To Hell with the Church!

"The target of the church should be the world and not the pew." – Ed Silvoso

Chapter 5 of 'Transform your work life', entitled 'To Hell with the Church' is causing a bit of a stir!  That's good news!  Here's an excerpt from that chapter:

Where is the best place to ‘shine your light’ and be ‘the salt of the earth’ (Matt 5:13–15)? You need to shine your light where it is dark of course! For many years I made the mistake of thinking that a church’s success is measured by its seating capacity (how many people are in worship on a Sunday). The truth is that a church’s salt, its real worth, is measured by its sending capacity. God does not care how big the ‘salt shaker’ is, rather what God is concerned about is how much salt is shaken from the salt shaker, and how much light the church shines in the darkest places of society.

Let me ask you another question, if your church were to close its doors this week, who would notice that you are not in ministry any longer? Of course the members who worship in your congregation would care, but would the homeless in your area notice? Would the hungry and the abused of your society realise that you are not operating anymore? Would your closure have an impact on the sick and the elderly people in your community? How about the schools and businesses in your community; would they notice that you are no longer ministering in the community?

When Jesus said that He would build his church and the gates of hell would not overpower it (Matt 16:18), there was a clear assumption that He builds his church at the gates of hell! One of the most loving things we can do with the church is to send it to hell. We need to find the places of suffering, brokenness and need, and be the church in those places so that Jesus can build his church there. In my experience those places are not very far from where you work!

What do you think?  Where should the Church's ministry be focussed? Either leave a comment below, or post a message on the discussion forum here.

I'd love to hear your feedback!

Comments

[Simon]

The church is the body of believers who are called to bring worship to HIm who called them. Worship is the first ministry of the Church from that flows into Mission (John Piper- Let the Nations be glad)
You ask a valid question, a bit radical, but valid. Let us however not throw the baby out with the bathwater, Christ died for the Church and for members in particular. Let no no one deride the biride of Christ.

[Dion Forster]

Hi Simon,

Thanks for the comment! I agree that we should be careful not to swing from one error into another! The Church is currently in a state of disobedience (in my opinion) since true worship of God is not only liturgical and musical, it is fundamentally to declare and establish the will and ways of God in society. Many Churches pray beautiful prayers and sing wonderful songs, but their worship ends at the Church door.

I long for a reality in which the worship on a Sunday spills over into worship on a Monday - worship that transforms society into the image of the Kingdom of God!

Blessings!

Dion

[Dion Forster]

This comment is reposted from my Lausanne Conversation post which you can find here.

Rusty (0)
United States
There are a number of polls that I have seen in the past that would indicate that there are a number of people in serious need in the churches as well as outside of the churches. That’s why divorce rates among church members are just as high as for people outside of the church (I’m thinking at least in America). The call to move outside of the four walls of the church is a needy call indeed; we ought to be impacting those outside of the church. Jesus told us to go. But there should also be an impact going on within the church as Paul, the writer of Hebrews, and other New Testament writers directed: exhortation, encouragement, and general edification. One cannot forsake the church congregation in order to win the lost; their must be an impact both in the church and in the world. If our church closed, there are people in the community that would know, but more importantly, our congregation would know, and, God willing, it would be sorrow to them, brought on by the godly edification that they have experienced together.

And here is my response to Rusty:

Dion Forster (0)
South Africa
Hi Rusty,

Thanks so much for your comment! I truly appreciate it. The title of the article is deliberately provocative. I agree entirely with what you’re saying - we cannot be so focussed outside of the Church that we don’t care for those in the Church.

Another commentator reminded me that the purpose of the Church is to worship God, and that mission and engagement outside of the Church are secondary activities. Again, I agree that we are to worship God as a primary activity, but my feeling is that this worship must ’spill over’ from Sunday to Monday, from pew to pavement!

I guess what I am saying is that we should be careful not to go from one extreme of error (i.e., the Church being self absorbed and without any mission focus, or simply believing that worship is to be found only in prayer and song) to another form of error (i.e., giving up caring for those already in the Church, and giving up our worship).

Rather, I am advocating a consistent lifestyle. If we say that Christ loves the world, then let’s be Chistlike and love the world also! If we declare the worth of God in worship, then let’s also be willing to declare God’s worth in celebrating the worthiness of God’s will and ways in the world.

Thanks once again for your comment! May you be richly blessing, and be a rich blessing, in your work and ministry!

Dion

[Gerhard van Rooyen]

In his book, TRANSFORMING MISSION Prof. David Bosch wrote the following on mission:
“In the new image mission is not primarily an activity of the church, but an attribute of God. God is a missionary God. ‘It is not the church that has a mission of salvation to fulfil in the world; it is the mission of the Son and the Spirit through the Father that includes the church.’ Mission is thereby seen as a movement from God to the world; the church is viewed as an instrument for that mission. To participate in mission is to participate in the movement of God’s love toward people, since God is a fountain of sending love.”
I think essentially this is the reason for the church's existence. I remember somewhere Jurgen Moltmann said that the church must not look around to see the Kingdom coming because God can let His kingdom come even despite the church.Your post is right on target and will cause a stir in the church because the church has fallen into the trap of measuring success in buildings, money and numbers.Reggie Mcneal wrote a book recently in which he strongly advocates that we change the scorecard for the church to being missionally minded.If we Matthew 25 in mind we have no other reason to be on earth than to show God's love to these suffering people.

[Herman Groenewald]

One needs to see "The Big Picture"
God has set a plan in place to Redeem mankind through His Son and that is the Big Picture.. Man on the other hand has not fully understood Gods Plan and Purpose. If one is to fully understand Gods Plan then we also need to look a different perspectives to fully understand God’s Kingdom Plan..
• Biblical Perspective: What does Scripture say from Genesis through Revelation about God’s intention to reach all nations with His blessing?
• Historical Perspective: How did the Kingdom of God advance from Jerusalem to where we are today?
• Strategic Perspective: What is God doing in our generation? How can each church and believer link with His plan?
• Cultural Perspective: How does cultural diversity connect with God’s Kingdom?
• Partnership Perspective: How does the worldwide church partner together to increase effectiveness for the Kingdom?
We need to come to understand the Biblical truths and History.
It teaches us and the church how we cannot just do our own things but need to learn from History, and learn the lessons well. We then come to know what God is and wants to do through this generation. I pray that many will come to see the Big Picture.
I believe that there is not sufficient teaching to our congregations to fully grasp the Big Picture. Then people may and hopefully will see that the work is in the "workplace" and not in the church.

[vibebrovoloug]

Hello, Nice to be informed you! This is a good place.