What is the real mission of your church?

What is the mission of your church?  I know what the correct answer is, and most churches would give that, but what is honestly the mission of your church?  Now, before you answer that I want you to look at your church calendar and your financial statement because it is in that calendar and checkbook that we find the real mission of every church.

Sadly, most churches do not have a mission beyond providing services to their members.  They have been so inwardly focused for so long that they can no longer see the needs of people even within the shadow of their own steeples.  Reggie McNeal once wrote, "Member values clash with missionary values.  Member values are all about church real estate, church programming, who's in and who's out, member services, member issues (translated: am I getting what I need out of this church?)  Missionary values are about the street, people's needs, breaking down barriers, community issues (translated: am I partnering with God's work in people?)  He believes "the North American church is suffering from severe amnesia.  It has forgotten why it exists."  That's quite an indictment of the church, but unfortunately it is true for many of them

The bottom line is that a church is either focused on maintenance or on mission, and many have chosen maintenance.  There is much less risk when a church chooses maintenance.  No one has to learn anything new.  There is less chance of upsetting people with messy changes that often accompany mission.  Everyone can remain in their comfortable ruts, and this includes the pastors as well.  Pastors sometimes complain about the lack of mission within their congregation, but the truth is many pastors prefer maintenance as well.

The challenge for the church today is to recapture the passion the early church had for the Great Commission and the Great Commandment.  When we read the story of the church in Acts it was this passion that allowed them to overcome extreme persecution and become people who were known as the people who turned the world upside down.  It is this passion that have enabled underground churches in China and other Communist nations to flourish despite their government's attempts to destroy them.  It is likely this same passion that led people to start the church you attend today.

The mission of the church is the same for every church regardless of size.  Your bivocational church of 40 people shares the same mission as the largest mega-church in America.  That mission is the Great Commission and the Great Commandment.

Part of our problem is that many Christians understand this.  They know what their mission should be, but they avoid doing it because if they committed themselves to this mission it would require too many changes in what they are currently doing.  They are not willing to make the necessary changes to live into the biblical mission of the church.

To become a church on mission will require extensive change for many congregations.  They will have to be willing to give up some cherished programs and preferences in order to minister in a way that will transform people in our postmodern society.  Mission will have to become the driving force behind everything they do, and anything that does not contribute to that mission will have to be abandoned.

Let's ask the question again.  What is the real mission of your church?

This post is adapted from a chapter in my book The Healthy Community: Moving Your Church Beyond Tunnel Vision.