Jesus Didn’t Come for the Righteous but for Sinners
As Jesus walks along he sees a tax collector, Levi. He says to Levi, “Follow me.”
Levi gets up, leaves everything, and follows Jesus. Then Levi throws a party for his tax-collector friends. Jesus is there hanging out with them.
As often the case, the religious leaders criticize Jesus. They don’t think he should eat with notorious tax collectors and “sinners.”
Like always, Jesus has a response that catches everyone off guard. He says, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, only the sick.” Then he makes his point, “I didn’t come to earth to call righteous people to repent.
Instead I came to encourage sinners to turn their lives around.” (See Luke 5:27-32, Mark 2:14-17.)
Shouldn’t we do the same?
Most Churches are a Haven for Saints
But most churches focus on the righteous, the people who appear to have their act together. These churches don’t care about sinners, not really.
Yes, they say they do, but who do they invite to church? It’s usually other Christians, not non-Christians.
Church folks are uncomfortable hanging out with the non-churched. So-called sinners make them uneasy. (Remember, we all sin. It’s just that some of us have been made right through the gift of God’s goodness, Ephesians 2:8-9.)
Instead, we Christians spend time with people like us, not the people who need Jesus the most. For most people, the longer we’ve been a Christian, the fewer non-Christian friends we have.
Yet Jesus does the opposite. He ignores religious insiders, the righteous people. Instead he spends a lot of time interacting with those on the outside, the people society dismisses as sinners and outcasts.
But they’re the ones he wants to help. They’re the ones who need him the most.
Make Church a Hospital for the Sick
People who need Jesus need a safe place where they can encounter him and learn about him. They need love, not judgment. They need to be able to come to Jesus as they are, not after they’ve changed their lifestyle to become “good.”
When Jesus calls Levi, he doesn’t call the tax collector to change his behaviors. Jesus calls Levi to simply, “Follow me.”
Shouldn’t we and our churches do the same? Shouldn’t we focus on encouraging people who need Jesus to follow him?
Instead we’ve turned our churches into a comfortable club where we sequester ourselves from the world and spend time with each other—ignoring the people who need Jesus.
Look Outward at People Who Need Jesus, Not Inward at Ourselves
When we make church a haven for saints, we have a selfish perspective. We hold an internal focus. However, when we view church as a hospital for the sick, we have a selfless perspective. We hold an external focus.
We need to put others ahead of ourselves (Philippians 2:3)—especially those who need Jesus.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
Try This Counter-Cultural ApproachWhen It’s Time to Select a New Church
There’s an astute saying, “If you find the perfect church, don’t join it—because then it will no longer be perfect.” The reality is that as long as a church has members, it will never be perfect.
That’s because we’re imperfect, so the churches we attend will be imperfect too, and they’ll fall short of the ideals we have for them. This means that finding a perfect church is an impossible task, one we’ll never achieve.
Yet we persist in trying. We shop for churches as a consumer, looking for the one with the most options and greatest features—one that will best meet our needs—while asking as little as possible in return.
We seek maximum value: great outcomes for a small investment.
This is how the world would select a church. They’d follow the modern mindset and shop for a church. But it’s the wrong approach.
Two Steps to Find a New Church
Instead of shopping for a church, the perfect church, try this countercultural method to selecting a new church home. It’s a simple two-step process. The first step is easy, but the second step requires ongoing effort.
Step one to finding a new church home: Go to the church that’s nearest your home. It’s that easy.
This allows us to form a church community in our geographic community. Hopefully some of our neighbors will attend this local church too, which will allow us to worship God with our neighbors.
Step two to finding a new church home: Do whatever it takes to make it work. That’s the hard part. It requires sacrifice, patience, and determination.
Making a commitment to a church is much like making a commitment to marriage. In both cases, instead of bailing at the first sign of conflict, we commit to doing whatever it takes to make the relationship work.
Whatever church we go to will require effort on our part to make it work for the long-term. Therefore, why not make this effort with the church nearest our home?
Personal Application
It’s long been my desire to go to church in my community and to worship God with my neighbors. Am I doing this? Sort of. My wife and I attend the second closest church.
This is because we needed to be in agreement, since this would be the church for both of us.
This church is .7 miles from our house (within walking distance). And several of our neighbors go to this church too.
Though this church has many admirable qualities, it isn’t the perfect church. Yet we’re doing what’s needed to make it work. We’re getting involved, plugging into community, and seeking ways to serve.
