In Matthew 9:13, Jesus said: "I'm here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders." Are we trying to reach outsiders or coddle insiders? That is the $64,000 question.
One of the greatest struggles we face as pastors is centripetal force. That is the inward directed force. Jesus said "Go" which is a centrifugal command. As a church planter, you have to to focus on reaching outsiders because there are no insiders. But as a church gets older and larger, the centripetal force gets stronger! You stop taking risks and start playing it safe. You stop playing offense and start playing defense. You stop leading and start managing. You stop creating the future and start repeating the past.
Here are some reflection questions:
1) are you making decisions to placate people who already attend?
2) how much of your budget is allocated to reaching outsiders?
3) are you leading, praying, and thinking like a church planter?
One of the greatest struggles we face as pastors is centripetal force. That is the inward directed force. Jesus said "Go" which is a centrifugal command. As a church planter, you have to to focus on reaching outsiders because there are no insiders. But as a church gets older and larger, the centripetal force gets stronger! You stop taking risks and start playing it safe. You stop playing offense and start playing defense. You stop leading and start managing. You stop creating the future and start repeating the past.
Here are some reflection questions:
1) are you making decisions to placate people who already attend?
2) how much of your budget is allocated to reaching outsiders?
3) are you leading, praying, and thinking like a church planter?
5 Comments:
I really needed that as a one year old church planter.
It is so easy even in a young church plant to begin to focus on the people coming rather than the people outside.
You are a blessing!
I SO dig!
Not to mention the outsiders among us. Lots of people inside the church that need to be reached that won't be if we are just worried about attendance.
That's a tough one. Sometime we fear without the ones there how do we reach those not there? We need their resources (i.e. money), but then the truth comes that God is really our only true source. I am a people pleaser. It's really tough. I have those now wanting our Sun. service to be different, more satisfying for them, what I call "Sunday morning goosebumps" while I am sensitive to those who are "new" and don't understand a lot of things. I focus on getting out on time at noon, they want to have an hour of worship before the preaching, and on an on. It's a challenge.
more reflection questions:
4) are you spending enough time interpreting scripture?
Matthew 9:13 KJV says,"But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
Jesus is clearly not talking about how to pastor a church in Matthew 9:13, see 2 Timothy 4 if you are interested in that topic. Jesus is referring to the self righteous Pharisees not to people who are not truly saved.
5) are you spending more time using trendy bibles that help with fancy talking points than those which clearly communicate Gods Truth?
6) are you using science illustrations accurately? I don't know much about science or the scriptures for that matter, but we should make sure we get the facts about things like Centripetal Force correct too.
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