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The Foundation for a Healthy Church
Jesus: “… I will build my church.”
Matthew 16:18
Paul: “By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder.”
1 Corinthians 3:10
A few years ago I bought some property in the mountains behind Yosemite National Park and built a log cabin. Even with the help of my father and some friends it took two years to complete, since I couldn’t work on it full-time. When I began building, it took me an entire summer just to lay the foundation. First I had to clear a pad in the forest by cutting down and
uprooting thirty-seven towering pine trees. Then I had to dig over sixty feet of five-foot-deep French drains and fill them with gravel because the ground was wet from a nearby underground spring.
After ten exhausting weeks, all I had to show for my effort was a leveled and squared concrete foundation. I was very discouraged. But my father, who has built over 110 church buildings in his lifetime, said, “Cheer up, son! When you’ve finished laying the foundation, the most critical work is behind you.”
The foundation determines both the size and the strength of a building. You can never build larger than the foundation can handle. The same is true for churches. A church built on an inadequate or faulty foundation will never reach the height that God intends for it to reach. It will topple over once it outgrows its base.
If you want to build a healthy, strong, and growing church you must spend time laying a solid foundation. This is done by clarifying in the minds of everyone involved exactly why the church exists and what it is supposed to do. There is incredible power in having a clearly defined purpose statement. If it is short enough for everyone to remember, your statement of purpose will yield five wonderful benefits for your church.
A Clear Purpose Builds Morale
Morale and mission always go together. First Corinthians
1:10 (LB) says, “Let there be real harmony so that there won’t be splits in the church… . Be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.” Notice Paul says that the key to harmony in the church is to be united in purpose. If your mission is unclear, your morale will be low.
Saddleback Church has an unusually high morale and atmosphere of harmony. People working together for a great purpose don’t have time to argue over trivial issues. When you’re helping row the boat, you don’t have time to rock it! We’ve been able to maintain a warm fellowship in spite of the enormous growth our church has experienced because our members are committed to a common purpose.
Proverbs 29:18 (KJV) says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” I believe it is also true that where there is no vision, people leave for another parish! Many churches are barely surviving because they have no vision. They limp along from Sunday to Sunday because they’ve lost sight of their purpose for continuing. A church without a purpose and mission eventually becomes a museum piece of yesterday’s traditions.
Nothing discourages a church more than not knowing why it exists. On the other hand, the quickest way to reinvigorate a plateaued or declining church is to reclaim God’s purpose for it and help the members understand the great tasks the church has been given by Christ.
A Clear Purpose Reduces Frustration
A purpose statement reduces frustration because it allows us to forget about things that don’t really matter. Isaiah 26:3 (TEV) says that God “give[s] perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in [him] (italics added).” A clear purpose not only defines what we do, it defines what we do not do. I’m sure you’d agree that your church does not have time to do everything. The good news is that God doesn’t expect you to do everything. Besides, there are only a few things really worth doing in the first place! The secret of effectiveness is to know what really counts, then do what really counts, and not worry about all the rest.
As a pastor I’ve learned that everybody has their own agenda for the church. To rephrase the first spiritual law: God loves me and everybody else has a wonderful plan for my life! People are always saying “The church ought to do this” or “The church ought to do that.” Many of these suggestions are noble activities, but that is not the real issue. The filter must always be: Does this activity fulfill one of the purposes for which God established this church? If the activity meets that criterion, you must consider it. If it doesn’t pass this test, you must not let it distract you fromGod’s agenda for the church.
Without a purpose statement it is easy to be frustrated by all the distractions around us. Maybe you’ve felt the way Isaiah did: “I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing” (Isa. 49:4). Trying to lead a church without a clearly defined purpose is like trying to drive a car in the fog. If you can’t see clearly where you’re headed, you are
likely to crash.
