I have always argued that churches are best to not be goal-oriented, that they should be free of vision. In my opinion, this is the healthiest church.
If a church has vision and is goal-oriented, then it has deviated from its healthiest self and will impose burdens on its members. It will have become something else… like a lobbying group, an activist group, a missional group, or something other than just a church. It can still call itself a church. But it should admit it has opted for a utilitarian identity rather than just accepting its identity. A church will have to choose to be utilitarian or just be. It can’t be both.
In other words, churches should be pointless*. Pointless like my family is pointless. My family is not without its problems and issues, but it is a vibrant, rich, joyful and dynamic community. But it is completely pointless. It doesn’t mean things don’t happen or that we haven’t had an affect on others or the world. But we are pointless. We’re not even intentionally pointless. We are just pointless. And I love it for that. That’s why I love to go home every day and just be, just relax, just love and be loved.
When I pastored local churches, I pastored them with the same thing in mind: that it should be pointless.
Very few people agree. I’m not sure why. Perhaps we are all caught up in the modern “vision” mindset and lingo. Perhaps most people never experienced or enjoyed just being in a loving family. Perhaps most people are ambitious and competitive and want to see their church advance beyond the others.
In any case, I’ve learned that most people and churches are uncomfortable with being pointless. I’ll be writing more about this, so stay tuned.
*I am indebted to Terry Eagleton for the use of this word “pointless“, although he uses it in reference to life in his wonderful little book, The Meaning of Life.
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My name is David Hayward, and I am the nakedpastor. I am a graffiti artist on the walls of religion.
David, just yesterday I read an old CT interview with Eugene Peterson that says what you’ve said here, but in other words: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/march/26.42.html?start=1&sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4cfe320a703abb98%2C0
Love this post! We are losing so many members to “burnout” with the setting of ridiculous goals…something is seriously wrong when you leave church totally drained physically, mentally and emotionally.
i read that article years ago. i just enjoyed reading it again. thanks PD!
it’s happening like mad Robin!
I like your idea of pointless. Of course a church could be pointless and unloving also.
What goals do churches usually have? I’ve known some who say they want to spread the gospel. I’ve known others that say they want to equip the members to spread the gospel.
Do think there are lots of small churches that have a goal but are not very successful in accomplishing it and just limping along, but actually doing okay anyway? I guess if the leaders took the goal seriously, they could burn out trying to rev up the troops constantly.
Great post! I admit I was somewhat taken aback by the title (which is a sign of a great title), but I agree- a purpose driven church (did I just say that?) is driven, and therefore tends to rob the church of its essential element of simply being.
There was a very specific goal of spreading the gospel at the church I left. To accomplish this goal, it was decided – by the powers that be – to erect a new large church on 17 acres of land. A ‘VISION DESSERT’ was held where cards were passed out to ‘IGNITE’ the campaign to raise money for the new church.
Fast forward –
A couple million – literally – was raised. Economy tanked – people stopped giving – pastor took money from earmarked building fund for other uses – disillusionment set in – lots left -but many stayed?? Go figure.
Anyway, I LOVE your ideas here and just had to get *the above* off my chest.
I look forward to further instalments on this topic! In the meantime I’m sharing this post with several friends and family members.
I hear what you’re saying, but don’t know if I totally agree. I want to be a part of a church that is doing something and making a difference. And i want my family to be one that helps people, is used by God, and makes an impact. Maybe I’m just not quite sure what your “pointless” word means. I look forward to reading the posts that will follow.
NP, you’re welcome. I had to read it a couple of times it was so good to read, as well was your post. I am task-oriented. I work from home and have small children and nothing has pointed out this weakness/strength in me than this very situation. I need to learn to be better at just “being” and loving those around me than I am at “getting my stuff done”. It’s in these mundane moments of obedience to “just be and love” that I am used of God to make an impact on those around me. Bt dying to myself and my ways and “just being” in obedience to Jesus’ ways is “how” of the gospel. It’s counter-intuitive, but rightly so as the gospel is so counter-intuitive. Thank you for reminder. I’m looking forward to the rest of your series. I need to die to my task and live to Christ’s ways of being.
Love this post! When we get the “Being” right, we truly are the Church, and have no need for “Vision/Purpose”. Our “Being” will be changing others’ lives and drawing them to a loving relationship with God.
@Jay Sauser: There is a distinction made here between a church as a faith community and a church as a mission. A church that is doing something and making a difference is a social institution of great import, but by definition it’s a mission. If that’s the sort of institution you want to be apart of that’s fantastic and I’m grateful to you for it.
I believe David is cautioning individuals of faith against looking at “faith” as a product and church as a factory that produces it. Which by extension would make the parishioners the sales people, factory workers and support staff; who, instead of simply enjoying their faith would be constantly anxious for opportunities to make more of it.
But isn’t a “healthy”, “loving” family something that in part arises from influential members of the family steering toward some image of what family “health” and “love” looks like?
Or does health and love (in a family and a church) just arise as a matter of course?
