Church as Charity

One of the things that we want to encourage in the church is the idea of compassion or charity. Charity is the old French word “charité," which was derived from the Latin word for precious affection and loving-kindness. Hence the translation in the New Testament of the Greek word "Agape" for love.

Where Christian charity abounds, the Lord abounds. However, at the same time, the local church can quickly become distracted from the primary mission of reaching the lost, preaching the gospel and making disciples.

It’s not unusual and actually welcomed when the local church is approached because of a charitable need. Churches typically establish benevolence and “good Samaritan” funds for these particular needs and love to encourage individuals within the church (also known as the “body of Christ”) to identify these needs and meet them either themselves, within their family or within their small group. When a need is identified and that need is met, ministry happens.

The local church however, is not a charity to the extent that a longer-term need for housing, clothing, education, counseling, employment can be successful provided. While some community minded churches do a pretty good job at meeting some of these needs and organizing ministries that are equipped to handle these community requests, special purpose ministries and nonprofits are best equipped and more single minded in this regard. The body of Christ or the Church with a capital “c” extends these charitable ministries through specific ministries and nonprofits as the Lord provides.

Staying focused on the primary ministry focus of the local church: preaching, teaching, reaching the lost, creating disciples, creates churches that are beacons to the lost and serve their communities best.

Generous Church

It’s interesting that often one of the definitions of church success is measured in the size of its buildings or the number of people that attend. If that is true, then this definition of church success is based on how generous people have been to that particular church.

Let that thought sit in your frontal lobe for a minute. If the church has lots of money then isn’t it the generosity of the people that have created the magnificent buildings, gleaming auditoriums and lush park-like settings of many of our churches?

So what does a “Generous Church” look like?

It may be hard to define but I have some ideas of what it is not. Most likely, generous churches don’t see themselves as an oasis in the midst of a hostile and threatening environment. They don’t have a fortress mentality nor create a “Christian” version of every athletic, educational and social program that the world offers. Generous churches don’t consume 95% of all their funds on salaries, benefits, church buildings and programs.

When I was with the ECFA, I visited a large church that was proud that they gave 10% of all of their funds to foreign missions. The only problem was that if you included the debt that the church was also stacking up, they were actually spending more than 120% of all of their income on themselves.

I think that likely a generous church would be people that understand that they are to be salt and light in that hostile and threatening environment. True generosity happens in the church when we understand that the resources we have all been given, including our time and our financial resources, don’t really belong to us; they are to be available when a need is identified and when individually, or corporately, we have the ability to meet that need.

A generous church is staffed by people that don't run ministries but develop people. Their objective is not only to give them a spiritual makeover but to find the very heart of God in everyday compassion for others.

Does Size Matter?

Does size matter with respect to a local church? Well that is a great question and likely there are just as many that prefer a small church as those that prefer a large church. Larger churches or “mega Churches” often get criticized (often by smaller church pastors) for a lack of spirituality, or a “watering” down of the message or being too concerned about growth and not about the gospel.

However, a relatively new study by the Barna group supports the idea that the size of the church is related to spiritual beliefs and behavior. The bottom line however is that contrary to some opinions, the difference between the smallest and the largest of the churches gives a distinct advantage in spiritual maturity and belief to the larger churches.

The survey showed that the attendees of larger church were much more likely to give more theologically conservative responses to questions about the affects of sin and the nature of God. Attendees were also much more likely to be active not only in worship but in serving as well as attending a small group. Smaller churches attracted an older crowd (adults in their sixties or older), were more likely to home-school their children and were less likely to attract college-educated younger adults.

Perhaps the study partially can be explained more by demographics than behavior.Most of the larger churches tend to be in the suburbs and in the larger population centers of the Mid-South and the South. Evangelical Christianity continues to remain strong in the Bible Belt.

Losing My Religion

It’s often said that religion is man-made. That statement is true, but I supposed it depends on which religion you are talking about.

Now, before you get too smug, Christianity, as a religion, is also largely man-made. Christianity is often the container, or the receptacle of man-made rules and regulations that in many ways provide a false sense of security, or even superiority, that was never a part of the first-century church.

It’s possible that you may need to lose your religion in order to really find faith in God.

To many desiring material and financial success, Christianity is reduced to a system of positive thinking and endless opportunities for lifting our standard of living. It is neither. Christianity was not established to improve your bottom line but to uniquely show what it means to love your neighbor and how to deny yourself.

