Heart, Mind, Soul & Strength

The Great Commandment can be a useful lens to view your church through. I recently visited an Assemblies of God (pentacostal) church and realized how strongly they emphasized heart in worship. Music was highly repetitive, with leaders improvising or adding variations on the theme. Prayers and testimonies were emotional, punctuated by loud outbursts. I’d suggest the sermon emphasized a secondary interest in strength, focusing on coaching for life challenges.

In my last church, Presbyterian, the focus was mind. Music was lyrical hymns designed to slowly reveal points of understanding. Prayers were usually read, either by a leader or responsively, and (apart from the Apostles’ Creed and Lord’s Prayer) were unique to each service. The sermon interpreted and illuminated scripture. A secondary emphasis was on heart, with prayer requests, flowers in loving memory of someone, and a few minutes to pass the peace.

Consider what your church focuses on – heart, mind, soul or strength - and to what extent. What would a church look like that focused on something different? What changes could be made immediately in your church to raise emphasis on an under-represented aspect of the Great Commandment? What changes might take longer (a year or more) to fully realize?

What the Church Needs

I hear frequently statements that begin “The church needs…” Some of the more common endings are:

• Young people
• Young families
• A particular ministry or program
• More volunteers
• More money

There’s only one thing declining churches need: Jesus.

Some might be quick to argue their church has Jesus, or is faithful, or feels the Spirit moving, or whatever. The thing is, the above “needs” betray different priorities. Through many, many conversations I’ve had about what the church needs, Jesus never comes up. He’s just plain not mentioned. His absence is profound.

If you’re in a declining church and struggling with what your church needs, listen for Jesus’ name. Seek him. Ask others about him. Thriving church life is a side-effect of the overflowing abundant life of Christ.

All the church needs is Jesus. The rest of that stuff follows, because everyone else needs Jesus, too. They’ll show up, volunteer and contribute their hearts and souls, but only for Jesus.

Elders and Board Members Aren’t the Same Thing

My background is Presbyterian, so I’ll use their terminology – most Protestant denominations have some analogue. For Presbyterians, we’ve got elders and a board of elders called a session. When you’re ordained as an elder you simultaneously sign up for three years on the session. The two have become synonymous, so much that former session members say they’re former elders, even though trey’re ordained for life.

A call to elderhood and a call to the session are not the same thing. Why not separate the two? Most mainline declining churches lack spiritual leadership. Ordain elders because they’re spiritual leaders people respect and look up to. Call them to be mentors to the spiritually restless. Maybe you only call elders to the session, but only bring on those elders who are truly called.

If we could do this we’d reclaim the biblical role of elder, gain spiritual leadership and depth through mentors, and have a smaller decision-making board who are truly passionate about their duty privilege to serve.

Why Grow?

A large majority of search traffic that comes here finds my How to Grow Your Church post.  I love that there’s so much interest in looking outside the church instead of in.  If you came here by such a search I’d really like to know: why do you want your church to grow?

The question may sound stupid on the face, so I’ll explain.  I believe there’s two broad “camps” to possible answers – wanting your church to grow for your church’s sake, or wanting it to grow for the strangers’ sakes.  Inside each of those are countless other answers.

For your church’s sake: What will your church gain?  What will it miss out on without growth?  How does this reflect the mission of Jesus Christ in the gospels?  What are the reasons a stranger might share your vision of your church?

For the strangers’ sakes: What will strangers gain?  What will they miss out on without your church?  How does this reflect the mission of Jesus Christ in the gospels?  What are the reasons a stranger might come, and reasons they might stay?

It’s my humble belief that those in the first camp – for the church’s sake – will find all those questions hard to answer.  The reason is, Christ regularly tore down institutionalism in favor of horizontal organization – groups of equals with direct access to God.  His heart constantly went to the stranger, the “lost sheep.”  Parables often highlight the greater compassion for those on the fringe.

