They were good and godly men, but their vision was too small.
Why the Plan Wouldn’t Work
We met with about twenty pastors from this largely unreached city of 3 million. This country was a difficult place to live and serve as a Christian 10 years ago, and still is today. Officially it is a secular state, but it has been strongly influenced by Islam and can be politically volatile.
These pastors gathered because they said they wanted to reach more people for Christ. So, our team met with them to discuss evangelism and church planting. We were hoping to develop a plan together on how we might all work together to accomplish greater things in that city.
However, at the end of the afternoon, it became clear that their real concern was to fill their largely empty church buildings. What they wanted were new strategies and techniques, without having to change much from their current methods. Suddenly, the church building where we were meeting felt cold and empty to me.
It was sad to hear pastors express skepticism about more direct approaches to evangelism, even when told of other churches in a nearby city their size where this was successful. It was further disheartening to discover that they saw no need for new churches since there was plenty of room in all of theirs.
What If the Plan Did Work
These respected Christian leaders had many reasons why many plans would not work to reach their city. But, what if they could have envisioned something greater for their city and for their churches? And what if they were willing to create a strategic plan and commit to making it work?
Many of us in our churches make the same kind of mistakes. We make excuses why people will not believe the Gospel in our communities. We defend our current approaches to ministry and rest content with our current results, while at the same time wishing for something greater, some ministry miracle in our city. We can become trapped in preservation mode.
Hopefully we have larger goals than simply filling up our church buildings and running our programs. People in our churches will get excited about a broad vision for their city that involves cooperation with other churches. This is because it will be easier for everyone to see how their community might truly be transformed by the Gospel! All of us are much more willing to try new approaches and live with the messiness of growth when our leaders are in expansion mode.
What Kingdom purposes might churches in your community accomplish together that not one of them could ever accomplish alone?
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