Bill, you are being synical. Having staff and seeking the lost while retaining the "found" is not an easy thing and has nothing to do with "comfort and entertainment"! Bringing new people into the CRC who have never "tithed" requires much time and training, therefore in order to meet present CRC expectations, others would have to make up the difference. Also young families sending their children to a Christian school face a huge amount to cover church budget and denominational ministry shares. I'm not trying to defend the meeting of budget nor not...I am trying to offer an explaination for the present problem. Blessings!
In the "90's" I was a church planter in FL and a significant portion of our revenue came from CRC supporters who were not members of our churh. They may have been the "Piper" however they knew that the local church leadership had to make the decisions...that was our verbal understanding and that is how it worked out.
Supporters of missions, or anyone else have NO EXPECTION of having a "say" in what the missionary does and no missionary would accept support from someone who gave with "string attached". As was said to me frequently, "I was not caed to plant a church, however God HAS given me the gift to make money which can be used to extend the boundaries of the Kingdom."
I'm not taking issue with any of the comments but I find it interesting that for hetrosectuals it is so easy to talk about gays and lesbians but we say nothing about hetrosexuals who are living together outside of marriage. I experienced that 99.9% of non-Christian couples and not much better for Christian couples live together before marriage and sex before marriage is a virtual given.
In the old days it was "Blacks" who were the target because they were "different"...how much of the attention about gays and lesbians today isn't because of the same reason?
I appreciate the factors you mention and compare them with Nehemiah, who consciously carried out God's work as his mission, bathed with prayer, working through God's people to accomplish the task. It is never about the earthly leader, always about God, yet as with Nehemiah, until he showed up, no one did anything.
Lou, I hope this proves to be a broad discussion as it is an important subject. I want to lead off by saying that the people in the CRC typically don't appreciate how blessed they are by exceedingly well trained pastors. WARNING...when you comment on a pastor's message, you are commenting on the minister. Clarence remembered that critique, as we all do when someone says something indiscript about a message. Any such discussion needs to be as specific as possible and also objective rather than subjective in order to be helpful. One more point, I would say that for most pastors it takes about five years to develope the art of writing and presenting effective Sunday sermon (s).
With all due respect, I think you are just playing games with numbers! We count members because they make profession of faith and seek to become "members" of the local congregation. I married many couples from the community. I required that they have a minimum of three counciling sessions and always invited them to worship. Many did and I also hears from several when they had other life problems. We also had "casual" attenders who would come randomly. All of the above considered me as THEIR pastor and our's as THEIR church. Should they be included in any "counts"? OF COURSE NOT! The local church works with many people to help/assist them...to develop relationships...often leading to becoming believers in Jesus, or who choose to make our church THEIR church (by way of profession of faith).
Regarding "spin-off" ministries, those stand on their own as "unorganized" status. Statistics are not for recognition or standing. ..they are intended to reflect the facts for each congregation.
One stat I always find interesting is total members in relationship to average Sunday attendance. Non growing churches tend to see fewer on Sunday than the number of members while growing churches tend to see MORE people attending on Sunday than they have on their membership roles.
Amy, I'm not saying those stats aren't important, just that the Yearbook is not a research document and can't possibly record all the numbers that you suggest. Growing churches maintain records of all the categories you suggest and probably more, but they don't do it to post on the denominational wall for others to see. As far as evaluating the performance of the pastor, each council needs to develop their own criteria. As far as growth is concerned, it is a function of not only the pastor, but church leadership and congregation. Other church's statistics don't motivate other churches.
As to your question, "what will encourage a congregation to seek out new and creative...", the "A" answer should be because they desire to be obedient to the mission Christ gave the church..."go make disciples! ", but regrettably it is usually self preservation when they realize that their membership is in a down turn and their only hope is to turn their attention toward the communit.
I have great compassion for pastors who experience conflict and abuse from their church, however that is another issue. I believe that all too many churches suffer declining membership because either the minister leads with a "my way or the highway" style or he has stayed beyond his effectiveness. I have also seen examples of where the Council is in league with the pastor to impliment a new vision for ministry for the.church and telling the membership to either "go along or get out!"
When the church calls a new pastor, the.council and congregation have a responsibility to present the candidate with their vision for ministry. If he cannot buy into it, he should not acceot the.call, if he accepts he obligates himself to lead in carrying it out.