It’s easy to get caught up in growing a church for the sake of Christianity instead of the sake of Christ.  Attendance is down, volunteers are slim, committees are populated by the same handful of overworked people and the median age is rising.  That doesn’t mean you shift the burden of your church’s welfare onto newcomers.  Change your outreach mission to sharing your experience of Jesus Christ, help people find their Spirit-given callings, and don’t ask for anything in return.  I’d bet you anything you’ll grow as a side-effect.

But I Don’t Want to Grow! Part 3: Pray

Prayer is perhaps the single most important factor in a Christian’s relationship with God.  When else do you have direct, two-way access to the Holy of Holies?  Unfortunately, in most churches prayer is left up to the professionals!

In worship my church uses the common practice of prayer requests – members write down something they’d like prayed for and hand them in for the pastor to do the praying.  Prayer by congregants is by reading something the pastor wrote, or done silently amidst a larger pastoral prayer.  At congregational meals the pastor always says the blessing (even when the pastor can’t stay to eat!).  At all meetings (staff, committee, board…) the pastor opens and closes with prayer.

You see the pattern.  We give up our God-given, Christ-given privilage of prayer to a de facto priesthood of clergypeople.  New Testament churches knew nothing of singular spiritual leadership; everyone in the church was a priest!  Everyone had the privilege and duty to pray, preach, prophecy, edify, admonish and teach.

So should our churches overturn clergy, and instead worship as a group led by the Spirit?  Well, yes actually!  But that’s a big step, and there are smaller places to start.

All members should be taught and encouraged to pray out loud for their fellow brothers and sisters, and for strangers.  Laypeople should be invited to pray in place of the pastor during worship, and especially at functions like meals or meetings.  Everyone should have a chance to pray in small group gatherings.  In my own group, we close each meeting by going around the circle in prayer, so everyone prays at least once.

Harder to train for is praying with strangers.  If someone shares a burden with you, it is your duty as a Christian to ask to pray with them on the spot.  Hold their hand or touch their shoulder (unless they shy away), pray no more than three or four sentences’ worth (less than a minute), and always pray in Jesus’ name.  Teach others in your small group to do so, as well.  It’s extremely intimidating, but easily the most rewarding.  I’ve tried to make a habit of it, and I can testify it is the most powerful gift you can give a hurting person.

At any rate, pray!  Pray all the time.  Pray your thanks, pray your fears, pray your hopes, pray your needs.  And listen!  Prayer is two-way.  Share your prayer experience with others, and encourage them in their own prayers.  Staying close to God makes spiritual stagnation impossible, and where there’s spiritual growth powerful change will happen.

Spectator Worship

I’d guess nearly all American churches – mainline, orthodox, charismatic, evangelical… whatever – do worship as a group of professionals (paid or volunteer) leading a group of spectators, possibly with occasional guided crowd participation.

The kicker is, that’s not how Christians are supposed to worship.

New Testament worship was done is small cell groups (averaging around 35 people, I think).  It was done in homes.  Everyone participated using their spiritual gifts.  Several people read and interpreted scripture, and the group judged for themselves if it was good.

Sometimes the New Testament church gathered all the groups across a city for important matters, and sometimes they’d do big crowd spectator worship.  These were relatively rare, however, and primarily geared toward evangelism.

Weekly spectator worship conditions congregants to be passive, and supresses expressing spiritual gifts.  You can’t even see other worshippers’ faces without turning around!  No wonder members feel like volunteers instead of owners.

Modern churches can return to New Testament worship by focusing worship in small groups and promoting gifts discernment and use.  Read scripture, pray, sing, meditate… whatever works with each group’s makeup of personalities and gifts.  If you can, scale back crowd worship to monthly or bi-monthly and market themas large public evangelism events.

But I Don’t Want to Grow! Part 2: Mission

Longing for Holiday asked in the comments what the single greatest factor was in church growth (besides God).  I want to expound on it here.  My answer is spiritually growing members (members meaning anyone who participates regularly).

