A Pointless Church
Part 3 of The Local Project
Last week, I drove to meet a friend for dinner. In that shopping center, the huge storefront of what was once a Bed Bath and Beyond stood empty and the signs were gone. As long as I can remember living in Arlington, this shopping center had that BBB and a Pier 1 next door. Now both are closed. I felt vaguely sad for a moment, but then quickly forgot about it until writing this right now.
If your church shuttered tomorrow, would the surrounding community notice or care? Would it feel like there was a hole in the local culture? Or would they, like I did seeing the closed BBB, feel bummed for a moment then move on? In 2019 there were around 3,000 churches planted while approximately 4,500 closed. A church closing is sad, but it is by no means rare in the US. This is simply the reality of church right now.
In light of that, we arrive at question number 2 I asked of the ministers and lay leaders for this project:
Why does your local church exist?
Thousands of churches start each year (I’m planning to plant one soon too), but how many of our churches have a clear idea of their individual purpose? With this question, I wanted to move beyond theory and get down to the brass tacks. In the last question, we discussed the purpose of “the local church”, but in this I wanted to find the purpose of “their local church.” Obviously, churches are needed and so churches should exit, but I was curious what rationale these leaders had for their churches existing where they did. Put another way, “What is the point of your church?”
Highlights
The answers to this question varied in length and reasons. Which is what we should expect since this is a much more contextual kind question. If the church is supposed to be the specialist, then we should find specialist answers here. Though the answers were different, I was able to nail down 5 primary categories people references for why their church existed.
“Why ______ church exists:” (listed in order of how often cited)
- Historic Presence/Legacy
- To share the gospel with the local community
- To meet the needs of the community
- To disciple the present and incoming membership
- To represent Christ in the community and advocate at a civic level
This question was a bit harder to answer for most of the interviewees. Some had little trouble with it however, citing specific ways that their church reached into the community and ministries that were defining for them.
Interesting Points
The leaders most often cited a mixture of the first three categories in their answers. Categories 1 and 2 were brought up an equal amount of times. I placed “historic” as the first on the list though because that was what people brought up first most often. When the question of specific purpose came up, the first thing that came to mind for most was that their church has been in the area for x amount of years. Some made this reference with pride, while others with a degree of ruefulness.
To the latter group, it seemed the reason for existence was more likely due to continued existence or tradition rather than some concept of a pressing, specific mission their church was trying to accomplish in their community. They weren’t thrilled to give this answer, but they still answered honestly:
“We exist because we have existed.”
Categories 1 and 4 tended to go together in responses from leaders in established churches (older than 35 years). On the flip side, categories 2 and 3 were more often referenced by newer churches. This is not surprising — it makes sense that if a church has been a round for a long time, there will be generations of members and these members will need discipleship for themselves and their families.
Younger churches are trying to establish themselves and tend to possess an evangelistic and humanitarian leaning. This same leaning is likely what sparked the founding of the more established churches. While most leaders at established churches referenced a combo of 1 and 2, the latter was typically said with something like, “this is something we are trying to get back into doing.”It seems that much like new believers, the firs love fire for the gospel burns hot in the early years-but as time goes on, the establishment can become inward focused. This isn’t true of every established church, but it is a pattern worth being aware of.
Takeaways
In my view, the purpose or mission of a local church, as previously reasoned, is to represent Christ to the local community.
This core purpose should not change.
However, the methodology of how this is best accomplished can and should change. At one point, what was once a church in an unreached section of a city can become a well established institution through which generations have passed. This isn’t a bad thing, but it seems that there is a temptation to not rock the boat once a church is up and running comfortably.
Why? Because outreach is by nature the invitation of change — a change of people in the local community, a change of the people that make up the church community, and a change in the way things have been done in the past as contexts shift. So it is perhaps unsurprising that the more established churches struggle with consistent and contextual outreach.
A legacy and desire to disciple existing (or “organically added” as one interviewee put it) members is a good thing. However, if these are the primary reasons that come to mind for a local church’s existence, I think such a church has become too insular. Rather than a legacy of “once we were on the front lines”, we should be working to maintain a presence on the front lines of ministry.
How do we do this? Through training up church planters, missionaries, and meeting the needs of the changing community around us directly. We shouldn’t wait for them to come to us. After all, Christ himself did not just set up a base of operations and grow his ministry from a singular location. He was on the move and injected himself into the lives of those in the surrounding communities. Shouldn’t we follow this example?
If our churches do not have an understood purpose of why they exist where they exist, then I don’t think they will be effective in reaching their local context. We are all called to share the gospel — but how are we doing that where God has stationed us with all the resources, opportunities, and problems surrounding us?
In other words, if we have no clearly understood local purpose, we are in danger of being just another “pointless” church.
Next week we will tackle part 4 and look at the question “Who leads the church and why?” — alongside the bonus question of “What is your view on women in leadership?”