Too often the members feel powerless when they see their congregation dwindle...that is wrong. Their first line of process should be to talk with the elders/Council in a loving way. If that accomplishes nothing they need to seek the assistance of the Classis Church Visitors.
Servant leaders do not set the older members of the congregation as the center of the bullseye on the target...that goes to the younger families of the church, however older members are still on the target. As mature members of the church we need to allow space for change in worshio style, music selection and community penetration. Servant leaders also do not use "top down leadership" as a model. Large churches may use a CEO type of structure, but most of our churches do not fit in this catagory.
We as pastors should be able to recognize the signs of demished effectiveness and be proactive in seeking another "call" where we can be both invorigated/challenged and vital and allow the church to seek someone who can be vital. If the pastor refuses to do this, the council should take whatever action is nessary to affect change.
When the church has an effective pastor leading worship in a dynamic way and preaching the Word, and the Council provides an example for the congregation, and the members contribute to the direction and vision of ministry, growth and vitality and community will result. It takes all three to make that happen, the pastor cannot do it alone...no matter how gifted he is.
I often hear people say that "growth" in numbers is not important or a reflection of a "healthy church". I believe that Jesus addressed this with the Great Commission and also in His parable of the "Talents". The servants who were rewarded by their Master when He returned were the two servants who multiplied what their Master intrusted to them. The servant who did nothing to increase their Master's Kingdon was punished.
I pray for our church to grow because that means that new people are coming into a saving relationship with Jesus. I am saddened to see our denomination shrink because it is an indication that we are not meeting spiritual needs in our individual communities.
Our subject is really, "Church GROWTH" and if you look through the Yearbook you can find individual congregations which show consistent growth. These churches are blessed but they are also COMMITTED to reaching out to their communities and enveloping new people into their fellowship. These churches are both "inviting" and "promoting" the community to come and experience Jesus with them. That invitation is to those who are single, married, with children and without, and they are "accepting" to those who are like them and who are different. If you talked with either the leaders or the members of these churches you would hear a common theme..."we will do whatever it takes to effectively reach out to our community with the good news of Jesus Christ!"
Our history works against this kind of CRC congregation. Our forefathers settled in colonies in this country (US). They were a homogenous group and the church they built was for them. "Outreach" consisted of consisted of letting other like-minded new commers in but "other" people who believed or acted differently soon got the message. Fastforward to today and you will find that many of our established churches still have a stronger focus on present member's wants and wishes than on reaching out to those who are different. The problem comes when the younger generation either leaves the area or attends another church and there is relatively little outreach...the church declines. As this happens, families with children see the hand writing on the wall and attend another church where are more choices for them and their children. As this shift continues it leaves the church with fewer and fewer members to handle the internal ministry requirements and they become exhausted or burned out.
As members or leaders, when we say things like, "this is my church and I don't like_______", what we are really saying is that we want church for ME! If we who already know the Lord and know that heaven will be our eternal home are not willing to do whaterer it takes to make it possible for new people to know Jesus as we do, then we are missing our calling.
Growing. Churches are open to change...not for change sake...not for ego sake but for Jesus sake, striving to open the church doors wider and wider. Churches in decline resist change and even in the face of closure take pride in believing they are doing things right.
Lambert, I think you closed your post with the right question, "where have we missed...in the great commission? " Something I tried to teach my children was that when we don't do the right thing, we find ourselves doing the wrong things. I don't mean to be too simplistic, because several issues have been raised in this discussion, however, as I read the gospels, I believe that THE mission of the church is to share the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ to those who don't yet know Him as their Savior and Lord. IF our forefathers had come to this country for this purpose we wouldn't be having this discussion, but they didn't! They came to have religious freedom and to have their own separate colony and their own church. Having said that, the present CRC church typically doesn't have "saving the lost" as their purpose and mission (what they should do) but gets all hung up with other issues (not really wrong but distracting it from what it should be doing). Examine the "growing" congregations within the denomination and you will find unity, harmony, acceptance of members and attendees "as they ARE". You will find members who almost unanimously LOVE their pastor and you will find a pastor who faithfully preaches the whole council of God. Yku will find celebration and the use of member gifts AND because of the abundance of energy in these churches you will find that the members are engaged in various para-church ministry activity outside of the walls of the church. Unless the members of established congregations are willing to CHANGE and commit to refocusing on "doing whatever it takes" to reaching the lost, they will continue to use their resources on the "wrong" things (these may actually be beneficial and worthy causes) and over time lose even more members. Let me use just one example: if a congregation will not make the decision to change it's name from First Christian Reformed Church, a name that was proudly held by former generations, but now meaningless to today's generation, I guarantee they will not make other necessary decisions to become an "outreach" local church. I'll end here...blessings!
