Majority Church

WHAT WOULD CHURCH LOOK LIKE IF OBEDIENCE TOOK PRIORITY OVER NAME BUILDING?

2009-06-23T16:24:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we read the Bible, especially the Old Testament, and experience a huge disconnect between what happened centuries ago, and our own lives.

But read Genesis 11 and things look really familiar. As soon as Noah got off the boat God said him: "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth." God wanted the planet to be fully populated. He wanted Noah and his descendants to multiply and scatter.

That sounds a lot like Matthew 28:18-20 . . .
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with
you always, to the very end of the age.

Which sounds a lot like Acts 1:8 . . .
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses
in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

It sounds like God has always wanted his people to hit the road and spread out. But God's people often respond like this . . .
"Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may
make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." Gen. 11:4
NIV

Making a name for ourselves might be what gets in the way most often. Maybe we're so busy building towers and making names for ourselves that there is little time for doing what God says.

I don't know, but it could be that a lot of what passes for ministry is really about name making.

Jesus said, "I will build my church." For some of us it comes as a surprise that he didn't even ask for our help. He has given us some very clear directions. Like, "Take up your cross and follow me."

If the really big deal were obedience, instead of name building, I wonder what the church in America would look like?

"We're Just A Small Church But . . ."

2009-06-08T21:30:00.000-07:00

I hear it all the time! A sideways apology for not being bigger. Too bad the Bride of Christ has such an inferiority complex. It may come from focusing on the Bride instead of focusing on the Bride Groom.

In Moscow, Yerevan, Brownsville, Crawfordsville, and Sweet Home I have attended Majority Churches. Each has its own personality. Each is vibrant and alive. All demonstrate a connection to the King. I see no need for apologies.

If the Bible is to be trusted. If it should be taken seriously, then we may be apologizing for what God is doing or not doing. That's not good, is it?

Listen to 1 Corinthians 3:6-7
"I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who
waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth."

Doesn't this mean that pastors don't cause churches to grow? "Only God"! Church growth experts don't cause growth. Seminars don't cause growth. Tactics, models, paradigms do not cause growth. It doesn't matter if it's Willowback or Saddlecreek. It doesn't matter if the pastor's name is Rick, Bill or Joel.

The Bible says that only God causes growth. I suspect that means growth that matters.

There may be other kinds of growth and other causes. But if it's not the kind of growth the Bible describes maybe it's cancerous and not healthy at all.

WE'RE STUCK!

2008-12-15T17:29:00.000-08:00

Somewhere the church got stuck in a mental cul de sac where bigger is always better [BIAB]. My 1978 Fleetwood Brougham was the ultimate expression of BIAB. The trunk on this dinosaur-of-the-road was so large that you could put two coffins in it. It had a V-8 so big that it could pass everything on the road . . . except gas stations. When gas hit $4 a gallon I was glad to be driving a Honda. Sometimes bigger is just more expensive.

In 1983 a friend, who at the time was the Information Services guru for Lewis County, Washington took me on a ride up the elevator. In a climate controlled room slightly larger than my office, Herb proudly pointed out his newest piece of equipment. It was a one-gigabyte machine! It was about 5 feet long, 3 feet wide and about 3 feet tall. The whole room was dedicated to keeping it happy. I was impressed. But right now in my computer bag I carry a data stick about the size of a pack of gum. Its capacity is one gig.

Which was the better fighting machine, Goliath, at 9 feet 6 inches, or the diminutive David? Any 5th grader in Sunday school could answer that one. So why aren’t we smarter than 5th graders?

We judge the quality and impact of a church by the number of worshippers. In the USAmerican church BIAB is still in force.

While visiting Russia I encountered a majority church of 50. Its rented facilities were shabby around the edges. Its members were mostly poor and weren’t highly educated. But this church is having a significant ministry in Central Asia. They regularly travel to “closed” Muslim countries and train Christian workers. Their vision is to see Central Asian Muslim background believers [MBBs] reaching other Islamic nations for Christ.

I think it’s high time we got unstuck and started measuring the significance of a church by the size of its heart instead of the zeros in its budget.

