Pastor Doug Beutler
There were 2 friends who loved to play pranks on people. Over the years they had gotten really good at this. There was a local store owner in this small town that did not like these 2 boys. He thought they were disrespectful. So these 2 boys decided to have a little fun and pull a prank on this particular store owner. They snuck into the local store but they didn’t take anything. All they did was switch the price tags on the merchandise. A can of pop was now $695 and a TV was $1.25. A gallon of milk was $1,250 and a computer was $2.99. A dress shirt was $250 and a riding lawn mower was $5. The next day when the store owner opened his store within an hour there was mass confusion and he had to close.
Sometimes I think the church looks like this today. For decades the church has looked at success as having 3 elements. The first element of success was how many people you have coming to your church. The more people you can squeeze into your sanctuary the better. The second element of success was once your sanctuary is packed then you need a building program. The building program would attract even more people and it would look like your church was going places in the community. The third element of success was that as the church grew it would need staff which that would require money. The more money you could raise the more programs you could run. If you did not have these 3 elements in your church then you would be considered a failure as a pastor. There are denominations and churches who still believe this lie.
One of the churches that pioneered this philosophy was Willow Creek Community Church. But in 2010 Willow Creek took a look at whether the church was actually producing disciples that were maturing in their faith. In a blog by Chuck Warnock he wrote that the results of Willow’s study showed church programs in and of themselves do not produce spiritually mature Christians. Non-Christians and new Christians grew with Willow’s programming but those “close to Christ” and those who are “centered on Christ” their programming didn’t help. https://chuckwarnockblog.wordpress.com/2007/10/24/willow-creek-study-says-church-programs-dont-make-better-disciples/ So the question is what helps people to grow Spiritually?
LifeWay Research began a study in 2011, as part of their biggest discipleship study to date, and interviewed discipleship experts from eight countries, as well as surveyed 1,000 pastors and more than 4,000 Protestants from North America. The intense study revealed 8 attributes of discipleship that consistently show up in the lives of followers of Christ who are progressing in spiritual growth. They are:
1) Biblical Engagement
2) Obeying God and denying self
3) Serving God and others
4) Sharing Christ
5) Exercising faith
6) Seeking God
7) Building relationships
8) Unashamed (transparency)
https://www.lifeway.com/en/articles/transformational-research-attributes-of-growing-disciples
What do these 8 attributes have to do with attendance, building campaigns, or money? That is the question that is getting a lot of attention today. Maybe we have our price tags confused. Have we bought into is good business model but not necessarily a good church model? The desire to be bigger, better, and the best have driven many away from the church. It has caused many to question whether following Jesus is worth it. It emphasized ‘doing church’ instead of ‘being the church’.
But there is hope. There are spiritual disciplines that we can implement that will help us grow spiritually. What is even more amazing is that there are no requirements for churches to be a certain size, have so much money, or have a new building campaign. Churches can implement disciplines that produce these 8 attributes in their people and small churches are a perfect place for this to happen. What are those Spiritual disciples? Next time I will share with you what I learned from taking the Lifeway Assessment and digging into the data about how to help people grow spiritually. I will share with you 4 spiritual disciplines that followers of Christ can implement that will impact all 8 of these attributes of spiritual maturity. Until next time.
