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Five Rules for a Prospering Church
-- Rev. Paul G.
Donelson
Ishpeming
Wesley United Methodist Church
Ishpeming, Michigan
www.umcs.org
- A prospering church is always willing to try
new models for ministry in an effort to serve the prime mission of
the church, which is to bring persons to Christ.
- A prospering church always gives permission
to persons within the church to conduct ministry and even make
mistakes for the sake of the prime mission of the church, which is
to bring persons to Christ.
- A prospering church always encourages full
participation in ministry by any and all in the congregation while
recognizing that the primary role of the pastor is for leadership,
teaching, and enabling such ministry.
- A prospering church never allows controllers
to hold the attention of the church and/or pastor for any longer
than possible.
- A prospering church never allows any program
of the church or church related group to restrict or interfere
with the prime mission of the church, which is to bring persons to
Christ.
Any church whose prime mission is anything other
than to bring persons to Christ is not a church at all. Many
churches start out with such a mission. However, as time passes,
as the original founders of the church age and die, as the church
begins to flourish and become more organized, as the church develops
structure, it may begin to lose sight of this prime mission. As
time goes on such a church may begin to focus upon itself, its
building, its survival, its finances, ministry to its own members, and
to the functioning of its systems. When it begins to do this,
its eyes focus less and less on Jesus and more and more on itself.
Thus, it is important at every step of a
church's life for a church to reaffirm its prime mission. It
does this in the way it is structured, in how it empowers for
ministry, to whom it ministers, and how it spends its resources.
The seven last words of a dying church is this
well known and often said phrase: "We've never done it that
way before." The opposite is true for the prospering
church: a church that is always looking for new and better ways to
minister in an always changing and evolving world.
To encourage persons to be creative in ministry,
the prospering church gives its members permission to minister under
the guidance of a mission statement. Essentially, such a
statement contains no more than 25 words, is constantly presented to
the congregation in a variety of forms, and is prayerfully reviewed
periodically by those in a church's leadership so that the
ministries of the church may stay on target. Often, those given
charge over ministries are simply given a short list of what not to do
as they do their work.
The role of the pastor in a prospering church is
not to have control over the ministry of the church. The role of
the pastor is never to monopolize ministry. Ministry, rather,
must be and shall always be the role of the laity. The pastor's
role is simply to organize, teach, prepare, and enable the laity for
ministry. Rather than doing all the visitation, it is the role
of the pastor to organize, teach, prepare, and enable the laity to be
engaged in the ministry of visitation, to members' homes, shut-ins,
new-comers, and in hospitals, as well. Rather than conducting
all the worship and worship planning, it is the role of the pastor to
organize, teach, prepare, and enable the laity to plan and conduct
worship. Unless the pastor is the only member of the church,
never should "calling," "visiting the sick," or
"leading and planning worship," appear as main ingredients
in the pastor's role in a prospering, Christ centered church.
- If the pastor does home visitations or
hospital calls, members of the church should take turns going with
the pastor so that they may receive training in how to do these
things. The creation of such a cadre of lay-pastors should
be the first thing any church must do if it wants to be a
prospering church. Never ever should this calling be done
with the goal of raising money for the church.
- If the pastor does worship planning, it
should never be done without a room full of church members there
to learn how to do it, offer suggestions, ask questions, and be a
part of a process wherein they will be able to take over this role
with only the guidance and participation of the pastor.
When laity are thus empowered to bring persons
to Christ then power within the church is broad and never focused
within a few individuals. While there may be a few significant
church leaders, these leaders always use their leadership to share
their ministries with others and encourage others to lead and
participate. Thus, controllers (persons who usurp the prime
ministry of the church by holding power for personal glory) in a
prospering church are not tolerated, are relieved of their burdens of
leadership, allowed prayerful opportunities for personal spiritual
growth, yet may be asked to leave the church if their addiction to
power and control continues to usurp the prime ministry of the church
and cannot be overcome.
It is the prospering, Christ centered church
whose programs focus on bringing persons to Christ before they do
anything else.
- If a church's program is to grow flowers in
the front of the church, everything about that program will be
designed to bring persons to Christ. Persons involved with
the planting of the flowers will engage in an inclusive, prayerful
fellowship. Children and others within the community will be
encouraged to participate. The design of the flower bed may
be one that actually spells out an invitation to those who drive
by the church. Participants may go home with a flower in a
container with an invitation to come back, both written and
verbal. If such a flower planting program results in no
flowers being planted, but that persons are brought to a
relationship with Jesus Christ, then the program was a glittering
success. If all the program does is plant flowers, then the church
has accomplished little.
- If a church's program is to bake Christmas
cookies and sell them to the community, everything in that program
will be designed to bring persons to Christ. As members go
through the community obtaining orders for their cookies, they
will take with them written and verbal information about their
church, providing worship times, information about upcoming
events, etc., but most importantly, promoting Christ and the
Christian faith as they take their orders. The baking,
decorating, and sale of the cookies (or any other activities such
as this) will be seen primarily as an opportunity for Christian
fellowship, Christian education, evangelism, and outreach.
If the result of such a cookie sale is that no cookies are baked,
decorated, or sold, but that persons are brought to Christ, then
the cookie sale was an unadulterated success. But, if all
the church did was bake, decorate, and sell cookies, the result
would be a dismal failure and an insult to the Body of Christ.
The prime mission of the church is to bring
persons to Christ. It is the prospering church that focuses on
Christ. Such a church may only have four formal meetings a year.
The rest of the meetings are totally informal, done in member's
houses, over the telephone, over backyard fences, or down at the local
cafe. Yet, even these do not take place without each participant
fully aware of the church's mission statement and the prime mission of
the church.
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