If we say our being, when it is the proper kind of being, will change others’ lives and draw them into relationship with God, aren’t we implying that there is a proper kind of being? Aren’t we implying that there are ways to foster that kind of being, and ways to hinder it?
If so, what’s the difference between that and a proper and healthy “vision”?
Jonathan,
Good questions. At this point in my life, I’m much more relaxed about just enjoying my family vs. how I was before-very driven, idealistic, overwhelmed, demanding, overbearing, etc. But even in my more relaxed state, I guess I do still have a vision. My vision is to enjoy the moments, yes, but also to end up with decent, good children who enjoy their lives and feel like they are making a worthwhile contribution to the world. I’m more confident and relaxed with this smaller vision.
Cause David you’re not saying let’s just let the church be however-no matter how lousy. You want it to be a positive experience, but not scripted too much?
I was just reading what John Case said. So maybe there are different kinds of churches. But I think it would help if the church and the members could be more honest about why they are there. And without using church talk.
Maybe there are some there with a burning desire for people to get saved. Others may just be lonely, or they enjoy discussing. Others may say church is where the potlucks are-that’s what I enjoy. Some may love beautiful music or interesting sermons.
Some may want to be around safe, nice, friendly people. The pastor may be there because he gets paid to be there. I’m just throwing out reasons people go to church.
Also if you are more of a doer, it can be frustrating to sit and talk or whatever-you want to get busy making a difference in your community somehow thru the church.
David, this is brilliant.
thanks everyone for your comments. stay tuned for more… tomorrow. i hope to fill in some blanks.
Hey David,
Loved this post. Having tendencies towards being task driven (or at least bent towards finding my identity in performance) and having served in “professional” ministry for many years I found the issue of vision to be one of the biggest stumbling blocks towards real community and togetherness.
I’m not against action, planning, or doing Kingdom stuff, but when it becomes the focus instead of coming from the natural outflow of our relationships (with both God and others) it is backasswards.
i agree chad. thanks for commenting.
Great points by everyone. Keeps me sharp and thinking. I like a quote by Michael W. Smith: “Church is not a gallery for the self-righteous. it is a shelter for the tired, weak, and impoverished. The outcasts and outsiders” Of which I know I am one.
love this – quoting you in my next book “misfits” – this is so true and so important to the reality of a church in the conceptual age -
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Spent years as a pastor frustrating myself with programs. Wondering where we “should be going.” Until another, wiser pastor just asked me, “why are you busying yourself with programs? What’s wrong with just being a community and just letting God add to His people?”
At first I rebelled against his idea. Everything I learned at my large Southern Baptist seminary taught me different. I was taught that we were supposed to have a vision statement, a mission statement and a purpose. Because, you know, without a vision, the people will perish.
I got so frustrated with church, with my idea of church, with my own pride that I eventually fell (not blaming anyone but me, of course.)
Thankfully, I’m a part of a church now where the pastor has told me, “I only care about seeing people saved.” He means it. He travels up to 100 miles away to downtown areas to evangelize. He doesn’t care if those people ever join his church. He just loves. He has no plan. No purpose. He just loves.
I wish I had had that kind of heart when I pastored. Thank you for this post.
Very interesting subject. I’ve been to churches where you get so busy doing church stuff you don’t have time to BE a christian, meaning…to love people around you, enjoy your kids, help the neighbor who’s car got stuck in the snow (writing from Québec). I just hear the words “purpose driven church” and I get tired.
But at the same time I believe ther is a risk that a church become just a social meeting place. I believe a church can have a “flavor”. My church is really open to all forms of arts. It is not a goal but an invitation to believers who want to express themselves in such a way…
I dream of the perfect church (stay with me on this)…the doors would be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and people could go there to pray or to be loved, no matter who they are and what they do…I know it is not practical but this is my dream…
David, I think most churches…and especially the pastor…cannot accept being pointless…because church is a business to them. Success is measured in numbers, both giving numbers and butts in seats numbers.
A Pastor building his kingdom…is not an exercise in pointlessness.
This is the way of Calvary Chapel as I experienced it first-hand as a PK.
Many of us are simply more ready ‘to do’ than ‘to be’ – that’s what we are human doings
David, I’ve been pondering and there is certainly a point to being “pointless” in contrast to the organizationally-driven agenda of most churches. At the same time, I think that “being family” is not really “pointless.” Families run like an organization are rarely healthy as are families that are “really pointless.”
Families, in addition to being a place to receive and give love, support (emotional and financial), encouragement, and share wisdom, serve the function of providing front-line relationship-coaching – a place of grace to offset the disgrace we all experience in just living life. Some do all of that well and many poorly but that seems to be the “point” of being in a family in contemporary society. And, maybe that is the “point” of being part of spiritual community. [I've liked Larry Crabb's book title "Safest Place on Earth"]
One “point” of the “church” communities in the cultures of the NT seems to have been to provide an alternate “family” as becoming a Christ-follower often meant loss of biological family and loss of membership in work-guilds. Their culture would not understand our individualism at all. The other “point” I’m seeing is to read Paul’s behavior admonitions as serving his pastoral relationship-coaching role. In fact, it’s community-based relationship-coaching. His people were likely low on social graces and may have been from recently captured areas. Reading them as moral commandments that affect our relationship to God does violence to Paul’s main point about the universality of the Atonement.
