Maintenance vs. missional

In a talk on being missional and avoiding the slide into maintenance as a church at a GHC conference I had several thoughts:

We just came out of a very difficult time with our building and finances - really still coming out of that time.  Recognizing the desperation of the situation many have said that we need to focus on ourselves right now and nothing else - that is maintaining ourselves. We also had people telling us to be maintenance focused even when things were going great because we were young and needed to keep that growth going.  Although that is a reasonable and expected view point regarding our situation it forces us to ask the question of when is it ok to be maintenance focused?  When we first start up?  Anytime we get into a desperate situation?  Until we reach a certain level?  The contention at this talk was that we have to be missional focused at the very beginning, during every trial and through to the end.  It is especially important in the beginning because you are creating your DNA for the church. If it is started with a maintenance focus saying when we reach a certain level then we will be missional then the maintenance focus will become the DNA of the church and it won't matter what level you reach - it won't change.

I was told early on by some of my coaches that for the first 5 years your church is the mission and put everything there.  I have come to realize that doing that will establish a DNA we don't want.  If the right thing as a church is tithing to missions outside your ministry then it does not matter how old your church plant is or how stable - right is right.  If serving other ministries with your resources is the right thing to do as a church then it is right from birth to death.  The concept of tithing is trusting that God provides and He will honor our trust in Him by providing enough to be able to tithe.  Is that not true in the baby church?

None of this is to say either/or.  It is a battle against the natural slide toward maintenance - not to avoid doing maintenance all together, rather to stay on track being missional.  Maintenance can not be avoided - we have to feed ourselves, shelter, pay our bills etc.  Just like personal tithing of time and money though we have to plan intentionally to be mission focused or naturally our focus will become totally on self.  To maintain or grow a healthy church we must take a portion of our resources and time to be outward focused, missional - giving to something that has no way of giving back to us in any tangible way.  As we are approaching our 4th birthday at The Bridge we must continue to be missional and even increase that effort.  From planting other churches to tithing to our partner GHC to starting inner city ministries we must do more than we are capable of doing - that is when we see God show up.  He does not need to show up when we are doing what we are capable of - it is only when we are beyond our capabilities that God steps in and works miracles.  Scary? Yes! Faith based? Absolutely!

Some thoughts...

The "church" is so often known today for what it is against - much like the religious leaders of Jesus' day.  Although biblically there are things we are "against" or definitely don't condone or support it seems that Jesus' focus was more on what He was for.  Jesus seemed to make it pretty clear when He summed up all the law and the prophets with the 2 commands to Love God and Love Others as Yourself what His focus is, what He is "for".  All the other laws, rules, regulations and standards are for the purpose of fulfilling those 2 commands.

With that in mind at The Bridge we focus on what God is for - loving Him and loving others.  What does that look like? We accept people right where they are - physically, emotionally, spiritually and otherwise.  We try to show that acceptance by removing some of the subtle messages sent like wearing suits to church meetings sending the message you have to dress in nice expensive clothes to be accepted.  We also challenge our prejudices - how do we treat a heterosexual couple that are living together and sexually active, but then how do we treat a homosexual couple that are in the same situation?  Is God more ok with the sins we are ok with and not ok with the sins we are uncomfortable with or even hate?  Do we only use the most highly educated and well spoken people to welcome and speak from the stage sending a subtle message to many people they are not good enough?

The great difficulty in all this is how do we help people move forward and grow while still showing acceptance?  It is not easy!  How do we say "God loves you right where you are, but He wants you to change"?  We try by one key difference in that statement - "God loves you right where you are and He wants you to change" and that statement continues with "for the better by His strength bringing out the best in you according to the way you were originally designed!"  Our society today has made this difficult because in the church culture and American culture we are starting to think that if you are for me then you are ok with everything I do and if you are against anything I do you are against me.  This thought process forces all of us in society to wear masks to try to show we do care - we pretend we accept everything everyone does to prove we accept them.  This fakeness is taking a toll on us.  It is ok to not accept what someone does yet still accept them.  If that is not true then there is no way to train a child up without hating the child until it is in perfect compliance.  Unfortunately some people act that way with their kids.

The bible says Heaven's road is straight and narrow and we often take that to mean strictness in obeying rules.  At The Bridge we have found it is a straight narrow path that we balance on of following true and accurate biblical theology, teaching the same yet loving and accepting people right where they are.  There are several great examples of this done by Jesus in the bible.  When He runs into the woman at the well that was living with a boyfriend and had 5 previous husbands He shows what His focus is.  He loved her, wanted to help her and was also clear about knowing what the wrong was in her life.  Jesus offered to her freely the water of life without compromising the truth of the bible.  That is our goal at The Bridge - to lead people to the water of life found in Jesus not by hiding the truth, rather by showing the truth in love.

Will you be better known by what you are against or by what you are for?  What subtle messages do you send to people in your life by`what you do?  Do people leave a conversation with you knowing you know there is "sin" in their life but still go get others to talk to you because they knew you loved them and had truth in your words?

The Return

We have permanent occupancy of our building on Corunna Rd now!  We still have the building on University Ave also.  Our Corunna Rd campus is open for use for the northern half of the building - 16,000 sq ft.  We are excited to be back!  God has opened doors for us that we could not have.  It cost us over $60,000 to get back in and that was all raised from outside donors.  Our regular tithes and offerings have continued to go for the regular bills of the church - utilities, mortgage, insurance, consumables, etc.  Our attendance is less than half of what it was before our building got closed down and offerings are also less than half.  As we rebuild our ministries that were done out of this building we are confident that more people will be reached and our offerings will increase to the point we can cover all the costs of the ministry we do.  God has been good to us and we know He has a plan to use The Bridge to reach our community.  Many thanks to so many volunteers that put in over $40,000 worth of labor to help us get the renovations done - the contractors that gave some of their labor for free - the stores that donated materials - all those that have prayed for us and the few donors that gave us the money to pay for the rest!