Some Tough Questions for Church Builders

Missions

How on God's good earth can we give any credibility to a church that touts a fantastic missional emphasis on one hand, and yet, when we look over the congregation, we see no poor people, no one obviously bound by chemical addictions, no black faces, no Latino faces, no people in dirty clothes, no one desperate enough to cry out aloud during the multimedia presentation? If this church's message doesn't appeal to the poor, the mislead, the misused and abused, the misinformed, the cold and naked, the hungry and thirsty, and every other societal castoff its own city, how can its so-called message have any relevance to the common people in poor, third-world nations?

There is something incredibly weird going on in the mind of a pastor who serves white, upper-middle America in his converted shopping mall, but thinks he has a legitimate calling to a world that is ravaged with famine, poverty, brutish political oppression, sickness, and death. If the message doesn't attract a cultural, financial, racial diversity at home, it won't track "over there."  The best he can do is cobble together a mission effort and send a few people "over there" to give away some food and medicine. (I am aware that some think that IS mission, but most of us know better.) . Really, the best thing he can do is maintain an ongoing fundraising program for a few missionaries who are already in place and know what they are doing.

It comes down to this: If you don't have a gospel message that is universal enough to appeal to the less fortunate in your own city, why do you think that same message will appeal to those even less fortunate in an entirely different culture? And please don't answer by backflipping on multiple definitions of "missions." Sheesh!

The truth of the matter is that "missions happens," and happens with energy and unbounded potential. We don't have to set up a training program and end up scolding the congregation for their lack of interest. If you are preaching the gospel that Jesus intended, missions simply happens--in its time and in ways far more satisfying that any  man-made, me-too plan. But you don't stand a chance if you look out over your congregation every Sunday morning an see those cookie-cutter people--white or black, sophisticated or redneck. If you don't have diversity, you don't have a legitimate message to begin with.

Public Testimony Time

The Gospel must manifest in flesh-and-blood reality--today. That's what Jesus represented, and so should we. The Gospel has to walk and talk. It has to be experienced and witnessed to others. Printed words aren't enough to convey the goodness, grace, and power of God. And if your congregation's experience with God's intervention in our daily affairs, you have a deaf and blind congregation. God is always doing stuff. Most people simply are not taught to see it.

Of course Guideposts testimonies are better than none at all, but that isn't the option-set that God offers. God is truly authentic, and He wants his witness to be in the flesh and speaking to flesh. When we truly learn to see Him at work in our daily lives, we want to explode all over the place with excitement. And this is the nature of genuine, Spirit-driven, public testimonies.

Yes, yes, I know. There are boring testimonies and frustrating abuses. There is that little old widow (bless her heart) who has been taking up 15 minutes of congregation time for the past 20 years with the story about her husband getting them lost at the World's Fair. But that sort of chatter can be carefully controlled. Then there are the forced testimonies about how God found a good parking spot for the lady who didn't want to run through the rain to the grocery store. Hey! I'll tell you the kind of testimonies you can see in your services. Consider same lady testifying to a good parking spot. This time, though, it is a spot that places her face-to-face with a woman who says she is going home to overdose that evening if something meaningful doesn't happen in her life. "And here's that woman in church with me tonight! "

Why in God's name wouldn't you want that kind of testimony in your services? Start preaching the rich Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven and burn all those OT commentaries and alliterations. Become a force in the pulpit for Gospel growth. Avoid the temptation to reduce testimony gathering to a 10-point bulleted outline. Go the the mountain yourself, and get some of God's anointing all over you. Come down with the glory all over you, and preach about God's everyday goodness and grace with unction. You will have exciting and rewarding testimonies popping up all over the place!

And for cryin' out loud, don't make your people write out their testimonies, rehearse them, and read them to the congregation! Too often, I've seen people weeping and choking their way through some printed testimony. As beautiful as a testimony might be, it is best delivered with flesh-and-blood passion than with a mechanical reading of printed text. Can't you discern the anointing of the Spirit when you see it on your own people? Don't you know that God is trying to talk to your congregation, and you are sitting there like a log, hoping she gets through the reading without an embarrassing emotional outburst? Get your priorities straight. You are quenching the Spirit. Let your people become God's mouthpiece. Let them shout, weep, cry aloud, dance, or fall on the floor. You are supposed to have some spiritual discernment (after all, it is a gift of the Spirit), so you are able to see when the Spirit leaves off and the flesh takes over. That's the moment you simply take charge and move things along.

Praise and Preaching

Does anyone around here have the courage to whisper that the title of praise-and-worship leader does not represent one of the five-fold ministries to the body of Christ? Better not, because that would be a a heresy --albeit a man-made one. But I'll bet someone has taken the trouble to pretzelize some scriptures to make it appear that the praise-and-worship leader stands right up there with apostle, prophet, pastor, evangelist, and teacher. Praise and worship filles a vital purpose in the church, but it isn't intended to replace preaching under the unction of the Holy Spirit and anointed ministry to the needs of the people.

How much clock time is spent in congregatinal prayer, compared to the time spent listening the whang-whang of guitars wired up to megawatt loudspeakers?  Geeez, I can get a big emotional buzz from singing Auld Lang Syne at midnight on New Year's Eve, but it doesn't mean the music is anointed and that I am being ushered into the presence of God!

Trouble is, we badly need to nourish this time spent in praise and worship, because the pastors aren't doing their jobs. There was a time when the preaching and praying were the chief reasons for going to church. Nowadys preaching and corporate prayer seem to be just a pile of dry bones. We need the excitement of praise and worhsip to justify the time we spend going to church in the first place.

Pastors don't go to the mountain of God themselves much anymore. They tend to complain that they don't have the time. What's that?! That's what your supposed to do! Pastors are supposed to be relating his/her own experiences with God, and not warmed-over mush from the latest book, seminar, or website. "Ohhh, I am so stressed and burned out." Well, get to the *&#% mountain and get your spirit refreshed. Get your priorities straightened out--are you a spiritual leader or the CEO of a social club?. Take responsibility where it is due, take postive steps toward fixing the mistakes, and God will bless you, your family, AND your church. But stay home and continue bitching about how overworked and confused you are, and you'll end up on Ativan and your congregation in a spiritual morgue. Or maybe you can just find a praise-and-worship team that is more than willing to run the whole show for you. They're around these days.