Mission and Commission: Building the City Within the City

(From Mars Hill - Shoreline)
by Christopher Thrower

I was born a P.K. (pastor’s kid) in Churchbridge, Saskatchewan, that giant rectangular province in the middle of Canada, which is close to the farthest reaches of North American civilization. Throughout my life I’ve watched my parents move from one funeral home to the next, pastoring a dying church until it finally burned them out through lack of growth and emotional stress due to the impossible demand to build a church that saw its glory days in the late 1950’s. We did this in Canada, and again in Moscow, Idaho, where I spent my Sundays coloring in the back pew while my Dad preached to the same small congregation, and as if that wasn’t enough, they’re at it again six years later shepherding an aged church over on the Tulalip reservation.

Not to say that there isn’t a place for that kind of ministry, there are plenty of aging believers who need a pastor to give them a leg up as they crawl, heaven bound, into their casket. But, though it may be a ministry, it’s just not missional. There are no births or new births, people get older and things just stay the same. And, I can tell you this because I’ve spent most of my life up until now attending churches like this, this kind of church setup is not at all uncommon. It happens when a growing Christian community decides to settle, numerically and spiritually, with where it is at; when a church decides to be a mission of community and not a community of mission. And so we have churches today that can be identified as belonging to one particular generation, I can walk into any local church congregation and judging by the music and clothing tell you exactly when (and probably why) that church stopped growing. One church has a full size organ, formal dress, and hefty hymn books; another church sports business casual, an electric keyboard, and an old transparency projector; and yet another wears torn jeans, plays acoustic guitars, and has a coffee stand in the lobby.

All dying churches have one thing in common; they all cherish their community more than they cherish Jesus’ gospel mission. They built their churches with themselves in mind rather than their neighbors and that is why they are slowly growing old and dying. Not necessarily because their clothing and music is out of date. I honestly think if any congregation, even the most un-hip, culturally irrelevant folks, could learn to love their neighbors, they would begin to see some spiritual and numerical growth. I believe that love for God and neighbor is absolutely essential to the health of every single church, including ours.

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I've spent enough years of Sundays in churches that are funeral homes to know the truth spoken above. The rest of the post goes on to address specific things at Mars Hill Church (primarily the Ballard Campus) but I felt this was good enough to share. The church I am now part of seems to really get this idea and is impacting our communities in significant ways. How is your church doing on this? DT who reads here and from time to time comments here knows exactly what I am talking about when I say I know this problem all too well.

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