Something has bothered me for a long time, an uneasiness that refuses to resolve. This may prove controversial and not everyone will agree or support these thoughts. That’s OK, here goes anyway.
The internet has allowed me to research and read hundreds of Vision and Mission statements from American Churches nationwide. Life changes and career moves also provided first-hand knowledge from local churches and denominations. With very few exceptions they follow Mathew 28:19 and allude or directly quote the “Great Commission”:
“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit…”
The Master spoke these words to all eleven of the Disciples who were gathered on a mountainside. He then ascended into Heaven.
His instructions are clear, direct and easily understood, this is what he wanted his disciples to accomplish. He commands this of all his Disciples, those then and those now. Please be sure, nothing here adds or subtracts anything from those words.
But we need look also at His instructions in John 21:15-17 given on an ancient beach after a breakfast of fresh caught fish. Christ turns specifically to Simon and tells him three times to “Feed my sheep”. This is the same Simon that Jesus renamed Peter and pledged he would be the rock upon which He would build His church (Matt 16:18). Here Jesus speaks specifically and directly to Peter, giving him instructions that are clear, direct and easily understood.
Do you see an issue here?
All churches should not be soup kitchens, as honorable as that would be. Nor should churches stop supporting outreach and missions, these too pursue God’s plan. But neither should the church ministry be solely outreach and growth; trouble hides there.
Every Christian who enters through a church door is hungry; looking to be fed. They are hungry every time they enter, yet even those hungers change over time and chance. Modern churches have few mechanisms in place to seek out and define these new hungers. While we surround the new attendee for a while, do we forget about the widow or orphan who continue to stagger through? In my experience the answer is sadly, yes.
Several of the churches I have experienced are in a death spin-cycle. They desperately work to attract new people. New music, gymnasiums, cafés, charismatic speakers and programs, all these drain church budgets and place them in a grow-or-die financial crisis. This they call outreach, while the widow and orphan, the sinner, newly divorced, confused, lonely and broken-hearted sit hungry and alone.
The American Church is rapidly attending to the course that our Western European brothers have followed. The end is empty cathedrals and irrelevance.
Even so, Christ’s Church goes on elsewhere in homes and tents and caves and huts, feeding those who are hungry, this church will not fail. Our American crisis will only resolve when we are willing to take a hard look at what we have become.
This is in the end, a call to prayer for our churches that slip steadily toward an uncertain future.
The internet has allowed me to research and read hundreds of Vision and Mission statements from American Churches nationwide. Life changes and career moves also provided first-hand knowledge from local churches and denominations. With very few exceptions they follow Mathew 28:19 and allude or directly quote the “Great Commission”:
“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit…”
The Master spoke these words to all eleven of the Disciples who were gathered on a mountainside. He then ascended into Heaven.
His instructions are clear, direct and easily understood, this is what he wanted his disciples to accomplish. He commands this of all his Disciples, those then and those now. Please be sure, nothing here adds or subtracts anything from those words.
But we need look also at His instructions in John 21:15-17 given on an ancient beach after a breakfast of fresh caught fish. Christ turns specifically to Simon and tells him three times to “Feed my sheep”. This is the same Simon that Jesus renamed Peter and pledged he would be the rock upon which He would build His church (Matt 16:18). Here Jesus speaks specifically and directly to Peter, giving him instructions that are clear, direct and easily understood.
Do you see an issue here?
All churches should not be soup kitchens, as honorable as that would be. Nor should churches stop supporting outreach and missions, these too pursue God’s plan. But neither should the church ministry be solely outreach and growth; trouble hides there.
Every Christian who enters through a church door is hungry; looking to be fed. They are hungry every time they enter, yet even those hungers change over time and chance. Modern churches have few mechanisms in place to seek out and define these new hungers. While we surround the new attendee for a while, do we forget about the widow or orphan who continue to stagger through? In my experience the answer is sadly, yes.
Several of the churches I have experienced are in a death spin-cycle. They desperately work to attract new people. New music, gymnasiums, cafés, charismatic speakers and programs, all these drain church budgets and place them in a grow-or-die financial crisis. This they call outreach, while the widow and orphan, the sinner, newly divorced, confused, lonely and broken-hearted sit hungry and alone.
The American Church is rapidly attending to the course that our Western European brothers have followed. The end is empty cathedrals and irrelevance.
Even so, Christ’s Church goes on elsewhere in homes and tents and caves and huts, feeding those who are hungry, this church will not fail. Our American crisis will only resolve when we are willing to take a hard look at what we have become.
This is in the end, a call to prayer for our churches that slip steadily toward an uncertain future.
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Jesus is the Bread of Life.
