Monday, April 26, 2010

10 Reasons to Under-Program Your Church

I'm a big fan of the "simple church" concept, but I have experienced just how daunting a task it can be to under-program my church. We are inundated constantly with opportunities for activity from other churches (which we don't want to turn down lest we appear uncooperative and standoffish), advertised "movements" local and national (which are good at getting people excited), and "good ideas" from our own community (which we are reluctant to deny lest we break someone's heart). But what all this so often amounts to is a church that is merely busy, and busy does not always equal diligent or successful.

Here, then, are 10 reasons to under-program a church:

1. You can do a lot of things in a mediocre (or poor) way, or you can do a few things extremely well. Craig Groeschel has some great things to say about this subject. Also check out Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger's Simple Church.

2. Over-programming creates an illusion of fruitfulness that may just be busy-ness. A bustling crowd may not be spiritually changed or engaged in mission at all. And as our flesh cries out for works, many times filling our programs with eager, even servant-minded people is a way to appeal to self-righteousness.

3. Over-programming is a detriment to single-mindedness in a community. If we're all busy engaging our interests in and pursuits of different things, we will have a harder time enjoying the "one accord" prescribed by the New Testament.

4. Over-programming runs the risk of turning a church into a host of extracurricular activities, mirroring the "Type-A family" mode of suburban achievers. The church can become a grocery store or more spiritual YMCA, then, perfect for people who want religious activities on their calendar.

5. Over-programming dilutes actual ministry effectiveness. Because it can overextend leaders, increase administration, tax the time of church members, and sap financial and material resources from churches.

6. Over-programming leads to segmentation among ages, life stages, and affinities, which can create divisions in a church body. Certainly there are legitimate reasons for gathering according to "likenesses," but many times increasing the number of programs means increasing the ways and frequencies of these separations. Pervasive segmentation is not good for church unity or spiritual growth.

7. Over-programming creates satisfaction in an illusion of success; meanwhile mission suffers. If a church looks like it's doing lots of things, we tend to think it's doing great things for God. When really it may just be providing lots of religious goods and services. This is an unacceptable substitute for a community on mission, but it's one we accept all the time. And the more we are engaged within the four walls of the church, whether those walls are literal or metaphorical, the less we are engaged in being salt and light. Over-programming reduces the access to and opportunities with my neighbors.

8. Over-programming reduces margin in the lives of church members. It's a fast track to burnout for both volunteers and attendees, and it implicitly stifles sabbath.

9. Over-programming gets a church further away from the New Testament vision of the local church. Here's a good test, I think: take a look at a typical over-programmed church's calendar and see how many of the activities resemble things seen in the New Testament.

10. Over-programming is usually the result of un-self-reflective reflex reactions to perceived needs and and an inability to kill sacred cows that are actually already dead. Always ask "Should we?" before you ask "Can we?" Always ask "Will this please God?" before you ask "Will this please our people?" Always ask "Will this meet a need?" before you ask "Will this meet a demand?"

19 comments:

Deek Dubberly said...

Really great stuff. Programs have a strong tendency to shape how people perceive what the church is. It changes and shifts away from that which is to be understood as an assembling of regenerate Christian worshipers on a mission to what you refer to as a "spiritual YMCA."

Your post reminds me of a lyric from Derek Webb's, "Ballad in Plain Red": "Take out the sign, forget the meal | We’ve got a gym and a Ferris wheel | I swear it’s just like the country club down the block."

These unessential, over-programs are like junk food to little kids. Its what they need least and want most. Eventually it will make them sick.

Again, great post.

Sherry said...

Acts 2:46-47 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

"Here's a good test, I think: take a look at a typical over-programmed church's calendar and see how many of the activities resemble things seen in the New Testament."

I'm not sure but I think we're struggling to do exactly what we see the early church doing in those verses, meeting together frequently for fellowship, prayer, evangelism, and service. Maybe not perfectly, maybe some "programs" could be jettisoned, but not as far from New Testament model as you might think.

Jared said...

Sherry, I used "can" and "may" as many times as I could in the piece, trying not to broad-brush.

If your church resembles the New Testament church, I think that's awesome.

David Willy said...

I think one of the problems that is paired with this is that not only do we have too many programs, we also have too few workers. We need to get better about making disciples. We are winning people to acceptance of who Jesus is and we win them to church membership, but we don't train them to serve Christ. We need to be better about making disciples. If we could effectively get the vast majority of our members, instead of 10% of our members, passionate about serving Christ we would be able to lighten the load on the pastors and ministry leaders while still hosting programs that preach or show the love of Christ.

Any thoughts?

Jared said...

David, I think this could be true, but I have seen that many times churches that bemoan "too few workers" don't realize they are burning people out and turning people off by trying to recruit them for service to the church "machine." The key to many churches in involving members has to do with volunteerism in the programs. I think that's okay to a certain extent, but there should be more emphasis on involving people in being missionaries in their daily lives outside the church program structure.

But perhaps that's what you meant by "programs that preach or show the love of Christ."

David Willy said...

