Do you know what happens to a University when it becomes preoccupied with
something other than its main goal? For example, focusing primarily upon athletics rather
than education. Do you know what happens to a company that becomes so involved with
internal issues rather than the primary goal, serving the customer? We all realize that when
an institution or an organization loses its focus of the primary mission it fails. I am
impressed that Christ never lost sight of His fundamental objective," seeking and saving the
lost." Luke 19 shows the contrast between Christ's objective and the Pharisees short sighted
concern of maintaining the status quo. Have local churches lost sight of this objective?
Forty to fifty years ago many congregations sprang up across this country. Each
congregation set certain goals for growth and many of those goals were met. My fear today
is that these congregations have become complacent toward their main objective and as a
result many of them have in essence shifted into a maintenance mode. Someone compiled
the following statistics:
**The average church member has been a Christian for 20 years
**They have heard 4,000 sermons
**Sung 20,000 songs
**Participated in 8,000 prayers
** And the average member had converted no one.
I wonder how close Christians today are to those averages? Have local churches simply
focused on maintaining what they have? Some rationalize the maintenance mode mentality
because of what they see as issues which could disturb local churches. As a result, there are
divisions, debating's and fighting's over these issues. Many believe those actions to be
necessary in order to "trim the fat." My fear is that we are also killing the sheep!!
It is important for Christians to know their identity and to understand what sets them
apart from others, but it is of utmost importance that they understand a local church's
common mission. Many local churches have become less and less "soul saving groups" and
more and more of "worship societies." The primary focus of many local groups is to get
together and solely hold a worship service. Understand, the New Testament plan is that
Christians assemble together to worship and do the things that God has commanded in a
collective sense. But that is not the primary mission of local churches. It is so easy to shift
into a maintenance mode and out of the mission mode. It is easy to become consumed with
the group's internal needs rather than seeking and saving the lost. Each congregation needs
to frequently ask, what is the mission and objective of this group?
About one year ago, a local church in this area held a one week debate on one of the
"hot" issues of the day. Many Christians, including many preachers, came from hundreds of
miles away to participate in the debate. I wonder what would happen if that same local
church held a one week evangelism crusade where Christians would go door to door and
try to teach people about Christ, how much interest would that peak among that same
group of people. Many are more interested in holding debates on trivial issues rather
teaching "Christ and Him crucified". In addition, most Christians are content with holding
a worship assembly and then going home thinking they have been evangelistic. Christ never
intended Christianity to be "church building centered." Rather, Christianity is serving Him
and taking His message to the world. The lost need to hear about Christ.
Satan has used many different tactics in order to stop the spread of Christianity. In the
first and second centuries, Satan physically persecuted churches. Today, Satan's tactics
have changed. He has been very effective in lulling us to sleep through apathy and
indifference. The greatest problem facing local churches today is not the trivial issues we
like to debate, but laziness and indifference within. Teaching the lost about Christ does not
seem to be a priority anymore. Are you in the maintenance mode or the mission mode?
What about the lost? Do not lose sight of your task to tell the world about what you have
found in Jesus Christ!!