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10
reasons why your church sucks:
1.
It does not understand the community at
large
by
john o'keefe
let's
be honest, most churches today are not
connected to the community they are part
of. sure, they think they are, and they
may even claim that they are, and i am certain
i will receive emails from churches claiming
otherwise - and they might even scream that
they are, but in reality 99% of all churches
are not connected to the community. but
before you go and think your church is part of
that little 1%, let me ask some questions.
1.
describe your community, does it match your
church?
2.
is
the make-up of your church the same as the
community it is in?
3.
what percentage of your community is
white? black? asian?
hispanic?
4. what is the average age of the people
in your community?
5.
within a five block area around your church,
how many people live?
basic
questions, but very hard for most church
leaders to answer; it should not be hard to
answer, but they are for many. let's be
honest again, when you read there was a 1%
"out," you felt that your church was
in that 1% - funny thing is that almost 100%
of the people who are reading this think their
church is in that 1%. sure, you can buy
the stats and see who lives in the area, but
what does that prove? to me, all it
proves is that you have the ability to purchase
and read government stats. but you still
do not know the community you are ministering
in. i know of several modern churches
where the people who attend the church do not
even live in the community. lasalle
street church in chicago is just that kind of
church. the ministers, and most of the
leadership team take the train in from the
suburbs. they have no idea what is
needed, because most of them have no needs and
live outside the community. how can you
know the inside workings of the community you
serve if you do not live in that community
over
the past 150 years the term
"community" for the modern church
has meant "people in the
church." the idea that
"community" should ever extend
beyond the doors of the church is simply unbelievable,
or so the modern mind thinks. i remember
a while back speaking with a pastor who was
trying hard to get his people (all older and
white) to learn spanish so that they could
minister to the community - out of the 150 or
so people in the church, two came forward to
learn, and both of then said from the start
that they had no desire to minister, they just
though it was good thing to know - and all the
others did was complain about not having a
"hispanic outreach." it is
amazing that most modern churches have no
idea, or have no desire, to reach beyond
themselves. the funny thing is when they
do, when they reach beyond self and move to
the rhythm of christ the world changes, and
lives are blessed in great ways.
what
happens when change comes:
the
modern church today is, at best, a microcosm
of the community 50 to 100 years ago, but that
can change. the doors and walls of the
church have blinded people to the possibilities
- but the love, grace and power of christ can
change the world. i was once asked to
speak with a group of elderly members of a
congregation about opening the doors of their
church to the community. the pastor of
the church felt that if i (a weird looking
pastor with a loving heart) could talk with
his people, and echo his words, that his
people would listen. at the gathering i
was confronted with a large group of elderly
people, most women. several things came
of that meeting. first, they felt that
they were old and beyond use, they feared for
their safety, they felt that they built the
church and they did not want to pass it on to
people they did not know, but mostly it
centered on fear and thinking they had nothing
to offer.
most
of them (mainly the women) told me that they
seldom go out of their homes, and they do not
trust the people around them. one women
told me that she feared for her life, as she
put it, "if you can't understand what
they are saying how can you get to know
them?" over the next six
months, we slowly introduced many of the
community to the church via open house events,
partnering with a local private school and
other non-profits in the area to make the
church the center of the community. the
members of the church first started to come to
"make sure nothing was stolen or
broken." but over time things
change - powerfully. a wonderful thing
happened - lives were changed. elderly
women who felt they had no value at all, found
that they could teach teen mothers how to be
mothers and could be "grandparents"
to children without grandparents.
elderly men soon found that they could pass
along their life long trades, and experiences,
to a youth wanting to know all they could
share. one women (a widow) who
feared for her life soon because best friends
(more like sisters) with an elderly hispanic
women who just lost her husband, and was going
to have to live on the streets - she took her
in and they shared her large house, and from
that day forward they were joined at the hip;
they even took vacations together. it
was the most expressive, joy filled experience
ever to see these two elderly women learning
to talk with each other, knowing that the only
words they had in common at first centered on
their mutual love of christ.
in
a postmodern/emerging world the church must
become the center of the community. it
must go beyond it's walls and become the place
all people look too when looking for any
activities. we should have a door on the
front of the church that proclaims "open
24/7" - and truly mean it. this
modern idea of "on hour on sunday"
is not going to work from this point on - when
we understand the community we live in, when
we ourselves live in that community, lives
change and the rhythm of life is expressed
anew.
the
other "10
reasons why your church sucks"
articles
1.
It does not understand the community at large
2.
It has poor leadership
3.
It has no solid vision
4.
It is graying, quickly
5.
It’s inbred
6.
It’s concerned with look and not action
7.
It’s comfortable in its misery, and is looking for
company
8.
It’s out of touch
9.
It’s all about money
10.
It’s all politics
we,
are in the process of developing a bible study based on the 10 reasons -
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