What The Church Has To Do To Impact Society

I am not wise…I figured that out last night watching Jeopardy. (Where do these people come from?) However, my wife was “tearing it up,” and proved to be the dominant jeopardy player in our house.

Seriously though, when I first began New Spring I thought I knew a lot—and nearly every original idea I had has either been challenged or changed. I have been at this for five and a half years and have strong opinions as to what the church must do if it wants to be the unstoppable force that God has called us to be.

#1 - We Must Put The Cookies On The Bottom Shelf. I have discovered that one of the things that people desire the most when coming to church is practical help with their lives. The divorce rate is higher than it has ever been, kids are more out of control that any previous generation, debt and bankruptcy are major issues of concern…and people want to know what God has to say about all of that.

Unfortunately I believe that many churches have chosen to steer clear of those issues & deal with breaking down Greek and Hebrew words. I learned a long time ago that if you want to impress people with how much you know…then the ministry is not the place for you to be. Most people do not care about how many degrees a person has—or how much schooling he or she has had—they want to know how to get out of the hole they are in.

I made a decision a long time ago that I was not going to preach sermons where people left saying, “Wow—that was deep…and I had no idea what it meant.” If we are not giving people something that they can think about and apply—then they probably are not going to come back.

#2 - We Have To Accept The Fact That Growth Is Necessary - It bothers me when a church does not grow. I may be in the minority here—but Jesus, right as He was about to leave the planet, gave the Great Commission and not the Great Suggestion!

Reaching people is not optional! We are not called to be a country club with a steeple on top—but rather a place that is passionate about impacting the community in which we dwell.

From time to time I hear someone criticize us by saying, “New Spring is just all about the numbers.” I say God help the church that does not care about numbers. A number represents a person, a person represent a soul—and every soul matters to God…and if it matters to God is SHOULD matter to the church. Whether you like it or not—the church is in the people business.

#3 - We Must Be Willing To Examine The Way We Hire - Here is the way it used to be done, a person would go to college, then seminary. Then they would send out resumes, go to a small church, stay there for a while…never intending to stay there—the only actual purpose for being there was to gain experience so one could move on to “greater things.”

The problem with this is that there are a lot of churches who have “professionals” working there who have no heart for the church—all they want is more for themselves. (Please don’t even try to tell me this does not happen—I have seen it with my own eyes!!!)

At New Spring, for the most part, we hire within…and 9 times out of 10 we hire people from the secular world—the marketplace if you will. One of the problems with some seminary graduates is that they have been immersed in theology classes and their social circles are solely Christians in school—which might be great for them; however, they have NO IDEA how to connect with the business person in the church…or even the pagan on the front row.

#4 - We Must Allow The Body To Minister To The Body - People want their lives to count, they want to be a part of something that is larger than life…and the church can and should provide that opportunity for them.

However, reality is that, for the most part, a church hires a pastor and then most of the people sit on their rear end and work this poor person to death. I read somewhere that the average stay for a pastor in a church today is 22 months. Why—because most churches work the dude to death—he does everything…all of the visiting, all of the counseling…if there is an event at the church he HAS to be there (not to mention that most churches pay the man peanuts!)

Seriously—would you want a job like that? Uh…no! I believe one of the strengths of our church is that I let it be known very early that I was not going to do everything. I do not do counseling, I do not do hospital visits…but what is awesome is that there are people in our church who are so much more qualified than me at those things that can step in and minister so much more effectively than I ever could!!!

The church has to drop the idea that the pastor is there to serve the individual needs of every member in the congregation…if it doesn’t then the church will never be effective and they will burn the pastor out.

That’s it for now—I will do part two of this in a few days…