The Oasis at Rita Ranch

2008-09-10T14:34:00.000-07:00

The Oasis is shepherded by Pastor David Gainey. Creativity oozes out of this guys pores. From the set-up in the multipurpose room at the middle school where they meet to the format of the service to the way benevolence gets done, this is a bleeding edge congregation.

When worshippers gather they around tables set with candles. The lights are low and it feels more like a coffee shop than a cathedral. In the back of the room donuts and coffee are served. Halfway through the message there's an intermission where people are encouraged to greet one another. Sometimes they're asked to discuss a point raised.

The message grabs you by the throat, shakes you up awhile and then gently brings you in for a landing 40 minutes later.

One Sunday it was discovered that one of the members was facing a financial crisis. A foreclosure proceeding had begun. So a leader asked his Home Group to pitch in. The leader alerted Pastor David. Other groups were invited to participate. The Oasis budget matches benevolence gifts dollar for dollar. In fact, the only way benevolence gets done at this church is through the initiative of Home Groups. When the dust settled the foreclosure was avoided. Through tears the recipient praised God for a loving church family.

Way to go Oasis!!

Interesting Juxtapositions!

2008-02-26T15:34:00.000-08:00

Imagine putting these experiences together. On one Sunday we attended Brownsville Christian Church, in Brownsville, Oregon. At BCC worship attendance runs about 100. The very next weekend we were at Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, Illinois. At WCCC worship averages 20,000.

At WCCC we sat in a crowd where we were strangers. The greeters greeted us. We were blessed by the excellent music, a good sermon, and enjoyed the beauty of the amazing facilities that included a food court. The experience was uplifting and inspiring.

At BCC we enjoyed the beauty of the setting on a hill in the country. The Calapooia River runs past the church campus. We were hugged by many. We spoke to the Pastor who knows us by name and prays for us and our family. He's a good preacher.

The weekend after Willow Creek we visited an inner-city Black church. The sermon was delivered by a church member who is a teacher and Junior High Basketball coach at a public school. The sermon was outstanding. The music was bluesy and very good. People greeted us warmly and invited us to come back.

The very next Sunday we found ourselves at Fairhaven Church where Jim used to serve on the staff. Fairhaven runs about 2,600 in worship. The place was familiar and so were some of the people. Again we were treated to excellent music, impressive facilities, and good preaching. We found ourselves among friends at the close of each service.
******
Some thoughts:
1. We were blessed by each of these worship experiences.
2. God met us at each place.
3. God's people were gracious to us in every place.
4. God's word was preached in every church.
5. We sang some of the same songs in each place.
6. Other than minor variations the worship experiences were very similar.

God Loves Minority Churches!

2008-01-21T15:27:00.000-08:00

I’m not thinking about ethnicity or race.

Only 25% of all USAmerican churches have an average worship attendance of more than 150. That means only 75,000 churches fit into that category. That’s a minority.

Let me be very clear God loves larger churches.

The 1,300 churches that average more than 2,000 in worship attendance are a mere 0.4%, that’s less than ½ of 1%, of US churches qualify for the term “mega-church.” If you look at this stat from one perspective this is an elite group. Look at the same data from a different point of view and you see a miniscule minority.

I am acquainted with a few of these mega-churches. I am convinced that every one of them that lift up the crucified Christ as the world’s only hope are good churches, and are loved by God.

But it is the fact that they exalt Jesus that makes them great, not their budgets, facilities or membership rosters.

I am also convinced that God loves every church that acclaims that name that is above every other. If Jesus is proclaimed in the dump outside of Cairo that church is a great in the eyes of the kingdom of heaven. If Jesus is lauded in an urban storefront church then it is just as much an outpost of heaven as any cathedral!

Should the pastor of a church of 100 people want his church to increase in number?

If he is already overwhelmed with the work load, and if he is already accountable to the Almighty for the care of this flock

I wonder about why Jesus told the parable of the lost sheep and made the original size of the flock 100? Why not 250? Or 2,000? Maybe there is something altogether normal about one guy being able to take care of 100 sheep. Beyond that then you need a crew and things get more complicated. I don’t really know but I do wonder about stuff like that.

Should the pastor of a church of 3,000 want his church worship attendance to increase in number? Why should he want that?

Is it because he wants to see the world won to Jesus Christ?

