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The Church, A Place Missing The Mission

Posted on: Wed, 2009-09-23 09:10 | By: matt | In:

Churches aren't like other organizations. I regularly hear about them being compared to non-profits, aid organizations, or other volunteer organizations. This misses the mark in a big way and I'm not talking about the God factor. Let me illustrate what I mean.

Take a homeless shelter. There are 2 groups of people at them. There are those who are there running the place, feeding people, and working for the mission of the homeless shelter. Then there are the homeless people that are served. This is pretty straight forward.

The mission of the church (Matthew 28:19-20) is to go and make disciples of all nations. But, if you look at the church staff they are typically interacting with Christians around activities centered on Christians (like worship). Of the non-staff members only a small percentage volunteer and most of the volunteer time is spent on activities like worship, bible studies, and other things that are targeted at members of the congregation. The rest of the non-staff members attend Sunday morning worship on a semi-regular basis. This is a majority of the church.

Notice the difference? The members of the church and what they do doesn't revolve around the mission of the church.

As a problem solver I've started to ask the question, how do we refocus on the mission and what that means to the lives of the members of the congregation? (Suggestions are welcome)

Talk The Talk

The first thing that came to mind was to talk about the mission. The old saying, "out of sight, out of mind" rings true in many of the churches I've attended or looked at. You don't see the mission when you see the church. The mission seems to be tucked away in a dark corner. Maybe the active members of the church see it as a no-brainer. In any case, we need to talk about it more. Bring it up in conversation. Talk about how we do this. Ask tough questions.

It Got Complicated

Where this gets more complicated is with the nature of people. If people hear something they don't like they will just go to the church down the street that tells them what they want to hear. Or, avoids the uncomfortable topics. If a church changes tone too strongly how will that affect the membership in the congregation? Many have the option of going down the street just a couple blocks to a place that has a self centered tone.

This is where I am at the moment. Wondering how to get the mission of the church in front of the church and getting people to listen and talk. It's something I'd like to see more churches try and do. How is your church doing it? Do you hear conversations about this often?