These are quotes from Paul Borden, author of Hit the Bullseye: How Denominations Can Aim the Congregation at the Mission Field, who spoke at a Ohio Ministries meeting on July 7th.
Some good points to contribute to our discussion on mission:
“Churches are not to be places of refuge. They are to be a place where lost people come to find Christ.”
“Not all growing congregations are healthy ones. However, all healthy congregations are growing.”
“If congregations are not growing, they are not healthy. Not only that, they are being disobedient to the call of Christ.”
“Do we run the state and national organizations to continue the institutions or to fulfill the mission?”
“The local congregation should be at the top of the pyramid. Of all church organizations, the congregation is the only one ordained by God. All congregations have the same mission, to fulfill the Great Commission, and God expects the local congregation to do whatever it takes to achieve the mission.”
2 comments:
i've been out of these conversations for too long (a week of vacation and a week of state campmeeting has kept me away from these good posts)
it's hard to read so much dialogue and have so much to say and now not know how to jump back in
here's where i'll begin -- i'm a firm believer in unity being a by-product of mission. therefore, i think that a lot of our disunity can be traced back to our de-railing from mission.
as we tried to package the movement, we scooped up parts of what God was doing and said, "this is it," while the arguments began over what or who we left out. lobbying for our perspectives or what we treasured in the movement led to making idols of all things religious while forgetting the lost. as a result, we've been in these 'camps' for so long we didn't even notice that God may have passed by on His way to save the world. as we've become aware of God's power absent, we now see a lot of pointing fingers at the disunity that exists
let's return again to where God's heart is--to get there, we will need to confess to those we've hurt or pre-judged, washing feet along the way so we can rise as brothers, and not adversaries
i know, i know -- that's all nice rhetoric and maybe a bit naive. but this week i've mourned over divided ministries. our campmeeting speaker, Jeannette Flynn, asked me to lay down my cynism and defenses long enough to let her catch a glimpse of the battle we're in here in Alabama. since that time i've not stopped crying, and praying, and confessing, washing feet, and reading Joel
i'm naive enough to think that the disaster that begins Joel is simlar to the trouble we're facing in the church: "The fields are ruined,the ground is dried up; the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails. Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is destroyed.
The vine is dried up and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree--all the trees of the field--are dried up. Surely the joy of mankind is withered away." (1:10-12)
i'm naive enough to think that mourning over it and confessing together as Joel 1-2 call for in 'solemn assemblies'. whether 1 on 1, or thousands together, this can be the first step
i'm naive enough to think that if we then CONTINUE TOGETHER in the commission He gave us, we'll see the harvest promised in the conclusion of Joel
Ken, the hope you yearn for is not naive - unless you call faith naive. The fact that there is a growing number of individuals like yourself passionate for repentance and mission offers hope for all of us as we struggle with these issues.
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