Lubbert, you maje good.points and your.concluding question is the right one. I'll be brief: until we as andrnomination and individual church make the decision that our PURPOSE and MISSION is to share the good news if the gospel message of Jesus Christ with those who don't yet know Him in a salvation way, we will continue to decline. Having a singular focus unifies a congregation but with outreach growth, naturally provides opportunity for a variety of ministry activities for members to share in. Look at those congregations that are growing g this way and you will also find members loving each other, pastors who are loved and clearly preaching the whole council of God and all feeling purposeful. New church development cannot save the denomination...we see that year after year that we have more co gradations with declining membership. The CHANGE has to come from established congregations and while I appreciate the difficulty of trying to change the core values of a local church, either it happens or we will suffer the obvious consequences.
Lou, while I agree with your every word of encouragement to the elders, I find it I it interesting that you choose this subject from your previous posting about the declining membership of our denomination.
I find that many of "those people" who don't feel warmly a part of the fellowship, are not a member of a small group, don't attend adult Sunday School or Bible Study, don't invite other members over to their house socially and usually don't hang around much after church services.
Each of us as members of the Body have a responsibility to reach out to one another and your instruction to elders is spot on, however, if we want to be "included" we also need to be actively engaged with others, we need to be accessible and available. It's like the old saying, "if you want friends, YOU need to be a friend.
Posted in: Synod World Missions: Missionaries to Raise 90% of Their Salaries
Bill, you are being synical. Having staff and seeking the lost while retaining the "found" is not an easy thing and has nothing to do with "comfort and entertainment"! Bringing new people into the CRC who have never "tithed" requires much time and training, therefore in order to meet present CRC expectations, others would have to make up the difference. Also young families sending their children to a Christian school face a huge amount to cover church budget and denominational ministry shares. I'm not trying to defend the meeting of budget nor not...I am trying to offer an explaination for the present problem. Blessings!
Posted in: Synod World Missions: Missionaries to Raise 90% of Their Salaries
In the "90's" I was a church planter in FL and a significant portion of our revenue came from CRC supporters who were not members of our churh. They may have been the "Piper" however they knew that the local church leadership had to make the decisions...that was our verbal understanding and that is how it worked out.
Supporters of missions, or anyone else have NO EXPECTION of having a "say" in what the missionary does and no missionary would accept support from someone who gave with "string attached". As was said to me frequently, "I was not caed to plant a church, however God HAS given me the gift to make money which can be used to extend the boundaries of the Kingdom."
Posted in: Our Church's Greatest Threat: Homosexuality or Pornography?
I'm not taking issue with any of the comments but I find it interesting that for hetrosectuals it is so easy to talk about gays and lesbians but we say nothing about hetrosexuals who are living together outside of marriage. I experienced that 99.9% of non-Christian couples and not much better for Christian couples live together before marriage and sex before marriage is a virtual given.
In the old days it was "Blacks" who were the target because they were "different"...how much of the attention about gays and lesbians today isn't because of the same reason?
Posted in: Growing Churches Part 2
I appreciate the factors you mention and compare them with Nehemiah, who consciously carried out God's work as his mission, bathed with prayer, working through God's people to accomplish the task. It is never about the earthly leader, always about God, yet as with Nehemiah, until he showed up, no one did anything.
Posted in: Elders Keeping Close Contact with Their Pastor(s)
Lou, I hope this proves to be a broad discussion as it is an important subject. I want to lead off by saying that the people in the CRC typically don't appreciate how blessed they are by exceedingly well trained pastors. WARNING...when you comment on a pastor's message, you are commenting on the minister. Clarence remembered that critique, as we all do when someone says something indiscript about a message. Any such discussion needs to be as specific as possible and also objective rather than subjective in order to be helpful. One more point, I would say that for most pastors it takes about five years to develope the art of writing and presenting effective Sunday sermon (s).
