Should a church play to its strengths?
The answer to this question is obviously 'yes'!
I'm part of a church that is mostly made up of believers who are retired. Each and everyone of them are great folk; folk who have been walking with the Lord for a long time. The trouble comes into my picture when I look at how we do church.
When you have a congregation that, may I say, is made up largely of older folk the way church is done is traditionally. I don't have a problem with tradition, I can even say that on some matters of the faith I'm pretty conservative and traditional; my problem comes when I look at the vision for the church and at what I feel God is calling me to do in my own relationship with Him.
As a church we want to reach out to families, we want to be a family church that can minister into the lives of all believers from all generations. With this is a desire to reach those still outside the kingdom, again from all generations.
What a great vision?
In my own life with the Lord, I feel that He wants to use me to reach young families, both those who are already believers and those that aren't.
What a great calling?
Put my churches vision together with what I believe is God's calling for me and we should have a match made in heaven!
But this isn't the case!
My church thinks its providing a place for all generations, that its family friendly - NEWS FLASH - Your not!
We have a great Sunday School ministry (although, most parents drop their children off but don't join the service), we have an evening service that is great for those without children (If you have children you are likely to be putting them to bed while the service is running) and we have a morning service that is great if you are of the older generation!
Last night at a meeting, some congratulated themselves because we are a church that pretty much always sings hymns. Two retired folk joined us last Sunday and said they would only come because we are a hymn singing church. How great it is to be a hymn singing church; we have attracted two more retired believers to our church. But how many from the younger generations have we lost because we are only a hymn singing - traditional church I ask myself?
Should we as a church play to our strengths?
Again the answer is 'yes'!
With this being the case; shouldn't my churches vision be one where they actively reach out to older folk, concentrating all their efforts on doing so?
But where does that leave the younger generations (I'm not just talking about youth, but young families and alike)?
Where does that leave me, and what I feel God is calling me to do with my life?
FRUSTRATED!
