The following paragraph is a comment posted on a blog called "Church Marketing Sucks". I read it and liked it a lot. It reminds me of the covert mottos Grace Central adopted early on in her development: " It must be grace because we don't know what heck we're doing", and "Grace Central: Screwing up church in a whole new way!" For the most part they both still hold true.
My favorite example of not acting like your marketing is the now-ubiquitious "purpose statements" and "vision statements." Thanks to some well-marketed books, many churches now have yet another committee meeting to come up with some drivel like, "First Church exists to lovingly win sinners to Christ by living his example in a Spirit-filled way." Nothing wrong with such a statement, but it rarely describes the congregation in any way shape or form: an example of marketing what we wish we were. A more honest statement would be: "At Christ's Church of the Beautiful Bay Valley Community Fellowship, we want to build the biggest building in the county, manage a multi-million dollar budget, have a parking lot bigger than the mall, and get our preacher to publish a book that will make him a household name in evangelical circles." To be honest, I would rather see some truth that would reflect most churches in America: "At First Church of the Denomination, we are a church that is trying to overcome our differences and inadequacies to somehow reach the lost in our community because we are honestly concerned about their eternal destiny, but we're not really sure how to do it and we often fail to show Christ's love... but we really do love Christ and the lost." That would be refreshing.
8 comments:
FP,
How much do you think that (or the other for that matter) is actual "Biblical exposition" and how much is the other side of the same coin, namely postmodern, psycho-stuff? I guess language like "inadequacies" elicites a pavlovian like response from me.
Maybe my fundamentalist stripes are showing, but are we really at a loss on how to reach the lost? Maybe my current temporment is that of the Church Militant, believing I am more than a conquerer, more than sufficient, and part of a chosen people, a royal pristhood and the first fruits of the resurrection, bringing in the eschatological community.
I'm sure I'll do something later in the week or today that will change my temperment and make this resignate w/ me more, although I like his critique of the alternative.
kdny
KDNY,
How may converts have you won this week? This month? This year? In the last ten years? Do such results constitute an evangelistic triumph?
FP
I don't understand the question.
The past year has been rather slow, but between fall of 2000 and spring of 2004 I saw numerous folks be reconciled to God.
"Did the results constitute an evangelistic triumph?" What's an evangelistic triumph? The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed...
Morgan,
Have you not watched TBN? Where is your head? God clearly bestows material blessings on His faithful servants. I mean, Jesse Duplantis has planes. As he says, "How else will I bring the Gospel to people in Africa with poop in their hair?" (Actual quote that I heard him say) So, I can only assume that you aren't winning souls and doing other such things; otherwise, you would know there are bonus trips. You would writing to this in Vegas!
kdny
kdny
Keith,
The point of the question was to draw out the already/ not yet nature of the Kingdom. I found the "tounge in cheek vision statement" refreshing because it describes me and my ministry perfectly. We really are stumbling through this mission Christ has given us. Whereas I am more than a conquerer with respect to my status, as of yet, my ministry has yet to produce conquest-like results. And yes, I do think God is concerned with numbers and results. What is it that the numbers are counting? People. Numbers are people. I want to see more people come to know Christ rather than less. In Acts God was adding to their "number" daily. He counts three thousand that were baptized in one day.
There is a story about Patton leading a brigade during the war. He had the brigade divided into three branches and was going to attack some previously unassailable stronghold. The left and center flanks were strong and thier task was managable. The left flank however had its work cut out for it. Patton called for the commander of that left branch and told him how crucial victory was in this situation. he told him that He knew they would take the position from the enemy, even though it would be hard. He said "if you are successful you will be sure to get one of these" and then Patton pulled from his pocket some medal he had recieved earlier in his career for an equally difficult act of valor and conquest. As the two men parted ways to prepare for battle, Patton called back to the young commander and said, "You know what? I am so confident that you will be victorious, why don't you just go ahead and take this now". And he gave the young soldier his medal to keep and carry throughout the battle.
That, in my opinion is a good picture of the church. We are conquerors because Christ has bestowed upon us that status and has garaunteed our victory. But that doesn't mean that it is easy or that we can see the results we would like to see in this world.
See? Now that's exactly what I was trying to say. Thanks Craig, for clearing that up for us.
fp,
I kind of agree and disagree (the dialectic version of the 'already/not-yet').
I would like to add that all of our evangelistic efforts are triumphs and not merely in some "status" way, but very practically. Paul says, "But thanks be to God who ALWAYS leads us in triumphal procession." Why? Because the Gospel spreads the aroma of Christ, the aroma of life and death. Even those days that the preaching of a crucified messiah resulted in the hardening of sinners hearts, hence greater judgment, I believe I was part of the triumphal procession. Jesus is in the process of putting down his enemies, some through love and conversion others through wrath and judgment. Either way, as King of kings and Lord of lords, he is always triumphant, which includes us, the Church.
I'm not saying that many days of travelling & preaching I felt like quitting, wondering what in God's name (literally) am I doing, this sucks, and all of that. This would often cause me to end up in Bunyan's "slough of despond", hearing, "oh ye of little faith."
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