“Well-Intending” Sentences That May Be Hurting the Church

I’m currently going through some posts / articles that I’ve had, either sitting in my draft posts folder, or flagged / saved in my bookmarks etc. which obviously at some stage throughout the past year appealed to me, or at least I thought would be beneficial posting at a latter date. 

I’m glad that I’m not doing this old school, going through physical folders and files, as we would have run out of room in the filing cabinet, let alone the office, a long time ago. 

The below article written by Thom S. Rainer* on the Church Answers blog is one such article worth posting and thinking over. As it certainly makes me think what language / sentences I have used, or even that I’ve been subjected to of late which could be taken the wrong way, or a different way to what others intended. 

You see, several sentences spoken about churches today seem to be affirming on the surface, but they have a negative connotation. I try to give the person articulating these sentences the benefit of the doubt by calling them well-intending. But they may not be well-intending sentences at all.

1. “The church is not the building;
it’s the people.” 
This sentence is the most common of these five, and it seems to be coinciding with attendance declines. It is biblically true on the surface, but it usually means that fewer people are gathering in the building. It is also a convenient excuse for someone who does not gather with other believers regularly.

2. “Our church is a discipleship church rather than an evangelistic church.” 
In other words, our church and its members are not reaching people with the gospel. But we will pretend it’s okay and say our members are growing more deeply as believers. The New Testament clearly affirms that a maturing disciple is an evangelistic disciple.

3. “Jesus and I get along just fine by ourselves.” 
No, you don’t. Jesus wants you to get off your idle posture and connect with other believers. From Acts 2 to Revelation 3, the Bible is about the local church or written in the context of the local church. The local church is God’s plan A, and he didn’t give us a plan B.

4. “It’s not how many are attending; it’s how many we are sending.” 
Yes, sending people is important. Indeed, it is the mission of the church. But sending is never put in opposition to attending in the New Testament. It’s both/and, not either/or.

5. “We need to grow in our discipleship before we start a new church.”
The challenge with this sentence is that the level of discipleship growth needed is never articulated. Lack of discipleship becomes a convenient excuse for not starting a new church or a new site.

You are never fully ready to start a new family. You are likewise never fully ready to start a new church. You will have to depend less on yourselves and more on the Holy Spirit.

The Apostle Paul was clear that the life of a Christian would be challenging, even painful. Among other things, Paul was beaten, imprisoned, confronted by angry mobs, shipwrecked, worked to exhaustion, forced to endure sleepless nights, and deprived of food.

2 Corinthians 6:3-10 expands on this and how we should respond:

“As far as we are concerned we do not wish to stand in anyone’s way, nor do we wish to bring discredit on the ministry God has given us.

Indeed we want to prove ourselves genuine ministers of God whatever we have to go through – patient endurance of troubles or even disasters, being flogged or imprisoned; being mobbed, having to work like slaves, having to go without food or sleep.

All this we want to meet with sincerity, with insight and patience; by sheer kindness and the Holy Spirit; with genuine love, speaking the plain truth, and living by the power of God.

Our sole defence, our only weapon, is a life of integrity, whether we meet honour or dishonour, praise or blame. Called “impostors” we must be true, called “nobodies” we must be in the public eye. Never far from death, yet here we are alive, always “going through it” yet never “going under”. We know sorrow, yet our joy is inextinguishable. We have “nothing to bless ourselves with” yet we bless many others with true riches. We are penniless, and yet in reality we have everything worth having.” (J.B. Phillips New Testament)

Thom finishes with the statement – Our life is to be one of obedience! and the five sentences above are usually clever verbiage to cloak disobedience.

The thing is, our words can have the power to take life or give life – they can be words of encouragement or they can cause distress – Therefore, the sentences we use are extremely important and the words contained within them are powerful. 

We live in interesting and challenging times and how we as Christians, Officers, Soldiers in our local settings (the ‘Church’) use our words, act and respond is constantly being critiqued by all and sundry.

Therefore, we need to be extremely careful and vigilant with both our words and our actions. As many people will reject, or even turn away from following the Lord based on how we respond in certain circumstances, and what words (language) we use – ascertaining if our actions align with what we say.

In essence asking, are we walking the talk, or simply just talking the talk!       