Yes that is what I was trying to get at. Living out our faith in our daily lives and acting as a missionary of the good news of Christ wherever we go is far superior to "service to the Church machine."

Thanks for the thoughts

jrsong40 said...

Amen. Especially #6

jrsong40 said...

Actually I meant amen! Especially #8. #6 makes sense also.

Wenatchee the Hatchet said...

In many cases "too few workers" can mean that the ministry is causing burn out but some churches thrive on the rush of constantly growing faster than their infrastructure can competently handle church growth (I'm strategically omitting where I was afraid I was seeing this tendency). The ministry might actually be a great idea, a necessary ministry, and something the church should be doing but church growth can damage the ability a church has to keep ministries functioning at a level where burn-out isn't persistent. The solution isn't to tell all the single people they have time on their hands because they're not married and should therefore stop being selfish and go serve in ministry. :) The solution may be to scale back ministry programs to a level where more people can do less so that they can do that "less" well.

I ended up with machine-level burn out in a ministry and the ministry lead simply would not take the multiple hints and outright statements I made that I was dealing with burn-out. Ministries tend to be founded and led by people who find their identity in that ministry.

One of the ironies of an over-programmed church is that if it is evangelical they don't realize that they may be given over to a "social gospel" that doesn't involve "social justice" but is still a good news of social events.

The Damer said...

I wonder about under programming. Do you think that's also possible? Can we be so "simple" that we miss opportunities to grow people?

Just a thought.

Wenatchee the Hatchet said...

Ironically, I felt like I saw an aspect of under-programming at a church I was at. The founding pastor did so much preaching and teaching that even though there were plenty of elder-qualified people in the flock they weren't doing as much teaching as they could from the pulpit. This has been rectified, possibly as much because the lead preaching pastor burned himself out enough times that he began to realize he needed to delegate preaching and teaching duties to other elders. I would consider that a problem of under-programming at an admittedly abstract level. A church that is over-programmed can often under-program, too, at least in larger churches. At the risk of invoking spiritual gifts and the Spirit's work in a church, it is probably easier for the churches that are underprogrammed to eventually fill legitimate needs than for an over-programmed church to cut out excess fat. That's my layman's opinion, for what little it may be worth.

ChosenRebel said...

Spot on brother. Churches and individual Christians need to de-cluttter our lives, schedules and programs so that we have the time and space to have real relationship with non-believers on their turf.

Ministry needs to become Intensely local (http://wp.me/pGYIn-aK) if we are to become truly effective in our communities. Appreciate your heart and your approach.

Justin Buzzard said...

Very well said.

Ryan said...

Great post Jared! We planted Redemption Bible Church just outside Chicago less than a year ago and have already had to make decisions to cut some programming for the reasons you gave. My two big concerns have been:

1. That we would think movement=mission

Just cause we're busy with a bunch of stuff doesn't mean we're actually on mission. Love that point in your post

2. That we would be too burned out to be on mission

If we overly program, people are too worn out to actually be on mission. They don't want to engage people who don't know Jesus, they don't want to serve their neighbors, they don't want to be the church.

Ultimately, my big concern was that we would cease to actually be the church because we were so consumed trying to do the things we think churches should do. Super encouraging! Thanks again...

Ryan said...

Great post Jared! We planted Redemption Bible Church just outside Chicago less than a year ago and have already had to make decisions to cut some programming for the reasons you gave. My two big concerns have been:

1. That we would think movement=mission

Just cause we're busy with a bunch of stuff doesn't mean we're actually on mission. Love that point in your post

2. That we would be too burned out to be on mission

If we overly program, people are too worn out to actually be on mission. They don't want to engage people who don't know Jesus, they don't want to serve their neighbors, they don't want to be the church.

Ultimately, my big concern was that we would cease to actually be the church because we were so consumed trying to do the things we think churches should do. Super encouraging! Thanks again...

Doug Horne said...

preach it. Our church does not do
sunday school, evening service, prayer meeting, etc. We encourage families to focus on family devotions (reading, memorizing, singing), and building those relationships. Building into our families is the first line of defence against a bankrupt culture. If you don't start at home, it's hard to effectivly engage culture.

superhua said...

Can anyone comment on the relationship between Simply Church by Rainer & Geiger and the missional movement?

That is, is Simple Church a simplifying of the traditional church model or simplifying for the sake of moving toward a more missional model?

Jared said...

Superhua, you can find my review of Simple Church here: http://gospeldrivenchurch.blogspot.com/2007/11/brief-review-of-simple-church.html

I was actually fairly disappointed in the execution of the book, but I am a fan of the concept. I liked the book's concept, but there wasn't enough Bible in it and there was too much borrowing from Apple, Nike, etc. in it for my taste.

But as an overview to the concept of "simple church," it's worth looking into, I think.

Another angle on simplicity but with a more gospel-driven focus would be Dever and Alexander's Deliberate Church.

Aaron said...

Great thoughts here. Having been a part of both an over-programmed church and an extremely program-light church, I definitely prefer the program-light model.

It's really powerful to see a community united in a common goal--making disciples.