Whose church is it, anyway?

It has been a very busy (and sometimes downright crazy) week since my last post here. Some of the events of the past week have led me to the question in the title. The obvious answer here is that each of our churches belong to God. I wonder how much of our ministry philosophy actually lines up with that answer though.

Do we aggressively market our church?
Do we trust our members to bring people to church with them?

Do we worry about what we are doing wrong when people leave?
Do we trust that God will bring and send people according to His purposes?

Do we plan services around attracting and keeping people?
Do we plan services around teaching people the whole council of God?

Do we believe we need to soften, change, or soft peddle the gospel?
Do we believe that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation?


By no means is this an exhaustive list of questions. Nor is it a foolproof method of determining anything. I think that if we consistently answer yes to the first question in each pair, however, that chances are we value our own position in our churches too highly.

Sheldon

Article: Whose church is it, anyway? Sheldon May 15, 2009