Don't let the past control the future

In the foyer of the church I pastored was a picture of a large group of men as they were building the church building in which we worshiped. They took the clay from an adjacent field to make the bricks they used to build the building. In front of the men stood a little boy. An older member of the church, then in his 80s, told me he was that little boy. His job was to take water to the men when they got thirsty. This picture represented an important part of the church's history.

Another story I often heard was how the church used to be overflowing with people to the point that in the warm months people would sit outside to join in the worship. The windows would be open, and people would sit in chairs to sing and hear the message. Those were the "good old days," but when I went there as pastor the church had discussed closing the church due to poor attendance.

Later, I became a judicatory leader, and I found in many of the smaller churches I served similar pictures to the one described above. These were often taken when the church had a "dinner-on-the-grounds." Some churches would have a series of these pictures lined up on the walls approaching the sanctuary. I would look at those pictures and wonder how all those people fit inside their building, and what had happened since then to cause the church to fall off so dramatically.

These pictures and histories are important to churches, but they must not be allowed to be the focus of the present congregation. When the past looks better to a church than does its future, the church is in trouble. I believe churches and pastors should honor the history of the church, but its focus must always be on its present ministry and its future. What God did in the past is wonderful, but He wants to do even greater things in the future of the church if the church will allow Him to do so.

Often, congregations believe if they could just go back in time, do things the way they were doing them when the church was filled and growing, that they could start growing again. That's not the answer. Look around at the churches that are reaching people for Christ today. None of them are doing the things that your church used to do. God is doing a new thing, and any church that wants to be revived and effective again must find out where God is moving and become part of that. We can't ask Him to bless the old things when He wants to do something new.

I love history, but sometimes I wonder if the pictures I've described above actually do harm to churches. They remind people of a past that will never be recaptured, and they distract the congregation from looking to the future and what God wants to do in them and through them in that future.

If you choose to let it, your future will be much greater than your past. Roughly 100 churches close their doors each week because they cannot see a future ministry. At the same time, in many of those same communities, we see new churches springing up because people do have a vision for ministry.

The challenge for many of our smaller churches is to decide if our past or our future will dominate our thinking. Will we be content to dwell on our past successes or will we continually seek a fresh vision from God for our future ministry? I encourage you to honor your past, but always be looking for what God has for you in the future.