by Cameron Crabtree
A primary aim of the Northwest Baptist Convention’s cooperative mission effort is to start healthy, reproducing churches — lots of them. A barrier to achieving that goal, however, is skepticism among too many existing churches about the need for and effectiveness of such an effort. That must change.
If you surveyed some of the Northwest Baptists you know and asked them to identify the main purposes of the church, you’d likely predict most the responses — worship, evangelism, missions, ministry and other familiars. In many instances, you’d find the variations and visionary phrases on banners or other signs reminding church members of Jesus’ Great Commission task.
But usually missing from that list of responses is any concern about churches reproducing themselves. Without a commitment to reproduce itself in a new expression in a new community, a church may never enjoy its fullest impact.
As a convention of churches scattered across a vast territory of diverse populations, we must find a way to develop a movement of “missionaries” committed to sharing Christ through new churches and the development of ministries that reach new people.
In traveling across the Northwest in recent years, be it in the vast rural areas or the major population centers, it’s clear that our basic approach to church life — despite rhetoric to the contrary or attempts to change when given ample opportunity — is about the same in just about every setting. Indeed, God has blessed Northwest Baptists with leaders trying to share Christ with more creative approaches, but for the most part there’s little difference reflected in the diverse settings.
A key to any large scale church starting effort in the Northwest is fostering a positive climate for such efforts. Too often, initiating conversations about the need to start churches in the Northwest invokes a look of concern from some pastors and leaders of existing churches. Their criticism often goes to their perception that a lot of money is spent on church planting with “nothing to show for it” just a few years later.
There is some validity to their concern. We sometimes use approaches that assume economic and cultural settings that simply don’t exist in many places in the Northwest. But that should drive us to plant churches with an even greater sense of spiritual dependence, an even stronger sense of calculated risk and a way to balance sustainability and short-term impact in a given setting.
NWBC history is full of seasons when churches were burdened with the need to plant more churches. That’s a burden worth renewing again — enthusiastically.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Church facing challenges in 2011
By Cameron Crabtree
As usual, the year began with the cycle of reflecting on events that have passed and anticipating opportunities ahead. If a 2010 analysis by a prominent research firm is believed, the church in North America has work to do on both fronts.
The Barna Research Group reviewed studies over the past year and came away with not-so-surprising but nonetheless unsettling findings — it terms them “megathemes” — about what is happening and not happening in America’s Protestant churches. Together, the themes reveal a challenge the church may not have faced in generations.
Log onto www.barna.org for the full report.
The group’s assessment that the church as a whole across the nation is becoming less theologically literate comes as no surprise. Trends have been pointing in that direction for years, despite the massive amount of resources constantly poured into preaching, teaching, discipleship efforts and other Christian education ministries.
The review lists several examples of this trend, including the fact that few adults surveyed believe their faith is “meant to be a focal point in life or integrated into every aspect of their existence.” For a movement that views such a belief as fundamental, that’s bad news. Barna suggests a “theological free-for-all” could ensue as “Busters” and “Mosaics,” those born 1965-2002, step with their suspect levels of theological literacy into leadership roles of many of the nation’s congregations.
The research group also believes Christians are focusing inward rather than becoming more outreach-oriented. Despite continual advances in communication technologies and prompts for engagement with the world ringing constantly in the ears of believers, the group noted an increasing number of Christians is becoming “more spiritually isolated from non-Christians” than a decade ago.
Again, Barna’s firm pointed to examples as evidence of its finding, such as less than one-third of born again Christians planning to invite anyone to join them for church events during the Easter season or teenagers less inclined to discuss Christianity with their friends than in the past. The group suggested a growing “absence of faith talk” may lead to diminishing prospects of young adults seeking a Christian church in the future.
Ironically, this is taking place even as a third, positive theme emerges: escalating interest in community action. Led in this area mostly by young adults, the group reported Christian are “more open to and more involved in community service activities” than in recent years.
While this could be a boon to churches aiming for greater impact in their respective communities, the group warns churches could see such interest wane without rooting it in a strong spiritual basis. “Simply doing good works because it's the socially esteemed choice of the moment will not produce much staying power,” the group predicted.
In a fourth arena, according to the group, people are becoming more interested in pragmatic solutions for life than in spiritual principles. When teenagers were asked about life’s priorities, faith takes a back seat to other priorities and is “not necessarily perceived to affect their ability to achieve their dreams.”
