Why does the church exist? I recently came across that question in an article written by Pastor Greg Laurie, entitled, "Greg Laurie: 4 Dangerous Church Growth Myths." This article, which is well worth reading, can be found at churchleaders.com. In this article he writes, "In a recent survey of 1,000 church attenders, respondents were asked, “Why does the church exist?” According to 89 percent, the church’s purpose was “to take care of my family’s and my spiritual needs.” Only 11 percent said the purpose of the church is 'to win the world for Jesus Christ.' These attitudes concern me and many other observers deeply. A business-driven response may only make things worse. In the long run, if we train consumers instead of communers, we’ll end up with customers instead of disciples. It might fill up an auditorium, but it will never turn the world upside down for Christ."
Why does the church exist? The mission of the Church according to Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20, is not to build up the membership roll, but to build up the kingdom of God, to make disciples of all nations. In an interview with mega church Pastor Bill Hybels (see Better preaching update sermoncentral.com), he shares what he has learned in 37 years of ministry. When asked about how a church can best fulfill its mission he shares about "something that was a miss" for decades in the church he Pastors', which today is one of the largest churches in the world. He said, "I dramatically underestimated how often my colleagues and the people in the church practiced the classic spiritual disciplines. I just thought everybody spent time with God and surrendered their spirits before Him every day. That everybody worked hard to receive promptings from God, quieting the ambient noise in their lives so they could hear Him. I misjudged that, and the few times that I preached on it, I remember seeing the semi-confused faces of the people in the crowd and thinking, “I must be doing a terrible job of teaching this because they are not getting it or they are not interested. I'm not getting the same kind of feedback that I get when I teach on other subject matters.” So, I wound up not teaching on the spiritual practices very often. It's hard to do, and I got mixed response. Decades later I found out…that I should have stuck with that. I should not have been dissuaded by the kind of feedback I was getting. I should have done a major series on the classic spiritual disciplines every single year, whether I saw confused faces or not. I should have just dug in and made that a regular part of the menu. We also had some feedback that went like this: “Yeah, well, interesting. But I'd really like to know something more practical than this, like how to be a better parent. Why don't you teach this other stuff at a seminar, not on Sunday morning?” Well, we didn't have the facilities or the teachers to hold those kinds of seminars. So, it wasn't until decades later when we found out…that you can strip away almost every other thing the church does. But at the core of the core of the core, growing people into Christ followers is all about helping them engage in God's Word and inspiring them to invite God to be at the center of their lives. I did not emphasize that as much in the early days as I do now."
Sadly, what Pastor Hybels failed to emphasize in his church for decades has become a trend in many churches that are seeking to fill their buildings. What Hybels admits also confirms what Pastor Greg Laurie warned about concerning the business response of churches that are seeking to meet the demands of the consumer minded attenders. "It might fill up an auditorium, but it will never turn the world upside down for Christ." In other words, churches can grow wider in numbers, but not necessarily deeper in their love for God. They can build bigger buildings and bigger congregations, but make little impact when it comes to building the kingdom of God.
During the early church when the demands of ministry were threatening to distract and deter the calling of its leaders, Dr. Luke records, "And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. (Acts 6:2-4 ESV).
Pastors, we have not been called to build our own kingdoms. Our orders are to build God's kingdom, to make disciples of all nations. We've been called to preach the word in dependence of the power of the Holy Spirit and leave the results to God. May we purpose in our hearts that we will keep the main thing the main thing to the glory of God.
