Take heart pastor, there is a vision for your church

There is a veritable smorgasbord of churches in our land today. When I was growing up, I don't think we had great variety in the choice of churches. Oh, there were plenty of churches, but there was a lot of similarity in most of them.

In my home church the preacher proclaimed his messages with much passion and, as I recall, most of his sermons were evangelistic in nature. We sang out of the Modern Hymnal. I really liked that, because it had shaped notes and I knew how to play shaped notes. That's because I learned to play the piano at a Stamps Baxter Music Convention. At the end of the week's convention I played "Jesus Lover of My Soul" for my recital.

We had the eight point record system on our church envelopes and we had to give an account of whether or not we had studied our lesson, brought our Bible, been faithful to do our daily Bible readings, been on time for Sunday School, etc.

People who worked hard all week in textile mills dressed up for church. The women wore "Sunday-go-to meetin'" dresses and hats decorated with imitation flowers or fruit. The men wore suits and ties and about half of them stood out in front of the church smoking between Sunday School and the worship service

Times have changed. We have "new paradigm churches." Some are consumer-oriented, seeker-sensitive, purpose-driven churches. There are also megachurches that are like huge shopping malls - offering a myriad of ministries. There are also churches that seek to meet specific needs - traditional churches, contemporary churches, cowboy churches, surfer churches, biker churches - all kinds of churches.

In today's secular society many pastors have become weary of exerting more and more effort and seeing less and less results in their ministries. With burdened hearts pastors watch as their church members drift away from their spiritual moorings or go away to another church. They painfully observe their churches becoming stagnant and spiraling downward financially and numerically. They regretfully note the church membership shrinking and the number of visitors declining.

In many cases pastors are powerless over circumstances they cannot control, and nothing significant appears to be happening in their plateaued or declining church. The emergence of some of the "new paradigm churches" has offered hope for a new and invigorated ministry.

The "repackaged" gospel designed by "the new paradigm churches," the new ideas about how to reach the lost and the Madison Avenue techniques proposed for marketing the church have become attractive to many. Pastors have determined to replicate the "new paradigm churches" because they are at the forefront of the church growth movement and their churches are growing.

I personally love to see large dynamic churches and I thank God for churches that flourish and grow. However, we must beware of church growth at all costs and remember that bigger is not necessarily better. In fact, I know some small churches that are much healthier than some of the large churches.

I think our convention's executive director, J. Robert White, has hit the nail on the head with his book Healthy Kingdom Churches. The key to success in a church is not how big it is, but how healthy it is.

The Lord wrote seven churches in the second and third chapters of Revelation. The church that experienced the most remarkable growth was the church at Laodicea, and yet it nauseated the Lord. However, the church at Smyrna was known for its tribulation and poverty, and yet it was promised "a crown of life."

So, the key to a healthy church is not size, but substance. Many in the modern church growth movement are suggesting that a growing church means that God is blessing. We must remember that the Bible clearly teaches that both a blessing and a curse are completely dependent on obedience to God's Word. Some large churches may be able to draw a crowd and yet have a ministry that is built on a foundation of sand.

Dear pastor, remember that the greatest book on church growth is The Acts of the Apostles. Read that book, get alone with God, pray fervently and seek his leadership as you endeavor to chart a course for the future of your church. The Lord of heaven who used his ingenuity and creativity to breathe this universe into existence is fully capable of establishing in your heart and mind the vision He has for the ministry He has entrusted to you.