Ramblings About the Church

Okay. I've been sitting parts of the last two days in a class with some discussion about the church and what it needs to do to reach out. I'm not real good at sitting that long and talking. I like action. And yes, one of the people attending the class I was in thought there was something wrong with me because I hadn't talked all morning. Hmmm. I had little to say except that after all these years in ministry, talking about it doesn't get anything done. Doing it does get something done. Profound, huh? I guess I'm more of a doer than a talker. And I reminded her that you can't take the cookie-cutter approach to doing church ministry. You've just got to find the "culture" and "pulse" of the church and start doing something in the name of Jesus.

Well, along with that I picked up a magazine that had a little feature entitled, "If Your Church Closed Today . . ." Here's the gist of it. We are all asked "to do something for the church." Times are hard, budgets are tight, the economy is going down. It's not an easy time "to do something for the church."

That brings me to audits. Ever heard of them? Church audits, that is. Well, we get one done at the church I pastor every year. That reminds me - it's due in a couple of weeks. Yikes! How about another kind of audit? A mission audit. It has just one question, "If our church closed today, who would miss it other than our members?"

That gets me to thinking, now. Make a list of the people and groups in our community outside our "church members" who would miss our church. Would they miss anything? And then just keep that audit going each year. Would that list get shorter or longer? Thriving and serving are linked together.

Since I'm part of the Wesleyan and Methodist heritage, there's something else I'm thinking about. From the beginning, Methodism had a close connection between what happened in the pew and what happened in the jails. Hmm. Well, the article went on to say that growth in the church is related to meeting the needs of all God's children.

So, is it happening where you are? where I am? Well, I wonder about that, really. Are people saying that because our church is in the community, people are getting their needs met - like, there are no hungry people? Or there is no bigotry? Or no discrimination? Or there is no one homeless? Or there is no one without the clothes they need?

Think about it. Then, don't just talk - do something.