Missional Church? Be Prepared To Lose
Monday, June 25, 2007
Other posts in this series:
There are several shifts which we made a few years ago in terms of measuring the missionality of our community at The Freeway. Some of these fly in the face of how the evangelical Church (at least in our circles) has generally done things in the past number of decades, particularly since the church growth movement took root.
One of those shifts was that we decided we could likely not continue to measure "success" as we always had - by attracting numbers: money, people, programs, projects, mission trips, souls saved, etc. We needed new markers, as it were, to know if we were becoming more Jesus-y. Here's what one Freewayer said a few weeks ago about this whole "numbers game":
As we began to question whether or not the point of church really came down to adding more people, making more money, keeping people more and more busy with more and more programs, etc. we anticipated that if we weren't going to continue to try and attract large numbers of people to our services, we could likely expect that we would look like miserable failures in many ways to many people as we instead looked to "the sending out" as a way of measuring whether or not we were a living Kingdom community.
In other words, rather than counting the number of people who come in to consume church programs, etc. we would celebrate people who left to follow to Jesus outside of the church walls. This shift meant several changes in the way we had always done things and the "results" we had always seen (some of which we would never have been able to anticipate ahead of time):
If we are serious about creating a mission-shaped church, then we need to re-think church attendance, budgets, and butts in programs.
I will explore more of the shifts we have experienced, including: leadership, communication, justice, cultural interaction, etc. as we have sought to become the missional presence of God in our community in upcoming blog posts. But for now, feel free to give your two cents worth in the comments section.
There are several shifts which we made a few years ago in terms of measuring the missionality of our community at The Freeway. Some of these fly in the face of how the evangelical Church (at least in our circles) has generally done things in the past number of decades, particularly since the church growth movement took root.
One of those shifts was that we decided we could likely not continue to measure "success" as we always had - by attracting numbers: money, people, programs, projects, mission trips, souls saved, etc. We needed new markers, as it were, to know if we were becoming more Jesus-y. Here's what one Freewayer said a few weeks ago about this whole "numbers game":
The idea of success being measured by numbers is so ingrained in who we are that its hard to escape. How much money we make, how many friends we have on facebook... it's so difficult to measure success in any other way, and so we continually fall back on numbers. Whether its business or church, how many people attend, how many people consume your product, how many sales you can make are all key markers. In fact, I'd argue that Christian colleges are producing Christian CEO's more than pastors. And to further the point, if I really wanted to learn how to pastor a church 'succesfully' in today's culture I'd go to Western University and take business. I could learn marketing, trend analysis, leadership, dynamic communication... all things that seem to lend themselves to church growth.
As we began to question whether or not the point of church really came down to adding more people, making more money, keeping people more and more busy with more and more programs, etc. we anticipated that if we weren't going to continue to try and attract large numbers of people to our services, we could likely expect that we would look like miserable failures in many ways to many people as we instead looked to "the sending out" as a way of measuring whether or not we were a living Kingdom community.
In other words, rather than counting the number of people who come in to consume church programs, etc. we would celebrate people who left to follow to Jesus outside of the church walls. This shift meant several changes in the way we had always done things and the "results" we had always seen (some of which we would never have been able to anticipate ahead of time):
- It meant that Sunday services could no longer be the main focus of our week. If attracting people to our top-notch services wasn't the point, and living missionally was, then we should spend less time and focus on Sundays and actually encourage people to not come unless they needed to.
- It meant that rather than creating and maintaining church programs, we should set out to intentionally and organically be-friend one another and our neighbours. We should seek hospitality and justice and deep community together as we respond to the call of Jesus in each one of us.
- It meant that we would lose two thirds of the people who actually join us (we would lose many more "Christian tourists" who come to check things out, and many of the folks who want the church to be a "self-help" group). One third would leave disgruntled. One third would leave as Jesus called them on to new and exciting missional ventures (often they are some of our brightest and best folks). One third would stay and continue to learn to live out mission as a community.
- It meant that we would lose money. Lots of money. Many of the people who leave are the best financial supporters.
- It meant that our tribe would need to be very patient with us and that we would need to intentionally foster relationships with the "powers that be" because our monthly statistic forms and financial records would be terrible indicators of Kingdom activity. Much time had to be invested listening to each other and creating space for each other. (Thankfully our Kingdom-focused leaders have been a brilliant support to us.)
- It meant that we would never have a good answer to the "important questions" (insert sarcasm here) like, "How many people are you guys getting now?" To which I like to respond "10 or 12"... I just like to watch the expression on their faces. Or, "What percentage of people are involved in small/cell/house groups?" To which I usually respond "about zero".
If we are serious about creating a mission-shaped church, then we need to re-think church attendance, budgets, and butts in programs.
I will explore more of the shifts we have experienced, including: leadership, communication, justice, cultural interaction, etc. as we have sought to become the missional presence of God in our community in upcoming blog posts. But for now, feel free to give your two cents worth in the comments section.
Labels: church planting, leadership, the freeway, writing
12:24 PM
that's so good Pernell, thanks for putting all that "down on paper" as it were. It's something that swims around our community quite a bit in thought and conversation and you articulated it well.