James 1:8 (PHILLIPS) says, “… the life of a man of divided loyalty will reveal instability at every turn.” When a church forgets its purpose, it has a difficult time deciding what’s important. An indecisive church is an unstable church. Almost anything can get it off course. It will vacillate between priorities, purposes, and programs. It will head one direction, then another, depending on who is leading at the time. Sometimes churches just move in circles.
In a purpose-driven church, once your course is set, decision making becomes far easier and less frustrating. Define your roles then set your goals*.* Once your church’s purposes have been clarified, any goal that fulfills one of those purposes gets automatic approval. Anytime someone suggests an activity or an event or a new program you should simply ask, “Will this fulfill one of our purposes?” If it does, do it. If it doesn’t, don’t do it.
A Clear Purpose Allows Concentration
Focused light has tremendous power. Diffused light has no power at all. For instance, by focusing the power of the sun through a magnifying glass, you can set a leaf on fire. But you can’t set a leaf on fire if the same sunlight is unfocused. When light is concentrated at an even higher level, like a laser beam, it can even cut through a block of steel.
The principle of concentration works in other areas too. A
focused life and a focused church will have far greater impact than unfocused ones. Like a laser beam, the more focused your church becomes, the more impact it will have on society.
The reason for this is that a clear purpose allows you to concentrate your effort. Paul knew this. He said, “I am bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing, forgetting what is behind and looking forward to what lies ahead” (Phil. 3:13 LB).
One of the common temptations I see many churches falling for today is the trap of majoring in the minors. They become distracted by good, but less important, agendas, crusades, and purposes. The energy of the church is diffused and dissipated; the power is lost.
If you want your church to make an impact on the world, you must major in the majors. It is amazing to me how many Christians have no idea what the main objective of their church is. As the old cliché says, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing!”
In my opinion, most churches try to do too much. This is one of the most overlooked barriers to building a healthy church: We wear out people. Too often, small churches involve themselves in all kinds of activities, events, and programs. Instead of concentrating like Paul did, they dabble in forty different things and miss being good at any of them.
The older a church gets, the truer this becomes. Programs and events continue to be added to the agenda without ever
cutting anything out. Remember, no program is meant to last forever. A good question to keep in mind when dealing with programs in your church is, “Would we begin this today if we were not already doing it?”A bloated church calendar diffuses the energy of your church. It is essential to the health of your church that you periodically “clean house”—abandon programs that have outlived their purpose. When the horse is dead—dismount!
When I started Saddleback Church, all we offered for the first year was a worship service and a limited children’s church program. We didn’t attempt to be a full-service church. For instance, we didn’t have a youth program until we were averaging over 500 in worship attendance, and we didn’t have a singles programuntil attendance had grown to nearly 1,000.
We determined that we would never begin a new ministry without first having someone to lead it. If no leader emerged, we would wait on God’s timing before beginning a ministry. When the right leader would finally appear on the scene, we would initiate the new ministry. This plan helped us to concentrate on doing a few things very well. Only after we got a ministry to an acceptable level of performance did we consider adding another one to our menu. We didn’t try to do everything at once.
Being ef icient is not the same as being ef ective. Peter Drucker says, “Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things.” Many churches are efficient in that they are well organized and maintain a full slate of programs.
But while they generate a lot of activity, there is little productivity. Energy is wasted on trivial issues. It’s like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic; everything may look nice and organized, but it doesn’t matter because the ship is still sinking! It is not enough for a church to be well organized; it must be well organized to do the right things.
God wants churches to be effective. Those few churches that are really effective concentrate on their purpose. By continually reviewing your purpose, you can keep your priorities straight and your church focused.
A Clear Purpose Attracts Cooperation
People want to join a church that knows where it’s going. When a church clearly communicates its destination, people are eager to get on board. This is because everyone is looking for something that gives meaning, purpose, and direction to life. When Ezra told the people exactly what God expected them to do the people responded, “Tell us how to proceed in setting things straight, and we will fully cooperate” (Ezra 10:4 LB).
