September 27, 2024 -- Jeff Clark
What’s Normal?
A fundamental difference exists between normal sized churches (According to Lifeway Research, churches with less than 100 in worship are normal with over 57% of churches in North America being this size.) and large churches (Churches with greater than 100 in worship). Normal sized churches are not organizations, they are organisms. They are family. Everything in a normal sized church is based on relationships. Without healthy relationships, the normal sized church dies.
COVID and Politics
Over the last few years, two things have torn small church families apart unlike anything in the past 100 years, COVID and presidential elections. COVID’s divisive effect on church relationships has waned recently. However, the presidential election season has returned, threatening to tear at the fabric that holds a normal sized church together.
How does a normal sized church navigate the divisive issue of politics and maintain unity? The answer is simple, but not necessarily easy. In order to thrive during contentious election seasons, the normal sized church must turn its focus on reaching the lost.
The Problem, the Solution
The biggest problem in Washington DC is not Democrats or Republicans. The biggest problem is not unjust laws or judges with agendas. The biggest problem in Washington DC is the same as it is in Moscow, Beijing, London, or Tokyo. The biggest problem in the world today is lostness.
The only solution for lostness in North America is not a change in laws, it is a change of heart. The solution to lostness is the good news of Jesus Christ. The church is not tasked with making an impact in the political world. In fact, no president ever elected brought about a revival in the US. The solution for what is wrong in the US and around the world is not promoting moral laws. The answer is Jesus!
Please let me be clear. I am not against Christians voting or being involved in helping to promote just laws that reflect Christ to the world. What I am saying is that politics is not the main task of the church.
Returning to the Great Commission
The task given to the church in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) is to go and make disciples of all the nations. The church, regardless of size, is tasked with sharing the solution to lostness, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for a lost and dying world.
Politics can be very distracting and divisive. When a church turns its focus to politics or any other issue not related to the Great Commission, Satan accomplishes two things. First, workers are diverted from the task set before them by Jesus Himself. Second, any issue that takes the place of making disciples is sure to divide the local church as people argue about things other than making disciples.
Focusing on disciple making promotes unity as the church coalesces around the heart of its mission. The role of church leaders is to keep the church focused on its main task and to keep the main thing the main thing. When a church is focused on faithfully sharing the Gospel with a lost world, it is healthy.
Jeff has a master’s and DMin degree from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. He and his wife started churches in remote northern Michigan, the suburbs of Orlando, and in rural middle Tennessee. Then, Jeff served the West Virginia Convention of Southern Baptists overseeing church starting and evangelism. He became the executive Director of the Montana Southern Baptist Convention. For 13
years. The Clarks served in East Asia doing research, evangelism, and training rural church planters. They currently live in Richmond, VA, and Jeff serves as the Director for Wheaton College Billy Graham Center’s Rural Church Institute and as the Rural Network Mobilizer for the IMB.
Comments