I was listening to a podcast on Issues Etc. earlier this week and I was struck by a profound thought. The title of the podcast was “The Vocation of Minister.” I’d normally link directly to it but the site appears to be down as I’m writing this, nothing will load.

The guest speaker was talking about how the word minister means “servant,” but most churches today prefer to look to ministers as leaders or CEO’s, and ministers are all too happy to accept this role. The proper role of a minister is that of a servant, and his chief task is to “administer” what God has given, His gifts.

The guest speaker then said this:

“We approach [the vocation of the minister] as a social issue, we look at what the people want. Let’s look at the word ministry. There’s an old saying… ‘The customer is always right.’ The customer knows what he wants and if you’re going to serve the customer, you better give him what he wants or you’re not going to do business with him. That’s precisely wrong when it comes to the church, because the customer is always wrong. And God is always right.

In other words, we must approach the vocation of the minister theologically (not socially). A minister of God must often preach God’s Law and His Gospel to people who don’t want any part of it. Often people don’t realize the depth of their sinfulness (including me), and they must hear God’s Law. Other times the Law has done its work and people have been cut to the heart, then they need to hear the Gospel. The customer (not a good term but I’m using it simply to make a point) is always wrong. He doesn’t want what he really needs. I am so often guilty of this. I often want authenticity, community, and whatever – but what I really need is the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ. These other things are secondary to this primary need.

It is too easy to lose sight of Christ as the focal point of our churches when we operate with the assumption that the folks in the pews are right. That’s how we get mega-churches that acquiesce to, rather than transform, culture. Give the people what they want and you will grow numerically, but that’s not how ministry progress ought to be measured.

Thanks for all the recommendations. I did end up finding a couple artists I enjoyed. I couldn’t help but post this video. I saw it at Extreme Theology and just had to post it. This guy is very honest and authentic about his feelings toward Christian music, and I tend to agree with him:

I’ve been reading Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion lately, and I ran across a great point I wanted to share:

“Fix-the-church books almost always figure that declining church attendance … means the church has messed something up. Even though the new crop of church books decry the old church-growth models, they still operate with the same basic assumption: namely, that churches should be growing and something is wrong with the church that isn’t.

This assumption, however, is alien to the New Testament. Didn’t Jesus say tell us that “the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matt. 7:14)? Wasn’t the early church of Philadelphia commended by the Lord Jesus even though they were facing opposition and had “little power” (Rev. 3:7-13)? There is simply no biblical teaching to indicate that church size is the measure of success.

I’ve written before that ministry progress is not measured by numerical growth, but by the creation of disciples who make other disciples. But this post is exposing the double standard, those who would “have their cake and eat it, too.”

Authors like George Barna like to use statistics showing the decline in church attendance to damn the church, but then quickly defend the 5-person house church because “progress is not measured by numbers.” So if the institutional church is losing numbers, it is always because they are doing church wrong. But if organic churches are not growing, then it’s for some other reason. All I’m asking for here is fairness. Isn’t it possible that a particular church isn’t growing because it is rightly teaching Law and Gospel and people don’t like to hear it? Isn’t it possible that a particular organic church isn’t growing because of the home leader’s pride? It works both ways, which is why numbers are not a good indicator of spiritual maturity nor ministry progress, no matter what church model we’re discussing.

I remember listening to Kurt Cobain singing “come as you are” in the 90’s. I also remember hearing dozens of churches latch on to this statement. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think people need to be all polished up before coming to Jesus, nor do I think folks need to dress up on Sunday mornings (I always wear jeans and a t-shirt). But I think “come as you are” sometimes gets interpreted as “you are acceptable just as you are,” and that’s simply not true.

I know that statement just raised red flags in a few readers’ minds, but hear me out. I absolutely think people should come to Jesus in whatever state they are currently in. After all, if people could get free from sin all by themselves why would they need Jesus? But people must also understand that outside of Christ they are completely unacceptable to God. Consider the following quote:

Truth be told, Christ has not welcomed you just the way you are. He has paid the dearest price of all in order to welcome you: sacrificing His life for you on the cross. Christ welcomed you through the anguish of His betrayal, trial, and death. He did not welcome you freely but in order to set you free from your sins! (LSB, p. 1907).

God is holy. The word holy literally means “set apart, consecrated.” Holiness is like light, and anything else is darkness. When light enters a room, darkness flees. God cannot coexist with evil, and apart from the shed blood of Jesus Christ we are completely unacceptable to Him, we cannot come near Him. But Jesus Christ has created the way to the Father by taking our place on the cross, serving our death sentence. His righteousness gets credited to our account by faith and we thereby become acceptable to God.

Too many people have a view of justification that assumes God simply lets our sins slide. The problem is, “the wages of sin is death,” (Romans 6:23), they must be paid for. Jesus pays for them at Calvary and now offers us eternal life as a gift, which is what the rest of Romans 6:23 says: “But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So please come as you are, but know that you are entirely unacceptable to God apart from the righteousness that is imparted to you through a living faith in Jesus Christ.

