People Are the Mission by Danny Franks

Author:Danny Franks [Franks, Danny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2018-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

KNOW WHO YOU ARE

One of the ways we begin to build on a solid foundation that underlies and motivates all we do is by gaining a clear sense of who God has called us to be. One of the temptations when seeking to grow a church is to develop a cafeteria-style approach to our strategy. We try a little of this, a little of that, a whole lot of this other thing, and then we smash it all together on a platter and try to serve it to our community. While this might add some variety, it also leads to confusion. Guests may wonder, out of all of the options you offer on the menu of programs and services, which is the most important. And members and staff are also left confused. Where should budget dollars be allocated? What should a first-time guest embrace as a first step? You need to know who you are so you know what is most important.

In his fantastically titled book Killing Cockroaches, Tony Morgan observes that churches grow when they are strategic in their approach to alignment and adaptability. Rather than saying yes to everything that comes down the pike, growing churches routinely say no to lots of things to make sure they’re not doing too much that distracts them from their primary purpose. The alternative? Ministries that have grown ineffective and outdated are never laid to rest for fear of offending someone within the church. When we try to make everyone happy, we will end up with mediocrity.1

Consider the rise of the “contemporary service” in the 1990s. Looking for a way to reach a new generation who didn’t like the old-school hymns of their parents and grandparents, a wave of churches decided to segregate worship based on music preferences, and many added an optional worship experience for folks who liked their adoration of the Almighty to have a little beat with it. The problem was that many churches made this shift while leaving the traditional service time intact, adding their contemporary option at the ungodly Sunday morning time of 8:30. That was always a bit odd to me, since the people who wanted to sing “Shine, Jesus, Shine” weren’t necessarily the ones who wanted to rise and shine.

Others, rather than separating the services, blended them. A few songs would get guitar backup and a few would get organ accompaniment, which meant that roughly half the congregation was disengaged and grumbling at any one time. Yet churches kept adding options to keep everyone satisfied, even as people were aligning with their preferred worship style, suspecting that at any moment someone was going to invade the auditorium and snatch their pipe organ or make off with their drum set.*

My point is not to revisit the past to battle between hymns and choruses: I love and appreciate both. But a “cafeteria style” approach to alignment never works. To quote Stephen Covey, the most beloved Mormon in Christendom, we have to “begin with the end in mind.”

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