You see, the above five “well-intending” sentences may just be hurting the Church, along with many others I’m sure.  

So, food for thought for each and everyone of us in today’s world – What other sentences have you used, or been subjected to, which could be classified as “well-intending” sentences?

Blessings ’til next time 🙂

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* Thom is the author of more than two dozen books including; I Am a Church Member, Breakout Churches, Autopsy of a Deceased Church, Who Moved My Pulpit?, and Anatomy of a Revived Church.

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Effective Discipleship

Prior to the Covid pandemic impacting our world the way it has over the past 2 years or so, there was a huge variety of different discipleship approaches that were available for the church to use.

And I’m sure that each of us could point to an App, website, model or method that was sort of working in our setting.

Last week I touched on The Importance of Discipleship and how it is intrinsically linked to evangelism as Steve Murrell writes in his book WikiChurch; “discipleship is a call to “fish” for people“. Today I want to draw our attention to the need for Effective Discipleship.

You see, maybe it would be better to say that we thought our discipleship ministry or programmes and services were working – because in reality this may not have been true as the results (the fruits of our labours) were not necessarily bringing us what we had envisaged. The effectiveness of our discipleship was not being fully realised. We may have focused previously too heavily on one aspect of discipleship or another, and may have even gone so far as to separate the many aspects of discipleship and lost sight of their correlation.

Dare I say that this may be the case with many Western churches as we have compartmentalised discipleship and even created whole departments that don’t necessarily interact with others to remain committed to the ultimate vision of the Christian church to bring people into a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ.     

The things is, some people may have been coming both to faith and then maybe coming to church, but as the affects of Covid on the church show in our days many people are not coming back. Admittedly that may just mean not yet – for we are forever hopeful.

But hearing from some trusted Officers within The Salvation Army, ministers and pastors from other denominations and the likes of this article entitled ‘They’re Not Coming Back‘ posted by James Emery White on Church & Culture, among others. We’ll most likely find that attendance levels and discipleship group numbers, and all the other metrics we use to gauge how well we have been doing in the church will remain low post Covid.     

There are multiple reasons for this, Covid obviously being one. But because our churches haven’t or won’t be fully returning to normal (as the people in our congregations would define it) or because they have simply moved on to other things – as church is not necessarily as higher importance as maybe it once was, many so called disciples, believers and Christians are not coming ‘back into the fold‘ so to speak.

They may still see themselves as Christians, although a word of caution is needed to be communicated in this space in a way that is as lovingly possible as we can to those that choose not to return, for Jesus may say to “them outright, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me – you didn’t follow God’s ways!’” Matthew 7:23 (Radiate New Testament) 

Now, that may seem a bit harsh for some – but the reality is God created the church, and He envisaged for it to bring Life and Hope to the world, and be His resource to impact the world in which we live for His glory. 

This is not a new issue! It is one that the church has been grappling with for eons, and Paul even touches on it when he writes to the church of Philippi according to Richard Lamb in ‘Following Jesus in the “Real World” – Discipleship for the Postcollege Years’;

Paul’s urgency in Philippians is rooted in his awareness of the very real possibility that people who begin as disciples may turn away from the path of discipleship.

Jesus himself also recognises this issue when in John 6 after speaking of himself as the Bread of Life the very people who were joining to be His disciples were offended by His teaching and “turned their backs on him and even refused to be associated with Him“. John 6:66 (The Passion Translation)

In 2010 Alan & Debra Hirsch in their book ‘Untamed: reactivating a missional form of discipleship’ write that they “sincerely believe discipleship has become a frontier issue for the people of God at this time in history.

And most commentators would agree that in sincerely seeking to appeal to the prevailing consumerist culture, the Western church has all but lost the art of discipleship.”

They go on to say that “rediscovering what it means to radically follow Jesus is an area of strategic, missional concern” and, that “to fail in discipleship and disciple making is therefore to fail in the primary mission (or ‘sent-ness’) of the church.“

So how effective have we been in our discipleship? I would hazard a guess to say that we as the church universally have not been very good at it for quite a while. Discipleship programmes although many and varied have not necessarily been as successful as we would like. Studies consistently show that the Biblical literacy in church is sadly lacking, over the past few decades involvement in frontline church ministry has been on the downward trajectory, and attendance levels in mainstream denominations has continued to decline. This is not all doom and gloom though – there is hope! God is not finished with us yet – for the church is the Hope of the world, and the Bride will get to stand with the Bridegroom.   

