The effectiveness of the
ministry was heavily judged by the attendance of its congregation members,
which has proved costly for Churches. This issue was addressed in the previous
blog, which can be referred HERE. Clergy and Laity have their own
rationalization to their defense in regards to drop in attendance and
offerings. Apart from their attachment for the Church as an institution
and building facility, there are no other concrete reasons to anchor Church
members to this entity. Church facility was seen as a holy place for worship
and therefore all efforts were focused on maintaining its decorum.
Church members affinity
to the Church manifested itself in forms of sitting in a particular place and
having their own group of people to interact. Once the Church service is over,
the disconnection begins until following Sunday. Churches have also misconstrued
the engagement of Church members in its activities like Bible study, women’s
fellowships and Youth fellowships, etc. as the loyalty and faithfulness of the
members. In fact, such members were hailed and given importance by the Church
leaders.
The pandemic has taken
the scales off the Churches eyes and stripped it of all its myths. The lament
of some pastors is that the Church members have shunned their moral
responsibility towards the Church and in taking care of their Pastor. They feel
that the members have become too complacent during this pandemic time and the
online Churches have added to their callousness. I beg to disagree with such
pastors in this perspective.
Let me shift gears here.
We all have school grades, standardized testing scores, mileage for our cars
and square foot dimensions for our homes. There are measurements for everything
in life. In the same way we have measurements to assess the “success” in a
ministry. 90% of the churches use Attendance, Building and Cash as
success, which is called as the ABC method. These areas can be great indicators
of health for a Church. But what about the matters of the heart? Sadly,
Churches have no measurements for discipleship and spiritual maturity. Other
areas that need to be included in measurement are discipleship, faithfulness
and fruitfulness, scores telling how many people have presented gospel over a
week, month and year and how many of the new members made a commitment and
participated in Church fellowship over the years? Such parameters that indicate
deep engagement to Christ's mission is often absent or overlooked.
We need to keep in mind
that the Church is a group of redeemed people that live and serve together
in such a way that their lives and communities are transformed. Church, the
body of Christ, is neither confined to a structure nor is an entity where
people gather, as an end in itself. Rather it is a vibrant movement to impact
the communities and people under its sphere of influence and nation. Church is
the only hope for lost lives and nations. Out of 114 times the “Church”
is mentioned in the New Testament, at least ninety of them refer to specific
local gatherings of believers who have banded together for fellowship and
mission. God intends for every follower of Jesus to be a part of such
a gathering under the servant leadership of pastors who shepherd the Church for
the glory of God. It is the responsibility of the Church Leadership to engage
their members to Christ's mission. Apostle Paul said that God gave pastors,
teachers, and elders to the Church so that they could teach the rest of us to
minister. A pastor’s job is not to do all of the ministry in a Church, but
to “equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body
of Christ” (Ephesians. 4:12).
Can the Church define to
its members what their Church mission will look like and build their engagement
for a greater harvest?
Click here You can follow on Twitter
No comments:
Post a Comment