Posted in: What Counts?
With all due respect, I think you are just playing games with numbers! We count members because they make profession of faith and seek to become "members" of the local congregation. I married many couples from the community. I required that they have a minimum of three counciling sessions and always invited them to worship. Many did and I also hears from several when they had other life problems. We also had "casual" attenders who would come randomly. All of the above considered me as THEIR pastor and our's as THEIR church. Should they be included in any "counts"? OF COURSE NOT! The local church works with many people to help/assist them...to develop relationships...often leading to becoming believers in Jesus, or who choose to make our church THEIR church (by way of profession of faith).
Regarding "spin-off" ministries, those stand on their own as "unorganized" status. Statistics are not for recognition or standing. ..they are intended to reflect the facts for each congregation.
One stat I always find interesting is total members in relationship to average Sunday attendance. Non growing churches tend to see fewer on Sunday than the number of members while growing churches tend to see MORE people attending on Sunday than they have on their membership roles.
Posted in: What Counts?
Amy, I'm not saying those stats aren't important, just that the Yearbook is not a research document and can't possibly record all the numbers that you suggest. Growing churches maintain records of all the categories you suggest and probably more, but they don't do it to post on the denominational wall for others to see. As far as evaluating the performance of the pastor, each council needs to develop their own criteria. As far as growth is concerned, it is a function of not only the pastor, but church leadership and congregation. Other church's statistics don't motivate other churches.
As to your question, "what will encourage a congregation to seek out new and creative...", the "A" answer should be because they desire to be obedient to the mission Christ gave the church..."go make disciples! ", but regrettably it is usually self preservation when they realize that their membership is in a down turn and their only hope is to turn their attention toward the communit.
Posted in: When Churches Lose Members
I have great compassion for pastors who experience conflict and abuse from their church, however that is another issue. I believe that all too many churches suffer declining membership because either the minister leads with a "my way or the highway" style or he has stayed beyond his effectiveness. I have also seen examples of where the Council is in league with the pastor to impliment a new vision for ministry for the.church and telling the membership to either "go along or get out!"
When the church calls a new pastor, the.council and congregation have a responsibility to present the candidate with their vision for ministry. If he cannot buy into it, he should not acceot the.call, if he accepts he obligates himself to lead in carrying it out.
Too often the members feel powerless when they see their congregation dwindle...that is wrong. Their first line of process should be to talk with the elders/Council in a loving way. If that accomplishes nothing they need to seek the assistance of the Classis Church Visitors.
Servant leaders do not set the older members of the congregation as the center of the bullseye on the target...that goes to the younger families of the church, however older members are still on the target. As mature members of the church we need to allow space for change in worshio style, music selection and community penetration. Servant leaders also do not use "top down leadership" as a model. Large churches may use a CEO type of structure, but most of our churches do not fit in this catagory.
We as pastors should be able to recognize the signs of demished effectiveness and be proactive in seeking another "call" where we can be both invorigated/challenged and vital and allow the church to seek someone who can be vital. If the pastor refuses to do this, the council should take whatever action is nessary to affect change.
When the church has an effective pastor leading worship in a dynamic way and preaching the Word, and the Council provides an example for the congregation, and the members contribute to the direction and vision of ministry, growth and vitality and community will result. It takes all three to make that happen, the pastor cannot do it alone...no matter how gifted he is.
I often hear people say that "growth" in numbers is not important or a reflection of a "healthy church". I believe that Jesus addressed this with the Great Commission and also in His parable of the "Talents". The servants who were rewarded by their Master when He returned were the two servants who multiplied what their Master intrusted to them. The servant who did nothing to increase their Master's Kingdon was punished.
I pray for our church to grow because that means that new people are coming into a saving relationship with Jesus. I am saddened to see our denomination shrink because it is an indication that we are not meeting spiritual needs in our individual communities.
Posted in: When Churches Lose Members
Our subject is really, "Church GROWTH" and if you look through the Yearbook you can find individual congregations which show consistent growth. These churches are blessed but they are also COMMITTED to reaching out to their communities and enveloping new people into their fellowship. These churches are both "inviting" and "promoting" the community to come and experience Jesus with them. That invitation is to those who are single, married, with children and without, and they are "accepting" to those who are like them and who are different. If you talked with either the leaders or the members of these churches you would hear a common theme..."we will do whatever it takes to effectively reach out to our community with the good news of Jesus Christ!"
