The Valley Bible Shift

There are three areas of our church that I believe are shifting and need to shift. I will briefly introduce these three here. They explain what I see as the "Big Picture" for the future of ministry and leadership here at Valley. I would love to have feedback on this article.

1. I believe Valley Bible Church is shifting from an internal to an external ministry focus. One expression of this is our Kingdom Assignments. An internal focus spends most of church resources of time, people and money on areas within the church, either so the church can survive or so the church can entertain. Success is measured by attendance, budget and new programs. External focus means we look for ways and means to bless and serve the communities where we are located. The goal is not the bottom line of either people or money but to spend energy and resources on people who are not a part of the church. What are the needs in our community with which we would agree and support? What can we do with the resources God has given us to meet those needs?

2. The second shift is to seek to develop people more than programs. I am not sure people are better off if they just participate in our programs or activities. Instead we want to help people shape their own path for personal development as disciples of Jesus Christ. What does it mean to develop a disciple? What does a mature disciple look like? Is maturity as a disciple learning more information through study or learning to follow Jesus into the world on his mission? The goal then is not to measure how many people are participating in our programs but how many people are seeing their lives transformed. Followers of Jesus will be less concerned with how we "do church" and more involved in committing to people and causes beyond the church. I am not sure programs produce mature disciples whose lives have been transformed. So let's not think
continuing to do the same thing is going to produce different results in mature disciples of Jesus.

3. The third shift is from leaders who are most concerned with the church to leaders who are most concerned with the kingdom. Are we more concerned with buildings and real estate or with what is happening outside the organized church. Statistics show that the fastest growing group of people regarding religion is those under 30 who claim to be interested in spiritual matters and believe in God but claim no connection to any organized church. The way to respond is not to maintain the church but to live Christ in our world. We want to be more occupied with kingdom impact than church attendance. How big a difference does God want to make in our community? We want to be a blessing to those whom God has created in his image. We want to figure out how the people of the church can serve the community and not see our major task as supporting or entertaining the people who come to church.

Do not interpret this to mean that we are done with church as we know it. We need to meet together. It does mean that the reasons we meet are changing from all about us to all about God's mission to reach lost people around us. What do you think?