Spending and Being Spent

Every organism and organization has a life cycle. There is birth and death for every finite thing including the congregation which is near and dear to our heart. Martin F. Saarinen, writing for the Alban Institute, describes the congregational life cycle. http://s3.amazonaws.com/mychurchwebsite/c3935/lifecycleofacongregation.pdf. We do not like to think of our own death. We are a death denying culture. This is accepted as truth in many scholarly venues as http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6729531.

We act like we and everything will, or should, last forever. Even when one has experienced cardiac arrest we count on doctors and medical apparatus to get the heart beating again. When we perceive our congregation is on a path toward death we count on a redevelopment specialist to bring new life. In the life of a congregation we do not recognize how far we are on the path of death until it is too late to resuscitate it back to life.

In many instances in our own life, and in the life of our congregation, we contribute to a premature death. Individually and collectively we are too sedentary, eat the wrong foods, fail to keep mentally alert, and rust out long before we would wear out. I just listened to a podcast which dealt with dying congregations (which I believe would also apply to denominations). Carey Nieuwhof was interviewing Thom Rainer. Rainer has written a book entitled Autopsy of a Deceased Church: 11 Things I Learned. I encourage you to listen to the podcast. (http://careynieuwhof.com/2015/05/episode36/)

Most of what Rainer learned is congregations hasten the death spiral by becoming inwardly focused. He suggests this can be easily tracked in a review of the church budget over the course of several past years. The congregation which spends more on itself and meeting the desires of the membership than it does in local and world mission is a dying church. Dave Ramsey, among others, says the congregation’s budget clearly indicates it priorities. http://www.daveramsey.com/blog/church-budgeting-who-sees-the-numbers/ Jesus says much the same thing in Matthew 6:21, Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

If we want our congregations to find new life we have to look beyond “saving our congregation” to proclaiming and demonstration the Gospel beginning in our communities. If the congregation were to disappear tomorrow who would miss it and why would they miss it? If the only ones who would miss our congregation are its members, the congregation is far down the path to death. What is the congregation known for in the community? A congregation I once served was known in the community as “old, rich, doing nothing and dying.” OUCH! We tried to turn that around, and made some progress, but it didn’t happen overnight. The final gasp of the congregation may not come for some time, but the death of an inwardly focused congregation is fast approaching.

Spending and being spent on behalf of others brings life to self and to our congregations. For whom are you and your congregation being spent? What was it Jesus said? For whosoever shall desire to save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it. (Darby Bible Translation, Matthew 16:25, http://biblehub.com/matthew/16-25.htm )