So I am currently reading 7 Practices of Effective Ministry by Andy Stanley. As I was reading the other night I came across something that has not really left my mind since. It is probably the thing that I get most frustrated with within the church. It says, “Focus your efforts on those you are trying to reach, rather than on those you are trying to keep.” Funny story, a year or so ago, I was sitting in an interview for a Youth Pastor position at a church here in Nashville, and as I was talkin’ with the pastor he received a phone call. Thing is, the volume was so loud I could hear the whole conversation from both ends. The man on the other end of the phone was an usher from the church and he was calling the pastor to issue a complaint about when they did offering on the previous Sunday. He wanted it right before the message just like they had done every other service for the last 100 years, but they had moved it to the end. Why was that even an issue? They got the money, right?
I feel like there is a trend in churches where the leadership just does things to keep their regulars happy, even if what they are doing is crap, and is totally irrelevant to those that they should be trying to reach. In a study by the Barna Group it said that one-third of outsiders believe that Christians actually care about them. Thats kinda pathetic if you ask me, but I can’t say I disagree with the outsiders.. We are so focused on keeping each other happy that we forget our primary focus. Leaders, its okay to go against the norm, and everyone else, its okay to change. It’s not about us. We are already there. If we aren’t reaching the lost, our efforts are being wasted. So now I ask, will we set our own agenda aside, and actually get excited about what God can do or will we shelter ourselves from a culture that offends us?
Totally totally agreed!