When it comes time to find a new church home, why not give this method a try.
After all, has your approach worked any better?
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
Technology May Keep Us Connected but It Can Leave Us Empty
As a society, we’re more connected than ever before. But many people also feel lonelier than ever. With all our connection opportunities, why is this?
Our smart phones and social media allow us to communicate and stay in touch with more people than we ever could in the past. These technologies erase distance and compensate for time differences.
We can communicate instantly with most anyone in the world.
We can also enjoy shifted communication with people in different time zones or who are on different schedules.
Yet despite all these connections, it’s challenging to truly connect on a deep, meaningful level. The internet or wireless communication doesn’t allow us to be physically present with another person.
We can’t reach out and touch a friend online.
Giving someone a heart-felt hug is impossible on social media. These things fall short in providing us with the true, interpersonal connection we need.
We Need Community to Enjoy True Connection
The reason that technology can’t provide meaningful connection is that we crave community. And an online community is a poor substitute for a real, in-person community.
We desire to be physically present with others and engage in living life with them.
Though technology can mimic it (and for some people this is all they have, sorry), it can’t truly replace it.
This is because God created us for community. We have an innate desire to be in community with others. God desires to be in community with us, just as the Godhead—the three in one Trinity—exists in community with itself.
Remember, he created us in his image. That means if community is important to him, it’s inherently important to us. But how can we find community in today’s highly connected but physically isolated society?
The Church Should Provide Community
Though people debate the purpose of church, a key reason for church is to provide community for its people. Every church should exist to provide community, fulfilling that desire for internal connection that God placed within us.
Unfortunately, too many churches fail at providing a safe, nurturing community for their people. Some churches neglect this responsibility altogether, while others try to offer it, but they fall short.
Though connecting with people online has its value, it’s a poor substitute for what we truly need.
Don’t login hoping to find meaningful connection and community online; go to church instead.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
When It Comes Time to Change Churches, Attitude Is Everything
Last week we talked about when not to change churches, instead of looking to find a new church. Too often people treat their church as a commodity and behave as a consumer, switching their loyalty over trivial things.
Most of the time, however, the best action is to view your church as a marriage and try to make things work. Seldom should you divorce your church and seek a new one.
Even so, sometimes we need to find a new church home. Maybe we just moved, or our church closed. Perhaps we do it for the sake of our kids, seeking a church community to encourage them in their faith and support our efforts at home.
Sometimes newlyweds decide it’s best to not subject one of them to the other’s home church but to find a new one where they can start their life together with a new church family.
If you find yourself in a situation to change churches, here are some tips to do it wisely and enjoy the best outcome. In doing research for my book 52 Churches and subsequent works, my wife and I visited over a hundred churches.
In doing so we learn how to visit churches, both the right things to do and the wrong things. But before you go church shopping, first ask, “Is changing churches necessary?” If the answer is, “Yes,” then take these steps:
1. Research Options Online
Look online to learn about the church before you visit.
When considering church websites and social media pages, be aware that some are more like dating profiles, showing you what they want you to see, obscuring reality, and ignoring faults. Others are more realistic.
Look for what to expect and how to get the most from your experience there. Note their location and service times.
Sometimes it’s worth double-checking this information, as more than once a church’s website gave us wrong information. Then schedule a time for your visit.
But what if the church isn’t online? If a church today doesn’t have an online presence, it’s unlikely they’ll be around tomorrow. Save yourself the grief, and skip them.
2. Pray Beforehand
In visiting fifty-two churches, my wife and I prayed as we drove to each one. And once we finished visiting churches, we continued this practice each Sunday.
These prayers often vary, sometimes focused on our own struggles and other times on our desire to learn what God would have us to learn.
Often, we pray we’ll have a positive impact on others, and sometimes we ask for an openness to receive what others would give to us.
More than once I’ve had to pray for my attitude. But the key is to pray, and let the Holy Spirit guide those prayers. Prayer makes all the difference.
3. Look for the Positive and Expect Good Things to Happen
If you visit a church looking for what’s negative, you’ll find it. If you seek things to criticize, you’ll uncover plenty. The key is to arrive with God-honoring expectation.
Every church has something positive to offer, just as every church has its struggles.
No church, just as no person, is perfect. Look for the good and celebrate it.
4. Arrive Early and Be Prepared to Stay Afterward
It’s hard to connect with people at church during the service. And even those churches that allow for connection time as part of their service, often fail to do it well. I
nstead, plan to arrive early so you can interact with people before the service begins.
