Church is not an event

Apr 29, 2009

I was playing checkers with my two oldest kids. My son was in my lap, and we were teamed up to conquer Ellie-the-unconquerable. We have had the board for a while now, and so some of the checkers are on vacation or sabbatical. We replace them with bright orange tic-tacs and shiny quarters. It is a fun game but there is no peace because Colby is upset. He thinks he is losing but he is not. 

You see, in our special version of checkers each time you jump an opponents tic-tac you get to eat it. I unwittingly put out more tic-tacs for us than for Ellie so that even though Colby and I were ahead, our pile of conquered checkers was sparse. Thus, the screaming child in my lap. Colby made the mistake that many church-people and church planters often make. He was measuring the wrong thing. Instead of looking at how many pieces he had on the board, he was looking at how many pieces he had on the floor next to the board. Those results did not please him.

 For some reason a lot of churches are filled with people who are measuring the wrong thing. We measure butts. Butts? Yes, we measure butts-in-seats! We think that church is an event and so we measure success on how many attend the event and put their but in a seat. Does this equal success? Is this what Jesus was focused on?

No and no. Jesus did something quite different actually.

So what should we measure then? What is success? I think success is not Butts-in-seats but Believers-on-mission. How many of us believe the Good news that there is a loving God who created us in His image and likeness? How many of us believe the Good news that this same God came in the flesh to rescue us from sin, death and hell by sacrificing himself in our place on a Roman cross? How many of us believe the Good news that on the third day Jesus' tomb was empty and that He is alive? How many of us believe the Good news that now by putting our faith in Him we are made new and our bodies become God's temple as he literally dwells inside of us by the Holy Spirit? And how many of us go into the everyday routines of life with that belief as the center of all we are and do?

For Emmaus Road that means 6 things. We call them our "Values," or our "Missionary Rhythms." We REJOICE in the Lord always keeping God in the center of everything we do, from dishes to diapers to email we live with God in the center. We READ the Bible and let it shape and inform the way we live. We RECONNECT with other Christians by eating together, playing together, working together. We RELATE to our non-Christian neighbors and friends in the same way, by eating together, playing together, working together etc. We RESTORE People to Wholeness. This may be spiritually, emotionally, financially, relationally. Sometimes Restoring others looks like working on a Habitat for Humanity house, listening to their problems, paying off credit-card debt or just praying for them. Finally we REPRODUCE ourselves by mentoring and encouraging others around us to grow in the use of their talents and gifts.

 These are the things the church should measure. Not how many people attended an event, but how many people did we restore to wholeness this week? How much time was spent reading God's word? How many meals did you share Reconnecting or Relating? How many ordinary daily tasks did we do with God in the center?

With this Biblical metric many churches we once thought hugely successful are... not so much. And many that we discounted... now seem strangely exciting. Living these "Values" out will result in more butts-in-seats, but that is not the goal. The goal rather is Believers-on-mission. 

Butts or Believers...Which one are you?

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