Our history works against this kind of CRC congregation. Our forefathers settled in colonies in this country (US). They were a homogenous group and the church they built was for them. "Outreach" consisted of consisted of letting other like-minded new commers in but "other" people who believed or acted differently soon got the message. Fastforward to today and you will find that many of our established churches still have a stronger focus on present member's wants and wishes than on reaching out to those who are different. The problem comes when the younger generation either leaves the area or attends another church and there is relatively little outreach...the church declines. As this happens, families with children see the hand writing on the wall and attend another church where are more choices for them and their children. As this shift continues it leaves the church with fewer and fewer members to handle the internal ministry requirements and they become exhausted or burned out.
As members or leaders, when we say things like, "this is my church and I don't like_______", what we are really saying is that we want church for ME! If we who already know the Lord and know that heaven will be our eternal home are not willing to do whaterer it takes to make it possible for new people to know Jesus as we do, then we are missing our calling.
Growing. Churches are open to change...not for change sake...not for ego sake but for Jesus sake, striving to open the church doors wider and wider. Churches in decline resist change and even in the face of closure take pride in believing they are doing things right.
Posted in: When Churches Lose Members
Lambert, I think you closed your post with the right question, "where have we missed...in the great commission? " Something I tried to teach my children was that when we don't do the right thing, we find ourselves doing the wrong things. I don't mean to be too simplistic, because several issues have been raised in this discussion, however, as I read the gospels, I believe that THE mission of the church is to share the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ to those who don't yet know Him as their Savior and Lord. IF our forefathers had come to this country for this purpose we wouldn't be having this discussion, but they didn't! They came to have religious freedom and to have their own separate colony and their own church. Having said that, the present CRC church typically doesn't have "saving the lost" as their purpose and mission (what they should do) but gets all hung up with other issues (not really wrong but distracting it from what it should be doing). Examine the "growing" congregations within the denomination and you will find unity, harmony, acceptance of members and attendees "as they ARE". You will find members who almost unanimously LOVE their pastor and you will find a pastor who faithfully preaches the whole council of God. Yku will find celebration and the use of member gifts AND because of the abundance of energy in these churches you will find that the members are engaged in various para-church ministry activity outside of the walls of the church. Unless the members of established congregations are willing to CHANGE and commit to refocusing on "doing whatever it takes" to reaching the lost, they will continue to use their resources on the "wrong" things (these may actually be beneficial and worthy causes) and over time lose even more members. Let me use just one example: if a congregation will not make the decision to change it's name from First Christian Reformed Church, a name that was proudly held by former generations, but now meaningless to today's generation, I guarantee they will not make other necessary decisions to become an "outreach" local church. I'll end here...blessings!
Posted in: When Churches Lose Members
Lubbert, you maje good.points and your.concluding question is the right one. I'll be brief: until we as andrnomination and individual church make the decision that our PURPOSE and MISSION is to share the good news if the gospel message of Jesus Christ with those who don't yet know Him in a salvation way, we will continue to decline. Having a singular focus unifies a congregation but with outreach growth, naturally provides opportunity for a variety of ministry activities for members to share in. Look at those congregations that are growing g this way and you will also find members loving each other, pastors who are loved and clearly preaching the whole council of God and all feeling purposeful. New church development cannot save the denomination...we see that year after year that we have more co gradations with declining membership. The CHANGE has to come from established congregations and while I appreciate the difficulty of trying to change the core values of a local church, either it happens or we will suffer the obvious consequences.
Posted in: Elders and Members Keeping in Contact
Lou, while I agree with your every word of encouragement to the elders, I find it I it interesting that you choose this subject from your previous posting about the declining membership of our denomination.
I find that many of "those people" who don't feel warmly a part of the fellowship, are not a member of a small group, don't attend adult Sunday School or Bible Study, don't invite other members over to their house socially and usually don't hang around much after church services.
Each of us as members of the Body have a responsibility to reach out to one another and your instruction to elders is spot on, however, if we want to be "included" we also need to be actively engaged with others, we need to be accessible and available. It's like the old saying, "if you want friends, YOU need to be a friend.