And don’t schedule anything afterward, so you can stay as long as you want without the pressure of time.
Sometimes my wife and I would hang out for five or ten minutes after the service and leave because we weren’t able to talk with anyone.
Other times we’d be there for an hour or two after the final “Amen,” enjoying rich Christian community. Often this involves food, which is in added benefit.
Finding Christian community is the main reason we should not give up meeting together (Hebrews 10:25), which most people think means going to church.
If you can connect with the church community, it makes all the difference.
5. Adapt to Their Practices
Visiting a church is like visiting someone’s home. You want to respect their practices. This means if you’re a raise-your-hands or jump-up-and-down type of person, but the church isn’t, follow their practice.
Don’t stand out in a bad way.
This distracts from your experience, as well as their worship. However, if their style is more exuberant than you’re comfortable with; feel free to be yourself.
6. Look for Ways to Contribute
Whether you’re visiting once, making a follow-up appearance, or attending as a regular, look for ways to give back to the church.
This might mean offering encouragement, looking to pray for people (either out loud or silently), or being a positive influence anyway you can.
Though my wife and I didn’t contribute monetarily to the churches we visited, you may feel differently. In which case you can also give financially.
7. Make Repeat Visits
Visiting a church once makes an initial first impression. This may be accurate, but it might not. One church encouraged us to come back twelve times before deciding.
Of course, they knew anyone who came back that often, would form a habit and stick around after the three months was over.
I’m not sure if you need to visit twelve times, but certainly more than once is needed. When my wife and I moved, we faced finding a new church home.
For those churches that we revisited, our first experience often differed from our second.
Sometimes it was better, and other times it was lacking. Regardless, one visit isn’t enough.
This means avoiding notions of consuming, attending, and criticizing—which are all too common at most churches.
Instead the goal is to be engaged on Sunday morning.
This requires that we be active, adopting three alternate perspectives: we need to give instead of consume, we need to be active not an attendee, and we must be a disciple and not a critic.
This simple change in attitude will alter everything we experience at church.
If you find yourself needing to switch churches, follow these tips to get the most from the experience and home in on your new church community.
My wife and I visited a different Christian Church every Sunday for a year. This is our story. Get your copy of 52 Churches today, available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
When We Go Church Shopping We Behave as Consumers and Don’t Honor God
In today’s practice of retail religion, we pursue faith has a consumer and miss the purpose of church. We’re quick to change churches over the smallest of issues. Yet, usually the best action to take is no action: Don’t change churches.
Yes, there’s a right time and a wrong time to change churches. We need to discern between the two and act accordingly. Here are some reasons not to change churches.
Don’t Change Churches If You’re Angry
Did your church do something to hurt you? Are you angry over something that someone did or said? Though the impulse to change churches is understandable, this is the wrong time to do it.
Don’t leave mad because you’ll hurt others in the process.
And don’t leave hurt, because you’ll carry baggage to your new church. Instead, seek reconciliation with your church and its people. Then you can switch with a clear conscience, but if you patch things up, why not stick around?
Don’t Change Churches If You’re Not Being Fed
It sounds spiritual to say you’re switching churches because you’re “just not being fed.” This sounds virtuous, but it’s really a sign of laziness. It’s not church’s job to feed us spiritually. This is the wrong expectation.
Yes, church aids in spiritual growth, but they shouldn’t be the primary provider of our faith nourishment.
Spiritual growth is our responsibility. We need to feed ourselves and not expect a minister to do our job for us. Changing churches so we can be fed only masks the real problem.
Don’t Change Churches If You’re Not Getting Anything Out of It
In today’s culture, too many people view church participation as a transaction. They put in their time expecting something in return.
They donate their money and look for a return on their investment. This, however, reduces church to a commodity that we shop for.
The truth is, we only get out of church what we put into it. So, if you’re not getting anything out of church, the problem falls on you and not church.
Don’t Change Churches If You Fear Heresy
Another spiritually-sounding complaint about church is heresy. Yet disagreement over theology is why we have 42,000 denominations in our world today and not the one, unified church that Jesus prayed for.
When we charge our minister with heresy, the implication is that we know what is correct and they don’t. We need to embrace the possibility that we might be wrong.
Instead, we squabble over things that don’t matter and leave the church. What does matter? Jesus. Everything else is secondary.
