Growth must be the culture not the structure
Pastor Paul Scanlon from abundant Life Church says Growth must be the culture not the structure
Culture is defined as ‘the attitudes and values which shape society’. In other words, the culture is how we think, behave and function. Once a thing becomes the culture it ceases to be an emphasis, a teaching or an important point, it becomes the DNA. Some things in church life must become the culture which shape the attitudes and values of all. Reaching the lost should be at the top of that list.
Consider what this well known passage is describing:
‘They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.’ Acts 2vs 42-43
This is describing a culture, not a structure or a programme. It is describing an attitude within the people which produced a church culture of personal devotion to God, the church leadership, each other and the poor. All God had to do was add to the culture ‘daily those who were being saved’. God partnered with the culture. The ‘X factor’ of the early church was its culture.
It’s not enough that our churches have evangelistic programmes or outreach events. If growth isn’t the common culture then we will be trying to shape attitudes and values by an evangelistic structure. There is no life in the structure, all the life is in the culture, structure simply serves the culture.
For example ,My bike is a raleigh 21 speed with lowered suspension and chrome wheels its a beauty,a relic but still a beauty at that.I can get to Victoria street from Glenview in 12 mins
But lets just say Sarah Ulmer decided to ditch her 10K+ bike and take up the 12 min challenge on my $79.00 bikeasorus
Could she go faster-Of course she could because the stucture serves the culture
Our church, maybe like yours, has an ‘appeal’ culture in that at the close of each service we make an appeal for people to come to Christ. I am glad to say that every week people do come to Christ, but that’s not only because we make an appeal. An appeal culture can only work inside a ‘bringing’ culture because if you don’t bring any unsaved people to church, there’s no one to appeal to.
Pastor Paul Scanlon says that as a young believer in his early teens, he remembered that every Sunday evening at 6.30pm they had a weekly Gospel Service. Each week the pastor would faithfully preach a Gospel message and make a salvation appeal but rarely did anyone get saved.
This wasn’t because he hadn’t done a good job, it was because we were not bringing anyone to church. We had a Gospel Service culture without an evangelistic culture; we had nothing for God or the pastor to partner with. We were trying to achieve by structure what could only ever happen by culture.
I pray that you will honestly think about the church culture you are developing because it will have a major effect on your personal and corporate efforts to reach the lost. It is the context of this article, that I ask you this question
What are you doing to grow your church?
What are you doing to grow your church?
Not, what’s the pastor doing? Shepherds don’t produce sheep, sheep produce sheep. Shepherds provide the environment for that to happen.
Jesus said, ‘the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few’. Will you improve on the few and help reach the many?
Next time ,how do we improve the evangelisim culture individually in our lives and corporately in the church