These days I’m seeing the “point” of church to be as much about providing community-based relationship-coaching as about anything else.
Just some thoughts.
Paul
Love your work and appreciate your journey.
There is a point to the family.
My son skipped school yesterday. Not sure if I should do anything about it. I mean…what’s the point? Why should I impose something upon him that would impede his freedom and prevent him from “just being”?
The lack of a point in a church doesn’t remove possibility for people within the group to have things they do, or wish to do, as an expression of their relationship with God. What it does do is lessen the ability for any particular ‘project’ to co-opt the common resources (eg. manpower, funds, space) to the exclusion of other ideas, and it allows greater diversity in expression by avoiding the use of the ‘church vision’ as the yardstick of validity instead of the relationship with God.
I think we are so preoccupied with “church growth” so that we have the “resources for ministry” that we lose sight of the ministry. Many mainstream churches are dying and their desperate efforts to evangelize for the sake of growing the institution rather than caring for the souls themselves is the reason they are dying. Or, at least that is the primary reason in the church I left.
David, please adopt me into your family…
But Louise, it’s been official since before we met!!!
I actually feel like most churches are becoming quite like you describe above. They are pointless. They no longer serve a purpose. They have lost the vision, the great command that Jesus Christ Himself gave us long ago to go & reach the rest of the world with the gospel. That was HIS vision for the church. Churches today, if you can still call them that, have become social clubs. People want what you describe above, to feel all warm & cozy inside. They want all the fluff & frills. That is not what church is. Yes, you can GET that feeling from church or from an experience at church rather but it is not the goal nor should it be the desire of a church to make you feel good…and nothing else. We MUST have a vision. Without a vision, we perish. Proverbs 29:18
Pam: Actually, that verse in the original language means more “without a word (from the Lord) the people perish”. It isn’t about this modern phenomenon we call “vision” today. In fact, in those days they would have no idea what we are talking about.
But having a vision is not modern at all. Regardless of the verbage used “back in the day” Christ most certainly had a vision for the continuance & expansion of His church even as He ascended back into Heaven & therefore issued the great commission. You only addressed the verse I referenced. I would love to know your thoughts on my previous comments about modern day “churches” as social clubs. I feel that your post describes them exactly. Is this what we are to strive for? If so, please direct me to that Biblical reference as I, personally, have never felt that is what true church is and certainly not what Christ envisioned as His church.
Hi Pam. Check out this post that goes into more detail:
http://www.nakedpastor.com/2010/04/22/biblical-arguments-against-vision/
I have no problem with churches being social clubs. If they love and care for each other, that’s better than a church that runs over its members to get a job done, no matter how glorious the job is.
Thanks for the post. I think it really hit on some things that Christians need to learn.
@Fred: Your child not going to school remains a family issue, just like an immoral church member remains a church-family issue. David was making the point that as a family exists for primarily an _internal_ purpose, so should the church.
Within the family or church, our goal should be to equip each other to be what we ought to be, not necessarily to funnel and divide people into outreach programs.
Program-oriented churches make you feel guilty for not committing time to corporate ministry to reach “the mission field in your backyard.” It’s a mentality of just because you CAN, and just because it would in theory be a NOBLE thing to do, that you’d better be doing it. It’s the same reason I “surrendered” to preach as a teenager. Suffice it to say I am as far from a pastor now as any Christian could be.
The Bible-toting fundy will quickly recite James 4:17 from the KJV:
“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”
..ignorant of what the verse is really saying (NRSV):
“Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.”
What the RIGHT thing to do is, depends on how God is working with each one of us. It doesn’t preclude coordinated ministry, but such coordination should be organic, and not elder- or pulpit-led. The purpose of the elder is to administer and equip, to give themselves over to prayer and the word, not to organize ministry. When Paul was called upon to do so he quickly appointed servants (“deacons”) to manage it. But even there, we see that the call for organization of ministry (inreach or outreach) originated organically from the body.
My church has started to get involved in campus ministry. Now, the local state university has been on our back doorstep for years. Just the past year a young couple came to our church on a temporary basis (they will have been here maybe a year or two). This young couple has a connection to a national campus outreach organization and within several months of their arrival, the push was on to get it organized, and now it is in motion. Again, I walk a fine line here. Getting college kids saved is wonderful. But why did we have to corporately organize to do it? And why are we spring-boarding this ministry off of a couple who will come and go? One of the leaders of this national outreach program spoke in our church one Sunday and his child had the wonderful testimony of becoming violent with other toddlers in the nursery, both morning and night services. The hopeless look on his mother’s face when she apologized said a lot to me. What does this say about his home and family? And how does this bear on Scriptural requirements for ministry at that level? Going even FURTHER, this man’s home church was involved in helping to cover up a pedophile from a church in another state.
Nobody stops and thinks anymore, it seems.