We need to acknowledge that we can have differences of opinion over matters of faith and still get along.
Don’t Change Churches If You Don’t Like the Music or the Message
Another side effect of retail religion is changing churches because we don’t like the worship service or the sermon. Again, this is consumerism infiltrating church.
All music can praise and worship God. Just because we don’t like the tone or tempo—or volume—it isn’t worth changing churches. Instead, seek to worship God regardless of the musical style or the performers’ ability.
Remember, we’re not there as consumers seeking entertainment; we’re there as followers of Jesus to worship God in spirit and truth (John 4:24).
The same applies to the message. Yes, some speakers are gifted, and others aren’t; some presenters are entertaining, and others are boring. But every message has something we can learn from it, if we’re willing to listen and look for it.
Don’t Change Churches If You Have No Friends
If your church lacks community or you have no friends there, who’s fault is that? Yes, some people are easier to connect with then others, but that’s no excuse to give up.
In fact, the problem might be in us. If we have no friends at church it might be because we’re not approachable or don’t make ourselves available.
The best time to make friends at church is before the service starts and after it ends, but too many people miss these opportunities by arriving at the last moment and leaving as soon as possible.
If you have no friends at church, seek to change that.
There are many reasons to change churches, but most of these are selfish, shortsighted, and reflect a consumer mindset. This displeases God and serves to divide his church.
If you don’t like your church, the better approach is to stick around and be a catalyst for change.
Seek to make the church where you’re at become a better one and don’t take your problems someplace else.
My wife and I visited a different Christian Church every Sunday for a year. This is our story. Get your copy of 52 Churches today, available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Awakening the Faithful, Reaching the Lost, and Making Church Matter
By Michael White and Tom Corcoran
Reviewed by Peter DeHaan
Are things not working at your church? Is your congregation aging and attendance dwindling? Are people just going through the motions and not engaged? Do folks arrive at the last minute and scurry off as soon as the service ends?
If any of these questions connects with you, then this book, Rebuilt: Awakening the Faithful, Reaching the Lost, and Making Church Matter, can provide insight to bring about positive change and produce a different outcome for your church.
With refreshing candor and an appropriate layer of humor, authors White and Corcoran share their journey in turning around and reinvigorating their dying church.
Though written by two Catholics about a Catholic parish, this book reaches far beyond Catholicism to provide useful information for any Christian church, including all streams of Protestantism.
In fact, many references in this book cite Protestant leaders, perhaps more so than Catholic sources. As such this is a book for all Christians who care about their church and want to make it better.
Another refreshing benefit of Rebuilt is the dual perspective of its two authors. Michael White is a Catholic pastor, while Tom Corcoran is a lay leader.
This allows them to share contrasting views of their church, one from the eye of a trained clergy and the other one from a caring staffer. Interestingly, both White and Corcoran arrived at this parish planning for a short-term situation, but they ended up staying for the long-term and turning around the dying church.
Rebuilt provides practical ideas of what to do in reinvigorating a struggling church and how to make it work.
The authors also share why things worked. But even more insightful are the honest and sometimes painful initiatives that didn’t work.
Here we can learn even more from their failures than their successes.
The transition that this book documents didn’t happen quickly. It took time, a lot of time, along with many moments of discouragement and frustration.
But the outcome was worth it. And this gives everyone encouragement that a struggling church can change to impact its members and its community.
[Rebuilt: Awakening the Faithful, Reaching the Lost, and Making Church Matter, by Michael White and Tom Corcoran. Published by Ave Maria Press, 2012, ISBN: 1594713863, 292 pages.]
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
I’m not talking about more money, power, or prestige.
I’m not even talking about more love or respect.
I’m certainly not talking about the latest gadgets, a new car, a nicer home, tastier food, or better sex.
I’m talking about more from a spiritual standpoint. I yearn for a “spiritual more.” I suspect—deep down—you do, too. Everything else is a hollow substitute for what God has to offer, not just any god but the God revealed in the Bible: biblical God.
But we don’t often find more from life, this “spiritual more,” at church—at least not how today’s society practices church. We may not even find biblical God there. Most churches fall far short of what God intends for us to experience. We’re drinking Kool-Aid, and he’s offering us wine.
Though I do go to church, I often wonder why. The purpose of church isn’t the music or the message; it’s about community. True church is connecting with God and connecting with others. It’s an intimate spiritual community with true friends who matter, mean something, and stick around.
