Now that is how you do it!

My wife and I visited a Church that until just a year or so ago was not even meeting every week. It is a small church in a small aging town with a bi-vocational pastor. So who do you think was the majority in the congregation? Wrong, it was not mostly older folks, it was mostly younger folks many of them children. In fact of the 40 some people who were in morning worship, about 20 were under 19 years of age. What magic new formula have these folks found? Well, Stokes Baptist Church has simply done two very important things. Number one, they have given permission to people who have a passion to carry out that passion. Secondly, some ladies of the church have just turned loose a ton of love on some kids. They are involved at the local elementary school and are inviting the kids in to the choir (of all things) and there they are teaching them the Bible and loving them just like Jesus. It is working because in addition to those kids were their moms and dad that have no church background but are seeing their kids treated with love and respect.
My hat is off to Stokes Baptist Church, they are proving my theory right that churches can turn around and they way most of them will do it is through ministering to kids.

Just who are we trying to serve?

Since my concern of late is how churches can position themselves to impact life in the world God has placed them, it is also my concern as to how the traditional Association will play a role. There is a common question that both Churches and associations must answer. It is,"Just who are we trying to serve?" Most of our churches acknowledge in word that they are trying to serve Jesus and lost people by connecting them somehow. Most Associations say, at least in word, that they are trying to serve Churches. Truth is that both groups have moved the target to point more at themselves and both primarily exist to self perpetuate. As a result churches are losing relevance to the community and Associations are losing relevance to the churches.
What is the answer? Pointing out clearly that we know we have focused on the wrong target group, but now our focus is changing is a start. With what ever we must do to alter the inner mechanization of our Churches and Associations we must fully focus on meeting the need of those we are truly called to serve.
We are in the early stages of trying to shift South Roanoke Association from a focus on what churches can do to help us to begin asking, and meaning it, "What can we do to help you?" To tell you the truth I am about as excited about this as anything that has ever come my way because I genuinely believe that when Churches become our full focus then God will help to begin to bring some health to our churches which will produce some real Kingdom impact.
The steps are simple. Acknowledge where we are in terms of effective ministry to the people God called us to serve. We must be truthful about where we are, and then we shift the machinery away from us to them. May God grant the ability to "let go" and embrace the hope of renewal.