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What Drives Your Church?
Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.
Proverbs 19:21
Steve Johnson called the monthly church council meeting of Westside Church to order at exactly 7 p.m. “We’ve got a lot to cover tonight, folks, so we’d better get started,” said Steve. “As you know, our agenda is to agree on a unified church program for the new year. We’re supposed to present it to the congregation in two weeks.”
As chairman, Steve was feeling quite anxious over what happened. Only the annual budget meeting provoked more disagreement and debate than this program-planning meeting. “Who wants to go first?” asked Steve.
“This ought to be easy,” said Ben Faithful, a deacon who’d been a member for twenty-six years. “Last year was a good year. Let’s just repeat all the good things we did last year. I’ve always believed that the tried and true is better than a lot of newfangled ideas.”
“Well, I’d have to disagree with that,” said Bob Newman. “Times have changed, and I think we need to reevaluate everything we’re doing. Just because a program worked in the past doesn’t automatically mean it’s going to continue working next year. I’m especially interested in starting another worship service with a different style. We’ve all seen the growth that Calvary Church has had since they started a contemporary service to reach out to the unchurched.”
“Yes, some churches will do anything to get a crowd,” replied Ben. “They forget who the church is for: It’s for us Christians! We’re supposed to be dif erent and separate from the world. We’re not to pander to whatever the world wants. I sure don’t intend to see that happen at Westside!”
Over the next two hours a worthy list of programs and causes was presented for inclusion in the church calendar. Karen Doer passionately insisted that Westside church take a more active role in Operation Rescue and the pro-life movement. John Manly gave a moving testimony about how Promise Keepers had changed his life and suggested a full slate of men’s activities. Linda Loving spoke of the need to develop various support groups. Bob Learner made his usual pitch for the church to begin a Christian school. And of course,
Jerry Tightwad kept asking, “How much will it cost?” as each proposal was presented. They were all valid suggestions. The problem was there seemed to be no standard of reference by which the council could evaluate and decide which programs would be adopted.
Finally Clark Reasoner spoke up. Clark was the voice everyone was waiting for at this point. Whenever issues became confused at church business meetings, he’d usually make a short speech, and a majority would vote his way. It wasn’t that his ideas were better; in fact, people often disagreed with him. But the sheer force of his personality made whatever he said seemsensible at the time*.*
What is the problemin this scenario? Multiple driving forces in this church are competing for attention. This results in conflict and a church that is trying to head in several different directions at the same time.
If you were to look up the word drive in a dictionary, you’d find this definition: “to guide, control, or direct.” When you drive a car, it means you guide, control, and direct it down the street. When you drive a nail, you guide, control, and direct it into the wood. When you drive a golf ball, you hope to guide, control, and direct it down the fairway!
Every church is driven by something. There is a guiding force, a controlling assumption, a directing conviction behind everything that happens. It may be unspoken. It may be unknown to many. Most likely it’s never been officially voted
on. But it is there, influencing every aspect of the church’s life. What is the driving force behind your church?
Churches Driven by Tradition
In the tradition-driven church the favorite phrase is “We’ve always done it this way.” The goal of a tradition-driven church is to simply perpetuate the past. Change is almost always seen as negative, and stagnation is interpreted as “stability.”
Older churches tend to be bound together by rules, regulations, and rituals, while younger churches tend to be bound together by a sense of purpose and mission. In some churches, tradition can be such a driving force that everything else, even God’s will, becomes secondary. Ralph Neighbour says the seven last words of the church are, “We’ve never done it that way before.”
Churches Driven by Personality
In this church the most important question is, “What does the leader want?” If the pastor has served the church for a long time, he is most likely the driving personality. But if the church has a history of changing pastors every few years, a key layperson is likely to be the driving force. One obvious problem with a personality-driven church is that its agenda is determined more by the background, needs, and insecurities of the leader than by God’s will or the needs of the people. Another problem is that the personality-driven church comes to a standstill when its driving personality leaves or dies.
Churches Driven by Finances
The question at the forefront of everyone’s mind in a finance-driven church is, “How much will it cost?” Nothing else ever seems quite as important as finances. The most heated debate in a finance-driven church is always over the budget. While good stewardship and cash flow are essential for a healthy church, finances must never be the controlling issue. The greater issue should be what God wants the church to do. Churches do not exist to make a profit. The bottom line in any church should not be “How much did we save?” but “Who was saved?” I’ve noticed that many churches are driven by faith in their early years and driven by finances in later years.
Churches Driven by Programs
The Sunday school, the women’s program, the choir, and the youth group are examples of programs that are often driving forces in churches. In program-driven churches, all the energy is focused on maintaining and sustaining the programs of the church. Often, the program-driven church’s goal subtly shifts from developing people to just filling positions, and the nominating committee becomes the most crucial group in the church. If results from a program diminish, the people involved blame themselves for not working hard enough. No one ever questions if a programstill works.