On the other hand, many people believe that Christianity is a religious system that has both the answers and the resources to solve the world’s problems. It is neither. Christianity was not established to be a cure to all of the problems of the word but to uniquely reveal the character of Christ in the midst of all of the problems.

Christianity is ultimately not a religion but an opportunity for a relationship with God through the completely finished work (the religion) of Jesus Christ. Religion, while creating opportunities for personal solace and reflection, is an unsatisfying substitute for the real thing.

Perhaps it’s time for you to lose your religion.

Independent 'Til The End

That confident, arrogant and independent streak in us is going to be our downfall.

It's something that appears sometimes admirable. A person so confident in his or her own ability to achieve that they are stridently independent and unwilling to even ask for help. However, it’s difficult if not impossible for that person to admit that they are a sinner and unable to make it without Jesus.

Arrogance on the other hand, when it creeps in, is not something admirable. Arrogance is an unjustified attitude of superiority. It accompanies an unwillingness to submit to anyone or anything.

However, Jesus' request for submission is simple: He died for us. Though His death and resurrection, he redeemed us to Himself. We now belong to Him.

While we may want to remain independent thinkers and free spirits, the truth of the matter is that you no longer belong to yourself if you claim Jesus as Lord and Savior.

The decision to make Jesus the Lord and Savior of your life is actually the last independent expression of your life. This is likely why it is often so difficult for anyone to actually decide to submit to the Jesus and “surrender all”.

The scriptures actually say it would be impossible without God. Fortunately, He chose us and loved us and made it possible. Just lose that confident, arrogant and independent steak.

Church vs. Mission

I ’ve mentioned a few times that churches need to be more “missional” and that raises the question, “what is the difference between a church and a mission?"

That’s a great question because it comes down to a fundamental and necessary ingredient of ministry (which includes both a church and a mission) and that ingredient is sustainable revenue.

The fuel for ministry is revenue and every ministry is funded in one of three ways: donations, fees-for-service, and a combination of the two. Examples are obvious. Your local church receives donations, often called tithes and offerings. Your neighborhood nonprofit daycare charges tuition and fees. Finally, the local college does both.

The local church is to be self-funding. This is a Biblical model and it’s not only part of our responsibility (1 Cor 16:2) as believers but a part of our worship and an integral part of Kingdom growth. In a church, the recipients of the ministry provide the funding for the ministry. A Mission, on the other hand, is not self-funding, and the funds are usually provided, at least in part by another source. The recipients of the ministry of a mission (an inner-city mission to the homeless, for example) do not provide 100% of the funding for their ministry.

Often, new churches, whether they are independent church plants, a part of a denomination or a satellite campus, will need some funding assistance the first few years. Ultimately, however, it will be incumbent for the local church to become financially self-sustaining and more so that it can contribute to other ministry and mission opportunities.

Don’t Abandon Our Cities

Have you been to the city lately? Our urban population centers are suffering. Poverty, crime, delinquency, drugs, and illegitimacy are just some of the raging issues of our urban areas. Like the remaining Ford and GM dealerships, our churches have abandoned the urban areas and moved to the wealthier and safer confines of the suburb.

The US isn’t just comprised of red and blue states but also a heavy, conservative and spiritual concentration in the Midwest and the South and particularly in the rural and suburban areas. Even in the North and the West, the church flourishes in the suburban communities outside of Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle.

If we lose the urban areas, we lose period. Our cities of Washington DC, New York, Chicago and San Francisco, are the “cultural forming wombs” of the society to quote Pastor Tim Keller of New York’s, Redeemer Church. We need to remember that even if we aren’t “of the world” we are certainly to be “in it”.

Our desire for comfort and for safety has led our exodus from the cities to the suburbs. Nowhere in the Bible are we encouraged to go and seek safety and comfort and maybe while we are on that journey, build gleaming churches that mimic the suburban sprawl.

Our cities need redemption. The urban dwellers need redemption. We have the answer to the urban problems of poverty, crime, delinquency, drugs, and illegitimacy. Remember that our finest educational institutions that are training tomorrow's leaders are usually in urban areas as well or at least embrace the urban culture.

Take the chance pastor; reach out to the urban poor, the disenfranchised, the uninformed and the lost. The greatest opportunity we have today is to take the great commission seriously and that is to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to our present day Jerusalems.