From the Pastor’s Desk – October 2023

Churches need to be mission oriented but often fall into maintenance behavior and many times they don’t know they’ve slipped from mission into maintenance.  Let’s look at the following to gauge how much mission vs. maintenance exist in our congregation:

1.  In measuring the effectiveness, the maintenance congregation asks, “How many pastoral visits are being made?  The mission congregation asks, “How many disciples are being made?”

2.  When contemplating some form of change, the maintenance congregation says, “If this proves upsetting to any of our members, we won’t do it.”  The mission congregation says, “If this will help us reach someone on the outside, we will take the risk and do it.”

3.  When thinking about change, the majority of members in a maintenance congregation ask, “How will this affect me?”  The majority of members in the mission congregation ask, “Will this increase our ability to reach those outside?”

4.  When thinking of its vision for ministry, the maintenance congregation says, “We have to be faithful to our past.”  The mission congregation says, “We have to be faithful to our future.”

5.  The pastor in the maintenance congregation says to the newcomer, “I’d like to introduce you to some of our members.”  In the mission congregation the members say, “We’d like to introduce you to our pastor.”

6.  When confronted with a legitimate pastoral concern, the pastor in the maintenance congregation asks, “How can I meet this need?”  The pastor in the mission congregation asks, “How can this need be met?”

7.  The maintenance congregation seeks to avoid conflict at any cost (but rarely succeeds).  The mission congregation understands that conflict is the price of progress, and is willing to pay the price.  It understands that it cannot take everyone with it.  This causes some grief, but it does not keep it from doing what needs to be done.

8.  The maintenance congregation is concerned with their congregation, its organizations and structure, its constitutions and committees.  The mission congregation is concerned with the culture, with understanding how secular people think and what makes them tick.  It tries to determine their needs and their points of accessibility to the Gospel.

9.  When thinking about growth, the maintenance congregations asks, “How many Lutherans live within a twenty-minute drive of this church?”  The mission congregation asks, “How many unchurched people live within a twenty-minute drive of this church?”

10.  The maintenance congregation looks at the community and asks, “How can we get these people to support our congregation?”  The mission congregation asks, “How can the Church support these people?”

11.  The maintenance congregation thinks about how to save their congregation.  The mission congregation thinks about how to reach the world.

I challenge each of us to look at this list and ask ourselves, “How are we doing?”

As always, I look forward to your comments.

Pastor Cory