"The Maintenance Model Church"
Sermon Transcript for October 13, 2002 By Rev. Mike Beck
All of you who call Grace your church home, and I say this with all sincerity, you should have memorized our church mission statement. So we are going to work on that over the next four Sundays. The words are in your bulletin; they are up there on the screen. Repeat them with me if you will. "The mission of Grace Church is to worship God, proclaim Christ as Savior, encourage growth in Christ as Lord, fellowship together and care for those in need." All of those five areas are critically important. But this morning as we look at the maintenance model church, we’ll be asking a hard but important question. Have we, perhaps unintentionally, neglected a critically important part of that mission?
How do we measure the effectiveness of a church? Is it in the worship attendance—the fact that this year’s worship attendance is larger than last years? Is the effectiveness of the church found in how much we give to the missions? Is it found in well-maintained and adequate facilities? Is it found in programs that minister to people’s needs?
Now I think as you look at that list you would agree with me all of those things could be a part of the barometer, the measure. They are all good, important things. But none of those things are the mission of the church. The mission of the church is "the harvest". Now let me define that term. The harvest is persons coming to faith in Jesus Christ. The harvest is those persons who have made a decision for Christ becoming disciples of Christ. That’s the part of our mission statement to encourage growth in Christ as Lord. And when I talk this morning about coming to faith in Christ, I’m not talking about some kind of spiritual gun that we shoot at people. That when they make a decision for Christ we notch our gun and say, "We’ve got another one." Because the last I checked none of us save anybody; that’s God’s work. And when I talk about salvation I go back to the Greek word for saved which means wholeness--wholeness in every area of life. Those are the things that to me are the harvest.
The standard of our effectiveness ought to be directly related to what Jesus said He had come to earth to do. Luke 19:10 are the words of Jesus who said, "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost." If you remember Jesus took a great deal of criticism from the religious establishment. "Why aren’t you spending time with us?" He said, "I come for the lost." In fact, in Luke 15 He told three parables back to back about a lost coin, a lost sheep, a lost Son and how important it was that they get back. Jesus’ last words in Mathew 28, "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."
But in all too many churches, the great commission has become the great "omission". Let me illustrate that with some rather sobering statistics. Ninety-five percent of all Christians are "barren". What do I mean by that? It means that they are good folks, but they have not been instrumental in leading a new person to faith in Christ in years. In the church, we often have little concern for un-churched persons, or perhaps deep down we don’t even believe what the Bible teaches about persons being lost without saving faith in Jesus Christ. And even when churches are growing, sometimes we need to look closely at where that growth is coming from. For in America today, 90% of all church growth is church transfers. Now if you have come to Grace Church from another church we are delighted that you are here. But if you were a believer before you came, how faithfully are we doing and winning persons to the saving grace of Christ who didn’t know Him before? If we’re not careful, our testimony—I’ve been guilty of this—is not so much focused on Christ, but it is about our church and the fact that our church is better than your church so why don’t you come over to our church.
In the United Methodist Church in America our membership has declined 30% over the past four decades. If you were the CEO of a company that had declined 30% over the last four decades, I think you’d be called to task for that. In the class I’ve been teaching by Kirby John Caldwell, some mouths dropped open the other night when he gave this statistic. Seventy percent of all United Methodist members are over the age of 60! Translate that out 30 years and see what that leads to if we don’t change. If we’re willing to be truly honest, what these things say to us is that in all too many cases we have redefined the mission of the church from winning the lost and making disciples to the maintenance of the institution. That needs to be repeated. In all to many cases we have redefined the mission of the church from winning the lost and making disciples to maintaining the institution.
In the Care Ministry there is this quote that is very true. They say, "If you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you’ll keep getting what you’ve been getting!" If you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you’ll keep getting what you’ve been getting. In the United Methodist Church, it’s a steady decline. To move to a higher level, to move away from being a maintenance model church, we’re going to have to decide to be intentional. We’re going to have to be willing to change; to shift our values to what Jesus said was the reason He came.
So over the next four Sundays I’m going to be preaching on the nature and mission of the church. We’ll be turning to the book of Acts for this series of messages. It seems to me to be a good place to turn. Acts tells the story of the birth of the church. It gives us God’s blueprint for how the church is to function. We’re looking today at "The Maintenance Model Church". Next week will look at "The Mission-Driven Church" and we’ll see the differences. On October 27th, we’ll talk about "The Relational Church". And then on November 3rd we’ll talk about "Making Disciples".
Now as we look today at a "maintenance model" church, it’s very important that you understand clearly something as we begin. The "maintenance model" church is filled with wonderful Christian people who love God with all of their heart, who love each other and who do numerous good deeds in the name of Christ. A "maintenance model" church is not a bad place to be. But at the same time, in a "maintenance model" church, they are not carrying out the primary mission of the church, which is to be the "harvest".
Let’s think about this for a minute. In the "maintenance model" church, most of the activities are for the members. We want the members to come, we want them to get blessed and go home. And then we want them to come back, get blessed again, and go home. In a "maintenance model" church, most of the church’s resources, both human and financial, are invested in maintenance related issues. There is very little time, or energy, or money spent in trying to figure out how to win and bring the gospel to people who have not yet come to know Christ. In the course of a year if we’re buying new hymnals, we’ll spend three hours discussing what color the hymnal should be; we won’t spend thirty minutes talking about how to win the lost.