Churches Driven by Buildings
Winston Churchill once said, “We shape our buildings, and then they shape us.” Too often a congregation is so anxious to have a nice building that the members spend more than they can afford. Paying for and maintaining the building becomes the biggest budget item. Funds needed to operate ministries must be diverted to pay the mortgage, and the actual ministry of the church suffers. The tail ends up wagging the dog. In other situations, churches allow the smallness of their building to set the limit for future growth. Staying with a historic, but inadequate, building should never take priority over reaching the community.
Churches Driven by Events
If you look at the calendar of an event-driven church, you might get the impression that the goal of the church is to keep people busy. Something is going on every night of the week. As soon as one big event is completed, work begins on the next one. There is a lot of activity in churches like this, but not necessarily productivity. A church may be busy without having a clear purpose for what it does. Someone needs to ask, “What is the purpose behind each of our activities?” In the event-driven church, attendance becomes the sole measurement of faithfulness and maturity. We must be wary of the tendency to allow meetings to replace ministry as the primary activity of believers.
Churches Driven by Seekers
In an honest attempt to reach unbelievers for Christ and be relevant in today’s culture, some churches allow the needs of the unbelievers to become their driving force. The primary question asked is, “What do the unchurched want?” While we must be sensitive to the needs, hurts, and interests of seekers, and while it is wise to design evangelistic services that target their needs, we cannot allow seekers to drive the total agenda of the church.
God’s purposes for his church include evangelism—but not to the exclusion of his other purposes. Attracting seekers is the first step in the process of making disciples, but it should not be the driving force of the church. While it is fine for a business to be market driven (give the customer whatever he wants), a church has a higher calling. The church should be seeker sensitive but it must not be seeker driven. We must adapt our communication style to our culture without adopting the sinful elements of it or abdicating to it.
A Biblical Paradigm: Purpose-Driven Churches
What is needed today are churches that are driven by purpose instead of by other forces. This book is written to offer a new paradigm, the purpose-driven church, as a biblical and healthy alternative to traditional ways that churches have organized and operated.
There are two essential elements of this paradigm. First, it
requires a new perspective. You must begin to look at everything your church does through the lens of five New Testament purposes and see how God intends for the church to balance all five purposes.
Second, this paradigm requires a process for fulfilling the purposes of the church. In this book, I’ll explain the process we’ve used at Saddleback Church that has enabled our congregation to experience fifteen years of healthy, consistent growth.
This is not some “ivory tower” theory; it has been field tested in a real church for fifteen years and has produced one of the largest and fastest-growing churches in American history. It is also producing exciting results in thousands of other churches in America, Australia, Europe, and Asia. Your church, regardless of its size or location, will be healthier, stronger, and more effective by becoming a purpose-driven church.
The apostle Paul said that God will judge whatever we build on the basis of whether it will last: “The fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward” (1 Cor. 3:13–14). Paul also tells us that the key to building something that lasts is to build it on the right foundation: “But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:10–11).
Strong churches are built on purpose! By focusing equally
on all five of the New Testament purposes of the church, your church will develop the healthy balance that makes lasting growth possible. Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” Plans, programs, and personalities don’t last. But God’s purposes will last.
The importance of being purpose driven
Nothing precedes purpose. The starting point for every church should be the question, “Why do we exist?” Until you know what your church exists for, you have no foundation, no motivation, and no direction for ministry. If you are helping a new church get started, your first task is to define your purpose. It’s far easier to set the right foundation at the start of a new church than it is to reset it after a church has existed for years.
However, if you serve in an existing church that has plateaued, is declining, or is simply discouraged, your most important task is to redefine your purpose. Forget everything else until you have established it in the minds of your members. Recapture a clear vision of what God wants to do in and through your church family. Absolutely nothing will revitalize a discouraged church faster than rediscovering its purpose.
As I prepared to start Saddleback Church, one of the most important factors I discovered in my research was that growing, healthy churches have a clear-cut identity. They
understand their reason for being; they are precise in their purpose. They know exactly what God has called them to do. They know what their business is, and they know what is none of their business! Does your church have a clear-cut identity?
If you ask typical church members why their church exists, you’ll get a wide variety of answers. Most churches do not have a clear consensus on this issue. Win Arn, a consultant to churches, once told me about a survey he took. He surveyed members of nearly a thousand churches asking the question, “Why does the church exist?” The results? Of the church members surveyed, 89 percent said, “The church’s purpose is to take care of my family’s and my needs.” For many, the role of the pastor is simply to keep the sheep who are already in the “pen” happy and not lose too many of them. Only 11 percent said, “The purpose of the church is to win the world for Jesus Christ.”
Then, the pastors of the same churches were asked why the church exists. Amazingly, the results were exactly opposite. Of the pastors surveyed, 90 percent said the purpose of the church was to win the world and 10 percent said it was to care for the needs of the members. Is it any wonder why we have conflict, confusion, and stagnation in many churches today? If the pastor and congregation can’t even agree on why the church exists, conflict and disagreement on everything else is inevitable.
Churches are started for many different reasons. Sometimes those reasons are inadequate: competition, denominational
pride, the need for recognition by a leader, or some other unworthy motivation. Unless the driving force behind a church is biblical, the health and growth of the church will never be what God intended. Strong churches are not built on programs, personalities, or gimmicks. They are built on the eternal purposes of God.