The numbers are going up...
David Fitch posted the following on his blog:
"The Numbers Are Going Up But Something Doesn't Feel Right"
Monday, September 22, 2008
I'm out traveling and leading seminars with pastors in Eastern Pennsylvania for a few days. Today I was traveling with Craig Weidman assistant to the District Superintendent in the C&MA East PA District. He was telling me a story out of his own ministry when he described an experience that sounded all too familiar at Life on the Vine. He said, "the numbers were going up but something didn't feel right." He was describing the changes that were happening at a prior church ministry when numbers started going up meanwhile the ethos of the gathering was changing. He asked what do you do with that?
We've been experiencing the same thing at Life on the Vine and we're asking the same question. There's a certain excitement being generated. People are hearing about the church. The liturgical shape of our services is beginning to make sense to people. A disposition is being formed in the gathering to receive the presence of Christ in our midst. Yet even with all this we sense a certain percentage of people are coming to watch, not participate (in Mission). There's a larger group coming to see what's going on with a limited commitment to community and Mission. The church has taken on an attractional element. "The numbers are going up but something doesn't feel right."
Read the rest of the story at reclaiming the mission
posted by Bob Carder @ 10:27 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
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David Fitch ends his post with solutions they are considering. What would you do about this problem, he asks.
The answer is simple: Build a church on committed Christ followers who personally own the Great Commission mandate. Quit attracting/inviting unbelievers to Church (the location) and instead invite them to Jesus first. You don't get Christian worship on Sunday without commitment to Jesus. No one invites anyone to the Church (location) until they have led them to Jesus. We need fully engaged disciple makers who gather to scatter on mission - on purpose.
Consider this - Making disciples who make disciples who make disciples has always been the answer and it will always be the solution to the above problem.
By the way if all Christ followers made disciples we would be reaching the world including America for Christ.
The church I last attended does a Fall Festival each year. The church is over 3000 and each year it became harder and harder to get enough volunteers to get the job done. Last year they mandated that all the church staff volunteer at the event - not sure if that makes it volunteering if its mandated?
This year they are hiring a company to put on the event.
Attention all Entrepreneurs! If this trend continues there is a business opportunity here. Outsourcing event management.
I know of church in Orlando who has the same M.O. Is this what Christ meant by serving others? I think not!
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