Every year, lists are published for the biggest and baddest churches. The fastest growing. The most innovative. The largest. On one hand, it’s great to see how more and more lives are being changed (assuming that the church growth is not just from church transfer) and to see what’s going on. A little inspiration now and then isn’t bad.
But on the other hand…I wonder, why should we even care who gets on these lists?
I read some Oswald Chambers the other day. He said,
“Don’t rejoice in your successful service for [Christ], but rejoice because of your right relationship with [Christ]. The trap you may fall into in Christian work is to rejoice in successful service; rejoicing in the fact that God has used you. Yet you will never be able to measure fully what God will do through you if you have a right-standing relationship with Jesus Christ…it is actually by His mercy that He does not let you know it.“
I realize Oswald is not the gospel, but I think he brings up a good point. So many churches today say this like, “We are so humbled God has chosen to use us” … “We can only attribute our growth and success to God” … I’m sorry, but isn’t that like restating the obvious?
Maybe I’m just being cynical in writing this, but of course God has chosen to use you. It doesn’t take a magazine or a bunch of parachurch organizations to figure that out. What is disconcerting about it all is the feeling of inadequacy many pastors of churches not on these fashionable lists experience. As I researched blogs of pastors and church leaders, I found more dissention than unity, more discouragement than motivation when discussing these lists.
I know there isn’t some gory battlefield where churches duke it out to make it on these lists. These churches didn’t invent the list. They just end up there. After I began writing this post yesterday, a pastor friend of mine emailed me to say “Congrats, I see the church you work at made it on both the Outreach Top 100 Lists.” I didn’t even have a clue. I know we aren’t doing what we do to get our name in black and white on some list. And I realize it’s the same with the other churches.
Maybe the problem isn’t with the churches, but with the society that has to reward everything…Is it just me, or is it sad to discover the culture in which we “do church” has cultivated another one of our famous christian subculture spin-offs.
We have our own little version of The Forbes 100.
A very smart man said, “If you can’t be idealistic in a church, something’s wrong.” Is it too idealistic to hope that pastors who see the apparent “successes” of highly publicized churches could put down their church growth magazines and tune out all the buzz words that annihilate the innocent voice that was the only thing they needed to obey? Is it too idealistic for churches who gain attention to say, “You know what? It’s cool you have a list and all, but I’d rather not be on it. We’re just being obedient.” Is it too idealistic to think that the American church culture could just slow down a bit – and instead of doing church…actually BE the church?
I’m not opposed to learning or being sharpened – but like everything else, it needs to be balanced with obedience, humility, and grace. And please don’t misread this: I’m not proclaiming churches with large crowds are bad – they aren’t. I work at one, and it has been the most amazing thing to see life change happen all the time – to see God move in fresh ways.
BUT…I don’t think any “Top 100” list encourages anything. Then again, I could be wrong.
Oswald finishes his sermon by saying this:
Our tendency today is to put the emphasis on service. Beware of the people who make their request for help on the basis of someone’s usefulness. If you make usefulness the test, then Jesus Christ was the greatest failure who ever lived. For the saint, direction and guidance come from God Himself, not some measure of that saint’s usefulness. It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him. All that our Lord gives His attention to in a person’s life is that person’s relationship with God-something of great value to His Father.
Let’s get back to our relationship with our Creator. Let’s get back to pure, unadulterated obedience.
And let’s stop being useful.