Now, in today’s world there is a plethora of information about churches facing a new change of pace due to the Covid pandemic and the state of our nations.

There are many conversations about attendance declines, discipleship issues, pastor weariness and the great resignation and Dan Reiland explores 5 Traits of Churches That Will Build Again post this season we have been in with Covid.

Thom Rainer and Kevin Ezell in a recent Church Answers Revitalise & Replant podcast also look at five consequences for churches in this season that don’t seem to get much attention which may just surprise you. The third point that they raise is that there is a reawakening of the need for effective discipleship ministries.

So, as we return to a level of normality with restrictions being eased may we focus on one of the areas that needs a fair bit of work to establish effective discipleship for our people.

Not just Bible Study groups and interest groups for the sake of gathering together with likeminded people to do stuff and learn, which remain absolutely essential, but ‘Life‘ groups that start to exhibit areas of ‘spiritual‘ growth in people.

God requires for us to go deeper and develop those people entrusted into our care so that they become Spirit-filled and exhibit what J. Oswald Sanders calls the Three Fundamental Principles that should guide us in our service; 

• The Continuance Principle – “Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you continue in my word you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.‘” John 8:31-32 (Revised Standard Version) 
• The Love Principle which is found in John 13:35 “by this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” (New International Version)
• The Fruit Principle – “If you remain (continue) in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourself to be my disciples.” John 15:7-8 (New International Version)

All three of which need to manifest themselves in our lives.

Blessings ’til next time 🙂

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Why Gathering with the People of God Matters

I recently read an article from Church Answers written by Chuck Lawless that lays out 8 Reasons Why Gathering with the People of God Matters.

Within it he outlines the following:

• That worshiping together is part of God’s intent in making us relational.
• It reminds us that we’re not alone in our Christian walk.
• Our engagement in worship is encouraging to others.
• Non-believers who see us worship might sense our love and awe of the Lord as we worship and praise Him.
• There’s just something special about the people of God singing His praises together.
• It is in our gathering together that we provoke one another to love and good works (Heb 10:24-25).
• The gathering together of the body of Christ to hear from their under-shepherd is a privilege, indeed.
• It is what the early church did.

For more information about what Chuck Lawless has to say about each of these reasons click on the links above or here.

Over the past year or so, as this pandemic has continued to cause disruption to the way in which we meet regularly for worship, we have seen the ongoing effect of not gathering in-person; attendance levels are all over the place, people are apprehensive about going out and meeting together and some have even gotten used to the idea of not ‘doing church’ etc. and the list could go on.

However, this does provide us with a number of opportunities and in Pastor’s Ponderings, Scott Strissel provides five for us to ponder as he explores how we can be the Church in a post-pandemic world.

The thing is, in the past few weeks and months for many of our Corps and Centres gathering together has been made even more difficult by the Covid-19 restrictions that have been placed on us within New Zealand. However, this has also seen many Corps adapt /pivot to different ways and means of meeting together, some online in Zoom meetings, others in smaller house church and small group settings, while others have moved their entire worship experience online – which of course raises interesting challenges especially in the area of one-on-one contact and being ‘together’ etc.

In these times it is helpful to be reminded of the importance of why gathering with the people of God matters and find ways in which we can not only pastorally care for each other, and those within our families and communities. But also how we can adapt our model of church worship and discipleship to better impact those that are seeking our Lord and Saviour.

These may be challenging and interesting times for many, but they are also exciting times for those of us that are looking at what God can and will do to impact the hearts and minds of His people going forward, and those that He is longing to bring into relationship with Him, and us, through the local church.

Why not check out some of the following links:

Fresh Expression US is a form of church for our changing culture, established primarily for the benefit of those who are not yet part of any church.

It is part of an international movement of missionary disciples cultivating new kinds of church alongside existing congregations to more effectively engage our growing post-Christian society.

Fresh Expressions UK is a growing movement of everyday people forming new, vibrant Christian communities in every ordinary nook and cranny of life.

Fresh Expressions are new forms of church that emerge within contemporary culture and engage primarily with those who don’t ‘go to church’. (Mission Shaped Church Report)

Messy Church is a church for everyone who may not feel comfortable attending a ‘normal’ church service and who don’t yet belong to a church.