Is a church of 4,000 the best way to get that job done? I honestly don’t know. Everything I’ve ever read about church multiplication suggests that it is not the established church that does the best job or evangelism but the new church that is most effective in reaching the lost.

Rick Warren, pastor of one of America’s largest churches, observes:
Rick Warren in “Myths of the Modern Megachurch”
Monday, May 23, 2005
Key West, Florida
The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

“Really there are two kinds of mega-churches. They don't grow the same way. Some grow by transferred growth and some grow by conversion. And anytime you see a mega-church that grows instantly – it just kind of explodes – and all of a sudden they go from zero to 5,000, that's a church that's growing by transfer growth, which means they've just become the hot act in town and everybody goes, "Let's just all go over there. That's the place to go so we'll all go." And as a pastor, I don't consider that legitimate growth. Jesus said, "I'll make you fishers of men." This is like swapping fish in the aquarium. It's like we pop them from one place to another, and they grow at the expense of other churches.”

This assumes that sometimes Christians make a choice about where to worship based on really shallow factors like “what’s hot?”

So maybe the pastor of a Minority Church should do his best to send his people out the door to plant new churches. This might not do his annual budget a lot of good, but it might be the best thing he could do for the kingdom.

And maybe the pastor of every Majority Church should do his best to be grateful for the privilege he has to serve in the place to which God has called him instead of trying to make that church like Rick Warren’s. Maybe there should be some sermons at clergy conferences on the 10th commandment; you know. The one about coveting anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Why Are Smaller Churches So Numerous?

2007-12-22T10:06:00.000-08:00

I used to think that when it came to church bigger is better. It was a core belief. I suppose I had help arriving at this conclusion. I went to seminary during the ascendancy of the church growth movement. Their premise was, "God wants all churches to grow." I thought that this made sense. Back then about 75% of all churches were under 150 in worship attendance.

Lots of books were written by theorists with titles like, "Ten Ways To Grow Your Church." What the books all described was "how big churches got that way." Of course, it was implied, if not stated outright, "if you do it like the big boys do it then your church WILL grow." I actually believed that stuff. What's worse is I proclaimed that stuff as if it were true. But despite the fact that most pastors bought that line about bigger being better, the majority of churches remained smaller.

Then we entered a period where megachurch pastors started writing their own books. Those titles contained principles for growing a church to beyond huge. The message contained therein went something like, "If you do it they way we do it at Saddlecreek then your church will grow too." I don't remember seeing a written guarantee. But I remember believing that if only I could get Willowback's stuff right then the churches I was involved in would become megachurches too. At least I remember wanting it to be true. I think I actually convinced myself that this was for the greater glory of God and for the sake of his kingdom. It did occur to me that it wouldn't do my reputation any harm either.

Books, seminars and associations proliferated. And most churches, about 75%, were still small.

Later theorists changed their emphasis to, "Healthy churches grow." The research was clear and compelling. If our church would just focus on health it would grow automatically. This made sense to me too. So I worked on church health. This is a major understatement. I busted my hump working on having a healthy church, so it would grow.

As I think back on it I am painfully aware that most of the pastors I knew were reading the same books, attending the same seminars, and joining the same organizations.

The good news is that some churches did grow. In USAmerica there are now about 1,300 churches of over 2,000 worshipers. But 75% of our churches are under 150.

Why has there been so little change in that stat? And what was lost in the desperate effort to become relevant (read "large")?

Well one thing we know is that thousands of smaller churches were closed. Something else was lost. In the pursuit of growth perceived relevance was lost. Instead of focusing on how awesome Christ is there was a subtle shift to proclaiming how wonderful our church is. We enthused about our music, our facilities, our staff, our webpage, etc.

The world began to see as a bunch of gameshow hosts.

Please understand that this is not an indictment of larger churches. These symptoms became true of the church as a whole. It was surely not true of every church. But it became a major theme and the world saw it and responded by staying away in droves.

I think a lot was lost when we began to focus on growth. Jesus never promised that local churches would grow. He did state that his kingdom would grow. It said it would be like a mustard seed or like yeast. He suggested that the grow would be subtle, almost unnoticeable.

So my conclusion is that God likes smaller churches as much as he likes larger churches, but that he wants the majority to small enough to NOT be noticed much.

I would be very interested in your feedback about this issue.