I recently read that on average it costs $100,000 to plant a church, and 80% of new church plants will fail. It really makes you wonder about how well these new institutional church plants are doing at being good stewards of God’s money.

That’s right, I said “God’s money.” It doesn’t matter who is financially backing the church plant, the money is being given with the understanding that a local mission is being established. But how much of the money spent goes into real ministry, that is, gospel-driven missionary work in the community? Here’s a quick run-down of some items that most brand new institutional church plants will immediately purchase (maybe in this order):

• Building space (lease, rent, or buy)
• Legal fees (to begin a 501(c)3 non-profit or LLC)
• Marketing / promotional material (flyers, posters, business cards, pens)
• Well-designed website
• PA / sound system
• PowerPoint projector (and a screen if there is no white wall space)
• Laptop computer
• Office supplies (paper, staples, filing materials, stamps, etc.)
• Phone line (perhaps cell phone, fax line)
• Liturgical supplies (Communion elements, offering baskets or plates)
• Baptismal font or pool (perhaps a heated hot tub, no joke)
• Comfortable seats (pews seem to be going out of style)
• Copy machine (also scanner, fax)
• Podium / pulpit
• Well-designed signage
• A trailer to haul all of this stuff
• A fancy custom-painted design on the trailer

Now how many of these items are really needed to do gospel-driven missionary work in the local community? NONE OF THEM. In fact, if you begin with people and not an institution, you’ll often find that a few people will already own several of these items, some may even be willing to donate them. You may even find a graphic / web designer who would be willing to assist you with the creation of a logo and promotional materials.

Not to mention, considering that 80% of new church plants fail, what will you have to show for how you spent God’s money, especially if you have bought most (or all) of these items and your ministry goes out of business? Oh wait, did I just say “out of business?” Yes, I did. Because that’s what most churches are.

Now contrast this to an organic church plant. A believer invites a friend to fellowship at his or her home, and they continue inviting people. They don’t use any marketing gimmicks nor do they consider evangelism merely inviting people to a gathering. They understand that evangelism initiates a relationship and is an invitation to discipleship. Sure, they may not attract as many people. But luckily God doesn’t measure progress by how many people are gathered in one place. As I’ve said in a past post, “the sign of a healthy church [is] whether or not it is making genuine disciple-making disciples of Jesus Christ.” Organically-grown disciples naturally make disciples, just like the Samaritan woman in John 4. No one has to teach an organically-grown disciple how to evangelize. Institutionally-grown disciples often live in perpetual immaturity. Unable to feed themselves, they become dependent on the institution for more programs and agendas to nurture them spiritually, never feeling “ready” or “called” to disciple others, despite the fact that this is their sole mission given by Jesus in Matthew 28:19.

True story: the other day my wife asked an older lady if she would disciple her. This lady has been in the church most of her life, even serving as a pastor’s wife. The lady’s response? “Well, I’ve never discipled anyone before. I’m not sure I would know how.” I don’t say this to shame this woman, I say this to demonstrate the glaring problem in today’s institutional churches. Discipleship is viewed as some sort of program that only “full-time ministers” can perform, and “lay people” don’t realize that they are called as full-time ministers and ambassadors of Christ! Should we blame this on the so-called “laity” like most pastors do? While they are not to be absolved from all blame, I must shift a lot of it to the institutional model of ministry. I won’t go into all that again, I’ve written it all before, click here to read it.

The bottom line is that institutional church planting is poor stewardship and doesn’t really achieve effective gospel-driven ministry in the community. The statistics have proven this point for me time and time again (see here, here, and here). I plead with you to consider planting an organic church, encouraging all believers to be leaders and full-time missionaries within their respective vocations. Do this in practice, not just in rhetoric.

Look no further. Up until now, I’ve been recommending vCHURCHES as an inexpensive and effective utility for church website creation. But I ran across something better recently: Clover. Here’s a 60-second video showing you its capabilities:

If you’re in the market, you’ll definitely want to check this out. Also, you should know that I do not receive any compensation from Clover nor will I receive any referral kickbacks for sending you to their site. I simply think it looks like a great product and wanted to bring it to your attention.

vCHURCHES is still a great product and is more affordable, so that may still be your best option. But honestly I think you get a bigger bang for your buck with Clover Sites.

I saw this quote at Between Two Worlds, who got it from Tony Payne. It speaks volumes to churches that rely on the same marketing tactics and progress reports that are being utilized by corporate culture, rather than biblical measures as defined in this quote:

The measure of how ministry is progressing in your church or fellowship, and the way to evaluate whether you are making progress, is not attendance on Sunday, signed up members, people in small groups, or the size of our budget (as important and valuable as all these things are!). The real test is how successfully you are making disciples who make other disciples. Are we seeing people converted from being dead in their transgressions to being alive in Christ? And once converted, are we seeing them followed-up and established as mature disciples of Jesus? And as they become established, are we training them in knowledge, godliness and skills so that they will in turn make disciples of others?