It is a relaxed style of church suitable for all ages and typically includes a meal, hands-on activities such as arts and crafts and more.

The Dinner Church Collective is A Nation-Wide Community Of Mealtime Missionaries Spreading The Word About A Simple, Effective And Historic Approach To Starting New Forms Of Church.

Also why not check out The Dinner Church Movement which is made up of churches across the world that share a eucharistic meal as their primary form of worship.

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Reassessing our Current Reality

As we approach the end of the year and look forward to what the new year could hold for us, I along with many others I am sure, are living in the tension of our current reality and the many what if’s… Not just in regard to life as we know it but life as it could be.

The past couple of years have certainly upset the equilibrium of our lives and turned our mission and ministry within the church upside down. Some of the long held beliefs around practices have been challenged and we have a holy discontent with the way things were (which can be taken a number of ways).

Some are longing for what used to be, while others are looking forward to what is to come and many are not only seeking God’s guidance around the what if’s, but also trying to work out what changes they need to make around priorities going forward so that we can be more intentional and effective in the areas of evangelism and discipleship – pastors, ministrers, officers and church leaders are reassessing our current reality.

Over the past few months I have been privileged to have the ear of some key church leaders within the Wellington Region in many different denominations, asking specific questions around the New Zealand churches current reality and what changes they have already made in some cases, or would like to make as they head into 2022.

Some themes have come through (see below) which almost perfectly align with the list that Thom S.Rainer from Church Answers has provided in a recent blog looking at seven changes pastors plan to make in 2022 (he expands on these so why not check them out).

• Be more intentional about evangelism.
• Discipling and working with committed church members.
• Make sure they and their families are their first responsibility and priority.
• Learn to say “NO” more often.
• Stop obsessing over losing members.
• Be willing to get help for themselves and for their churches.
• Give more attention to small groups and become outward focussed.

The Covid pandemic has certainly affected us all to varying degrees and has huge implications for the church as we navigate the days ahead.

Many church leaders have come to realise more than ever that they can’t lead in the same ways that they have previously and that change is urgently needed within their churches to become more intentional about the things that truly matter.

They are looking to reassess the current reality and institute change as they move the church forward into this new season that the Holy Spirit is unveiling as we journey together into the future.

The above list of course is not exhaustive, but it does represent some significant changes being made now and will continue into 2022 and beyond. What other priorities or shifts in your thinking are you finding in your setting?

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Five Things Churches Should Do Differently in 2021

The following article was written by Thom S. Rainer on the Church Answers blog.

Thom is the author of more than two dozen books including; I Am a Church Member, Breakout Churches, Autopsy of a Deceased Church, Who Moved My Pulpit?, and Anatomy of a Revived Church.

As I am writing this article, I was notified that my grandson, Joshua, had broken his ankle. My granddaughter, Collins, broke her arm this year. My son, Sam, broke his leg a month ago. And my wife, Nellie Jo, broke her wrist earlier this year. That’s four different Rainer families with broken bones in the same year. 

2020. Ugh. Come quickly 2021!

For certain, there are many of us looking forward to leaving 2020 behind and entering a new year. We anticipate that 2021 will be much better. Indeed, we have every reason to believe it will be a better year. 

As our team works with church leaders, we are often asked what changes or pivots their churches should make as their congregations move to a new year. Though this list is not exhaustive, we find ourselves making these five recommendations consistently. 

1. Triple the amount of time your church dedicates to outreach to the community. It’s all about the Great Commission. For years, many of our churches have gradually reduced their commitment to reaching their communities. We are incredibly excited that thousands of churches have adopted Pray and Go (see www.PrayAndGoChurch.com) with a new commitment to make a difference where they live.

2. Have a backup budget. The economic outlook for 2021 is murky, but we do see some troubling signs. Indeed, we are already beginning to hear from church leaders whose churches are showing signs of deteriorating finances. We are encouraging many leaders to have a backup plan if giving does not meet expectations. 

3. Move from incremental change to substantive change. In the past, I advocated an “eating an elephant” posture toward change in established churches. You eat an elephant one bite at a time, and thus you lead change in a church one small step at a time. I can no longer advocate incremental change. We simply do not have the time to wait on people like we once did. If we wait on some of the more resistant people in our church to change, we may have closed the doors long before they are ready. 

