What Kind of Church are you Building Today

"According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay that that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." I Corinthians 3:10-11 NKJV

It has been said that the "day of the institutional church is over!" I totally agree. The un-churched are not coming to our churches today. Attractional ministry is no longer effective. If we are going to be the people of God we must take the church out to the community where the people are! Where is the focus in the churches of your association? A missional church is focused outside of itself on mission, rather than on itself in a maintenance mode. I've found that maintenance focused churches are declining churches whereas missional churches are growing, vibrant congregations. A brief look at the New Testament church confirms that the early disciples were focused on being and doing. Today's society reflects the same challenges of the first century when Christianity was first introduced to the world in the person of Jesus Christ. New Testament churches today must direct their attention to changing the culture of our age rather than conforming to the culture around us. I would encourage any church to ask themselves, "What kind of church are we building today?" What kind of churches do you have in your Association? What does God want to do in you and your association? Consider the following contrast:

Mission Minded Church vs. Missional Church

• Religious ceremonies vs. Relationships
• Go to church vs. See themselves "as the church"
• Isolated from the world vs. Engaged in the world'
• Focus on maintenance vs. Focused on missions
• Activities vs. Accomplishing God's mission
• Sending and supporting vs. Being and doing
• Representative vs. Participative
• Mission is one expression of its ministry vs. Missions in the essence of our existence
• Teach people to know vs. Teach people to obey
• Explaining vs. Experiencing
• Worship is to entertain people vs. Worship is to exalt God
• Connecting people to the church vs. Changing the culture of our world
• Spend time at the church vs. Spend time getting to know lost
• Holding on vs. Forging ahead
• Design events for members vs. Design activities to connect
• Enlargement vs. Extension
• Retaining members vs. Releasing members to replace them with people outside the church
• Size vs. Sending and serving
• Mega Church vs. Multiplying church
• Compete vs. Cooperate
• Survive vs. Thrive
• Faithful team vs. Flexible team
• Not content to know about God vs. They hunger to know God

References:

• Milfred Minatrea, Shaped by God's Heart The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches
• David Putman & Ed Stetzer, Breaking the Missional Code Your Church Can Become a Missionary in Your Community

Dr. Larry Cheek, Associational Missionary
Stone Mountain Baptist Association
Conyers, GA * 770-483-2776
lcheek@stonemountainbaptistassociation.org

Associations Helping Churches Fulfill the Great Commission

A Next Generation Viewpoint

Helping Churches fulfill the Great Commission must to be seen through a different worldview than our patriarchs/matriarchs saw missions.

In today's world one can cross social, racial, and religious barriers (i.e. Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth), if they are intentional, just by surfing the internet, playing in the neighborhood park, or becoming a community servant in and around the city where they live in a city like Chicago.

And as for beginning in Jerusalem, the apostles hailed from Galilee not Jerusalem so Jesus’ challenge to them to begin in Jerusalem meant to begin at the urban center of THEIR world and move out, not merely looking at their hometown and hoping something happens there first. When we think of missions why are our urban centers at-most scary 5-year pilot projects and not mainstream to all our ongoing missionary endeavors as they were for Paul?

The real question when it comes to helping churches fulfill the Great Commission in their context is, can we help churches no matter what their limitations cross barriers to achieve world impact in their own back yard and to the ends of the earth?

It begins with a different view of missions.

A case in point for me is a local congregation in our association who struggles to have seventy-five for morning worship but currently sponsors new work among 3 different language/people groups, has sent out 42 directly to missions or full-time Christian service since 1995 and is opening the first doors in 700 years for an unreached people group yet still sees itself as a struggling congregation. Meanwhile I travel to other churches much older and much larger that have yet to send out their first missionaries and see themselves as successful.

It is truly a tale of two churches not two cities:

Are our churches going to become like the Antioch church, which modeled a Great Commission vision by beginning at its urban center with a diverse leadership team, crossing all the barriers within their community and sending out missionaries from the start to the ends of the earth?

Or will we, by default, become the church at Jerusalem, which struggled to move beyond its ethnic, social and religious roots until persecution hit and the Lord scattered them to share the Gospel as they went?

The Great Commission of our Lord is as challenging and as uncomfortable for us today as it was for the early church in Acts.

Across Associations I want to be the one to challenge us to help our churches connect with others so that they can go and experience a Pentecost Sunday in which thousands are added to the Kingdom regardless of the current barriers that now exist.

What would this look like today?

How about helping an old Bible buckle church reach into Poland by connecting with a Polish work in a North American city and going together.

Or helping an established church with a heart for China go together with one of our city churches who sent out the missionary they are connecting with to reach a city for Jesus Christ.

The big question is how do we best connect them to go rather than just sending our representatives to do missions? And how do we work with the agencies of our denomination to get the job done, if at all? And, sadly, many are bypassing them all.

I believe no one is better positioned to connect and to help churches go experience life-changing missions than Associations. But, truthfully, no one is more stuck and struggling to add value to our churches than our local associations. Will we need to die and be reborn or can we make the changes necessary to help our churches fulfill the Great Commission in their context? What do you think?

Keith Draper, DoM
Chicago Metropolitan Baptist Association

Contextual Ministry and Reaching Courtney

Courtney is 28, single, educated, attractive, slim, and has never attended church, though she has several questions about church that make me squirm. She transferred to our area nine months ago from Roanoke and received a sizeable salary increase.

She is buying a condo and leasing a yellow ’06 Porsche Boxter. (She had a Mazda Miata but it got hit in the side.) Oh, and she also has a cat. (I don’t know what kind. I don’t really care for cats.)

Courtney has never been to an SBC church, has never heard of Lottie Moon, the BF&M, or Morris Chapman. She thinks that Baptists do something with snakes, but is not sure what (or why).

She had an abortion in 2001. Last Sunday at Kroger she saw a woman with a really young infant. It made her feel strange – maybe some guilt there. (She doesn’t talk about it.) Her parents are divorced and her dad has never known about the abortion.

Courtney likes reggae, genuine relationships/sharing, “meaning” in life, and she wishes that she could do something about poverty, hunger and/or AIDS. (She once sent $50 to one of the organizations that pledges to help hungry children. She wonders if the money really got to them.)

There are 1000’s of people like Courtney in our area. (Forty-six percent of Boone Countians were born outside of KY.) Perhaps they didn’t all transfer from Roanoke, but most would not feel “right” in a lot of our churches.

Associations who help their churches learn to relate to the Courtneys of the world have a promising future.

Associations who cannot or choose not to address these challenges will increasingly talk about how great the 60’s were and will become less and less effective.

Rick Robbins, DoM
Northern Kentucky Baptist Association