The apostle Paul was always clear in his purpose. As a result, people wanted to be a part of what he was doing. This was especially true of the church at Philippi. The Philippians were so captivated by Paul’s mission that they gave him ongoing financial support (see Phil. 4:15). If you want your members to get excited about the church, actively support it, and generously give to it, you must vividly explain up front exactly where the church is headed.
Have you ever boarded a wrong plane? Once I got on a plane I thought was going to St. Louis but instead was headed to Kansas City. I learned an important lesson: Check the destination before the plane takes off. Bailing out later is painful! You wouldn’t dare get on a bus without first knowing where it’s going, so neither should you expect people to join your church without knowing its destination.
I want prospective members to make sure they know exactly where Saddleback Church is headed, so our purpose statement is explained in detail to every person who wants to join our church family—before they join. No one can join Saddleback Church without attending the membership class and signing the membership covenant, which includes a commitment to support the purposes of Saddleback.
Proverbs 11:27 (TEV) says, “If your goals are good, you will be respected.” Tell people up front where your church is headed, and it will attract cooperation. Spell out your church’s purposes and priorities in a membership class. Clearly explain your strategy and structure. This will keep people from joining the membership with false assumptions.
If you allow people to become members of your church without their understanding your purposes you’re asking for trouble. New members, especially those transferring from other churches, often have personal agendas and preconceptions about the church. Unless you deal with them up front in a forthright manner, these issues will eventually cause problems and conflict.
People who transfer their membership to your church carry cultural baggage from their previous church, and they may have certain expectations your church has no intention of fulfilling. This fact became evident to me in the early days of Saddleback, even before we started public worship services. One of the men in our home Bible study group had been a member of a well-known large church in our area for twelve years. Every time we started to plan something he’d say, “Now, at my old church they did it like this.” This became his recurring refrain.
After about eight weeks of this, I finally said, “You know, if you want a church just like your old church, why don’t you go back there? It’s only thirteen miles up the road.” He took my advice and left with his family of five. That was thirty percent of our fellowship at that time—and he was a tither!
At the time, his action shocked me, but now I look back on that situation and believe it was one of the crucial decisions that determined the destiny of Saddleback Church. If I had listened to that fellow, Saddleback would have ended up just being a clone of that other church. Our future would have turned out very differently.
I also learned two important lessons about leadership: First, you cannot let whiners set the agenda for the church. That is an abdication of leadership. Unfortunately, the smaller a church is, the more influence the most negative member has. That experience also taught me that the best time to discover
anyone’s conflict with your church’s philosophy of ministry is before they join. Explaining your church’s purposes to people before they join will not only reduce conflict and disappointment in your church, it will also help some people realize they should join another church because of philosophy or personal taste.
A Clear Purpose Assists Evaluation
Second Corinthians 13:5 says, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.” How does a church evaluate itself? Not by comparing itself to other churches, but by asking, “Are we doing what God intends for us to do?” and “How well are we doing it?” As Peter Drucker says, “What is our business?” and “How’s business?” These are the two most critical questions for evaluating your church. Your church’s purpose statement must become the standard by which you measure your congregation’s health and growth.
There is absolutely no correlation between the size and the strength of a church. A church can be big and strong, or big and flabby. Likewise a church can be small and strong, or small and wimpy. Big is not necessarily better, nor is being small necessarily better. Better is better!
The purpose of this book is not to make your church as large as Saddleback. Size is not the issue. The important issue is this: Your church will be stronger and healthier by being purpose driven.
Becoming a purpose-driven church takes time—it doesn’t happen all at once, or even over six months. It may even take your church several years to make the transition. If you want your church to become purpose driven, you will have to lead it through four critical phases: First, you must define your purposes. Next, you must communicate those purposes to everyone in your church—on a regular basis. Third, you must organize your church around your purposes. Finally, you must apply your purposes to every part of your church. I’ll describe each of these tasks in the following chapters.