Asking The Wrong Question

As I pray and search for creative ways to infuse vision into the church, I've done a lot of research on the question, "what is the church?"

I think that is a good question.

If you go on youtube or blogs or any social network you can find quite a bit of different views to the question, what is the church? Everything from: street interviews with public opinion, pastors explanation, creative animations of explanation and so on.
There are a lot of thoughts around this topic.  Rightfully so, I mean both sides of the issue have plenty of scripture to back up their views, so much so, that it can quickly become a debate.

And that's where a good question quickly becomes bad.

It's bad to create division, strife, debate over what the church is, who the church is for, what the church should look like, and who it's not for.  (like I said, a lot of views out there)
Perhaps we have these strong feelings about church because on one side non-believers (as well as some believers) have a very negative view of the church.  Then on the other side there are very strong and positive views  of the church.  Thus the debate.
See if you ask most people, "what is the church?' They will respond correctly, "it's the people who follow Christ."  True?  Then if you point at a building and ask, "what is that?" They will answer, "a church."
Very confusing eh?  The church is the people not the building, yet we meet in a building and call it a church.  Back and forth we go! (sorry, forgive me for being factitious....but I think you see what I'm getting at.)  Which by the way let me add.  I believe Christians should  faithfully gather together in large venues as the church in a church. ;)

So, here is my thought.  Maybe we have all these different feelings about the church because we've spent so much time asking the wrong question.  Perhaps instead of asking "what is the church?" we should ask "what is our life about?"

Did you get that?   As believers (who are the church) when we come together in a church (place where we gather) we should ask the question, "what are our lives all about?
The answer?

Life is about God and His Kingdom.

If we truly understood that concept then we lose the tags of a church being seeker sensitive, traditional, transformational, emergent, modern, and countless others.  We would not argue about the programs, strategies, and order of service line up.  We would not leave the church because of personal preference dislikes or offense and hurt.  Instead we'd exercise the very things that makes us a church without spot or wrinkle, things like unity, love, long-suffering, patience, kindness, perseverance and so on.

When I read what Christ says the Kingdom of God is like, then I see what God is like.  When I pay attention to what God is like, I learn what He likes.
The church is us and in that we tend to bring a very US mindset in how we think it should be done.  But if we live with a mindset that we are about His Kingdom then church will be different because we will be different.

It's not about asking "what is the church?" It's about asking "what is His Kingdom all about?"

Hunting for Easter Answers

We had a great Easter today with friends and family.

I'd like to ask some questions and hear your thoughts. Your participation is greatly appreciated.
If you would at the beginning of your comment put your "church" status.

Disconnected--(use to go, rarely attend anymore)
Casual--(attend less than 10 times a year)
Attender--(attend 2 or more times a month)
Worker--(part of the ministry)
Staff--(receive a paycheck from the church)

Before I dive in with the questions, please know that I am not being rude of facetious.
I'm a "Gen X'er" right down to my very last bone, which means I have a very low tolerance for bull. I like the facts and I like the truth.
I love to take those facts and truths and create structures and methods for making ministry, churches, people and programs shine.
Below, I'll right the question, then under it give you a few of my thoughts on what causes me to ask it to begin with.

Thanks ahead of time for your feedback.

Questions
1. Are "the lost" (or disconnected) attending church on the two big holidays like they used too? If not, why is that?
Easter is one of those holidays that is typically a time people "show up" for church. The church I attend did have an increase of attendance, but no where near what I thought.

2. Was your Easter service different in anyway from a normal service? Should it be? If so, why?
If people who do not attend church show up on Easter, why do they not return next week? What are we doing to scare them off? ( I know those are more questions, again just my thoughts)

3. If I was one of the "Easter Sunday Only" attenders, what was a weird factor for me?
I say weird, but maybe disconnect factor or Christian-eese thing.

4. If Pastor came up to me and said, "what in the service should we change?" What would you say and why?
I'd think every leader would want constructive feedback, but if this is too sensitive, email me directly at farrelldesign@yahoo.com

Last one
5. As a new person coming in the door, what was the biggest issue YOU think they had to overcome and why?
I have kids, so I think in terms of a young family who doesn't know child check in procedures, or where the nursery is or if there even IS a nursery. So, what do you see?


Again, if you feel like any of your comments need to be sent to me personally and not posted as a comment, feel free to email me.
And if you know of people who would be great to answer these questions, please pass it around! The more the better.

