church in some cases. If you’ve been around the church scene for any length of time you’ve recognized a swindler or someone who twists the scriptures to teach something that God never intended to say. You may have been part of a church that was all about the pastor. It happens. You may see decisions made about the general direction of the church that you don’t agree with. You may say things like “They should prioritize evangelism and they just don’t do it. We should have more praise songs and celebrate what God has done. We should do more worship because that what God really wants.” We all have our ideas about how church should be done, what should and shouldn’t happen and even how to make those things happen. Before you write off the leadership of your church and/or decide to leave, ask yourself a couple of questions:1. If the church changed to suit the picture I have in mind, would it still fulfill its purpose?2. Am I a customer at my church or am I part of the work force?
If the purpose of your particular church is to reach the lost, and the church changed to fit the model that you have in mind for your church, would it still reach lost people? If the mission of your church is to disciple believers and help them grow closer to Christ, would your church still fulfill that mission if it changed the things that you think need to be changed? Often, we project our own ways of thinking onto others. We all do it. The church universal exists to reach lost people and disciple them. After all, that’s the Great Commission. Go and make disciples of all nations… teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. However, the mission of your local church may be more specific than that. Paul said that some people planted, some watered and some reaped the harvest. He also said that different people have different gifts and even used the analogy of the different parts of the body to describe how people could work together to accomplish a common goal, but not all do the same thing. As I’ve said before, unity does not equal unison. Different people have different purposes in the body of Christ. Different churches have different responsibilities as well. Some plant (think Seeker-Sensitive), some water (think discipling) and some reap the harvest (think evangelical). All churches, regardless of their particular mission should be reaping a harvest of some kind. That harvest may be new believers as they reach the lost, or it may be a harvest of maturing believers as they disciple other Christians. Now, you may think that your church exists to reach lost people. Therefore, in your church, which places an emphasis on discipleship, things need to be done differently. At least in your (humble) opinion. Of course, the opposite is true as well. You may think that the primary goal of any church should be to disciple Christians and help them to become better Christians. That should be a goal of every church, but some churches may place an emphasis on actually reaching lost people and not so much on discipling growing Christians.
People complain about the direction of the church, yet when the church is working to accomplish their mission, some of those same folks then choose to leave the church because the church isn’t feeding them. It seems they want the church to treat them as customers. We live in a consumer-driven society. We don’t go to the mall to fill our basic needs. We go to the mall to fulfill our consumer-driven mentality. Over time, this mentality has crept into the church culture as well, so that we now have quite a few Christians who are consumer-minded individuals. They don’t look at the big picture in terms of the mission of the church. They look at what’s in it for them. What am I getting out of going to this church in particular, or even the church in general? They think that the church should put the needs of its members first. This is described in church-growth circles as “inward thinking” and is actually one of the signs of a church’s decline. As a church ages, it can begin to lose sight of those outside the church and begin to only meet the needs of those inside the church. It becomes a closed organism that eventually dies. These people have missed one of the major points of Christianity. For the church to be healthy, church members should be part of the workforce, not the customers. The customers of the church are people who need Jesus. Once they become a Christian, the process of growing from a customer to a worker begins.
If the reason you don’t feel like you’re growing is because the church is not feeding you, then you need to step in and help. Join or start a small group or class that will go deeper in the study of the Bible. You are not to be a spectator, you are to be a stakeholder. You are not there to be served, you are to be a servant. You need a place where you grow by serving and supporting the vision to reach your community for Christ.
QBQ is a book by John Miller that talks about personal responsibility. One of the statements that he makes in his book is Believe or Leave. If you can’t support the vision of the corporation or department that you are a part of, then you need to look for another job. The same is true of a church. If you can’t be part of the team, do your church, the Lord and your pastor a favor and find somewhere else to attend. However, just like at your place of employment, the opposite is true as well. You are not treated as a customer while on the job. You are a part of the workforce. If you consider yourself a member of your church, you will not be treated as a customer. You are a member of the workforce. Instead of griping about what your church isn’t doing, why not get in there and help it do what it is doing? Are you a customer, or a part of the workforce?