Looking into the Future: The Top 10 Changes for the American Church
2. Experiential (Doing/Practicing the Faith)
The future church knows Christian education is important as an empowering tool, not an end unto itself. Gone are the esoteric classes on matters of intellectual curiosity with little or no connection to living as a disciple of Christ. Christian education, faith formation, discipleship or whatever term you may prefer is a lifelong process that can be encouraged through a classroom or small group experience only when that experience is integrated into all of life rather than an isolated retreat from the rest of life.
The church knows ministry is essential and values the doing of ministry by all believers. Every disciple engaged in ministry is a critical component of congregational DNA. Leadership (lay and pastoral) expend considerable energy communicating this message in every format possible and in developing methodology to help all believers discern their gifts and passion and actively use them in ministry.
So What?
What percentage of your church’s membership is involved in ministry? If there is no system in place to measure that answer, does that bother you? If that number is nowhere near 100%, what steps are being taken to move closer to that goal?
What percentage of those who participate in the life of your congregation are involved in ministry? What processes do you have in place to help people get connected to and involved in ministry prior to membership or even apart from ever becoming a church member?
How do you continually and systemically include and articulate every disciple engaged in ministry as a critical component of your congregational DNA?