Good morning. Have any of you ever had a problem with organization? I have certainly had that problem in the last couple of weeks as I am returning to school. I never can seem to get things organized. Well, today we are going to discuss organizing around our purposes. As we take a look at that aspect this morning, hopefully it will help us to get another step closer to being a purpose driven church, being the church that God desires of us.
Before we get started, I would just like to open up with prayer. Let’s pray.
Edmund Burke once said, “Good order is the foundation of all good things.” That is exactly what we are going to be discussing today. Organizing around what our purposes are and making sure that we balance our efforts on each of the purposes.
The 2 most influential preachers of the 18th Century were George Whitefield and John Wesley. Despite the fact that they were differed widely in theology, personality, and how they organized their ministries, they were both greatly used by God.
Whitefield was best known for his preaching. In his lifetime, he preached over 18,000 sermons, which was an average of 10 per week. He once spoke to a crowd of over 100,000 people in Glasgow, Scotland. When preaching in America he stimulated the revival known as the Great Awakening.
However, biographies have pointed out that Whitefield often left his converts without any organization so the results of his work were short lived. Today, very few Christians would recognize George Whitefild’s name. The only reason that I am familiar with his is due to a study of the history of Christianity.
In contrast, John Wesley’s name is still recognized by millions of Christians yet today. Why do you think this is? Wesley was a traveling preacher just like Whitefield, engaging in large, outdoor evangelistic meetings. But, Wesley was also a preacher that helped people get organized. He created an organizational structure to fulfill his purposes that far outlasted his own lifetime. That organization is called the Methodist Church. And it is obviously still around today.
Listen to what Rick Warren has to say here. He writes, “I’ll discuss how to set up a structure that insures equal emphasis is given to all 5 purposes. Remember, balance is the key to a healthy church.”
Historically, churches have taken on 5 basic shapes, depending on which one of the purposes that they emphasis the most. What I would like to begin with is to take a look at these 5 kinds of churches.
First, there is The Soul Winning Church.
In this type of church, the focus is put onto evangelism. The favorite phrases in these churches deal with witnessing, salvation, baptism, and decisions for Christ.
Many times in these churches it is all about decisions and disciples. We raise up little Christians. John Stott is a well known author and a successful preacher at All Souls Church near London, England, a couple of weeks ago he said, “We are not in the business of breading tadpoles.”
As a church we want to be reaching out to the lost, but we need to be maturing them further along in their Christian lives after they make their decision. We have to be in the business of breading tadpoles, and raising them to become giant bullfrogs, the kings of the pond. So, the soul winning church focuses on decisions and not necessarily changes.
The second type of church is The Experiencing God Church.
The focus of this church in on experiencing and feeling the presence of God in their worship. Key words here are praise, worship, music, spirit, and power. For this church the thing that receives the most attention is the worship aspect of a service. With this church, it can be a temporary experience of God that they are seeking. During service they experience God, but because the purposes are not balanced in the church, they gain nothing outside of that worship service.
A third type of church is The Family Reunion Church.
Listen to what Rick Warren says about the family reunion church. He writes, “A church that focuses primarily on fellowship is what I call the “family reunion” church.
Key terms for this church are love, belonging, fellowship, caring, relationships, potlucks, small groups, and fun. In the family reunion church, gathering is more important than the goals.”
So in this church, they are focused on the more fun aspects of being a church than on what the church’s actual goals and desires are. This is a church that is content with what they are doing and simply have want to have fun.
Warren goes on to say, “Most churches of this type have less than 200 members, since that’s about all one pastor can personally care for. I estimate that about 80% of American churches fall into this category. A family reunion church may not get much done, but it is almost indestructible. It can survive poor preaching, limited finances, lack of growth, and even church splits. Relationships are the glue that keep the faithful coming.”
Next, we have The Classroom Church.
This kind of church feels that its primary role is to teach and preach. Key words for this church are expository preaching, bible study, Greek and Hebrew, doctrine, knowledge, truth, and discipleship. In this church they mainly focus on the teaching aspect of church and tend to neglect the other things that a church is called to do. The same people attend week to week and little is done as a way of outreach. The classroom church usually has a dynamic preacher and that is the reason that it can survive.
And finally, The Social Conscience Church.
This kind of church is out to change the society. Important terms in this kind of church are needs, serve, share, minister, take a stand, and do something. They feel that the church should be a major player in the political process, and its members are always involved in some current crusade or cause. It focuses on changing the society and not on simply reaching the lost and that being the cause of society changing.
Listen to how Warren wraps up this section. He writes, “There are some interesting things we can observe about these 5 categories of churches. The members of each of these churches will usually consider their church as the most spiritual. That is because people are attracted to join the type of church that corresponds to their own passion and giftedness. We all want to be a part of a church that affirms what we feel is most important. The truth is, all 5 of these emphases are important purposes of the church and must be balanced if a church is to be healthy.”
So, keeping our church balanced. How does a church keep balanced on all 5 of the New Testament purposes that we have discovered? Movements, by nature, specialize in order to have and impact. There is nothing wrong with specializing. When I need a tooth pulled I want a dentist and not a foot specialist. If you are having heart surgery, do you want a heart surgeon, or would you settle for a plastic surgeon? No one specialist can adequately explain everything that goes on in my body.