This is where we find a “spiritual more,” as part of a community of like-minded Jesus followers who diligently pursue the God revealed in the Bible. I call this biblical Christianity. This is why I write and blog.
I’m not a guru and may not even be a worthy guide; I’m a fellow pilgrim. Let’s journey together as we pursue biblical God and seek to grasp this spiritual more. It starts when we follow Jesus—and if you’re not ready for that, come along anyway; it will be a great trip.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
Dividing the Church by Forming Denominations Isn’t Biblical, and It’s Time to Move Past It
Jesus prayed for our unity, that we would be one—just as he and his father are one. He yearned that his followers would get along and live in harmony.
Dividing into religious sects wasn’t his plan. Yet that’s exactly what we’ve done as we formed 42,000 Protestant denominations.
Instead of focusing on our similarities, our common faith in Jesus, these denominations choose to make a big deal over the few things they disagree about.
They should get along, but instead they develop their own narrow theology, which they use as a litmus test to see who they’ll accept and who they’ll reject.
How this must grieve Jesus.
While there has been some disagreement among the followers of Jesus almost from the beginning, the divisions started proliferating 500 years ago with the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
And since that time, it’s escalated out of control, with a reported 42,000 denominations today.
This represents the most significant degree of Christian disunity ever. The push for denominational division traces its beginning to the modern era.
While the modern era assumed that reason would allow us to converge on a singular understanding of truth, the opposite occurred. Instead, the pursuit of logic resulted in wide-scale disagreement.
This is perhaps most manifest among the followers of Jesus, who love to argue over their individual understandings of theology.
Yet there’s a sense we’re moving away from denominations and the divisions they cause. The word to describe this is post-denominational.
Just as we are moving from the modern era to the postmodern era, we are also moving from a time of denominational division to a time of post-denomination harmony.
In understanding postmodern, we don’t consider it as anti-modern but instead “beyond modern.” The same distinction rightly applies to post-denominational.
Post-denominational is not anti-denomination, as much as it is “beyond denominations.”
So, what is post-denominational? Post-denominational moves beyond the Protestant divisions that proliferated in the last 500 years, during the modern era.
Post-denominational sets aside the man-made religious sects that divide the church of Jesus. In its place, post-denominational advocates a basic theology to form agreement and foster harmony.
This allows the followers of Jesus to live together in unity, which will amplify their impact on the world around them. The people who follow Jesus are beginning to realize this. Many new churches label themselves as non-denominational.
This reflects a general mistrust among today’s people for the brand-name Protestantism of yesteryear, that is, denominations.
They’re weary of the criticism, the finger-pointing, and the disunity that denominations have caused. That’s why the label of non-denominational is so attractive to many people.
This includes those who go to church, those who dropped out, and those who have never been. They don’t want to align themselves with a denomination anymore.
They want a spiritual experience in a loving Christian community, one without denominational division.
For the sake of Jesus and our witness of him to our world, can we set our denominations aside and agree to work together to move forward in unity?
It’s a lot to ask, and it seems humanly impossible. But Jesus already prayed for our success (see John 17:20-26.)
May this generation be the answer to his prayer. May we be one.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
We Need to Order Our Priorities With Intention and Do What Matters Most
Whether we realize it or not, we form priorities to order our lives. For most of my adult existence my number one priority has been God.
Though I held this out as my ideal, sometimes, perhaps too often, my actions didn’t live up to this principle, but I did strive to reach it.
Many years ago, I mistakenly included church in the box that should have been reserved for God. As such, I elevated the importance of church to the level of God, effectively making church activity my highest priority.
During that season of my life, whenever the church doors were open, I was there. In addition to attending twice on Sunday, I also served on committees and helped pretty much wherever and whenever someone asked.
As a result I spent two, three, and sometimes even four evenings a week at church fulfilling various roles, commitments, and needs.
When I was busy at church doing these things, my young family was at home—functioning without me. I had mistaken the elevated church activity above family life.
I have long since moved past that church, but my family is still here. They are my priority over church—any church.
If I ever need to choose between church and family, I now choose family.
As far as church activity, aside from the Sunday service, I limit myself to no more than one other commitment—if that. This helps me keep my actions aligned with my priorities.
Yes, God is still the number one priority in my life. But now family comes in second. And they have for a long time, too. Church, however, is further down my list.
God is number one, as he should be. Family comes second. After that is work, writing, and friends. I suppose church activity comes in next. That makes church number six on my priority list. And I think that’s the right place for it to be.