The problem is: in traditional churches most members don’t want to grow.  There’s a few things you can do about this.

#2: Do Hands-On Mission.  By “hands-on” I mean interacting face-to-face with whomever you’re helping, and preferrably something with a little labor involved.  The most important thing here is face-to-face.  The first goal of the church is helping people meet Jesus Christ, and the fastest way to achieve it is letting them see Christ in you.

My congregation is on the old side, as most declining ones are (our median age is 62).  The idea of hands-on mission is intimidating because their physical activity is often limited.  Don’t let that stop you.  There’s lots of low-impact mission options; you just have to get creative sometimes.

• Help out a soup kitchen or homeless shelter.
• Start a food bank for neighbors, or sign up with Angel Food Ministries.
• Pass out bottled water to people in the park, or to-go breakfast at stop lights to commuters.
• Wrap presents at holiday times outside major box stores like Wal-Mart.

What you don’t want to do is collect money or goods and give them to some other non-profit distributor, because you won’t touch people with the gospel.  These are still worthy causes!  However, churches need to stay focused on the core mission of sharing the gospel and discipling members.  Hands-on, face-to-face mission accomplishes both, which makes it a prime use of your limited money, time and energy.

Whomever you’re helping, don’t focus on evangelizing them, but be ready to share your story of why you’re reaching out.  If they have a personal story to share, be ready to pray with them over hardships on the spot (don’t wait ’til later!).

Pray constantly for your Macedonian.  In Acts, Paul wanted to go to Asia and was prevented by the Spirit.  Eventually, he had a vision of a Macedonian man and went at once to Macedonia to minister there.  It’s okay to just find needs and meet them without divine guidance, but always be seeking a vision from God.

In mission the point isn’t telling about Christ, it’s being Christ.  You can’t help but grow through the experience, and make other people’s lives a little better at the same time.

Previous parts in this series:
Part 1: Small Groups

But I Don’t Want to Grow! Part 1: Small Groups

Longing for Holiday asked in the comments what the single greatest factor was in church growth (besides God).  I want to expound on it here.  My answer is spiritually growing members (members meaning anyone who participates regularly).

The problem is: in traditional churches most members don’t want to grow.  There’s a few things you can do about this.

#1: Start a growth-based small group.  During the coffee hour or other social functions, ask people individually how the idea of growing spiritually with a handful to a dozen others makes them feel.  If they’re eyes light up, invite them.  If not, leave it alone.

Meet weekly, and steer conversation toward spiritual matters.  Ask questions like how has your prayer life been this week? or what scripture have you read in the last week that intrigued you?  Let the conversation wander, but stay on spiritual topics.  Pray often (especially on-the-spot prayer when someone brings up a personal struggle, concern or celebration), and always incorporate some scripture.  Encourage members to invite newcomers every week, and re-state the purpose of the group (personal spiritual growth) at least bi-weekly.

You can do book studies, play games, share meals… just keep the focus on personal spiritual growth.  Watch out for spiritual-sounding talk that doesn’t focus on personal growth – “you/they” instead of “I/me” pronouns is a quick tip-off.  If you’re intimidated by leadership, there are lots of resources to help guide you.  My group is reading Holy Conversation right now, about how to talk about faith without getting preachy.

The people who join you are already excited about small groups, so as the leader you want to stay in touch with them and look for new potential leaders.  Talk to those you’ve identified about their gifts and interest.  If they feel a call, let them lead as an apprentice for no more than a month and help them create a group of their own.  Members of the original can help seed it (they can keep attending the original, too!).  Make weekly contact with your new leaders (in person if you can, by phone otherwise), and mentor them in finding new leaders of their own.

Small groups start out slow, but as momentum builds with each new member growth will escalate exponentially as members spread the word and new groups are seeded.  Spiritual growth and discipleship will spread to every corner of the church.  Whatever comes next won’t be tidy or controlled, but it will be authentic and powerful.