The Church Needs An Enema

I don’t want to come off as critical here. I’m just asking questions and really just thinking and processing as I type these words. Here’s the big question that I am exploring right this very second: are North American churches God-centered or self-centered? Are they outwardly focused or inwardly focused? Is the church set up to give Christians a safe place to minister to other Christians or is the church set up to mobilize Christians to the community around them? In other words, is the church holding fast to its own wants, desires, and comforts, or is the church reaching out to the community and holding fast to those relationships, messy as they may be? I share the complaint with a number of people that the church seems to be constantly asking for money. Of course, I will not deny that the church does need money in order to operate. However, how much money does it need to operate? How much money does it need in order to meet community needs? How many full-time staff does a church need? How many programs does a church need for its members? I know a number of people who are engaged in ministry and aren’t even on a church staff. They don’t get paid a dime to work at a church. They have full-time jobs in the secular work force and engage in ministry after hours. I have been asking myself a lot of questions lately regarding how the church uses its resources to do ministry. Are we using our resources to keep Christians comfortable or are we using resources to help non-believers to see Jesus? If some folks can get involved in ministry on their own time and be effective in it, can a senior pastor reduce his support and perhaps work bi-vocationally even in larger ministries? What is it that a senior pastor actually DOES that others can’t be trained and equipped to do? I’m not knocking churches that have full-time senior pastors, but some senior pastors get paid to do things that stretch them way to thin to begin with. Is he (and should he be) the ONLY one who can visit sick people? Can the pulpit be shared? Can he delegate logistics to other folks? If the pastor is in the office or with Christians most of the time, how does he get to know those in the community who are lost? Shouldn’t he have a contact to the community that keeps him connected on a regular basis? Do we have to have full-time worship guys and youth guys on our church staff? I WAS a full-time youth guy. I filled my time, but I remember times when I filled it with some things that I could have done had I not been full-time at a church. (I ALSO remember being part-time and wishing I was full-time so I could get some of the ministry tasks done that were slipping, so there’s that, too...) Does the discipleship guy have to have an office in the church building, too? Now, depending on the church and the responsibilities of these folks, the answer is “yes, we do need our ministerial staff to be full-time”. However, I just am not sure that the first thing a church needs to do is start hiring full-time people and rounding out a staff just like every other church. Of course, we need someone to handle money, track people, answer the phones, make copies, etc, but these are folks who are not really considered ministerial staff (yes, they have a ministry, so I’m not knocking them. I’m just differentiating between “professional clergy” and others). I’m coming to the conclusion that there are some churches that need way more full-time administrative staff more than it needs full-time ministerial staff. I’m just not sure that today’s minister cannot serve the public better by having a job in the secular work force that connects with families than if they sit in the office all week long. Sermon prep is important, but there are pastors in the world who are able to pull off great sermons while working a job. (By the way, I do realize that in five years, I may be eating these words, as I need to be full-time at a ministry in order to get things organized and to accomplish the tasks necessary to carry out a successful ministry.) I think my reaction here is against bloated budgets that cause a church to begin to focus too much on money. I confess that I have, for years, had a problem with a church sending money away to and association in order to help the association to do ministry. Yes, I am in favor of cooperation, but why do we farm out the mission to an association? I am all in favor of missions and ministry, but can’t the church use its own dollars better and more effectively if it isn’t sending money to pay for the association’s rent, building payment, insurance, salaries, etc.? Why are so many communities crumbling physically and spiritually if the association is using those dollars for missions? My own hometown is, by our own association’s standard 70% unreached (I think it’s worse than that, actually). So, are we self-centered or God-centered? I don’t know. Maybe I’m just being a judgmental jerk. I do know that when every other article comes out and says that the church is losing ground, we have to do something different. A new church with a new model and method for doing and financing ministry is definitely in order. Someone has to do something different. It’s almost like we need to make the shift from the proverbial country club and back to the rescue mission.