The first of the three areas that my local church needs to work on is expository
preaching. While this is the first and the most important, I would start by saying
that the church gets it right the vast majority of the time. However, recently there
has been a trend of what I would “call appealing to the masses” in some of the
sermons. I do not feel that this is intentional. To address the current tension of the
racial divide in America and the issues centering around it, the sermons seemed
to get off track. The Word became less and less a part of the issue and seemed
to focus more on how the racial makeup of our specific church is diverse and
does not play to racial stereotypes. While that is to be commended in some
respect, there seemed to be a shift from the Word to a conversational approach to
the services for an entire series. As Mark Dever writes, “the congregation’s
commitment to the centrality of the Word coming from the front, from the preacher,
the one specially gifted by God and called to that ministry, is the most important
thing you can look for in a church.”1
My hope is this is simply a series that is a little off target and not a signal of things
to come. The church could easily rectify the situation. By returning to the Word as
the primary focus through expository preaching, this trend could simply be a bump
in the road on the way to fulfilling the great commission.
d d d d d d d d d d The second area the church could work on to improve would be its
concern for discipleship and growth. The church is by far the largest in the area. It
utilizes biblical database software, tracks metrics, and analyzes the data to make
informed decisions about leading the church. It is a wealthy church. There is
absolutely nothing wrong with any of those things when the balance is correct.
However, there seems to be a tendency to focus on the numbers over discipleship
and growth. By growth, I do not mean numerical growth but rather spiritual growth.
The church has excellent facilities, pristine bathrooms, and terrific child care. It has
a systematic method for attracting newcomers. It is a very attractive church, and
numerically it is a success. However, sometimes I feel it may be tilting towards a
secular version of success through numbers and less on the congregation’s
spiritual growth. At times, decisions seem to be all about the number. As Dever
writes, “the New Testament idea of growth involves not just more people, but
people who are growing up, maturing, and deepening in the faith.”2
d d d d d d d d d d The church could resolve this by emphasizing not so much on getting
people into the door, but on the content from the pulpit being aimed at deepening
the faith post-conversion instead of aiming the majority of the content almost
solely towards beginning Christians. This can be a slippery slope, as the balance
between appealing to the lost and feeding the flock is challenging to achieve.
d d d d d d d d d d The third area the church could work on is concerning the membership.
As Dever writes, “We should show unbelievers that there is something more than
horizontal community or a vague sense of God’s presence in our congregations.”3
The church is very welcoming to unbelievers to the point it tilts a little too far
towards accommodating them in hopes of conversion by saying they are just
happy they are here. This area is probably the least area of concern, as the
church does a good job of this balance. However, with the numerical issue
mentioned above, it seems that there may be an inappropriate level of comfort
afforded to the position of the unbeliever. As Dever writes, “we must be careful
about telling non-Christians the theological lie that they, in the most profound
sense, belong.”4 Again, this is difficult to balance, and I can see the church’s
intention to love them the way Christ commands biblically. However, I think at
times, the pendulum swings too far in that direction for a specific numerical
purpose.
d d d d d d d d d d To address the situation, I think the church could make a deeper call to
the lost rather than just tell them it is ok, and we are glad they are here. I do not
think it would drive them away. In the end, it may serve to save more by going
after them (preaching towards the issue) more passionately.
[Word Count: 743]
1 Mark Dever, Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (Wheaton: Crossway, 2013), 57.
2 Ibid., 213.
3 Ibid., 174.
4 Ibid.
Bibliography
Dever, Mark. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church. Wheaton: Crossway, 2013.
