Your Worship Ministry: Community or Country Club

Every ministry needs to decide if they are going to reach the community around them or simply satisfy the current membership. Do your members actively seek ways to reach new people? Are they willing to try creative things that will attract non-members? Or do they want to make things comfortable for themselves? What is their vision?

Discovering what the members believe to be the vision of your ministry will determine how you should proceed. Sometimes God may give you a vision that does not reflect what the people want. I will be brutally honest and say what we often try to dance around: “Regardless of what God wants, those who pay your check have certain expectations.” It is not always an easy task getting the church membership to see and accept the vision that God has given to you. Does this mean you should do things according to their desires? Not really, but you may need to adjust your ministry plans a little if you wish to continue ministering to the membership.

A healthy church should have a good balance of meeting the needs of the members while reaching out to the community. The church is, after all, the people and not the buildings: the body of Christ. We need to take care of ourselves just as we would our own physical bodies. We must feed ourselves, exercise, take care of our emotional health, continue to learn and strengthen our minds, etc. But we cannot focus entirely on ourselves.

The Bible tells us that we are to love others in the same manner and with as much love as we have for ourselves. We are also told to do for others as we would like for them to do to us. Perhaps the second best way to show our love is to think about their needs and do something to fill those needs (the first: Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13)

Perhaps even more compelling should be the command given to us by Jesus just before he ascended into heaven…as you go, make disciples of all people, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Does this sound like a country club mentality?

The prayer of Jabez included a request that God would expand his territory (1 Chronicles 4:10). Owning large amounts of land and resources was a sign of God’s blessings. With the blessing came a responsibility to care for the land so that it will be able to handle more sheep. More sheep meant more responsibilities for the shepherd in order to meet the needs of the sheep. Perhaps it is time that we begin praying that God will “expand our territories.” That He will give us a need to increase our ministries in order to meet the needs of an ever-growing family.

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