This is the Great Commission—the making of disciples who obey all that Christ has taught, including the command to make disciples. And this is the touchstone of our faithfulness to Christ’s mission in the world, and the sign of a healthy church: whether or not it is making genuine disciple-making disciples of Jesus Christ.

How is your ministry measuring up? Is it making biblical progress? Is it adding participants or more benchwarmers?

What did early disciples devote themselves to? The answer:

1. The apostles’ teaching
2. The fellowship (other believers, koinonia does NOT mean attending church services!
3. The breaking of bread (the Lord’s Supper)
4. Prayer

True fellowship (koinonia) involves authentic relationships, which result best outside of institutions. The apostles spent a lot of intimate time with disciples, not just once or twice a week preaching at them from a pulpit. That’s why they usually only had a handful of dedicated disciples. Too many pastors try to take on the responsibility of discipling an entire congregation, and then they end up not having any time to disciple even one person effectively. Case in point, call your pastor and find out if you can hang out regularly, see what kind of time he has for you. Chances are, not very much. Jesus WALKED with His disciples, you’d be hard pressed to find a pastor with time to do this. Obviously, modern pastors are not the solution.

The solution is one person starting with a small group of people and spending intimate time with them, ideally coworkers (hence Paul’s tentmaking). Discipleship is a lengthy process, and it takes an enormous amount of time and energy. Jesus’ disciples continually screwed up and even denied Him when the crap hit the fan! People are messy, we tend to give up on them if they don’t fall in line after a three-point sermon or pep-talk. Is anyone willing to invest time into someone else these days? Is it even a priority for the church? Maybe that’s why there are few mature disciples out there.

And don’t even get me started on prayer. Do most churches and pastors even do that regularly any more?

Am I just being a whiner? Or is my frustration justified? What do you think?

The Church has faithfully done this, at least until recently. But I do know that there is still a large remnant who keeps the main thing the main thing: Jesus Christ at the center. I saw an interesting post on my shared feeds the other day entitled Why Coke beat Pepsi for the last 100+ years. The picture speaks a thousand words:

Duncan Riley from the Inquisitr points out, “If you’ve got the real thing you don’t need to change your branding, as this very clever brand mashup points out.”

How true this is, yet how often we fail to apply it in the Church. Or maybe we fail to believe that we’ve got the real thing: Jesus Christ Himself, who became a man and paid the penalty for our sin, defeating death and the devil on the Cross and proving it by rising from the dead.

It seems more and more churches are trying the Pepsi approach, changing the name on the sign out front, adding new worship music, changing the paint scheme, adding movie clips to the sermons, offering more programs and series, etc. Maybe, like Coke, we simply need to keep offering the real thing, Jesus. This looks a lot more like old-fashioned discipleship (which authentically occurs outside of institutions, programs and agendas), spiritual disciplines (prayer, meditation on God’s Word, fasting, etc.), and genuine fellowship with other believers (not chit-chat over coffee on Sunday morning or 30 second meet and greet sessions) – all focused and led by Christ Himself.

Is your church following the Pepsi model, or are they keeping the real thing the main thing?

I saw this at Extreme Theology and laughed at how true it is. I can’t tell you how many VBS programs are themed after very worldly things (pop-culture icons, popular movies, etc.) and do a very poor job of teaching the love of Jesus Christ to children.

On the bright side, it gets the children out of parents’ hair for a few hours a week during the summer, and it will be fun to bring Grandma along to watch little Johnny sing about an amazing grace that neither he nor anyone in the family knows anything about. . . .

My wife, mom, brother, friend, cousins and I went to the Indianapolis 500 this year. We saw a couple groups of people who were “evangelizing” on the streets. The first example we saw was a group of people simply handing out gospel tracts by asking, “Did you get one of these?” Subtle, yet it can be effective.

The second example was a guy with a loudspeaker telling the crowd that they were going to hell for being drunkards and sinners. Not so effective. Stupid, in fact. This guy is profaning the name of Christ.

But the other day I heard about this guy. You have to admit, it’s a unique approach. And it was very effective.

This guy also mentions a campus pastor who did something very similar using a sign that said, “Religion is for the weak.” Jesus didn’t attract large crowds by using sound marketing principles. In fact, on some days He lost more followers than he gained. His crucifixion cost Him almost all of His followers. Those weren’t good marketing tactics – but they were amazing ways of saving us. I think Christ’s followers should be known for thinking outside of the box.

What are some ways you have seen people effectively “thinking out of the box” when it comes to evangelism? Why does impersonal evangelism usually fail?