Church Growth: Having a Story

Thumma and Travis review the various styles of megachurches, concluding that they fall into four categories, each with a different “what matters most”:

* Old Line/Program Based: Maintaining the witness in the present location. An evolutionary approach to change. Stewards for the next generation of worshipers in this place.

* Seeker: Reaching those that are seeking God. Making church a place that can reach the unchurched.

* Charismatic/Pastor Focused: Getting people in to experience the worship of God through the anointing on the pastor and worship leader. Reaching out to the community through empowered worship.

* New Wave/Re-envisioned: Proclaiming Jesus to their targeted constituency. Influencing and reaching culture in creative ways.

After considering these various approaches to doing church, the authors conclude,

Without debating the technical aspects of vision, mission, and values, let us state that we feel it is important for the leadership to create an essential story of the church. The essential story is the bridge that new attendees can use to become connected with the church. This essential story should be simple enough to be understood and communicated by everyone in the church. This story will be aspirational and inspirational enough for believers to connect with at a heart level and for many unbelievers to identify with enough to want to “check it out.” … This story is not a restatement of doctrine, but rather is a statement reflecting a unique vision for a church in its context and setting. It alludes to what important work God is calling the congregation to do at this particular moment.

This is powerfully important stuff! And I really like the way they say it.

Most church vision statements and mission statements are either insipid slogans or else shorthand creeds. Few actually tell the members who we are and what we are trying to do, other than in the most general way. I mean, rarely do these statements say what’s specially about this church! As a result, the distinctives of a given church tend to become the quality of the preacher’s preaching and the teen program, rather than that congregation’s special mission.

Consider these statements from churches in Tuscaloosa (from their web sites)–

Central Church of Christ

For many years the Central Church of Christ has adopted the phrase “Sharing Christ’s Vision With Our World.“ Christ intended for His followers to imitate Him in love. The beloved apostle John wrote of Jesus, “A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you…By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.” John 13:34. Our Lord desired that we express His love towards each other. This allows us to cross every barrier that society has erected: the barriers of social and economic standing; the barriers of race, nationality and creed.

University Church of Christ

At University, our heart’s desire is to be a place where lives are changed by being a cross-focused community fully devoted to loving God, maturing in the image of Christ, and sharing faith. We’re about–loving, maturing, and sharing to become more like Jesus.

We want to fall more and more in love with the One who has loved us from the beginning of time. Our worship times are devoted to LOVING GOD and learning what that means.

As we understand what it means to love God we will realize that God wants us to be just like Jesus. So for us to MATURE IN CHRIST we devote ourselves to Bible Study. If you aren’t familiar with His life and teachings, we’ll help you get started. If you already know Him, we’ll encourage you to keep growing into His likeness.

And as we mature in Christ together, it is our desire to be used by God to help others in their own spiritual journey. We want to SHARE our FAITH with those around us. We want to be His hands and feet.

First Baptist Church

Our Mission
First Baptist Church meets to magnify Jesus Christ and multiply His Kingdom, to mature believers into effective Christ-followers, and to minister to others in Jesus’ name.

Our Core Values
Relational Evangelism – We passionately share the gospel.
Worship – We seek intimacy with God.
Discipleship – We equip members to practice their faith.
Fellowship – We strengtehn one another through growing relationships.
Ministry – We expect each member to join us in ministering through his or her spiritual gifts and financial resources.

Calvary Baptist Church

EVANGELISM
We will be servants of Christ through our personal and collective commitment to witnessing and mission involvement.

DISCIPLESHIP
We will nurture the continuing spiritual growth of God’s people through worship, prayer, Bible study, ministry and stewardship of time, talents, and money.

FELLOWSHIP
We will care for the church family by ministering to the total person through forgiveness, acceptance, encouragement, fellowship and prayer.

Christ Episcopal Church

The parish family of Christ Church is a caring community of people joyously committed to sharing God’s love with one another and with His world.
We care for each other through the passages of life and maintain a visiting ministry of caring and sharing.

We love to get together and drink coffee and share meals and delight in getting to know one another; discovering the multiple talents our parishioners offer to the glory of God, to the furtherance of His kingdom and to the comforting love of one another. And, as we believe God intended, we have fun loving one another and loving Him.

Great. We’ve all read our Bibles! We’re all influenced by modern trends in evangelical thought (why else have a mission statement on our web site?). But these are, in many ways, very different churches, and you get not a hint of their distinctiveness from their mission statements.

On the other hand, I found a number of congregations who plainly identify themselves as preserving their unique history or else as being doctrinally pure. Not all churches fit in the generic mission statement mode. And while I find these kinds of statements very unattractive, at least I know who they really are!

But, of course, broadly stated, all churches have the same mission. The question is: what’s special about this church? What is our special strategy for accomplishing the mission all churches have?

And asking this question is perhaps the most important bit of planning a church can do. If you don’t, then you’ll just do church the way you’ve always done it or the way your tradition has always done it.

If your strategy — your story — is to seek the unchurched, then the comfort of the churched becomes secondary. Rather, you do the research and ask the questions to find out what opens the hearts of the unchurched to your message. And you should present yourself in a way that speaks to the unchurched.

If your mission is to work among the disadvantaged, to be salt and light, then your story is that you’ve been called to this task and how you believe you should honor this call.

Otherwise, you’re just a Christian Wal-Mart — competing with other congregations to have a better sermon, a better worship, better youth programs — a prettier web site. But surely God has called your congregation to something more special, more moving, more inspiring than doing church a little better than any other church in town.

If not, then merge. MERGE!

But if you’re special, if you’re different, then shout it from the rooftops! You’ll lose some people, but you’ll at least matter. And in the end, you’ll do far more good than just being a generic church that worships, fellowships, and tries — usually unsuccessfully — to do personal evangelism.

(And merger is very often a very good thing. See these posts —

Why We Shouldn’t Merge Churches

Why We Should Merge Churches–the Practical Reasons

Why We Should Merge Churches–the Doctrinal Reasons

Why We Should Merge Churches–Overcoming Doctrinal Differences

Merger is no failure. Rather, it’s a victory for unity. So — really do merge if you’re called to the same story, vision, and mission as the church down the road. Otherwise, revel in your uniqueness.)