THE BEST STRUCTURE: Does the American church have the best structure for changing lives?
- Matthew 10:1-4.
- Here I have a golf club. If I need to dig a hole, I can make it happen with a golf club. Now, it certainly will not be particularly efficient, but I will eventually get the job done. A much better way to dig a hole, though, is to use this shovel. It was designed to dig holes and so will do the job much more effectively.
- We have a structure with how we do church these days and we need to ask a similar question about it. Is the structure of church designed to do its job as effectively and efficiently as possible?
- Now this question may come as a surprise to many of you. Your presumption is that the way that church happens is the only way for church to happen. “Of course we do church that way because that’s the way church is done.” Well, actually, the Bible shares surprisingly little on the way that church is to be structured. For instance, just to cite the example of worship, we are not told how long a worship service is to last, how many worship services a church should have each week, what time of day they should be, how many songs you should sing, what instruments should be used, how long the sermon should be, or the style of preaching that should be used. That’s a lot of key questions and yet the Bible leaves them open. So you might have a three-hour service with a lots of singing and testimonies and then just a short sermon to close or you might have a thirty-minute service with one song and a twenty-five minute sermon.
- This amount of flexibility also means that when we do see a structure given, it’s probably something that we should pay attention to. That is especially true when it is a pattern of Jesus’ ministry.
- What is the default structure of the American church? I’m going to call it “CEO pastor/spectator congregation.” Let me share a little about what this looks like and you tell me if it sounds familiar.
- The pastor is hired to “run the church.” He is supposed to act like the CEO of a company. He attends the board meetings, he runs the church, and he’s the guy who makes things happen.
- The biggest goal for the church is to grow in size. Success is measured by bigger congregations, bigger offerings, and bigger sanctuaries. The emphasis is on growth.
- The people are expected to show up for church (unless they are busy). They need to throw a little in the plate, but other than that showing up is their only real task. Yes, there are some super-Christians who serve in the church, but that’s not considered a typical thing and certainly isn’t expected.
- The job description and the emphasis on growth ensures that the pastor doesn’t have much time to spend one-on-one with the people of the congregation. You’ll get a visit if you’re in the hospital and you may get a funeral home visit when a loved one dies, but other than that the relationship is essentially that you listen to him preach and then you shake hands and exchange pleasantries after morning worship. The idea that the pastor would know what’s going in your life or call you with any frequency or regularly be praying for you by name is not even considered. There is little expectation from the congregation of personal attention from the pastor or a personal relationship with the pastor.
- Does this sound familiar? That’s because this the way we “do church” in America.
HOW DID JESUS STRUCTURE HIS MINISTRY? He touched many but invested in a few.
- Matthew 10:1-4.
- As we look at Matthew 10, we have a statement of monumental importance, but many overlook it. It’s just a dry list of names, right? You might need to memorize it if you’re playing Bible trivia, but other than that it doesn’t have much to tell us, does it?
- Actually, it tells us a lot.
- Let’s step back and think for a moment about the fact that there were numerous ways that Jesus could have organized His ministry:
a. He could have chosen to do straight teaching.
- He could have gone from place to place teaching as a lone preacher. Folks could follow Him and listen to Him as often as they wanted, but they would just be faces in the crowd.
- This would be somewhat like an itinerate evangelist going from place to place. He preaches and encourages, but then goes to do the same thing at another place.
b. He could have gathered a giant congregation.
- He could have stayed in one place and taught daily or weekly. He could have encouraged people to come to hear him and emphasized the importance of getting as big a gathering as possible. With so many people, He could have declined to spend any time with them individually, instead saying that all they needed to know they could get through the teaching.
c. He could have spent a few moments with each individual person.
- As He had opportunity to talk to people, He could have foregone preaching to larger groups and instead spent a few minutes with interested people. In those moments, He could have shared a handful of central truths and then moved on to do the same with the next person.
- But He chose none of those. Instead He touched many but invested in a few.
- What did that look like?
a. He touched many.
- Jesus did travel from place to place, teaching to ever-increasing crowds. There were many people who needed to hear the Good News that He came to share and so He taught them.
- He did miracles as well, often just encountering people for a moment but providing the touch that they needed.
b. He invested in a few.
- Now we come back to Matthew 10. Jesus chooses twelve disciples. These men will be His “inner circle.” He will invest more time and teaching in them than in the crowds.
