What If?
Yesterday here at Soma School, we were talking, of all things, about the church. Jeff Vanderstelt was laying out for us how, in most churches, everything, whether it be time, energy, resources, money, people, gifts, all goes “into” the church which is most often personified as a building. All of these resources are then “managed” from the top down by the leadership (whatever leadership model your tradition embraces).
It is in this “inward” model that we most often hear the “80/20″ idea offered up as a complaint. If you haven’t heard of this, it simply means that in many churches, 20% of the people do 80% of the work. Therefore, the call to “get more involved in church” often means donating your time, energy, resources, money and gifts “to the church.” But Jeff challenged us that, “80/20″ might not be a bad thing, provided that other 80% of people is out on mission, serving and reaching their community. The reality is that, even with the “80/20″ principle at work in many churches, many people simply believe that “ministry” is up to the pastors. After all, they’re being paid, right?!
The question that really faces churches, particularly church planting pastors, is how they will define success. Will we develop a mindset that views success as something that might not immediately put “butts in the seats” on a Sunday morning? If so, do we really want all of our time, energy, resources, money, people and gifts going in to a church structure, whatever that might be? What might it look like if we became more outward focused? What if we had churches that didn’t believe that all ministry was simply up to the pastors?
There is, of course, much to work through here but I wanted to share a bit of what I’ve already been wrestling with. What do you think?
An interesting discussion because an awful lot of us spend our time and resources on church buildings – but then if the building is well used does this matter?
Surely success for any Christian can only be being faithful. If that results in bums on seats then great and it is possible that this is what God wants of course (perhaps the appeal from Jesus to get the whole world into the church is appropriate here). I know its important to have goals (I really do know that it is – part of my paid work involves helping people set goals) but sometimes in our desire to set something that we can easily measure we lose sight of what we were really aiming for.
I’d like to think that 80% were out doing mission but I fear that this isn’t so. I guess he means it as a challenge to those who aren’t involved in the direct work of the church.
Yes the ministry of the church belongs to everyone but there is an important role for a pastor/minister/vicar/priest/etc that cannot be done by anyone else. When Jesus spoke about leadership he didn’t say off you go and I’ll sit around doing nothing – he saw it as a partnership with those in authority serving. Ministry is a very broad term but part of it belongs to those appointed by God for the task of leadership. At least that is what I think.
Chris
I agree that putting money into the structure of the church is not always prudent. However, I do not agree with the 80/20 theory. I submit that maybe half of that 80% is involved in community and being a wittness and positive influence. But those that are not active in church activities are hindered from growing in faith and knowledge required to be an influence and grow the church. People are not influenced by the fact you go to church, but your actions.
Robin
You don’t need to define success. The Bible tells us what success looks like:
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Eph 4:11-16)
That is why we have pastors, church planters, etc. Not to do the work of ministry for us but to build up the Body for the work of ministry.
Unfortunately, too many men see “ministry” as a permanent profession, a perpetual one man show supported by the sheep. That turns the vast majority of Christians into ministry spectators. The Bible knows of no such thing. If you are a Christian, you are a minister.