I write from the perspective of a pastor and I know that my thoughts are subjective to my experience(s) in the church. However, I do believe that some thought process’ are consistent across the church which in turn lead to behavior(s) that are acted on in the church. Here is one such process: people’s thoughts on pastoral ministry i.e. “how ministry should be done by the pastor because that is how I would do it.”. By the way that is an actual conversation I had with a couple years ago standing outside the sanctuary after Sunday service. I was not pastoring to their satisfaction - to the pastors reading this, you know the drill. So here is what I am pondering on…
Whether you like it or not you will always be judged by what you do or do not do for the church - not for The Lord mind you, the church. The Lord doesn’t matter to people who have a critical spirit. The majority are ignorant to church growth and what even constitutes a church. They believe a person can just walk forward and join a church and that makes them a “member of the church”. Because that is how they became a member. Being born again has nothing to do with it. Want proof? In the Baptist denomination you can walk away from your church for any amount of time for whatever reason and still show up to a business meeting X amount of years later to vote on some “important” issue. This is what you get when Jesus is your “Homeboy”. Born again people never leave the church, they desire to be a part of the church. They want the Word of God, the fellowship, the community, etc. because THEY ARE SAVED.
Here is something that is going to really mess with a lot of people’s heads: Robert’s Rules of Order are not in Scripture. They have nothing to do with Scripture and yet the church uses it to conduct business meetings. Have you ever considered that your church business meetings are so divisive is because you’re giving divisive people the opportunity to be divisive? God hates divisiveness:
There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers. Proverbs 6:16-19
Wait a minute Pastor! You mean God hates something?… I think I’ll have to leave this line alone for right now.
Another thought is church growth, again we use a business model of numerical growth for success and forget that growth is salvation. The Lord adding to His church. (Now there are six words to really make someone angry.)
So the metric will always be numerical, never spiritual because people can’t see and don’t care about the spiritual. Growing and maturing in Christ runs opposite to my 40 Days of Purpose. Let’s just have the Ruritan Club with a little bit of Jesus sprinkles on top. That is what we are really desiring. Don’t believe me? Try coordinating a prayer meeting and see how many show up. Now do that weekly and see how many continually show up. You will find out what is important real fast. I have. In my last post I made the statement: People are so content in their complacency. Yes, they are. It is almost as if Jesus does not matter until an emergency takes place. People dust their holiness off then.
I hear the Ruritan Club is nice this time of year.