The trend isn’t much better among adults, who “consider survival in the present to be much more significant than eternal” matters. The Barna group makes an important observation: “Because we continue to separate our spirituality from other dimensions of life through compartmentalization, a relatively superficial approach to faith has become a central means of optimizing our life experience.”
The group noted in a fifth theme the broader culture’s insistence on tolerance is “winning over the Christian church.” The group suggested a mix of issues has severely weakened churches’ influence in areas of morality: biblical illiteracy and lack of spiritual confidence, fear of being labeled as judgmental, limited accountability within the body of Christ and Christians believing churches should be dogmatic about fewer and fewer things.
We serve the Lord here in the Northwest at a crucial cultural moment. Certainly, we remain confident in Christ’s ultimate triumph in the world. But to serve the Lord faithfully — when many of the cultural advantages his church in our nation once enjoyed have disappeared — we may need to consider what it means to demonstrate his love in new ways effectively. With the page of a new year’s calendar now turned, it seems a good time to think it through and take some risks.
As usual, the year began with the cycle of reflecting on events that have passed and anticipating opportunities ahead. If a 2010 analysis by a prominent research firm is believed, the church in North America has work to do on both fronts.
The Barna Research Group reviewed studies over the past year and came away with not-so-surprising but nonetheless unsettling findings — it terms them “megathemes” — about what is happening and not happening in America’s Protestant churches. Together, the themes reveal a challenge the church may not have faced in generations.
Log onto www.barna.org for the full report.
The group’s assessment that the church as a whole across the nation is becoming less theologically literate comes as no surprise. Trends have been pointing in that direction for years, despite the massive amount of resources constantly poured into preaching, teaching, discipleship efforts and other Christian education ministries.
The review lists several examples of this trend, including the fact that few adults surveyed believe their faith is “meant to be a focal point in life or integrated into every aspect of their existence.” For a movement that views such a belief as fundamental, that’s bad news. Barna suggests a “theological free-for-all” could ensue as “Busters” and “Mosaics,” those born 1965-2002, step with their suspect levels of theological literacy into leadership roles of many of the nation’s congregations.
The research group also believes Christians are focusing inward rather than becoming more outreach-oriented. Despite continual advances in communication technologies and prompts for engagement with the world ringing constantly in the ears of believers, the group noted an increasing number of Christians is becoming “more spiritually isolated from non-Christians” than a decade ago.
Again, Barna’s firm pointed to examples as evidence of its finding, such as less than one-third of born again Christians planning to invite anyone to join them for church events during the Easter season or teenagers less inclined to discuss Christianity with their friends than in the past. The group suggested a growing “absence of faith talk” may lead to diminishing prospects of young adults seeking a Christian church in the future.
Ironically, this is taking place even as a third, positive theme emerges: escalating interest in community action. Led in this area mostly by young adults, the group reported Christian are “more open to and more involved in community service activities” than in recent years.
While this could be a boon to churches aiming for greater impact in their respective communities, the group warns churches could see such interest wane without rooting it in a strong spiritual basis. “Simply doing good works because it's the socially esteemed choice of the moment will not produce much staying power,” the group predicted.
In a fourth arena, according to the group, people are becoming more interested in pragmatic solutions for life than in spiritual principles. When teenagers were asked about life’s priorities, faith takes a back seat to other priorities and is “not necessarily perceived to affect their ability to achieve their dreams.”
The trend isn’t much better among adults, who “consider survival in the present to be much more significant than eternal” matters. The Barna group makes an important observation: “Because we continue to separate our spirituality from other dimensions of life through compartmentalization, a relatively superficial approach to faith has become a central means of optimizing our life experience.”
The group noted in a fifth theme the broader culture’s insistence on tolerance is “winning over the Christian church.” The group suggested a mix of issues has severely weakened churches’ influence in areas of morality: biblical illiteracy and lack of spiritual confidence, fear of being labeled as judgmental, limited accountability within the body of Christ and Christians believing churches should be dogmatic about fewer and fewer things.
We serve the Lord here in the Northwest at a crucial cultural moment. Certainly, we remain confident in Christ’s ultimate triumph in the world. But to serve the Lord faithfully — when many of the cultural advantages his church in our nation once enjoyed have disappeared — we may need to consider what it means to demonstrate his love in new ways effectively. With the page of a new year’s calendar now turned, it seems a good time to think it through and take some risks.
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