- He will take them from place to place. As the crowds go back home as Jesus travels to a different region, the twelve stay by His side.
- To use a modern term, He mentored them. He poured His life into them and they learned deeply what He was all about.
- The investing was a time commitment. He spent a lot of time with them.
- He shared His life with them. They were together for three years.
- Was this effective?
- Well, the early church transformed the world.
- Again, to go back to the earlier point, there were lots of ways that Jesus could have organized His ministry and this is the one He chose.
- We need to grasp the reality that this was the way that He thought would most effectively achieve His goal.
- What are we to take from this?
- Clearly there are differences in Jesus’ situation and ours. For one, He could do miracles. For another, He had perfect wisdom in all He taught. Still, there are key truths to draw from this.
- The key truth for us I believe is in this: He chose a few people to invest heavily in.
- We all recognize that in our daily lives we are going to touch many people. Fewer of us, though, are deliberately investing ourselves deeply in a few people.
- Now I don’t mean that we need to start wandering around from town to town teaching with a bunch of followers in tow. I do think that Jesus decision to invest His time and heart in a few people is something we need to ponder.
- To go back to my earlier comments about the current structure of the American church, can you see the problem? If this type of mentoring relationship is key, why have we set up a structure that almost completely removes that? If investing our time in people is important, why have we set up a structure where church leaders don’t have time to do that?
- We need to consider whether the way we’ve structured the church is essentially trying to dig a hole with a golf club. If so, that would explain why the American church doesn’t see more changed lives.
WHAT ARE THE STEPS FORWARD?
1. Do I have something to give?
- If we are going to do more of this within the church, we start with the question of whether we have something that we could give to someone as a mentor.
- Clearly, we don’t have the perfect knowledge that Jesus had. If we need to have His perfection, then we can stop right now.
- We don’t, though. We do not have to have exhaustive knowledge or ultimate spiritual maturity. We do need to have a good spiritual foundation and an encouraging heart.
- Perhaps the biggest question to ask is simply this: do I want to make a difference in people’s lives?
- Some don’t want to make a difference in others’ lives.
- They want to focus on their own pleasure or ease.
- This is where we need to come back to the fundamental truth: people are what are going to outlast this world. As we invest in people we invest in what’s eternal.
2. What hungry people has God put in my path?
- We tend to be caught up in our own little lives and ignore those around us who are struggling or hurting. If we don’t ignore them, then we see them negatively as a drain on our lives. What if God has put some of those struggling people in our paths so that we can encourage them to move in a better direction?
- Or maybe the person in question here isn’t a mess. Maybe they’re making progress and you think they’re great. But they could really use someone to come beside them and encourage them as they go forward. Perhaps in this case you approach them less as a mentor and more as a fellow traveler.
- In each case, wherever they might be on the spiritual landscape, look for those who are spiritually hungry. They want to grow, they want to learn, they embrace challenge.
3. Can I invite them to walk with me?
- We are not telling them that we think they’re immature or that we know everything there is to know. We are telling them that we are deliberately walking with God and trying to gather fellow travelers along that path.
- In some cases perhaps they are significantly less spiritually mature than we are and so we assume a mentor type role.
- In some cases perhaps we are marginally more spiritually mature than they are and so we can provide some more modest encouragements.
- In some cases we may be spiritual equals on maturity or perhaps they’re even further down that road than we are.
- In any of those cases, it’s still a great thing to walk together. Hear this, because it’s important: there is spiritual power simply in the act of deliberately walking with other Christians. That’s one thing that Jesus teaches us here in Matthew 10. He organized His ministry in a way that shared time together.
- One other group that’s worth mentioning here is the lonely.
- Loneliness is an epidemic today. Social media has exacerbated the trends of isolation that were already in place.
- In many cases, our offer to walk with someone will be eagerly embraced not only because of spiritual interest but also because of the opportunity for genuine, deep relationship.
A CLOSING THOUGHT: Don’t spend your time – invest it.
- We talk all the time about spending our time. I know there are everyday things we have to spend our time on: getting groceries, mowing the grass, doing laundry, etc.
- But we need to invest some of our time as well.
- It’s like spending our money. There are everyday things you have to spend your money on, but you also need to invest for other things: retirement, major purchases, to have something to leave your children.
- Where do we invest our time? In people, just like Jesus did.
- Can you think of anyone that you’re investing your life in right now? Deliberately investing your time. Using your time in a way where you’re anticipating a dividend.
