I have spent over 30 years in and around ministry. My father was in the ministry when I was about 7 years old. He became a full time pastor by the time I was 13. My life was swallowed up by ministry. It was a life style of the house hold. Over the years I have spent many hours in pain, triumph, sorrow, and joy. Ministry not only takes a toll on you, it takes a toll on your whole family. Especially when you give your whole life to it as a calling and not just a career.
I know that there are thousands of other people in this world who may have the same or even similar stories as I do. I do want to take the time in the future to share some of those wonderful stories. The point of this blog is to share some insight to modern ministry in the early 21st century. There are 100 different ways to approach this topic so I will do my best to be specific and focused.
First I want to say that I am aware of the emerging church and what that means to the world around us. We are in the very baby stages of the upheaval that is the church as we know it. Rest assured that when the dust settles there will be thousands of God fearing people loving each other and loving God. What it will look like may be far from or even close to the familiar.
With that said, let me jump off and start with my thoughts on the areas of ministry in the modern church. It breaks down in my mind as Children, Youth, College, and Adults. Yes, there are ways to break those down even more, but for the sake of time and focus I will refrain from doing so. Many think that if a church is healthy it will have all of those ministries in full force and balanced with each other. I am sorry to throw a thought in here but that may not always be the case depending on the core focus and purpose of a particular portion of the body of Christ.
I have lived in the heart of a university community and been in a church that had very little to do with adults or children. The church was still thriving and making a large impact in the community with over 400 attendees every week. I am sure the opposite is true in major retirement communities where there are no children or even young adults. The health of a church can be more meassured by the demographics of its surroundings as well as impact on that community.
So, what does that mean for where you are as a ministry. There are a series of questions that you can ask yourself if you are in the healthy category or not. The main things to consider when answering any questions are the great commission and the great commandment. The great commission tells us to make disciples and baptize them. The great commandment tells us to love God and each other in huge amounts. Measure your group of people by those two things.
Questions:
1. Do you feel like the people you worship with have a close relationship with each other?
2. Does the church you go to have a sense of the community around them?
3. Is there a focus on the things of God in a theological and spiritual sense and not just a philosophical sense?
4. Is Jesus mentioned? Ever?
5. Do the people of your group stay after a gathering together and talk for a long time?
Answering these few questions can tell a lot about the health of your group. When deciding how your ministry should look and feel you need to always take many things into consideration. One of the greatest things overlooked in the church world is how you look to your outside community. That is to say, how do non-church goers see your group? Are you a weird untouchable group? Do you cause "normal" people to stay away from you? Can you communicate on a "carburetor topic" level?
Ah, the "carburetor topic" level. I posed this question to a friend of mine once. He met with me on a very regular basis to chat and visit. He never once talked about anything that had to do with daily life. It was all about theology and spiritual things. Please don't get me wrong. I love to talk about those things a great deal. Sometimes I would like to just lean under a car hood and talk about carburetors. The question is, do you find yourself out of touch? Can you talk about things in our daily lives? Jesus was a carpenter. Don't you think that he probably had a conversation or two about a chisel or some cool wood grain.
Yes, Christians should be different than non-Christians. They should have a different focus. While talking about daily life, their thoughts should process their purpose in life. My sole purpose may not be to talk about carburetors but I can talk about them while enjoying my time with another person and building a relationship. Discovering how well we can communicate on a "regular" level wil tell us whether we have lost our ability to connect to an outside world or not.
We can love each other inside the church, but we need to be able to love people outside the church as well. I've said it a thousand times before, "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care". Does your group care? A church I was a part of for a year is doing a work day in a neighborhood that is on the other side of town and has nothing to do with getting people to their church. They just care about the neighborhood because they feel connected to it. Can your group say that?
Now, with all that said, how does the 21st century church look logistically on the inside? Pews? Hymn books? Pulpits? Suits and ties? Dresses? Projection systems? Jeans? Shorts? Sandals? Coffee shops? DRUMS? So what do you think we are supposed to look like? Here is a simple rule of thumb. Jesus and the disciples wrote about what we were supposed to be and how we were supposed to act. They also gave us insight about what we were supposed to do when we came together.
They didn't tell us how our buildings were supposed to look or how we should play our music or display the words. They just said do it. However your group feels is the best way to lift up, display, promote, spread, and share the Gospil of Jesus Christ, do it! We should be doing everything we can to create an inviting atmosphere for people to meet Jesus.
I know many churches that are proud to go to church with 15 to 25 people and be a small group that holds a particular standard that is impossible for the rest of the world. They think they are right and just in the sight of God. They also have family members who have left the church and don't want any part of God because of their lack of connecting with an outside world. Some churches effectiveness will have more people in hell than heaven. It is sad but true.
Here is another good question to ask yourself. What are you holding onto tightly? Are those things you hold onto clearly justified by the word of God? If your organ was moved to the other side of the stage or even moved out because no one ever plays it anymore, would there be a problem with your people or are they willing to do whatever it takes to accommodate other people? Do they prefer their brother or do they prefer themselves?
Now here is where it can get tricky for our western mindset. We have a multitude of denominations because they all believe something different about one topic or another. I go to a non-denominational church that has flavours in their statement of faith that sound like a very specific denomination. I don't think they should change their statement of faith but I think if they vocalized their statement of faith like the old time denominations have done, they would disconnect with a segment of the community.
Our focus as a group should always be to point people to Christ. Whether we are doing that through a college campus church full of students, or in a retirement village church full of older people. If we are raking leaves in south Muncie, or handing out food to inner city families in need, we should always be about the great commission and the great commandment. Love and lead! it's that simple. Love people through the love of Christ and lead people to Him.
I would love to spend another hour on this but I will stop here and post more in part II.