I can’t undo the mistake I made a couple decades ago when I placed church over my family, but I can make sure not to repeat that error again. Not with my wife, not with our children, and not with our grandchildren.
Just because this is how I order my life, doesn’t mean that’s how you need to prioritize yours. But I do encourage you to be intentional, and make a thoughtful determination about what your priorities should be.
The next step is to make your actions align with your ideals.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
Get the Bible Reading Tip Sheet: “10 Tips to Turn Bible Reading from Drudgery to Delight.” Enter your info and receive the free Bible Reading Tip Sheet and be added to Peter’s email list.
We Live in a World That Thinks Bigger Is Better, but That’s Not Always True
Our modern-day society evaluates things based on size. We celebrate magnitude, with bigger being better. Consider the opposite. For example, do you want to shrink your church? Of course not. You want to grow it.
We often assume that bigger churches, in terms of both facility and attendance, equates to God’s sure blessing and his implicit approval. But we are wrong to do so.
I once attended a conference where many of the attendees were ministers. Invariably every conversation I had with a pastor included a mention of or a question about church size. I expected this and resolved not to play their game.
Some wanted admiration, but I refused to stroke their narcissism. Other pursued affirmation, and I determined not to falsely feed into their insecurities. This happened with every conversation. The social time at this conference drained me.
No one was content with the size of their church. Everyone wanted to lead a big (or bigger) congregation—or at least head a fast-growing church. It seemed these pastors’ esteem or paycheck was at stake. This doesn’t seem God-honoring.
Though businesses talk about rightsizing and downsizing, I never hear of churches thinking that way. And while businesses often divest themselves of assets and product lines that don’t align with their goals, and thereby lose customers in the process, churches seldom do.
Instead of pursuing church growth strategies, maybe we should look for ways to shrink your church. Might we experience greater spiritual success if our gatherings were smaller?
Here are some ways to shrink your church:
Think Small
Large churches, as well as some medium-sized churches, struggle in helping people form connections and build community. This is the impetus behind the small group concept.
What a large Sunday gathering can’t provide to attendees, small groups can—assuming they’re run right. But a small church doesn’t need small groups because their small size facilitates connections and community.
Jesus focused on twelve people and gave special attention to three. His actions should guide our desire to think small and to then act that way.
Have an External Focus
Most churches have an inward focus. They give their attention to the needs (demands) of their members to the exclusion of their surrounding community. At best a church may allocate 10 percent of its budget and time to people outside their group. What if we made it 100 percent?
Eliminate Paid Staff
A church with a payroll has skewed perceptions and priorities. Members insist on being served and employees react to keep their paychecks coming.
What would a church look like with no paid staff? It would be simpler for sure. More people would be involved. And it would be smaller. This would be a good thing.
Sell Your Building
Owning a facility is a burden. It costs money, demands time, and sucks the attention away from people. People matter; a building doesn’t. So go ahead and sell it. It will free you. Besides, a small church doesn’t need a building anyway.
Send People Away
When a congregation grows too large, get rid of some of the people. But first empower them. Equip them to go out and start something new: a house church, a community outreach, or a service endeavor.
Send them out and don’t expect them to come back. That will keep your church small and advance God’s kingdom, too.
Pursue Spiritual Depth
Many have said that most churches are a mile wide and an inch deep. They have no spiritual depth. They perpetuate a superficial community, functioning as little more than a Christian social club. Instead, seek spiritual intensity over trivial pleasantries.
This will push away the noncommitted consumers and feed those with a true spiritual hunger.
Stop Counting
In the spiritual realm, numbers don’t really matter. So stop tracking them. Don’t fixate on attendance and offering. Forget quantity. Dump the bigger-is-better mentality. Instead, think less is more. Because it is.
This vision to shrink our church is not hyperbole. These recommendations are a serious challenge and aren’t intended as an intellectually provocative treatise.
Yes, this is counter cultural to our celebration of size. This turns conventional thinking upside down. It will be difficult to pursue and offend many in the process. They’ll reject us and retreat to church as usual.
Does this sound familiar?
Jesus was counter cultural and eschewed conventional wisdom. His way was difficult, but only because it was so different. He offended many with what he said and did. They rejected him and returned to their religious status quo.
Don’t expect many followers if you shrink your church and pursue a small church mindset. That’s okay because smaller is the goal.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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