Ministry

The Church for Mission vs. the Church for Consumption

Kirk E. Miller

The following is an excerpt from my sermon The Church: Myths and Misconceptions (Part 1) delivered at South City Church, 7.30.17.

The Biblical reason we join and are a part of a church isn’t because a particular church offers the “goods and services” we want and like — making the church into something like a business, and us into its customers or consumers. The church is a people, a community. And the reason we join and are a part of this church community is for the sake of advancing our collective Christian mission — together.

When we become consumers, church becomes about “what I get out of it.” And when that happens, what determines “how I chose to do church” (or, as we might say, where I choose to “go to church” — as if church is something you “go to”) is what suits my preferences, what I like, or what meets my perceived needs.

In such a model, the church becomes a place where I come to be served. The pastors and the staff are the ones who do the ministry (rather than everyone). “It’s their job. They’re the ministers,” we say. “My job is to receive and be served.”

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Serious Church: Taking the Christian Life Seriously through the Church’s Practice of Discipline (Matthew 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 5:1-13)

Kirk E. Miller

Serious Church: Taking the Christian Life Seriously through the Church’s Practice of Discipline (Matthew 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 5:1-13)
South City Church
July 9, 2017

Podcast link.

This sermon is a part of a series on the foundational principles of South City Church’s philosophy of ministry. See all content from this series.

On Organic, Relational Evangelism (David Doran Jr.) and Cynical Critics (D.L. Moody)

Kirk E. Miller

I … say Amen to relationships…. [But] I must admit I’m growing skeptical of the only — organic — witness. … I wonder how much we actually get to the Good News. … People are not saved by relationships but by the Gospel. So it’d be fair to ask- have I shared the Gospel…? Proclamation and relationship can’t be separated but relationships can’t [be allowed to] lull us to sleep making us think we’re evangelists without ever sharing the good news.

~ David Michael Doran Jr., church-planting pastor at Resurrection Church (Lincoln Park, MI)

It is clear you don’t like my way of doing evangelism. You raise some good points. Frankly, I sometimes do not like my way of doing evangelism. But I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it.

~ D.L. Moody (said to one of his critics)

Faithful Church Planting as Plodding (Scott Slayton)

Kirk E. Miller

Chuch planting has been in vogue as of late, and at times seems to get sensationalized. But faithful church planting — the type that isn’t aimed at just gathering a crowd by any means possible, or “creating” a church by merely transplanting already-believers from already-heathy-churches, but is about seeing souls saved and joined to churches as healthy members — is probably better described as plodding.

And it’s worth it. Mainstream culture — heck, mainstream Christianity — won’t get it. It flies in the face of American values of consumerism and pragmatism, a value-system that the American church seems to have embodied in what is probably best described as syncretism. But, luckily, faithfulness to Christ isn’t measured by other people’s perception of how odd, crazy, or unconventional your approach may seem.

[F]or us to plant the kinds of churches we need to plant the men who feel called to planting must change their expectations and their definition of ‘success.’ … When numerical success becomes the primary benchmark for evaluating the success of a church, a man will sacrifice his principles and build his ministry on all the wrong things to achieve his goal. Churches built on hype, great music, and a charismatic personality may reach some people who do not know Jesus, but it will mainly pull Christians from other churches. We don’t need more churches characterized by this mentality; we need thousands less.

… The task of planting churches who are faithful to share the Gospel, make disciples, and plant more church calls for an army of men who are content with no one knowing their names except the people in their community and those whom they shepherd. … We need the man willing to work in obscurity because the real task of church planting is not easy or glamorous. At the same time the task is worth every ounce of effort. – Scott Slayton

Read the entire article here — Why We Need Anonymous, Plodding Church Planters.