Avoiding a Small Church Mentality

Flodquist

• Verlag: Resource Publications
• Jahr: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781498272445
• Thema: Theology & Religion
• Thema: Religion

Small churches are not usually a pastor's dream. The fewer the number of people in attendance on a Sunday morning, the more the question persists--why? While books dealing with church growth provide strategies to increase membership, they do not focus upon the root cause of why congregations lose members. They also do not answer the question: Why do some churches remain small? Avoiding A Small Church Mentality answers both of these questions in a manner that is sensitive to the unique needs and challenges of the small church pastor. This book is designed for all pastors and church leaders who want to see their congregations grow numerically, as well as in spiritual maturity. It is also ideal for use in Bible college and seminary classrooms as a new generation of Christian leaders prepare for service in God's Kingdom.

1

All Doctrine, All the Time

Ideally, the pursuit of purity in doctrine is an intense hunger to know the nature and character of our Lord. Such zeal for the truth is commended by God (Acts 17:11). A problem arises however, when the search for truth becomes prized for its own sake as an abstraction, rather than being sought after in humility within the context of human need. When this happens, we cease to speak the truth in love, and reduce scripture to a mere weapon or trophy.

To prevent this from occurring, in every sermon a pastor should strive to apply the biblical text to the needs of those who worship. As strange as it might sound, by this definition a sermon that only rests in the contemplation of divinity is unsuccessful. Although it may have succeeded in stirring the imagination of the hearers, it did not move their hearts toward action.

If we consider the foundational doctrines that underlie the Christian faith, it soon becomes apparent that nearly every belief concerning the nature of God and man can be viewed both theoretically and practically. Whether we focus our attention on the holiness of God, Christology, the sinfulness of man or the nature of the believer as redeemed in Christ, we can find plenty of material both for deep meditation as well as a wealth of information for living biblically every week of the year. These great scriptural themes provide everything that a pastor might need to counsel, rebuke and encourage his flock on how to live together in unity, and how to be witnesses to a lost and dying world.

When preparing a sermon, the minister of the gospel should not only ask, “What is the truth to be conveyed?” but also, “How should my listeners apply this truth?” Too often preachers take for granted that their hearers are relatively close in their understandings of the biblical text; worse, too often preachers take for granted that their hearers will make the leap, unguided, from truth to application. But even in the most well-taught and homogeneous congregations this is not necessarily the case.

Sermons that elaborate on Christian doctrine but never move beyond the theoretical are satisfying only the academic interests of those who are trained in theology and are familiar with the nuances of a particular biblical text as it relates to the overall witness of scripture. Laypeople are much less apt to be appreciative of how the parts fit within the whole. In the pews, the most immediate concern is relevance: What is the pastor going to say within the next half hour that will make a difference to my daily life? Successful preachers do not remain enraptured merely with the texts of scripture as it reveals the character and nature of God and our Savior. Instead, they make the Bible come alive in the life of the congregation, both in individuals and in the whole.

All this emphasis on the sermon assumes that the main draw for church attendance is the sermon. Many would disagree with this, pointing to studies that show the main reasons people choose to attend one church over another are things like social affinity, the style of music, and special programs.

I would suggest that while some studies might indicate the sermon is secondary, in Protestant worship services the sermon is central to the worship experience. This is because in Protestantism, explicating the Word of God (the Bible) became the main avenue of communication from God to His people, supplanting the preeminent place of the Mass in Roman Catholic services. Many other expressions of church life remain negotiable, but if the message from the pulpit consistently fails to satisfy, the people will look for secondary attractions elsewhere.

The term “felt needs” has come to be associated with excesses in the seeker-sensitive church movement in North America with its overemphasis on market research, consumer-oriented programs, compromised worship, superficiality in teaching and discipline, elevation of spiritually immature people to positions of spiritual authority, and obsession with supposedly bigger-as-better mega-churches. However, the idea of seeker-sensitivity itself is not necessarily bad. Jesus himself was very attuned to human need; many gospel stories revolve around very real and legitimate concerns. Clergy and theologically trained laypeople who feel disdain for the concept of felt needs may believe that theology must always have preeminence, or that it is unbiblical for laypeople to determine spiritual priorities and usurp the role of God-appointed church leaders. This attitude assumes that only those who possess formal theological training, or a call from a church to full-time pastoral ministry, have the necessary discernment to lead a church.

What leaders need above all is humility and a sense of balance. Clergy alone do not possess the Holy Spiri...