Here are the top two questions church leaders are asking: The first is how to get increased financial stability in their church; it just doesn’t seem to functioning as smoothly financially as it used to. The second is about what the church of the future will look like; clearly things are changing, so how do we need to navigate those changes faithfully and effectively?
These sound like two different topics, but I believe they are related. If you are experiencing financial challenges, it’s highly likely that you’ve lost focus on the mission.
When the model misses the mission
For the last hundred years or more, we have used a business model for churches. We create an organization that provides worship services and other activities for our customers (Christians). These customers, in turn, financially support the organization in return for these services. When the model is working well, the organization can afford to buy buildings to make worship services easier to pull off and staff to run those worship services. Staff can also provide the required pastoral care and the running of any ancillary programs customers may need, such as children’s and youth programs.
This model worked quite well for an extended period of time… that period of time being when Christianity was a cultural and societal given. Most people would identify as Christian and many of those self-identified Christians would take part in the activities offered by churches. In this older model, people who wanted to find God knew where to go to look. The church could have a “come to us” mentality—because people did.
But today that business model is like one that is based on selling typewriters… an obsolete product most people don’t feel the need for. So it’s failing financially. Staff are being laid off—or new generations are not being hired as the older generation retires. Buildings are falling into disuse or being turned into condos. We’re going out of business and needing to sell off our assets.
Missional discipleship model
The business/consumer model doesn’t work anymore. The solution is to get back to the mission Jesus gave the church: make disciples.
All followers of Jesus are called to serve, to encourage one another, and to share the good news. They go to their everyday, ordinary, secular jobs and make disciples as they go. There may be a very few people who will need to work full-time in the ministry, and they will likely be those who raise support and are sent out to make new disciples in places where there are very few. But the days of a paid job to care for the current flock are ending… and in many places have ended already.
To secure the future of the church we need to get more focused on the mission of making disciples. We need to live as Jesus lived and help people take their next steps toward him… from wherever they are. Part of our challenge in doing this is being clearly focused on what our mission is. We can no longer offer a good show and assume people will be attracted. If they are looking for a product, they can get a far better one online (sermons and worship music included). But what do you have? You have a community of people being on mission together to live as disciples of Jesus. You can provide a relational environment for supporting each other while moving toward God and toward taking increased steps of discipleship. And that’s something ALL of us can do—clergy and laypeople alike.
Rethinking church
The future of the church may not be a business with employees and customers. The church of the future may be more lay-led and relational—a grassroots organization of everyday followers of Jesus. These people do not receive services… they serve the world around them. They encourage one another. Gatherings are low-cost (or no-cost) groups to pray, study the Bible, and support one another. They challenge one another on to love and good deeds:
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:23-25)
Resources
The Discipleship Difference- Every person is different and we all reflect God in different ways. So why is our typical approach to discipleship the same across the board? The Discipleship Difference lays out an intentional, holistic, and relational approach to discipleship that is individualized to meet each person wherever they are and help them take their next best step toward God.
Leadership Skills Guides– These downloadable guides were written to help you develop practical leadership skills in others. They cover 37 skills that are essential to ministry leaders in a choose-your-own-adventure format for real-time learning.