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Church: UK Mission

Bums on Seats?

I’ve just come across a great post in My Backyard (Wendy S. Bailey) entitled: The Wrong Question

“How can we get more people to come to our church?” I am asked this question a lot.
The question isn’t how can we get people to come here, it’s how can we get our people to go there. We have to deploy our members into our neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces to be witnesses of Christ in those places. In the 21st century, discipleship usually begins with an authentic friendship with a Christ-follower. Only after the interest in Christ is kindled, is a new-believer interested in attending a worship service.

It depresses me no end when I hear Church leaders talk about finding new ways of getting more people into Church as if getting bums on seats was what we are about. No, if we are serious about being missional we need to get Christians out of the church and into places where people meet and relax, sharing the love of Christ with them where they are. Yes, we do want more people to join us in worship – but that is the outcome of our mission, not the mission itself.

HT: Kruse Chronicle

After posting this, I came across a new article by Brian Russell, which includes these words:

What is an ambassadors primary function? To represent the interests of a nation or ruler. We become Jesus’ goodwill ambassadors to the world. This is a critical insight. The end of salvation is not merely personal religious experience or even personal transformation; it is mission. Mission is the reason for the existence of the community of faith.

For an ambassador to be effective, he or she must actually go and serve in a foreign country. This is a crucial word for us today. As we seek to recapture the mission center of the Bible, we must locate ourselves in the world. In an ironic twist, many followers of Christ need to become more worldly. By this I do not mean less Christlike, but more Christlike. Jesus did not spend his time hanging around with nice religious folks. He intentionally led his followers into the world to reach those most desperate for what only God can do.

An ambassador who does not engage the world is like a kamikazee pilot who lived to write his memoirs.

Christ’s ambassadors shouldn’t be in Church trying to make it more attractive to other people, they should be out there, introducing them to Christ.

One reply on “Bums on Seats?”

Excellent point…

William Temple’s oft quoted wisdom, “The church is the only organisation set up for the benefit of its non-members” calls us to question our basic motivations when we ask the question, “what is church?”.

It’s all too easy to have a me-centric view on the Body of Christ. “The Great Ommission” of Matthew 28, a fundamental pillar of ecclesiology, calls us to “go”, so often we would prefer to stay. I like the picture of the farmyard church – a good yard is crucial to the functioning of a good farm, but it’s not the purpose in and of itself – it is only useful insofar as it is used to prepare, resource and support the work in the field.

However, is it not similarly reductionist to say that mission is the end of salvation, what of relationship with God? I would suggest instead that when considering both mission and church, relationship lies at the heart of both the objective and the means.

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