Likewise, no single church that emphasizes on one of these purposes can offer everything the body of Christ needs to be healthy. Each one specializes in just part of the big picture. It is important to have a larger perspective of what the church needs to be and how to balance all 5 purposes. There is no one key to being a healthy and growing church. It takes balance. A balanced church will be a healthy church.
As Paul points out in I Corinthians 12, the body of Christ has many parts to it. If you want to look with me, I want to just look at verse 12. Here in I Corinthians 12:12it says, “1”
Okay, now here is the Josh Book version of that, “The church is a unit. Though it has many purposes, all it’s purposes form the church.”
Now, just as the body works best when all of it parts are working right, the church is the healthiest when the purposes are all balanced out.
Moving on. Last week I mentioned that at Saddleback they used a symbol make up of 5 circles. Well today, I would like to share that with you. Each circle represents a different type of person. A neat thing is that they all begin with the letter “C”. I am going to have them on the power point so that you can see what this symbol looks like.
First, there is the Community.
This circle represents the unchurched. The community is the starting point. It is the outside circle because they are the furthest away from a relationship with Christ. These are the people that are in our community within driving distance of the church. These are the people that we are best able to reach out to. This is the largest circle because it contains the most people.
Next is the Crowd.
This circle represents the regular attenders. They are closer to the relationship that Christ desires, but still have some work to do. This is everyone who shows up for Sunday service. This crowd is made up of both believers and non-believers. When someone has moved from your community to your crowd, you have made major progress in his or her life. It is at this stage when people decide to accept Jesus Christ and be baptized. Once a person has received Christ, the goal is to move him or her into the next level of commitment, and that is the congregation.
The Congregation is made up of the members of the church. They have been baptized and made a commitment to be a part of our church. This is the circle of commitment. I mentioned last week that Christianity is not just about believing, it involves belonging as well. In this level you belong to the fellowship of the church. You are a member of the congregation.
The next circle is the Committed.
This is the group know as the mature members. These people will pray, give, and are wanting to be disciples. They are good people, but they have not yet gotten involved. This group is committed to seeing the church be what God intended for it to be, yet they stray away from being totally involved. This is a group that have made it a long way. This group is right next to where God would desire us all to be. This circle is smaller that the previous ones because there are less of these kinds of people in the churches.
And finally, the Core.
These are the people that are doing ministry inside and outside of the church. The leadership, the teachers, the musicians, the people that take initiative to see to it that the church is represented in the way it is suppose to be. The core is the smallest group because it represents deepest level of commitment. Without these people a church would come to a standstill. The core workers form the heart of the church.
The goal of the church is to move people from the outer circle, low commitment, low maturity to the inner circle, high commitment and high maturity. It is not done all at once, it is a stepping stone from one to the other. With time the goal is to get people to the core. Rick Warren says, “What happens when people finally get to the core? We move them back out into the community for ministry!”
Now, you may see this and think, well its not right to categorize people. However, Jesus recognized that there were different levels of commitment, and He desired to move people from the community to the core as well.
Jesus’ ministry included ministering to the community, feeding the crowd, gathering the congregation, challenging the committed, and discipling the core. All 5 of these tasks are evident in the gospels. At the first encounter Jesus had with John and Andrew, He simply said in John 1:39, “Come and see!” He didn’t give them any heavy requirements, He simply invited them to check Him out.
As the group of early followers grew into a crowd, Jesus began to slowly turn up the heat. Just 6 days before the Transfiguration Jesus gave His ultimate challenge to the crowd. If you want to turn with me to Mark 8:38. Here in Mark 8:34 it says, “Then He called the crowd to Him along with His disciples and said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.””
Listen to what Warren says about that verse. He writes, “Jesus was able to ask for that kind of commitment from the crowd only after demonstrating His love for them and earning their trust. To a stranger or first-time visitor at a church I believe Jesus would be more likely to respond with Matthew 11:28-30. Here in Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus says, “2”
Jesus knew that it didn’t work to use the same approach with all people. People are not all alike: they have different needs, interests, and spiritual problems. We must not get confused and use things with the community and the crowd that we would use with the committed and the core. It just doesn’t work. It’s like teaching a 1st grader a college level math class.
Listen to how Warren ends this chapter. He writes, “By organizing your church around the 5 purposes and identifying people in your church in terms of their commitment to each of those purposes, you will be well on the way to balancing your ministry and producing a healthy church.”
Perhaps one of the biggest thing in becoming a healthy church is to have balance in all 5 of the Biblical purposes that a church has. Once we can do that, we can be a purpose driven church. On a personal note, once you can become committed to all 5 of the purposes yourself, then and only then will you have a purpose driven life.
I have said it many times before, the church is not the building, it is the people. If we want our church to be committed and be a healthy church that is purpose driven, then guess what? The leadership, the ministers, and especially all of you have to be committed, healthy purpose driven individuals as well. And that has to come before we expect to see the results in our church.
And what are those 5 Purposes? “3” “4” |
