So, here’s a good article to start the thinking process for pastors on Monday mornings–the day when many clergy, at least mentally, write their resignation letters.
The author, Tim Suttle, is himself a pastor of what was once a rapidly growing church, but is now a shrinking church. What happened? He moved from a “what would make the people feel good,” highly pragmatic leadership and preaching style to one where he decided he needed to actually preach the gospel.
He writes: “Convincing the church she does not exist for the benefit of her members, but for the life of the world is a bad church growth strategy.:
He also stated earlier in the article:
. . . the church’s job is not to affirm people’s lives, but to allow the gospel to continually call our lives into question. The church’s job is not to grow — not even to survive. The church’s job is to die — continually — on behalf of the world, believing that with every death there is a resurrection. God’s part is to grow whatever God wishes to grow. Growing a church isn’t hard … being faithful as the church, that’s a different story.
Yes, it is the pastor’s job to call people’s lives (including our own) into question. And since our culture continues its disastrous move to worship of self and leaves behind any idea that God may have something to say about our decisions, actions and thoughts, such a strategy does not fill the seats at worship times.
Real revival starts with long, long hours and days of prayer and intentional move into holy places–with the inevitable result of having our sin and brokenness exposed by the real light shining upon us.
But there is no place in the current measure of effective pastors to even consider that those hours and days and weeks of prayer might be a good way to use time. After all, there will be nothing to measure. No numbers, no rewards.
And yet once more, I say, “What are we doing?”
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