General Baptist National Missions Blog

Missional vs. Cultural

February 28, 2008

Does God endorse a particular style or method of "doing" church?

That question seems to be debated time and again in our churches, on the various blogs and even among different church planting movements. Should we focus on planting "Organic" style churches, "Programmatic" style churches, "Attractional" style churches, or even "Cell-based" style churches? My answer to that question is "YES"! Yes, to all. God does not endorse any one style of "doing" church. We need every style, flavor, and method of new church possible.

The only thing we should concern ourselves with, when it comes to planting a church or refocusing a church, is our theology. If our theology is in line with Orthodox Christian theology, then how we "do" church is not an issue.

The problem is many believe that they are defending the Gospel, when in fact they are simply defending their own cultural heritage. Too often, leaders fail to understand that the Gospel, while supracultural, was written within the context of an historical culture. Jesus came during a specific time in history. He lived, taught, died and embraced the good aspects of the culture of which he was a part. Culture is not evil or the enemy of the Gospel of Christ. The scripture endorses no culture, it is culture-neutral.

Now, back to the question of "doing" church. We should be able to exegete the cultural context God has placed us in as well as the particular calling God has placed on our lives. A failure to understand either of these issues will bring disaster upon any style or method of "doing" church.

As leaders, we must be able to contextualize the Gospel. We should be intelligent and shrewd enough to realize that God uses different people and different styles and methods of "doing" church to reach everyone possible. As Paul stated, "I have become all things to all men, in order that I might win some." (1 Cor 9:22)

We should not be debating about methodologies and styles. It's a foolish debate. The issue is not should we plant Organic, Attractional, Programmatic, Cell-based, or Purpose-Driven churches. We should concern ourselves more with the dwindling effect of the church on the American culture and how we are going to take back the ground Satan has taken from us.

I believe that Aubrey Malphurs said it best in his book A New Kind of Church. "To fail to be culturally relevant is to muddy the Gospel with unnecessary trappings that serve only to miscommunicate the Christian message." (pg.105)

Posted 2/28/2008 in Stephen Gray

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Missional Giving

February 19, 2008

I have just finished reading "The State of Church Giving Through 2005". By John and Sylvia Ronsvalle. This report may not sound like a good read to most of you, but I highly recommend it! I was challenged through this report and I hope you will be as well.

Let me share a few quotes with you.

"members are not challenged about increasing giving beyond maintenance levels for the larger vision of the church, and stories about and references to missions are used as flavoring to make everyone feel that present levels of activity can be viewed as significant."

According to this report only 2% of every dollar given to churches goes toward missional endeavors. Think about it, that means 98% of every dollar goes toward maintaining the status quo. When a church wants to raise additional dollars to build the budget, missional-type works are spoken about, but only as a means to an end. That is alarming!

"In our industrialized society, money, as both a fungible medium of exchange to obtain other types of material possessions and as a possession in and of itself, is an available standard measure of the heart condition. The issue to be considered in the present discussion, then, is whether the church is producing changed hearts, resulting from turning to God and repentance, as shown in the relationship of church members to their money....spending patterns of members help track whether the church is pursuing God's intention for its existence."

That quote calls the church to consider its mission. Why do we exist? What is our purpose and how are we doing in the fulfillment of that purpose? Churches seem to have a greater vested interest in maintaining the status quo than fulfilling the Great Commission. While Americans have more spendable cash than ever before, giving to the church has been on a steady decline. The lack of giving has caused most churches to scramble for more dollars and adjust their bottom line.

What was once used to fulfill the Great Commission is now being diverted to maintain the status and standards of the local church. Missions, while an aspirational value of every church, is not being realized.

Pastors, and denominational leaders alike, who should be challenging, confronting and discipling their members/congregations to become outward minded and evangelistically driven are too busy downsizing and restructuring their departments due to lack of funding. Interestingly enough, they have less funding because they are inward focused and people are not interested in giving to institutions. Most will give to something significant, but few will give to maintain an institution.

What does all of this have to do with church planting? Everything! I think it stands as a stern warning to those starting new churches to keep the outward focus primary to the life of the church. In my research on fast-growing church plants, I discovered that one of the major factors that stifled the growth and self-sufficiency of the new churches was an inward focused, self-maintenance mentality. Giving to missional work, must be a part of the DNA of a church plant. Leaders of these plants must go to great lengths to keep this focus out front if we are to see effective and lasting results in the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

IMAGINE WITH ME!

I spent a week in the Tampa, Florida area in early Feb. This area is wide-open for new churches. Florida is set to explode by almost 100% in the next 15 years. The problem is, the church is not keeping up with the growth curve. As it stands there is only one church for every 2500 people in Florida.

What might happen if we/you really got a passion for planting more churches? If everyone reading this blog gave only $25 towards the planting of a new church in that area, how much could we raise and how many lives could be changed?

God has given us the resources and responsibility to fulfill the Great Commission. Americans have more extra, spendable cash than ever before. The question is: What will we do with what he has given us?

Posted 2/19/2008 in Stephen Gray

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