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Churches,
Softball, and Satan Part I
by
Tim Stafford
So there I was at another “pastor’s meeting.” (It
just never ceases to amaze me that the condition of the church
has grown to a corporate entity; no matter how many times I read
the words of Christ at the end of the book of Matthew, I just
cannot pull the rabbit out of the hat, that says, “Go into all
of the world and make corporations.” It
just simply is absent from His words. But I digress.) Anyway, so
I am in this meeting and the subject of the church softball team
comes up. “This year, I am determined to win the city
championship,” says the senior pastor, “it falls in line
with our vision to provide quality programming for the whole
family.” OK, this just sounds like every other boring idea
that comes from the mouth of the church’s CEO. Then, it
happened, the guy said the thing that sent this free thinking
theologian into a flat spin, he said, “Winning the
championship will really help put our church on the map in our
city and ultimately that means more people in the services which
means more resources for the work of God in our community.
”Ok, so who came up with this model of church growth? Let
us take a minute to talk about churches, competition, and Satan.
I am deeply bothered by the modus operandi of the church
today. The facts are that the number one issue for churches in
America is the number of attendees last Sunday, and how does
that number compare with last year, and, most importantly, how
does our number compare with the numbers of the other churches
in town? The problem that I see in this model of positioning is
that it fails to answer the most basic of human questions. How
are the people doing within the walls of my church? Let me give
you an example. Recently, I talked with a new pastor who had
just taken over the senior leadership position in the church
after being an associate for quite some time. I said to him,
“So, what are your immediate plans?” He answered, “My
vision is that the church will triple in 3 years.” So then, I
asked the most obvious question, “How will you handle the
discipleship issues that come with this kind of growth?” His
replied, “We will cross that bridge as it comes.” NO YOU
WON’T!!! This is the fundamental problem in churches today. We
have created a huge conglomerate of high maintenance, low impact
converts, and we have very few disciples.
This is due, in large part, to the competitive spirit
that has entered the church. We have come to a place that we are
more comfortable saying that we have 5000 members and ignoring
the fact that only 200 are growing in Christ or involved in
ministry of the church. I personally have tried to entertain the
habit of answering the question that is often posed to me “How
many are in your church? “ with the answer “We have 200
solid, growing believers.”
This is not only the truth, but it also helps keep me
focused on the real matter at hand, that is the gospel. Jesus
never said in scripture, “I have sought to be the best
carpenter that I could be and when I became the best carpenter,
then I earned the right to speak into the life of another lost
soul. “ Jesus focus was to touch people and not to alienate
them. In Part II, I will continue to discuss the competitive
division in the church and then give some clear cut answers to
what I think is the most important problem for the church to
face, and meanwhile, I encourage you to quit your church
softball team and get involved with “winning” others to
Christ after Christ’s own model.
Peace
The
Sinister Minister
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Pastor
Tim Stafford a local Christian School teacher in Las Vegas, NV.
he hold a Bachelor of Arts in Music and in Theology and is
currently studying for my Masters Degree in Education. He has
also tendered a long career as a, independently contracting
musician and is currently continue to play in many different
genres in the Las Vegas Music Scene. He have been married for 10
years and have two awesome children.
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