Now again, I’m not saying that maintenance is bad. It’s just that we have to recognize that it’s not to be our primary mission. In the maintenance model church the attitude (although it’s never spoken) often goes like this: "they" (speaking of persons outside of the church) know where we are and they’re welcome to come as long as they don’t inconvenience "us" and as long as they like what we like. Now that’s never spoken but I’m afraid there’s too much truth there. Notice the words I’ve highlighted—they, us. Does God know those words? As long as they don’t inconvenience us, we’re glad to have you here but don’t you dare sit in my pew because I’ve been sitting there for forty years; it’s mine.
Now friends, in most cases the church did not slip in to this model intentionally so let’s look for a moment at how and why it occurs. First of all it is much easier and much more comfortable to be a maintenance model church. It’s a whole lot easier; it’s more comfortable. We all like comfort. In a maintenance model church you don’t have to deal so often with the tensions of growth, with change, with building programs, with increasing budgets, and with baby Christians--persons who haven’t known Christ very long and don’t have the maturity of years of faith. It’s much easier for the pastor to serve in a maintenance model church. There’s less work; it’s more comfortable for them. Let me just speak for myself, friends. I probably spent five hours this week--a time that I didn’t spend when I came here-- because we do three different forms of worship. Those slides up on the screen don’t automatically happen.
It’s easier just to be a maintenance church. In fact in general, maintenance oriented pastors are much more "liked" than mission minded pastors! Why? Because maintenance model pastors spend most of their time taking care of the members which feels good to the members and it also feels good to the pastor until you carefully go to God in prayer and say, "Is that what you called the church to be?"
Which brings us to our text for this morning in Acts 6. "In those days when the number of disciples was increasing…" So it was a time of growth. But then it says, "The Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food." Friends’, complaining’s nothing new. The church had only been in existence for a very short time. There’s growth; but there is also tension. In fact in Kirby John’s lesson on vision last week, he said, "Take it to the bank, whenever you have a vision, you will have tension." It just goes with it; it’s inevitable.
But then I want you to note, there was a valid need. The widows of the Hebraic Jews were being overlooked in the distribution of food. That’s a valid need. So now the leaders of the church are at a crossroads of decision. If they take care of the needs, they are turning to become a maintenance-oriented church. But the needs are real; they need to be taken care of. So what do they do in that crossroads of decision? They meet the need; but they do it in a mission driven way. They said, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables." Are they above waiting on tables? No. Jesus called us to serve. I have people who say to me on Sunday morning, "Reverend Mike, it is beneath your dignity to pass out attendance pads." I’m sorry, it is not beneath my dignity to help out pass out the attendance pads and say hello to people as I do. But they recognized that wasn’t their primary calling. So what did they do? They chose seven capable men, one of whom was Stephen, and they entrusted them to take care of the need while they continued to be about their mission. And then in Verse 7 it says, "the word of God spread and the number of disciples which is the standard of measure (the standard of measure is the number of disciples in Jerusalem) increased rapidly."
These four messages are designed to lead up to the implementation of the "Care Ministry" in November here at Grace. After hours of careful study and prayer, Reverend Dan and I spent three days, flew to Kansas City, to be a part of their pastor’s school. We believe this ministry has the potential to be used by God to take Grace Church to a higher level. But, friends, to move to a higher level, you’ve got to be intentional. You’ve got to be willing for there to be a shift in our values. You don’t move to a higher level without changing what you value. Let me use this illustration. Those of you who have lost weight at some point in your life, how many years did you think about losing weight? Well, when did you start to lose weight? When you got intentional, when you changed your values and started to value exercise, started to value eating the right things. And you moved to a level you wanted to be.
I want to make this important point. The Care Ministry is not another program we’ve added. The Care Ministry is a vehicle to help us at Grace Church be intentional about the value of being a mission driven church. The basic premise of the Care Ministry is this…that first-time attendees are a major part of the "harvest" that God has for His church. Friends, if you’ve been walking through these doors for even ten years, you’ve totally forgotten what it feels like to walk through the doors of a strange church, to go to an unfamiliar worship service with unfamiliar people. Think for a minute about how threatening that is. Well let me take it a little further. The Care Ministry believes newcomers do not walk through those doors by accident, but that they are here by divine appointment. It believes also that they come with heart-felt needs. Friends you can almost take it to the bank that if a first time attendee walks through those doors something of significance is going on in their life. They came with a heart-felt need wondering if Grace Church can help meet that need.
God wants to meet those needs through you. Dan and I can work 100 hours a week and still not meet all the needs. God wants to meet those needs through you. And finally the Care Ministry believes you are a miracle waiting to happen in somebody’s life. Out in the Narthex this morning, there’s no charge for these, is this little book. It will tell you more about the caring ministry. You’re a Miracle Waiting to Happen. In this 9:30 a.m. service, we’ve got to find 40 people who are willing to be a miracle in somebody else’s life.
Let me close with these personal reflections. I have not wanted this morning in any way to be critical or unkind. But I have been in pastoral ministry now for 18 years. With each passing year of my ministry I realize more fully how many hurting people are sitting out looking at me right now. Deep hurt! Oh, they’re dressed nice; they’ve got a smile on their face. But if I had the liberty just to tell you some stories of people I interacted with this week, you’d know some of the hurt. The answer to their needs is found in Jesus. He is the answer. And with all of those needs, my friends, as lovingly as I can say it, as blessed as Grace Church is in this community, we cannot opt for being a "religious club". We must strive intentionally to be what Reverend Dan described a few Sundays ago. If you can put this image in your mind, he said, "We’ve got to be a mission outpost on the edge of the frontier". A frontier filled with danger and peril, but a frontier filled with great hope and opportunity if persons can find four things--if they can find directions, if they can find supplies for the journey, if they can find shelter from the storms, and if they can find friends to accompany them on the journey. If they can find those things, the wilderness is a land of great opportunity.
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