4. Cut back on the clutter and activities. Many of our churches are simply too busy. We are sacrificing our families and opportunities to develop relationships in the community because of church calendars. COVID has given us a new opportunity to focus on doing a few things well in our churches. The simple church will become the effective church. 

5. Approach ministry with a church planter mindset. I have called this new opportunity “the blank slate.” Instead of doing things the way we’ve always done them, ruthlessly evaluate everything your church is doing. If your church were starting anew, what would it start doing? What would it stop doing? COVID has given us a new opportunity to rethink church. Don’t let the opportunity pass. 

I am watching the calendar closely. For sure, 2020 has not been a stellar year for many of us. But it has been a season where we can re-evaluate our lives and our ministries. Indeed, it can lead us to 2021 with a new enthusiasm for our churches and the people we lead and love.

So, come quickly 2021. There are incredible opportunities just around the corner.

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Four Key Attitudes of Leaders…

The following four key attitudes of leaders whose churches will thrive in the future are from a post that was written by Thom S. Rainer (author of I Am a Church Member, Autopsy of a Deceased Church, Who Moved My Pulpit? and many more) on the Church Answers website.

1. “God is not done with us yet.” To be clear, the leaders of secular organizations were unlikely to articulate this attitude in the same way church leaders were. But all of the healthy organizations had attitudes of hope and possibility. Defeatism was a foreign concept to all of them.
2. “We are not waiting for things to return to normal.” Any organization waiting for a pre-COVID normal is already in trouble. Any churches expecting patterns of attendance, giving, and ministry to be similar to 2019 are really up against a wall. There will not even be a new normal, because normal cannot be defined. These leaders are looking for indicators of a new reality and they are making pivots to these new realities. 
3. “We will be more outwardly-focused than ever.” Too many churches and other organizations got comfortable prior to 2020. The leaders of future-focused organizations are determined more than ever to reach beyond themselves. The churches and the organizations of the future cannot and must not be navel gazers. 
4. “Major change is inevitable; we will embrace it.” The healthy church or organization of the future cannot simply move from change-averse to change-receptive. They must proactively seek and move toward radical change. They cannot wait for change to come to the organization. These organizations must take faith-based risks like many have never known before. If the leaders of these organizations succumb to the whiners who lament, “We’ve never done it that way before,” the organization is doomed. Healthy organizations of the future will embrace change with wisdom and courage. 

These four key attitudes if adopted by church leaders could help change the world – Bill Hybels (founding pastor of Willow Creek Community Church) is quoted as saying that “the local church is the hope of the world“, and I’m pretty sure that we all want our churches (or Corps in our setting) to thrive.

The thing is, we’ll need to embrace what God is doing in and through our lives today to impact the world – But throughout the western church it would appear that we have become far too comfortable with ‘normal’ and keeping the wheels of the institutional church or Christian organisation turning.

As Catherine Booth once said “if we are to better the future, we must disturb the present“.

Therefore, we need to challenge the status-quo, the systems, processes, policies and structures that we have built up for our protection and control.

Some of these along with traditions, rituals, symbols and sacred cows are potentially no longer fit for purpose in this day and age.

In 2 Corinthians 10:5 Paul tells us that we need to “destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God…” (New Living Translation). According to Matthew 5:13-16 we are to be the salt and light that this world needs. God longs to use us for His purposes, so that others will see Him through our good deeds and glorify our Father in heaven.

Therefore, we need to carefully look at the ways that we have been doing church, our methodologies and ascertain if they are fit for purposes, are they achieving what we set out for them to do?

We’ll quite possibly need to come up with creative ways of engaging with our communities so that we can bring ‘life and hope‘. And we’ll also need to be more adaptable as the Holy Spirit leads us into new ways of doing mission and ministry going forward, reaching people who we would not necessarily reach out too.

The reality is that change is happening at an increasingly faster rate than what we are accustomed to in our world, so we’ll need to be a lot quicker at making decisions.

I believe God is doing a new thing but His overall plan hasn’t changed that He will use us, as His church, to change the world.

Shall we embrace the change? 

Are we up to the task?

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