Deserting its Missiological Call: When Mass-Marketing Method Drives Mega-Church Message
Part Six: Returning to its Missiological Call
For parts one through five, see the posts directly following.
If the church does not exist to satisfy its own needs but to incarnate the love of Christ to the world around them, which I firmly believe is the calling of every church body, then every ministry must transform into a vibrantly externally-focused ministry of the church. Instead of focusing attention on attracting newcomers into the church through creating polished products, churches should concentrate on equipping their teams of volunteers to enter into their communities with the message of the Gospel using acts of service as their platform. Both approaches may result in an increase in church attendance, but an externally-focused approach invites the Holy Spirit to produce this growth. The church that is preoccupied with serving the needs of others has little time to preoccupy itself with its own needs.
When newcomers enter the building, they understand that they a significant part of a larger community of believers. They will not be entertained during the church service, but challenged to find their place within the missiological community that is already established. Dr. Darby Ray, professor of Religious Studies at Millsaps College writes, “Worship is entertainment when it fails to challenge the worshippers to live differently and to carry out the ministry of the church in the world.”[1] Being entertained and embodying Christ’s call to become a missiological community are contradictory. Visitors to mega-churches must understand that they are being invited to become active participants in a way of life that transcends the individual and impacts the world around them. And the primary objective of their service is not to meet needs of those in the community, but to have a platform to proclaim the Gospel message, addressing the real need of the regeneration of the unsaved. The worship of Jesus Christ is the ultimate aim of a missiological community.[2]
In struggling through these issues, my passion has deepened to see the American church transform into a missiological community that maintains its doctrinal purity. My vision for mega-church communities is best articulated by the Gospel and Our Culture Network:
[My vision for the American church is that it will focus] on celebrating God’s presence and promises without seeking or expecting worship to be the occasion for God to meet human needs. The congregation departs from worship, knowing that it is a sent and sending community, and each Christian is conscious of his or her apostolic sentness as light, leaven, and salt in the world.[3]
In reminding the American church of its missiological calling and shifting the emphasis of its ministry life away from an internally-focused philosophy to an externally-focused reality, my goal is that the church will withstand the temptation to favor business principles over biblical principles, emphasize quantity over quality, and succumb to a world-centered entertainment style rather than a Word-centered proclamation of truth.
The rhythm of the world and its methods creates dissonance and disharmony. If the church sings to the tune of the world’s music, it will lose sight of its calling to be the light that shines in the darkness. Rather than proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord, it will begin to proclaim itself.[4] But stepping into the cadence of the divine song composed by God, the church begins harmonizing with the melody sung by her Bridegroom. Singing this sweet song requires the church to adjust its life “to the presence and activity of our living Lord, one day at a time.”[5] It is a song of surrender, and the lyrics are beautifully expressed in Isaiah: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways…for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”[6] The church as an organization is structured, standing erect and powerful, finding an identity in the name that it has made for itself. The church as an organism is fluid, bowing in reverence and humble submission to the God who is power; finding an identity in losing itself, only to discover that it has gained Christ.[7]
Footnotes:
[1] Darby Kathleen Ray, ed., Theology that Matters: Ecology, Economy, and God (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2006), 175.
[2] Lois Y. Barrett and others, Treasure in Clay Jars: Patters in Missional Faithfulness (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company), 100.
[3] The Gospel and Our Culture Network, “Empirical Indicators of a ‘Missional Church’”; available from http://www.gocn.org/newsletters/pdf/103-newsletter.pdf; Internet; accessed 29 April 2008.
[4] 2 Cor. 4:5-6
[5] Blackaby, What the Spirit is Saying, 73
[6] Isa. 55:8-9
[7] Phil. 3:8
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