The Purpose of the Church

In Sunday school over the last (well, it was supposed to be 4 weeks, but I think we're going into week 6) we've been discussing the purpose of the church. I think the decision to have this church-wide "study" was primarily motivated by the fact that we're seeing long-time members leaving the church and the pastor, rightfully, is concerned. Since we live in a highly military area, it's natural that the membership will ebb and flow as people are transferred in and out - but unfortunately that's not the reason here. One of the long-time members is someone my mom knows. I had noticed that I didn't see her anymore and asked mom if she'd heard anything from her. At the time she hadn't, but a few days later she got an email. Amidst the other news etc. was the primary reason she left, and it's the same as the reason Tim and I weren't going to come back after we visited the first time, the sermons on Sunday are, well, let's just call them "lite". A discussion with another person revealed that this may be the reason for more than just one person who has left.

So now, because of the decline, we're looking at the mission of the church, the purpose of the church. Our pastor has said that he feels the mission statement could be summed up as "Reach and Teach." Then he went on to explain that essentially this means to reach people for Christ (evangelize) and disciple Christians to deeper spiritual maturity. I agree wholeheartedly with those as the major goals of the church - any church. It is effectively the Great Commission.

In our Sunday school classes we took a deeper look and tried to view the church as an offshoot of the five purposes given in The Purpose Driven Life (PDL here on out). The end of the study (which is where we are now) involves a survey to be filled out as a class (so only one submission per class) rating the church as it pertains to the five purposes and offering suggestions for improvement, including ways each of us as individuals can help make the improvement reality. While PDL has some merit - and the purposes therein are certainly good purposes (Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry and Evangelism), I don't believe they are necessarily where you start when trying to address the effectiveness of your church.

Last week, we started our discussion essentially in the middle - because it was a natural flow for the discussion - and began the survey looking at Evangelism. The majority of the discussion was the seeming lack of outreach to the community (our church is located in the middle of a residential area) and a question about how much we focus on other missions. This is a good discussion, but it went round and round and round. And I think it's primarily because we lost focus.

It seems like to me the way to build the church is to focus on discipleship. Because the rest is all an offshoot. If you are growing strong Christians who are challenged spiritually, who are actively reading the Bible and making their faith a strong, integral part of their lives, then the rest will come. These Christians will worship - and it will be true worship. They will enhance the atmosphere and help others enter in to worship. They will bring musical gifts and share them to increase worship. Strong Christians will gather together for fellowship - and it will be uplifting fellowship, because it will be a true gathering of 2 or 3 in His name. And even if it's just a pot-luck without a "Spiritual Goal" for the evening, God will be glorified through it. Strong Christians will take new Christians under their wings and nurture them. Strong Christians will know their gifts and will use them in ministry because they will be tuned in to God's calling. They will pour into the community and evangelize by the very way they live their lives. But this can only happen if they are being nurtured and fed and discipled into strong Christians.

I understand the connundrum. People from all walks come to the Sunday morning service. There are people who have never heard the Gosepl all the way to people who have been walking closely with Christ for 80+ years. The typical solution seems to be to try and speak to the lowest common denominator. I think this is wrong. There needs to be challenge for all walks in the service, not just for those who are new to the faith. Something that challenges a spiritually mature believer is going to challenge a new believer, but then, almost everything will challenge a new believer. To ease this challenge somewhat, I believe that Sunday school classes ought to be broken out, not by age or marital status, but by spiritual maturity. Are you new to the church? New to the faith? Been away a while? We have these classes avilable - ideally, one of these classes would follow the sermon and help to break it down each week to a more understandable level for beginners. Otherwise, there are a variety of topical or book-based studies that, prior to starting, indicate at what depth they intend to address the material (because 2 groups can study the same topic and do it at different depths and both end up with an excellent study, but one size doesn't always fit all.)

While it's more work and more challenging, I really think that an effort like this - an effort to spiritually engage people at all points in their walk - will pay off in the fulfilment of the church's mission. I also think that if we spin around trying to figure out what programs are missing, what ministries we don't have, how we can better reach out to the community, etc. without first establishing this base of solid, growth-oriented teaching, ultimately it's going to be unsuccessful.

Your thoughts?