Blessings,
Vince

What I Would Ask

I've had the opportunity to do a lot of traveling lately and speak to hundreds of pastors.
During this time several have asked my thought on countless issues.
Youth ministry.
Small groups.
Evangelism.
Church growth.
Leadership development.
Discipleship.

While I've done my best to reach down in my library of information and lean on past experience and wisdom that God has shown, I always ask them more questions than they ask me.

I personally believe that a majority of the issues in our ministries are a result of a simple issue.
Growing organizations naturally grow complex.

Small grows to big, therefore we need more staff, more structure, more programs, which in turn demand more time, more money, more energy, which leads to more building programs, needing more people and the process continues. All the while we're "doing" ministry but at the same time ministry is "doing" us in.

My wife's grandparents got married 64 years ago. One man, one woman. Today there are 7 children, 15 grandchildren, 29 great-grandchildren and 12 great, great-grandchildren.
It all started with two.

Here are some things I ask and would ask any person in ministry to consider when wanting answers to "grow a church", or "make disciples of Christ" or "fix" a ministry need.

1. What do you want people to become?
Sounds simple, but you'd be amazed how off many are. Or how many people are by default just doing things. It reminds me of the scene in "The Dark Knight" when Harvey Dent is in the hospital and The Joker is sitting next to him and Harvey lunges after him only to get frustrated and ask, "young man, what's your plan" The Joker responds, "do I look like the kind of guy that has a plan? I just do things."

2. What steps are in place to achieve the first question?
This is where I loose 90% of the people I talk to. Because aren't our programs enough to help people become followers of Christ? If so, would the divorce rate be as high as it is in the church? Teen dropout rate? Would we be begging people to work in ministry, tithe, drop habits, love others, come faithfully? Programs are fine, but sadly too many of our church programs foster basic level Christianity steps. What if we looked at many of the programs we do in our churches and replaced them with a series of steps to help people on their journey of faith.

3. What is a "win" for your organization?
Again, for those of us in leadership we may have a pretty good idea, but how about the rest of the team? This is where I ask them to "clarify the win." Because the more general the win is, the less likely it's a "win." It's more like a "rally cry." Rally cries are short term achievable goals. Example: when someone says their "win" is to lead people to Christ, I then ask, " what next?" Because if that was a win, we'd only ever need two ministers in our churches. One to pray with people for salvation, the other to hit them over the head to send them to Heaven.
The more specific the better. This is why so many churches have the goal, "to make fully devoted followers of Christ" or "to lead people in a growing relationship with Jesus." Those type of wins are to the point, and are put in simple terms that define the goal.

4. What is your biggest priority, and what do you need to accomplish to achieve it?
I'll be honest here. Churches with tons of "ministries" scare me. Don't get me wrong, it's an honorable thing to be so aspiring. But I know something many of the leaders don't. Churches that have more ministries than staff are filled with people who are tired, on the verge of burn out and foster an atmosphere of mediocrity. Ouch! I'm sorry if I stepped on toes there.
But listen. Things naturally grow complex! And the more you do, it means the less quality every other thing becomes. Everything has a life cycle. So much energy is spent keeping things on life support. Find three of four ministries to excel in and say "no" to the rest. Because every time you add something to the plate without taking something off, it all starts to taste the same.
Mush.

5. If you were to leave, or get fired, or whatever, what things would the next guy change that you won't because you feel like you can't.
Personal example time. At the last placed I served on staff, myself and the jr. high staff pastor worked for months preparing for a change we felt like we needed to do to grow. We spoke with the leadership, elders, all who were in charge and shared our game plan and reasons and we even begged. We heard tons of reasons why we could not or should not. None based out of biblical reasoning--if you know what I mean.
We are no longer there. Guess what the new guy did? Yep! The very thing we begged to do for months.
When God gives you a plan, do it. Sure, you have to have the right timing. But more importantly you have to decide who you want to keep. I'm not talking about plowing over people, I'm talking about doing what needs to be done to achieve the goal. I love the saying, "there's something wrong when you have to part the whiskers to give the baby a bottle." Leadership takes courage to do the things that need to be done. If you won't, the next guy will.

I'm amazed in just the 20 years that I've been involved in church and ministry how much society has changed and how little the church has as a whole has.
I think many of us would do well to get back to some simple practices of faith.
But here's the catch. Once you are able to answer these questions and honestly start putting them in practice----you'll work harder at keeping it simple than you would if you had forty ministries to oversee.
Why? Because things naturally grow complex, so you have to work hard to keep it simple and keep it focused.