily can get out of balance. Some programs may assume more prominence than necessary, while other important ones die on the vine for lack of support. Staff member may experience the frustration of working harder and harder, yet feel they are accomplishing less and less.
Keeping the church
balanced means keeping priorities in line and allocating scarce resources
accordingly. The following diagram portrays four ministry areas that must be
balanced:
|
Outreach |
4 |
3 |
|
Inreach |
1 |
2 |
|
|
Fellowship |
Equipping |
BALANCED vs. UNBALANCED CHURCHES
Spiritually healthy churches balance inreach with outreach and fellowship with equipping. As a result, the four categories--or arenas--of ministry activity are organized and adequately supported with resources (budget funding, staffing time commitments, etc.).
For churches to simply allocate exactly a quarter of resources to each of the four ministry arenas is unrealistic; nonetheless, a serious commitment should be given to all four; bodybuilding, discipling and training, evangelism, and visitation. With such commitment, none of the arenas is allowed to grow disproportionately large or small. As a result, the four "boxes" on the matrix diagram remain roughly equivalent in size.
This is not the
case in unbalanced churches, where one or two of the ministry arenas
"overshadow" the others and use up more than their fair share of
resources. Let’s look at the two most common types, or patterns, of
unbalanced churches:
|
|
4 |
3 |
|
|
1 |
2 |
|
|
|
|
The ingrown church
(Type I) goes overboard on bodybuilding programs design to serve existing
members, such as Bible study and fellowship activities, but finds little time,
energy, or resources for outreach activities. Evangelism and visitation become
anemic, causing the church to appear unfriendly or aloof to outsiders.
|
|
4 |
3 |
|
|
1 |
2 |
The disorganized church (Type II) suffers the opposite fate, due to imbalance among the four ministry arenas. Members are so busy with outreach activities that they cannot devote adequate attention to administration and training. Typically, due to poor planning and behind-the-scenes coordination, worship and Sunday School in the disorganized church resemble the proverbial Chinese fire drill. Visitors likely will hesitate to return until the church "gets its act together."
THE COMFORTABLE CHURCH
Achieving reasonable balance among body life, visitation, equipping, and evangelism is challenging work. Church leaders must wrestle constantly to define priorities, decide on budget trade-offs, prod members into action, and recruit volunteers. They grow weary trying to achieve a comfortable balance and search for a comfortable solution, which is precisely when situations get out of balance.
The comfortable church that grows weary of maintaining a balance between inreach and outreach and between fellowship and equipping has the following characteristics:
Comfortable churches naturally gravitate more toward inreach than outreach because members already know one another and are comfortable in their relationships. They increasingly find more and more activities to do together (fellowship functions, recreation, and meals at church), thus leaving less time available for reaching out to others (visitors, neighbors, and work associates).
Comfortable churches tend to hire many staff members to do the work of the church rather than relying on lay volunteers. How can I help the church?" soon becomes replaced by "Let the staff do it."
Comfortable churches also leave missions activities--both foreign and home--to paid "professional" missionaries coordinated at denominational headquarters. This passive approach proves a more comfortable arrangement than the active "hands-on" involvement of members themselves.
THE GREAT COMMISSION CHUIRCH
Churches that maintain a conscious commitment to evangelism and discipling do not leave outreach and equipping to chance. They consciously build Great Commission activities help build outreach and discipling and equipping become part of fellowshipping.
Worship. Worship services periodically can focus on how God is at work among church members. News updates from home and foreign missionaries can be announced. Members who are personally involved in evangelism and discipling activities can give testimonials.
Sunday School. Classes can "adopt" specific missionaries by praying for, writing to, and hosting them when they visit the church on furlough. Special Sunday School classes occasionally can be offered to teach members how to share their faith with visitors, Class members also can become a vital part of home missions by being pen pals to people who become Christians while in prison.
Missions. The congregation can participate once or twice a year in missions projects, such as on-site construction, non-budgeted missions fund-raisers, evangelistic film presentations and Bible distributions. Members who invest "sweat equity" in home missions projects are more likely to invest financially and prayerfully in foreign missions at the denominational level.
Fellowship. The great Commission easily can become part of fellowship events in the local church. Members of a local or regional children’s home can be invited to youth-group recreational activities. Desserts can be taken to nursing homes during church potluck dinners. An hour or two can be spent on church workdays doing yard work and conducting fix-up projects for needy people in the neighborhood.
BECOMING COMFORTABLE WITH THE GREAT COMMISSION
Once outreach and equipping activities become a natural part of the church’s life-style, members will become increasingly comfortable with the Great Commission. It can even be fun! Outreach breaks up the sense of routing that so easily can invade a church. Equipping and discipling activities are the ideal way to make members feel more spiritually powerful and useful.
The Great Commission is God’s plan for revitalizing congregational life and for revitalizing congregational life and for recharging our spiritual batteries. The holistic, balanced church is ultimately a spiritually healthy and growing church. once members experience the excitement and satisfaction of outreach and discipling, they never again will settle for comfortable complacency.