What is Our Church's Attitude?

Last week I was at a presbytery gathering, and one of my pastoral colleagues said, “Well, now that you have been in Sand Springs for over a year, are you starting to get some real ministry done?”

I have to admit that I was a little taken aback, and didn’t quite know what to say. I wanted to say, “Starting to? We have been doing some great ministry for quite some time!” But as soon as I thought it, I wondered if it was true.

Sure, we have done some great things; our worship attendance numbers are up, giving has been up, even through the hot summer months, Bible school was incredible, we have people involved in weekly Bible study, we are reaching out to our local community and overseas in mission. These are all laudable accomplishments, and I am proud that we are doing them.

It’s just that sometimes I wonder about the attitude we bring when we come to the church. It is so hard not to see church as just one more in a list of things to do, along with sports, yard work, and summer vacations. Who has time for it all?  Sometimes church attendance ends up at the bottom of our priority lists.

In some ways the church is like a business; there are bills to be paid, customers to reach, and services to render. I know more than a few pastors who think of themselves as spiritual CEOs.

Jack Rogers in his book, Claiming the Center, observes that it has only been in recent history that the church has become so corporate-minded. As late as the 1800s, the Presbyterian Church had no national staff or program. It has only been as the church has entered the twentieth century that “churches adopted the organizational model of corporate bureaucracy,” (p. 48). At its height in the 1950s, the journal Presbyterian Life had more subscribers than Newsweek. This model began to break down in the 1960s when the national church leadership became less in tune with its constituents in the pew. The Presbyterian Church has not had a year of net gain in membership since.

The church is not a business, and when we think of it in that way, we misunderstand the very nature of what it means to be the Body of Christ. The church is a spiritual community. As Christ’s body we grow, we heal, we support one another, and we feed one another. That’s a whole different ball game.

There are so many habits and attitudes we hold, some of them without even realizing we have them. I love the J. B. Phillips translation of Romans 12:2 where he says, “Don’t let the world squeeze you into its mold.” How often do we uncritically accept the things that the world and the culture around us says, never stopping to consider how it may be undermining the work of God in the church?

One of my pastor friends made reference this week to the fact that so many of our churches are inwardly focused. We get so caught up in our own needs and desires that we forget the primary job of the church – to go out into the world and make disciples.

Next week, I will be attending a pastor’s conference for a few days (don’t worry, I’ll be back by Sunday) that is looking at this very thing. The conference is entitled, “From Consumerism to Community,” and I hope to bring back some ideas how we can live the life Christ has called us to in the way he has called us to live it.