Jesus built a movement on 12 disciples, not 12 consumers.
That quote was thrown out at a recent conference. The challenge was for church leaders to get their congregation beyond simply consuming for an hour each weekend. Consumers give little back and eventually burn out a leadership team.
James said faith without works is dead, and Christ called us to be disciples. But what is a disciple?
I appreciate Rob Bell’s take on it in a recent Neue magazine article. A disciple is fundamentally an apprentice and a learner. So we should evolve, grow, mutate, transform, and move to higher stages of consciousness. We should move from egocentric (about my needs), to tribal ethnocentric (about my family or church’s needs), to world centric (beyond my selfish interests). If we’re not moving through these stages, something is wrong.
My friend Rex Miller says that only 17% of a typical church congregation is pulling the church forward. Does that mean that 83% haven’t grown beyond the egocentric stage? And does the fact that most churches in America are stagnated at less than 100 members suggest that the church at large may be stuck somewhere in the egocentric or tribal ethnocentric stages?
Which leads to another provoking question….in which stage are you and I?
Good post and good thoughts.
I continue to believe, however, we need to move away from evaluating church growth and efficacy by sheer numbers alone. There are plenty of reasons besides spiritual stagnation that a church remains below 100 members, and one can easily find egocentrism in a church regardless of size (having been a member at a church of 500, 2500, and now less than 100, I’ve seen it everywhere!).
A necessary requirement for growing the size of a church (i.e., getting a bigger building so more can come) is finances and access to people to people with large pocketbooks (NOTE: this is not to say that all church growth is a direct result of money) along with the sheer conviction that “bigger is better.” Yet many smaller churches in urban environments do not have such financial power–serving the poor in their community (i.e, being worldcentric) does not really bring in big bucks for a building project–and other churches believe in a philosophy that real discipleship can only happen in a small-scale environment (and given that the 1st century church met in houses, most of their meetings consisted of less than 100 people). Still further, many of the churches of <100 are hindered sheerly by a "natural lottery," residing in small towns and boroughs where adding members is a virtual impossibility.
Brock,
Thanks for your insights. I always enjoy them and they often stretch my thinking. Several of your points are right on.
Yes we do need to get beyond simply evaluating churches on week end attendance and budgets. That is beginning to happen as churches are now measuring how many people are sacrificing their time, true life transformation, and things like how big of an impact they are having in the local community. And of course, there are egocentric people everywhere and all of us have those tenancies more than we’d like.
However, its about far more than money. Eastern Star in Indy is a church of 6000 with multiple campuses with an average household income less than $35,000…hardly wealthy. We designed a 3000 seat, 120,000 square foot church for them which is currently under construction.
Furthermore, Community Christian in Naperville, a very wealthy community, has a strong focus on being world centered (about others outside their church) and is growing rapidly. They’ve eclipsed 5000 week end attendance and are teaching hundreds and hundreds to get outside their own little comfortable world.
Several months ago they told their congregation an upcoming week end offering would be given away to local charity efforts. They raised $250,000 that week end. They are teaching people why they should and how to live a generous life. And people are getting it.
We’ve also seen churches with large endowments that are spiritually and vision dead. Money iasn’t the answer alone.
And, I talked to a man today from Veedersburg Indiana, a small rural town in Indiana of about 2500. There isn’t big money there and they attract close to 500 on week ends and are planning a new facility. What’s that about??
Churches that are growing in this tough environment seem to have a passionate Christ focus, have a deep sense of community within the church, and have a clear cause outside the church they are sacrificing deeply for.
Think Christ, Community, Cause!
It just isn’t simply about dollars.
Thanks Brock,
Ed