If you ask someone the following questions they would most likely give you the same answer. Where do you go to find information on Jesus? The Church building or Church event. Where did you first hear about Jesus? A Church building or event. Where do you worship? A Church building or event? Why don't you worship anymore? Issues with the Church.
If you look at the new testament Church the answer would have been much different story. To them the answer to where do you go to find information on Jesus? Would be “to one of his disciples”. Where did you first hear about Jesus? “As I was traveling”, “While I was working”, “Listening Christians in the market place”, “When my loved one was healed”, “In my home”. Where do you worship? “Anywhere”. And because of these answers we don't need to deal with the last question.
So I wonder if we have not been doing it all wrong. I believe strongly that there is a place of the local Church, for Sunday Morning worship, and for youth and children's programming. I believe that we need full time people in ministry. But these things exist to equip people to go out of the Church building and programs rather than to ensure that we bring people into the Church building and programs.
When Jesus commands us to teach he says it with a direction and that direction is “Go”. He says “Go therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded.” He didn't say, “Bring em in then teach them”. He said “go”. He also didn't limit this command to certain people. He never said “Go to seminary, wear a stole, get ordained, so you can go and make disciples”. He said [you], therefore go make disciples.” He calls us all as a “Royal Priesthood” to make disciples.
So the purpose of the local Church is as a resource centre for all believers who are then equipped to go out and do the real ministry, which is ministry in the home, in the work place, in the neighborhood, in your school. So the local Church is vital but not as a place to arrive but as a starting point for our journey out. The minister is not a spiritual guru or gatekeeper instead he is a support and assistant to those who go out. The full time minister is to equip those who are doing ministry in their homes, work places, schools, neighborhoods, etc. When we think of any church or look at a church's marketing the first face we see should not be that of the full time minister but that of the army of ministers and evangelists we call the congregation. They are the face of the church to the world and community not the paid staff.
While often the question on many Church leadership teams minds is “How do we get more people into our Church to hear the Word?”, I believe the Gospels call us to ask “How can we send more people out to live the Word”. Changing our thinking on this means that we stop worrying about increasing Church attendance and worry more about making disciples.
One of the biggest hindrances to this is the emergence of the Church marketplace. When we talk about Church we talk about a Church as one local Church amongst many local Churches. We don't talk about THE Church we talk about A Church. So when we talk about getting more people into THE Church we are really saying that we want to get more people into OUR Church and if OUR Church is not THE Church but rather a building where we worship on Sunday morning then we have our definition of Church a bit mixed up.
In the Church marketplace we have churches competing for attendees. We market our Churches with words like “contemporary” and “relevant” as if we are really saying “were contemporary... unlike those other guys”. And we put on programs for Christians and advertise them to other Christians from other Churches. In fact, in a book by Tim keller called “Centre Church' Keller says that the vast majority of the growth that Churches are seeing in the past few decades is not actually growth but rather shifting from one Church to another. So our focus becomes not on sending people out but on bringing people in and if we do send them out it is often in hopes that they will go out to bring people into our Church.
This also affects the teachings of the Church. I mean Jesus found out in John 6 that if you teach about salvation in Christ alone people might walk away. So if your goal is to get people in it's far better to teach on being blessed or love or kindness than it is to teach on things like repentence, salvation from sin and hell, creation, or going deeper in the Bible. You turn Jesus into “Buddy Jesus” and neglect to teach the Jesus of Revelations 19 (notice “buddy Jesus” doesn't come with a Scripture reference).
So, as with most things that I write I write this because I am convicted as well. I write this because tomorrow is a new day and a new year, a chance to do things differently. To repent of self centred ways of thinking and move towards thinking that is in line with God's Word. So in the coming year I pray that we can live out our call as ministers in the Church in our homes, neighborhoods, and any where else we are called and that we can seek to add to the numbers of THE Church (meaning the body of believers) rather than adding to the numbers of attendees on the books of OUR Church. I pray that we can humbly follow Christ for His glory.