If there is one thing I have learned while working as a pastor and travelling throughout Europe and other parts of the world is that it takes all kinds of churches to reach the world for Christ. Through the ministry and leadership of evangelist and church planter Peter Roennfeldt (former evangelism director for the Trans-European Division) we have seen a large variety of Adventist churches emerge in the Trans-European Division over the years.
No longer do we advocate a certain worship style as the only and best way to reach people. Instead we recognize today that God can work through traditional Churches as well as through contemporary or so-called seeker sensitive Churches. No matter how much we enjoy our very own expression of worship we realize that no single church structure or style can reach the world alone. The point is God loves variety. Just as no single human being is the same so this basic truth applies to churches as well. One might say that each church has its very own DNA and calling.
A quick survey of churches around the world reveals that some churches emphasis the five purposes – Worship, Fellowship, Outreach, Discipleship and Service – in order to grow a church (Saddleback Church). The idea is to see that the budget and the calendar and the preaching schedule are all balanced to give equal attention to each of the five purposes. Reasonable enough, but that is not the only way to do it.
Others don’t try to balance the five purposes at all since they believe they are intentionally unbalanced. Instead they give twice as much money, time, energy, planning, and preaching to the purpose of evangelism just to stay in balance (Willow Creek church). In other words if you overemphasize evangelism the church will automatically grow. Also a reasonable point to consider!
Others follow the same principle but instead of concentrating on evangelism they have chosen to stress the purpose of worship above the other purposes. They believe that if they get worship right from the beginning that everything else will fall into place. And finally, some leaders emphasize still another purpose that of servant evangelism which they believe drives all the other purposes and grows people and churches.
The question needs to be asked: Which one is right? I don’t know if any one church or method has all the answers. What is interesting is that the leaders and proponents for the various churches and strategies are very successful in what they do. In other words it takes all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people and it takes all kinds of people to plant all kinds of churches.
However, what is often lacking in most churches are people who are willing to use their God-given gifts and abilities to grow the church for Christ. So let me ask you: Irrespective of the strategy or method you believe will bring true success are you willing to use your gifts, talents and precious time God has given you to build the Kingdom of God?